Nursing sucks

Nurses General Nursing

Published

it used to be that you could go to work and do your shift and feel like you accomoplished something, nowadays it is nearly impossibleto complete all your tasks let alone spend any quality time with the patient.

It all depends where you work and who you work with.

It's all about who you work with. I love my coworkers. Many a day I'll hate my job, but I love my coworkers. We work so well together. And we can manage to laugh at anything that gets thrown our way. We can make it through anything!

Nurses have to do their job until the point at which they are satisfied and happy with themselves! Management will never be happy because their jobs suck far worse than any of ours. Be thankful you are a shift worker! My boss works 50+ hour weeks, raises two little kids, does the schedule (and deals with the constant call off drama queens), takes calls during the weekends on his days "off", etc... He has all of the responsibility and NONE of the authority. The families yell at him and nag the crap out of him over every little thing. Upper management hands him random and impossible tasks on a daily basis.

Yeah. Sometimes nursing does suck... It is the reality of the job! Middle management sucks festering syphilitic llama c****.

Specializes in Critical Care, Education.
You need to find a job that works for you. I feel that many of the problems in nursing today are the lack of competent management. I have had nursing jobs that I loved and hated. I've got two good ones right now, good luck.

I wish I could TRIPLE 'LIKE' this post!!!! It captures everything. 'nuff said

Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.

needless to say, nursing is what you make it to be, let me explain before anyone jumps to conclusions, if you're unsatisfied with your status in nursing them look at your options. having said that, this is why i adore my nursing career nursing allows you to explore your inner self in order to place it into practice for the benefit of those in need. therefore, if you're discontented with your situation research your options if nursing is still your passion, or venture in a new career path. wishing everyone the best in their choices in life always...and remember we all have a choice in life use it to your advantage....aloha~

Specializes in FNP, ONP.
Nursing is still the most admired profession in public polls. Folks generally see nurses as overworked, underpaid, and selfless in their devotion to patient care. .

For an alternate dose of reality, try reading the comments on any medical article at the NYT or other news sites. They freaking hate us, lol. We are slightly less despised than physicians, but at least they are respected (begrudgingly).

Specializes in ER.
I'm tired of hearing students say that they have chosen nursing for the job market or money (let's face it- where else can you come out of a 2-yr college program and enter the market making $50K to start?) We need to leave nursing to the folks who are ready to accept it as it is: hard work, poor working conditions, long hours, and underappreciation from management. The nurses who can't take the heat are dragging us all down...

Maybe people going into nursing are tired of working long hours in poor conditions for minimum wage?

My pre-education jobs are broken down into such:

1. Paper route: deliver the paper each morning before 600 am on my bike to 50 homes. Rural route meant biking up to 3 miles to reach just one house. Rain or shine. I was chased by dogs, attacked by flying grasshoppers, took a few terrible tumbles off the bike. The pay: 14 dollars every other week.

2. The farm work: 10 hour days, get on a bus and dropped off on a corn field. Walk up and down pulling the tassels off each corn stalk in 90 degree plus weather, no shade- in long sleeve shirts and pants so your skin didn't get ripped by the leaves. One 20 minute break, supervised by 17 year olds who would scream if you missed a single tassel. The pay: 6 dollars an hour.

3.Well known Coffee Chain place: Drive-thru, take money, make coffee, take money, make coffee, Drive thru, take money, make coffee. Get yelled at,make coffee, 8 hour shifts with two 15 minute breaks that you had to set a timer to take. The pay: 6.45 an hour

4. Retail large hardware dept store: Check people out, bag items, take money, check people out, get yelled at, bag items, take money, get yelled at, apologize, bag items. Pay 7.45 an hour

I will spare a break down of my CNA job because we already know the ups and down of that.

These were the jobs I worked up until I was 20. They were all horrible. The conditions were poor. The breaks non-existent, the customers rude and unappreciative...and the pay was not even enough to live off of.

I don't think nursing is a calling, nor do I think you can look at people and assume they don't know what hard work and poor working conditions are. In fact, although my place of employment isn't perfect, it seems like it compared to almost everywhere else I have worked.

Side note: I found my interest in nursing because of my deep seated obsession with the show ER. Not exactly a calling. I do work in the ER now, and my child-like part of me is a bit sad George Clooney isn't running down the hall to join the code :(

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

"Side note: I found my interest in nursing because of my deep seated obsession with the show ER. Not exactly a calling. I do work in the ER now, and my child-like part of me is a bit sad George Clooney isn't running down the hall to join the code :( "

That is sad!:crying2:

Specializes in ER.

That is sad!:crying2:

I know :(

I know :(

:yeah:

We need to leave nursing to the folks who are ready to accept it as it is: hard work, poor working conditions, long hours, and underappreciation from management. The nurses who can't take the heat are dragging us all down...

I don't agree with this mentality at all. How can you deliberately subject yourself to misery? That is just sad. Nursing can be one thing to one person and a completely different thing to another. It's different on every unit, every hospital, every specialty.

Maybe people going into nursing are tired of working long hours in poor conditions for minimum wage?

My pre-education jobs are broken down into such:

1. Paper route: deliver the paper each morning before 600 am on my bike to 50 homes. Rural route meant biking up to 3 miles to reach just one house. Rain or shine. I was chased by dogs, attacked by flying grasshoppers, took a few terrible tumbles off the bike. The pay: 14 dollars every other week.

2. The farm work: 10 hour days, get on a bus and dropped off on a corn field. Walk up and down pulling the tassels off each corn stalk in 90 degree plus weather, no shade- in long sleeve shirts and pants so your skin didn't get ripped by the leaves. One 20 minute break, supervised by 17 year olds who would scream if you missed a single tassel. The pay: 6 dollars an hour.

3.Well known Coffee Chain place: Drive-thru, take money, make coffee, take money, make coffee, Drive thru, take money, make coffee. Get yelled at,make coffee, 8 hour shifts with two 15 minute breaks that you had to set a timer to take. The pay: 6.45 an hour

4. Retail large hardware dept store: Check people out, bag items, take money, check people out, get yelled at, bag items, take money, get yelled at, apologize, bag items. Pay 7.45 an hour

I will spare a break down of my CNA job because we already know the ups and down of that.

These were the jobs I worked up until I was 20. They were all horrible. The conditions were poor. The breaks non-existent, the customers rude and unappreciative...and the pay was not even enough to live off of.

I don't think nursing is a calling, nor do I think you can look at people and assume they don't know what hard work and poor working conditions are. In fact, although my place of employment isn't perfect, it seems like it compared to almost everywhere else I have worked.

Side note: I found my interest in nursing because of my deep seated obsession with the show ER. Not exactly a calling. I do work in the ER now, and my child-like part of me is a bit sad George Clooney isn't running down the hall to join the code :(

I like your post, or should I say I love it.

I am going to save it and print it.

And every time I will feel weak or lost or any negative feeling regarding the nursing career, I will read it.

Specializes in Med Surg, Tele, PH, CM.
Oh..no.. you didn't! you didn't really say that. It is attitudes like that ,that keep our profession beaten down!

I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say. I am not Florence Nightingale, did not enter nursing because I thought it was my calling to save humanity. I too saw the pros of a career with a stable job market and decent pay. But that's not enough. Too many people decide that nursing might be a "fun" way to make a lot of money with only two years of education. then they start whining (or worse, get angry) when working conditions get a little challenging. Nurses have always been complainers, and for the most part rightfully so. But don't you notice that there seem to be more than usual lately? I just get tired of hearing nurses planning to leave the profession the first time a patient or doc yells at them.

I am a bright person, and have gone several degrees beyond my basic RN program. But both of us know that if the caring component is missing, the committment to nursing as a profession is also lost.

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