Survey: Would you encourage your child to become a nurse?

Originally posted by SbRN2002
WHy work for a facility that would assign a nurse a 15 patient load? The max that I have seen the nurses I work with on the MED/SURG floor has been 8 patients. YOu guys must work in a very nurse shorted facility. THe hospital I work for would never assign a nurse to 15 patients or 10 for that matter. Even the ED nurses dont get over 8 patients. The nurses in the ER only have four rooms assigned to them.

Originally posted by nurs4kids


SBRN,
You have everything exactly correct, except for a few things your innocence protects you from. We all entered nursing for the reasons you described, with the same hopes of helping the sick. We are all willing to sacrifice to care for others. The part you've not encountered yet, though, is the part that destroys nursing, and it is NOT NURSES!!

You see, all those wonderful things you describe above about listening to your patient, talking to your patient, making sure everything was ok... WELLLLLLLLLLLLLL, LOL..you can do that when you're a student, because you DON'T have 15 patients. I'm one of the blessed ones, I have 5 max, BUT I KNOW what my fellow nurses go through on a REGULAR BASIS.

When you're caring for 15 patients, the humanity part quickly goes out the door, you become a robot doing as much as possible in the little time available. You pop that NG tube down, you give the enema then you RUN to the next patient's room to start an IV. While you're starting that IV, you're paged to go to another room where a 300lb patient has fallen on the floor. As you're returning that patient to the bed and assessing for injury, you hear the rush of panic outside the door. Another patient of yours has coded. An hour later, you've transferred that patient, hopefully, and you're still trying to see the other 11?? no, no 12?? oh well, you glance at your cheat sheet to see how many patients you still must see. And the rest of the shift continues just as it began.
Finally, the next shift has come, you sit down to chart with 15 minutes left in your shift (NOTE, your employer will NOT pay OT, yet you must finish your charting before leaving). On your drive home, you think about Mr NG tube/Enema. You hope he's not too upset that you didn't have time do what you would LIKE TO DO, do what you entered nursing for..care for the entire person, concern yourself with his emotions, give the back rub, take the time to SIT AND LISTEN. You pray you didn't forget anything critical. Before you go to bed at night, before you start the next shift, you ask a prayer..you pray that God will lead you safely through the shift, lead you safely so that you harm no one or overlook a fatal sign...You leave and you thank God for guiding you through another impossible shift w/o further damaging the ill.

So, you see, IF nursing school was realistic of nursing, then we'd be as pro-nursing as you, BUT nursing school is preparation for nursing. It is by NO means an indicator of what is to come!!

Welcome to nursing, it will be everything you've dreamed of...and alot more

Originally posted by Li'l abner