Am I Just a Cynic or Is nursing a poor career?

[MrsCaseyRN]

I need to ask other nurses if they are as dissatisfied with nursing or is it just not for me? I've been a nurse for 2 years and I hate it. (I am going back to school for something else, I will not be a nurse that hates her job and does it for anyother 20 years.) I am an RN and have worked in the hospital (tele & med/surg) and LTC. While there are differences, it seems that they all have the same issues that upset me.

#1 I feel abused from every angle. I feel like a servant to my pts, family can be so demanding and rude, some doctors can be more condisending that family (but even one it too much, a Ph.D. doesn't give anyone the right to belittle others.) Management is, well management. Short staffing the floor and aloof to issues. It seems these issues (which I've seen on many boards, are "just a part of nursing". There's always that nasty doc no one likes talking to, or that crazy family member that makes our day nearly imposible. Is it over sensitive of me to not want to deal with this anymore?

#2 I feel like the general public is moving towards a "anti-healthcare" attitude. People sue for everything. It seems that people don't feel we are entitled to break (as we've discussed in another post), I've seen first hand many times that the public wouldn't care if you were 9 months pregnant, they expect you to lift mom single-handedly out of the chair and into bed, and NOW! because they "don't want to wait" for you to get help. The nurse doesn't even need to be pregnant, she could be 110lbs and "mom" could be 400lbs and her 25 family members (8 of which are young strapping men) will demand you get mom up to the commode NOW!, and all 25 will stand there and watch and god forbid the guy across the hall is coding!!! Even another human being dieing is not important enough for you to derail from getting their 400lb mom another package of gramcrackers..and so an and so on. And all the while they think the nurse is LAZY!!! I hear this very often. (This actually happened to me at a diner) the couple behind me and my husband were having a bash fest on how lazy and stupid nurses are. They never considered that maybe a nurse was in earshot! My husband lit into them, and they apologized but said that the nurses at a local hospital "killed" their grandpa. I asked about grandpa who was 89 y/o had a "failing heart and kidneys" but "was doing well untiL he went into the hospital". I want to DUMP MY SOUP ON THEIR HEADS!! This seems to me to be very common that people blame nurses(or docs) for inevidable deaths.

#3 Short staffing that's only getting shorter...need I say more.

#4 Missing time with family. I will admit I knew about this before I got into nursing so I can't complain. But since I've had my son, I no longer want to miss holidays. I'm sorry, but my pts are not worth the times I will miss with my family on holidays. I want to be home christmas mornings with my son and 10 year from now I won't remember the pts I had on xmas but I will remember that I missed his first xmas (or second or what ever).

#5 Liability. I knew this too, so I can't complain, but people make mistakes Cashiers ring you up for the wrong amount, cooks make and waitress serve the wrong food, I'm sure plumber or contruction workers have been called it to fix something but after wards it still leeks or whatever and they have to be called back to do it again. I'm not saying that nurses are the only profession that our mistakes can be very dangerous, I'm saying that even the smallest mistakes, one that would never hurt anyone, gets everyone up in arms about it. And pts and there family expect nothing short of God caring for them or their family. A nurse on the floor I used to work on went to take a blood sugar on the wrong pt. The family was there, it never even got done. They stopped her, but the pt was confused and wouldn't have been able to tell the nurse she was a BGM. The family had a melt down and reported her and she got in a lot of trouble! Its not like she was about to give morpine to this lady. I know a mistake is a mistake, but there's no forgiveness in nursing, not matter how tiny the mistake. We can not make mistakes, as per the general public. Well, I'm careful, but I'm not perfect.

Sorry to sound so negitive. Am I just looking at this all wrong? Does anyone else feel this way, but it doesn't bother them?

[ibatwoman]

I have been in Nursing for many years, when I first became a nurse, I felt appreciated and respected. I believe that nursing is a poor job now. I have been in it to many years to try something else. I left hospital nursing because I cant stand the political crap that goes on. I have had burn out twice in my career and I made an effort to do soemthing else in Nursing. Outpt has worked well for me. If you are able to go on to something else, do it. The pay, the liability and the socioeconimcs of healthcare is rotten. I will never ever work inside a hospital again.

[nurseinlimbo]

I have to agree that nursing in general is not what they crack it up to be in school. I have been out for 4.5 years. I am currently working 2 casual jobs, one 8 hr shifts in a ltc facility, the other 12's in a sub acute 4 bed ward with attached ltc beds for the disabled. I like my work, but we are so shortstaffed it is ridiculous, everyone works OT to fill shifts, but then when it's time to take the OT as time off, they are refused because there is no staff. So people are accumulating 100's of hrs in OT and can't even take a vacation. As a casual I work Nights and Days sometimes back to back, often get off at 7am and am back at 7am the following day. I go through life like a zombie.

I initially picked nursing because I thought it would be a flexible job with good pay. I knew there would always be work, and that I could move from one area to another if I wanted a change. I am finding the work environments to be less than ideal mostly nurse on nurse violence and martyrdom expected from management contributing to that perception. As a newer nurse, I am expected to work all the crappy shifts, even though I am there more than the FT staff most of the time. My life is suffering, my family is suffering. I am looking for a way out, but right now it's just not an option.

I asked my manager yesterday, after having a meltdown where I basically told a nurse/friend that I was not going to renew my licence this fall, how she had managed to stay in nursing for 20+ years. I find it sad that whenever I ask this question, most nurses answer that they can't make this much money doing something else. I think we go into this field wanting to do a good job, we care and want to be challenged. The reality is, we can't keep up the pace due to the lack of staff and expectations, we become apathetic and bored.

I have never let my attitude and feelings show to my patients, I do try to make their hospital stay or nursing home stay positive. I am still pursuing education in the form of my BN. I just don't know if I can keep this up.

[hpcat]

My life is suffering, my family is suffering. I am looking for a way out, but right now it's just not an option.

I think you're burnt out, you need to find a way to recover. You can get burnout in any career, I've been there in business positions. It's usually because your job is overwhelming the rest of your life. You have to put yourself first. You MUST take some time off for yourself, regardless of how shortstaffed your employer is. Remind them that you need to recoup and re-energize, that it would be beneficial to your patients in the long run if you can take some time off.

Even if you can't leave your job, you need to have some R&R, you're going to be of no use to anyone especially your family if you're a total train wreck. :heartbeat

[nurseinlimbo]

Hpcat, thank you for your reply.

Last year I broke my leg, so had time off in the summer which let me catch up on my sleep and finally do some things with family that I hadn't been able to do in Years. As a casual, I accumulate no vacation or sick time, so even if I went to my manager and said I needed time off, I would be without income. When I broke my leg I had to go on unemployment insurance, $750 every 2 weeks. Nearly went broke.

So that's why I simply can't do that again. I am trying to figure out another field that I could go into, or something else to go back to school for.... I have friends with similar pay who work in computers monday thru friday and get every vacation day they ask for, I don't think it's fair that nurses don't get the same treatment....

[hpcat]

Hpcat, thank you for your reply.

Last year I broke my leg, so had time off in the summer which let me catch up on my sleep and finally do some things with family that I hadn't been able to do in Years. As a casual, I accumulate no vacation or sick time, so even if I went to my manager and said I needed time off, I would be without income. When I broke my leg I had to go on unemployment insurance, $750 every 2 weeks. Nearly went broke.

So that's why I simply can't do that again. I am trying to figure out another field that I could go into, or something else to go back to school for.... I have friends with similar pay who work in computers monday thru friday and get every vacation day they ask for, I don't think it's fair that nurses don't get the same treatment....

Do you have any healthcare type businesses in your area, like an insurance company or pharmaceutical or supplies company? It would be a good way to get a nice office job, and you bring valuable experience and expertise to the table. I've even seen companies that do nursing informatics looking for experienced nurses with some but not extensive computer knowledge.

[2bNurseguru]

i have been in a similar position for about 7 years now. i posted about my frustration some months back and from most of the replies i got, most people thought i am depressed. i probbaly was since i hated my current career with everything i got in me. i work in the area of community nutrition (very flexible hours, good salary, no holidays or weekends) and even work from home if i chose to. but i still hate the subject and the idea that i am somehow always begging people to come to nutrition classes and few people have any interest. i hated this subject since i was in high school, but i ended in this area by default since it was the only way to gurantee me a job in regards to where i am from. came too the us and continued to do a masters in nutrition--but still hated it and did not know of other options.

i had been thinking about other careers for a long time. i went to a conference last week and a light bulb went off. one of the speakers told us to ask ourselves: "are you in the right bus and are you on the right seat?. i decided i was in the wrong bus and if i did not do something about it now, i would keep going in the wrong direction and it would be harder to turn around as time goes.

so i came back home and with god's grace, i stubled upon a list of current graduates and their majors. one of them did ot. i had never heard of this career before. i explored it a little bit and realized i can get direct entry masters program for 2 years. i am currently enrolled in prerequisites which will take about a year plus two years for the degree.

i feel very much at peace with the direction i am taking and i belive this is the specific career god intended for me--it has no weekends mostly and holidays and it is days.

if you are not peace doing what you are doing, ask yourself, "is this what god created me for?". also i would recomend reading a book called "the purpose driven life". it really helped me.

it is hard on yourself and your family if you keep doing something that you don't like. it is like killing yourself slowly and it changes who you are. i was very bitter at life. i start my program in fall of 2009. i will say a prayer for you that god may give you direction.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

It is true, nursing is not what the textbooks and the professors say. I sort of knew that going in because I was exposed to the medical field in many other unlicensed positions, and saw alot of what they went through. It is totally different, though, being in the middle of the storm with the wild winds cutting your face and knocking you down.

In reality, this stuff chases people clear away from the bedside and the front lines. The nurse suffers, the patients suffer and the community as well.

When I first obtained my license, I got a position in the same clinic I worked at as an aide, and had to do about 2 months in med-surg as a new grad. After seeing that chaos, I ran to the clinic on the first thing smoking. I plan to do it per diem every now and then, but it is a shame to be chased away from where you are needed the most.

[gemba1970]

I have been a nurse for 38 years and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wants to take care of patients because it is so much paper/computer work now that you don't have time to. What happened to patient care?

[2bNurseguru]

I have been a nurse for 38 years and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wants to take care of patients because it is so much paper/computer work now that you don't have time to. What happened to patient care?

Since you have observed OTs in hospital settings, do you think they have similar frustrations with patient families?

[aloevera]

I'll tell you what happened to patient care....it is all given to non-nurses....CNA's, CMA's, MHT's, NT's, etc. etc. due to the fact that we nurses are forced to do so much documentation and other paperwork babble to cover the Doc's and hospitals' behinds and gov't. ins. non-ending paperwork that we have been removed from pt care....it is a vicious cycle...I spend a good 75% of my shift on paperwork and other nonsense and maybe 25% on direct pt. care.....pitiful....