Is Nursing really THAT bad???

Nurses General Nursing

Published

So, I came across this website: http://www.aboutmyjob.com/complete-list-of-stories/complete-list-of-stories/ and to my surprise, could not believe how many nurses hate their job. Go ahead, read some the stories on that site and tell me what you think about it.

Specializes in neuro/ortho med surge 4.

The worst part for me is the amount of documentation. When I have a shift that is so insane with patients going bad, and dealing with families, all other departments of the hospital asking me questions I have no idea of how to answer, MDs, and other assorted miscellaneous things (i.e., trying to find a working number for my non alert dying patient to let the family know she is not doing well (this took 25 minutes of my time last shift), meals not being delivered or not what the patient ordered, phones and TVs not working, etc. etc, etc.). After all of this chaos; knowing you have 2-3 hrs of documentation ahead of you after shift ends is the worst. If you can get your same patients back the charting is not as bad because you can copy forward but most days you do not get the same patients back. The more chaotic the shift and the more MDs you have to call the longer the charting becomes because you must document you called the MD or it may look like you did nothing to help your patient.

Specializes in LTC.
There are days I come home thinking what in the hell was I thinking.

Of course I am also redoing my house right now and it makes me so glad I went to school and am NOT doing that for a living.

Work sucks sometimes. Hopefully it has those days where it gets better and reminds you why you are doing what you do.

On bad days I question y i became a nurse. One time, when I had a bad night, a resident gave me a card that read thanks for all you do. it melted my heart.

Specializes in Psychiatry.

Moments when you can look a patient or a family member in the eye and know that you are taking care of them to the best of your ability when they are at their most vulnerable are what compose or reflect the heart of nursing. Everything else is a job like most others; replete with drudgery, redundancy, a-holes, documentation, more a-holes. Sure it's that bad, but I don't personally know anyone who loves their job, and I have had a moment or two that remind me why I love mine sometimes.

Specializes in Critical Care.

Yes it is. Why? For me it concerns the fact that nurses are the ultimate scapegoats. We are blamed when everyone else fails to do their job...from doctors, to nursing assistants, to housekeeping, to the meteorologist. ...And what other "profession" condones the emotional, verbal, and physical abuse of its members. If I walked into a public place and treated employees the way I have been treated by patients, family members, significant others, doctors, and also other nurses; I would be escorted out, probably with a police escort and a criminal charge pending.

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

I have only been on the floor for a couple months so my opinion probably doesn't really count since I will be told I have rose colored glasses on; but so far, I love my job. Some days aren't as good as others, but most of the time I am getting exactly out of it what I was hoping to get out of it.

Specializes in PACU, OR.

Impossible to read all the stories in that long list, but going through some of them, there is one theme that came up more than once, and that is the squeeze that for-profit companies are putting on their staff. Everything is calculated according to numbers and how they relate to overall profits. In contrast, many of us "grew up" in an environment where there was an abundance of hands to do the work, leaving us nurses to actually interact positively with our patients; the profession used to be far more rewarding than it is now.

One story referred to the trend towards recruitment emphasizing that there is plenty of work out there for nurses, so many are laying out large amounts of money to get a college education in what they fondly believe is a "safe" and "well-paying" job. They are not attracted to nursing for nursing's sake. While there are no doubt some excellent nurses who entered the profession for these reasons, there will be plenty who find that they hate it and will get out as soon as they can, and it's on the cards that such "recruitment-drive victims" will bad-mouth the profession.

Then there are the starry-eyed ones, who can't adjust to the fact that they are dealing with all the nasty things that human beings do...like poop, pee, vomit, bleed, etc etc. Like it or not, a large chunk of nursing is unavoidably dirty, because such a huge component consists of basic care.

The move towards mandated ratios has definitely brought about a positive change as regards staffing problems in those places which have implemented them. Hopefully, as these become more widespread, all of us will benefit from such changes. Until then, you will continue to hear and read far too many negative comments regarding nursing.

impossible to read all the stories in that long list, but going through some of them, there is one theme that came up more than once, and that is the squeeze that for-profit companies are putting on their staff. everything is calculated according to numbers and how they relate to overall profits. in contrast, many of us "grew up" in an environment where there was an abundance of hands to do the work, leaving us nurses to actually interact positively with our patients; the profession used to be far more rewarding than it is now.

one story referred to the trend towards recruitment emphasizing that there is plenty of work out there for nurses, so many are laying out large amounts of money to get a college education in what they fondly believe is a "safe" and "well-paying" job. they are not attracted to nursing for nursing's sake. while there are no doubt some excellent nurses who entered the profession for these reasons, there will be plenty who find that they hate it and will get out as soon as they can, and it's on the cards that such "recruitment-drive victims" will bad-mouth the profession.

then there are the starry-eyed ones, who can't adjust to the fact that they are dealing with all the nasty things that human beings do...like poop, pee, vomit, bleed, etc etc. like it or not, a large chunk of nursing is unavoidably dirty, because such a huge component consists of basic care.

the move towards mandated ratios has definitely brought about a positive change as regards staffing problems in those places which have implemented them. hopefully, as these become more widespread, all of us will benefit from such changes. until then, you will continue to hear and read far too many negative comments regarding nursing.

well said :)

Specializes in Pediatrics.

I love my career. I haven't always loved my job. There were times when I actually loathed my job.It was stressful, staffing stunk, morale stunk, I was sleep deprived. At one point, I thought about switching careers (it was based on something very silly, at a bad time in my life), but I did not.

I have also had jobs that I have LOVED, including what I do now. I don't love my job every single day. It's WORK; there is not a person in the world who goes to work everyday loving their jobs (including millionaires, entertainers and athletes). My father reminded me of this when I was going through my slump; I was very young at the time (22) and he said "did you think I enjoyed going to my piece of $@#& job everyday for all these years? At least you have a career that you chose (he did not go to college, and took what he could get).

Nursing is not for everyone. I see this every semester with my students; some of which insist on forcing this career upon themselves, either because of the money (lol) or because their parents want them to do it, or they can't think of anything else to be. I understand the desperation of people today; it is hard to find a good job that pays decently. It takes a lot of hard work, and unfortunately I think this is where nursing becomes a very misunderstood profession. People think it is easy. It ****** me off that people think this.

I don't think this is the type of career that you can do if you don't like it. Having said that, I have seen people who have, but I can't imagine how.

Specializes in Functional Medicine, Holistic Nutrition.

When I worked as a staff nurse in the hospital, yes, I really felt like it was that bad! One of the greatest things about nursing though is that there are lots of options. If you are going to work crying everyday, try something new. Try a different shift, a new floor, a different specialty. If you don't enjoy hospital nursing, get out! So many nurses limit themselves to acute care nursing and think that's all there is out there. I got out of the hospital after a year and I haven't looked back since. I found my passion in home health nursing, which also has it's ups and downs, but I always considered my worst day in home health better than my best day in acute care.

The other great thing about nursing- the options to advance in your education, both within nursing or outside in related fields. I went back to school for a master's degree in health care administration after a few years of being a nurse and it's helped my career in so many ways. I never appreciated the real value of being an RN until I applied for positions where I was competing with others who were not RNs. In many health administration or health care-related positions, the RN will definitely give one an edge over those who are not nurses. I've found my degree combinations and my nursing experience are very attractive to potential employers for positions outside of direct care nursing.

I no longer work in direct patient care and that's okay with me. I still consider myself a nurse and a patient advocate and I use my nursing experience and education on a daily basis in my job. I think that it's unfortunate that so many nurses continue on doing what they are doing, hating their jobs, and hating their chosen career path when there are SO many options out there.

Specializes in pediatrics, public health.

I think it would be a mistake to assume that the stories on that website are a representative sampling of how all nurses feel about their jobs. I believe it suffers from the same selection bias as pretty much all such websites (including AN), i.e. that people are much more motivated to seek out a place to post their story when they are angry, upset, frustrated, or burnt out, and are looking for a place to vent. That doesn't mean the stories aren't real -- they are, and yes, nursing is that bad -- for the individuals who posted those stories.

I think you can get a sense of the selection bias by looking at the titles of the stories from non-nurses on that site. Looks like about 90% of the stories on that site are negative, regardless of what job people are posting about.

To get a more accurate sense of how most nurses feel about their jobs, you would need to find a survey designed to be a representative sampling. My guess is that such a survey may exist somewhere -- the place to try to look it up would be in the nursing literature in a peer reviewed journal, not random stories posted on the Internet.

Just my :twocents:

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