sweetcaroline101

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate your input. It's great that you love your job and that you have the ability to disconnect from the work you do. It's essential to succeed in nursing. The outlook of "work is work & is a paycheck" is just one outlook & it's great if it works for you, just not how I choose to see things. I understand there will be times where one must take any kind of job for a paycheck, I've been there too. In my situation, I have other job options immediately available to me that are not in nursing, will still pay my bills, and I won't be miserable...so why not? I have friends who, on most days, really enjoy what they do for work. I know it exists & one day I'll get there too. You stated that I might not be happy in my personal life and that may be why I haven't found happiness in my career. Wow you couldn't be more wrong! I live a charmed life & am ever so grateful with everything I have: a wonderful & happy home life with my husband & children, a tight knit group of friends, good health, hobbies I enjoy, a positive outlook. You might've been lead to believe that I'm probably one of the negative ones at work who drag others down, also not the case! If I'm going to be spending time away from my family to earn a living, it might be as well be for work that I enjoy & where I'll experience more good days than bad. I had hoped to find this in the nursing jobs I've held. Didn't find it, gave it my all, now I'm moving on!

Sorry to hear that you're struggling to land work. Where I live in northern CA, the job market is too saturated with rns and lpns. I have 2 friends that got their MSNs and haven't been able to find jobs in the 1 year after graduating and are still working their salon & office jobs. After clinical recently, our group ran into a couple of new grads from a yr ago & they are working in the hospital as administrative assistants hoping to get hired as rns...but the last opening for 10 rns attracted over 600 applicants from all over the US I really hope things turn around for you and the many others that are in the same boat.

You're a strong person for being responsible and trying to make the most of your nursing career. I know a couple of nurses that enjoyed travel nursing and got to live in some really cool cities. I hope it works out well for you!

Thanks for your reply! I have a few family members that work in the medical device and pharmaceutical field that are not rns, just a bachelors degree and job experience in sales. For the depression and anxiety, I've been cured of it since I withdrew from school and have chosen to move on. In other areas of my life, I have it really darn spectacular. I'm in good health, have the most supportive husband, parents, and friends, I have hobbies that I enjoy. I have friends that really love their jobs on most days and thus are successful in their careers. I'm not seeking perfection in a job, just finding that thing that I'm passionate about...and getting paid to do it

Thanks for your input, and you're right I most likely have the grass is greener syndrome. I've worked in a few different fields and I have to say that nursing beats out all of them. In the other jobs I had, I can't say that I've been pooped on, hit, groped, overworked to physical and mental exhaustion, been sick to my stomach and sleepless because of pure dread of having to return the next day to do it all over. I beat out 40 other applicants for a job like this...yikes. Onto greener pastures I go!

Thanks everyone for your kind comments! It's been somewhat difficult admitting these things to myself and then following through with the actions to change things, then to admit it to family and friends. But I feel such a huge amount of relief, and that tells me I'm doing the right thing. To anyone that relates, I also hope you can find a career that you can be successful in.

Thanks! Actually, I left the fashion industry to get into the nursing field. Live and learn, right?

Hello there! I'm not looking for validation or approval, just wanted to get this off my chest and perhaps reach out there to fellow peers who might relate. I'm 35, have a BA degree in English, and made a career change to nursing 5 yrs ago b/c I love working with people & wanted to have a stable job. I've been a lpn for 5 years now and going through school and had this gnawing feeling that nursing wasn't right for me & expressed it to people around me, but was always told (by people who are not nurses), "Nursing is such a rewarding career, you'll make great $$ once you get your rn & you'll always have a job! Don't quit, you can make it through." I didn't quit, made it through lpn school, and have been very dissatisfied with my career choice. My 1st job I worked in a 48 bed hell hole, lost sleep became depressed, suffered through chronic panic attacks, and cried before, during, and after every shift. I cared about these patients, but there was just too many of them to really make a difference and help them, let alone give care safely - I was a med robot. I quit, landed a job in a Dr's office which was much better, but the pay was horrible. It's also a dead end job, so I got through my prereqs and quit that job to enter a lvn-rn adn bridge program. I get good grades, my instructors say I'm doing great in clinicals. I care about patient safety. I decided to leave nursing school in my 3rd semester adn program. I feel so relieved and at the same time sad. Relieved b/c I feel that I can no longer ignore that gut feeling I have telling me to run the other way from this field. Sad because I've invested years working and taking classes to get me to this point only to find that I really don't want anything to do with becoming a rn and I refuse to waste anymore time trying to convince myself that when I start working it'll get better, or to adjust my attitude. I've been bottling up my anxiety, crying before and after clinicals and class, tired of the sleepless nights full of dread of returning to the hospital, pretending to keep it together at clinicals isn't working for me anymore. The hard work, blood, guts, poop doesn't bother me. It's the stress levels, the belittling from nursing instructors, the fact that rns will take the fall for any mistakes, the rns from the hospitals at clinicals telling me that I'm crazy, to want to become a rn, the hostile environment nurses must work in, the lack of jobs for new nurses who can't even get their 1st job! There is a reason nurses get paid well - it has to do with the amount of abuse and BS they must put up with. At this time I'm looking for a career change. Into what, I'm not sure yet. I'll probably do lpn homecare until I can transition into something else if I don't find a job right away. Perhaps a lab assistant, pharmaceutical sales, or even working in the fashion industry, which I regret ever leaving in the first place. I'm ready to find work that makes me happy, or less miserable at the least. Thanks for reading :)