Will nursing grow on me?

MarieRandwood · Nov 19, 2011

Lilmissnurse12, I’m sorry to hear you are having doubts. I am a nursing student too, I know school is very demanding and I see some of my peers struggling to like it. I understand that you have invested so much time/money that you don’t want to quit now. My suggestion is to finish, graduate, and take your boards. Nursing has such a wide range of opportunity that you may find yourself enjoying something else. So maybe hospital nursing isn’t for you? You can always work in a primary care office, clinic, public health setting, school, or some other form of nursing that doesn’t involve a hospital. My aunt is a nurse who got her MBA and is now working for an insurance company and assessing people at home (she loves it!). At the end of the day if your heart is truly not in it then you should find another career but I think that a nursing foundation can lead you to careers that you don’t even know exist. Good luck, I wish you the best!

kenyacka · Nov 19, 2011

The smell was awful...it made me want to gag... and the clean up was even worse. No help from the CNAs, only partial help from another nursing student. Do you think there is a lot of towels in this nursing home immediately available? No. Did most of the care myself. Walked away that evening feeling the best as I had made someone else's night better. Fast forward: next semester: patient in eighties...in because he od'd on digoxin....feels need to urinate, but is having difficulty...wait an entire half hour with him...change him because there is no techs in this quality award...from TJC itself...winning hospital available.

Wait.... so you thought that if you were in a room and a patient pooped or peed that a tech should run in and do it for you? That's not how the real world works. If you're in the room, you do the job. You could call a tech to help (how hard is it to help a patient get to a bsc or urinal?), but not just do it for you. I'm glad, as a tech, that the nurses aren't afraid to do dirty work if need be in my hospital. Really? You sat in a room for thirty minutes before you decided to do it yourself? Wow. Just wow.

Sugar-Phosphate · Nov 19, 2011

My question to you is, how comfortable are you with your communication an skills? I hated my clinical rotation but now that I am comfortable with my stuff, I love it. Nursing is so diverse and everything is not for everyone. Han in there, and if you don't like something, try something else. We need management nurses, bedside and emerg etc nurses. I am heading more towards emerg but you could not pay me enough to do the scheduling and beurocracy stuff. Keep going, there is something for you. That is why nursing is great!

AppleRN4 · Nov 19, 2011

When I graduated nursing school, I knew 2 things for sure- I wanted to work in the ER and I wanted to be a travel nurse, however the hospital that hired me didn't take new grads in their ED, so I agreed to work as a tele RN to get experience necessary. Those 12 months as a telemetry nurse proved to be the most hated period of my nursing career!!! I tried to find creative ways to call off work, dreaded working most days, and finally a lightbulb went off-- I went down to the ED in the same hospital, interviewed with the manager the same day and was offered a job as an ER nurse. Two weeks later, I said deuces to floor nursing and I can tell you wholeheartedly had I not made a change, I would've left nursing by now. I love ER nursing!

I understand you were advised to be a nurse, but you have to go with your heart. You can't afford to please people/their expectations of you while being miserable!! It sounds like bedside nursing isn't your forte, so you should look into working on the non-clinical side. There are many choices in this career, so you don't have to be stuck as a bedside RN.....

Good luck to you.

Brea LPN · Nov 19, 2011

I you don't like doing nurse tasks now you never will. Now is the time you should be excited. If you don't like it now, I don't think you will 5 years from now.

GimiRN · Nov 19, 2011

Hi everyone! I am not quite a nurse but I have on more semester to go then I will have my A.S. The problem is I really dont like nursing. People have always told me that I should be a nurse, I really like to help people and Im always the one bringing the chicken soup or baking cookies for a sick friend. But really since I started school I dont think I have much interest in what it means to be a REAL nurse. I dont mind blood but I cant catheterize someone and I am very disgusted at clinicals. One patient at clinicals had a trach and was coughing up bloody sputum. I know it was bad but I had to leave the room! I have no real interest in science or math and hate anatomy and physiology. Hospitals smells really gross me out! Anyways I was thinking I could be a psych nurse because my LPN friend told me all they really do is pass meds and take vital signs. I think I can do that. But I still hate med surg, OB maternity, and peds nursing. Will nursing grow on me over time when Im actually working as a real RN? Please dont tell me to do something else I invested too much money and time and I only have 4 months left to quit now. Plus down here in Miami RNs are the only people who have jobs

Your view on nursing is very negative. True, that's not to say that you can't eventually find your "niche" as someone suggested. However, many jobs that exclude some of the things you mentioned you dislike, require actual experience. For example, you can go to one of the main hospital or employment websites, type in/search for "RN case manager", and read what the qualifications are.

So unless you can endure some of the things you absolutely hate for a while, I'm not sure how great your options are. That's not meant to purposely discourage you, it's just being realistic. In this economy, it's not so easy to pick and choose anymore.

And for the record, there are PLENTY of unemployed RNs in Miami, especially new grads. Most of the time you have to take what you can get. And that often entails accepting a nursing job at "smelly" facilities, cleaning poop, dealing with trachs and bloody sputum, etc.

bill4745, RN · Nov 19, 2011

Please dont tell me to do something else I invested too much money and time and I only have 4 months left to quit now.

If you don't want us to tell you to do something else, why ask for our opinions?

Siddhartha · Nov 19, 2011

I guess the question begs itself to be asked, what do you like about Nursing? With only 4 months to go, something has kept you in the saddle.

Nursing grew on me. A friend suggested I would make a good nurse, when i was considering career pathways. It stuck...Nursing works very well for me. RN's are afforded quite the latitude of possible job types (I mean really, what the heck is Forensic Nursing? offering cadavers bedpans?) LOL. I am very happy working with the LTC / aging population and I get lots of kudos from patients, family members and fellow nurses that I am good and seem happy in what I do. I am happy :)

Nursing isnt for everyone. My sister loved the nursing studies and the first 2 years of her BSN, but when it came to bedside, she couldnt handle it...so she followed what she loved...books and literacy and studied Library science...my sis the Librarian. Wow, who'd a thunk.

All in all, you need to LIVE your life. What is important to you? What do you want to do? No education is ever wasted. Perhaps you need to talk to a guidance counsellor for another focus? Follow your gut, your heart, your soul or wherever you get that good feeling of Yeah, this works for me.

Hope this helps.

JSBoston · Nov 19, 2011

It takes awhile, but when you stop being grossed out by everything you see, and touching people (I always say being a CNA really helps take the those fears away)... and then when you are on the floor as a new grad and after a few months you stop seeing everything as steps to do, but REALLY start critically thinking about how everything in the body is connected- it's really awesome. You're doing a LOT more than bringing them soup. You're seeing strange changes and having a bad feeling, and then reassessing the patient, connecting the dots, then calling the doctor for orders you'll anticipate.... it's totally cool :)

dasburyRN · Nov 19, 2011

Try getting into a specialty like Opthamology or working for a doctor outside of the hospital. How about a medi-spa? There are so many things you can do with your degree! Just do a little research. :twocents:

seizetheday · Nov 19, 2011

OP - stick with it. You are almost done and having the degree under your belt will help you no matter what you decide to do next. remember too that nursing school only exposes you to a sliver of types of nursing. There are many community based jobs, school based jobs, office based jobs that a nurse can do that you aren't introduced to during school.

I too realized part way through nursing school that if what I was going in clinicals was what nursing was, then I didn't want to be a nurse. I didn't enjoy really anything about med-surg type care. By the time I was in my fourth year I had already applied to another post degree program in a different field because I was pretty sure I'd never be a nurse. I had done psych, peds, LTC, oncology, med, surg...nothing had really appealed to me. Then I did a child psych rotation and it just clicked. I enjoyed it and I realized I could do this. I worked on a ped psych floor for awhile after I graduated before moving into different roles and positions that have led me to a number of different jobs and back to school. I have never regretted finishing my degree and I am still using it now, even though I am not nursing on the floor.

Psych can be a great field but only if you enjoy it. If you are just doing it because it is not med-surg, you won't like it. From reading this board I have realized too that psych wards and the role of nurses on psych units varies greatly.

Finish your degree and see what the job situation is for you - if there is opportunity try a job in the area you think you like the most and go from there. You should also explore what your interests really are, what do you enjoy doing, maybe get some career counselling and then work towards doing something else.

sistasoul · Nov 19, 2011

I would definitely finish the degree and take the boards. I too hated clinical while at school. All of the anxiety and fear of doing something wrong and being kicked out of the program is what I hated the most. I never thought I could handle working in a hospital and really did not want to because of the stress. Well, I graduated and I worked in a LTC facility for 5 months and then got a hospital job on a neuro/ortho floor. I felt I needed that experience. In my opinion working as a nurse is a lot easier than nursing school. You do get used to certain things- like poop and vomit. I still cannot deal with phlegm though. Makes me absolutely ill.

I would find an area of nursing you like. You may surprise yourself and fall in love with an area you never thought you could handle. This is what happened with me. I actually prefer the hands on care to all of the "charting". Also, being so close to being done may be making you hesitant. I was scared to death my last semester of being on my own in as a nurse. I did not feel ready but I have heard that no one ever does. I work with a great group of nurses who helped me to succeed.