I have a class+ work so I'll be working 4 days next week, then similar the week of Christmas. I dread starting on the unit. I hate that I picked nursing. I hate the low pay. I want to quit so bad but I know that isn't the right thing to do. I can't make it a year. I shouldn't have become a nurse. Probably my biggest life regret.
If you could do ANYTHING, what would you do? Crazy unrealistic ideas perfectly welcome.
Search and rescue helicopter pilot.
Why be the pilot when you can be the flight nurse?
Cause I wanna fly the helicopter
Opting for the less cool job imo but to each their own
I like my job. But being a nurse of any variety has never been a dream job for me.
Find something else now, but keep working and saving money. I have hated nursing since the day I started clinicals in school, but I don't know what else to do to make ends meet, so I am kind of stuck. Hoping by the grace of god that the right medic job opens up so I can leave full time nursing for good eventually!
Medic job? Are you trying to do CCT or flight? Or are you trying to go back to paramedicine?
I legit just want to go back to being a medic on a 911 truck, it was the best job in the world!
Do CCT
Nope, I hate transfers and CCT is just a glorified transfer most of the time, at least in my mind.
Have you even ever tried it?
I hear that. I was an emt and I did cct and bls for awhile. I would love to be back in the rig but getting a medic license isnt worth it to me but id do cct for sure
Sounds like you already have a medic license. Why not go back to it then? Is it pay?
I obviously don’t know your situation, but I’m not sure if I would call nursing pay low. It’s typically not stellar, but generally pretty solid.
I would like to know what OP is getting paid hourly and what they consider low pay. I’m sure it’s twice as much as I am getting paid at my part-time job at Walgreens while I’m in school. To me, the hourly rate that nurses earn in my area would be a gift! I hope OP can get some help, it sounds like they are really struggling mentally.
$33/hr. The COL in my state is close to NYC. The job I worked through school (and work now still) pays me $26/hr.
I agree that is low for a COL similar to NYC metro area. When I worked in NYC as a paramedic I was making $25/hr and just scraping by. The good news is that with differentials, OT, and maybe even a PRN side gig you will be ok, and your base rate is only going to increase from here as you gain experience and do a bit of job-hopping. I am in the Miami metro area and that’s about the same hourly rate that new grads are getting here and the COL is through the roof.
Got more details there friend? I work in Minnesota and I’m getting $60/hr.
Minnesota is the exception
Not so much in the South or Midwest. My first job in east TN with my BSN was $18 an hour ($21 with night diff) in 2014.
Wages are better now, new grads in my system in Texas are earning $80k/yr with night and weekend diffs.
2 years ago I had 8.5 years of bedside experience and was making $40 an hour in FL in a specialty…. It hasn’t gotten that much better everywhere.
If your pay is so bad that youre thinking work isnt worth it, you should hate the administrators and whatever red-state legislators are running the show where you are, rather than The profession.
I'm in a blue state.
Im surprised. Im canadian and the narrative ive heard is that nursing pays a better than average wage, that is well above what is considered a living wage, in most blue states. But i guess there is also the perspective that the mega amount of bullshit is not commensurate to the pay.
Uhhhh I feel bad for your patients. They’re doomed before you even start. Do not pick nursing. Go into something else for the love of God.
Launch into something else. Or, see a therapist: Nursing isn’t the only thing out there.
This is such a dramatic comment.
Dramatic yet so true. It didn’t occur to you until one week before you start on the unit that you “hate” nursing? You haven’t even done any nursing yet.
Your post is a bit dramatic. You haven’t even started, you don’t know for sure you’ll hate it. If you truly feel you shouldn’t be a nurse it will reflect in the care you provide. The comment is not dramatic.
You work in one of the most coveted units. Of course you feel like this. Lmao. Many nurses hate their job. If you think they don't provide good care, you're delusional.
Pump the brakes there. Before we get into specialties, most of us put in our time in "the trenches". You hustle your butt on the floor, get good, and take your experience and confidence in any direction you want. Don't be a jerk.
Maybe old nurses, but not new grads. No one wants to work in the trenches for pennies. If you do, have fun. I'm not fucking up my back with 1:6-1:7 ratios just to prove myself to the mean girls.
The payscale of the differing units at my hospital is not that different, and experience is a good thing to take to a specialty. Yourw welcome to find a specialty to go into right away to skip the med/surg. But you sound like a mean girl yourself, and a bitter person, so I'm not sure you'll be happy anywhere. Best of luck finding whatever it is you want.
I'm already in a specialty-ICU. I'm also not a woman.
There are other specialties to explore before abandoning the profession, if you choose to. And you can still be a mean girl if you act like one.
If you feel like this bad attitude isn't your norm, then it's time to move on. Most of us have been there. I have enjoyed all of my jobs, but some got to a point of burnout (like covid ED, toxic bosses, etc). When I feel like going to work is making me a miserable person it's time to move on. It is happening faster with younger nurses, yes because the economy is garbage and newer nurses are a few dollars behind us "old" ones (I'm a millennial). So if you can't stick it out, bail. You don't need our blessing if it just doesn't fit your needs.
If you think my comment is dramatic you should read the original post.
If nursing sucks soooo bad, then why spend a day doing it? You could be dead a year from now, and you’d spend such a big part of your life doing something you hate?
Your patients will be resented and it will show. Period.
So then, don’t.
Then do accounting. Or computer programming. Or pharmacy. Something else. You know this, right? Doing something you hate for the rest of your life is unreasonable. It’s hard, sometimes- yes. But these people who don’t want to be in the hospital will be “dealing” with someone that will resent them and it’s not their fault.
Nobody is forcing you. Have the courage to do something you love. And if everything sucks as options, then at least do something that doesn’t involve caring for people. Nursing isn’t the end all, be all career. It doesn’t validate you or make your life count. But it doesn’t “need you” if there is nothing to you that redeems it.
Again, most nurses hate their job and aren't giving suboptimal care. People have lives outside of nursing. They don't have to like the work they do. I have a shit ton of debt and am too old to go back to school yet again.
Most nurses don’t hate their job, but hospital/ organization culture definitely influences that. Another hospital in my area has a horrible reputation for how nurses feel about their job. Not at my hospital.
I went to nursing school with someone who was 52. It is never too late to do something different. It might renew your life to actually look forward to it.
Move to a different location, do a different type of nursing (hospice, school nurse, etc). I understand the frustrations of nursing. I’ve done this over 17 years.
I would never stay where I hated it. But being in the hospital does have its challenges. I ended up in a little outpatient clinic and it’s the best job I will ever have.
lol bruh do you think your original post isn’t just a bit dramatic?
lol your post is such a dramatic post
It might be the right thing to do. Really depends on your life circumstances.
Are you brand new?
Yes
Honestly, if you're dreading it that much and already say you hate nursing.. you should probably find a new career path It probably wont get better.
What exactly are you feeling like do you genuinely hate nursing or is it like a natural feeling of questioning your decisions when you’re new?
Why'd you go into nursing in the first place if (based on your replies) are full of people who hate nursing and the pay isn't good?
Like, did you weigh the return on the investment of your time and money before choosing another career?
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I know it feels daunting, scary, stressful, overwhelming right now, and that’s ok. You’re starting an incredibly difficult career, most feel as you do.
The first year is really hard! But it starts getting better after that, and even though this sub is vent/complaint heavy, the vast majority of us are having at least reasonable careers in nursing.
Hang in there!
Same 😭🤮
So quit. The field doesn’t need you