RaggedtoRadiant

While it is true that your first nursing post can be a bit of a shock and that many new nurses leave in the first year out of nursing school there are also some 'bad' LTC facilities out there. It sounds like you ended up in one of those facilities and I congratulate you on quitting the position. This would not have been a good facility to start your nursing career. More and more organizations are beginning to see the economical benefit of supporting new nurses so keep looking and asking in your interviews what they do to support new nurses and what are the expectations of you during your orientation period. Wishing you an empowering and fulfilling real nursing 'first' position

My heart goes out to you. I spent most of my nursing career feeling overwhelmed with difficulty slowing down after work. Nursing is incredibly stimulating to the mind, body and emotions. As a veteran of burnout x2 I eventually came to understand just how essential it is to start some kind of structured program to manage your stress and overactive mind and nervous system. If I had done this it would have saved me a lot of emotional and physical suffering. There are many different approaches out there, check online and see what fits in with your values and beliefs. Find out exactly WHAT is causing you stress and then you can deal with the individual stressors; its probably a combination of your own stressors, the work environment and maybe the patient environment. Good luck.