Are you satisfied with your current employment situation as a nurse?

Nurses General Nursing

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  • Specializes in CCU, Geriatrics, Critical Care, Tele.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on your current employment situation as a nurse. Are you happy, if so why? Unhappy, if s why?

Also, please take part in our quick survey on our homepage at http://wwnurse.com /

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Brian Short

WORLDWIDE NURSE: The Internet's Nursing Directory

wwnurse.com/

vivianjean

1 Post

I didn't go to nursing school until I was 40, and could not get a job at hospital due to lack of experience. I worked agency for a little over a year and am now working at a nursing home which is one of a company. I got this job by accident or providence, whichever you choose. I like this job, I like my fellow nurses, and haven't been at it long enough to be tired of it. I wanted to be a nurse as a teenager, but decided against it when I regurgitated on the doctor doing a procedure on me. But I like it now, I like being able to make things easier, because I do realize that I cannot always make things better. I went to nursing school in the first place to have a nurse at the homeless shelter that my husband in director of.

natosha

4 Posts

I am frustrated with the medical field. I've been an r.n. for 6 yrs now and I feel that nurses are overworked,overstressed,underpaid and get no respect. It seems that nurses work so hard to please everyone and all they get in return are all of the bad things he/she did wrong. I'd say 90% of the nurses I work with have high blood pressure,ulcers and bad attitudes. I don't want to be like one of those nurses, would you? Now, I am considering a full time career in law enforcement, where benefits are excellent,pay is high, opportunities are endless, and most of all, I will get the respect I feel I deserve.

chile1v

6 Posts

I am a relatively new nurse as I have only been practicing about 1 year. Although I agree that many of our associates are burned and stressed out, I believe that some of that is due to apathy. It is important that nurses remember how vital they are to the entire team, and that they collectively remind others. I am not a kid, I'm 40 yrs old. But, I do come from a strong corporate background. Until nurses understand that medicine is a corporate business, and learn to function within it, they are doomed to low respect, and low pay. The biggest things they have against them though, are their own poor attitudes. We, as a group, need to learn to quit whining, and start winning.

NCNocRN

48 Posts

I am very satisfied with my career as a nurse. To me, nursing is much more than a profession--it is a calling. I am concerned about the problems which are all around us--the short-staffing and lack of respect. I believe the entire allied health field in America is approaching a state of crisis--not just in the field of nursing. The "economics-based approach" is ruining the doctor-patient, nurse-patient relationship and control of the health field needs to be taken out of the economic arena in which the "bottom line" is all that really matters. In order for quality health care in the United States to survive, we all need to adopt an interdisciplinary team approach and quality healthcare needs to be fully accessible to all. Nurses need to act professionally at all times and demand respect as an equal, valuable member of the health care team.

Sue J.

1 Post

I find myself becoming more and more frustrated in my present job. I work in a hospital, I've been a nurse for only three years, I like taking care of patients but it seems I'm doing less and less of it. Paperwork rules my life. I wouldn't have all the paperwork if the floor was properly staffed. I have between 10 to 16 patients per night with usually 1 nurses aid (yes you heard me right!) For the past 6 months they say they haven't been able to hire anyone. I feel my license is on the line and am currently looking for another job but I'm probably going to face the same predicament. Nobody wants to pay for staffing and the workload per nurse is getting higher and higher. All the shifts are this way and we've become professional complainers. My last hospital job was just like this. I feel like leaving nursing.

Blue11RN

39 Posts

What a loaded question. Am I happy with my nursing job? NO!! I am overworked, overstressed, my pay is an insult,scared pt's will die, scared I will lose my license, tired of management wanting more and more out of me and then put me down. Shall I go on?? If hospitals learn that nurses are their life line maybe things would get better. I don't see their precious doctor's giving any nursing care, and someday that is all they might have left because nurses are leaving!! So, I am leaving the hospital and start my new job Monday!! I have high hopes for it, but will miss my patients, not the stress.

Trauma

33 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care, Psych, Transport.

First, let me answer the question. I am very satisfied with my job. There are times when it does get challenging, but I have yet faced a situation that I, or myself and my co-workers could not manage. So many times we nurses complain of the pt load b/c we are used to just 2-3 pts( I am speaking of the majority of critical care), when in fact we can handle the extra load. Yes, it would be nice to have a lighter load every now and then, and it would be nice to finish a shift and think....I really took care of those patients both medically and psychologically last night b/c I had the time to. When you stop to think about it, we do have ample amounts of down time. It may not be when you want it, but it is there. Yes there are exceptions in every case where it takes you and 10 other RNs to do a job, but you pull through dont you? We are the best and strongest trained professionals when you deal with the mental aspect of our job. Don't get me wrong, I am trying my best to increase the staffing needs of our facility, but until that happens.....I will use the time I could be complaing about it to care for my patients!

Troy,RN,CCRN

ljfrn

5 Posts

As an RN in a hospital I don't feel you can ever be totally satisfied because you're always working against managed care, HMO's, etc. On the other hand after reading what types of things are going on in other hospitals I am quite glad that I am where I am. The highest nurse/patient ratio I have ever had in the acute hospital is 1/10 and this is very unusual. Most of the time it is more like 1/6 especially on day shift. The average RN earnings at our hospital is $19.60/hr. We also have a lot of autonomy in that we get to decide what policies and procedures are right for our patients. We monitor the quality control issues and base our core competencies on these. We have set up Nursing Grand Rounds which are once a month to increase our knowledge base and have started an endowment fund to assist with continuing education, research projects and site visits to other hospitals which have projects ongoing which we want to evaluate for use at our hospital.

Everything is not perfect and probably never will be but we are definitely working on trying to make it so. Since we started this program about two years ago patient and nursing satisfaction has been going up so we must be doing something right.

mn nurse

35 Posts

I'm not satisfied with my current position, more because my personal and professional goals have changed than anything having to do with the position itself, and I am currently looking for a new position. That's exactly why I chose Nursing as a career, and why I continue to stay. It offers tremendous flexibility in what you can do under the general "nursing" umbrella. There are always other areas you can move into to accomodate your personal needs and interests.

MQ Edna

1 Article; 1,741 Posts

I have been a nurse for 29 years, and yes, I am over 45 yrs of age. I have seen it go full circle, from team nursing, primary nurses to module nursing. We go from having LPN's and RN's together to all RN's, to a mixture of staff. I wonder if we will ever get our act together. I also see a lack of respect between the nursing staff and the physicians, but feel we can fix that with a change in our attitudes. I see nurses stand around and complain about not having enough time to do their work, but waste 30 minutes in the station complaining to each other - they could spend this time working. We as a group need to join together (no I am not talking about unions) as professionals and work toward better working conditions, pay, hours, nurse:patient ratios, etc. I hate to say it, but it is typical that women will not stand together. You can still be a professional and work together to get what you want. Also, I feel sorry for the patient. They are caught in between the drug companies, suppliers, physicians and insurance companies that are all fighting for their piece of the money. God save the patients.

adireen

38 Posts

Sorry, but I don't think the pay is all that terribly low!!!!! Compared to what, VP of a conglomerate? I really don't see nursing pay is that bad. The average is what, about $20 per hour? This is a lot higher than other fields.

Seems like there are many nurses out there complaining about pay, so I thought I would address at least this problem (or lack thereof).

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Irene

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