Top 8 things I hate about being a nurse

What do you hate about nursing? This article lists the things I hate as a nurse. It is purely personal opinion and has no intention whatsoever to disgrace the profession or put people in shame Nurses Announcements Archive Article

Top 8 things I hate about being a nurse

Wondering why I chose eight? Each entry represents the standard eight hours nurses like me spend in one shift. Standard, eh? I frankly used the number because I need one; otherwise, if I add up all the extended hours, this list could go on forever.

So I hate being a nurse because...

EIGHT - Nurses wear all white and we have to wear our hair up in a bun. You know how inconvenient and hard it is to maintain? Okay, coming to duty on a heavy rain ruins everything. One wrong step, mud splashes, and starts making its way up my white uniform. There it is, a stain to last my entire shift. Also, putting my hair up prevents it from being gorgeous! Really. That means no straightening, rebonding nor perming because I have to pull my hair back every single day. Oh God, I always envy those girls in high fashion corporate wears and all-set hairstyles. Maybe nurses should be allowed to look the same. Umm, just maybe.

SEVEN - We don't get a professional fee (PF). We also have a license, and that makes us professionals too. But we don't have a professional fee and we live on a meager salary regardless of how many patients we've handled or cases we've assisted.

SIX - We do not have a holiday. Everyone in the industry can relate to this, I wouldn't dare watch out for holidays because I just feel hopeless. The entire country rests lazily on their couches while I pin high my dear cap.

FIVE - We can't leave unfinished work. I mean office girls do that, do they? They can leave unfinished works and get to it the next morning. But nurses have to stay for as long as needed because we just can't leave things undone. Life is at stake and life can't wait.

FOUR - We are the complaints center... if there is such a thing. When patients have a complaint on just about anything, they complain to the nurse. Not to the housekeeping staff, guard, doctor, or anyone else. Directly to the nurse; blame that for being too available.

THREE - Refer this and that. Even if I know what drug to give, and I have it right here in my very hands; I can't give it, I always need to refer and ask for a prescription. I say nurses carry immense responsibility but very little authority, now how more frustrating can that get?

TWO - We are not treated as professionals. Leaking faucet? Faulty telly? We are always asked to do things we are not supposed to do. I mean, we've studied four dreaded years and earn ourselves a license for what? Fixing your telly signal? Hell no. Nurses are professionals like engineers, accountants, lawyers, and your beloved doctors whom you do not dare raise one eyebrow while you mindlessly shout at your nurse as your entire hospital bill goes straight to her salary.

ONE - Nursing is more than a sacrifice, it's suicide. From nursing school to the nurse's station, enough sleep, enough food, nor enough rest is next to impossible. Here's one idea that I've thought of just now: nurses religiously monitor patients' urine output but at the end of the shift we realize we haven't once gone to the bathroom: and that makes ours zero. So,if there's one profession that wholly uses up one's existence: be it mentally, physically, and emotionally, you got it: it's Nursing.

Gosh, making a hate list is tiring; but then, of course, I also have a list of the things I love in this field...

I love being a nurse because...

8.) There are always doctors and nurses who look handsome in white and you get to trifle with them; and suddenly, the world is a better place

7.) I love it when I get in regular clothes and everyone stares in shock; as if I've got no right to wear nothing but white.

6.) More seriously, as a nurse, I get to see life in all its forms: from womb to tomb.

5.) I get to work with all the goodness of my heart, no PF needed. I'm quite about sure you wouldn't find nurses in hell.

4.) I love being able to discharge patients in their improved condition. Nothing beats seeing them go home thanking you for their recovery. I guess that just transpires the very essence of this job.

3.) My heart leaps when patients and/or relatives appreciate the work I have done; when they actually call me by name and boast that I am their nurse.

2.) No other profession is as heroic as ours: giving up our own lives in order to save others.

1.) Last of all, nurses may not be angels, but we're the next best thing.

Oh you get it, I'm proud of this job: I just never admit it because it's just too much fun to complain. Kudos nurses!

Airina Desuyo

About Airina Desuyo

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You, sweetie, are an angel!

thank you!

Specializes in Critical Care.

Cute, especially like "I'm quite about sure you wouldn't find nurses in hell!" Maybe we'll skip right to heaven as our purgatory was on earth! Imagine all the people we'll meet in heaven that we cared for down on earth! They're probably up there right now praying for us and our "charges"!

What country are you working in? The Phillipines? In America, the white uniform and hair up is not the case anymore.

They stare in shock because they don't recognize you with regular clothes and your hair down!

Now I hear black and white weddings are all vogue! Maybe it came from the white uniforms. lol

Don't forget to call upon your guardian angel(s) to help you with work, we probably have more than one as God knows how much we need them!

if it was not for u to come up vit this article.... i definitely would have...maybe in a bit different form but for sure vit the same things to mean...lolz...... love your article......

Im in the Philippines :D Yes I bet we have a lot of guardian angels, good thinking!

Specializes in Med Surg,Hospice,Home Care, Case Mgmt.

Thank you, Peng! Well said. Here in the U.S. we are not all required to wear white anymore, although a very few hospitals may require it, but we can certainly relate to everything you said!

We all have our Guardian Angels with us to help us through every day. I know I am always thanking mine!

Keep up the good work!

Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Amb-Sur.

That was great. Especially the part about not being treated as professionals. Every little c/o, talk to the nurse. I hate that. Now I tell them, speak to your doctor of PA. It is so frustrating to have to be the equipment finder, the housekeeper, the translation finder, the time guesser, the food finder, the psycho magnet, the *****, or the peace keeper. I mean really. This is not what I went to school for.

Specializes in Med Surg, Parish Nurse, Hospice.

great post and really fairly accurate. Just yesterday, I had to go to the businees office with a pt to get his belongings back from the safe. I wasn't aware that it took a RN to sign belongings back!

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Very cool Peng. You have a great attitude.

Specializes in nothing special,just medical assisting:).

LOVE this :) thanks for posting!

Well said Peng :nurse:... ...