Confused Applicant

[filbert127]

I work as a psych Tech in a rehab hospital now, and I'm HAPPY to go home at the end of the day.

 

As a result of my professional experiences, I possess no grand vision of myself as a provider other than a competent yet dissatisfied grunt who clocks in, does their job, and clocks out. I find my patient interactions to not be fulfilling, and I get tired of having demanding/institutionalized patients in my personal space 8 hours/day. All of the nurses/techs I work with vacillate on a spectrum ranging from apathetic to angry, with no one seeming to actually garner any pleasure from any portion of their job (and this assessment is accounting for all the units of this rehab hospital). Nobody seems to really care other than covering their a*s and getting to punch-out as easily as possible.

 

Many of you may read this and say "No sh*t dude, that's work." Or you may read it and see my experience is atypical, and it will get better.

 

Conversely, you may read it and see my dissatisfaction as being indidicative of someone who isn't fit for the field. I'm currently reconsidering my future in healthcare, and appreciate your insight.

 

Cheers

[rev ronin]

Assuming you have what it takes to get in and then to succeed, you have a world of choices as far as what specialty you practice in and where you go once you pass the PANCE. Primary care is, on the whole, quite fulfilling and has a variety of interactions with mostly not insane people.:-) If you just want to make a job out of it, there are plenty of clinician/technician positions where you get trained to do something medical, and do that something for good pay for your career.

[saldanamoreno]

I appreciate your honesty. I have worked in the medical field for more than 10 years and I can't say that it has all been roses. There have been some really fulfilling and great days and there have been some really low lows. And we have to remember that at the end of the day we are only human. I use to date a psych tech and she would tell me how hard it was. She said she had to create an imaginary box right outside her ward and put all of her problems in it and forgot about it until quitting time. We all have different limits and thresholds of pain you have to know what yours is. Only YOU can decide whether this career is right for you. Good luck!

[JasonD]

VERY few people actually like their work...but you have to make a living somehow. I'd say your experience is typical.

[Patho]

Sounds typical. After being in a job for 3 or 4 years you can really see the dissatisfaction in certain people if not right away, people are angry at everything from pay to hours to the most minute details. But remember that we are in healthcare for a reason, hopefully a good one, and if you don't like the surrounding you can always move, and maybe find more experiences in the process, or attempt to make some changes which can be difficult. From what I've heard and read, PAs work with a large population, including a lot of disadvantaged people who are grateful to be cared for, so you're in the right place to learn more about it. Good Luck.

[UGoLong]

Having gone through this cycle many times in my working life, I agree that there are downsides about every job. Still, that shouldn't keep you from looking for something with a higher sugar to junk ratio.

 

If you are profoundly unhappy with what you are doing, then the time has come to find something else to do or somewhere else to do it. Life is too short to spend it doing something you don't enjoy enough to compensate for the downside. Don't let people tell you that "that's why they call it work." No matter what you do, you will have to deal with downsides, but only you can decide if the upside of a particular job is worth it.

 

Good luck!