JADED

I really, really, really think nursing BLOWS. I have been a nurse for just over 4 years; I don't think that I have ever truely liked it. Even after my first clinical in school, I was depressed! Its stressful and totally not worth it. I feel like a glorified waitress that also has the pleasure of wiping up poop! It ruins your body, mind, and relationships. And to top it off you don't get any respect from Doctors, patient's family members, or the patient's themselves. I put 4 years of school and sweat and stress into nursing, now worked for 4 years... time to move on. I HATE my life and I don't even like taking care of people anymore. I hate having to fill up water pitchers, take people into the bathroom, give bed baths, change linens, call doctors because the patient wants a medication that her friend/ family member/ whoever told them they should have! I get chest pains, headaches, stomach aches, and a really ***** mood everytime I walk through the hospital entrance. What are recommendations for jobs still within healthcare that doesn't involve taking care of people or working in a hospital? Does anyone else hate nursing with a passion? Why do so many people think nursing is such a Great career?
I'm starting to feel the same way esp since I've moved to the dayshift. It's the hardest work ever! I find it hard to smile any more. I was just saying the same thing the other day, that I feel like a **** waitress filling ice pictures and pushing drugs all day. It's getting ridiculous!!

I hated all of my med-surg clinicals with a passion and felt so out of my skin with horrible anxiety, but I kept telling myself that I had already come so far and there has to be something in nursing that would be a good fit for me. I just graduated and still don't know....

There are so many roads to take in nursing. I've done my time in medsurg but it's getting about time to move on to something else. Burnout is here only after 3 years of medsurg, I'll be ****** if I'm going to stay miserable.

I think nursing is for you I just don't think working as one in a hospital is.My friend is an RN and she worked in a hospital for 6 years and hated every minute of it. She also was about to quit and go get a real estate license. Luckily fate intervened and she got a position at an outpatient eye surgery center and fell back in love with her career choice in an instant. She told me she loves it because the patients are in and out, you rarely have to deal with family members other then the one picking them up, all the patients pretty much have cataract or glaucoma surgery so you have a set routine in what you have to do rather then the hospital where you had patients with all different meds, diseases and doctors to deal with which made it more stressful. She has been there for 3 years now and like I said she loves it.I don't know what the jobs are like in your area but maybe that's a route you can try for and see if you'll be happier!

Er, check on what a waitress makes before making that comparison. Everything comes down to dollars these days and hospitals don't care who they run into the ground to save a buck.It's made me beleive in unions and legislative action. We may not have the money to fight big business, but together we have the nummbers to change the system.

So sorry to hear this, I have only been in nursing about 2 years and I completely see where you're coming from. I hated it in the hospital and I felt like I had made a BIG mistake becoming a nurse. I have found a better niche for me though, and that is Home Health Care. I'm still not jumping for joy over my nursing career, but it does pay the bills, and Home Health is much less stressful, if you get with the right agency. Good luck to you!

I am willing to bet you are on a M/S unit. Me too. I feel that way many days. More than not. Maybe not to the same degree, but the feeling is there.I am willing to bet, like myself, you will be happier getting into a different niche than where you are at now (even if I am wrong and you are not working M/S). I believe it won't be too long before there is more freedom to change jobs and new grads will be back to getting hired right out of school. Give it a couple years though. When this happens, jump ship and choose your next position based on what it offers outside the hourly wage. Go for something new and challenging.......challenging in the way you picture nursing. OR, ICU and a few other niches offer completely different challenges than M/S nursing. Its different when most of your people don't talk at all.Or consider something R/T nursing but not in the hospital. Perhaps working for an insurance company. There are many avenues nursing has to offer, we only need to be assertive enough to walk them. With having four years under your belt, you'd be surprised who wants you for your clinical experience.

Bailing on nursing after Med/Surg is like leaving Baskin Robbins because their vanilla isn't tasty: There are so many other ways to change lives! But burn-out is a toxic experience, yes for you, but most for the patients who KNOW you're burnt out. Not many professions have as close proximity to life catalysts as nursing does. try some other flavors, I say.

Agree with everyone above...I absolutely HATED Med Surg, I cannot express how much I hated it! But, I loved Acute Rehab/Ortho. (Just not real big into sick people...go figure). Now, I work as an Employee Health nurse/Educator for a large retirement campus. Don't have to deal with staff, patient or family issues. I just get to teach other people how to deal with them! Good luck...it sounds like you just need to find your niche.

Unfortunately, I understand 100% what you're going through. I went into nursing because I have always had compassion for people when they are in their weakest state. Since graduating three years ago, I have lost a lot of compassion and respect for human beings. I have developed horrible anxiety and I am depressed. I cringe every time I go into work. I have been diagnosed with GAD and IBS. I feel depressed when I think about my job. The only thing that gets me through each day is knowing that I will be graduating in April with my BSN and I will then be leaving bedside nursing. I never have an issues with doctors, but the demands of the hospital, patients and family members have left me wanting to run out of this profession for good. I consider my self highly-educated, knowledgeable and competent, so why is it that I should continue in a profession where I am disrespected and treated poorly by demanded patients and family members? I have been called every name in the book by patients (and I'm not talking about confused or mental health patients). I have to literally walk over family members when going into a room cause they can't seem to move so that I can check the IV pump. Bedside nursing is not for me, and it never will be. I have faith that I will be happier in a non-direct care nursing job. I hope that you will find your happy place in nursing too. Hang in there.