Really hating school right now...

[pnkgirl25]

So I am 4 months out for graduation and I'll be honest....I'm really hating school right now. Now don't get me wrong...I love what I am learning but I have had it with my school and feel like I'm not learning...

First thing, we have already completed 3 rounds of clinical rotations (next round starts next week and lasts 13 weeks.). Anyways, ALL of our clinical rotations have been in geriatrics..I HATE geriatrics. I am so sick of seeing the same types of patents over and over again...HTN, DM, Heart Disease, Dementia...and don't get me started on med pass...so not my thing. I'm over it. I was really looking forward to our psych rotation but just found out today it was canceled. Just got the details for our peds rotation and it's at a daycare center. Normal kids 2-4 years old. We are responsible for playing with the kids, helping feed lunch, change diapers...etc. What the heck this has to do with nursing I have no clue. The other portion of our rotation is hospice care...not looking forward to this at all.

I feel in geriatrics these people don't get better they are there to die...and hospice...well you know those people are dying. I'm the type of person that needs to see results in the things I do. I want to see people get better. I see myself in a out pt. surgery center, wound care, trauma, ER..even doctors office. But at this point with the only experience I have being with geriatrics I feel that even if I lucked up and landed my dream job I would feel like a fish out of water.

I don' know I'm just feeling annoyed and a little down.

[nursel56]

It is unfortunate that your peds rotatation is a day-care center and that you feel shortchanged by the lack of a broad number of clinical rotation sites but here is my experience: our peds rotation was in about a 20 bed peds unit in a community hospital where most of the kids seemed to be getting tonsillectomies or other pretty common childhood stuff. Then I went to work for a pediatric hospital after I graduated. Did that peds rotation help me in any way? No. I had far more to learn on the job.

The point is that you can learn something from every clinical that are part of the basic structure of all areas of nursing. Nuts and bolts stuff like researching, organizing your time, interacting with families as well as the ever-present "what-not-to-do" as well as observing everything the good nurses do that makes them good. Hopefully there is at least one!

You sound like you are hitting one of those walls that come along - school will end at your clinicals aren't really expected to dovetail perfectly with your subsequent career goals. Hang in there!

[arob1489]

I understand the original posters complaint. It is kind of ridiculous that all three of her clinical rotations have been with geriatric patients and the next one will be a daycare. I would feel a little ripped off. I have heard lpns in ltc say that they use less of the skills they learned in school in ltc. If I paid for those skills I want to use most of them. I work as a cna in ltc and I see what the lpn there does and I love her but most of the time she is doing "paperwork" passing meds, or giving insulin shots. Oh and changing small dressings. I start lpn school in the fall and I refuse to let my first job as an lpn be in a nursing home. Maybe later in life I'd come back to ltc but I want to do other stuff first. I live in massachusetts and so I can get into a hospital, clinic, corrections, rehab, home care, or private offices. Thankfully I will have quite a few options.

[arob1489]

Oh and don't forget, lpns can get certifications that can help land a specific job!