No I wouldn't recommend nursing

I'm a new grad and .....well........ I'm discouraged due to my situation. I tried E.R. and that didn't work out (do to the pace & crappy orientation). So, three weeks ago I got a job at a psych hospital and at first it was great & I loved it!

But, everything changed the next week.....another psych hospital merged w/ the facility I work at (I was NOT told this was going to happen) and it has been a "take over", NOT a "merger"! More and more employees are being fired every week to make room for the new people, policies and procedures are changing constantly and it's become a hostile, unbareable environment to work in. I literally feel sick to my stomach now when I go to work!

I realize this can happen w/ any company not just in healthcare, but geeeeesssss I can't get a break! So, now they stuck me on night shift and that is NOT going well.........my sleep and eating are totally out of wack which is making me feel SICK and on nights I feel like a combo secretary/cleaning lady.......PLUS trying to be a nurse.

Soooooooo, I'm looking for another job yet again and it sucks! OH, and I can forget about trying to get back into psych, because alot of the other nurses w/ more experience then myself are trying to get the heck out of there also and they're applying to all the open psych jobs in the area..........

Sorry for the rant!

I'm a mid-life career changer. I had a successful, interesting career in marketing and public relations. I had a fun career...got to do a lot of creative work, got to work with some celebrities, got to be on TV & radio a lot, and made pretty good money doing it.

I've always been interested in medicine, the sciences, and the human body and its processes. After having a few family members and very close friends go through life-threatening and terminal illnesses, and after having spent countless hours in hospitals at all hours of the day, I realized nursing was where I needed to be.

While my family members and friends lay dying or recovering from some pretty dire conditions, I got to witness extraordinarily bad nursing care and extraordinarily excellent nursing care.

I lost count of the number of surly, incompassionate, aloof nurses with I-can't-be-bothered attitudes I encountered. There were so many that they sort of congeal in my mind into this big blob of negativity. From what I've read here, some of those very nurses might even be posting in this thread.

The nurses I remember, however, are the ones that inspired me to change careers and enter nursing school at the age of 43. They were the ones who took the time to show compassion, understanding, and caring despite whatever else was going on on the floor at the moment. Most of the times it didn't even entail anything particularly tangible...a smile; a look of concern; a touch on the shoulder; a brief explanation; or a promise to get back to you on something when they had more time.

I have no illusions of what nursing is or nursing isn't. I know plenty of nurses, I've heard the stories. I know there are politics, I know the American healthcare delivery system is in a shambles, I know there is a push to do more with less, I know there are long hours, I know most of the time what nurses do is taken for granted (by doctors, administrators, patients and their families), I know there are demanding patients and families, and yes...I know there is poop, puke, phleghm, festering wounds, and a whole host of disgusting things I can't even imagine exist until I actually encounter them.

Even knowing all that, I am choosing to forge ahead in my new chosen profession because I have every confidence that I can be as good a nurse as the many truly excellent nurses I have encountered. But more than that, I know I can be a MUCH BETTER NURSE than the many marginal, negative, "meets expectations" misanthropes who inhabit the profession.

I want to be the nurse that makes a difference for patients and their families. If you can't tell the difference between the forest and the trees because you're steeped in your own negativity, then kindly step aside for those of us who are up to the task, and more importantly for the well-being of your patients who deserve good nursing from good nurses.

Even though I don't particularly like nursing or feel that it suits me, I always cared about my patients and tried to meet their needs. I didn't treat my patients badly because I didn't like the job. I realize I need to get out of it (or at least out of floor/hospital nursing), because I don't want to become like those uncaring nurses and I don't want to keep doing something that makes me unhappy, but at the same time you shouldn't assume that because we complain about the job that we are bad nurses.

As others have already said, once you become a nurse, you may have much more insight into the venting (not whining) that is going on here. I suspect that many of the nurses that responded to this thread are competent, skilled and compassionate and very capable of providing excellent, evidenced-based care for their patients.

Many of us went into nursing for similar reasons that you are: we wanted to "make a difference in people's lives" and help others through difficult and trying life events. This same compassion and concern for others is what eventually makes bedside nursing so frustrating and unfulfilling, for some of us. We want to provide the best care possible for our patients and their families. Once you graduate and have a chance to practice for awhile in "the real world". you may come to the realization that providing what you know is the best care possible is not always an option with the resources, or lack thereof, that you are given. Since you will have no control over those resources, you will be expected to just do the best that you can, even though you know that it should be done better. You may be expected to practice under unsafe conditions and take care of more patients than you know is safe. You may not be given equipment that works properly or enough equipment to do your job safely. You may not be given lunch breaks or restroom breaks that allow you to recover and do your job efficiently and safely.

What did I do to deal with the situation that I encountered in clinical nursing? I left the bedside and I now work outside of acute care. Not all nurses have practiced under such adverse conditions, but as you can see from the numerous postings, many have had similar experiences. I wish that there was a simple solution to the problems that so many nurses encounter, but I don't think that there is. While I agree that nurses that hate their jobs should try a different speciality or area of nursing, telling them to get out of the profession is not going to do anything to solve the underlying problems. Many nurses would enjoy nursing if they were treated fairly, respected as fellow human beings, and given the resources to do their jobs properly.

As said before, nursing is a calling, its not for everyone, just like plenty of other professions are not for everyone!! As far as the cleaning poop thing, that is not a nurses primary duty!! BUT!! if it needs to be done, or a cna needs assistance, Get your gloves on and start wiping, come on people, if you're sick and can't perform your ADL's you need someone who cares to take care of you!! I wouldn't want a snooty nurse to refuse to clean me cause that's not her job!! lets be mature about this!!

Nursing isn't 'a calling' to everyone.

Well I posted on here before at some point a long time ago, but after reading some more posts... here I am again.

It seems like a common theme is that nurses are not treated well. I know this is not all of it, but I feel this is a BIG part of it.... your own self-worth. If you let people walk on you, yell at you, take advantage of you, perhaps YOU might have some role in that part. Stand up for yourself- take a 20 minute break and eat something- no one can make you take care of patients in unsafe conditions and you are a fool to do it. Don't. There are a ga-zillion nursing jobs out there. I am not saying job-hop, but don't let others take advantage of you. I believe once YOU start standing up for yourself, others will too. I am just a student, but I am a second degree student and older. I have worked in crazy, yucky jobs and know how the world works to a degree. I think nurses need to start standing up for themselves. It's been too long that we have let others walk on us. Stand up for yourself folks! Peace.

*Sigh* Easier said than done........when you start practicing as a nurse........you will understand that it is not this simple.

Oh, if i had a dime for every time people say that.....

While I agree wholeheartedly with the things said by AZO49008, KatRN, BSN, & gt4everpn, please remember we are in a service oriented profession; patients and their families only want the best care possible-WHICH IS NO MORE THAN WE WOULD EXPECT OR DEMAND IF WE OR OUR LOVED ONE WERE THE PATIENT! Yes, nurses are overworked and underpaid, but everyone from a CNA all the way up the ladder to the physician VOLUNTARILY CHOOSE THIS FIELD (healthcare)---so just do the best you are capable of; if your job is stressing you that badly, please humble youself and walk away, before it's too late!!