Got No Job? Come be an RN !

It seems to me anybody and anybody can do nursing, doesn't matter if you are really interested or not, not important if you care about people or not, not relevant if you have a passion for nursing or not just come along we will train you and then you can look after our sick, elderly, frail, poor homeless, drug seekers. Without passion, without caring, sometimes with little comprehension of what that poor sick person in the bed needs. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

Got No Job? Come be an RN !

I am fed up with hearing about people seeing nursing as a quick route to money it is so much more and it offends me that nursing is used as a short cut to being employed. We should have stricter entry rules and by this I mean more screening to make sure the nurses coming into the profession actually want to be a nurse for the right reasons and employment not being one of them.

We all know nursing is a hard profession it takes from your soul sometimes but you know who has the passion because they ride the storms better than the nurses who dont have it.

I have had a passion for nursing most of my life and I am now struggling with some of the harsh realities-but give me a patient any patient and I come alive, I thrive. I forget why I am tired after all my years, I forget why I want a new job, I forget why the management make my life harder each day.

For me nursing is almost like acting I can be somebody else with a patient I can be who they need me to be for that person and their family, I have the ability to calm a tense situation, I can bring trust to the room, I can make that patient feel like they are the most special person in the hospital and that nothing is too much trouble for me. I have knowledge and can educate. I can make that person feel safe, I can make them laugh even when they don't want to, I can be their advocate, their confident, their friend, but also I can persuade them to take the shot, to take the medicine, to go for the test. I can hold their hand and I can be firm. I can predict their mood and can listen to their worries and woes. I can educate their families and friends and I can educate and train their future RN's.

It doesn't matter that outside that room chaos is happening, that 3 other pts need me as much if not more than the patient I am with. They at that moment are the most special important person in my working day.

In 20 years I have had this ability it has shone out of every bone in my body. I have smiled constantly even if my world is falling apart. I have the passion I can make somebodies life better, I know my 'stuff' and I care.

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madwife2002

About madwife2002, BSN, RN

RN with 26 years of experience many of those years spent in dialysis. I have worked in acute care, home, ICHD as a CN, FA, and currently a director.

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I am fed up with hearing about people seeing nursing as a quick route to money it is so much more and it offends me that nursing is used as a short cut to being employed. We should have stricter entry rules and by this I mean more screening to make sure the nurses coming into the profession actually want to be a nurse for the right reasons and employment not being one of them.

I definitely understand your frustration of it being portrayed that way! However, I think the system is actually working in the sense of weeding out the unmotivated ones. The quickest route to become a full fledged RN would either be an ADN or diploma school. I don't know about you but 2+ years minimum is a good amount of time and sweat to put into some 'quick money'. On top of that, once in the programs the drop rates are astronomical. One RN I was working with the other night stated that they started out with 70 and ended up with something like 13 people! That is 81% of the class that did not graduate and will have to find another way to get that 'quick money'. For people like me that already have a Bachelors, it is still taking me a year of pre-req's while also volunteering weekly and working in a low paying entry level healthcare job. I happen to really like it, but I can fathom that some of the ones motivated by dollar signs would have a hard time pushing on. Well, even if the unmotivated ones don't make it....they are at least adding some extra income to these nursing programs for as long as they attend.

:twocents:

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Cut it out already. Enough! Who are you to judge another's motives? What makes you think that even with the income egging them on, that those same people may not later like nursing and become the best at it. Better than even the nurses who potray to be in nursing for simply selfless reasons.

Do your best to your employers and your patients, you owe them that much and try to stop griping about other motives and their "motives". This is so played now.

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To all the people who feel being an RN is so easy. "I don't know why there is a nursing shortage, why don't they just hire people."

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In about two years we are in for some very interesting post here on allnurses. Wait till that batch of graduates and find out what they are in for out there in the nursing job market. They will be back here spiting mad. Maybe management will be in for a shock also, finding themselves with a bunch of employees that won't settle for being treated like pond scum. Maybe there will be some lawsuits against all those people that told the prospective student nurses they would make great money, have great bennies and have job SECURITY. Your security goes right up till the moment when management decides they want to be rid of you.

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I think that mostly it's the young kids, that see TV and think that's how life would be for them if they should pursue those careerpaths. Just as many universities as community colleges are getting into the quick cash that these programs bring in. Gullable is gullable, I guess. I do feel sorry for the kid who watches those food network shows and thinks he can just be a chef and own a restaurant, when the line at Dennys is more likely. You can talk to anybody, in any profession and they will have a soapbox story for you about "all I ever wanted to do in life was... and here are all of these people competing for my spot". I have MD friends that hate the students that seemingly no longer pay dues these days. You'll also notice that the areas of medicine that have seen declining earning potential will quickly lose the interest of med students as well (but that has always been).

I have begun to get the idea that many people are never cognizant of the world revolving around them. It's good to bring non healthcare people into your lives. You will see, this type of change has been going on for many and for many years.

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Specializes in Abdominal Transplant.
In about two years we are in for some very interesting post here on allnurses. Wait till that batch of graduates and find out what they are in for out there in the nursing job market. They will be back here spiting mad. Maybe management will be in for a shock also, finding themselves with a bunch of employees that won't settle for being treated like pond scum. Maybe there will be some lawsuits against all those people that told the prospective student nurses they would make great money, have great bennies and have job SECURITY. Your security goes right up till the moment when management decides they want to be rid of you.

That's just what I want to hear as I'm applying for nursing school! :jester:

In all seriousness, the main reason I decided on nursing was because I believed the hype about job security, benefits, flexibility, money. A year later on this site, I'm still interested in nursing. I've always wanted to be doing something helpful and useful. There are many people in my classes (pre-reqs even!) that do not seem like that type. I see less and less each semester, and hope that pattern continues without leaving me behind!

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.
In about two years we are in for some very interesting post here on allnurses. Wait till that batch of graduates and find out what they are in for out there in the nursing job market. They will be back here spiting mad. Maybe management will be in for a shock also, finding themselves with a bunch of employees that won't settle for being treated like pond scum. Maybe there will be some lawsuits against all those people that told the prospective student nurses they would make great money, have great bennies and have job SECURITY. Your security goes right up till the moment when management decides they want to be rid of you.

As a new grad that was laid off 5 months into their orientation and cut one month short; I can understand this. I am in California which is an "At Will State" and I was working at a hospital that was not unionized. Being a new grad that was unable to finish their orientation in a job market with people that have been looking for jobs over a year? Yikes. Fortunately I got offered a job in the same field but its 45 mins away (vs. 3) is per-diem and no benefits (vs. full time and awesome benefits) and pays significantly less. But I am still grateful.

The higher you get, the harder you fall. Before I lost my job I had just graduated from nursing school with my BSN which I worked hard for for many years and had been wanting to do since a kid. My husband and I just bought our first house. I had my dream job: it paid well, was three mins from my house, had great benefits, and was in the department I went to school for: L&D. I was finally at a point that I felt secure and my marriage was benefiting from that. The tension of not having a job while stressing in nursing school and not having heath care had finally been released and my "biological clock" which had probably been ignored by the tension was finally heard. My husband and I had plans for me to work a year so I was comfortable with my job and then start trying. Why not? We have been married over 9 years, at the time I had an awesome job, we finally had our home, I got us both awesome health insurance...And now? my clock is still clicking but I don't feel like I can respond to it. I was laid off over a month ago and though I was finally at terms with it. Then yesterday I started bawling because all I could think about how getting laid off completely screwed up my plans; which were so perfect. When I had the job I always though it was too good to be true because everything was so perfect. But I would remind myself that I worked my butt off to get there and that I deserved it. But I guess it was too good to be true, and why? because of a cruddy ecomony? Because last one hired is the first one let go? Because I live in a state that give no security to employees?

Nursing does not have job security.

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Specializes in LTC Family Practice.

It's not just RN's it's LPN's and MA's too. I agree, people think it's a fast easy buck from the outside, I do hope the schools weed these people out. However, on the flip side, I can see some displaced auto workers used to strong unions not being treated like pond scum. So who knows there certainly are pluses and minuses.

I went to school when nursing was considered a "calling" and you were interviewed and tested psychologically before being admitted to nursing school. Now they look at pre-req grades and test scores.

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Specializes in M/S, Travel Nursing, Pulmonary.

I have to respectfully disagree.

Being employed and making a living for yourself is in and of itself more than a lot of people are willing to do. Someone who decides welfare and public support is not the route they want and see's nursing as a way to make a living shouldn't be chastised for not feeling like they had some "calling from above".

Lots of people in every profession are in it simply for the check. They go to work, do what they have to do, make a living and get on with life. I don't understand the constant insistence that nursing should somehow not allow this individual in. People of this nature are vital to nursing's survival. We are packed with the "higher calling" types, and in my experience, they are the ones who burn out, not the one's who just see nursing as a job. The one's who simply see themselves as punching in and out tend to keep their cool while the "higher calling" nurses are getting their panties in a bunch over issues that are none of their business.

I see it on my current unit. The "God speaks through me" types get all worked up when staffing and the budget are cut, spend all day in a tissy fit over being told they have to do things differently, and completely lose any pt. focus because they are preoccupied with preaching about how "REAL pt. care is being threatened". Meanwhile, the less emotionally invested ones go about their business as usual and give about the same level of care despite the staffing ratios not being as good.

Besides, you can't mandate "caring". If you tried, people would just lie and do things the way the planned to anyway.

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To bad. I went into nursing several years ago after getting laid off. I went into it for two reasons and two reasons only: Job Security, and the ability to make the $$$ I wanted. I found a niche that suited me enough and do a good job because I'm professional. The idea that you have to have all this desire to help humanity to be a good nurse is baloney. I talk with other competent, professional nurses at work all the time about how if we could make the same money waiting tables or cutting grass, we'd be gone in an instant.

Screen nurses entering the field? Who gets to make the decision on who is good enough and who is not? That sounds like a total corrupt or power-mongerer process.

Get over your resentment of all of us who are here for the hours, money, and job security because there is a ton of us and we don't care if you like us or not. I tell buddies laid off from the auto industry every week to go into nursing. Several are looking into it, and if they pursue it they'll be great nurses.

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Specializes in Gerontology, nursing education.
In about two years we are in for some very interesting post here on allnurses. Wait till that batch of graduates and find out what they are in for out there in the nursing job market. They will be back here spiting mad. Maybe management will be in for a shock also, finding themselves with a bunch of employees that won't settle for being treated like pond scum. Maybe there will be some lawsuits against all those people that told the prospective student nurses they would make great money, have great bennies and have job SECURITY. Your security goes right up till the moment when management decides they want to be rid of you.

I guess what really disturbs me about this is that some schools, particularly the proprietary schools, are pushing their programs as a panacea to unemployment without any real grasp on the realities of the job market. For example, I've seen some very aggressive marketing for practical nursing programs in my area and yet the major health care employer is planning on pursuing magnet status and is no longer hiring practical nurses. Where, pray tell, are those graduates going to work? While currently there are some practical nurse job opportunities in clinics and LTC, I am not sure those places will have enough openings in the future to employ all the practical nursing grads that are being churned out at some of these schools.

And even if they do have openings, will those new graduates necessarily want to work in clinics or LTC if they went into nursing thinking they'd get hired in acute care settings?

I do believe, however, that people get into all sorts of professions simply for the money. Some discover that they enjoy the work while others dislike it no matter how much they get paid. I'm not sure I have the right to judge someone else's motives for entering nursing. I've seen people enter nursing with all the best intentions of wanting to "help" others but they don't last in school or in the profession because of a lack of knowledge, critical thinking skills or technological expertise. On the other hand, one can possess a tremendous amount of skill and knowledge and still be a mediocre or poor nurse because he/she doesn't have the heart for the job.

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