Is anyone else SCARED, after reading some posts from 1st years?

Experience tells me that things are never as bad as other people tell you they will be. Basic training was not as horrible as i was told. Airborne school was not bad at all. Fighting forest fires was not as harrowing as all the stories led me to believe, either. I think that people tell outsiders crazy stories and, as an outsider, you have no way of applying any perspective to their stories.

I am sure that difficult times are ahead but nothing that cannot be handled.

good luck.

(and good luck to me too, since i am not even in nursing school yet).

No you are not alone because everyday I hear someone in nursing complaining and it makes even more scared than I already am. I just keep praying for all the negative energy to go away.

In my school, by the time you have finished your pre-reqs and are being considered for the nursing program you have heard enough horror stories to want to run away from it all! Everything from the professors hating you, to clinicals being awful, to tests that everybody flunks...the list could go on. I just tried to not let those stories influence me, and wait until it was me in the class to make any judgements. So far, I've found it to be WAY better than all the stories I've heard. Yes, it is hard, but in no way impossible. I'm still in my third week, so we will see how it ends up, but I know that if I keep going I can do it!
I think it's the same way with your first job, wait until you are there to make your opinions of it. Don't let other's failures make you a failure. You can do it, just keep going!

I am SO glad that I'm not the only one who feels this way. I was so excited when I found this website, and there is a lot of good info on it, but the first year horror stories were starting to make me question my desire to go into this profession. Co workers trying to make each other look bad, mean doctors and professors, hospital politics, staff shortages are all things I never even thought about. I'm still a pre nursing student, so I have a lot to learn, and I hope I'll feel better about it once I get more firsthand experience. Thank you so much for all the great posts! It's nice to know I'm not alone in this. Good luck all, and just remember the good that will come because of what we do!

We all need to remember that we can't base our futures on opinions of others.

There will always be someone that complains about their job at one point or another.....too much paper work, too much poop, too long of hours, too much drama, too little help from management, too much standing over your shoulder from management, too demanding, too lenient.......the list can go on and on from any profession. Not everyone can be 100% happy all the time because we all have different opinions on how to do things.

We may love it, or we may hate it. Luckily nursing is a wave of opportunity. You can do beside care on regular floors, ER with all the hustle and bustle, mental health, Dr's offices, NP, nurse anaesthetist, NP offices, Dept of health clinics, school nurse, research nurse, insurance authorization nurse, home health nurse, Hospice nurse, Care Flight nurse, etc.

Yes, some of these require more experience and maybe higher education, but we will have room to move around until we find our niche'.

There probably will be days that we absolutely HATE our jobs! Personally, I haven't worked at any job where there weren't a few days that I wanted to quit, had to deal with people I didn't get along with, or at times the actions of the administration "ticked me off royally"!!

However, that is why I have a diary. I am writing down (typing) my thoughts, struggles, desires. If ever I wonder "WHY IN THE WORLD DID I DO THIS?????", I will be able to look back and read what I went through to get there, and remember the burning in my heart for so many years to become a nurse.

I think that reading the negative posts is sometimes good. It tames our minds. We can't go into nursing thinking we are going into a profession that sets behind a nurse's desk looking pretty. (or handsome) lol We need to know that nursing is hard work, that we must be strong-willed, and we must be dedicated.

Good luck to us all.

i am scared everytime i go to work. having 9-10 patients on my surgical floor at night is really overwhelming. i think being scared helps me stay on top of things. it also helps build time management skills.

I read that post... it's sad to hear for her, and I wish her the best, but don't base all nursing practice on one person's experience. Posts like that should encourage us to "test the waters" as much as we possibly can in our pre-nursing days - volunteer at a hospital and watch the nurses. Are you encouraged or discouraged? I volunteered on an understaffed, overworked oncology unit for several months and confirmed that I still wanted to be a nurse, even under less-than-perfect conditions (which are the conditions you'll almost always work in, anyway!). See if you like caring for people... and if you don't, it doesn't mean you're an uncaring person, but you might want to reconsider the nursing path.

I work in the HR dept of a major hospital, and I talk with lots of nursing students working as techs, new nurses, and "seasoned" veterans of nursing care. Bottom line: if you love hands-on caring for people, nursing is a great field to be in. School is tough... work is tough... but I haven't met one single nurse who has ever said that it wasn't all worth it (and not just for the pay, either). So, the horror stories don't faze me too much. I don't think any of us have the misconception that nursing is an easy job or one that doesn't include some blood, sweat, and tears (from us AND the patients).

The good thing is that a nursing degree really does hold a lot of opportunity. We used to have a recruiter in our department who used to be an RN, and let me tell you, EVERYONE loved her because she knew her stuff when it came to hiring RNs.

I'll tell you this - I have worked in medical transcription for 9 years now. There are people who love it and people who hate it. There are negatives and positives. People vent and complain about every company out there for medical transcription and how people should not work for them - in particular, the company I work for! I have been working for them for over a year and absolutely love it here, despite all of the naysayers.

Everyone has different experiences and you just have to take it with a grain of salt. It's all about perception and how you perceive things. Not to minimize the difficulties people feel because I'm sure they are very real.

Bottom line is that jobs suck no matter what. I'd love to lay under a tiki hut all day and sip margaritas but somebody has to pay the bills around my house!

Make that a frozen strawberry Margarita w/ an extra shot of tequilla (2 shots of topshelf tokillya - b/c I can't stand strawberry slushes lol). If that be the case, I'll go with you! Think we can talk some kind multi-billionaire into paying our bills for us? LOL