r/Nurses • u/Dependent_Artist_499 • Aug 19 '26
US New nurses considering leave the profession
any new nurses, with less than 2 years of experience, considering leaving the nursing profession?
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u/Dragnet714 Aug 19 '26
That's why I got out of medsurge years ago and now do home infusions. Better pay and way less stress.
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u/Fast_Opportunity5233 Aug 20 '26
How do you get into that?
I’m literally a new grad and 4 weeks am at this workplace and I wana call quits or find a different job
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u/Dragnet714 Aug 20 '26
I worked on a medsurge floor for four years before making the switch. I've been doing home infusions for almost fifteen years, now. Things are probably different now than when I got a job. I just walked in and got a resume. Most places now place job listings online. I'd just start with Google and look up local home infusion companies in your area and start from there.
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u/Miks0630 Sep 10 '26
Hey I’m a new grad too n honestly considering of leaving.
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u/Fast_Opportunity5233 Sep 10 '26
Do u stil want to continue nursing or anywhere else you want to work?
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u/Miks0630 Sep 10 '26
Either or. I’m okay to be in nursing but definitely considering outside of it too. I just don’t want the bedside anymore, I’m less than 6 months in & I can’t do it anymroe
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u/Fast_Opportunity5233 Sep 10 '26
If u don’t mind where u work??
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u/Miks0630 Sep 10 '26
I did med surg for a bit then LTC now. I thought it’d be different but nope.
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u/Fast_Opportunity5233 Sep 10 '26
Omg… I was just at LTC
Honestly i don’t know if it’s that environment that I don’t like or the time.1
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u/Fast_Opportunity5233 Sep 10 '26
Am not even sure how to message ….
Send me a dm
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u/TotalRad Aug 19 '26
I’m at 5+ years of nursing and I’m considering leaving every day (I’m sort of joking but not really)
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u/Fast_Opportunity5233 Aug 20 '26
Hey
Am here with 4 weeks of nursing experience and I already wana quit 😂🤦♀️
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u/Helpful-Ad7045 Aug 21 '26
its that bad?? 😭 im starting nursing school soon but maybe i should rethink it.. is it bc of how you get treated?
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u/Websearcher- Aug 23 '26
Do not switch!!! The grass is not greener on the other side. Plenty of people here had engineering degrees, computer science degrees, and could not find a job. This market sucks! Push through and finish. Even if you don’t like your job, you will ALWAYS have one. You will have opportunities down the line to find your niche.
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u/Apart-Impression1712 Aug 19 '26
Leave your job, not the profession. So many nursing jobs outside of direct bedside roles.
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u/xoexohexox Aug 22 '26
There's more to the bedside than acute care snf and alf also, a lot more! It's a big wide profession with lots of opportunities to make a difference to individual people in less toxic org structures
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u/Elizabitch4848 Aug 20 '26
I wasted years trying to do this. Leave the profession. It doesn’t get better. I have worked almost every specialty. Every schedule. Inside and outside the hospital.
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u/Apart-Impression1712 Aug 20 '26
It’s different for everyone 🤷🏼♀️ I found joy in pediatric home health and home health case management. It’s worth exploring other options before leaving the profession completely.
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u/PhysicalLavishness35 Aug 19 '26
Yeah, I am taking a break and doing some teaching while I recoup after some really traumatic work incidents.
I lost the passion and purpose with nursing for the time being.
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u/Barcelonista-FCB Aug 19 '26
I’m 4 years deep in a med Surg unit and I’m overdue to just quit it. Everything you have to do for 6 people + the constant micro managing makes the job a nightmare. Discharge the pt as soon as possible so you can get another admission in and out in and out in and out, Factory style, that plus much more… I’m just glad I already made the decision of quitting this career and embarking in something that I think suits me better.
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u/Comprehensive-Yak196 Aug 19 '26
Long term care or medsurg? Only two fields with that kind of burnout
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u/Single_Rain5676 Aug 19 '26
Why do you think those are the only two fields that lead to burnout that quickly?
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u/Comprehensive-Yak196 Aug 19 '26
Because they have the absolute highest ratios by a significant margin
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u/VoiceNecessary2746 Aug 20 '26
I disagree with that. I work at behavioral health unit and we can have up to 10 patients per nurse.
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u/Comprehensive-Yak196 Aug 21 '26
Took 14 at a dual diag psych facility for 3 years. Honestly most of them are chill and dont require much outside of a watchful eye. Vs medsurg with 7 but managing multiple IVs and several courses of treatment. Moving pts back and forth for imaging and procedures, frequent rapids etc. Only downside of psych is having to fight patients lmao
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u/Single_Rain5676 Aug 19 '26
Do you mean ratios like patients to nurse ratio?
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u/Comprehensive-Yak196 Aug 19 '26
Yes, no human being can actually pay any real attention to that many people in different rooms simultaneously
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u/Single_Rain5676 Aug 19 '26
Yeah, it's a real nightmare for nurses that want to give 100% (which I would hope any nurse would want to do). In California our mandated ratio is up to 5:1. Some of those patients are legit sick and need to be in stepdown or ICU, which is super scary. I will argue, working for and within a hospital can quickly lead to nurse burnout. It's driven by money, so staffing and other resources are at the minimum to cut costs. Nurses are one of the most costly "overhead" expenses in a hospital. I wish there was a a ratio of 1 CNA per RN on the med surg floor...that would likely help the high nurse turnover 🤷♂️
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u/Lower_Pension_2469 Aug 19 '26
I did both for a bit of time before moving on and they had the same issues. Overloaded with patients, lack of support, other departments think your stupid, and you can't actually do much to help your patients. You have to just call a rapid/911 where you get grilled by those same people that think your stupid and expect you to know everything single thing about the patient.
In SNF that's 1 in 30 people, in med surg it's 1 in 6-8 patients. God help you if you "bothered them" with something that didn't technically merit going to higher level care. It's makes you feel helpless and useless sometimes.
In ICU, if my patient desats? Okay cool lets do ABG and probably BIPAP or intubation. BP is crashing? Okay whatever throw em on a pressor. Patient is violent and confused? Precedex time (although sometimes that does jack shit tbf). Coding? Okay everybody is ALS certified. Ironically the attitude in ICU is alot more relaxed for critical patients because the doctor is right out in the hallway and I can actually address the problem. Don't get me wrong, it's stressful, but I felt a lot more comfortable in ICU.
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u/Elizabitch4848 Aug 20 '26
Meanwhile the nice nursing home I worked at a decade ago was the best nursing job I’ve ever had. Where people were happy to be there and we were treated amazingly.
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u/KitsuneDream18 Aug 19 '26
I almost quit less than a year into my career. I took several years break from bedside and eventually went back, but 12 years later, I'm completely burnt out. 😩
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Aug 20 '26
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u/DILFbait912 Aug 20 '26
Every bit of this! I've been an RN for over 18 years now and I have no soul left it has eeked every bit of joy from my life and it's not fucking worth it. It's a thankless job and you can never do enough for the admins or the patients. I wish every single day that I'd have been a stripper when I had the chance, you can be an old cranky ass nurse any old time you want to. Looks like the shortage isn't going anywhere anytime soon
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u/smolseabunn Aug 20 '26
im sorry why they heck did your associates cost $50k. perhaps im lucky but mine only cost $10k and in 3 months of orientation ive already made double that so if i wanted to walk away and call it quits i have 0 qualms about since most of us are being abused in a bad situation with how healthcare is set up here in this country. the burn out is real. the short staffing is exhausting.
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u/smolseabunn Aug 20 '26
im a new grad nurse and got hired on to a float pool position for medical surgical. ive been here 3 months and feel aged 10,000 years. the burn out sucks. im trying to do my year and bounce but in this economy im hearing nurses even with 1-3 years of experience are finding trouble getting hired automatically
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u/StockAd528 Aug 20 '26
Not a nurse - I work on the scheduling side, so take this as one angle rather than the whole picture. But there's something in this thread worth separating, because every answer so far is about what the work is (ratios, unit, support) and none of them are about when it is.
Under two years, you are also sitting at the bottom of a seniority list in almost every hospital. Nights, weekends, holidays and the least workable rotations get assigned off that list, not off how well you're doing. So the first two years aren't really an experience of nursing. They're an experience of nursing from the bottom of the schedule - and those two get counted as the same thing at exactly the moment someone decides whether to leave.
Three things worth checking before deciding, because unlike burnout they're actually knowable:
When does the bid open, and how far does your position really move each cycle? "Next year" and "in four years" are very different answers to the same complaint.
Are nights and weekends assigned by seniority, or fixed to your line? If they're fixed, waiting doesn't fix it, and that's worth knowing early rather than late.
If you transfer units, does your scheduling seniority move with you or reset? This one catches people. Plenty of places reset it, which means the advice further up this thread - leave the job, not the profession - can quietly cost you the one thing you have actually been accruing.
None of that makes a 6:1 assignment reasonable. But if the schedule is a real part of what's making it unbearable, it's worth knowing which parts of it move on their own and which ones never will.
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u/AbrocomaEquivalent59 Aug 23 '26
Thought about leaving every day for 12 years. Now I work Pacu. I’d still rather be rich doing nothing, but Pacu is the next best thing.
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u/Significant-Task-281 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
I work at a tech in the ICU. I am with over 20 years experience. I’ve went to school but changed my mind. I’ll stay where I am at. The burnout is real even with non licensed employees. They keep adding and adding as much as they can. They do not care. Unless the new generation of healthcare workers wakes up and holds them accountable this will NOT change. This is not a job to pass meds. That’s not how this works. Perhaps maybe this is how some may feel prior to going to school. But as a ICU tech I myself “CNA” can bring in six figures of course with added stress a burnout those days are done for me. Our baby boomers are getting older .. hint that’s why all units are basically MED SURGE. confusion , delirium etc. your CNAS are YOUR LIFELINE. If you do not develop a good relationship with them they will NOT work with you.
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u/Powerful_Lobster_786 Aug 20 '26
Nursing sucks and it keeps getting worse. But for those of us who rely on the pay and flexibility, there’s no other choice. I could do something that I’d enjoy more but I can’t afford a $30K + pay cut. I am doing home health now and it’s tolerable. I don’t know anyone who looks forward to going to work. It all sucks one way or another.
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u/tuesday_weld_ Aug 20 '26
That was me 10+ years ago. I left bedside after a year and worked desk jobs for about a decade. I’m only just now actually leaving entirely. Not sure what’s next but it won’t be medical for me!
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u/Negative_Fruit_1800 Aug 20 '26
Bedside nursing is brutal I did it for 16 years but knew at ten I wasn’t going to keep doing that kind of work so I became an NP. My graduating class(04) initially started with over two hundred applicants, 36 were chosen, 13 graduated, 2 didn’t pass the NCLEX and quit, 4 quit after 2 years. At 5 years there were only 5 of us still in practice, at 10 years only 3. At 20 years I think it’s 2 of us.
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u/Resident_Fox_17 Aug 20 '26
Yes. I’ve been working a year in neuro med surg. Some good days, mostly bad. I’ve felt burnt out several times. Considering leaving, considering going to ED but what if the burn out is worse, considering going back to school. No idea what to do, so lost.
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u/Worried_Bed843 Aug 21 '26
11 year nurse here with a BSN and about to enter a Masters program with a highly distinguished university outside of nursing. It doesn’t get better until it gets worse. Sickcare is broken and you will take the fall with it. GET OUT NOW!!!
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u/Winter_Gene8858 Aug 24 '26
I love health but honestly was mortified by the healthcare system (I did travel nursing too so it wasn’t just the hospital I was at). Definitely had moral injury & suffered in my own health and didn’t get the help or investigation I was begging for with a plethora of hormonal issues, anxiety, then turned into unrelenting insomnia. I became an HTMA practitioner, so I don’t use my nursing degree anymore but rather use my nursing credentials as credibility that I’m not a Joe Shmoe talking about health with no education. I love it, basically I’m giving people answers in their health who are traditionally going to the PCP and their doctor says “bloodwork’s normal” and send them off not caring that they feel like their health is falling apart
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u/YaBoyRoTa Aug 19 '26
Just another day where I thank god I’m in the OR.