Does anyone else plan to stay in bedside?

poppycat, ADN, BSN · Jul 13, 2013

Swap the running clothes for scrubs and this will be me doing the ED hustle in a few years:
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"I'm coming! I've got the Dilaudid right here!!"

You might want to wear shoes, though, because you never know what's on the hospital floor! :roflmao:

rumwynnieRN · Jul 13, 2013

I'm 26, and I plan on staying in bedside nursing, at least for a while. The idea of getting my master's is appealing, but I don't even know what I would focus on. Being a nurse practitioner isn't that appealing to me (I applaud some of my former classmates who knew they wanted to go for their MSN in whatever), but I would like to think I would have spent a good 10 to 15 years at least doing bedside care. In the event I decide to purse my MSN, even an NP, I don't think I could totally leave bedside care unless it was for health reasons, like my knees give out or something.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jul 16, 2013

I'm 24 and it seems that all my nursing friends my age and older only use bedside nursing as a stepping stone to CRNP,DNP, CRNA, and NM. I have no issue with that, it just seems like I'm the only one in the group that truly love bedside nursing and when I tell them that they are shocked. I also feel like they think it means I'm settling, but I didn't become a nurse not to work in bedside. I can totally see myself being one of those nurses still working the floor until I'm ready to roll over and die.
I started nursing 8 years ago. I went from a CNA, LPN, RN and now on my way to BSN. So I do understand the politics and the stresses of working in bedside. However, the pros outweigh the cons in my opinions.
My long term goal is to do part-time in bedside and part-time teaching clinicals for LPNs and RNs at a CC. In my area, you need a BSN to teach clinical.
So am I the only one who truly loves being a bedside nurse?

This brings to mind one of my favorite George Burns jokes.

George goes to the doctor and says, "Oh, Doctor, I am so depressed. My neighbor is 87 years old and says he has a cute young thing come to see him three time a week for some hootchie-cootchie. What should I do?"

And the doctor says, " Well, George, you can say that, too."

When I first started teaching students 95% of them all wanted to be in "mother-baby" units or pediatrics. I am sure many other nursing faculty of a certain age can tell you the same story. Many of these students were genuinely shocked to learn that they would be taking rotations in all kinds of units, seeing old people, trauma, and all sorts of other things. And of course, 95% of all nursing students in those years did not, in fact, end up in peds or OB. If so, who's taking care of everyone else? This pattern shifted some when George Clooney was in ER; then 95% of students several damn good reasons. :)

So with today. Everyone wants to be an NP, go to CRNA school, or whatever. Whatever. What-EVER. Anybody can say anything.

Believe me, the vast majority of them will NOT end up there; life has a way of getting in the way. Some will fall in love with other specialties by happenchance, some will run up against tighter admission requirements than they can meet, some will take any job they can get and defer those dreeeaaammmmsss, and ... some will discover that they love bedside nursing for the many reasons many people do.

If one of you has made that decision already, more power to ya. You'l be ahead of the hiring curve, ahead of those goofs that slip and say, "My plan is to work for a year and go to CRNA/NP/whatever school," and lose their chances to get a job from a unit that is totally unwilling to put a year into developing them and then watching their investment saunter out the door.

In short: no, not everyone will be leaving the bedside. Good thing there are people like you. Get your education, get all you can, learn as much as you want. You can still apply it singly or broadly in bedside care. Bedside doesn't mean undereducated (although there are plenty of undereducated bedside nurses). Open mind, and good luck!