Hi and super great question! I’ve had experienced both instances. Last term when I was in surgery I didn’t feel like the environment fostered my learning in the most positive ways, and I literally questioned whether it was worth it to be in that time and place. I didn’t feel empowered by the nursing staff around me, I’d go into stress episodes where I’d cry to my friends because I felt so terrified of making mistakes. It was literally living that entire saying of “nurses eat their young”.

But now that I’m in my medicine rotation in another unit in another hospital, there was a 160 degree turn. I feel as if I really do know what I’m doing and the environment is just as I need it to be. And most importantly, the staff is kind, helpful, amazing, and they really do show appreciation that they have extra hands to help them out. Now I can’t wait to speed through theory classes and get to the hospital to actually do clinical practice, and that’s a really good testament of how good my clinical placement is this term.

All in all, it really depends on your fit on your unit. Nursing is extremely diverse and there are literally hundreds of other things you can do within the umbrella of nursing and I assure you, you will never get bored. Just get a feel of what you want and who you are as a person, and coincide it with a kind of nursing that compliments your strengths. Good in high pressure situations? Emerg nursing. Problem solver? Medicine nursing. Creative, well spoken? Community nursing. 

I still look at all the other things I do, like writing, poetry, graphic design and try to think of how my life would be if I took those routes. But then I think, just because I’m a nurse doesn’t mean I opt out of all those other things too. ; U ;