jms01

I’d rather not wait long, I have my sights set on going back to school in the next year. Just not sure if I should continue outpatient or go back to acute care.

I want to become an FNP, but the more I see how stressed out the doctors are seeing patients, the more I’m hesitant. I know I want to go to grad school, but not 100% sure yet for what. I also want to prove to myself that I’m cut out for the floor. I wish I had more responsibilities at work, as far as assessing goes, but I don’t. Sometimes I feel like I sit at a desk all day and think, it seems like anyone can do my job. But other days, I feel like I did something. While this isn’t my dream job, I feel like it’s a step in the right direction. I guess I don’t know why I truly want to go back to floor nursing. There’s a lot of jobs in that, but I’d like to give it another try once things with the pandemic get a bit better. I think I just started at the worst time and it didn’t help my experience.

Yes, and while I agree with you there, I also think that I’d want to explore one of those areas of nursing. Is it possible to make that transition from where I am now? I am confident I can sell myself well in interviews, but I’m worried that a nursing manager will overlook my experience (or lack thereof) because I lack acute care experience ?

What do you recommend for someone like me gaining experience in one specialty that wants to go to the bedside in a year? I wouldn’t know where to start, and I’m getting discouraged that a hospital wouldn’t take me.

Thank you for that, I feel like I'm doing better at my job every day. The only thing is that I'd like to get the bedside experience and I'm worried that once I put my year in at a neurology clinic, no one will want to hire me in a hospital. I'm also afraid of failing at the bedside again, I was not the brightest at the bedside at times and I wish I had more time to learn but unfortunately the reality is you sink or swim after orientation and I sank. With my epilepsy too, I'm afraid it'll be near impossible to find a bedside job on days with 2 mo of floor experience. Clinic jobs are far rare around here, I'm looking to move in the next year because of the cost of living around me being too high. I just don't want to make it more difficult for myself to find a bedside job if I have 2 months of bedside experience. I'm letting my anxiety get the best of me right now, I'm just note very hopeful lately.

is anyone here an FNP with or without bedside experience? Doubt it. either way, I'd like to get some insight as to why I should or shouldn't go back to the bedside. Really afraid of failing again. I want to go back because I want to prove to myself I can do it.

Should I consider taking the CNRN exam once I have a year of experience in this setting? I would like to get a certification, I think it would be relevant given my experience, or does this need to be bedside neuro experience?

I wish I could work in an urgent care but that requires ER or really any bedside experience. The only thing about my current job that I dislike is that I don’t get to assess patients. I don’t want to lose that. I do intakes for new patients (eg asking about their hx, PMH, etc), and I’ve become more comfortable doing that, but I don’t get to assess anyone. Does doing triage on the phone count? IDK. I remembering assessing patients head to toe on the floor constantly and now, I’m realizing I may be losing that. Any suggestions on how to not lose that?

Realistically, I only want to be at the bedside because I’ve hard time and time again that you need that experience to be an FNP. I have every intention of applying to an FNP program in the next year, but my concern is if I’d be able to succeed in that role without the bedside experience. Could anyone here explain what the pros and cons are? I’d like to transition to a different role in the next year. Maybe I’d feel more comfortable at the bedside with the experience I’m getting now.

Thank you all for your positive feedback! I truly appreciate it. I think I'm realizing day to day that I'm definitely comfortable with patient education and overall patient interaction. I love getting to help the doctors with visits. What I really need to brush up on is learning the ins and outs of the neuro pharm and reading about the neuro disorders the docs treat. I'm hopeful that I will feel confident enough in this role to jump back onto the floor, hopefully a neuro floor. I'm really confident interviewing, so I hope I can find something neuro related soon.

Because of ADA laws, they had to offer me an alternative. A clinic job was an accommodation due to the fact I couldn’t work nights. I do like the bedside because I believe I can still learn a lot there. I didn’t like the chaos, but I was looking forward to learning and thriving in a place that would provide me a good foundation for graduate school. In a perfect world, I would’ve learned just a quickly as everyone else, but prioritizing was my weak point. Critical thinking is something I’m still working on. I want to go back and try because I would like the experience under my belt before I transition to another area. I also would like to really try infusion, but it seems out of reach with the experience I have right now. I don’t know, I’m still a new nurse

I know being a nurse doesn’t just mean being at the bedside, but I feel that having that bedside experience opens the door for many opportunities, such as the ones I’m interested in. I think that’s why I’m worried that having clinic experience isn’t enough if I try to go into a different area of nursing. Am I overthinking this? Could someone talk about their acute care or outpatient experience and how they made the jump to another specialty? Would love to hear more about it! I don’t want to feel discouraged, I like what I’m doing but I know I’m capable of so much more.

Thank you all for your feedback! I appreciate it so so much! I’ve definitely been hard on myself since leaving tele because I saw my peers succeed and me falling behind constantly, despite my best efforts. I’m eager to go back because I don’t want to give up on myself, I’ve only been a nurse for about 4 months, but I’m not sure what floor what be a good fit for me. With the neuro experience I’m gaining, I’ve been doing a lot of triage and getting to help the doctors with their new patient visits, which I enjoy. I’m learning how to do H&Ps, something I thought I wouldn’t get to do until I became an NP. I’m just wondering where these skills would be transferable in acute care though. I’ve always wanted to try working in the ICU, esp neuro ICU, but I find that my lack of experience would not help me land a job like that. I think I’m really missing the hands on skills the most. Would trying wound care or infusion be a jump for me given my experience?

I would like to go back to floor nursing because I want to understand what I'm doing and bring that knowledge with me for when I go back to school for my FNP. I feel like I never got the grasp of what to look out for if something goes wrong, when to call RRT, why a medication is being prescribed, how to anticipate orders, etc. I was thrown into a pool of sharks and didn't feel ready enough to practice safely. I didn't feel like I knew enough to be safe. Even after 10 weeks, I felt beyond stupid and like I truly wasn't cut out for the floor, but I really do like bedside nursing. I don't know if I make any sense, but basically I feel like because things don't come to me quickly, I struggled and failed on a tele floor.

I graduated w/ my BSN last Spring and ended up on starting a tele-turned-COVID floor last fall. I felt very fortunate that I got a hospital job, but 2 months in, I was starting to realize how things weren't making any sense. It wasn't just me that noticed my lack of knowledge or piecing things together, but I could tell my preceptor was getting frustrated with me too. She said I had no sense of urgency for things; I struggled to think critically, I was always so task oriented (nursing is a second career for me). I didn't struggle with the hands on skills, I felt like that was my strength and I knew from my friends who are nurses that you can't be so hard on yourself so much. I took every little victory on the floor as a win for me (like putting in an IV on my own), and there were days I felt so stupid, I'd drive home after my shift crying. I also thought my educator was there to support me, but I was belittled over things I didn't realize would be thrown in my face. During one meeting with her, she spoke negatively of the fact that I took multiple attempts to get an IV in on a mannequin arm and draw blood from a PICC line. This was during the first week of orientation, and I had never done either in nursing school. From the beginning, I didn't feel supported, but I pushed through. Fast forward weeks later, and she was belittling me again over the same thing. I don't know if the combo of my educator and preceptor together contributed to my lack of success on a 6:1 tele/covid floor, but I so badly wanted to succeed. At 10 weeks, I was told to go to nights, and I had to say no because I have epilepsy and bc of the nature of my condition, I couldn't put myself at risk. I got transferred to an outpatient neuro clinic, and now I'm basically at a desk all day helping out the doctors, answering "triage" calls and doing med refills. I don't feel like a nurse anymore, I feel like a failure almost every day now, to the point where I cry about it. I don't feel like I know anything, and I didn't feel like I would be a safe nurse on the floor because I didn't know how to pick up on things on my own after 10 weeks. I didn't know how to critically think, I was still working on it. Overall, I feel like a failure. I can't be the only one who has felt like this. I question myself constantly about that experience. I had so much faith in myself that I would succeed. I feel so stupid that I couldn't manage the chaos, the ratios, and learn how to do my job.