Perhaps this should be moved to the nursing career advice section, but I was browsing and found this written by an ex nurse. I take most of it as bitterness and griping, but the part about NO JOBS without a year of experience bothers me beyond words considering I am going for my adn in f05. Thoughts, please!?????
Luckily, I've put this career mistake/ nightmare behind me.
My career mistake was choosing to become a nurse. I was lied to from the beginning. I was falsely made to believe that there was a plethora of jobs waiting for me after graduating nursing school. On the contrary, every job I found wanted nurses with at least a year of experience.
A year after graduating, I found one agency that sent me out to work in various nursing homes. That was a nightmare in itself!! I wouldn't send my dog to a nursing home let alone a human being! I quit that job fast enough but I left very frustrated and angry.
A year after that, I managed to land a hospital job on a fluke. There are no words to express how absolutely horrible and unbearable I found that job to be. I hated it beyond the meaning of the word.
The worst part of it all was that they were in the middle of downsizing and the nurses were being given the additional work of taking over the duties of others. Many times I would find myself so busy that I would leave work two sometimes three hours after my shift ended, doing what else but paperwork. This was overtime I was never paid for.
I wouldn't recommend nursing to anyone. It's a thankless job with long hours, is seriously short-staffed, and the workload is astronomical. Many nurses who worked at that hospital often complained of back pain, various health problems, and psychological stress. I didn't want to end up like them so I got out quick.
Needless to say, my mother wasn't overly happy about that. She can no longer brag to her friends and relatives about my being in the medical professsion. You couldn't pay me to go back to that occupation. It was so hard to find work and what I found left me feeling so unhappy. Whenever I would finish my shift for the day, I would just sit at home and cry for hours. I got so depressed. Whenever I knew I had to go to work, I felt so miserable. Whenever I arrived at work, I felt like this lead weight was sitting on my back, I found it hard to breathe, and I had to fight to keep down the panic. When I took that job I was only in my twenties. After only a few weeks into that job, I started feeling like an old woman. I started having back pains and feeling just so unwell practically everyday. I was so aghausted all of the time. I've never in my life had a job that left me feeling so awful and I hope I never will again. I repeat, I wouldn't recommend the nursing field for anyone. I made a bad career choice, I just hope that anyone reading this won't make the same mistake I did.
