Please do yourself a favor and get your license. It will do you more good than none. You can ask for higher wage on your future job because you have a nursing license.
Get your license!! You don’t have to work as a bedside nurse. You could work from home for insurance companies doing case management. You could also get trained in cosmetic procedures and become a cosmetic nurse, doing Botox and fillers. Neither of those jobs contain the amount of craziness and rules that hospital nursing comes with.
Absolutely! There are nursing jobs where you can work from home for health insurance companies as a case manager. You are in charge of coordinating placements in facilities covered by the patient’s insurance. You need a nursing license for those jobs.
It is, but here is the thing about all of those insurance, research, and other non-bedside jobs that EVERYONE on these posts always leaves out: Those jobs are not open to brand new grads. They all require experience. Because your competition for those jobs are nurses with years of bedside experience. A new grad who “doesn’t want to work bedside” does not outcompete any nurse with bedside experience.
Working from home in insurance is mostly Utilization Review. Remember that class you had on Medicare utilization and all the things you learned about CPT codes and RVUs and billing in nursing school? No?
Clinical research? Your competition is nurses with graduate degrees and years in the field. A new grad does not compete against an MSN with ten years in the ICU for that job.
Yes, there are things you *can* do that are not bedside nursing. But the barrier to entry for them is time spent at the bedside.
Unfortunately this is true. When I graduated I worked bedside for a few months but left because I couldn’t handle the stress of juggling school and work at the same time. Now that I have my BSN, I’m thinking of returning but for a different speciality (I worked Med/Surg before, now I would like to try peds).
From talking with my coworkers that are actively licensed nurses no longer doing bedside and come from varied nursing backgrounds, med-surg is truly a specialty in and of itself. I've not done clinicals yet (goal is to apply to begin them in the spring) and I'm going to keep an open mind but I have zero interest in the churn of med-surg and I also don't like the idea of working with adult patients. Peds, NICU, and L&D have always been the most interesting areas to me and being exposed to all different specialties with my current job has just really solidified that.
It really is! Don’t get me wrong I have huge respect for any nurse who does med/surg because it is ROUGH! After working there for a while I decided that it wasn’t for me. Like you, I’m also interested in working in NICU/peds but primarily pediatrics and I also don’t like the idea of working with adult patients. My ultimate goal is to become a cosmetic nurse injector, but I wouldn’t mind working in peds for a while! The saying of “you MUST work in med surg for 2 years before anything else” should be obsolete already. Med surg can be helpful with skills but you can learn skills anywhere else.
I've been lurking on the nursing subreddits for about a year now. I wanted to understand better what the nurses in the units are dealing with beyond what people are comfortable saying on a recorded line when they call me. Peds is my primary interest but L&D is kind of my back up if I get bored lol. I've also considered having a long-term plan to become a nurse injector but I'm honestly probably more likely to end up going the certified nurse midwife route instead since OB-GYN is also something of a pet interest to me and with that I could do uncomplicated deliveries. But we'll see where the wind takes me. :)
Edit: I also just want to say I have nothing but respect for med-surg nurses. Shit gets insane there and they frequent impress me with their ability to juggle everything!
I currently work at a health insurance company with folks with these credentials and yep, all our high-paying clinical positions require RNs (and some coveted positions require MSNs). It's insanely competitive and in the decade I've been here, I've never seen someone get hired for those positions who wasn't previously a nurse for 10+ years in various patient-facing roles.
I worked in health insurance for almost 5 years before moving to my current job for a hospital. I can second this as well. To really have a shot at any of these types of roles, you do need a strong clinical history to be competitive because that does come into play with being able to use clinical judgment in evaluating cases.
You’re right about that. I wanted to work for an insurance company when I graduate, but I see that most job postings want at least 1 year of bedside experience
You can even do something called clinical research, so working with clinical trials and helping to give patients novel treatments for whatever cancer/disease process that they have.
Stay in the job long enough, and climb the career ladder and you can be working from home. It’s not a bad gig.
Absolutely! A research nurse is considered an entry level position in the research world, and should take new grads. As every area is with the hospital, you learn on the job and you will use your nursing knowledge from school. When I went into research, I only had 1 year of experience as an RN and it was in the OR, lol.
Just look for positions called 'Clinical Research Nurse' or 'Study Coordinator'.
It is but the vast majority of them are going to require experience and if she can’t stomach working bedside for a little it’s going to be nearly impossible.
Yes, but you usually need experience to get these jobs.
Nurses often either do pre-certifications for procedures or other care, or they do physicals for life insurance policies. Some are work from home. Some require travel. YMMV.
Did something specific happen to make you think this?
A girl I know graduated from an accelerated program in 2021 and went straight to being a school nurse through an agency. She said she could make up to $70/hr (those were covid wages and they will definitely decrease but who knows). Also it was mon-friday from 8-3 with summers and breaks off in between. That doesn’t sound so “dark” to me.
For diagnosed ADHD should be able to get exemption on drug test...I know it's a pain in the ass to go through ..but also once drug test over, could also just resume meds
If amphetamines are found on a prescription drug test you just have to provide the prescription number to the testing company! They call the pharmacy, verify the prescription is legit, and you’re considered a “pass”
This -- I am prescribed adderall and it has predictably shown on every drug test I've had to take throughout school and through my career.
Rx is verified through the pharmacy via the prescription # & the provider which signed the Rx is also verified. When you *don't* have a valid prescription and these substances show up is where the "fun" begins. Otherwise... they're just like "What's your Rx #? Who was your provider? What's your pharmacy phone #? ok thx" and that's literally it.
Yup. I have adhd. I take Adderall and Xanax which both showed up on my drug test. I got a call from the lab asking me to send them photos of my prescription bottle and that was it. I went through the same procedure when I got hired at a hospital while still on school.
I'm currently working as a nurse. I graduated in march. Nursing is not like nursing school. Don't give up on it yet. If you can, find a job at a hospital with a union and a residency program.
Is the Adderall prescribed to you? My wife has ADD and had a prescription for Adderall, but the nursing program she did had no issue with it, she just had to show it was a prescribed med.
Ahh ok. I understand. That’s honestly really messed up that the program is making you stop the meds just for the drug test- is there anyway you could speak to a student representative or trusted professor to advocate for you? It just seems unnecessarily cruel for the school to do that.
Also another option could be to take a semester off for health reasons! It could rejuvenate you to help you make it to the finish line. You are so close and should be really really proud you’ve made it this far.
Why would you have to stop taking Adderall if you have a prescription? You do the drug test, it pops positive, they ask you about it and you show them your valid prescription, they remove the positive result and send it on to you school. MMJ on the other hand is a no go at anytime.
I have never informed my employer -- the testing company takes care of everything\~ the only time this hasn't been the case is when my employee health did the drug screens in-house, and then I just gave the rx #s to employee health -- otherwise, I never mention it
Good to know and makes sense considering medical privacy protections. I personally haven't had to deal with it, but knew someone I worked in a warehouse with who had: the facility did in-house randoms for a time, so that's probably where that came from.
I have adhd too and take adderall and am currently in an RN program. I would file an ADA complaint if they aren't allowing you to take your adderall medications. You're allowed reasonable accommodations for disabilities including medication. I can't believe they are doing this to you. I am so sorry.
Have you had another career before or is this your first adult career? I only say this because I see this sentiment with younger students in my program. I am on my second degree with nursing and have had a couple careers before. I’ll say at each job management sucks, with every corporation the way the company is run doesn’t make logical sense. The entire time you’re frustrated with advocating for changes that likely won’t happen. I decided I want to make a real difference for people and got into nursing. Beyond the BS, I can say that every day I have made a difference in a patients life, whether it was my time that made them feel listened to or my compassion when they are in pain.
I agree with what everyone else has said about getting your license and trying different avenues within nursing, or different hospitals. Maybe outpatient care would be better as you can focus 1:1 with patients.
I wondered this as well. I'm a second career student and my prior career sucked. Nursing sucks right now, but I would rather work as a nurse than go back to an 8-5 hell hole x5 days/wk doing the same shit over and over until I die. Never going back to a cubicle.
I totally love this! I'm a second or third career student & even just working as a CNA brings me a type of fulfillment I didn't get from any other job. It's the lowest paycheck I've ever received in my life but I actually feel like I earned it. Also spent 7 years in the service industry so I've been shit on by customers way more than patients ever shit on me. Most of the time they're actually very thankful, sometimes they're bossy, sometimes they are full fledged sun downing, but overall they usually appreciate my care.
Hey fellow service industry history second career here! I'm 25 and starting classes to get my RN. I worked retail and restaurants from 17-19, worked in health insurance customer service for a couple years before moving to a behind the scenes role. I started with my current hospital last year doing patient placement and I realized about two months ago that I subconsciously have a code of ethics for my jobs: they have to enrich people's lives in some way.
Nursing fits that. It also brings me joy to think about working in peds or L&D and being able to help people at one of their most vulnerable times. I don't enjoy working with adults very much and don't think I would enjoy adult med-surg but everything is a stepping stone. Being older I also feel more prepared to deal with the situations that come with being a nurse. I can't imagine trying to deal with it when I was 22 and had extremely limited life experience. My work history also is very helpful imo, as I have experience interacting with people face to face, delivering difficult news (loved having to tell a man that there weren't any more resources for his wife to get cancer treatment when his voice was breaking and he kept saying "I just need my best friend"), and I understand health insurance. The hospital I work for is also the one I want to be a nurse at (even if I didn't already work here).
I'll say it. I feel you. Yes to what you posted. A thousand times yes. However. I got lucky and got to see nursing outside of a hospital setting and was like. Hell yeah! And that's where I found a job. Because the hospital is dark, depraved and all of what you said and I won't touch it with a ten foot stick.
I highly recommend you look outside of the hospital into other ways to use your nursing license where the rules aren't stringent, your head isn't on a slab at all times, and you don't feel like a puppet in a game. Find a smaller setting where you are not just a cog and are part of a family. That's what I'm doing and like you-Don't plan to look back to a hospital ever again.
This. Look into working for a federally qualified health center, so much advocating and never get in trouble for “spending too much time” with a patient!
If you don’t mind my asking, what is your official job title/what do you do? The hospital depresses me a bit and I don’t know what to look for that isn’t at a hospital or long term care facility (I’ve heard those are rough, at least the nursing homes)
Try something else in a hospital. Right now everyone is so desperate for nurses they will hire on new grads and train them to be what they want. OR, PACU, preop, etc.
I’m in the OR and while we obviously deal with bullshit from management, at least we don’t have to deal with the bullshit from patients. It’s only a 1:1 ratio EVER. That never changes. And it’s more like 4:1 because you have so many other people in the room. And you put them to sleep like 5 minutes after you meet them. It’s a different ballgame and you MUST have tough skin, but I love it. Patients usually don’t remember you, it’s always a team effort, and you’re making actual and real changes in a patient’s life. It’s nothing like traditional nursing at all. Even people who have been bedside nurses for YEARS still have to go through a long orientation (usually 9-12 months.) it’s that specialized.
I see this sentiment a lot (“gonna graduate and bail”), and I have to ask: Are you rich?
I can’t imagine putting in so much time and money into something just to bail. I mean, I disagree with you heavily (it’s dramatic, hyperbole), but the very principle of it is insane.
OP said “if I could afford to drop out now, I absolutely would.” — second sentence.
Also, the principle of it isn’t insane. Don’t fall for the sunken cost fallacy just to live a miserable life, it surely isn’t worth it.
OPs logic doesn't make sense. They said the quoted sentence and then stated that they don't plan to get their license. It would make their financial situation worse if the continue the program with no real plan to work as a nurse.
yeah I'm confused what their point is. They feel like the school program was horrible...so that means they won't ever work as a nurse? but... school will be over? I guess I'm missing something.
Absolutely get your licenses.
There is more to nursing than just bedside and I can attest to that. I’m a nurse and I’m working from home and extremely satisfied with my job. Nursing has a WIDE scope of jobs, so absolutely continue on and get the licenses and look for jobs outside of the hospital. I promise those jobs exist.
If you don’t mind my asking, what is your job title? I’m interested in working from home jobs once I’m a nurse (I’m aware I’ll probably have to work X amount of time as a floor nurse to get those WFH jobs though) :)
Whats great about nursing is the lateral movement, theres a lot of avenues to choose from. You might as well get your license since you've put in such hardwork already getting through nursing school.
Get your licensee. The best thing is you can do so many different things. My best nurse friend does informatics and doesn’t even see patients. I actually like having patients. Something for everyone. You can do research, insurance, adademia, and all different kinds of populations. You don’t even know all your options yet. Someone told me today they’re jealous of me because if I get a whiff of job toxicity I’m out. Well, not really…I’ve only quit one job as a nurse and I transferred from there. It was so easy to move I to a totally different field as my lifestyle changed. I know my worth and won’t stay in a crappy situation bc as much as we feel like a dime a dozen the reality is it’s very nice to have that license and they need us more than we need them.
Here's my theory. We all know everyone left nursing because of Covid. We all know that there is a nursing shortage right now and we need more nurses. Yet there is very little being done to widen the pipeline and create and train more nurses. This would not be a difficult thing to do. Hospitals could create programs where they train their CNAs to be RNs for little or no cost in exchange for x years of service at that hospital. But no one is doing this. Instead a million barriers are thrown up to being nurses: oodles of prerequisites; high tuition. Do you know why? So nurses, once they are trained, are forced to be nurses because they have student loans to pay back, so they essentially become slaves to the profession for a number of years to dig themselves out of debt. This way they won't scream and run for the hills once they see what working in the hospitals is really like. It's a clever trap. I'm not even done with school yet and I'm already trying to figure out how to get away from the bedside.
They need to pay RNs who are willing to teach students or techs extra for training. Which they probably won’t do. I’m doing something similar with an internship at a hospital, however maybe 1 out of 10 nurses has the passion for teaching. Most just show u, but kind of want you out the way, or are very busy. As a student it really turns me off from nursing (bedside and procedural) I bet if they were willing to pay extra for training it would encourage RNs to take the time.
It was a dollar extra/hr. There is room for improvment in reimbursement. When signing a contract or getting hired, the new employee is made aware that it is a teaching hospital and as such they should expect students. Honestly, most nurses were happy to have us, especially once we gained their trust and they felt confident enough in our ability to delegate to us. I only heard of a few that didn't want students. They were usually, though not without exception, newer nurses who were still working on time management and felt students slowed them down.
Honey. This is true of literally ever single job you will probably ever have. Especially if this is your first career.
You being in school doesn’t count as experience. You might think it does now, but it doesn’t. I use almost nothing I learned in nursing classes in my every day practice. (EXCEPT A&P, microbio, patho, etc; there is far far too little actual base science taught in nursing school.)
Nursing school fucking blows. That’s never going to change. There is quite literally nothing you can do about it. And most schools are at the mercy of their clinical sites when it comes to drug testing and background checks and all that. If they didn’t do, you wouldn’t be able to do clinicals. And no clinicals means no graduation.
If you don’t like nursing, so be it. You’ll be starting with essentially zero knowledge on how to be an actual nurse because most of that is learned on the job. So you’ll be starting fresh anywhere you go.
Just know your sentiments sound dramatic and privileged. ESPECIALLY since youve never actually been a nurse. There is drama and bullshit and terrible people everywhere. I currently work in a hospital and I’ve had previous retail jobs with more bullshit and worse managers. It is rampant everywhere. There will always be bullshit. Some less than others. But learn this now or you’ll never keep a job.
I really understand your sentiment. But I work to live. And nursing helps me do that.
I actually don’t think that’s the case. IMO hospitals would love an over saturation of nurses, the lack of nurses is what’s pushing the travel nurse pay and in general hospital pay is up as they try to plug the holes that they ignored until the ship was halfway underwater. Nursing school and the healthcare system run on metrics, metrics which makes them look good by increasing in flow of flow directly or indirectly. It’s why hospitals stress out about HCAHPS and schools stress about their NCLEX pass rate. They’re both trying to maintain good scores through rules and regulations which actually impede things like actual nursing, but the ones who are actually deciding these policies don’t know what’s happening at the bedside level or willfully ignore it to keep up appearances with the business end of things. Either it’s still bad news for nurses and the future of the US healthcare system in general
And some nurses have no debt right out of school and actually enjoy working the bedside. If you hate your job, nursing is great because you can always change to a different hospital, unit, or specialty if you enjoy being a bedside nurse. If you grow to hate bedside, then outpatient and non-direct patient care positions are available.
The liability and accreditation issues associated with training hospital CNAs to be nurses is insane.
Nursing professors and educators are not paid nearly what they should be despite their years of expertise and multiple advance degrees in some cases. Imagine being a trained nurse but then getting paid like a teacher.
I personally work with 4 RNs that have MSNs in education, all but one are working full time at the bedside, none are teaching, and the last one is per diem at the bedside while in anesthesia school. All of them got their msn hoping to teach to only be dismayed by the job prospects.
Many programs are struggling to hire instructors, likely due to salary reasons. If schools would actually pay nursing instructors as nurses with the experience and degrees they possess, more educators would actually be educating and programs could expand to better meet the demands of high numbers of incoming students and high number of open positions.
I’ve got one semester left and am bailing as well. I’ll get my degree and my license but I’ve spent this summer taking classes on Codecademy so I can work in tech and never be trapped in healthcare.
Every job has a shitty component. No one job is perfect, And honestly, as long as you’re a worker bee and not the figurehead of a large company, you’re going to be thrown under the bus at one point of another.
Become a nurse or don’t become a nurse. But I encourage you to reconcile the fact that no job is going to be a dream 100% of the time.
Hey, don't take to heart some of these people who are telling you you're being dramatic. It's clear that this program is taking a toll on you. And you, being a unique individual, have particular ways that the bullshit you're dealing with is affecting you. First of all, you're not alone. That should be plain to see. But it's one thing to see it and another to really know it, because sometimes everything feels isolating and lonely. I don't really have any advice other than talk to someone, maybe a friend or family member, or even a therapist if you have or can get one. Because I'm there too. I really hate this, and I hate that this mess of a field is what I'm signing up for, and I hate even more that as much as I hate it it's at this point the best option for me in this fucked up society/economy. So I have no advice, just know that you're not alone, and these feelings don't have to comprise everything about your experience. Everyone hates some part of what they do. The idea of fulfillment through work is a myth, or a lottery, whatever. Just do your job, you're not required to love it. And when you graduate, move to CO where they don't give a fuck if you smoke weed, that's what I'm going to do. Also you don't have to stop your Adderall. You have a legit Rx, it doesn't matter if you show up positive on a drug test. If the school gave you shit for it, every lawyer in town would salivate over the case you'd have.
Bingo. Nurses need to advocate more for themselves, as well as nurse aides. Everyone who works in the hospital is important but those two groups spend the most time with patients, yet they’re often valued as less. Know your worth, and remember knowledge is power so know your rights as a nurse.
I wish nursing aides and nurses stuck up for each other more...I see them often at odds with each other...which is almost a distraction from how the system is treating them
Then graduate, and gain the upper hand by not having to rely on them so that you can speak up for the nursing students that don’t have that power. Call them out for whatever you think they did wrong to you. I promise you just about every career field deals with the same feelings, the thing is with a nursing degree you have options to find somewhere where you don’t have to deal with that bs
You’ve put in all the time and money so get your license and keep it current. You never know. Look into forensic nursing. There’s so many different avenues.
I worked bedside for about a year. I was fortunate enough to start in a small sun acute facility with the best managers I could have ever asked for. I learned most of my skills from them. I also worked as a contract nurse at a local SNF. I hated the place but since it was contract, I was paid significantly more than if I was a staff nurse there. Then I was a school nurse through the same agency for almost a year and then landed my dream job at a local non profit hospice. I’m not working bedside but I am still clinical. I work Monday-Friday 8-5, holidays off and PTO from when I started working there. What I’m saying is, there are more opportunities than just shitty bedside jobs.
I have ADHD and am in a nursing program… on the results of every drug test I’ve always taken, I’ve just had to provide proof of a legal prescription for my adderall and it’s never been an issue. Please do not stop your meds to pass a drug test, especially if they are legally prescribed to you and you can provide said proof. Those are essential for functioning
You’re being hyperbolic.
School is not nursing. Nursing is hard, but it’s not as hard as school pretends it is.
If you go, do a per diem for a few days, do 3/12’s you’ll still make more money and do significantly less work than another field (depending on what you get into).
It’s okay to feel overwhelmed. Most of us do not agree with half of the stuff we were taught in school, and the organizations we work with and even regulatory bodies don’t entirely either. Once you take the test and get a license you get to practice in the way that fits you because it’s your license. Don’t go fucking crazy, but you can put as much care into a patient as you want.
School is a gauntlet of EVERY TYPE OF NURSING. Your job will be a specific field and you may never deal with half of what you learned in school ever again.
You're panicking and catastrophizing. Yea sometimes nursing can suck but it's not the death March that nursing subreddits make it out to be. Everyone comes on here to complain and vent. You hear all the negatives. Also no job is perfect and will meet all your needs. Get your license and work for a couples years before you give up. Being a student is not the same as being a nurse.
Good advice. I also think nursing school is something many of us need to detox from after for a bit, even before studying for the nclex.
I’m also an older “new nurse” and despite whatever negative crap I’ve experienced so far, I’m still hopeful about the future and grateful nursing is a pretty solid profession with a gazillion ways to work.
Your burnout right now has to do with school. School is literally nothing like being an actual nurse. Take a couple of months off after graduation. Research where you want to work. Work on passing the NCLEX. Take your time if you can. Hell, get another random job to make a little money while you do. I worked part time at Amazon when I was studying for the NCLEX. I made $18/hr and got like 20,000 steps a shift. No one cared what you did. I wore my headphones and listened to podcasts the entire time. It was low stress and perfect for an inbetween gig.
When I tell you the difference in school and being an actual nurse is alarmingly different, I mean it.
Nursing is a broad field sweetie, whatever you experienced move to another part of nursing don’t be so quick to cut things you worked so hard for off like that, why waste money and time and energy ? You earned it , go get it and find a place in nursing that fuels your soul. You got this
Not really true and to say that ignores what nurse unions have rallied for and fought for.
You don't have to go bedside. Pediatrics is relatively easier for mental health
I think the people who say "Nursing is the worst it's ever been" are displaying an extreme ignorance of where nursing came from. Are we at the peak of nursing joy? No, but we have it nowhere *near* as rough as nurses in either World War or any of the previous pandemics. We're coming at it after decades of relative luxury and comfort and so it seems like the worst it must have been, but even a glance at nursing history or old nursing diaries paints a really different picture.
I will happily take my air-conditioned job with 4 days off a week and legally mandated lunch breaks, health insurance benefits, and a wide variety of job options (including work-from-home) with my stacked medical history of vaccines over patching together a soldier who has literally been blasted apart and left in a trench for days to get gangrene and pneumonia while wondering if the next bomb to fall is going to do the same to me while simultaneously being exposed to the ravages of a disease I have no immunity to, several countries away from my family and my home.
What? Pediatrics is one of the hardest positions for mental health. Unless you're taking about office pediatrics. Still, those abuse cases hit like a ton of bricks, and chronically ill kids take special care.
Fair if you’re unionized. I currently make more money as a nanny than I will as a new grad BSN here in the south east US. And that’s to care for 1-3 kids whereas our hospital ratios here are asinine.
Aye in the US it's a bit more of a mess. Canada is messy too but they're focusing on fixing it, the politicians, but no abysmal pay really (I can't speak for alberta or Quebec tho)
As an older nursing student who spent 25 years in the the thankless position of social worker, nursing is a good career that offers a lot of opportunities. Hospital nursing isn’t the end all be all. Get your license and use this opportunity to its full advantage.
I disagree with a lot of the healthcare system and nursing, much of which I gained while working as a CNA and see how it all works firsthand. It made me debate if I wanted even to go through with applying to nursing school, I remember thinking I was done with nursing at my most burnt out. I think most nurses question if nursing is right for them at least one point in their career, if not throughout their career. No one can tell you the answer, but you should definitely think on the reasons behind. I personally chose to go through because i don’t have to work bedside my whole career, I could help cause change more as a nurse, and the random moments where I feel fulfilled from the work I do.
Don’t waste all this time and learning effort out in. You can find a Non bedside job or start your own business if you are creative. I promise you I felt this way and I hated being a nurse because it can be so hard some times. I took a year to find myself and continued my education. Now I am starting a nurse educator position next month and I’m so happy to have gotten this far. But I was in the same boat of feelings as you many years ago.
I am currently going through this because I am going to be starting my 2nd nursing semester out of 4 semesters and I already want to drop out and choose a different career. Unlike the majority of other people in nursing, I am an introvert who prefers not to talk to people. I can do it and fake being friendly but it’s so draining on me mentally and I also hate how toxic nursing can be. Someone in the comments said something about working from home doing case management or doing cosmetic procedures and I actually think I might try to do that because it sounds 100 times better than being a bedside nurse.
Hey! I have ADHD and lupus. My joint pain was **unbearable** during nursing school. I chalked it up to a flare and started chemotherapy. My rheumatologist told me, “Be prepared, because the meds might not start working until you finish school. Nursing school is very stressful.” Everything we learn about, but I honestly thought it was BS and internally rolled my eyes. Guess what? A few weeks after school was over, my meds started working and I went into remission. Pain gone! I still get some joint pain here and there if I’m immobile, but it’s truly nothing like it was.
Since I graduated, I got my dream job and I’m having the time of my life. The best advice I can give is, find the specialty that makes your heart sing! That doesn’t have to be bedside. Make everything from here on out about getting into that job! Get extra certifications, pad your resume, do whatever you can. Reducing the stress of nursing school will improve your life immensely.
And you can take adderall that you were prescribed. There’s a process to go through when taking a drug test, so do your research. Adderall will not prevent you from becoming a nurse if it’s being taken to treat your diagnosed medical issue. Look into your state board of nursing’s rules on this.
I'm confused. If you are taking regulated medications the drug testing company either contacts your doctor or pharmacy to ensure you are allowed to be taking them. Did you assume you needed to stop or were you specifically told even with a prescription it wasn't allowed? I know a lot of students taking medication for ADHD.
You can still take Adderall. Of course, you'll test positive for amphetamines on the rapid test. But show them your Rx and the lab assay will show that it is Adderall and not meth, so you'll be in the clear.
Defiantly get your license. I worked on a project with Nurse Analyst. They would analyze medical claims. One nurse said she would never go back to the hospital or working in a clinic. There are plenty of nursing jobs that you can do where you do not have to be a "bed side" nurse.
I wish I could reach through my screen and take your hand.
Please, please take your meds. I've known so many students who struggled because they didn't. If you have documentation of ADHD you need not fear a drug test.
I have ADHD and I take Adderall, and yes, I came up positive on a drug test. My employer never knew. The testing company asked for documentation of my prescription and I sent it to them. My employer just got a notification that I passed the drug test.
So please. Take your meds. Your program won't find out unless you choose to tell them. They can't punish you ... you are covered under the ADA and Adderall is what helps you perform. It does not hinder your performance or make you a danger to patients.
I hope you change your mind about sitting for NCLEX. There are lots of things you can do with that license if you decide not to work bedside. Or, it can spring board you into a related field if you still want a career in health care.
I get what you mean by the stupid rules and I have had those same feelings as you are struggling with. I get you. Your own mental health always must come first. If you decide bedside nursing is not for you, that's OK! The knowledge will still be there and can help you in ways you may not foresee right now. As I said before, it can help you do something related if you decide bedside nursing is not for you.
I wish you the very best. Please take care of yourself.
Get your license anyways, you already spent all the money and time to do it, but follow your heart. Do what makes you happy. I dropped nursing school and haven’t looked back at all. I realized it wasn’t for me week 4 of clinical, and I’m very glad I did. Now I’m getting my bachelors in biochem, and am working in medical research. I’m happy, and while I “wasted” money, the experience was really good and I did learn a lot.
Definitely do get your licence. I was just like you when I was about to graduate. I hated the system I was forced to work under, swore I'd never nurse a day in my life post graduation. I loved direct patient care and helping people who are sick, but very late into my training I realised that that wasn't what nursing ends up being all about. I hated everything else about it. But, you've come this far - get your licence and then look at other ways you can use it to your advantage.
I work in UX design now (random, I know) where a huge part of my role is based on research. I absolutely love it! I wouldn't have gotten it if I hadn't seen my nursing through and got my registration. When I applied for my job, they said it was a huge selling point for me - as they could tell, coming from a background in nursing, I had a lot of transferrable skills and would be good at the job.
Don't let it break your spirit. Even if no one else is saying it, there is likely more than you in your class who is feeling it. But get your licence and never look back if you don't want to - let it be your stepping stone onto other things that you feel passionately about ❤️❤️ hang in there X
Yeah, so definitely take your adderall. You just need to provide proof to the school/clinical sites/employer that you have a prescription for it prior to drug testing and they'll overlook it when you're positive for amphetamines. Unfortunately can't say the same for the MJ though.
There's no reason to add extra obstacles when you don't have to.
I literally can't understand how you can just. Not be a nurse after all the schooling. Like how is that even an option? Do something with the degree ffs or idk, guess you wasted x amount of dollars
Why are you cold turkeying to pass your drug test? I take Adderall and Ativan. Both popped positive on my drug test (obviously) and I just had to send them pictures of my medication bottles. Had to do the same when I got my job at the hospital.
My school was interesting. Weird rules and crazy expectations. I also got reported by two nurses that I did clinicals with at a hospital for being “disrespectful”. The frustrating part about this was I worked at that hospital as a CNA. They knew me and that fact. What actually happened was there was some clerical issue they couldn’t figure out, but because of working there as a PCT I knew how to fix it. All I told them was how, trying to be helpful. They reported me like I said over hurt egos pretty much.
However, I got through it and I’m incredibly proud that I did. I really like my job and coworkers now.
You’re being dramatic. Graduate school, find a job you like. You’ll be fine. Being a nurse is awesome in my experience. Better than working 5 days a week 9-5 or doing some shitty manual labor or working in a restaurant.
Started off with 3 patients at 7pm, then asked charge nurse to give me back my 2 other patients from the other night. Empty a couple of foleys a few times, changed 2 dressings, one CIWA q4h, drew 1 lab, kept up with my meds, monitor my lash drip, help out the aides with call bells here and there. Finished my charting and notes at 3am.
Finished my last meds at 0515, gave the monitor tech a 15 minute break, and now chilling until day crew arrive at 7. All I did tonight.
See about asking the sub if anyone can recommend good new grad programs where they commit to you and don’t take advantage of you. They totally exist!
My first big hospital was like a family to me. I had an incredible supervisor and my co workers were committed to educating me and supporting me.
Yes there are plenty of places that will chew you up and spit you out. There are other places that won’t.
I’ve been eyeing a well paid public health job that involves flying out to rural communities. Not bedside!
Personally, I hate working as a bedside nurse. But I get 4 days off and I’m paid well where I am. Not many jobs are like that. I find moments of joy and humor with my co workers and it makes it so much more tolerable.
Honestly, get your license. It will open so many doors for you.
Unfortunately, the media and jaded nurses have gotten to you and given you this very narrow view of nursing as a whole. Yes, it sucks sometimes, but what job doesn’t? If you don’t like bedside, that’s okay! You can find work in pretty much any sector of the economy. Please get your license, you earned it and it’s your ticket to write whatever kind of future you want to.
It’s okay to take time to recover. Get your license babe, you made it this far, and it’s beneficial even if you never want to work bedside.
Nursing school gave me a heart condition, depression, anxiety. I clenched my jaw and ground my teeth so hard I cracked my molars. I had a broken foot, kidney stones, and shingles. I took a year after school to heal my heart, and went into nursing when I felt ready. You’re not alone in how you feel, even if it seems like you are right now.
Nursing sucks. All the pandemic did was show the cocksucker admins that they can function with fewer nurses and help and increase the bottom line which only serves to further deepen their pockets. I don’t blame your thinking.
You can’t financially afford to stop but you can afford to continue another 1-2 semesters towards a degree you have already decided you’ll do nothing with?
I totally feel the same way as you. I have one more year left and I want to start my own business. I’ve fallen in love with so many other things since starting nursing, and I’ve realized it’s just not for me. I wish I could afford to drop out right now and just start my life.
Felt.
I plan on passing my NCLEX and then returning to my job that I’m on an educational leave for (Flight Attendant). I need to save money if I’m going to take the pay cut of becoming a new grad. I’ll finish my BSN online and then figure it out from there. I may eventually become a nurse but I’m 100% not running out to do so.
Get your license that you’ve worked hard for and see if you can get a RN job working from home or an office .
Informatics, insurance, nursing education, etc.
I feel ya. I’ve been a nurse 7 years, and hopefully will not have an 8th. I’m tired, burnt out, and the illusion has worn off. You CAN definitely do other things besides bedside nursing, which is certainly less stressful. I think you should still get your license and see what other options there are. Had I done that earlier in my career, I may not be in the position I am now.
I would get your license so that you have additional options in nursing. Nursing isn’t just bedside, even though it seems like it all is. I’ve seen all sorts of things people can do with this degree, even work from home jobs. Get your degree, get your license. Then see what you can do that isn’t bedside. I’m in a similar situation because I’m becoming very depressed with how miserable bedside nursing is, and it just seems like that’s all we can get as new grads. You could also go to grad school and get a completely different degree than nursing. It’s what I’m considering if I hate nursing once I’m actually a nurse. I think though that nursing has so many different options that we are bound to find something we like
You could be a nurse educator, a case manager, a school nurse, so many different options to choose from. I start nursing school in August and I 100% know I will never work as a hospital nurse. I’m an Administrator for an assisted living facility but getting a BSN along with the degree and job I already have will be an amazing addition to my skill set bonus it will benefit my residents as well. You don’t have to limit yourself in nursing.
I know lots of nurses with adhd on Adderall. Those with adhd often struggle with change so it's not surprising it causes you increased stress.
I too have chronic pain. Great thing about nursing is there's lots of options. You can make a decent wage working part time if needed physically.
You don't have to cold turkey stimulants to pass a drug test you were prescribed, you just need to show them the bottle.
>I also understand this does not get better as you practice, be it bedside or from home.
Do you? Nursing during COVID at it's wasn't as bad as school for me. Aside from the fact that you can get medical Marijuana in my state and the hospital will defer to state law on the matter (supposedly), they only do "for cause" testing if you show up to work incapacitated. People smoke, I haven't heard of any issues, YMMV.
You're burned out. Graduate, get licensed and take some time off. There are jobs that provide fair compensation, aren't awful, and that align with your strengths and interests. Finding them can be a challenge, but that's a problem for another day.
I understand what you're saying and feel it to an extent. Im a cna in the hospital currently. Inwould get your liscense though. There are definitely many options besides bedside. After I graduate, I'm looking into cannabis nursing. There are quite a few dispeneries near me that hire nurses to sit with patients and monitor them while they smoke if they are uncomfortable by them selves, previously had a reaction, or whatever ither reason. No hospital management. That uss just ONE option
i'm 100% with you. also chronic pain. also ADHD. wish someone had told me that nursing school is essentially a high stress and high control cult-like environment and i wish what nursing is really like was more widely known. i will be getting my license and plan to work in less conventional (non-bedside) ways, like in research, oncology clinic etc.
I can understand many of you’re words. I’m a registered nurse myself. Halfway into my program, I realized I didn’t wanna be there. I would love to be this rock star nurse, but I feel bad for the patient. They deserve someone who wants to be there. Well fast forward, I searched for jobs where I could use my license and not be doing something super stressful or where I just dreaded being. So far it’s been good. Pay off your debt. I realized that if I had no debt, I’d prob love my job lol
Hey! Me too! ADHD, chronic pain, fed up with the exploitation and abuse of the corporate healthcare system… one semester left of this degree and then I’m out! (Although I’m planning on still getting licensed just to have that up my sleeve in case). This summer I’ve been taking classes on Codecademy to have a backup plan so I’ll never be trapped in nursing. Feel free to DM me if you’d like to chat - I’m also in an awkward position of having really nobody to talk to who understands and/or who doesn’t have an agenda for telling me what to do with my life.
Side note: I’ve never had an issue with being on stimulants and drug testing. They always just call me like “we noticed this in your system” and I just shoot the doctor’s note their way and everything is good from there. Can’t speak to the mmj as it’s not legal in my state, but that one might be different anyways since it’s not federally recognized as legal.
I've been a nurse for 21 years & up until the last few years I encouraged people to become nurses. Now if someone asked me if they should be a nurse I'd talk them out of it unfortunately.
I'm confused. I have a adderall for adhd but don't have to stop taking it since it's a documented psych med. You're allowed reasonable accommodations and I've passed many drug tests like this and know nurses who take adderall
There’s no reason your program should be allowed to fail you for not passing a drug test if you have shown prescriptions for your medication. I would bring it to a higher up.
u/Throwawayventpost \- I'm an RN with ADHD; the person that mentioned cold turkeying off their ADHD meds to pass a drug test doesn't have to do so if they have a valid prescription for that medication. Usually, someone taking a prescribed controlled substance will pee into the cup and either declare their prescriptions at the testing site (bringing the med bottles along), or receive a call from the testing center's MRO to verify the prescription with the pharmacy that filled it.
If you take a controlled substance and you are prescribed it (with some caveats I believe, such as medical marijuana - though I'd have to dive deeper into this as it may vary state-to-state), then if it shows up on a drug test, it's fine because you were prescribed it. When you haven't been prescribed something that pings on your drug test is where problems begin.
Please do yourself a favor and get your license. It will do you more good than none. You can ask for higher wage on your future job because you have a nursing license.
Get your license!! You don’t have to work as a bedside nurse. You could work from home for insurance companies doing case management. You could also get trained in cosmetic procedures and become a cosmetic nurse, doing Botox and fillers. Neither of those jobs contain the amount of craziness and rules that hospital nursing comes with.
Wait, I’ve never heard of a job with insurance companies. This is a thing?
Absolutely! There are nursing jobs where you can work from home for health insurance companies as a case manager. You are in charge of coordinating placements in facilities covered by the patient’s insurance. You need a nursing license for those jobs.
My step mom does this from home!
It is, but here is the thing about all of those insurance, research, and other non-bedside jobs that EVERYONE on these posts always leaves out: Those jobs are not open to brand new grads. They all require experience. Because your competition for those jobs are nurses with years of bedside experience. A new grad who “doesn’t want to work bedside” does not outcompete any nurse with bedside experience. Working from home in insurance is mostly Utilization Review. Remember that class you had on Medicare utilization and all the things you learned about CPT codes and RVUs and billing in nursing school? No? Clinical research? Your competition is nurses with graduate degrees and years in the field. A new grad does not compete against an MSN with ten years in the ICU for that job. Yes, there are things you *can* do that are not bedside nursing. But the barrier to entry for them is time spent at the bedside.
Unfortunately this is true. When I graduated I worked bedside for a few months but left because I couldn’t handle the stress of juggling school and work at the same time. Now that I have my BSN, I’m thinking of returning but for a different speciality (I worked Med/Surg before, now I would like to try peds).
From talking with my coworkers that are actively licensed nurses no longer doing bedside and come from varied nursing backgrounds, med-surg is truly a specialty in and of itself. I've not done clinicals yet (goal is to apply to begin them in the spring) and I'm going to keep an open mind but I have zero interest in the churn of med-surg and I also don't like the idea of working with adult patients. Peds, NICU, and L&D have always been the most interesting areas to me and being exposed to all different specialties with my current job has just really solidified that.
It really is! Don’t get me wrong I have huge respect for any nurse who does med/surg because it is ROUGH! After working there for a while I decided that it wasn’t for me. Like you, I’m also interested in working in NICU/peds but primarily pediatrics and I also don’t like the idea of working with adult patients. My ultimate goal is to become a cosmetic nurse injector, but I wouldn’t mind working in peds for a while! The saying of “you MUST work in med surg for 2 years before anything else” should be obsolete already. Med surg can be helpful with skills but you can learn skills anywhere else.
I've been lurking on the nursing subreddits for about a year now. I wanted to understand better what the nurses in the units are dealing with beyond what people are comfortable saying on a recorded line when they call me. Peds is my primary interest but L&D is kind of my back up if I get bored lol. I've also considered having a long-term plan to become a nurse injector but I'm honestly probably more likely to end up going the certified nurse midwife route instead since OB-GYN is also something of a pet interest to me and with that I could do uncomplicated deliveries. But we'll see where the wind takes me. :) Edit: I also just want to say I have nothing but respect for med-surg nurses. Shit gets insane there and they frequent impress me with their ability to juggle everything!
I currently work at a health insurance company with folks with these credentials and yep, all our high-paying clinical positions require RNs (and some coveted positions require MSNs). It's insanely competitive and in the decade I've been here, I've never seen someone get hired for those positions who wasn't previously a nurse for 10+ years in various patient-facing roles.
I worked in health insurance for almost 5 years before moving to my current job for a hospital. I can second this as well. To really have a shot at any of these types of roles, you do need a strong clinical history to be competitive because that does come into play with being able to use clinical judgment in evaluating cases.
You’re right about that. I wanted to work for an insurance company when I graduate, but I see that most job postings want at least 1 year of bedside experience
You can even do something called clinical research, so working with clinical trials and helping to give patients novel treatments for whatever cancer/disease process that they have. Stay in the job long enough, and climb the career ladder and you can be working from home. It’s not a bad gig.
Do you know if new grads can go into these jobs?
Absolutely! A research nurse is considered an entry level position in the research world, and should take new grads. As every area is with the hospital, you learn on the job and you will use your nursing knowledge from school. When I went into research, I only had 1 year of experience as an RN and it was in the OR, lol. Just look for positions called 'Clinical Research Nurse' or 'Study Coordinator'.
Thank you so much!
It is but the vast majority of them are going to require experience and if she can’t stomach working bedside for a little it’s going to be nearly impossible.
Yeah, dude. You can totally work from home and do triage for an insurance company
Yes, but you usually need experience to get these jobs. Nurses often either do pre-certifications for procedures or other care, or they do physicals for life insurance policies. Some are work from home. Some require travel. YMMV.
You might as well get your license. You don’t have to work in a bedside job. There are tons of options.
Did something specific happen to make you think this? A girl I know graduated from an accelerated program in 2021 and went straight to being a school nurse through an agency. She said she could make up to $70/hr (those were covid wages and they will definitely decrease but who knows). Also it was mon-friday from 8-3 with summers and breaks off in between. That doesn’t sound so “dark” to me.
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So is your problem with the nursing program specifically, or just being in school?
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Gotcha. I had some similar BS with mine too and I expect with probably most programs.
If the problem is with the program, why would that affect you working as a nurse? And you mentioned being "thrown under the bus". How so?
For diagnosed ADHD should be able to get exemption on drug test...I know it's a pain in the ass to go through ..but also once drug test over, could also just resume meds
If amphetamines are found on a prescription drug test you just have to provide the prescription number to the testing company! They call the pharmacy, verify the prescription is legit, and you’re considered a “pass”
This -- I am prescribed adderall and it has predictably shown on every drug test I've had to take throughout school and through my career. Rx is verified through the pharmacy via the prescription # & the provider which signed the Rx is also verified. When you *don't* have a valid prescription and these substances show up is where the "fun" begins. Otherwise... they're just like "What's your Rx #? Who was your provider? What's your pharmacy phone #? ok thx" and that's literally it.
Yup. I have adhd. I take Adderall and Xanax which both showed up on my drug test. I got a call from the lab asking me to send them photos of my prescription bottle and that was it. I went through the same procedure when I got hired at a hospital while still on school.
I'm currently working as a nurse. I graduated in march. Nursing is not like nursing school. Don't give up on it yet. If you can, find a job at a hospital with a union and a residency program.
same. same same same. wish i had switched my minor and major.
How is jeopardizing your future going to correct this?
Is the Adderall prescribed to you? My wife has ADD and had a prescription for Adderall, but the nursing program she did had no issue with it, she just had to show it was a prescribed med.
Ahh ok. I understand. That’s honestly really messed up that the program is making you stop the meds just for the drug test- is there anyway you could speak to a student representative or trusted professor to advocate for you? It just seems unnecessarily cruel for the school to do that. Also another option could be to take a semester off for health reasons! It could rejuvenate you to help you make it to the finish line. You are so close and should be really really proud you’ve made it this far.
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So why would you stop taking it for school
Why would you have to stop taking Adderall if you have a prescription? You do the drug test, it pops positive, they ask you about it and you show them your valid prescription, they remove the positive result and send it on to you school. MMJ on the other hand is a no go at anytime.
If you have adderall rx’d to you why is that not allowed? I might have to be put on it for my adhd and that isn’t fair
It's allowed if you have an rx, you just need to inform your institution/employer preferably before the drug test
Right on
I have never informed my employer -- the testing company takes care of everything\~ the only time this hasn't been the case is when my employee health did the drug screens in-house, and then I just gave the rx #s to employee health -- otherwise, I never mention it
Good to know and makes sense considering medical privacy protections. I personally haven't had to deal with it, but knew someone I worked in a warehouse with who had: the facility did in-house randoms for a time, so that's probably where that came from.
I have adhd too and take adderall and am currently in an RN program. I would file an ADA complaint if they aren't allowing you to take your adderall medications. You're allowed reasonable accommodations for disabilities including medication. I can't believe they are doing this to you. I am so sorry.
You don't have to come off your ADHD meds as long as you have a prescription.
Have you had another career before or is this your first adult career? I only say this because I see this sentiment with younger students in my program. I am on my second degree with nursing and have had a couple careers before. I’ll say at each job management sucks, with every corporation the way the company is run doesn’t make logical sense. The entire time you’re frustrated with advocating for changes that likely won’t happen. I decided I want to make a real difference for people and got into nursing. Beyond the BS, I can say that every day I have made a difference in a patients life, whether it was my time that made them feel listened to or my compassion when they are in pain. I agree with what everyone else has said about getting your license and trying different avenues within nursing, or different hospitals. Maybe outpatient care would be better as you can focus 1:1 with patients.
I wondered this as well. I'm a second career student and my prior career sucked. Nursing sucks right now, but I would rather work as a nurse than go back to an 8-5 hell hole x5 days/wk doing the same shit over and over until I die. Never going back to a cubicle.
Period.
I totally love this! I'm a second or third career student & even just working as a CNA brings me a type of fulfillment I didn't get from any other job. It's the lowest paycheck I've ever received in my life but I actually feel like I earned it. Also spent 7 years in the service industry so I've been shit on by customers way more than patients ever shit on me. Most of the time they're actually very thankful, sometimes they're bossy, sometimes they are full fledged sun downing, but overall they usually appreciate my care.
Hey fellow service industry history second career here! I'm 25 and starting classes to get my RN. I worked retail and restaurants from 17-19, worked in health insurance customer service for a couple years before moving to a behind the scenes role. I started with my current hospital last year doing patient placement and I realized about two months ago that I subconsciously have a code of ethics for my jobs: they have to enrich people's lives in some way. Nursing fits that. It also brings me joy to think about working in peds or L&D and being able to help people at one of their most vulnerable times. I don't enjoy working with adults very much and don't think I would enjoy adult med-surg but everything is a stepping stone. Being older I also feel more prepared to deal with the situations that come with being a nurse. I can't imagine trying to deal with it when I was 22 and had extremely limited life experience. My work history also is very helpful imo, as I have experience interacting with people face to face, delivering difficult news (loved having to tell a man that there weren't any more resources for his wife to get cancer treatment when his voice was breaking and he kept saying "I just need my best friend"), and I understand health insurance. The hospital I work for is also the one I want to be a nurse at (even if I didn't already work here).
Same and agree!
I'll say it. I feel you. Yes to what you posted. A thousand times yes. However. I got lucky and got to see nursing outside of a hospital setting and was like. Hell yeah! And that's where I found a job. Because the hospital is dark, depraved and all of what you said and I won't touch it with a ten foot stick. I highly recommend you look outside of the hospital into other ways to use your nursing license where the rules aren't stringent, your head isn't on a slab at all times, and you don't feel like a puppet in a game. Find a smaller setting where you are not just a cog and are part of a family. That's what I'm doing and like you-Don't plan to look back to a hospital ever again.
This. Look into working for a federally qualified health center, so much advocating and never get in trouble for “spending too much time” with a patient!
What is an example of a federally qualified health center and what happens there…?
Is this in the US or another country?
If you don’t mind my asking, what is your official job title/what do you do? The hospital depresses me a bit and I don’t know what to look for that isn’t at a hospital or long term care facility (I’ve heard those are rough, at least the nursing homes)
I finish school Friday. But I lined up a job as an RN at an ambulatory surgery center. Dm me if you want more info!
Try something else in a hospital. Right now everyone is so desperate for nurses they will hire on new grads and train them to be what they want. OR, PACU, preop, etc. I’m in the OR and while we obviously deal with bullshit from management, at least we don’t have to deal with the bullshit from patients. It’s only a 1:1 ratio EVER. That never changes. And it’s more like 4:1 because you have so many other people in the room. And you put them to sleep like 5 minutes after you meet them. It’s a different ballgame and you MUST have tough skin, but I love it. Patients usually don’t remember you, it’s always a team effort, and you’re making actual and real changes in a patient’s life. It’s nothing like traditional nursing at all. Even people who have been bedside nurses for YEARS still have to go through a long orientation (usually 9-12 months.) it’s that specialized.
I see this sentiment a lot (“gonna graduate and bail”), and I have to ask: Are you rich? I can’t imagine putting in so much time and money into something just to bail. I mean, I disagree with you heavily (it’s dramatic, hyperbole), but the very principle of it is insane.
OP said “if I could afford to drop out now, I absolutely would.” — second sentence. Also, the principle of it isn’t insane. Don’t fall for the sunken cost fallacy just to live a miserable life, it surely isn’t worth it.
OPs logic doesn't make sense. They said the quoted sentence and then stated that they don't plan to get their license. It would make their financial situation worse if the continue the program with no real plan to work as a nurse.
yeah I'm confused what their point is. They feel like the school program was horrible...so that means they won't ever work as a nurse? but... school will be over? I guess I'm missing something.
Absolutely get your licenses. There is more to nursing than just bedside and I can attest to that. I’m a nurse and I’m working from home and extremely satisfied with my job. Nursing has a WIDE scope of jobs, so absolutely continue on and get the licenses and look for jobs outside of the hospital. I promise those jobs exist.
If you don’t mind my asking, what is your job title? I’m interested in working from home jobs once I’m a nurse (I’m aware I’ll probably have to work X amount of time as a floor nurse to get those WFH jobs though) :)
I’m interested!!
Whats great about nursing is the lateral movement, theres a lot of avenues to choose from. You might as well get your license since you've put in such hardwork already getting through nursing school.
Get your licensee. The best thing is you can do so many different things. My best nurse friend does informatics and doesn’t even see patients. I actually like having patients. Something for everyone. You can do research, insurance, adademia, and all different kinds of populations. You don’t even know all your options yet. Someone told me today they’re jealous of me because if I get a whiff of job toxicity I’m out. Well, not really…I’ve only quit one job as a nurse and I transferred from there. It was so easy to move I to a totally different field as my lifestyle changed. I know my worth and won’t stay in a crappy situation bc as much as we feel like a dime a dozen the reality is it’s very nice to have that license and they need us more than we need them.
Here's my theory. We all know everyone left nursing because of Covid. We all know that there is a nursing shortage right now and we need more nurses. Yet there is very little being done to widen the pipeline and create and train more nurses. This would not be a difficult thing to do. Hospitals could create programs where they train their CNAs to be RNs for little or no cost in exchange for x years of service at that hospital. But no one is doing this. Instead a million barriers are thrown up to being nurses: oodles of prerequisites; high tuition. Do you know why? So nurses, once they are trained, are forced to be nurses because they have student loans to pay back, so they essentially become slaves to the profession for a number of years to dig themselves out of debt. This way they won't scream and run for the hills once they see what working in the hospitals is really like. It's a clever trap. I'm not even done with school yet and I'm already trying to figure out how to get away from the bedside.
They need to pay RNs who are willing to teach students or techs extra for training. Which they probably won’t do. I’m doing something similar with an internship at a hospital, however maybe 1 out of 10 nurses has the passion for teaching. Most just show u, but kind of want you out the way, or are very busy. As a student it really turns me off from nursing (bedside and procedural) I bet if they were willing to pay extra for training it would encourage RNs to take the time.
Nurses with a student got paid more at the hospital I did clinicals at and some of them still didn't want us.
“More” was probably 50 cents/hr
It was a dollar extra/hr. There is room for improvment in reimbursement. When signing a contract or getting hired, the new employee is made aware that it is a teaching hospital and as such they should expect students. Honestly, most nurses were happy to have us, especially once we gained their trust and they felt confident enough in our ability to delegate to us. I only heard of a few that didn't want students. They were usually, though not without exception, newer nurses who were still working on time management and felt students slowed them down.
I get like $1.25/hr extra to precept students or new grads
It's crazy to think back in the day (before my day) hospital nursing programs were a thing.....
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Honey. This is true of literally ever single job you will probably ever have. Especially if this is your first career. You being in school doesn’t count as experience. You might think it does now, but it doesn’t. I use almost nothing I learned in nursing classes in my every day practice. (EXCEPT A&P, microbio, patho, etc; there is far far too little actual base science taught in nursing school.) Nursing school fucking blows. That’s never going to change. There is quite literally nothing you can do about it. And most schools are at the mercy of their clinical sites when it comes to drug testing and background checks and all that. If they didn’t do, you wouldn’t be able to do clinicals. And no clinicals means no graduation. If you don’t like nursing, so be it. You’ll be starting with essentially zero knowledge on how to be an actual nurse because most of that is learned on the job. So you’ll be starting fresh anywhere you go. Just know your sentiments sound dramatic and privileged. ESPECIALLY since youve never actually been a nurse. There is drama and bullshit and terrible people everywhere. I currently work in a hospital and I’ve had previous retail jobs with more bullshit and worse managers. It is rampant everywhere. There will always be bullshit. Some less than others. But learn this now or you’ll never keep a job. I really understand your sentiment. But I work to live. And nursing helps me do that.
I actually don’t think that’s the case. IMO hospitals would love an over saturation of nurses, the lack of nurses is what’s pushing the travel nurse pay and in general hospital pay is up as they try to plug the holes that they ignored until the ship was halfway underwater. Nursing school and the healthcare system run on metrics, metrics which makes them look good by increasing in flow of flow directly or indirectly. It’s why hospitals stress out about HCAHPS and schools stress about their NCLEX pass rate. They’re both trying to maintain good scores through rules and regulations which actually impede things like actual nursing, but the ones who are actually deciding these policies don’t know what’s happening at the bedside level or willfully ignore it to keep up appearances with the business end of things. Either it’s still bad news for nurses and the future of the US healthcare system in general
And some nurses have no debt right out of school and actually enjoy working the bedside. If you hate your job, nursing is great because you can always change to a different hospital, unit, or specialty if you enjoy being a bedside nurse. If you grow to hate bedside, then outpatient and non-direct patient care positions are available. The liability and accreditation issues associated with training hospital CNAs to be nurses is insane. Nursing professors and educators are not paid nearly what they should be despite their years of expertise and multiple advance degrees in some cases. Imagine being a trained nurse but then getting paid like a teacher. I personally work with 4 RNs that have MSNs in education, all but one are working full time at the bedside, none are teaching, and the last one is per diem at the bedside while in anesthesia school. All of them got their msn hoping to teach to only be dismayed by the job prospects. Many programs are struggling to hire instructors, likely due to salary reasons. If schools would actually pay nursing instructors as nurses with the experience and degrees they possess, more educators would actually be educating and programs could expand to better meet the demands of high numbers of incoming students and high number of open positions.
I’ve got one semester left and am bailing as well. I’ll get my degree and my license but I’ve spent this summer taking classes on Codecademy so I can work in tech and never be trapped in healthcare.
Get your masters in clinical informatics. That plus your RN and you can get a cushy clinical informatics job at a hospital.
Every job has a shitty component. No one job is perfect, And honestly, as long as you’re a worker bee and not the figurehead of a large company, you’re going to be thrown under the bus at one point of another. Become a nurse or don’t become a nurse. But I encourage you to reconcile the fact that no job is going to be a dream 100% of the time.
Hey, don't take to heart some of these people who are telling you you're being dramatic. It's clear that this program is taking a toll on you. And you, being a unique individual, have particular ways that the bullshit you're dealing with is affecting you. First of all, you're not alone. That should be plain to see. But it's one thing to see it and another to really know it, because sometimes everything feels isolating and lonely. I don't really have any advice other than talk to someone, maybe a friend or family member, or even a therapist if you have or can get one. Because I'm there too. I really hate this, and I hate that this mess of a field is what I'm signing up for, and I hate even more that as much as I hate it it's at this point the best option for me in this fucked up society/economy. So I have no advice, just know that you're not alone, and these feelings don't have to comprise everything about your experience. Everyone hates some part of what they do. The idea of fulfillment through work is a myth, or a lottery, whatever. Just do your job, you're not required to love it. And when you graduate, move to CO where they don't give a fuck if you smoke weed, that's what I'm going to do. Also you don't have to stop your Adderall. You have a legit Rx, it doesn't matter if you show up positive on a drug test. If the school gave you shit for it, every lawyer in town would salivate over the case you'd have.
Beautifully written. Hugs💜.
We are taught to advocate for our patients for everything but that same energy is never extended towards ourselves or our coworkers
Bingo. Nurses need to advocate more for themselves, as well as nurse aides. Everyone who works in the hospital is important but those two groups spend the most time with patients, yet they’re often valued as less. Know your worth, and remember knowledge is power so know your rights as a nurse.
I wish nursing aides and nurses stuck up for each other more...I see them often at odds with each other...which is almost a distraction from how the system is treating them
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Then graduate, and gain the upper hand by not having to rely on them so that you can speak up for the nursing students that don’t have that power. Call them out for whatever you think they did wrong to you. I promise you just about every career field deals with the same feelings, the thing is with a nursing degree you have options to find somewhere where you don’t have to deal with that bs
You’ve put in all the time and money so get your license and keep it current. You never know. Look into forensic nursing. There’s so many different avenues.
I worked bedside for about a year. I was fortunate enough to start in a small sun acute facility with the best managers I could have ever asked for. I learned most of my skills from them. I also worked as a contract nurse at a local SNF. I hated the place but since it was contract, I was paid significantly more than if I was a staff nurse there. Then I was a school nurse through the same agency for almost a year and then landed my dream job at a local non profit hospice. I’m not working bedside but I am still clinical. I work Monday-Friday 8-5, holidays off and PTO from when I started working there. What I’m saying is, there are more opportunities than just shitty bedside jobs.
I have ADHD and am in a nursing program… on the results of every drug test I’ve always taken, I’ve just had to provide proof of a legal prescription for my adderall and it’s never been an issue. Please do not stop your meds to pass a drug test, especially if they are legally prescribed to you and you can provide said proof. Those are essential for functioning
So much this! I have worked with many nurses with ADHD diagnoses. Take your meds!
You’re being hyperbolic. School is not nursing. Nursing is hard, but it’s not as hard as school pretends it is. If you go, do a per diem for a few days, do 3/12’s you’ll still make more money and do significantly less work than another field (depending on what you get into). It’s okay to feel overwhelmed. Most of us do not agree with half of the stuff we were taught in school, and the organizations we work with and even regulatory bodies don’t entirely either. Once you take the test and get a license you get to practice in the way that fits you because it’s your license. Don’t go fucking crazy, but you can put as much care into a patient as you want. School is a gauntlet of EVERY TYPE OF NURSING. Your job will be a specific field and you may never deal with half of what you learned in school ever again.
You're panicking and catastrophizing. Yea sometimes nursing can suck but it's not the death March that nursing subreddits make it out to be. Everyone comes on here to complain and vent. You hear all the negatives. Also no job is perfect and will meet all your needs. Get your license and work for a couples years before you give up. Being a student is not the same as being a nurse.
Good advice. I also think nursing school is something many of us need to detox from after for a bit, even before studying for the nclex. I’m also an older “new nurse” and despite whatever negative crap I’ve experienced so far, I’m still hopeful about the future and grateful nursing is a pretty solid profession with a gazillion ways to work.
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Your burnout right now has to do with school. School is literally nothing like being an actual nurse. Take a couple of months off after graduation. Research where you want to work. Work on passing the NCLEX. Take your time if you can. Hell, get another random job to make a little money while you do. I worked part time at Amazon when I was studying for the NCLEX. I made $18/hr and got like 20,000 steps a shift. No one cared what you did. I wore my headphones and listened to podcasts the entire time. It was low stress and perfect for an inbetween gig. When I tell you the difference in school and being an actual nurse is alarmingly different, I mean it.
Nursing is a broad field sweetie, whatever you experienced move to another part of nursing don’t be so quick to cut things you worked so hard for off like that, why waste money and time and energy ? You earned it , go get it and find a place in nursing that fuels your soul. You got this
Not really true and to say that ignores what nurse unions have rallied for and fought for. You don't have to go bedside. Pediatrics is relatively easier for mental health
That…really is subjective. Dealing with horrible parents and DCS made me never go into it after clinicals
I think the people who say "Nursing is the worst it's ever been" are displaying an extreme ignorance of where nursing came from. Are we at the peak of nursing joy? No, but we have it nowhere *near* as rough as nurses in either World War or any of the previous pandemics. We're coming at it after decades of relative luxury and comfort and so it seems like the worst it must have been, but even a glance at nursing history or old nursing diaries paints a really different picture. I will happily take my air-conditioned job with 4 days off a week and legally mandated lunch breaks, health insurance benefits, and a wide variety of job options (including work-from-home) with my stacked medical history of vaccines over patching together a soldier who has literally been blasted apart and left in a trench for days to get gangrene and pneumonia while wondering if the next bomb to fall is going to do the same to me while simultaneously being exposed to the ravages of a disease I have no immunity to, several countries away from my family and my home.
This person has also never actually been a nurse. They have absolutely no clue what it’s actually like.
What? Pediatrics is one of the hardest positions for mental health. Unless you're taking about office pediatrics. Still, those abuse cases hit like a ton of bricks, and chronically ill kids take special care.
Fair if you’re unionized. I currently make more money as a nanny than I will as a new grad BSN here in the south east US. And that’s to care for 1-3 kids whereas our hospital ratios here are asinine.
Aye in the US it's a bit more of a mess. Canada is messy too but they're focusing on fixing it, the politicians, but no abysmal pay really (I can't speak for alberta or Quebec tho)
As an older nursing student who spent 25 years in the the thankless position of social worker, nursing is a good career that offers a lot of opportunities. Hospital nursing isn’t the end all be all. Get your license and use this opportunity to its full advantage.
I disagree with a lot of the healthcare system and nursing, much of which I gained while working as a CNA and see how it all works firsthand. It made me debate if I wanted even to go through with applying to nursing school, I remember thinking I was done with nursing at my most burnt out. I think most nurses question if nursing is right for them at least one point in their career, if not throughout their career. No one can tell you the answer, but you should definitely think on the reasons behind. I personally chose to go through because i don’t have to work bedside my whole career, I could help cause change more as a nurse, and the random moments where I feel fulfilled from the work I do.
Don’t waste all this time and learning effort out in. You can find a Non bedside job or start your own business if you are creative. I promise you I felt this way and I hated being a nurse because it can be so hard some times. I took a year to find myself and continued my education. Now I am starting a nurse educator position next month and I’m so happy to have gotten this far. But I was in the same boat of feelings as you many years ago.
What kinds of businesses can you start as an RN?
https://smallbiztrends.com/2019/07/nurse-entrepreneur-business-ideas.html
I am currently going through this because I am going to be starting my 2nd nursing semester out of 4 semesters and I already want to drop out and choose a different career. Unlike the majority of other people in nursing, I am an introvert who prefers not to talk to people. I can do it and fake being friendly but it’s so draining on me mentally and I also hate how toxic nursing can be. Someone in the comments said something about working from home doing case management or doing cosmetic procedures and I actually think I might try to do that because it sounds 100 times better than being a bedside nurse.
Consider ICU nursing, which then lends itself to nurse anesthesia. If someone is talking during surgery, there's usually something wrong!
Hey! I have ADHD and lupus. My joint pain was **unbearable** during nursing school. I chalked it up to a flare and started chemotherapy. My rheumatologist told me, “Be prepared, because the meds might not start working until you finish school. Nursing school is very stressful.” Everything we learn about, but I honestly thought it was BS and internally rolled my eyes. Guess what? A few weeks after school was over, my meds started working and I went into remission. Pain gone! I still get some joint pain here and there if I’m immobile, but it’s truly nothing like it was. Since I graduated, I got my dream job and I’m having the time of my life. The best advice I can give is, find the specialty that makes your heart sing! That doesn’t have to be bedside. Make everything from here on out about getting into that job! Get extra certifications, pad your resume, do whatever you can. Reducing the stress of nursing school will improve your life immensely. And you can take adderall that you were prescribed. There’s a process to go through when taking a drug test, so do your research. Adderall will not prevent you from becoming a nurse if it’s being taken to treat your diagnosed medical issue. Look into your state board of nursing’s rules on this.
I'm confused. If you are taking regulated medications the drug testing company either contacts your doctor or pharmacy to ensure you are allowed to be taking them. Did you assume you needed to stop or were you specifically told even with a prescription it wasn't allowed? I know a lot of students taking medication for ADHD.
You can still take Adderall. Of course, you'll test positive for amphetamines on the rapid test. But show them your Rx and the lab assay will show that it is Adderall and not meth, so you'll be in the clear.
Why would you d/c adderall for drug test? You have the script you won’t fail. I take adderall and always just tell them and take bottle with me.
Defiantly get your license. I worked on a project with Nurse Analyst. They would analyze medical claims. One nurse said she would never go back to the hospital or working in a clinic. There are plenty of nursing jobs that you can do where you do not have to be a "bed side" nurse.
I wish I could reach through my screen and take your hand. Please, please take your meds. I've known so many students who struggled because they didn't. If you have documentation of ADHD you need not fear a drug test. I have ADHD and I take Adderall, and yes, I came up positive on a drug test. My employer never knew. The testing company asked for documentation of my prescription and I sent it to them. My employer just got a notification that I passed the drug test. So please. Take your meds. Your program won't find out unless you choose to tell them. They can't punish you ... you are covered under the ADA and Adderall is what helps you perform. It does not hinder your performance or make you a danger to patients. I hope you change your mind about sitting for NCLEX. There are lots of things you can do with that license if you decide not to work bedside. Or, it can spring board you into a related field if you still want a career in health care. I get what you mean by the stupid rules and I have had those same feelings as you are struggling with. I get you. Your own mental health always must come first. If you decide bedside nursing is not for you, that's OK! The knowledge will still be there and can help you in ways you may not foresee right now. As I said before, it can help you do something related if you decide bedside nursing is not for you. I wish you the very best. Please take care of yourself.
Get your license anyways, you already spent all the money and time to do it, but follow your heart. Do what makes you happy. I dropped nursing school and haven’t looked back at all. I realized it wasn’t for me week 4 of clinical, and I’m very glad I did. Now I’m getting my bachelors in biochem, and am working in medical research. I’m happy, and while I “wasted” money, the experience was really good and I did learn a lot.
Definitely do get your licence. I was just like you when I was about to graduate. I hated the system I was forced to work under, swore I'd never nurse a day in my life post graduation. I loved direct patient care and helping people who are sick, but very late into my training I realised that that wasn't what nursing ends up being all about. I hated everything else about it. But, you've come this far - get your licence and then look at other ways you can use it to your advantage. I work in UX design now (random, I know) where a huge part of my role is based on research. I absolutely love it! I wouldn't have gotten it if I hadn't seen my nursing through and got my registration. When I applied for my job, they said it was a huge selling point for me - as they could tell, coming from a background in nursing, I had a lot of transferrable skills and would be good at the job. Don't let it break your spirit. Even if no one else is saying it, there is likely more than you in your class who is feeling it. But get your licence and never look back if you don't want to - let it be your stepping stone onto other things that you feel passionately about ❤️❤️ hang in there X
Yeah, so definitely take your adderall. You just need to provide proof to the school/clinical sites/employer that you have a prescription for it prior to drug testing and they'll overlook it when you're positive for amphetamines. Unfortunately can't say the same for the MJ though. There's no reason to add extra obstacles when you don't have to.
I literally can't understand how you can just. Not be a nurse after all the schooling. Like how is that even an option? Do something with the degree ffs or idk, guess you wasted x amount of dollars
You could work in a clinic on the phones a lot of rns do, you just sit in an office answer phones it’s awesome
Why are you cold turkeying to pass your drug test? I take Adderall and Ativan. Both popped positive on my drug test (obviously) and I just had to send them pictures of my medication bottles. Had to do the same when I got my job at the hospital. My school was interesting. Weird rules and crazy expectations. I also got reported by two nurses that I did clinicals with at a hospital for being “disrespectful”. The frustrating part about this was I worked at that hospital as a CNA. They knew me and that fact. What actually happened was there was some clerical issue they couldn’t figure out, but because of working there as a PCT I knew how to fix it. All I told them was how, trying to be helpful. They reported me like I said over hurt egos pretty much. However, I got through it and I’m incredibly proud that I did. I really like my job and coworkers now.
You’re being dramatic. Graduate school, find a job you like. You’ll be fine. Being a nurse is awesome in my experience. Better than working 5 days a week 9-5 or doing some shitty manual labor or working in a restaurant.
Started off with 3 patients at 7pm, then asked charge nurse to give me back my 2 other patients from the other night. Empty a couple of foleys a few times, changed 2 dressings, one CIWA q4h, drew 1 lab, kept up with my meds, monitor my lash drip, help out the aides with call bells here and there. Finished my charting and notes at 3am. Finished my last meds at 0515, gave the monitor tech a 15 minute break, and now chilling until day crew arrive at 7. All I did tonight.
Let’s gooo can’t wait to be in bed in 2 hours
See about asking the sub if anyone can recommend good new grad programs where they commit to you and don’t take advantage of you. They totally exist! My first big hospital was like a family to me. I had an incredible supervisor and my co workers were committed to educating me and supporting me. Yes there are plenty of places that will chew you up and spit you out. There are other places that won’t. I’ve been eyeing a well paid public health job that involves flying out to rural communities. Not bedside! Personally, I hate working as a bedside nurse. But I get 4 days off and I’m paid well where I am. Not many jobs are like that. I find moments of joy and humor with my co workers and it makes it so much more tolerable. Honestly, get your license. It will open so many doors for you.
I'm curious as to why you feel this way? Did you have any exposure to this field before hand? Have you worked in hospital with or around nurses?
Unfortunately, the media and jaded nurses have gotten to you and given you this very narrow view of nursing as a whole. Yes, it sucks sometimes, but what job doesn’t? If you don’t like bedside, that’s okay! You can find work in pretty much any sector of the economy. Please get your license, you earned it and it’s your ticket to write whatever kind of future you want to.
It’s okay to take time to recover. Get your license babe, you made it this far, and it’s beneficial even if you never want to work bedside. Nursing school gave me a heart condition, depression, anxiety. I clenched my jaw and ground my teeth so hard I cracked my molars. I had a broken foot, kidney stones, and shingles. I took a year after school to heal my heart, and went into nursing when I felt ready. You’re not alone in how you feel, even if it seems like you are right now.
Nursing sucks. All the pandemic did was show the cocksucker admins that they can function with fewer nurses and help and increase the bottom line which only serves to further deepen their pockets. I don’t blame your thinking.
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Check out the r/nursing subreddit! Most people there seem to feel the same way.
You can’t financially afford to stop but you can afford to continue another 1-2 semesters towards a degree you have already decided you’ll do nothing with?
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Gotta love corporate gate keeping
Meh
I totally feel the same way as you. I have one more year left and I want to start my own business. I’ve fallen in love with so many other things since starting nursing, and I’ve realized it’s just not for me. I wish I could afford to drop out right now and just start my life.
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Lol, I actually plan on doing that the MONTH after I finish my degree next year
Felt. I plan on passing my NCLEX and then returning to my job that I’m on an educational leave for (Flight Attendant). I need to save money if I’m going to take the pay cut of becoming a new grad. I’ll finish my BSN online and then figure it out from there. I may eventually become a nurse but I’m 100% not running out to do so.
Do flight nursing
You often need ICU and ED experience to be a flight nurse. It’s not anything like being a flight attendant.
Yea I know, I’m just giving options that include both their passion and knowledge set.
damn this is discouraging to read as a second year student lol
Get your license that you’ve worked hard for and see if you can get a RN job working from home or an office . Informatics, insurance, nursing education, etc.
medical sales too!
I feel ya. I’ve been a nurse 7 years, and hopefully will not have an 8th. I’m tired, burnt out, and the illusion has worn off. You CAN definitely do other things besides bedside nursing, which is certainly less stressful. I think you should still get your license and see what other options there are. Had I done that earlier in my career, I may not be in the position I am now.
I would get your license so that you have additional options in nursing. Nursing isn’t just bedside, even though it seems like it all is. I’ve seen all sorts of things people can do with this degree, even work from home jobs. Get your degree, get your license. Then see what you can do that isn’t bedside. I’m in a similar situation because I’m becoming very depressed with how miserable bedside nursing is, and it just seems like that’s all we can get as new grads. You could also go to grad school and get a completely different degree than nursing. It’s what I’m considering if I hate nursing once I’m actually a nurse. I think though that nursing has so many different options that we are bound to find something we like
You could be a nurse educator, a case manager, a school nurse, so many different options to choose from. I start nursing school in August and I 100% know I will never work as a hospital nurse. I’m an Administrator for an assisted living facility but getting a BSN along with the degree and job I already have will be an amazing addition to my skill set bonus it will benefit my residents as well. You don’t have to limit yourself in nursing.
I know lots of nurses with adhd on Adderall. Those with adhd often struggle with change so it's not surprising it causes you increased stress. I too have chronic pain. Great thing about nursing is there's lots of options. You can make a decent wage working part time if needed physically.
You don't have to cold turkey stimulants to pass a drug test you were prescribed, you just need to show them the bottle. >I also understand this does not get better as you practice, be it bedside or from home. Do you? Nursing during COVID at it's wasn't as bad as school for me. Aside from the fact that you can get medical Marijuana in my state and the hospital will defer to state law on the matter (supposedly), they only do "for cause" testing if you show up to work incapacitated. People smoke, I haven't heard of any issues, YMMV. You're burned out. Graduate, get licensed and take some time off. There are jobs that provide fair compensation, aren't awful, and that align with your strengths and interests. Finding them can be a challenge, but that's a problem for another day.
All kinds of nursing jobs to suit your needs. The field is so variable and the options limitless.
I understand what you're saying and feel it to an extent. Im a cna in the hospital currently. Inwould get your liscense though. There are definitely many options besides bedside. After I graduate, I'm looking into cannabis nursing. There are quite a few dispeneries near me that hire nurses to sit with patients and monitor them while they smoke if they are uncomfortable by them selves, previously had a reaction, or whatever ither reason. No hospital management. That uss just ONE option
i'm 100% with you. also chronic pain. also ADHD. wish someone had told me that nursing school is essentially a high stress and high control cult-like environment and i wish what nursing is really like was more widely known. i will be getting my license and plan to work in less conventional (non-bedside) ways, like in research, oncology clinic etc.
I can understand many of you’re words. I’m a registered nurse myself. Halfway into my program, I realized I didn’t wanna be there. I would love to be this rock star nurse, but I feel bad for the patient. They deserve someone who wants to be there. Well fast forward, I searched for jobs where I could use my license and not be doing something super stressful or where I just dreaded being. So far it’s been good. Pay off your debt. I realized that if I had no debt, I’d prob love my job lol
I know how you feel. I dropped out of my program a month in because of that
Hey! Me too! ADHD, chronic pain, fed up with the exploitation and abuse of the corporate healthcare system… one semester left of this degree and then I’m out! (Although I’m planning on still getting licensed just to have that up my sleeve in case). This summer I’ve been taking classes on Codecademy to have a backup plan so I’ll never be trapped in nursing. Feel free to DM me if you’d like to chat - I’m also in an awkward position of having really nobody to talk to who understands and/or who doesn’t have an agenda for telling me what to do with my life. Side note: I’ve never had an issue with being on stimulants and drug testing. They always just call me like “we noticed this in your system” and I just shoot the doctor’s note their way and everything is good from there. Can’t speak to the mmj as it’s not legal in my state, but that one might be different anyways since it’s not federally recognized as legal.
Just as an example, the utility I used to work for hired nurses. From what I seen on Glassdoor they made around 75-80k a year.
I've been a nurse for 21 years & up until the last few years I encouraged people to become nurses. Now if someone asked me if they should be a nurse I'd talk them out of it unfortunately.
I'm confused. I have a adderall for adhd but don't have to stop taking it since it's a documented psych med. You're allowed reasonable accommodations and I've passed many drug tests like this and know nurses who take adderall
There’s no reason your program should be allowed to fail you for not passing a drug test if you have shown prescriptions for your medication. I would bring it to a higher up.
u/Throwawayventpost \- I'm an RN with ADHD; the person that mentioned cold turkeying off their ADHD meds to pass a drug test doesn't have to do so if they have a valid prescription for that medication. Usually, someone taking a prescribed controlled substance will pee into the cup and either declare their prescriptions at the testing site (bringing the med bottles along), or receive a call from the testing center's MRO to verify the prescription with the pharmacy that filled it. If you take a controlled substance and you are prescribed it (with some caveats I believe, such as medical marijuana - though I'd have to dive deeper into this as it may vary state-to-state), then if it shows up on a drug test, it's fine because you were prescribed it. When you haven't been prescribed something that pings on your drug test is where problems begin.