An Unapologetic Reasoning On Why You Don't Want To Be A Nurse.

Being a nurse is a tough college course to decide to take and too many people are walking in eyes wide shut. There are a lot of disappointments on the way and at times you will feel like you've made the wrong choice. The purpose of this article is to make people aware of these issues but hope that it will strengthen the resolve of the ones who know this is what they want to do. Students General Students Article

You are reading page 5 of An Unapologetic Reasoning On Why You Don't Want To Be A Nurse.

Amber628

53 Posts

Why did you become a nurse if you dont "love people" ? Do you love to help or care for people? I am asking this because many of times i find that prior classmates, coworkers ect who are nurses because its "good money" or a stable job usually have **** poor attitudes or are crappy nurses. IMO, i would like to hear your response

Amber628

53 Posts

I've been a nurse for 20 years and I still love every minute of it. The great thing about being a nurse is that there are so many facets to it; if you find you don't like one area, there are hundreds of other areas to choose from. I've been at the same hospital for all 20 years and I can't imagine being anywhere else. I knew when I graduated from nursing school that I wanted pediatrics and I had multiple people tell me to get two years adult experience and then transfer to a peds hospital. I'm glad I didn't take their advice and I hired right into pediatrics as a new grad nurse. Follow your passion - if you know what you want to do, set you path to achieve that goal. I started out on a 0-3 year old unit then transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit. I did that for five years and then went into education. I've had six different positions in education and I'm now the Director of Clinical Education at my hospital. I wouldn't have changed a thing. I'm reading all these posts and some of them are very discouraging and makes me sad that so many nurses out there are not enjoying the profession. Don't be afraid of change - if you are not happy - try another area of nursing. I'm a firm believer there is a niche and good fit for everyone - you just need to find it
i could not agree with this more! I started off as a new grad LPN in a nursing home because although I have always wanted to do peds i was discouraged by everyone thats LPNs esp. New grads do not work in peds! I was a nurse for about 8 months when I got hired for a pediatric homecare agency! I now work with vent/trach peds and have so much exp. & knowledge. I hated the nursing home, 30 patients, co workers who were lazy, didnt care or hated new grads, no support from management. Although I make 3$ less an hour and I dont want to be in homecare forever I am getting valuable experience with pediatrics for when I graduate my LPN to RN bridge and hopefully I will get a position with Peds in acute care!

ceccia

269 Posts

Why did you become a nurse if you dont "love people" ?

because i allowed my family to guilt-trip me into it. that's it. i wasted four of the best years of my life doing something i hate, just because i was afraid to be true to myself instead of being the good little people-pleaser that i was taught to be.

Do you love to help or care for people?

hell no! i hate doing any sort of 'caregiver' job. i don't have that kind of patience, i find patients and their families exhausting and draining and incredibly annoying. i also hate hate HATE doing ADLs.

I am asking this because many of times i find that prior classmates, coworkers ect who are nurses because its "good money" or a stable job usually have **** poor attitudes or are crappy nurses. IMO, i would like to hear your response

i did go into nursing for the wrong reasons, and yes i do have a crappy attitude about my job! i frequently have to take a cooldown/time out in the break room or supply closet to avoid legit losing my temper.

& i quit.

i found AN one night when i Googled some version of 'nursing i hate my job'. then i found topics where other people are asking 'i don't like dealing with sick people, i hate wiping butts, i don't want to work nights/weekends/holidays. everyone's telling me to go into nursing for the job security and/or money; should i?' (NO!)

and/or ' i started nursing school/clinicals and realized i hate it; should i quit?' (YES you should!)

and for some reason there are always people who reply 'don't listen to the negativity! you don't really have to wipe butts, work weekends, deal with patients...you'll always have a job, blah blah blah' um no.

Fiona59

8,343 Posts

i found AN one night when i Googled some version of 'nursing i hate my job'. then i found topics where other people are asking 'i don't like dealing with sick people, i hate wiping butts, i don't want to work nights/weekends/holidays. everyone's telling me to go into nursing for the job security and/or money; should i?' (NO!)

and/or ' i started nursing school/clinicals and realized i hate it; should i quit?' (YES you should!)

and for some reason there are always people who reply 'don't listen to the negativity! you don't really have to wipe butts, work weekends, deal with patients...you'll always have a job, blah blah blah' um no.

Your last paragraph sums up the board nicely. The rah rah, you go girl types who scare me to death. Failed your qualification exams? Write it a 666 times until you pass, 'cause we knooow you are a great nurse encouragements drive me insane.

Sure there are nursing jobs out there without poop and patient contact but new grads don't walk into them (and if they do, they don't know what they are doing or the job is in a cess pit).

But if you point this out, you are negative nancy's or jelluz h8trz!

Grow up, life is too short to be in a job you hate because your Mum thought it would be good for you.

ceccia

269 Posts

Grow up, life is too short to be in a job you hate because your Mum thought it would be good for you.

yep. i feel stupid even admitting that's why i went into healthcare, to please other people. utterly ridiculous. i'm the first to admit i'm not a great nurse! it's probably for the best for everyone that i finally had the cojones to quit my job.

Specializes in Critical Care.
It's my opinion that some who read allnurses are just stubborn enough to need to prove that they know better, that they can do exactly what nurses with experience are advising against, that somehow they will fare better because it is their "dream" to be a nurse and they will love it no matter what. Advising these types of personalities against nursing just makes them defensive enough to make them pursue nursing even harder instead of being wise enough to internalize the advice and make an honest assessment of whether or not nursing is truly the right career choice.

I wish you the best! Maybe you will have a more positive experience and are simply a tougher person and are better able to hand the stress.

As for any job can be difficult, I worked other jobs before nursing, waitressing and secretarial and they were much easier. I only had one bad secretarial job and that was because it was run like an assembly line with quotas and you got dinged for any errors. Data entry was the worst secretarial job where you were measured by your key strokes and you had better be typing at all times! I felt sorry for the women in those jobs, esp as most did not have the luxury to quit or go back to school and were just trying to get thru the day to take care of their family! I was fortunate that I had other options and am glad that I got out of that particularly bad job in only 6 months time! The irony was this was a top rated company to work for! I guess it depended what job you had!

My next job was pure heaven and if it paid a good wage like nursing and was full time I honestly would love to have it back! As great as that job was, it didn't pay enough to live on without roommates and it certainly wouldn't have allowed me to enjoy my own house and the travel and things the money that nursing can provide. My salary doubled when I became a nurse! It is a sad commentary on our economy that good paying jobs are few and far between, and even more ironic when we are told to go back to school for a good job when the majority of jobs available don't even pay a living wage!

duskyjewel

1,335 Posts

Specializes in hospice.
The rah rah, you go girl types who scare me to death. Failed your qualification exams? Write it a 666 times until you pass, 'cause we knooow you are a great nurse encouragements drive me insane.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this. I may only be a CNA yet, but I see those threads where someone has failed NCLEX 4 or more times and most of the posts are all about not letting it get you down and remembering how you'll be an awesome nurse someday. It seems to me that once you've failed the exam that establishes the bare minimum requirement for you to be allowed to practice several times, you should start questioning your future in the profession, for your sake and everyone else's. I don't want the nurse who couldn't pass NCLEX in the first 4 tries caring for my family. Sorry, not sorry. (And I include myself in this statement should it ever happen to me. Anyone can fail a huge stressful exam once. Maybe twice. After that....the doubt sets in.) I've often wondered if there is a limit to how many times you can take it before they require a remedial course or something, and if there isn't, shouldn't there be?

GM2RN

1,850 Posts

I wish you the best! Maybe you will have a more positive experience and are simply a tougher person and are better able to hand the stress.

As for any job can be difficult, I worked other jobs before nursing, waitressing and secretarial and they were much easier. I only had one bad secretarial job and that was because it was run like an assembly line with quotas and you got dinged for any errors. Data entry was the worst secretarial job where you were measured by your key strokes and you had better be typing at all times! I felt sorry for the women in those jobs, esp as most did not have the luxury to quit or go back to school and were just trying to get thru the day to take care of their family! I was fortunate that I had other options and am glad that I got out of that particularly bad job in only 6 months time! The irony was this was a top rated company to work for! I guess it depended what job you had!

My next job was pure heaven and if it paid a good wage like nursing and was full time I honestly would love to have it back! As great as that job was, it didn't pay enough to live on without roommates and it certainly wouldn't have allowed me to enjoy my own house and the travel and things the money that nursing can provide. My salary doubled when I became a nurse! It is a sad commentary on our economy that good paying jobs are few and far between, and even more ironic when we are told to go back to school for a good job when the majority of jobs available don't even pay a living wage!

Brandy, I think you misunderstood my post. I wasn't speaking of myself. I'm already in the profession and agree that it is a difficult job. I'm very careful about encouraging anyone to become a nurse.

Specializes in Emergency, LTC.
Balderdash.

I do not "love people," and I've been doing this for five years... long enough, I think, to have the perspective to say that I will make it.

People can and do choose nursing for purely pragmatic reasons and still be high quality nurses.

I told someone recently, "For me, I feel like I'm playing a role in a TV show. I change the role to match what I think my patient needs in terms of our interactions. I do it because I think it's effective, not because I am actually that way."

Nursing can be nothing more than a job.

Bless your quote! I feel the same way:mask:

spiderslap

48 Posts

I was never called to nursing either. I wanted to help people in a way that truly mattered. I wanted to learn to master skills that would benefit my family, but can only be learned through years of experience. I wanted job security, the ability to attain work anywhere, and the ability to clock out and not have to answer to anyone until I return to work again. Being a doctor sounds wonderful, of course, with the way media portrays them and the way that they have been taught to conduct themselves in front of coworkers. But the truth is, they probably regret their career choice far more than we do. They have so much debt stacked, they have no escape and have to do a lot of "fitting in" to be successful. They have tons of legal bs to deal with and have becomes slaves to corporate decision makers just as much as nurses. Nursing is a true pure act of caring for people, without the intrusion of having our paychecks be based on personal/professional business decisions. Each profession is stressful and somewhat traumatizing, but I'm thankful i wasnt pressured to commit to such a consuming profession as medicine.