Is it really that bad?

Asystole RN · May 10, 2016

Don't let Allnurses scare you, the vast majority of nurses are happy...they just are not vocal. I once heard that 10% of people with a positive experience will say something but something like 80% of people with a negative experience will say something.

Nursing is a fantastically diverse profession with many, many options to practice. My wife works from home and I work in a corporate office. I have a family member who is a lobbyist for healthcare related issues (nurse) and worked with someone who opened her own family practice and Coumadin clinic. I work with nurses that only do clinical research, I work with nurses that travel the world speaking.

If you ever encounter a nurse who complains about "nursing" then you have encountered a nurse who has not found their specialty or work setting.

Kimbo3377 · May 10, 2016

I am right there with you! I am leaving my social media position to pursue nursing, and this app has freaked me out. I am 100% sure of my desire to help others through nursing and I am trying to not believe 90% of what I see on here.

roser13, ASN, RN · May 10, 2016

Don't let Allnurses scare you, the vast majority of nurses are happy...they just are not vocal. I once heard that 10% of people with a positive experience will say something but something like 80% of people with a negative experience will say something.
Nursing is a fantastically diverse profession with many, many options to practice. My wife works from home and I work in a corporate office. I have a family member who is a lobbyist for healthcare related issues (nurse) and worked with someone who opened her own family practice and Coumadin clinic. I work with nurses that only do clinical research, I work with nurses that travel the world speaking.
If you ever encounter a nurse who complains about "nursing" then you have encountered a nurse who has not found their specialty or work setting.

I don't want to be the gloomy gus here but I think this post is overly optimistic for today's realities. You have to admit that most new grad RN's will not travel the world speaking. Nor will they open their own family practice and Coumadin clinic (how does that even happen when RN's cannot bill for their time?). And a lobbyist is a very seasoned, experienced nurse who has definitely put in his/her time in the trenches.

And the trenches are the problem. I absolutely disagree that anyone who complains about nursing "has not found their specialty or work setting." And to make that statement just shows that the writer is definitely out of touch with the realities of the nursing world. Right now, acute, chronic & long-term care is absolutely grueling for the most part. Those are the positions, for the most part, that are available to the new grad. Corporate has taken over nursing in a big way. Budgets are squeezed. Nurse/patient ratios are squeezed. Raises are minimal to none. It is not fun out there. It is particularly not fun for new grads, the vast majority of whom are having difficulty even finding jobs (but that's the subject for another thread). Nursing today for the majority of us is stressful to the nth degree.

So, OP, I think you are wise to question. Keep reading and researching.

beachgirl17 · May 10, 2016

Hi there, I saw your post and had to respond. I am a dental hygienist and a registered nurse. I worked full-time as a dental hygienist, before going back to nursing school. People in my life were like, "what are you thinking?" Dental hygiene is decent money, decent hours, and not too much stress. I was not happy though. I felt like you about it being a sales job. I did not feel fulfilled. After finishing nursing school, I worked on a med-surg floor and was truly unhappy. I lasted there for only two years. Then, I moved on to a procedural area and found that it is much better. Nursing hours are generally not good, but the ability to change jobs is wonderful. I don't like to feel like I am tied to a job if it is not working and I felt like that with dental hygiene. I just kept thinking, "I don't want to be doing this in 20 years." Now I am continuing on with my education and going for my masters degree, so I will have more options in the future.

I have kept my dental hygiene license and filled in as needed at the dental office. It has been fun to keep that side of my career, too.

Would I do this all again? Well......my job is currently stressing me out!!

My advice is make sure nursing is the actual health care specialty you want and not just the obvious choice. Physical therapy, occupational therapy, surgical technicians, pharmacy.....there are so many options. Unfortunately, you are the only one who can decide if a career change is what you want. Good luck to you!

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · May 10, 2016

IF you are accepted , you will be required to work at the bedside during your clinical rotations , and perhaps another year at the bedside until you gain experience to qualify for a clinic job.

Clinic and assisted living facilities pay peanuts.

Farawyn · May 10, 2016

IF you are accepted , you will be required to work at the bedside during your clinical rotations , and perhaps another year at the bedside until you gain experience to qualify for a clinic job.
Clinic and assisted living facilities pay peanuts.

Not always. My clinic job was associated with my hospital and I made MORE there than I did on the floors- before I was NM there.

I agree with roser13.

If we come here to complain, we may be blowing off steam. We need to. It is a stressful job.

That being said, I'm happy to say I've spent my career as an RN.

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · May 10, 2016

Not always. My clinic job was associated with my hospital and I made MORE there than I did on the floors- before I was NM there.
I agree with roser13.
If we come here to complain, we may be blowing off steam. We need to. It is a stressful job.
That being said, I'm happy to say I've spent my career as an RN.

Certainly agree that a hospital clinic position pays as much as a floor nurse position.

However, a new grad would rarely land one.

Sage611 · May 10, 2016

I am not opposed to paying my dues to gain experience, but I hope to have a work/life balance. Money is not my primary motivator. I appreciate everyone's insight.

elkpark · May 11, 2016

I'm curious about what you mean by dental hygienist being a "sales job." I've been going to dentists all my life, having my teeth cleaned by the hygienists, and they assisted with procedures the dentist did, but no dental hygienist I've encountered has ever tried to sell me anything. What kind of "selling" do you feel you're being pressure to do?

westieluv · May 11, 2016

I have worked in assisted living facilities and it is not low stress by any means, the stress is just different than that in acute, inpatient care.

I worked nights and was the only nurse responsible for 70 residents with the help of three aides. I passed all meds, made all physician calls, and handled all emergencies. Sadly, the day nurse had the same situation, with the exception of having an LPN/unit manager to help out if she had time. People tend to think of ALFs as places where the residents are pretty independent with just a few minor needs. What people don't realize is that there are many, many people living in ALFs who have no business being there because of advanced dementia, weakness, and chronic illness. However, when it comes down to the resident or their family refusing to see the reality of their condition and insisting that they "just need a little help" and it comes down to letting them stay or losing out on their money, guess which side wins?

To make matters worse, almost every facility is now a restraint free facility, and they consider EVERYTHING to be a restraint, so there is really no way to monitor someone who has dementia and wanders except to practically sit on them the entire shift. We used to cheat on night shift and put a piece of scotch tape on a few residents' doors so that we could tell immediately if the tape was disturbed that they had tried to open the door and wander without having to take time to go into their apartment and check on them every few minutes, which was just not possible, given the amount of work we were given to do. This was considered a restraint and we would have probably been fired had management known about it, but it was in the dead of winter and the facility doors locked at night behind anyone who left the building, so if we were busy with any of our other 70 residents and someone wandered, it could have been catastrophic by the time we realized that someone had wandered outdoors.

I don't mean to discourage, just to point out that just about every area of nursing has felt the cold, hard reality of reduced reimbursement from the government and insurance companies and cuts have had to be made pretty much everywhere, meaning doing more with fewer nurses. Assisted living probably used to be a relatively low stress type of nursing, but today's reality might surprise you. I won't even get into the difference between staffing and stress levels between now and when I became a nurse back in 1990. It is very sad, but is the reality and why you are hearing so many horror stories.

Best of luck in whatever you decide to do.

DeeAngel · May 11, 2016

Many clinic settings employe LPNs, NP and medical assistants, not RNs. You mentioned assisted living, all the ones I know of hire only LPNs. I retired at age 60 because I just got tired of the crazy, stressful rat race and I worked at a hospital considered to be the best to work at in the state. On the med sure floor I worked at new grads put their one year in and then all left for other jobs. The day charge nurses each had less than one year experience each but were the charges because they were the ones with most seniority on the floor!

I could not in good conscience recommend anyone go into nursing.