Is nursing really that bad??

[missy22]

I have been considering a nursing career ever since I was laid off from my job in April. My 1st career choice back in High School was to be a nurse but I needed money so I got a job instead of college. I had a great paying job in real estate (need I say more!!)

I am looking for a career change that will give me stability, so I went back to the idea of nursing. At this point in my life I can really go in any direction I want, but I feel nursing was, and still is my calling.

Now that I have researched this career, it sounds like it's a horrible job!! Most nurses complain about the stress, the hours, the pay, the doctors, management, patients and worst of all other nurses.....

What is the benefit of helping people if you hate everything else around you? I am starting to believe that part of the shortage is because of the current nurses driving prospective nurses away. I am starting to reconsider, but before I do, I have to ask......

Is nursing really that bad?

[chevyv, BSN, RN]

Nursing is what you make it. Every job you will ever work will have good and bad points. If it is a calling, you'll be fine. How can anyone tell you if nursing is good or bad? If it's for you, then you will find bad and the good that keeps most nurses coming back.

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

Personally, it's like any career. Hard days, long hours, and some shifts are bad ones...but, for every minus there is a plus. 3 days a week work week? Making a difference? Taking every day for what it's worth, and not taking anyone for granted? all pluses to me.

[NurseLay]

Personally I think nursing is a great career. I am a new grad and all through nursing school I kept asking myself if nursing was right for me. I have been a nurse in critical care for about three months now and I love my job. I think you will have to find a unit that suites you well and a hospital that is very supportive and protective of their nursing staff, my facility is. I like working three 12 hour shifts and then being finished with my work week. I love taking care of the kids and adults whose lives I am making a difference in. I think nurses are the backbone of the hospital. With a career in nursing, you can switch units and advance to other levels, become an advanced practice nurse and have more autonomy (sp?). See if you can visit some hospitals and shadow a few units! I hope you will not get turned off from nursing.

[RN1982]

Some days are good, some are bad. Just like any other job.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

My first six months was horrible. I felt completely unprepared for the reality of being a staff nurse on an acute care floor. However, thanks to the support of my colleagues, as well as coming here to read the experiences of others and know I wasn't alone, I was able to see it through and things are much, much better now.

Yes, nursing can be stressful. Yes, working with aides, other nurses, and doctors can be stressful. Yes, working with patients can be stressful. Often, I feel like a glorified waitress in the eyes of many a patient or their family member.

But overall, I can't think of a more rewarding career, and I can't imagine myself anywhere else doing anything else.

[bassandtea]

I'm a second career nursing student and have just finished my first prac. I'm not naive enough to be unaware of the problems that nurses face - and even if I had been my eyes would have been opened after spending just 3 weeks in a hospital. Yes there is stress, under-staffing, long hours, patients and families that will drive you crazy or scare you, but there are rewards that I have only experienced in one other (volunteer) job - which was being an animal foster carer...

In the last three weeks of prac I have laughed and cried and swore I would never go back, but just as things seemed terrible something wonderful would happen... And for the first time I was doing something I could see myself doing for a long time to come. To be honest, I've been exhausted for the last few weeks and have spent most of the last couple of days sleeping. I spent nights dreaming about doing rounds and checking obs, but most of all I smile at the thought of some of the patients...

Like the one I met on my first day who scared me so much I almost ran away... confused and feeling trapped in the hospital, unable to walk who I got to discover was a wonderful person, liked singing along to Johnny Cash and was able to walk with assistance from the physio before I left... Or the one that almost had me in tears at the gratitude expressed for just taking a moment to have a quick chat (a real advantage to being a student) with somebody who felt scared and alone... I could go on about so many little things that made up for the bad...

[Valerie Salva, BSN, RN]

Nursing is what you make it. Every job you will ever work will have good and bad points. If it is a calling, you'll be fine. How can anyone tell you if nursing is good or bad? If it's for you, then you will find bad and the good that keeps most nurses coming back.

I really get annoyed when people say "nursing is what you make it."

Nurses cannot make the working conditions, the staff to pt ratios, the pay scales, the work load. We cannot make employers stock sufficient supplies or replace old, broken equipment.

Nurses can change jobs, but in my experience, conditions don't vary much from place to place.

Nursing is a rewarding career in a number of ways, but it is very, very difficult.

[Valerie Salva, BSN, RN]

Personally I think nursing is a great career. I am a new grad and all through nursing school I kept asking myself if nursing was right for me. I have been a nurse in critical care for about three months now and I love my job. I think you will have to find a unit that suites you well and a hospital that is very supportive and protective of their nursing staff, my facility is. I like working three 12 hour shifts and then being finished with my work week. I love taking care of the kids and adults whose lives I am making a difference in. I think nurses are the backbone of the hospital. With a career in nursing, you can switch units and advance to other levels, become an advanced practice nurse and have more autonomy (sp?). See if you can visit some hospitals and shadow a few units! I hope you will not get turned off from nursing.

I'm sure that makes a big difference!

[Critical_Care_RN]

Nursing is definitely a difficult field. However, if you feel that nursing is truly a calling for you, I say go for it. You won't regret it if it truly is a calling. There'll be good days and there will be bad days. There are lots of docs out there with "god complexes" who think they can do no wrong and will find something wrong in everything you do regardless of whether you do exactly as they tell you. There are other docs who are very respectful of nurses and will never have a rude comment. There are patients and families who will assume that they, or their family member, are the only patient you have and will be quite angry to find out that isn't the case. There are those who think "H" stands for "Hilton" rather than hospital and I even had a patient tell me once that the only difference between a hotel and a hospital was that the menu at the hotel didn't include all those good pain meds he could get at the hospital On the other hand, there are patients and families who feel they can't thank you enough for every little thing you do. And there's NOTHING more rewarding than having a patient who is very sick and seeing them recover and get better and go home to lead a normal life when the odds were all against them and knowing that you played a part in helping them to recover. There really is something special about being able to help people during their most vulnerable times. It isn't just about the patients either because while our job is to provide care for the patient, that often includes providing information and support for the families which can be just as rewarding. As for the environment and coworkers, I have worked in places where it was short-staffed and it seemed that the senior nurses always tried to eat their young but I have found that it is NOT like that everywhere. The unit I currently work on has the most amazing teamwork I have ever seen. Follow your heart. If this is, as you say, something you feel a calling for, go for it. You will do well and you will find the good far outweighs the bad and the rewards of being a nurse are endless.

[Halinja, BSN, RN]

A lot depends on your coworkers, and the facility. I went into nursing as a second career because I liked the idea of being an advocate for the patient. The fact that I would have a job when I came out of school no matter what was very appealing...I had a family to support. The three days a week are pretty cool. I got a day shift straight out of college. My coworkers were great at my first place, and at my second. Leadership at the first place sucked, which is why I'm somewhere else. But I LOVE my job, my coworkers, and my choice to be nurse. What other degree gives you the varied options and job security of nursing?

[icyounurse, BSN, RN]

I am not going to lie, nursing IS hard, nursing school IS hard, and you will have some bad days that nobody in any other field is going to understand, which is what I love about coming to this site. When I was in school, not one of my friends in different majors from me had a clue what I was going through, and when I have a bad shift at work usually only other nurses really understand. Your family and friends in other fields simply will not.

But can I imagine doing anything else??

No I cant. Despite its failings I love my job. I love the people I work with (most of the time), I love that its not boring, and I love learning everyday. And working 3 days a week and getting a fulltime paycheck?? Its pretty sweet if you ask me.

Also, so many opportunities, I mean tired of the floor??work in ICU or ER. Tired of those, go to Cath lab or recovery. Tired of the hospital?? Go work in an outpatient setting. Tired of nights? Go to days. Tired of bedside nursing?? Go to graduate school. Be a nurse anethesist, nurse practitioner, be a nurse educator..............

The possibilities are endless. I never feel like I am stuck anywhere because there are so many places to go.

Nursing has been the best choice I ever made for myself so far in this life.......