Nursing is pathetic...

Nurses Career Support

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It's to bad you feel this way I work in the E.R.and am constantly exposed to hiv, hepatitis,and a host of other diseases you can protect yourself. Why did you really go into nursing ws it for the money? If it was for that then you missed the whole point of what a nurse is. It was never meant to be anything more than the giving care to those in needof your services if you allow yourself to feel all these negative feeling it's time for a vacation from nursing and try something else for a while or have you considered trying a new area that may have sparked some interest. It might be something to think about?

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Irae, baker act must be a florida term, but all the same as you say, aren't these a special group? My husband used to think i made this stuff up. LOL. do you still work ER? :D

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Starkid....l am fond of saying...''you can't make stuff like this up!''.......doesn't even come close to Jerry Springer...in fact...l thind Jerry could get a few ideas for his shows from our work place!..LOL...well not really funny when you think about it....more like pathetic....LR

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LR: you have that right Jerry would go off the charts with ratings. I never realized how many crazy individuals walk this earth free, until i worked in the ER. I was completely blown away the 1st year down there, then it goto kinf of annoying.

Anyway, great experience.,take care

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Originally posted by Nurse Nola

I do not think it is bad to be able to indentify the short-comings of being a nurse.

I agree that other professions that require less education have less risk involved and more income.

As a psych nurse, I have a potentially dangerous, albeit exciting vocation. My husband has a great job, so I can afford low pay in order to enjoy my chosen (low pay ) profession.

I am working with a special sub-set of our society: veterans. For the most part, they are homeless, drug addicted and poorly motivated. I get burned out too. Then I will encounter a patient that I can really help-make a long term difference in his life. That's why I became a Nurse. To make a difference.

It's okay to be burned out. We need the lows to appreciate the highs.

To the above: We are health care professionals. We carry a professional license. I am glad to see that everything is okay with you because you married a man that makes the bucks, but I believe you have missed the point. I am a MALE nurse. I provide for my family. There are many single females out there that are RN's and must fend for themselves. I did NOT marry a rich wife. I have spent four years in school to do this job that does not pay well. I like nursing but it COULD pay better. Is $60,000 a year too much to ask if you are a BSN prepared RN with years of experience? NO, I think not. This Florence Nightingale attitude that you should do nursing because it is a noble, womanly profession is just plain wrong. No wonder nursing is not seen as a profession! No wonder it's not well paid. If I had a nickel for every married woman nurse I have met that has said, "Oh, it's okay that I'm not paid as well as I should be because my HUSBAND makes good money," I'd be a millionaire! No, it is NOT okay that you are not paid what you are worth. No, it is not okay that professions of the same or lower educational level pay higher! No, it is not okay that nursing is seen as an occupation and not a profession! I did not get into this profession for the money, but I am tired of the low pay, the hard work, the lack of acknowledgement of being perceived as a glorified butt-wiper, and most of all, the complacency of RN's who should be running the healthcare profession instead of being run by it!

That's my two cents. I spread this word to everyone I know. We cannot improve if we do not stick together and fight for this profession!

Mark

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:rolleyes: Mark well put. This is a SHOULD be a reapected profession, but is not. We are looked down on to much

and should be paid double! It supported me for many years, but had to work to jobs to make ends meet-sad! After all we heal people and save lives and, like you say wipe poop. What is that worth? But it looks like the situation may get worse before better.

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I love my job, I get paid to care for newborns,premies,I get to witness birth everyday.It is just a blast! I have been doing this for 25 years, and want to do it for as long as i can. The worst part of it, is working with *****y, negative co-workers,who should get out of nursing...Try doing a job that is boring, in a cubicle,looking at a computer screen for 8 hours...YUCK! Sr. Margaret

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have read all of these posts, and I must put in my two cents! I always wanted to be a nurse since I was a little girl. I watched my grandmother die of colon cancer when I was 5 and the nurses were so great. I just knew that is what I wanted to do.

Now, reality has set in. I have been an RN 6 years. Straight from HS to college. I have worked ER, Psych ER, arteriogram and ICU. I will admit I enjoy the ICU above all of the others. However, knowing what I know now, I would not have chosen this path. I have a wonderful caring husband, which I almost lost. The helplessness of seeing people suffer and not being able to do a darn thing about it is enough to depress anyone. After I learned detachment, I took a good look around me and thought about it all. I remember the first time I got stuck with a dirty needle (a homeless man) I was 23 and had yet to have kids. I thought 1) I am going to lose my husband 2) I will never be able to have children 3) I am going to die by 30. Luckily, he was negative for everything. I have been hit and kicked. People have spit in my face (saliva and blood)- and BTW, that is called assault in every other sector of the world. I have been threatened and stalked- and not just by administration- lol. I currently am getting rid of a skin fungus I caught from a patient. That has only taken 5 months to get rid of since it is resistant. I am the only one of 5 nurses I started with that has yet to convert a TB skin test. And, I have lost count of the agents and literally bugs (scabbies, flees, lice, etc.) that I have been exposed to. I was recently told by admin that the $20 an hour I make to do this and precept and be an ACLS instructor is more than the hospital usually pays for those of my experience. As everyone has said on here, if you don't like it, leave. That would be nice to do, but I did not marry rich. I am back in school traying to get my clin spec to get a research job. But since work pays a little (and I mean little) it would put me in debt to leave at this time. Therefore, I am stuck. So, to answer this question, No, I would not recommend nursing. There are some things I do like about my job, but the bad far outweighs the good. Guess nurse recruitment is out of the question for me- lol

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This thread has been a very interesting read.

Even though I am where I want to be right now, I worked hard to get here and got out of the 'trenches' years ago. Sometimes out of the trenches translates into 'out of the frying pan into the fire'.

when I went to a teaching job at a university that was not unionized, I was treated worse there than throughout my nearly 2 decade career in nursing.

If I had a daughter/son, I wouldn't want her/him to be a nurse...life as a new grad RN isn't what I would want for her/him. Nursing isn't compatible with having a normal life, is physically and emotionally demanding and the compensation is a joke compared to the importance of our contributions. The morale in bedside nursing today, if this board is any indication, is at a overall low....

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This thread has been a very interesting read.

Even though I am where I want to be right now, I worked hard to get here and got out of the 'trenches' years ago. Sometimes out of the trenches translates into 'out of the frying pan into the fire'.

when I went to a teaching job at a university that was not unionized, I was treated worse there than throughout my nearly 2 decade career in nursing.

If I had a daughter, I wouldn't want her to be a nurse...life as a new grad RN isn't what I would want for her. Nursing isn't compatible with having a normal life, is physically and emotionally demanding and the compensation is a joke compared to the importance of our contributions. The morale in nursing today is also really bad....why would any young person want to work under these conditions?

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I have to admit, I did not read ALL the replies (321 is alot!!). But here is my 2 cents!

I would not recommend nursing to someone who has no idea what we do. My daughter (she's 29, a dental assistant, makes more money than me!) told me she wanted to me a nurse. I started telling what I do: fecal impactions, "sticking" screaming, kicking adults (their afraid of needles!), having people puk, pee, and poop on me.... well, you get the idea. I wanted her to know that it was not all glamorous. I have been a nurse for 10 years; I actually started nursing school in 1974, but many life "unexpected" diversions delayed my schooling - it took me 19 years to get my BSN. But I had a long time to look at the profession - the GOOD and the BAD. And I still decided to be one. So, anyway!! (sorry!!) My daughter knows I LOVE my job: she listens to me rant and rave about pay, hours, admin, other co-workers, AND also about the ONE thank-you I recieved from a expired pts family. She hears the excitement in my voice when I tell her of a great save! I think I have given her a good insight: she told me "Mom, you mean you don't have enema teams!!" (That cracked me up!!) So after hearing it all, about a month past and she finally said "Mom, I don't think I want to be a RN" Of course, being the wise Mom I am, I already knew that. I am really glad that I let hear know both sides. I have met new grads who are sooooo naive on the profession: they stated that if they knew they would not have become a nurse.

So, to make a long story LONGER (SORRY, AGAIN!!), no, I would not recommend nursing UNLESS the person REALLY knows what they are getting into and KNOW what they want!!!

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Wonder what happened to all of those original posters from 1999?

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won the lottery?

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