RN-icu

Turns out I may just hate being a nurse all together, not ICU specific. I switched to a different department at the end of April. I went to the Women's care department. We do a mixture of mom/babies, peds, and female med/surg patients. This is definitely less stressful and sooo much easier, but i still don't like it. I don't hate it like Icu, but I still dread going to work. I hate the long shifts, working weekends/holidays, and I hate not being appreciated. So I'm just at a loss. Nursing is nothing like the profession I thought it was going to be. I really wish nursing school would better prepare you for what the real world of nursing is like. I would have switched majors first semester if that were the case. I can't afford to quit and go back to school full time at this point. So I need to find another comparable paying job that I can do. Any suggestions or stories about what worked for you would be helpful. Thanks!

Thanks for the responses I'll start looking for ambulatory jobs too. I never thought about that setting. Yes, BSNgrad2010. I would LOVE to do some sort of nurse educator job. I have that set into my job searches, but I rarely ever get any results for that category. The few I have seen required MSN. So that's another job that seems almost impossible to get. It has just been frustrating feeling like I'm stuck in the icu. I have been searching for jobs for about a year now and every requirement is so specific so if I don't met the requirements I do not even send in my application now. I have tried numerous times, but never even gotten a call back. Hopefully something will come along soon! Sorry you are feeling so stressed in the icu too! Do you think the icu is where you want to be or are you trying to leave too?

So here is the list so far. I'm sure I could add to it, but it's getting late and this is all I can think of now. I dislike: Titrating pressors. Actually I like doing it, but I do not feel educated enough. It's not all the time that I have the opportunity to do them so I always have to look them up. I can never remember how to mix them, which ones are mcg/kg/hr vs mcg/hr, or the titration ranges. In codes or when my patient is crashing and I need them quick it stresses me out. NT suction: I hate doing it. It's torture and it's gross Placing ng/dht: same thing, I hate doing it. Cleaning up poop: I did that as an CNA and thought I won't have to do this once I'm the nurse with a college degree. I still do it all the time. Feeling overwhelmed. This happens a lot especially when I have a 3-4patient team. A recent team I had, but pretty indicative of how they make assignments all the time. I had 2 separate gi bleed patients, both getting blood and needing cleaned up a lot. and a dementia patient that kept taking the bipap off. Until he really couldn't anymore and we intubated him. I just felt like I needed to be in all 3 rooms constantly, but that's not possible so I spent my day running from one to the other. The charting: gosh! if I didn't have to chart so darn much I could actual spend more time in those rooms. (This is everywhere. I know it won't escape it) Psych patients: gosh! Half the time I feel like we should just rename ourselves psych-icu. I am not a psych nurse for a reason. Hate it! Codes/crashing patients: I don't really enjoy this. It stresses me out. I think most true icu nurses get a small thrill form this. Not me! Feeling like im not smart enough: I know I am my own worst critique, but I hate when a patient or a family member asks me a questions and i do not know the answer. I have to say I honestly I do not know, but I will figure it out. I'm sure they don't feel good hearing that from their icu nurse. Or doctor for that matter. It's worse when you tell them you don't know something or ask them to explain something. Some really do not like that and make it known. I like: When I feel appreciated When I can sit down with patient/family and educate them one extreme or the other. I like on the vent, calm, and sedated. Or I like the walkie talkies. I do not like the in between and that whats I get most of the time. Hanging blood products DKA patients. That is my favorite diagnosis to take care of. I think because you can actually see your work paying off by watching the bs go down every hour and the ketones slowly clear. I know, very random!

Thanks for all the responses. I work in a 240 bed community hospital on a 22 bed icu/tcu unit. Our patient ratio is 1-4 depending on the acuity. (1:1 is pretty rare for us tho) We do resp failure, renal failure, gi bleeds, overdoses, post-op, and just old/sick with an assortment of illnesses. We have a trauma 1 hospital 5 minutes away so everything interesting goes there. While in school I did my clinical rotation in their neuro-icu and took care of very interesting patients (gun shots, MVA, and strokes). I enjoyed my time there, but I was a student. I wasn't a nurse responsible for doing it on my own. So I am not sure if I would enjoy it now or be even more stressed because there will be so many things I haven't done and haven't had the opportunity to see yet. I love when I leave work and know that I connected with a patient/family and they really appreciated all the work I did. Because I do my best and bust my butt to make sure my patients/families are taken care of and getting what they need. I went to nursing school thinking that everyday would be like that and I would really make a difference, but sadly more often then not that isn't the case at all! Also in nursing school we were told that nursing is the best profession because you can try a different speciality every 6 months until you find the right fit. That doesn't seem to be the case now either. I guess I need to make a list like rubyvee said and figure out what in particular I do not like

Looking for advice! I am a relatively new RN-bsn, almost 2 years in, all day shift critical care. I also worked as a cna in the same department during nursing school. So I feel that I have given critical care enough time to know that it's not for me. I spoke to co-workers and managers previously, all said stick it out because I'm a good nurse and I will see that at the one year mark. They said everyone feels like this at first and if it doesn't get better you can go anywhere with icu experience. Well that doesn't seem to be the case. I am still extremely stressed when I am there and always afraid I'm going to make an error. I don't have fun or enjoy my time at work because I am so stressed. I feel like icu nursing lets me know a little about everything, but I'm not an expert on anything. I have applied to numerous specialty fields (mother/baby, l&d, surgery, and oncology) with the hope that I might like nursing if I could become an expert in one thing. I never even get an interview. All the job postings say they require x amount of years experience in that field. My mom is a clinical manager for a hospice company. Although she has offered me a job there, I'm not sure I would like that type of nursing either and I do not want to put my mom in a bad spot if it doesn't work out. She reviewed/edited my resume and cover letter and feels they are very good. So how do I go about getting out of icu? Are there any other jobs besides nursing I can do with my BSN if I can't get into a specialty field? I am just lost and have no idea what to do. Some times I debate going back to college and starting all over with a new career, but really can't afford to go into that much more student loan debt. Any advice would help.