Not sure whether Nursing is for me?
I’m 22 and a student adult nurse, currently repeating my first year as my practice assessor failed me during my midpoint interview. My first placement was in community but this wasn’t district nursing. It was more of going to different care homes and checking on residents. This team I worked with worked multidisciplinary with the GP so they would send out referrals to the team to visit residents at care homes. I was told this shouldn’t be a placement for first years and it’s usually for 3rd year students. I did mention to them if they could speak to my academic assessor regarding this placement in the beginning to see if they could change my placement area which they didn’t bother. It came up to my midpoint interview where they were concerned i was taking far too many days off, reason being why is I found it boring. I didn’t get to do much, all i did was observations. I did lack confidence and during my time at placement, I had chronic laryngitis so my communication with patients wasn’t so great. I was told i don’t talk and i’m very quiet. The thing no one understood is that my voice was really bad at the time, trying to talk was difficult as it felt like i was whispering and no one could hear me. So in that first year I was supposed to have another placement, this time it was a ward. I attended one day only for a few hours and made an excuse to leave as I felt so overwhelmed. As I started, all i did was make teas for the patients. It was a CCU ward, one patient needed to go down for surgery and I was told by the nurse to find tape and i wasn’t sure as to what she meant by tape so i’ve gone to find it and i couldn’t. She looked at me and asked where’s the tape and i said i couldn’t find it she looked at me in disgust and ran to get it herself. I generally feel so put off over one little situation but i don’t know how to overcome this.
My retrieval placement has began and it’s supposed to be my second week in but I haven’t attended one shift; i’m supposed to be 5 shifts in. I keep making excuses as to why I can’t attend and I’m seriously in a situation where I feel like nursing isn’t just for me. However, I have enjoyed the academic side of nursing. The nurse assigned to me seems really lovely she has reached out to me asking whether if i’m going to attend and that she will support me all the way. I keep saying to myself every night before I am going to go, the morning comes and I just back out.
As i’ve not been attending placement, i’ve let my family down especially my mum cos she really was over the moon when i first got into my course. I feel like a huge disappointment and failure. If i was to drop out of the course, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself as I have never worked elsewhere. I wouldn’t be able to change courses as back in 2021 I was doing a teaching course at University which i dropped out of as i felt like it wasn’t for me. I managed to get into Adult Nursing but i’m currently repeating so I definitely wouldn’t be eligible for student finance again. Hope anyone could give me some guidance on what I should do as I seriously need to fix up.
My retrieval placement has began and it’s supposed to be my second week in but I haven’t attended one shift; i’m supposed to be 5 shifts in. I keep making excuses as to why I can’t attend and I’m seriously in a situation where I feel like nursing isn’t just for me. However, I have enjoyed the academic side of nursing. The nurse assigned to me seems really lovely she has reached out to me asking whether if i’m going to attend and that she will support me all the way. I keep saying to myself every night before I am going to go, the morning comes and I just back out.
As i’ve not been attending placement, i’ve let my family down especially my mum cos she really was over the moon when i first got into my course. I feel like a huge disappointment and failure. If i was to drop out of the course, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself as I have never worked elsewhere. I wouldn’t be able to change courses as back in 2021 I was doing a teaching course at University which i dropped out of as i felt like it wasn’t for me. I managed to get into Adult Nursing but i’m currently repeating so I definitely wouldn’t be eligible for student finance again. Hope anyone could give me some guidance on what I should do as I seriously need to fix up.
I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I think it’s hard once you get yourself into a mindset about something, to get yourself out of it. Your new mentor sounds lovely, why don’t you explain how much you’re struggling and equally reach out to uni. They maybe able to support you better. I’m sure you’re not the only person to feel this way doing a nursing course x
Reply 2
Hey there,
I strongly recommend that you get in touch with your practice mentor, as well your cohort leader and the mental health and wellbeing team at your university. As the previous person said, it can be difficult to get out of that mindset once you’re in it, and it sounds like you need some support to help you.
Nursing isn’t for everyone, but it sounds like you’ve got that spark there for the academic side, it sounds like you’ve had bad experiences with placement, which can make it incredibly daunting. If your current practice assessor is being supportive, maybe take a chance on them, because they could help change your mindset.
In terms of rude staff, they need to remember that you’re in your first year, and you’re not going to know where all the equipment is kept. I’m in my third-year and still struggle with that!
Please don’t suffer alone, please reach out to your university
Nat
Third-year student nurse and ambassador
I strongly recommend that you get in touch with your practice mentor, as well your cohort leader and the mental health and wellbeing team at your university. As the previous person said, it can be difficult to get out of that mindset once you’re in it, and it sounds like you need some support to help you.
Nursing isn’t for everyone, but it sounds like you’ve got that spark there for the academic side, it sounds like you’ve had bad experiences with placement, which can make it incredibly daunting. If your current practice assessor is being supportive, maybe take a chance on them, because they could help change your mindset.
In terms of rude staff, they need to remember that you’re in your first year, and you’re not going to know where all the equipment is kept. I’m in my third-year and still struggle with that!
Please don’t suffer alone, please reach out to your university
Nat
Third-year student nurse and ambassador
Reply 3
How did it end up for you?
My personal experience is you need to be extremely resilient to be able to be a nurse.
I failed placement because I collapsed at work due to low hb (was just 62 where the normal range is 120+),I had only 3 more shifts to complete the placement but they said it's not safe for me being there. Was it fair? I don't think so.
But I was like ok, I will retake placement if I have to. I did and I passed with excellent feedback.
Recently graduated with 2:1 which isn't bad considering I have 3 kids and I was working as a part time hca in order to be able to support family budget. One advice: don't give up, on the number of occasions staff wasn't super kind to me, it's normal- people are stressed and not everyone gonna like us🤷*♀️ nursing is not an easy job and we need to have thick skin.
My personal experience is you need to be extremely resilient to be able to be a nurse.
I failed placement because I collapsed at work due to low hb (was just 62 where the normal range is 120+),I had only 3 more shifts to complete the placement but they said it's not safe for me being there. Was it fair? I don't think so.
But I was like ok, I will retake placement if I have to. I did and I passed with excellent feedback.
Recently graduated with 2:1 which isn't bad considering I have 3 kids and I was working as a part time hca in order to be able to support family budget. One advice: don't give up, on the number of occasions staff wasn't super kind to me, it's normal- people are stressed and not everyone gonna like us🤷*♀️ nursing is not an easy job and we need to have thick skin.
Reply 4
Healthcare at any level is extremely tough, both physically and psychologically but also morally. A lot of people underestimate the demands that nursing and similar vocations place on people. It sounds like people have hit a tough patch. It happens. You won't be the first person nor the last who ever considers giving up- a lot of people find similar hurdles in their path during study. You shouldn't need to have 'thick skin', but unfortunately not every healthcare environment is 100% perfect and not everyone working in healthcare is 100% either for various reasons.
The first thing you need to do is arrange a proper discussion with your professional mentor. This is not a sign of weakness nor failure- it is a sign that this person who is training to be in a position of great professional responsibility is actually being adult about their situation and is addressing any difficulties they might have encountered. This is a very good thing and what is more it is what the NMC both expects and demands nurses would do if they encountered problems in their practice. The wrong thing to do would be to bottle it up, allow it to eat into your physical or mental health and then hide the fact to the point it might erode patient safety.
People have rough days or weeks. Everyone does. You do something or attend something and it doesn't work out well. You work with a person who is having a bad day and they take it out on you and you feel bad as a result. This stuff happens.
But you have the sign of an adult learner. You identified a weakness or a mistake or a problem and you went away and reflected about it. The absolutely incorrect approach would be to deny anything was wrong (or at least convince yourself that was the case) and just carry on without a care in the world.
The adult learner and the fully trained professional both act in the same way. They identify their problems and seek support from other colleagues. That is what team work is about. If you need a day or two off, no problem. If you need a week off, well ok we'll catch the time up. If you need to suspend studies, you can even do that as well. It's not the end of the world.
One last thing. People acting or behaving unkindly in stressful environments is not an unheard of thing. It is one of the potential coping mechanisms people adopt to cope with their workplace. I'm not seeking to justify or legitimise that kind of conduct but to illustrate how and why it is a thing. A tiny minority of individuals adopt low grade bullying in an attempt to downplay their own stress, others might try to adhere very strictly to rules and regulations because they feel that makes them 'safer'. Others are just people whose personality clashes with yours. Very few such people are genuinely unpleasant and if they are they likely best avoided anyway. Call out unpleasant behaviours at the first instance when you are not in patient areas. Repeated or sustained microaggressions should be reported to more senior staff. People who are persistently unpleasant to others and known to be so will likely have had more than one complaint raised against them.
The first thing you need to do is arrange a proper discussion with your professional mentor. This is not a sign of weakness nor failure- it is a sign that this person who is training to be in a position of great professional responsibility is actually being adult about their situation and is addressing any difficulties they might have encountered. This is a very good thing and what is more it is what the NMC both expects and demands nurses would do if they encountered problems in their practice. The wrong thing to do would be to bottle it up, allow it to eat into your physical or mental health and then hide the fact to the point it might erode patient safety.
People have rough days or weeks. Everyone does. You do something or attend something and it doesn't work out well. You work with a person who is having a bad day and they take it out on you and you feel bad as a result. This stuff happens.
But you have the sign of an adult learner. You identified a weakness or a mistake or a problem and you went away and reflected about it. The absolutely incorrect approach would be to deny anything was wrong (or at least convince yourself that was the case) and just carry on without a care in the world.
The adult learner and the fully trained professional both act in the same way. They identify their problems and seek support from other colleagues. That is what team work is about. If you need a day or two off, no problem. If you need a week off, well ok we'll catch the time up. If you need to suspend studies, you can even do that as well. It's not the end of the world.
One last thing. People acting or behaving unkindly in stressful environments is not an unheard of thing. It is one of the potential coping mechanisms people adopt to cope with their workplace. I'm not seeking to justify or legitimise that kind of conduct but to illustrate how and why it is a thing. A tiny minority of individuals adopt low grade bullying in an attempt to downplay their own stress, others might try to adhere very strictly to rules and regulations because they feel that makes them 'safer'. Others are just people whose personality clashes with yours. Very few such people are genuinely unpleasant and if they are they likely best avoided anyway. Call out unpleasant behaviours at the first instance when you are not in patient areas. Repeated or sustained microaggressions should be reported to more senior staff. People who are persistently unpleasant to others and known to be so will likely have had more than one complaint raised against them.
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