RNs leaving Nursing?

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Hi all,

I have been a nurse for a year, and I still haven't found a job that will actually help me gain nursing experience (have worked as CPR instructor and am now placing TB tests). I am so discouraged (as I know many of you are!), and I am seriously contemplating leaving the nursing field. It is very sad to think of because I felt like this was my calling and my passion. I just don't know what to do anymore. I was curious if any of you have thought about leaving nursing, and if so, what profession are you looking to enter? Thanks for your input!

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Have you been looking for hospital job? Since you like nursing, maybe continue to look for job while working as your current job for cash?

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Try home healthcare. It's not a ton of experience but it's something on ur resume which may trigger the hospitals to take a second look. That's what I did.

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

From my personal experience, leaving nursing is one hell of a task... especially with all the loans to pay back... hmmm... and i myself have tried to pursue many careers, but fresh careers related to nursing but not really nursing are pretty much hard to find... its better to introspect and follow your passion... but getting a fresh start is pretty tough challenge... I'm a RN who did medical transcription for about an year, then came back into nursing, now performing part time as radio jockey so that i can sort of contain myself from burnouts... hmmm... Good luck to you buddy :)

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Thank you all for replying! Makes me feel like I'm not alone. I do love nursing and consider it my passion- thankfully, no loans to pay back! Just getting discouraged with the lack of opportunity and am afraid 3 years from now, I won't be any closer to having a job, but I'll be four years closer to forgetting everything! :) Thanks again for the encouragement, everyone. I will keep pressing on and look into the suggestions. :) Good luck to you all!

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Hi there! After 3 years of working on the floor I decided that cleaning up blood, poop, pee, vomit, spit, mucus, and god knows what else was not for me. I left the floor and now do cosmetic/aesthetic nursing (Botox, lip injections, etc) and am loving it! Never going back to wiping ass ever again. There are lots of opportunities out there besides acute care . Best of luck.

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Thank you, rnmama999! I actually interviewed for and would have been hired in a cosmetic nursing role except that I declined....regretting that now! Haha...the way they described the job to me, though, sounded a lot more like a sales job (needing to meet a weekly/monthly upsell target) than a nursing job. Have you ran into that issue where you work? Congrats on being involved in something you love!

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I'm leaving to pursue my life-long dream of a PhD in Anthropology, to be a paleopathologist. It's the ONLY reason I choose a BSN. I was not "called" to nursing and as a child/teen never wanted to or even thought of becoming a nurse. Now, that doesn't mean that I'm not a good nurse or that I don't care about my patients. I am very analytical, a great educator, abd the "go-to" person when someone needs something explained or figured out, which is why I always say "I'm an anthropologist disguised as a nurse." I am always met with objection when I tell people what I'm going to grad school for. They say "Just get your NP...the money is good and you're good at this." Monet does not now or ever will buy my happiness. I plan on teaching in a university while simultaneously finding, cleaning off, and examining mummies and skeletons in Egypt by 2021. I just have to wait for the day-to-day parenting to cease so I can work just PT as an RN and focus on school instead of working FT to support a family.

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Specializes in Neurosciences, stepdown, acute rehab, LTC.

If you still feel this may be your calling don't give up!! I find that nurses who have that lifelong passion are rare and definitely needed . Just keep praying and learning and applying !

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Specializes in public health.

What kind of nursing experience are you looking for because they are so many different kinds out there? If you want bedside nursing, then start with LTC or home health if you can't be hired by a hospital right now. If you want to go in teaching, I think your CPR instruction experience is valuable, but you probably need to get an advanced degree to teach nursing. If you want to work in public health, your TB experience is helpful. So ask yourself what you want to do as a nurse. We all function differently even though we all have a RN after our names. :)

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