Regret becoming a nurse

[DoubtfulStudentNurse]

Just wanted to see if others feel this way,too. I only have four months left in my LPN program, and even though I enjoyed the theoretical part and have had mostly As and a few Bs in all my classes, I absolutely hate nursing now after my first clinical rotation, which happened to be med. surge. I dreaded going in every day, being intimidated by our instructor, being talked to like a dumb school girl (I'm 40 and have had a career before going into the nursing field), feeling totally overwhelmed by the whole patient care/charting/med passing thing that I feel we weren't well prepared for in school. I busted my butt off trying to take care of patients, too scared to ask my instructor for help for fear of being yelled at, trying to remember the 1000 meds that we had never covered in school, spending endloss hours on care plans and patient research the day before, and not having a life anymore in general. I have never been this stressed in my entire life, and I'm actually having anxiety attacks. I'm glad this rotation is over, but now I don't even think I EVER want to work like this again. I'm thinking about quitting right now and not waste my time with something that I think may not be for me after all. My original plan was to bridge over to RN, but now that is not something I'm even remotely entertaining anymore. I've even looked into other fields, such as court reporting, something that I could actually do from home (the school part anyways). Unfortunately, since I've "wasted" so much time, money and energy, I really cannot afford to go back to square one and start something new.

BTW, I was full of enthusiasm and elan when I started this. I wanted to help people while making a decent living, but I don't think I'm cut out for it. I hate to think I wasted two years of pre-reqs and 8 months of school, but right now I have zero enthusiasm left for this profession and even wonder what the heck I was thinking when I decided office jobs are boring. I'd take boring over super-stressed/anxious/worn-out just right about now.

Maybe I should also asked people who have graduated already: does it get better? I don't think I can stand the anxiety of having to constantly worry if by mistake or oversight I may have hurt/killed someone. I don't want to be a buzz-kill to any students out there, and I hope your experience has been better than mine. I just don't know if I should just "suck it up" and finish, get a job at maybe a doctor's office where the stress level is hopefully not as high as on a med. surge floor in a hospital, and see how it goes. If I still don't like it then, maybe I could take court reporting classes on the side.

Any suggestions/experiences?

[jennrose_03]

i felt the same way when I only had 4 months left too! I bawled my head off driving home from my med/surg clinicals one day because my teacher gave me a new assignment when she told me the day before that I would have the same one all week. so all the work I had done the night before.....care plan, looking up a million meds, dx, etc etc, which totaled like 7 hours of work, going to be at 2am, to get up at 5:30am.....I had to do it AGAIN on a whole new pt, with even more meds, dx, etc! I wanted to just quit. But I got through it...I really enjoy the nursing role. I am starting my new job as a LPN at the hospital I did those same clinicals at, and it is definitely NOT the same. Completely different. Good luck to you in whatever you choose to do!! :)

[jennrose_03]

ha! just realized that it was posted last year too. oh well haha

[ItsTheDude]

to the op, you're not alone, way too many lpn and rn newbs don't really like nursing (real nursing, reality), they just liked the thought of it (what they saw on tv or heard about it, not reality). nursing is just a job.

this is one of the reasons i really like that most, if not all, cc's in my state are requiring adn students to be a cna before they can get in and some of the lpn programs are requiring the same. it's a dose of reality that weeds some out.

[jennrose_03]

i agree. I think all programs should require applicants to be cna's before nursing school. It for sure is a huge dose of reality and you will know if its for you or not!!

[DEEJAERN]

i hope you finnished school and i hope you found a nurse i go to the worst school in texas didnt know til i was the but this to shall pass est of luck

[selkie]

Hi, I'm posting late too. I love photonurse's reply. When I read the original question, bigtime deja vu.. exactly the same as I felt in nursing school. I loved the theoretical, the anatomy/phys, the pathology. I loathed the clinicals, the care plans, the meds. I loathed working in the hospitals. Going in the night before clinicals to pick patients and spend hours looking up info on care, etc....what a nightmare it all was. Lol I remember asking a friend at the time, who had just graduated med school... if I hate nursing school, do you think it means I will hate being a nurse? He said nope- he'd hated med school and loved being a doctor. Thing was, I didn't hate ALL of nursing school, just the clinical part. Lol the being a nurse part.

Reading some of the replies, some say that well, it isn't as if the questioner hated working in the hospitals or the patient care part of it, because if she felt that way it probably would mean she hated nursing and it might not be worth finishing. I felt a click of recognition, because I DID hate the patient care and the hospitals. I stuck it out though, and got the LPN, thinking I'd stick it out, get a job, see if I hated it as much.

For me, having a spiritual component to my work is important. I'm also licensed in alternative healthcare (first, before nursing) and the contact with patients feels like crap compared to the previous work, at times. It is difficult to be real and present for people.

I wonder if the questioner finished school...? I suspect maybe she did, as close to finishing as she was. The real world of nursing is definitely better in some ways, sure. In other ways it's worse, it feels (to me) like the dead end job of all dead end jobs. Current job is probably as good as it gets- nice co workers, interesting job for the most part. Just too many hours, physically demanding. On days off I do little or nothing, so fatigued from the week. (have some health issues myself and job is affecting them).

Again, I love photonurse's reply. Refreshing. Sometimes I get super tired of how we are all supposed to love nursing or we're traitors to the profession. My mom was a nurse years ago and her comment is it's not the profession it used to be- way more dead end these days, working conditions have gone downhill (staffing, patient ratios, hours etc).