Problems nurses face that no other professions understand

Nurses Professionalism

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Hi,

My name is Alex, and I'm very new to the whole world of nursing. I would love to get the seasoned perspective of people out there that have experienced the struggles in the workplace that only other nurses can relate to.

What are the Top 3 difficulties you face daily?

The top difficulties I've heard about so far include:

  • lack of appreciation
  • improper staffing ratios
  • micromanaging
  • scheduling miscommunication Vacation planning Switching shifts No schedule input Island shifts Working every other weekend

​Do these sound accurate to you guys? Any to add?

People feel they have the right to treat you like crap.

I have friends who did nursing in Europe and they say the patients were a lot nicer than here.

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Specializes in Addictions/Mental Health, Telemetry.

Lack of appreciation is a very subjective statement. We should learn to express our needs in more objectve ways. In what ways do nurses feel unappreciated? Is it the staffing matrix? Is it the lack of imput in scheduling? I just think when nurses complain about "lack of appreciation" it comes off as whining and that comes off as weak. Just saying...

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical, Telemetry/ICU Stepdown.

Some of the cutest nurses in my unit are married so I can't ask them out. This is my biggest grievance. Add it to your list please.

:D

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
People feel they have the right to treat you like crap.

I have friends who did nursing in Europe and they say the patients were a lot nicer than here.

That was my experience working as a nurse in New Zealand as well.

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Specializes in Emergency, ICU.

At the core of all the issues mentioned is what I consider low respect for nurses from management. In any setting, nurses are really not valued and so abused. Literally abused.

One agency I worked for (shortly!) paid for an 8 hour day when the reality of the job, if patients were to be served well, was a 10-12 hour day. It was so demoralizing to know that I was giving away almost 3 days of pay weekly because the agency did not want to pay nurses more. This was home health and obviously I left rather quickly...

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