Happy Nurses? Anyone???

[dmarie (GA)]

Hi. I'm a nursing student, doing well in school, graduate in September. I've been working at my degree for almost 4 years; pre-reqs. and waiting to get in..... then transfering to another school. Anyway, I'm still plugging away.

I visit this site often, and it seems like all I read/see is negativity. Nurses who hate their jobs, bad preceptors, toxic work enviornments, mean charge nurses, evil co-workers, ungrateful patients, rude doctors, etc. etc. etc.

Nurses with broken backs, broken spirits, and broken bank accounts. People on skid row.

Any nurses out there who LIKE their jobs? ENJOY their patients or coworkers? Reaping the REWARDS of nursing school in great enviornments where they are utilized in a positive way?

I'm sorry, but all this negativity is really bumming me out!!! :(

[nursemike, ASN, RN]

I love my stupid job. It's hard, it's stressful, and sometimes it just flat-out sucks. The pay is decent, but never goes as far as one might expect. A lot of my patients are wonderful. Got kissed by a lol last weekend. Some of them are obnoxious, or needy, or demanding, or smell bad, and some are just complicated to care for. I no longer have nausea/vomitting/diahrrea before work, but I still get butterflies. My co-workers are great, except for a few that aren't.

If I knew then what I know now, would I still choose nursing for a career?

Depends. Does the NFL need a good 5'6", 50 y.o middle linebacker? Is NASA hiring? I think I'd make a really good astronaut. Do spacesuits come in 2XL? Also, if anyone has a few extra million they need to get rid of, I think I could be a reasonably competent jet-setting playboy and/or spy.

But being a nurse is okay.

[Euphrosyne7, MSN, RN]

Hi:

I absolutely love nursing. Although I have only been an RN for under a month, prior to that, I was a student intern for about a year. I think it helps having an absolutely fabulous preceptor, and also that I feel like I was born to be in the ED, which is where I am now.

There are so many options in nursing that if you don't like one certain area, you can always move onto another. Same goes for facilities. The people I work with now are great. If I were at another facility, I may not feel the same. Nursing is tough, and you can burnout quickly, but if you work in an area that you love, and have good coworkers, although you will have bad days, it can be an excellent profession.

I used to be in charge of running a law office, and at this time, I couldn't be happier with the decision I made to go into nursing. I actually look forward to going to work now and learn something new every day.

Good luck,

Carla

[AliRae]

To add my voice, yup. As hokey as it might sound, I feel that nursing is a calling for me. As in, if I were doing anything else, I would be missing out on what I should really be doing in life.

I have a small photography business on the side, and clients are frequently telling me to quit nursing and go full-time into photography. "It's so much less stressful," they say. Or, "You can just set your own hours!" That may be true, but I want to laugh every time they suggest it. Despite it all, (and you know what the "all" is, since you read the vents on the forum) I love nursing.

I had a nursing student under my wing yesterday (wonderful girl, I think she's going to do really well!) and we were changing a kid. Midway through, he pooped right on my hand. (Gloved, no worries.) I caught sight of the student's horrified face, and we both burst out laughing. And that's how I know I'm doing what I should be doing ... I get pooped on and laugh about it. :roll

[lauralassie]

Yes , for the most part I love taking care of pt's. I love the challenge involved with critical care nursing. I always have to be ready for anything. I also have those days that I can't wait to get home and hate to go back. But , that is the way it is in any job. Just remember, this is a place where nurses can vent. Nursing is wounderful.

[Zozo]

when i startes nursing school its coz i needed somethign to do, pass time before i get a career i want. . . . .

what i wanna do is grow in my career till wherever i can, and enjoyit in the process.

:imbar

Isn't English class a requirement to get through nursing school? Poor english skills do not help the profession of nursing as a whole.

I am only a pre-nursing student trying to make my decision on whether or not to go ahead with pursuing a nursing career. One of the reasons I do not want to enter nursing is the perception that just anyone off the street can become a nurse. Reading posts with really bad spelling and grammar make my skin crawl to think that someone's life is possibly in this illiterate person's hands.

I'll also add that I strongly believe that people can have awesome practical skills and still have terrible writing skills, so I hope that the person I quoted is a good nurse. But it still makes nurses look bad! Would YOU want a nurse that sounds uneducated and unprofessional???

[zuzi]

Doodle with ONLY 3 posts on AN and making BIG judgments to others... my opinion at this moment, is that is not a nice way to go, loool

Help her, support her and you will support your self ...one day.

The thread is old, the problem is actual still.... is not about nurses or nursing is about PEOPLE style, happy or not.

I am a happy nurse and i will be ever. Enjoy girl, keep going, you will love it!

[Zozo]

Ok, I know it's not "nice" to start out that way, but I have a bachelor's in lit, so it's my pet peeve.

I want so badly for nurses to be respected for all of their education and hard work. I'm not trying to judge anyone, I'm just trying to raise a point that each nurse represents all nurses to whoever he or she encounters. One unprofessional/rude/fill-in-the-blank nurse ruins everyone's cred.

I have noticed that nurses are not given the respect they deserve and I want to know why.

One reason is a lack of professionalism. (Obviously the minority!) But I've had the misfortune to be treated by bad nurses before. This is one of my motivators to become a nurse. I want to be the kind of nurse that I would want to have.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

Rest assured, DoodleB ... not too, too long ago we had a "grammar pet peeves" thread here at allnurses.com. It was lengthy, and some posters' peeves were persnickety enough to bring back memories of elementary school.

And I completely agree with you. Once again, I'm left cringing knowing that allnurses.com posts show up in search engines.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

Oh, and for the record, I'm a pretty happy nurse.

[zuzi]

Is hard for me like as foreign nurse, not native English writer and speaker to respond you in the terms in what you expected to read. Much more like me are a lot of other foreign nurses came here. Always will be a difference, in grammar and in structure sentence. If for YOU looks unprofessional…. for me unprofessional is a rude attitude and “I know everything” style.

Assuming who you are, what you know and what not, learning each day, assuming your past, present and believing in future whatever it will be, …. YOU will be a great nurse, even if your English speaking skills will be not like for all others.

Be honest with your self whatever you will do, wherever you will be….being a NURSE without being a human is not a good choice, even if google help you in searching “the path”, loooooool. A lot of love from Cali!

[bagladyrn, RN]

Is hard for me like as foreign nurse, not native English writer and speaker to respond you in the terms in what you expected to read. Much more like me are a lot of other foreign nurses came here. Always will be a difference, in grammar and in structure sentence. If for YOU looks unprofessional.... for me unprofessional is a rude attitude and "I know everything" style.

Assuming who you are, what you know and what not, learning each day, assuming your past, present and believing in future whatever it will be, .... YOU will be a great nurse, even if your English speaking skills will be not like for all others.

Be honest with your self whatever you will do, wherever you will be....being a NURSE without being a human is not a good choice, even if google help you in searching "the path", loooooool. A lot of love from Cali!

Zuzi dear,

Don't worry about your command of English. You do well in getting your point across and differences generally are obvious that that the cause is "English as a second language", not lack of education! Sometime you should hear my attempts at Spanish - although it does provide comic relief for my patients!

I do empathize though with the previous poster concerning posts from those who obviously do not pay attention to spelling, grammar and sentence structure in their native language, English. One of my personal quirks is that I am so bothered by these errors that I actually changed my driving route to work to avoid having to see a misspelled sign on a storefront on my commute! Extreme, yes, but at least I recognize this and try not to inflict it on others!

[NurseExec]

I love my job, and I love being a nurse. If you'd asked me 10 years ago if I'd ever take a management position, I'd have had a good laugh over it. If you'd asked me if I would ever be a DON, I'd probably have been speechless, than laughed my a&& off! But, here I am, and I love it just as much as I loved being at the bedside. Who knew?? Goes to show you--never say never!