Tired of Being a Nurse

[Esanity, BSN]

Hi, I have been a nurse since 2015. I worked a little over one year on Med Surg and realized it wasn’t for me. If it hadn’t been for short staffing and the fact that my job mostly consisted of passing pain meds I may have stayed longer. After Med Surg I went to surgery. I have been a circulator going on 6 years now. It worked for me for a while, but I am back to not being happy again. I can’t stand the hospital politics and I don’t feel respected in my job. I have recently been looking for new job opportunities and I’m stuck. I don’t know that I even want to be a nurse anymore. Has anyone had any luck in jobs adjacent to nursing? Any advice is welcome. 

[Emergent, RN]

Both my daughters are doing well selling insurance. They now get to work from home. If you have good people skills you can do very well.

It's a more organic process advancing in that you don't actually need a degree for the job. You start out at the bottom,  then get merit-based promotions. My older daughter has been doing it longer and is now making about 80,000 a year after 2 years. She recruited her sister who is doing well and just passed her exam, so she is getting her license. 

They really get to talk to the clients about their lives, kind of like nurses do. They are both empathetic young women which really helps. Since the pandemic, the company is sticking to allowing work from home as an option, which is a real Plus.

[Davey Do]

14 hours ago, Esanity1 said:

 It worked for me for a while, but I am back to not being happy again. 

It's too often that we look for someone or something else to make us happy when our happiness is found within ourselves.

"My happiness does not depend on what others do or say or what goes on around me. My happiness is the result of being at peace with myself."

[Esanity, BSN]

2 hours ago, Davey Do said:

It's too often that we look for someone or something else to make us happy when our happiness is found within ourselves.

"My happiness does not depend on what others do or say or what goes on around me. My happiness is the result of being at peace with myself."

I appreciate this, it’s definitely something I need to work on more. But, there are some variables in my current job that I can’t control therefore I have some of my own personal reasons for wanting to leave. I was always told, “If you don’t like the way something is then you can change it or leave”. I don’t want to go through life just going through the motions because it’s what I’m supposed to do. 

[Davey Do]

30 minutes ago, Esanity1 said:

 I was always told, “If you don’t like the way something is then you can change it or leave”. I don’t want to go through life just going through the motions because it’s what I’m supposed to do. 

The only thing we truly have the power to change is our perspective. 

The old saying, "you can't fight city hall" applies here. We cannot cannot always defeat or prevail over a situation or its methods. However, we can be in control of our beliefs and feelings toward a situation.

In a perfect world, everyone would behave and act with integrity and high standards. In the real world, there will always be those who do not. If we leave or give up on a situation, there is rarely any sort of conscious changing event.

"We learn to deal with stress by experiencing stress", a wise man once said. Learning methods to deal with stress can change our perspective while raising our consciousness.

There will always be stress in our lives and institutionalizing methods of dealing with stress will buoy us through the many stormy waters to come.

Joseph Campbell said something along the lines of, "Mystics swim in  the waters where others drown".

[Esanity, BSN]

Quote

49 minutes ago, Davey Do said:

The only thing we truly have the power to change is our perspective. 

The old saying, "you can't fight city hall" applies here. We cannot cannot always defeat or prevail over a situation or its methods. However, we can be in control of our beliefs and feelings toward a situation.

In a perfect world, everyone would behave and act with integrity and high standards. In the real world, there will always be those who do not. If we leave or give up on a situation, there is rarely any sort of conscious changing event.

"We learn to deal with stress by experiencing stress", a wise man once said. Learning methods to deal with stress can change our perspective while raising our consciousness.

There will always be stress in our lives and institutionalizing methods of dealing with stress will buoy us through the many stormy waters to come.

Joseph Campbell said something along the lines of, "Mystics swim in  the waters where others drown".

It’s not primarily the stress for me. It’s my hospital not contributing to my retirement savings or offering raises. There’s a lot more too it and I have my future to think about as well. I think they are relying on the fact that many workers are too comfortable to leave so they can do whatever they wish. 

 

[Davey Do]

3 minutes ago, Esanity1 said:

 my hospital not contributing to my retirement savings or offering raises

Understood! We work in order to pay our way and save for the future!

Let's go back to Square One: A six year sojourn as an OR circulating nurse must hold some interest for you, Esanity.

Having had some OR experience, I can see some advantages in working that area. However, there are so very many fields of nursing that are similar or completely unlike the OR, and you have six years under your belt, which is an impressive amount!

Other members will be able to give you more ideas, but I would tend to seek positions that interest you where you can use your knowledge and experiences.

As oft has been said, "You may have to kiss a lot of Warhols before you find your Rembrandt"! 

Good luck, Esanity!

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

What were the aspects of the nursing positions you have held that you did enjoy? It sounds like if you were maybe in a different organization you might not be looking to leave your OR position, are there other places you could apply? There are so many non-patient areas in nursing that you could explore, insurance has been mentioned, there is case management, legal consulting, informatics, so many areas that would incorporate some of the knowledge you have gained in a new way. If you still enjoy patient interactions and care you could look into homecare, maybe same day surgery or an outpatient surgery center.

Good luck finding something else that will make you happier and pay your bills. Take care.

[JKL33]

Sorry to state the obvious: Possibly don't write off nursing; just get out of acute care.

I also agree with what Davey is saying. Think things through and decide how you can gain a positive mindset to make whatever your next steps are going to be--that will be better for your own mental health as well as your chances of success at your next venture.

My view/experience is that you don't have to become okay with poor treatment (change your attitude/view of things). But if you're not okay with how things are, be empowered to seek out something better. Internal peace doesn't have to come with accepting status quo--it can also come from proactively making a positive moves in your own best interest.

Best of luck ??

[Esanity, BSN]

1 hour ago, JKL33 said:

Sorry to state the obvious: Possibly don't write off nursing; just get out of acute care.

I also agree with what Davey is saying. Think things through and decide how you can gain a positive mindset to make whatever your next steps are going to be--that will be better for your own mental health as well as your chances of success at your next venture.

My view/experience is that you don't have to become okay with poor treatment (change your attitude/view of things). But if you're not okay with how things are, be empowered to seek out something better. Internal peace doesn't have to come with accepting status quo--it can also come from proactively making a positive moves in your own best interest.

Best of luck ??

Thank you. To be clear,  I haven’t totally written nursing off. I have actually been recently searching for other jobs outside of what I have tried so far. My original post makes it sound like I haven’t thought things through. Really, I’ve been thinking about it for a long time and some days are better than others. I just wanted to put my feelings out there to some people who understand the field, but who might not judge me for thinking nursing may not be my ultimate passion. I just wanted a little advice from people like me, who decided there might be something else out there they liked better. Even something similar to nursing.

[Esanity, BSN]

6 hours ago, JBMmom said:

What were the aspects of the nursing positions you have held that you did enjoy? It sounds like if you were maybe in a different organization you might not be looking to leave your OR position, are there other places you could apply? There are so many non-patient areas in nursing that you could explore, insurance has been mentioned, there is case management, legal consulting, informatics, so many areas that would incorporate some of the knowledge you have gained in a new way. If you still enjoy patient interactions and care you could look into homecare, maybe same day surgery or an outpatient surgery center.

Good luck finding something else that will make you happier and pay your bills. Take care.

Where to begin. I am a natural introvert. I’ve spent most of my life acting as an extrovert because that feels like the only way to survive, especially in nursing. When I first got into nursing it was because I consider myself a very empathetic person and I like to make people feel better. I honestly knew nothing about what a nurse actually did as I had no one close to me in the field. So, what I like about nursing is the feeling I get at the end of the day when I feel like I’ve made a positive impact for someone. It is a challenging profession for sure, but can also be very rewarding. I like surgery because I get to meet all kinds of people, but It doesn’t have to be  for an extended period of time. I get to talk to them for a short time and then they’re knocked out ? Don’t get me wrong, I like talking to patients, but in small doses. Lately, it’s the hospital politics and toxicity that are driving me crazy though.  I haven’t totally written nursing off, but oftentimes I daydream about leaving it all together. I just wanted to put my feelings out there in case anyone else had been in my position and found success outside of the nursing field.

[SmilingBluEyes]

A LOT of us are naturally introverted who succeed in nursing. You just have to find your niche. You received a lot of great suggestions here so I won't bore you with repetition.

I wish you the best.