A dose of reality I didnt need!

nurs4kids · Aug 12, 2001

someone please pick me up off the floor

i gotta agree too! lol

KC CHICK · Aug 12, 2001

Just think about this post when there are no new nurses to fill your positions when you do go out to pasture - someday.

Have a nice day.

Yes, I did go straight into the OR to avoid floor nursing. However, the OR has probs of its own in retaining newbies. The median age of the average OR nurse is around 45 now I think.

PhantomRN · Aug 12, 2001

I also agree with wildtime. I think what new grads need is a dose of reality. This may allow them to walk into nursing with their eyes wide open and maybe then we will have less RN's leaving the field after a year or two.

KCchick---You disagree with her post, however you came out of school and went right into the OR to avoid floor nursing????

heartholder · Aug 12, 2001

i too went straight to the or from nursing school.....

1.) because i loved the or the first time i walked into one.

2.) no weekends or holidays!!!!

but believe me the or isn't for wimps, you have to have a strong personality to survive...but once you get through the first 2 years..you begin to feel like an or nurse:d and that is a great feeling...

just my 2 cents worth...

:eek:

NursePooh · Aug 13, 2001

originally posted by heartholder
i too went straight to the or from nursing school.....
1.) because i loved the or the first time i walked into one.
2.) no weekends or holidays!!!!
but believe me the or isn't for wimps, you have to have a strong personality to survive...but once you get through the first 2 years..you begin to feel like an or nurse:d and that is a great feeling...
just my 2 cents worth...

no weekends or holidays? geeze, where do you work? the hospital where i worked (albeit briefly) in the or had weekend and holiday call. not to mention weeknight call. it was entirely possible to get called in at midnight, then end up working your scheduled day shift on top of whatever emergency you dealt with all night. nasty.

my or experience was far worse than anything i ever went through as a floor nurse. the politics, the backstabbing, the turf wars...it was ridiculous. i felt like a downstairs maid most of the time. the experienced or nurses seemed to believe in the boot camp mentality of training new nurses....chew 'em up, spit 'em out, and see if they can take it. they burnt me crispy in less than 8 months...i left nursing and haven't looked back. and i had 5 years under my belt before i went there. guess i'm just a wimp :rolleyes:

BeeStrong · Aug 13, 2001

Yes, Dorothy, there are burned out nurses out there !!! And they have good reason to be....try being floated to a floor you have never been oriented to, and assigned 15 very sick patients you have never seen before....guess what, you'll be burned out before you know it!! Not all burned out nurses are mean or lazy or bad attitudes; they are simply tired. They have answered many thousands of call lights over the years, called many codes, trained many new grads; worked thousands and thoussands of hours of overtime and with very little thanks and not much to show for it. It may not have been the best thing to post on a student nurse site; but....how else are the students going to get a real picture of real life on the floor. We had a new grad quit after three days because she said her school program had not prepared her for the real world, you have to start somewhere.

Level2Trauma · Aug 13, 2001

TRUCE!!! TRUCE!!! I have a plan!!! Student nurses stay on the student nurse's forum and the practicing nurses will do the same. We won't clue you in on what to expect and you will be BLIND and IGNORANT in regards to what lies before you. Simply stated: DON'T JUDGE A NURSE UNTIL YOU HAVE WALKED IN "THEIR" SHOES!!!

RNforLongTime · Aug 14, 2001

Yes, things have gotten worse since I became a new nurse and that was a measly 4 years ago. In the face of this nursing shortage, I believe that we nurses are in a powerful position to get what we want from our employers.

If a person is unhappy in their present job then that person needs to find a new one asap. The unhappiness will trickle down to fellow nurses and just make a bad situation worse.

There are quite a few days that I say that I want to chuck it and go work at Wal-mart but the satisfaction I get each time someone tells me that I am a good nurse(usually a patient) makes it worthwhile and re-inforces my reasonings for becoming a nurse in the first place.

I don't believe in sugarcoating things. I think student nurses need to know the obstacles they will face when they get into the "real world" of nursing in the 2000's. It's not easy and somedays it's not fun but there are sick people that depend on us nurses to take care of them. And that is our job. We can whine and bellyache till we are blue in the face. I do that all the time. Helps to blow off steam and vent a little bit. But I know that there are people out there who are depending on me and my skill and compassion and get right back out there and do my job to the best of my ability.

I too work with nurses that dont help out. It infuriates me to no end. Teamwork is severely lacking on my unit second shift. When I am not busy, I offer my assistance to fellow nurses who are busy. But there are a few RN's that I work with who never return the favor even when asked and it ticks me off. But oh well, hopefully those nurses will burn in hell--lol--jk.

Kelly :)

NursePooh · Aug 14, 2001

Originally posted by kaknurse
I don't believe in sugarcoating things. I think student nurses need to know the obstacles they will face when they get into the "real world" of nursing in the 2000's. It's not easy and somedays it's not fun

I think the original post title is very interesting...this student admits that the realities of modern day nursing are unpleasant but would prefer to remain blissfully ignorant. Hmmmmm. When I was in school, nobody told me doodly squat about what to expect in the "real world". I spent the first 6 months of my career wandering around in a daze muttering "they didn't tell me it would be like this!" I don't think our instructors did us any favors by spending all their time telling us how things should be, instead of how they are

LadyLurker · Aug 14, 2001

When I was in school, our teachers told us all about "reality shock", but we weren't really prepared for the world outside the rarified life of a student. I had spent summers working as a nurse's aide, in a nursing home, so I was a bit less idealistic than some of my fellow students. But it still came as a dramatic shock to all of us.

That was >20 years ago, and I still wish a nurse had come to speak with my class, and tell us of all the crap we'd be facing. At least then it wouldn't have been a surprise!

I've since worked in LTC for my entire career, and am now ready to get out of nursing completely. I know, however, that I cannot.... so I'm considering moving out of nursing homes to retirement homes. It's a different pace, a different set of gov't rules and regulations, and a different setting. That will preserve the shreds of health and joint mobility I have left , and allow me to enjoy my final years in this field.

I've been offered an opportunity to teach personal support workers, but I turned it down, knowing I was too cynical and bitter about this profession to do the students much good.... it's one thing to provide truths about nursing, it's another thing to b*tch about the world.

As for the original post, and the replies it received, I must say I agree with wildtimes.... students SHOULD hear this stuff.... personally, I find nothing more annoying or irritating than an *idealistic* new grad who finds fault with all I do, simply because that wasn't the way she was taught. Get a grip sweetie, this is real life now, and you have MUCH more than a couple non-critical patients/residents/clients to contend with.

Whoever said "Don't judge a nurse until you've walked a mile in HER shoes" was dead on right.

PhantomRN · Aug 14, 2001

AMEN