Cali_foRNia

DO NOT GO INTO NURSING!!! I have been a nurse for three years, and I plan on leaving the profession as soon as I pay off my student loans. I do not think it is worth all the stress and liability. If you want to gain more experience into the medical field, I suggest you explore options like phlebotomy, a nurse tech, or telemetry tech. These fields do not pay a lot but it will give you a glimpse into what nurses do and they will be more substantial job experiences to put on your resume. And, if you do end up becoming a nurse, this will help you out on your skillset.

I don't know how helpful my advice will be to you but I hope you can gain something. When I was working on my undergraduate degree in Biology, I had several friends of mine that were struggling in some of their science classes. Some of them failed a class or two, and some had even failed a clinical rotation. However, many of them were able to get their license and become great nurses. After graduating with a BS in Bio, I also decided to take the nursing route. Originally, like yourself, I had wanted to go to med school but thought that nursing would be a better fit for me. I was actually very good at school. I never had a problem with my grades or my classes. I graduated with honors and a great GPA. Yes, some classes were hard and there were some semesters that were overwhelming, but overall I did very well. The problems did not occur until I started working as a nurse. I experienced a lot of negative things like older nurses "eating their young"; emotional stress from sad patient outcomes; dealing with rude doctors, nurses, and patients; and the stress of working in such a high risk job. I know that in no matter what field I go into there is going to be some negativity that I am just going to have to deal with. But the added stress from fear that I have has caused me to realize that I am not cut out to be a nurse. The best advice I can give you is to really examine yourself and see if being a nurse is actually what you want to do. I know you are having some issues with school, but for me that was the easy part. The hard part is asking yourself these questions: "Are you willing to go into a job where you can possibly be threatened with losing your license and your ability to work?" "Are you willing to accept responsibility for someone's life?" "Are you will to deal with the emotional struggle when situations go south?" "Are you willing to enter into a high risk field where you may suffer physical disability or litigation?" If I knew back in school what I know now, I would have chosen to never become a nurse. I would give anything to go back and change my decisions, but for now I am stuck going on my third year as a nurse and I absolutely can't wait to get out of nursing. This is just my personal experience. Like I said earlier, many of my friends have gone on to become excellent nurses, and some of them were not exceptional in their academics. I hope you can find this post helpful in some way. I wish you the best of luck!

I am tired of waiting to see if one day my mindset about nursing will change one day. I began my career two years ago in postpartum. Sometimes I would get floated to Med/Surg. It was not the most ideal place to begin my career because it was a very small community hospital. I did not receive a good orientation process. The coworkers would treat each other nicely then talk crap about each other behind their backs. The older nurses would treat us younger ones terribly. I absolutely hated floating to Med/Surg. Postpartum was fine. However, we had a very low patient census in OB which did not allow me to experience what it is like to take on a full patient load. We did not take high risk patients so I never had to work with patients on Magnesium therapy or on high risk meds. The doctors would never put in their orders and would get upset when I would call them for clarification purposes. I knew that if I went to a different hospital and applied for the same position that they would see me as an experienced nurse and that they would expect me to work at a higher standard. So I decided that it would be best for me to go into a different department so that I could receive more training. After two years of working there, the hospital decided to cut out the department because the patient census was so low. I really wasn't that upset about it because I figured that if I go to a bigger hospital with better training opportunities that I would grow to love nursing. I recently signed on to work in the NICU at a very prestigious hospital. They are going to not only train me but also give me in-class instruction. A group of us new nurses were supposed to begin classes during the first week but the nurse educator wasn't able to finalize the schedule so we ended up on the floor just to get a feel for the unit. After being on the small baby unit for only two shift, I realized that NICU is not the place for me either. It also did not help that I experienced a code on my second shift. Seeing and handling the babies has made me so depressed. I thought I would love it because I had loved working with the babies from my postpartum experience. I did not realized how it would affect me emotionally. After experiencing the code, I went home so traumatized. I did not have to go back to work until 3 days later; and I thought it would be enough time for me to get over it, but the emotional strain is still there. I want to quit already. I have kept telling myself to just give it some time, that I will be taking classes first with minimal time on the floor, and that I will not be on my own on the floor yet. But, I just can't shake this emotional unrest. My plan for now is to try and make it to one year in the NICU and then to transfer to another job within the same hospital such as a case manager or a non-bedside position, but that time seems so far away and I do not know if I can make it. I have thought about quitting nursing altogether because I have realized that this career path was never intended for me. I only wish that I had known this sooner when I was in nursing school so that I could do something else with my life instead of dreading going to work every day. I want to quit so bad, but I know that this would not be fair to the other workers or the hospital. I have not idea what to do except tough it out. On my days off, I can't stop reflecting on what I have experienced . I can't relax. I can't calm down. I can't wait for 50 more weeks to pass.

I am so sorry that you felt this way, but you are not alone. I too went into nursing with the purpose of helping people but instead I had the very opposite experience. Coworkers were mean and would refuse to help you out once you were out on your own. The attitude of "not my patient, not my problem" was so sickening. Doctors would act like a**holes even after I would try to help them with their computer issues. The patients would complain because I took too long to get them their water or because I brought them the wrong pancake syrup. I have also thought about leaving nursing, but thankfully there is so much more you can do these days than bedside nursing. I am glad you found a better place to work. I would also suggest you looking into administrative positions. Nursing informatics is a big field that pays well if you are computer savvy. Another area that I personally am looking into is Forensic Nursing. You work on sexual abuse and domestic violence cases and coordinate with law enforcement and criminalists.

Hey everyone, I really need some guidance. I have only been working as a nurse for 2 years. I started out in postpartum because I thought that I wanted to go into L&D and I thought it would be a good stepping stone. After exposure to the field, I discovered that L&D was not the area for me. I planned on staying in postpartum for the meantime because I was working on my Master's degree. After finishing school I was planning on transitioning to a NICU at a large hospital. Unfortunately, the hospital I was working for decided to close down the OB unit. Everyone in my department got laid-off in February. I am one month away from finishing my Master's degree and have been applying for jobs. I have been wrestling with what area to go into: NICU or ER? I haven't received any job offers yet. I specifically want to get into a county hospital in the LA area. Those positions are based on need and availability so the position I potentially could get offered could vary. For those of you ER nurses out there, I was wondering if you could give me some insight about ER nursing: how do you coordinate with the doctors, RN to patient staffing, commonly seen medical events in the ER, etc. I would also appreciate any tips on preparing for the job and any good resources like textbooks to study. Also, how do you as an ER nurse cope with the stress you experience? how do you calm yourself down in intense situations? I appreciate any advice you can give.

It is definitely possible to go into administration, but it won't be an easy feat. If you don't know exactly what you want to do in administration, then you should figure that out first in order plan out your pathway. I would also suggest you get your master's degree if you do decide to go into nursing because that will really help build up your credentials if you don't have the floor experience. There are many administrative courses available that can help beef up your knowledge. You should definitely research administrative areas of nursing beforehand to see what is available out there. There will definitely be people that will tell you that you will have a hard time earning the respect of other nurses because of your lack of experience. I personally experienced this because I have only been a nurse for two years but earned my master's degree right after nursing school. People thought that it was ridiculous of me to get my MSN because I should have concentrated more on getting experience first. The way that I see it, there are going to be haters no matter where you go. Just follow your goals and be confident.