Nurses Who SHOULD Quit Their Jobs (or Change Areas of Practice)

Nursing is not for everyone; not everyone can competently nurse in certain areas of practice. Due to years of intense training, a person should really take time to research whether they have the qualities required to be a nurse prior to entering nursing school. Dedication to the profession is a major required qualification.

Thankfully, today there is a variety of career choices for nurses before they decide to leave the field entirely. However, some nurses should quit their jobs, retire, or change areas of practice if patient safety is a factor. I do not want to encourage nurses to leave a profession that is experiencing a shortage but I do encourage nurses to be honest about the fact that they are incompetent in some areas.

An incompetent nurse who is frequently reprimanded because of inconsistent practiceissues or who makes too many errors despite additional training, need to think about making changes. They should find their niche, an area where they can safely practice, supervise, or even teachnursing without doing harm. If all else fails, it is time to retire or quit nursing.

Is the Nursing Profession For You?

Nursing schools have long waiting lists of people dedicated to the profession; people who would make excellent nurses. Since every profession has its advantages and disadvantages, it makes sense to know if nursing is for you before entering training. Some facilities allow high school students to shadow an experienced nurse for an inside view of the practice. Volunteering is another avenue to get a taste of nursing.

I worked as a CNA first in order to know if this was my calling. Of course, I knew I wanted to be a nurse when I cared for my grandmother at the age of 14. I vowed to keep my elderly relatives out of nursing homes by knowing how to care for them at home. I had a purpose and it had nothing to do with money or recognition.

A person entering this field for the money, glamour, or recognition will quickly become disillusioned and quit nursing or change jobs frequently. If you are not a people person or if you possess prejudices toward others, for any reason, the nursing profession is not for you.

A person has to possess certain qualities to be in this profession. They must have the ability to empathize with others, maintain a caring attitude, be competent in critical thinking and prioritizing, have the ability to multi-task, and work well with others. Stress and time management are also very important.

Why Nurses Should Quit Their Jobs

Although there are many reasons nurses quit their jobs, incompetence usually require termination which may occur too late to save a patient from harm. Nursing is more than following doctor's orders and performing tasks; the nurse has to use their medical knowledge to determine whether following orders will cause more harm to the patient.

If a doctor orders Potassium for a patient, the prudent nurse is responsible to check laboratory results before giving the medication. I know of nurses who gave this and other potentially dangerous drugs only to discover the doctor wrote the order on the wrong patient or blood was drawn too soon after receiving a dose of the medication. A robotic nurse who just acts on every doctor's order without critical thinking will eventually face lawsuits and license suspension/revocation.

This profession requires dedication and purpose. Nurses who constantly speak negatively about the profession, patients, and colleagues are probably burned out. I have seen nurses make errors because they are easily distracted, lack concentration, or suffer from personal problems and fail to seek help. These nurses should quit, retire, or change to another area of practice.

On a nursing website, a hospital nurse, with seven months experience, asked should she quit nursing; she wondered whether it was her forte or not. This occurred after her transfer to a fast-paced stressful unit where she continuously made medication errors. I was appalled when others encouraged her to remain in her current practice area because "we all make medication errors". Some even applauded her for recognizing and admitting to the errors but that is only one part of the solution.

The responders admitted to making many errors, even after practicing for more than two years, claiming we learn from our errors. Medical errors continue to kill more than 100,000 patients per year so it is not exactly a learning experience for everyone.

This apparently incompetent nurse did not mention any effort to improve her practice so she should quit. Other nurses responded by minimizing and dismissing her medication error because it was only an extra dose of medication and the patient was not harmed. This rationalization is unprofessional and unacceptable. No one suggested she consider changing areas of practice to a less stressful unit and take remedial courses.

My mother died due to an incompetent nurse's error of omission that was minimized because my mother had kidney cancer. The nurse failed to obtain an order for IV fluids leading to failure of my mother's functioning kidney. Three days after she walked into the hospital to remove the cancerous kidney, my mother slipped into a coma and died.

Since nurses must multi-task most of the time, someone who becomes confused and flustered easily may have problems working in certain areas. We had a nurse who spent more time worrying about a patient with constipation than one who needed to have their blood transfusion initiated immediately. She was like the bumbling absent-minded professor who lacked any concept of prioritizing and time management; she rarely made errors because she checked, rechecked, and double-checked everything she did.

Some incompetent nurses think care is based on first come first serve instead of triaging. They allow patients to dictate what they should do next instead of using their medical knowledge and setting priorities. For example, a patient who wanted water or the one who demanded his slippers during an actual fire evacuation of five wards. Another example was the wife who complained of her husband's dirty face while I tried to maintain his blood pressure with drips and treat his decreased urine output. The solution was simple I gave her a washcloth.

Things You Can Do Before You Quit Your Nursing Job

First, the nurse must realize it is not a sign of failure if she cannot make it in certain areas of practice; it is a sign of failure not to recognize and act on this fact in a timely manner. It is a sign of failure when the incompetent nurse does not make attempts at improvement.

Nursing education is always ongoing. When I transferred into the ICU, I took courses, purchased books, and utilized the hospital's training program to enhance my practice. I admit that no one is perfect but we are talking about patient's lives; a prudent nurse does everything possible to avoid errors.

Online continuing education programs are available to enhance an incompetent nurse's practice. Our facility's ICU held "annual competencies", which were hands-on return demonstrations of tasks such as setting up chest drainage systems, central line insertion, and Swans cardiac catheter monitoring.

It is not okay to continue making medication and other errors. If there is a problem with prioritizing and critical thinking, it is time for a remedial course. In addition, the nurse must own up to errors since, as studies indicate, most errors are system related. More staffing or a better medication administration system may need to be instituted but if it is not known that there is a problem, all remains status quo and patients are harmed. When our facility changed to a bar-coded medication administration system, medication errors greatly reduced, at least until nurses found shortcuts around the system.

I was fortunate to work in hospitals that had float pools allowing nurses to work in various areas; this helps with finding that niche that is needed. In addition, I worked for agencies in other facilities to see how nurses practice in different environments.

Nurses who continue to make errors despite changing areas should analyze their practice to figure out why they continue to have issues. If a nurse makes errors because of a fast paced, stressful environment, changing to a slower paced environment should alleviate this problem. As the saying goes, if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

Some nurses are very competent in medical knowledge and the theory of nursing; they would probably make excellent instructors in an area that also suffers from shortages. There are those who work best as clinical instructors than as clinical nurses. If the issue is working closely with others, the alternative home healthcare offers more autonomy.

This profession is great because of the many areas of practice to choose from before quitting nursing altogether, especially those away from patient care. That does not infer that incompetent nurses be allowed to continue making errors until they find an area that they are more comfortable in.

It's Time to Quit Nursing or Change Area of Practice

Nurses should quit their jobs if they fail to recognize their weaknesses, blame others, and continue making multiple errors after additional training. If a nurse has worked in several practice areas and still have not found their niche, nursing might not be their calling. However, there is nothing wrong with trying several areas as long as the nurse does not have to transfer due to gross incompetence.

Unfortunately, despite patient safety concerns, some facilities retain incompetent nurses due to the shortage. If the nurse has not improved after multiple reprimands and remedial training, it is time to terminate, quit, or change areas of practice. Those nurses who leave the profession altogether probably should have never been a nurse from the beginning. That is why it is important to research whether nursing is for you before entering nursing school.