Advice for a flustered pre-nursing student

Hi all,

I have been stalking the boards on here for quite some time and finally decided to make an account, so here I am! I apologize in advance for how long this post is going to be, but I couldn't think of a better group of people to seek advice from regarding my current dilemma.

I recently graduated with a B.S. from a 4-year university and then went on to get my CNA license after encouragement from friends and family to find out if I'd really like the field, as I was unsure at the time. I got really excited about the thought of being a nurse, and after finishing my CNA, started working on a busy ortho/neuro floor. This is my first job as a tech and really my first job with hands-on patient care.

Here's the problem: I don't think I like it.

I guess my question is, has anyone ever gone through this and felt like nursing wasn't for them after that experience? I don't want to base my decision on just a month of working as a tech, but I'm so nervous and flustered now. I was planning on applying to schools this upcoming cycle (so most have a fall deadline) which means I feel like I have just have a few months to decide if this is what I want to do. But... I feel like I'm terrible at what I do and have this nagging freak-out feeling like "what if I don't like it?" I walked into work today and heard a nurse saying "I hate nursing" and statements like that affect me way more than they should because I am terrified of that being me.

Can anyone who has been hesitant about going to nursing school share their thoughts? Or anyone who has worked in this unit before or been a tech before shed any light on the situation? Is nursing very similar to being a tech? Are you glad you chose this field? I feel like I'm surrounded by people who have been wanting to be nurses since they were kids, and that has just never been me. I don't know if that says something about me or if that just means I haven't found my niche in the nursing world yet.

I feel so sad and so flustered because I have no back-up plan to nursing. Some days I honestly get to work feeling like this is what I'm meant to do, and on others, I dread going and once I get there, I feel like I'm making one mistake after another and can't wait to leave.

Please help
My second year of nursing I really was feeling hesitant. Soon after I was so stressed and wasn't sure if I liked it, I had a placement in telemetry and I wasn't feeling it. I really had to reflect about what it was that I did not like. For me on that telemetry floor I didn't enjoy the team dynamic, and I didn't feel challenged. Throughout my nursing experience I've had two placements overall that I did not enjoy at all.. but you know I've had others I loved. I had another friend that had a similar experience too..and neither of us had that "calling" that they were "born to be a nurse". So my suggestion would be to reflect about what you didn't like. There are so many options in nursing, so if you don't like one area that is completely okay. I hope that helps and I wish you the best!
What you are feeling is pretty common.It sounds like you have built up nursing in your mind into something terrifying. Try to relax and focus on what you like about your job. Being a tech is nothing like being a nurse. When I was a tech, I thought nursing was my job plus medications. I couldn't have been more wrong. Just look through the boards here. Each nursing specialty is basically a different career field. Figure out what you like and it will help you decide where to go as a nurse in the future. If you like a lot of action and making high priority decisions, you may do well in acute care. If you like spending a lot of time with a few people and really getting to know them, home health or private duty may be the way to go. If you don't like patients, you can aim for a career in informatics.These are just a few examples. Don't base your future off of one very narrow, tiny part of nursing. The field as a whole is pretty awesome, with thousands of opportunities.Honestly, it sounds like you like your work, you are just not confident in your ability to do a good job. That will improve with time as you become more familiar with your duties. Also, it may just be the floor you are on. I loved being a CNA for tele, oncology, and post-surgical, but I didn't like it for Med/Surg or LTC.
What are the likes and dislikes you are finding so far in the health care field. It might help you be objective if nursing is going to be for you.Depending on what you don't like might give you reflection if what you don't like will have anything to do with nursing or is it that your dislikes are about the tech job and what you like are things about nursing.If you are truly concerned about if nursing is for you don't jump into nursing school till you are definetly confident that nursing is for you. If you need more time to decide then is it possible to wait till spring to start nursing school.
I'm just wondering about when you made your decision to pursue nursing. Was What was your BS major? Have you tried to find work in that field? Nursing is an idealized profession; "angels of mercy" , "saviors of tiny babies", "knights in shining armor"... etc. Those archetypes are far from the nitty-gritty reality of very hard physical labor and extremely rare instances of gratitude or even acknowledgement from our patients. You were wise to dip your toe into the water by becoming a CNA. I was a second career nurse also (first degree journalism). I did the same thing by becoming an LVN first. I loved it from the first day of my very first clinical experience. Very hard to describe, but it felt like "home" to me. I had no second thoughts about investing more time, energy & resources over the years. I have never wanted to do any other type of work.My advice? If you really hate it, for goodness sake, go in another direction. Don't make yourself miserable - life's way too short.
Hi everyone,Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. It's really helpful to hear other people's perspectives on this. As for how I decided on nursing, I honestly just kind of just fell into it. I was a Public Health major who was originally pushed into first the engineering and then the pre-med direction by my parents, but I knew I wanted to do neither of those things. I was actually always discouraged from nursing because culturally, my background doesn't paint nurses in a favorable light. I started thinking about it when many of my fellow nursing friends told me I should look into it and would make a great nurse. It kind of just fits with my personality (I don't know if that sounds silly but I'm not sure how else to describe it?) and I've always loved the health field and can't see myself doing anything else (which is probably why I have no backup and am freaking out a tad). I feel like this is where I can make the most good in the most meaningful way. I've already met some patients who have left an impact on me and though deffffinitely not everyone is thankful (as one poster had already mentioned), I do feel good about what I do. I don't think I hate it, but I guess I just feel uneasy for some reason. Yes, sometimes it's annoying to get crap from the patients you've working all day to help, but that's not really what bothers me. I really look up to nurses and the things that they do, but I guess what scares me is how low the morale is where I work. Everyone walks in already excited to leave, and I just don't feel like that's how it should be. I have 9-12 patients per shift and sometimes I feel like my whole day is taking vitals and changing beds. Sometimes I don't feel like anything I'm doing is actually helping anyone. From what I've seen, a large part of the days of the nurses I work with are spent giving medications for pain, doing the occasional assessment, and charting. Like a previous poster said, it really does feel like nurses do my job plus medications, so I'm glad to hear that that's wrong. I don't really look forward to going to work everyday and this is my first example of what nursing really is, so that's rough. Maybe it's not a good one? I'm not sure if I'm just not cut out for ortho/neuro, if it's where I work, the people I work with, or what I'm doing. It's so different from a place I previously shadowed at where the nurses loved their work, but shadowing is very different from actually being neck-deep in it, so I'm not sure which to weigh more. Sorry if it sounds silly that I can't pinpoint exactly what it is, I'm just a tad flustered because I really thought this is what I wanted to do. Perhaps it's a case of overthinking and I just need to give it more time, but a part of me is just excited and can't wait to get going and start applying, so it's a catch 22. I'd love to be more confident in my decision, but I'm not sure how to do that.