Are we trapped by our nursing degrees? Is nursing worth it?

[Lucky724]

On another post someone wrote that many times they would like to leave nursing but don't know where else to go..I completely identify with that statement and wondered...are we, as nurses, pigeonholed by our degree? Many times nurses will try to work outside the healthcare sector only to find they are over qualified and underpaid..so many times nurse jobs hop in order to try to find something that they don't feel burned out, drowned in charting etc. The job hopping looks bad to a lot of employers I know but when we are caregivers at work, care givers at home, moms, sisters, brothers, daughters/sons...somewhere we lose us and our enthusiasm for nursing.

People tell me ALLLL the time how fortunate I am to have a degree in nursing with the way the economy is (really? well I read posts after posts of new and old nurses struggling to find any type of nursing job and waiting months on end) and that we can go anywhere to work (um...not everyone can just pack up and move..not so easy to sell a house, buy another one, rent, etc). I look at others I know with non-nursing degrees...for the most part they seem happier with their jobs, have longevity, etc. So I wonder, is the price of nursing, long term, worth what we end up - or many of us seem to end up as? Unhappy, complaining etc.

As proud as I was when I graduated years ago and as grateful as I am that I have a new job, knowing what I do now, I would not have gone into nursing, or if I did, I would have specialized or branched into education somehow.

or maybe it's just me and the the burnout personally and professional is limited to my own view.

Any of you out there that are still greatly enthused by nursing and your jobs, I ENVY YOU.

Staff Note:

Check out Nursing Is No Longer Worth It

[Libby1987]

Not to bump an old thread, but 4-5 years later, how do you guys and gals feel now? Would you ever consider a career in OT?

My daughter is and I'd hire her at 110K right out of school for a M-F days no holidays or call and minimal paperwork/stress.

But me, no. I'm a nurse all the way through and enjoy the work. I'm *pigeon holed* in home health and have several desirable options if I want to give up my current role.

[hotflashion, BSN, RN]

If I wasn't past 60, I would consider something different, maybe OT. I am now too old. Not too old to learn, that's never the case, but too old to take on more debt, too old to be willing to work odd hours. When I got the BSN I was 59 and ready to work whatever crazy hours were available; not now. I don't recommend anyone go into nursing.

It's funny, the other old student in my class, closest to me in age, has been fired or under close supervision for her entire (short) career. She's had several hospital jobs, but they all turn sour eventually. She has experienced lateral bullying. I think she's smart, thorough, and conscientious, and would love to work with her, but others seem to experience her as a royal pain. On the other hand, I've been hired into jobs with working conditions that are so bad or so dead-end that they require me to quit and don't add to the resume.

The last job I had, in a one-physician private office was low paid, and I wasn't used to my capacity. It was a specialty care office, the doctor was generous with their knowledge, has a pleasant and sometimes amusing personality, great with patients, skilled in diagnostics and treatment, but a lousy business person, so that several times in my 1.75 year employment, found myself the solo employee doing all the front office and back office tasks. My pay sometimes lagged behind because there were money management/flow problems. On the plus side, I learned some things, I'm able to list a job on my resume that lasted more than a year, it was a 15 minute commute, and the hours were weekday only (unless I had to play catch up). Overall, it's not been fun.

I'm currently on hiatus d/t a pressing personal issue, and will take some time between now and the new year to decide my next direction. I don't want to give up nursing but I don't know if I'll be able to find anything acceptable and enjoyable as a nurse.

[fishball2017]

i share your pain. more so now caregivers are getting paid as much as nurses. it feels like a trap. i wish i never entered this. truth is, the economy is bad. but surely there are other ways to earn an employee's salary that wasn't so exposed to illness both physical and mental and im a normal guy but my emotional state was affected too. i experienced your overqualified and underpaid problem. but apparently im overqualified and it's not in the budget so i'm stuck with a higher responsibility job and underpaid for it. i suppose i cant complain people in NK are eating grass but i can't see myself sacrificing this much of my life for too much longer. how can you go to work each and every day when it's a sacrifice everyday? nursing is a sacrificial job where a patient's problems become yours. that's what we're paid to do. on top of that. there's studying and studying and more studying involved? iv'e had a clock in clock out job that pays less but I've had more quality of life outside the office. my biggest regret is the dedication and sacrifice i made for this. all that study. all that unpaid work experience. all those waking up at the crack of dawn to get to work and beg people to take their meds so they would stay alive and they spit it out at me or disrespect me? i lost two marriages for this for god sakes! there's no more opportunities now because everybody has taken up nursing. and the older ones are taking the hospital positions that give decent pay. i should have been an accountant or someone technically skilled. imagine only a quarter or half of nursing school students pass and make the boards. then only half of the actual registered nurses make it to old age doing nursing. what does that say?? its not a viable start to finish job. sooner or later people crack. to those of you fortunate enough to live in places that pay nurses unbelievably well, you lucky SOB's is all i can say...

oh, lets not forget the patients and know it all nursing student carestaff CONSTANTLY challenging your knowledge. f**cking google it jackass. i don't spend my rest time at home memorizing that thick @ss med surg book! i'm either eating or asleep because i can't do that on shift and i wake up at the crack of dawn to serve people and beg them to take their meds so they can STAY ALIVE. overpaid housemaid...

there's something wrong with me and my job if the hardship and dead end feelings it causes me make me wish for Armageddon