dont give up
I know exactly what you mean about wanting to give up and go work in a nursing home. Before I became a nurse I was a bartender.....my first few months as a new nurse I swore I was going back to bartending!!!! It gets easier, trust me. If your workload is to heavy maybe you should talk to your supervisor about your patient load as well as the acuity of the patients. Also I found it beneficial for new grads to work the night shift to get a feel of the paperwork and to develop a routine. Night shift isnt as caotic as days or even evenings. Once you gain a little experience under your belt and develop a routine that works for you things will get much easier. Nursing is a tough job and it requires alot of dedication and patience. Hang in there.

Tami

Nursing
Yes, nursing is a tough field. It is different from what we learned in school. However, you have an RN/BSN (I have the same) and you are slogging through the first year of med/surg nursing, and doing all the right things. Yes, it is too much paperwork. No, there is never enough time to complete it all. Yes, the mundane tasks take away from patient care. It is all true, and I have not found a perfect answer. I firmly believe it is best to start in med/surg floor work and get the basic understanding down. I did almost two years on the floor, and learned telemetry and chemo as well. I was extraordinarily busy every day. But, I stuck to it. Then, when I looked elsewhere for a job, nobody (NOBODY) turned me down. I got every offer I went after. Then, I took a supervisory position at a long-term care facility. The nurses that I manage have been at their jobs for years. The really good nurses spent some time in their history at a major hospital in a city. The others came directly to long-term, or worked in doctor's office. They are not the great nurses. You need to get the time in being very busy and using those critical thinking skills they taught you in that BSN program. Don't give up now. It will pay off. Remember this, "A pearl of greatness is not there for the taking". Sometimes, we just have to hunker down, pay our dues, and learn the material. Yes, many nurses are negative about their job. But, you don't have to be. I try to go in everyday with a fresh attitude and take what comes my way. Because that is what you get in this job! Good luck...sc

reply
I understand your feelings exactly. In 1988, I graduated with my BSN and head full of ideas and hope. They were crushed within 6 months and I felt I hated nursing. I stuck with it though and 18 years later am still at it. It's still hard, frustrating, and filled with problems but ther is a way I make it work for me. Over the years I've learned to organize my shift, using my own half page form that keeps me on track and ticking off tasks as I go. When I get interrupted (always) I always know where I was. If a new task is added, I insert it in my page where I'm going to do it.

In terms of patient care, there is never enough time to spend with the patients. Your assignment is always too heavy. There is never enough staff. This is all unreasonable but I don't see it being fixed. Healthcare is a business and if there's no money, they can't add resources to the business (even if they wanted to). I don't say this as a complaint so much as a reality that I have to deal with. So I've tried to make at least one personal connection each shift, identifying which patient seems most in need of psychological, emotional, or or social support or who needs extra teaching and make an effort to spend time with that patient, even if means staying 15 to 30 minutes overtime. That way, a patient gets extra attention and I get the personal gratification of what nursing is supposed to be.

Also, sometimes you'll hear nurses talking and it is indeed negativity that is nonproductive. Other times, if you listen closely, you'll hear they are just venting their stress, which is healthy, necessary. The difference is, the venting nurse returns to the caring nurse when with the patient and when making decisions, putting patients first.

I hope this was helpful to you. I have many struggles over the years. One last way I've hung in there is switching between working on the floor and doing management positions. Too long in any one seems to burn me out.

So hang in there. The fact that you are having these struggles show that you have the caring and compassion that it takes to be a good nurse. You won't "become that kind of nurse". I felt I was back then, too. But I never did. You can change that by accepting the realities of nursing and tailoring it to your own needs as best you can. There are so many different jobs and fields in nursing. Get your first year or two of med surg under your belt and then branch out wherever you want. Good luck!

PS - Here are some of the other jobs I've done just to get you thinking:
Staff Development Coordinator and Orientation Manager
Psychiatric Intake Assessment Nurse
Director of Admissions and Referrals
Home Health Nurse
Various Supervisor positions. (And I still only have a BSN)

already burnt out!!
I know exactly how you feel!!!! I have been a nurse for two years now and I still am very discouraged. I work on a med-surg floor and still feel overwhelemed. I beginning to wonder if nursing is for me if I still feel this way after two years. I'm so grateful I'm not the only one who feels this way. I read some of the responses to your problem and I think I'll take some of the advice as well if you don't mind. Email me if you want to vent some more and let me know what works for you and what doesn't. I grateful for any input as well.

Here's another thought I had. When I started out in nursing, I found the ADN nurses to have better clinical training and to pick up "real nursing" quicker than BSNs. In my BSN program anyway, I could write you a mean research paper but when I graduated I wasn't very skilled at even putting in a foley catheter.

Still not feeling comfortable after 2 years doesn't sound unreasonable. I don't know that after 18 years I've ever felt 100% comfortable. Nursing changes and there's always new information, techniques and equipment to learn about. And when you pick one field, you forget other areas. For example, when I focussed on psychiatry for years, went I went back to a med-surg unit, I was terrified and felt like a new grad all over again. It was 6 months of pure hell. But while there I discovered I wanted to follow the patients who had a more extended stay and checked on them, so I transferred down to the SNF unit and fit right in.

That's the good thing about nursing. If you don't like what you're doing, look at what parts of your job you do enjoy and seek out something better. And hang in there. No doubt you've encountered grateful patients. And the world needs good nurses!!!!!!

PS
PS - To help prevent burnout, always.......Take your breaks (even if you're behind); if you are sick, call in sick (unless you'll get fired for too many sick days...lol), and take your vacations. And if you work overtime, put in on your time card. No other job would expect you to work for free.

Burn Out!
I can relate; nursing is a very stressful profession. I graduated in August of 2005 with my BSN and currently work at a Rehabilitation Hospital, the pace is that of a combination between a med/surg and skilled nursing unit. Looking back to my first couple of days on the floor by myself I am glad I decided to go with a more slower paced area of nursing. I was very anxious and self-doubting for about 10 months and there are still times when I say "why did I miss that" or "did I meticulously complete my work".

The thing is it sounds that you are a meticoulous/thourough nurse and eventually you will mesth or you will have to choose a different area of nursing. An area that may not be so fast past. My long-term goal is to become an OR Nurse; so I can focus on one patient at a time and learn directly from surgeons about disease/surgery.

With your BSN it opens many opportunities for you such as research, education, or leadership. Please, don't give up on nursing and trust me I have to tell myself the same affirmation. My other suggestion is to identify someone, either from school or work, to mentor you. I recommend someone who is ethical, positive, and who reflects what you consider a "good nurse".

Nurses are appreciated!

burned out
I can totally relate to your message here.
Before you jump ship investigate the nursing home and the job you will be doing. I worked at a nursing home and lasted 6 weeks. The patients were great but I was the med nurse and treatment nurse on a 3-11 shift.
The patients would get confused and take off their name bands and I was new and didnt know anyone, I spent half the shift asking the aides who everyone was just to give medications. Then when I finally gave my last med I had to turn around and start over with treatments. It was orgainized chaos. I certainly dont mind working hard but being unsafe I will not tolerate. This country is certainly in a healthcare crisis and nursing is suffering for it. The shortage has not helped out our profession as a whole. Dont get discouraged you are not alone. We need to stick together and write our legislature about the working conditions around the country that they as unmedical people are unaware of. Lets face it patient safety is our number one priority and working under these conditions is not helping them. It is way to complex of a problem to solve alone. It is bigger than just our working conditions. I feel the govt needs to step in and do something before all the experienced nurses are jumping ship for another profession. I was at that point until I started traveling. The working conditions are tough out there but I feel better knowing I have some control over where and when I work and leave the politics of it all behind. I loved nursing too but it is starting to wear me down too. Ive been in this for 16 years and it only has gotten worse. I dont mean to sound doom and gloom but I feel there is an answer out there if we stick together.