Do I Love Nursing? What Day is it?

This is so true..yesterday I had a hectic day and thought I was going to end my 3-in-a-row on a bad note. But at 6:30, when I went to say goodbye to my patients that will most likely be discharged before I come back on Tuesday, one of them and their family wished I was working today so I could take care of their loved one and hugged me, and another disabled gentleman was so appreciative of me taking the time to do oral care before I went home that he grabbed my hand and made a kissing motion towards it and smiled his big wonderful smile. It made my whole day. It's those moments where a family member hugs you and thanks you or a patient holds your hand and smiles that make all those bad days just vanish into thin air. I love my job..and yeah, sometimes I just have to ask myself "which day is it?"

Thank you so much for this article ,i am not the only one feeling this way.i havean RN
degrees and a 1 year experience in a teaching hospital where all you need to work
with is not provided the environment is not safe no encouraging words from the matron
a senior collegue yelling at you in front of a patient(so embarassing )and patient looking
down on you,no one care about your health hazard and worst of all a patient insulting the
profession calling nurses "a prostitute" .
AT the same time i love nursing when you get a kudos from someone and a praising
saying you are hardworking or you hear a BIG THANK YOU FROM A PATIENT and also get
an hug . i love nuresing on saturdays and sunday(no one to yell at
you on duty) but do not ask me of mondays

kudos

DO I LOVE NURSING? I WORK 12+ HR SHIFTS ON MED-SURG 2 ON 2 OFF 3 ON 2 OFF. THAT IS THE QUESTION I ASK MYSELF EVERYDAY AS I GET UP. I HAVE BEEN DOING THIS 17 YEARS, ALL I WANTED TO BE SINCE 4TH GRADE. THE POLITICS AND GOOD, BAD, UGLY OF ADMINISTRATION AND THE "UNSAFE" WORK LOAD I FIND MYSELF IN AT TIMES KEEPS BRINGING THIS QUESTION BACK TO MY MIND. HATE WHEN I GET THERE, ABOUT 2 HRS IN LEVEL OUT AND LOVE IT AND ABOUT 6-7 PM HATE IT AGAIN BECAUSE ER DECIDES TO HAVE AN ADMIT SPECIAL OF 2-6 PTS AT A TIME FOR 3-4 NURSES AND YOU ARE STILL TRYING TO GET CHARTING CAUGHT UP FROM THE PAST 12 HRS AND TIE UP LOOSE ENDS, ASK IF THEY CAN SIT ON A COUPLE AND LET YOU COMPLETE THE OTHER ADMITS AND THEY START WALKING YOUR UNIT LIKE A HALL MONITOR TO SEE WHAT EMPTY BEDS YOU HAVE AND SEE IF THE NURSES ARE REALLY THAT BUSY?! FEEL STUPID TO START QUESTIONING AT THIS AGE "WHAT DO I WANT TO BE WHEN I GROW UP?"

I really loved your post. I am an lpn of about 10 years, and am in the struggle to finish my last 2 blocks (if my name ever comes up for a spot:O) I went back to school because I thought i would enjoy school nursing..and I am not young and idealistic any more.I know the hard work..the head lice..the non compliant parents sending a humiliated 11 year old back to school with live lice crawling on her paper as she laid her head on her desk, and the whole classs ostracized her..as the parents insisted they had done "all they could do".did a home visit to find unspeakable neglect..and a child running a house of adults. *shudder.
But the day she came to the class christmas party with her" new shiny hair" all cut cute as a button..and thanked us for "helping her clean the bugs out of her house' Odd as it sounds..it just made my heart happy.
I am presently struggling with a math calculation and wondered if anyone could or would want to help me solve it.I am drawing a blank..practicing for my entrance exam for block 3 ( hesi exam) here it is:
my pt has Levophed ordered at 10 mcg per minute.The concentration is 2 mgs. levophed in 250 mls. n.s.
How many mls per hour should The pump be set at?
I cant seem to solve it.HELP!
\and thanks
by the way..for ALL of you who keep on getting up and putting one foot in front of the other for the good of our patients and the children and families of our communities..Kuddos.and I Pray God bless and keep you .
A fellow nurse

I so much enjoyed your post. Thank you for saying what we all feel.

Love it? I did not go into hospital nursing when I graduated in May 06. Instead I went into nursing homes and then a psychiatric hospital. The stress in both was too much for me: the shortage of help, the unrelenting pursuit of perfectionism, the lack of support from management and the callousness of other nurses to me. After a lot of soul-searching and a big debt, I have left to work in a university on a research study. I do hope to utilize me nursing skills more in the future. But I dreaded going to work and knew that it was a poor fit for me.

I guess this will inspire many becoming-nurses and nurses. Thanks, kinda lifted my outlook with nursing.

Great post purple scrubs!! Kudos!! I too have often wondered about veterinary school. And I too have some days when I look around and wonder, "hmm...how long before I can retire?" But, then again, I am thankful those days are far and few in between and that is because I love being a nurse!! And I love my job!! I am truly blessed to be working where I am and I thank God for that everyday. I don't even mind that I work the graveyard shift. "Power to the nurses like me, who stare up at the clock at it's 03:00!!" More coffee anyone?

I must admit there are other nurses around me who I feel clearly need to ask themselves the question of whether it's time for them to retire, but I won't go there.

**As for the reader who was asking whether they should go into nursing at the age of 46 and whether it is too late for them?** I HOPE YOU DECIDED TO TAKE THE PLUNGE SO TO SPEAK. One thing I've found out about nursing (and I was telling my sister who is in her 50's and considering going back to college to become an RN) is that in the nursing profession age seems not to really matter that much. Not as much as it would if you were working let's say face to face in customer service where people can say rude comments just because they consider you to be older and should have a different job (I have some friends tell me horror stories). In nursing if you are an older person be it male or female and you walk into a patients room they automatically seem to assume that you have many, many years of experience. Not a bad thing at all. Of course you're not going to lie to a patient when they ask you how many years have you been a nurse? But my experience has been that if you are a younger person who's a nurse you'll have this question thrown at you more often than if you are an older person. Trust me it's true and most of the older nurses I work with get a real kick out of this! I had a woman in my class that was in her 60"s and our instructor told her the same thing. So, I hope this helps you. And good luck in what ever decision you've made. And if you've decided to go on and become a nurse I'd like to know. And if so...welcome to the sisterhood of caring (corny but true.)