11 months of Nursing....are we having fun yet?

I have been a medical surgical RN for around 11 months now, and I am ITCHING for a change.

It became clear to me last night, while I was charting after I gave report. We have a computer charting system at our hospital which in some ways have made our lives even harder because instead of taking 15ish minutes of paperwork per patient, it now takes more like 20-30 minutes per patient times 5 patients if there are NO admissions, discharges or transfers (which on PM shift never happens. So on average we are charting for 25 min for around 6 people per shift which is a total of 2.5 hours of charting on top of everything else we have to do during a shift. Pass meds, check sugars etc. Plus it is common-place for our CNA's to have a 15:1 ratio which means half the time the RN's are changing and positioning patients as well. It is a freaking miracle to get through the shift and go home on time. Most of the time 75% of us are still there long after 2330 has passed, finishing our charting.

I have herd through the grape vine that this is more common then not on a medsurge floor. We are chronically understaffed, under-appreciated, and over-worked. And the worst part of it is that it is burning me out already. I HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN AN RN FOR A YEAR YET. that's not OK by me. I didn't go into this career to dread going to work every day. I need to make a change and I need to make it soon.

The hardest part is that I knew from day 1 that I never wanted to be a med-surge RN but I took this job because I needed to work. I have made good connections through this job and I have thought about transferring to the ER in the fall. But now I don't know if I really even want to do that anymore. I know that was what I wanted to do in college but the more I think about it the more unsure I feel. A lot of the things I don't like about my med-surge job will follow me into the ED (ex. the patient population) I feel guilty about it but I don't get the enjoyment out of my job that I feel I should

I am thinking again about going back to my original thought of Labor and Delivery. I am just frustrated because I don't know what I want, I just know that what I am doing now is not it.