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by hbscott

Updated Jan 06, 2004 at 04:41 AM by hbscott

"Nurses may constitute the most dissatisfied professions in the United States today. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, slightly more than two-thirds of registered nurses (69.5 percent) reported being even "moderately satisfied" with their jobs. By contrast, 85 percent of workers in other industries and 90 percent of professional workers are satisfied with their jobs."

http://www.afscme.org/una/sns06.htm

-HBS

*I had not seen this posted before. Very interesting.

[K O'Malley]

Hospital administration and management keep doing things the same old way, ignoring any input from their nursing staff. They just want to recruit, recruit, recruit new nurses, burn them out and start over with a new bunch. Never mind improving staffing and working conditions or rewarding experienced nurses for knowledge and hard work. Its a slap in the face to be making only $3.00/hr more than a new grad when you have 20+ years of experience.
I steered all of my children away from nursing and I'm glad I did. With B.A degrees and only a few short years out of college their salaries have soared way ahead of mine. And they are all treated with respect on their jobs.

[weezieRN]

great story, should be posted on every nurse manager and administrations door or mail boxes, but I doubt it will mean much to them.

[hbscott]

Originally posted by weezieRN
Great story, should be posted on every nurse manager and administrations door or mail boxes, but I doubt it will mean much to them.

I wonder why that is? Is nursing forever "doomed" to this cyclical abuse as noted by the post noted below?

"They just want to recruit, recruit, recruit new nurses, burn them out and start over with a new bunch."

It is so very sad…


-HBS

[Sheri257]

Perspective

Let's put a little perspective on the numbers here.

Nurse satisfaction is nearly 70 percent, which is still high, not low.

I agree that the 15-20 percent difference between nurses and other professions/jobs is significant, but there are still many satisifed nurses out there, at least according to this data.

Only 28 percent of the RNs are dissatisifed with their jobs. After reading this board, I would have expected the number of dissatisfied nurses to be 70 percent, not 28.

If the number was closer to 50 percent, I think there would be more of a story here.

[hbscott]

Relative Statistics - Perspective

Perspective on the numbers? I believe the study cited as nursing as having the worst job satisfaction for the professions sampled as noted below:

By contrast, 85 percent of workers in other industries and 90 percent of professional workers are satisfied with their jobs.

I don’t think being cited as having the lowest sampled job satisfaction is a good thing?

-HBS

[RN2B4ABBY]

I'm Not Running!

This is very interesting but I am not running! I have read many horror stories about working conditions, staff members, nurse co-workers...but I am still not going anywhere. Nursing schools may be full, employers may choose to ignore what their nurses need and just re-fresh when ones burn out and leave and there may be a moderately high job dissatisfaction rate. When I think of being a nurse I get a feeling in the pit of my stomach that tells me I belong there. I am not going into this field because of pay, benefits or for what other people will think of me. I am going into this field because I want to make a difference. When employers don't care about their nurses they don't care about their patients. Well I care! If I make a patient smile and feel better then I can be satisfied. If my being there helps out at least one other nurse with the workload and stress then I will sleep that night. It is going to be tough and grueling and I will cry more than once and question what I am doing. I know there is so much out there that I can't even possibly imagine right now... but I know I belong there so bring it on!

[leobaby23]

IS it Really THAT bad??

I am a Nursing Student in The Houston area,
I keep hearing all of these terrible things and it really gets me down. Have we all forgotten why we chose to become Nurses? Was it the pay? Or was it the Compassion we all share? Granted I know that patients arent always easy to deal with ( Let alone the family) but are we not there to make this transistion from sick to well, or from sick to death....more comfortable? I hope that I have this feeling when I get out of my clinicals and into the "real World" but I ask you....is it REALLY that bad?

[happystudent]

Re: I'm Not Running!

Originally posted by RN2B4ABBY
This is very interesting but I am not running! I have read many horror stories about working conditions, staff members, nurse co-workers...but I am still not going anywhere. Nursing schools may be full, employers may choose to ignore what their nurses need and just re-fresh when ones burn out and leave and there may be a moderately high job dissatisfaction rate. When I think of being a nurse I get a feeling in the pit of my stomach that tells me I belong there. I am not going into this field because of pay, benefits or for what other people will think of me. I am going into this field because I want to make a difference. When employers don't care about their nurses they don't care about their patients. Well I care! If I make a patient smile and feel better then I can be satisfied. If my being there helps out at least one other nurse with the workload and stress then I will sleep that night. It is going to be tough and grueling and I will cry more than once and question what I am doing. I know there is so much out there that I can't even possibly imagine right now... but I know I belong there so bring it on!

I agree.........

Hbscott, I think it is unfair for you to say we should run from nursing because YOU feel nursing students soon to be RNs will be dissatisfied with our chosen fields. Insted of being discouraging to the "newbies", why dont you take a proactive stand and encourage us to make things better. I refuse to be "scared" of surveys and biased opinions regarding MY future goals. So lets say you accomplish your "goal" of convincing us to persue alternate careers, WHO is going to take care of YOU when its your turn to be a patient?Right, thats what I thought..........

[happystudent]

Re: IS it Really THAT bad??

Originally posted by leobaby23
I am a Nursing Student in The Houston area,
but I ask you....is it REALLY that bad?

Dont let negativity and peoples opinions sway you.....I am a nursing student and WILL graduate May 15. I KNOW this is what I want to do for the rest of my life....If you feel the same way, just keep on pushing ahead. We can make a difference together