Career Guidance

Hello All,

I’m on my third year bedside nursing, mostly medical rotations with 6 months in ICU.

I am burnt out, I’ve had a bad 2 months with a patient stroke, patient go into VT and pass while I’m talking to them, sexually harassed and verbally abused by the same patient load all last week, the last straw was last night being my first night on a surgical ward.

I took bloods from my low risk pt at 0000, and at 0003 I found them on the bathroom floor in huge pool of bloods from a huge PR bleed and forehead laceration. And that was a 3 hour MET call. All in all I’m thinking about leaving Acute nursing and doing something like GP clinic or school nursing. Prior to these last two months, I was planing on doing my Critical Care Post Grad next year but I don’t know if I want to anymore. Advice? Thoughts? Opinions? I’m worried I’ll be not be able to get back into acute nursing once I’m out but I’m burning out and don’t have the energy for anything outside work.