When do you know?

You know when you've made someone smile. Bringing a smile to someone's face shows you that you must be doing something right. If the job is not a good fit and you go home everyday crying, then I would say you need to find something else. Like you said, there is no perfect job. You just need to find out what type of nursing interests you. If you are tired of bedside care, then you might want to try management. If none of these work out, then its time for a change in profession. Hang in there, and just try to figure things out before you make a dramatic change.

Although making your patients and their families smile is a very great thing, I would say that is not enough to stay with the job. I have a similar problem - working 6 days/week and WAYY over 40hrs/week. Although I love the patients I have, they're great kids, eventually you burn out with working that much. I give you credit for doing it for 2 yrs(I only made it 5 mos). I found another company and started off with just 1 day/week with them but they recently asked me to go to FT, but this time I set boundaries on days I'm willing to work (as compared to my previous job, I was just desperate to get an offer and told them what they wanted to hear!) Now I'm still at just about 50hrs/wk but only 3 days. Of course this helps with having my own life, but also I'm finding out that I'm a better nurse when I'm not so tired and burned out.