What Do You Love About Nursing?

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Jan 4, 2017

((HUGS))

Welcome to AN! The largest online nursing community !

Nursing school is challenging. It is difficult but not impossible...look at all the nurses around you. We survived. You need to develop a thick skin. Your co workers can be abrupt for they are stressed to the max. Your friends of they are not in nursing school will not understand why you study so much and seem to have no time for them. Nursing is unlike any other majors.

My favourite poem:

Being a NURSE meansâ€¦

You will never be bored.
You will always be frustrated.
You will be surrounded by challenges.
So much to do and so little time.
You will carry immense responsibility
and very little authority.
You will step into people's lives
and you will make a difference.
Some will bless you.
Some will curse you.
You will see people at their worstâ€¦
and at their best.
You will never cease to be amazed
at people's capacity for
love, courage, and endurance.
You will see life beginâ€¦and end.
You will experience resounding triumphs
And devastating failures.
You will cry a lot.
You will laugh a lot.
You will know what it is to be human
and to be humane.

But I love being a nurse. Check out this thread: https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/a-day-that-1079619.html

Davey Do · Jan 4, 2017

Wow! It seems like everyone hates their jobs/bosses/co-workers/patients. No one gets paid, everyone is exhausted, drained, burnt out, and miserable. Suddenly, nursing seems like the worst job on the planet.
SO...can anyone tell me something they actually like about nursing?

Please allow me to echo Esme12's welcome, Allison007!

Well, I love hating my job/bosses/coworkers/patients, enjoy being underpaid,exhausted, burned out, and miserable.

Just kidding!

I really like my job, love some of my coworkers, and most of the people I serve. Pay is great and predominately doing art in my off time, I believe working as a nurse balances out my life.

AN.com has been a catalyst in accelerating my interest in nursing. I'm relatively sure others concur.

As far as the complaints, know this: We all need our place to vent and deal with stressors so many find empathetic souls here on AN.com to assist them in dealing with their feelings. Though outwardly negative, positive products can result.

I choose to deal with my stress through, among other things, art, exercise, humor, journaling, and loved ones.

Don't allow your excitement to be contingent on what others do or say, Allison007. Nursing is an exciting and fulfilling field to work in. But, like anything else, it is what you make it.

The best to you, Allison007!

poppycat, ADN, BSN · Jan 4, 2017

Hi, Allison007, and welcome!

I've been a nurse for close to 39 years and can honestly say I don't think I've ever had a job I hated. I had a strong dislike for 1 hospital I worked at but I loved my job there. That made putting up with the things I didn't like bearable.

I reached the point 10 years ago where I was tired of working short staffed all the time & being pulled in too many directions at once. I made the decision to leave hospital nursing and have been doing private duty Peds home care. I take care of 1 patient at a time for an entire shift. My pay is not great but it's a low stress job that I enjoy and at this point in my life that's more important to me.

Nursing school is difficult but not impossible. You won't have a lot of free time and, as Esme12 said, your friends won't understand why you're so busy. That's okay. It's your journey, not theirs. Go in with a positive attitude and do the best you can.

I hope you like nursing as much as I have!

Davey Do · Jan 4, 2017

SO...can anyone tell me something they actually like about nursing?

In coming back and reading poppycat's post, I think I may have neglected to directly answer this question.

I love being a nurse, what the title stands for, what the work entails, and what satisfaction I get feeling like a contributing member of society.

I am by no means, a religious person. However, the basic principles behind Christianity are worth following. Doing techy things like working in surgery, or administrative things like being a nursing supervisor were great and I feel blessed to have been able to work in those areas. But when I stoop down to help a geriatric psych patient put on their footies, I think of how Jesus washed the feet of his Disciples. Here this great man (or whatever else you may believe), humbled himself. He made himself equal to them by making himself less than them, but in reality, he was above them.

That doesn't sound the way I wanted to convey about how I think and feel bout nursing, but maybe you can get the gist. We are servants to those with which we provide care, but we are esteemed professionals in a respected field. So, whether I was first scrub on a lumbar laminectomy with a second scrub, two surgeons, three back tables and a mayo stand, or wiping the butt of an incontinent geriatric psych patient, I was doing a job that I love: providing comfort and care to another human being

And that's what I love about nursing, Allison007!

datalore · Jan 4, 2017

I find it intellectually stimulating because I'm always problem solving and learning, two things I love outside of nursing anyway! I love the adrenaline rush of finding something important that has changed about my patient and knowing what to do about it. It's an odd combination of feeling afraid and competent all at the same time. I love the camaraderie between health professionals-- when we do struggle because we're stressed/exhausted/all of the above, we all understand each other and it's something no one outside of health care really understands. I am not a feely-feely kind of person, but even I love the connection you feel with your patients when you've educated them about something that changes their minds, changes their life, improves their quality of life, etc... I love the connection you feel when you've held their hand through something terrifying for them. I love the feeling of having been their advocate when things weren't happening for them.

I saw an article somewhere recently, to the effect of how can I love a job that I hate so much... It's true. Sometimes I hate nursing, but I still love it, for all the reasons above and so much more.

PS I'm typing this as I'm chugging coffee on my way to my third "12" (but really 13-14) hour shift in a row, with 4 hours of sleep and getting over a terrible cold, and I'm excited to go in because I have no idea what will await me with my tenuous patients from yesterday -- it's going to be an adventure!

Libby1987 · Jan 4, 2017

In coming back and reading poppycat's post, I think I may have neglected to directly answer this question.
I love being a nurse, what the title stands for, what the work entails, and what satisfaction I get feeling like a contributing member of society.
I am by no means, a religious person. However, the basic principles behind Christianity are worth following. Doing techy things like working in surgery, or administrative things like being a nursing supervisor were great and I feel blessed to have been able to work in those areas. But when I stoop down to help a geriatric psych patient put on their footies, I think of how Jesus washed the feet of his Disciples. Here this great man (or whatever else you may believe), humbled himself. He made himself equal to them by making himself less than them, but in reality, he was above them.
That doesn't sound the way I wanted to convey about how I think and feel bout nursing, but maybe you can get the gist. We are servants to those with which we provide care, but we are esteemed professionals in a respected field. So, whether I was first scrub on a lumbar laminectomy with a second scrub, two surgeons, three back tables and a mayo stand, or wiping the butt of an incontinent geriatric psych patient, I was doing a job that I love: providing comfort and care to another human being
And that's what I love about nursing, Allison007!

I believe I know exactly what Davey Do means here. I've felt this exactly but never had the words to speak it out loud without sounding out there.

Nothing gives me a greater sense of purpose than teaching, reassuring and supporting someone with empathy and gentle humor who is horrified with their altered health. I think of the 40 something woman with a new colostomy who had no family and had to rely on a generous neighbor she was barely acquainted with to do something she couldn't bear to do herself. Helping her go from a very disturbed body image to feeling human again, that's a priviledge.

Everyday I am able to make positive things happen, I thrive on that. That I can make a living doing it is bonus. HOWEVER, I had to get through quite a lot of *splat* (do you know the parable?) to get to a point where I didn't feel like a complete misfit. I believe job fit and satisfaction is heavily reliant on attitude, maturity and personality. Nothing wrong with you if you're not inherently wired for it but I believe it has a tremendous impact on success.

poppycat, ADN, BSN · Jan 4, 2017

Davey Do did a wonderful job of explaining the feeling I get from nursing. It's an honor and a privilege to be with someone as they enter or leave the world. Even if you're not a religious or spiritual person, that is an awesome feeling.

AliNajaCat · Jan 4, 2017

You're just beginning, so you can't possibly begin to appreciate the immense numbers of opportunities that will open up for you. You'll do most of your clinicals in hospitals and other inpatient facilities and never get a glimpse of what so many others of us do, as nurses, doing nursing in so many other ways. While you do them, remember they're just the beginning.

You will grow into the work with every different experience or lesson learned. I love my autonomy and celebrate the educational and experiential choices I made that gave it to me. This is a far richer future than you will learn in just your basic education. Imagine that when you learned to read, you couldn't have been able to foresee what dimensions and perspectives reading would bring to your life. It'll be like that.

You sound literate and thoughtful, so you're ahead of a lot of folks right there. Gird your loins and go forth to things unknown, keep your eyes and ears and heart open, be not afraid. You'll do well.

calivianya, BSN, RN · Jan 4, 2017

I didn't think nursing school was very difficult. I worked the entire time (some years full time, but had to drop down to part time my last semester because of schedule conflicts) and I still graduated with a great GPA and passed the NCLEX first try. I also made time to hang out with my friends and relax. Nursing school really isn't as horrible as everyone makes it out to be.

I like managing all the equipment and titrating all of the drips. That is my favorite thing about nursing. Oh, my patient's blood pressure is low? I'm going to increase the amount of a drug a little bit, and BOOM! There it is. A beautiful blood pressure. I like having my patient's level of consciousness, blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory effort in perfect balance. It's very satisfying if I can get them there, and the more different drugs and pieces of machinery I'm working with to achieve that goal, the happier I am.

I like seeing that lightning strike facial expression when I've explained something to someone and I can tell this is the first time they've understood the concept. It's very rewarding to get through to that patient/family member when I know others have failed.

I also really enjoy doing wound care - the nastier the wound, the more satisfied I'm going to feel getting it nice and clean and re-dressed with a perfectly clean and intact dressing. Regardless of how long it manages to stay clean and intact...

NightNerd, MSN, RN · Jan 4, 2017

First: don't fear nursing school. I think the experience is what you create for yourself. Study hard and often, make good friends, and learn something from every instructor. (And I must say, the grand majority of my instructors were WONDERFUL. One was a bit of a bully, but she was incredibly smart and taught me quite a lot.) I don't think it's an experience to be scared of; just go in knowing that you will be working hard, but it is manageable and well worth the effort.

Now, as for the work itself: nursing, to me, is a job. To new, that means there are days I really like, and days where I can see myself doing ANYTHING but this. When I like my job, it's because of the following:

*I can support myself and have some pretty sweet benefits along with my paycheck

*I learn something new all the time, and there is so much variety in this career that it is rarely boring

*It's very satisfying to teach patients, catch something important during your assessment, or just simply make people more comfortable and safe

*The stories I get from my work are BOMB, and it amuses me that I get to drop the occasional f-word in my notes (I work in med-psych, so there is a lot of colorful language to quote, lol)

*I just like taking care of people, whether I'm working, volunteering, or with friends or family. This job feels very natural for me

Ultimately, the nature of nursing is to have many highs and lows, instead of the more even-keel peace of other careers. It is necessary to vent and purge yourself of the negative feelings that sometimes build up from the bad parts, but there is so much good in this too. Don't expect every day to be amazing and wonderful, but I can guarantee that you will be very proud of the work you do.

Good luck in school!

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Jan 4, 2017

I'm a full-throttle control 'enthusiast' - and working as a critical care nurse really fulfilled that need better than anything else I could have imagined. Titrating meds to control hemodynamics, maintain fluid balance, maintaining BP, respirations, meds to regulate awareness & pain levels. . . but I only used my power for good, never evil. :saint: