Why Nursing Sucks...

Nurses Relations

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When I was 12, I decided I wanted to help people”, so I worked really hard to get into a nursing program. I, by no means, thought it would be easy, I just thought it'd be more rewarding.

I graduated last year, and started at a hospital. I trained for 6 weeks (as a new grad!) and was thrown into it. The people who are buddies with the Charge get the better assignments. One day, I got 6 starting pts (everyone else got 4-5), 3 discharges, and 2 admits, while a nurse left and went to The Dollar Store. Yep, you read that right. When another RN, who was precepting, spoke up about my assignment, my charge came over and dryly said, If it gets too much, let me know,” and walked off. That's more or less what every day has been like.

Things you probably don't learn in school:

- Doctors are a******s. You will get screamed at if you page about a slightly increased temp, and screamed at again if you don't page about the same temp later.

- Veteran nurses are awful to new nurses (but you will continue to bear the scowls and ask questions, because your patient's safety is more important than the rumor that you're an idiot). Oh yeah, nurses gossip a lot.

- Nursing is mostly robotic- hang IVs, medicate, document, rinse, repeat (unless you're in critical care/ED). If you get 5 mins to sit with a patient, the CNA will probably call you.

- Then, there are days where you see John Doe, who came in near-comatose, get up and walk, and it fills your heart with joy. But rewarding moments are few and far between. (You're mostly being screamed at because Dr. Awesome decided to taper their narcs, and neglected to tell them, or because dietary forgot their cookie).

- BTW, forget the term break”. You'll be lucky if you get a whole 30 mins for lunch.

I suppose it depends on where you work, what your team is like, and how resilient you are. I have cried a lot, put on my big-girl pants, and return every day. But if I were 12 again…

Now that I've blown off steam, I cannot commend RNs enough for what you do on a daily basis. You are all super-freaking-heroes in my eyes. And, no, I don't hate doctors, I dislike the rude, condescending ones, like the one who told me, I don't make mistakes!” and slammed the phone down when he ordered a med the patient was allergic to. WELCOME TO NURSING!

Oh yes. As soon as he stabilized enough to be transported, his Canadian health plan sent a medical transport to fly him home for further care. All of this was arramged and paid for by his Canadian insurance. You can bet he didn't get saddled with a 6 figure bill from us either.

If that happened to an American citizen, they'd have to do a wallet biopsy first----money means more than actually saving someone's life in this country.

I don't mind insurance----hell, we've had health insurance for decades. What I do mind is the nickel & dime mentality that private insurance & Medicare have become. The co-pays, tiered medication coverage, specialist referrals, etc., PLUS the monthly premiums. And then, every February I look to see what the CEO's & upper level administration took home in salaries and bonuses from the year before. It is sickening. And, what's even more sickening is that it starts in Washington----the FDA is in the pockets of big pharma, as well as the insurance companies. Who do you think wrote the Affordable Care Act? Mandating us to purchase insurance from private, for-profit companies or else be fined is unconstitutional. It would be like forcing everybody to buy a car or some other thing so the company can make a crap ton of money. And then, basing insurance reimbursements on patient "satisfaction" surveys is the most asinine thing I've ever heard. As I said before---it's not good enough that you saved someone's life, or helped them walk again, or helped to dissolve the huge clot that is lodged in their LAD artery in their heart. Now you have to act like a restaurant server or front desk person in a hair salon.

Specializes in geriatrics.

The Canadian health care system has its flaws, but I take comfort in knowing that I won't be bankrupt to pay medical bills.

In addition, nursing has not yet adopted the customer service model that is prevalent in the US, and nurses are compensated fairly, according to years of experience, not some arbitrary measure.

Thank you so much for sharing such personal (and disturbing) information with all of us! I am going to be starting nursing school in the fall, I am 32 so this is a 2nd career for me and because of posts like this, I am already preparing myself for hard times once I get a job. I started volunteering at our community hospital so I can get an idea of what goes on since I wasn't in healthcare previously and everything you said makes total sense based off of what I see. My boyfriend of 2.5 years is 3rd resident OBGYN DR, and when I broke the news I was quitting my job to go to nursing school, lets just say his response wasn't good. I truly don't understand the deal with some of these physicians and not treating nurses with the utmost respect. I don't think he is too bad, but the stories I hear of attending physicians and nurse battles are disturbing so I am very sorry if you have to deal with that. I can imagine it is tough to start interviewing and applying for other RN jobs, but I bet with the excellent experience you get there (you will kill those future situational interview questions that start with "tell me about a time when...") I hope things get better for you soon and best of luck with your career. You seem like a strong and resilient person, and you always have AN to vent your frustrations to!

Thank you so much for sharing such personal (and disturbing) information with all of us! I am going to be starting nursing school in the fall, I am 32 so this is a 2nd career for me and because of posts like this, I am already preparing myself for hard times once I get a job. I started volunteering at our community hospital so I can get an idea of what goes on since I wasn't in healthcare previously and everything you said makes total sense based off of what I see. My boyfriend of 2.5 years is 3rd resident OBGYN DR, and when I broke the news I was quitting my job to go to nursing school, lets just say his response wasn't good. I truly don't understand the deal with some of these physicians and not treating nurses with the utmost respect. I don't think he is too bad, but the stories I hear of attending physicians and nurse battles are disturbing so I am very sorry if you have to deal with that. I can imagine it is tough to start interviewing and applying for other RN jobs, but I bet with the excellent experience you get there (you will kill those future situational interview questions that start with "tell me about a time when...") I hope things get better for you soon and best of luck with your career. You seem like a strong and resilient person, and you always have AN to vent your frustrations to!

Thank you. I wish someone had prepared me, so I'm happy I can give new nurses a heads up. Honestly, some of my nursing-school friends found awesome positions with great teams, so don't be discouraged. It really depends on your area of work (and nursing is extremely versatile!). I am already exploring my options. All the best with your studies! :)

My nursing experiences have not been the greatest. I have many family members in the medical field. All but one is looking for a way out. I'm getting out of nursing also. Thankfully, I don't have a Bachelors degree in nursing so I can still get student loans. In my next job if someone bites me they go to jail. If a Dr gets nasty to me I'll be looking for someone else to care for me. The heaviest thing I'm lifting is a book of some sort. I'll finally be able to sleep without hearing imaginary call lights in my head. I'll get something good this time with daytime only hours.

My first job wa horrible, I learned a ton, but the docs were completely unprofessional, (one threw a chart at my head) and the charge nurses were mostly angry

:eek: That's the second time I have heard of that on this site. I hope you filed charges.

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
The people who are buddies with the Charge get the better assignments.
Well, of course...it is not about what you know. It is about who you know!

Those who are fortunate enough to have friends in high places usually have an easier time in life.

Nursing sucks because they expect us to work short and then do not have equipment. I've been in tears twice today. We're short and then it's been horrible. I get one complaint from the nurse educator as if the world is falling to an end because I refused to let the doctor have the vital sign machine that I was using. there was another one available nearby. It's as if because I'm a CNA; i'm not important. No one cares what I think and I'm just useless or something. I've been in nursing for over ten years and I'm fed up with nursing. I don't want to be an RN; they can have that. It's not worth my time. I'm going to go become a PTA and be able to go home after 8 hours and not deal with this crap. They can have everything.

Let me give you an administrator's view point.

I worked in quality and accreditation at the system level. This is what I saw.

There are thousands of regulations that the average hospital must meet to be compliant with government standards.

Complaints about pt. satisfaction scores etc. should be directed towards Medicare and Medicaid regulations as this is imposed on the healthcare system if they participate in these programs.

Business people run the hospital; not healthcare professionals.

At the end of the day, it is all about profit...

The only thing the hospital really cares about is liability and risk management, because these can cost the hospitals profit. Nurses carry liability that I doubt they really understand due to the complicated nature of healthcare regulation and the big pockets big healthcare has that they can lawyer up with.

Nursing leadership prefer to retain staff and know there is a nursing crisis -- But business people do not understand or value nursing because nursing does not make them money other than nursing's ability to carry out physician orders which can be billed for. There are many competing interests that the hospital wants to spend money on, and usually, in the case of my system, it is spent on expansion of services or ostensible physical changes/marketing... Not on quality/process improvement to make nurses' lives easier.

Business people cost/benefit everything in terms of dollars and cents. Primarily, they take a short view, because many administrators are looking for the next best job to come along. If they can show a profit and turn a dept. around, they now can move from manager to director, etc. and it's good for their career. If this includes screwing over their employees/patients, they will justify it because of the profit being made. The CEO only really cares about profit -- everything else is just buzz words and marketing and meeting regulatory requirements.

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