I'm a new nurse at my first job and I am struggling. All I do on my days off is cry and dread going back to work. I have had very few good days that make me feel reassured that I can actually do this. I don't mind working and being busy (it makes the shift go faster), but I constantly feel overwhelmed and like I'm drowning. I work on a very busy telemetry unit with a lot of turnover. We have 6 patients and our charge nurse often has patients too. I sometimes have to stay as late as 21:30 to finish charting. I am so overwhelmed and I don't know what to do. I have asked to be moved to night shift but was told by my manager that wouldn't be a good idea for me because I'll still feel overwhelmed and be busy just with a lot fewer resources. I'm thinking about quitting. I have hypertension and it was controlled with medication before this job. But now my BP is always elevated at work even with increasing my med dosages. It is because I am always upset and stressed. I know that if I do quit I will most likely not be able to find another job. Most new grads go through this and I understand that but I really don't think this floor is for me. I see my classmates that have jobs in specialties like L&D and NICU/Nursery and they are busy but LOVE what they do. I am so miserable because I can't honestly say I feel like I get to help people because I just have time to assess them and give them meds before I get behind. I don't get time to spend with them. I had a patient that cried because she was sad that she was sick in bed and felt helpless. I tried to comfort her but all that kept going through my mind was how late I was gonna be on my meds. I'm so disappointed in myself for not being able to do a better job at being a nurse. The only feedback I get from the other nurses at work is "work on your time management" and I say "well how do I do that?" and they say "oh it comes with time!". Ugh! So I just have to be miserable for some time? I wish they would prepare us for this in school. I had no idea it would be this awful. Hard yes, but downright miserable and depressing no! I don't know what to do... If you got this far in reading my post Thank You!