Indeed, it is hard, and you wouldn't hear otherwise from someone who has been through the journey. Nevertheless, if your love for nursing is primarily for the love of maintaining, restoring, and improving health, despite the unpleasantness which is evident on the job, the struggles will be worth the effort. It is just as hard when you get into the program as it is trying to get in, and also when you're on the job.
Do yourself a favour; if you haven't placed yourself in the position to observe or experience nursing, find an opportunity to do so.
If you're going into nursing due to the fact that it's a good choice in this current economy and it garners a handsome pay, I applaud your good reasoning. Nevertheless, one also has to put the other job components into consideration.
~~A preview of a day as a nursing student- (Medical surgical nursing clinical rotation):
4.00am: I'm awake
5.00am: Out the door
7.00am: At the clinical site, lateness cannot be afforded. two lateness equals an absence, two absence is a failure of the class, and a bad thing about some nursing schools is as long as they provide you a clinical site, they don't care how you get there... which is true for my current school unfortunately, but now that you know, its best you become aware of the clinical sites that your school has.
7.30am: Assigned two patients and patient care begins- Cleaning , moving, positioning, transferring, and feeding are all components of care for most of the med-surg patients I have, this requires grit and patience to do it appropriately. While doing your job appropriately, you also have to consider your own posture. The rates of back pain among nurses are to be considered. I am suffering back pains myself from how I care for my patients (holding myself in uncomfortable positions) in order not to hurt my patients or dislocate their bones). This is the hardest part of the job, I believe. The other critical part is medication administration which, 99.9% of the time, you will be right if you follow proper protocols of administering medication (the 5Rs) and practice calculating medical dosages.
On this fateful day, I donned my glove ready to dive in and begin accruing nursing experience. I have been assigned to diapered client who needed to be changed. I advanced on my first patient with a smile, greetings, marvel at the beauty of the morning sun and a comment about helping them to get cleaned. Starting from the face, I mopped down to the abdomen, then went from the toes up to the thigh (full of smiles, I thought to myself, "this was easy"). I took off the diaper, opening the front flap, then I knew I was in for one hell of a cleaning. I cleaned the upper pubic region-the feces had migrated to this region due to the voluminous amount produced. I paused as this cleaning now seemed as though it's a dilemma-and my patient cannot aid me by spreading his/her legs wider (it would have made it so much easier ). Leaving a towel to cover my patient's body, my brain rattled on how best to clean my client without making a mess of it as I headed to grab more towel. Luckily for me, a glimpse of a nursing assistant at work in some other room squeezing a water soaked towel onto the patient saved the day. So I grabbed the towels I came for and tried the same with my client. Lo and behold, it seemed quite easy, I felt like smacking myself for not having thought of it. After cleaning her anteriorly, I removed the soiled materials and turned her over (trying not to break a bone) to clean her
9.00am: When I was done, I felt as though I have achieved a feat, and as I got back to the hallway, my professor asked why I was still on one patient and hadn't gotten to looking up my drugs at all. I felt slightly bad that I wasn't on schedule, but I was absolutely satisfied that I took my time taking care of my patient and she was grateful for it. For if I were in the same position, I would appreciate someone taking good care of me rather than doing a finicky job and just jumbling things together. I revel in bringing the littlest smile to the cheeks of my patients.
10.00am: Medication administration
11.00am: All day long, there will continually be some sort of cleaning to do, or dressing, feeding, assessment, in addition to medication administration.
12.00: A break of about an hour is given
1.00pm: Back on the floor and afternoon medications are given, along with other patient care.
4.00pm: By the time I leave at 4pm and arrive home at 6pm, I can only rush to lie on my bed considering the back breaking pain and weariness I'm overwhelmed with.
As a nursing student, I've learned that direct patient care is not my forte even though I currently provide the best care to my patients and will continue to do so .
If the money that comes with nursing attracts you, but you find the direct contact aspect of nursing distasteful and you're planning to work in a hospital, please, please, take your time to find something else with more pay, because you'll be quite miserable and the money received will never suffice. Another good thing is, nursing is not limited to direct patient contact, but direct care is mostly what is available. Starting out with direct patient care is never a bad idea though.
If your heart of compassion is all there is that drew you to nursing, and you have the strength to care for people, you are what the patients want, and you will feel fulfilled helping them.
Helpful 'A Day in the Life: Nursing Student' video...
