Anyone left the nursing profession?

CaffeinePOQ4HPRN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN · Apr 8, 2014

You would still like to teach in a nursing school and encourage others to enter the profession even though you are this unhappy? I am not being inflammatory, I am truly curious because I am hoping to get into nursing school in the fall but posts like this have me concerned.

Just because my passion for bedside nursing is diminishing does not mean I do not have a passion for the nursing profession or teaching others the skills of the trade. I love teaching. If I could work in a clinic teaching patients about health maintenance rather than providing back-breaking bedside care I would love that too! Whenever I have nursing students on my unit, I am excited and enthusiastic about teaching them the skills of the trade... but when it comes to doing actual bedside... I AM DONE and my body is DONE! Ultimately, I would love to teach Anatomy& Physiology and Nursing Pharmacology, but in all honesty I would be delighted to teach any nursing courses in general. Nursing instructors do not "encourage" others to enter the profession, no one can make decisions for another human being.

Bedsides, just because bedside nursing is no longer for me, does not mean you or others won't thrive at it. As a floor nurse, in my experience, Nurses are treated like worker bees and managers will work you to the bone to get the most quality working hours out of as small a nursing staff as possible to keep budgets down and maintain their six-figure salaries. When you are done your nursing degree, go straight for your masters degree so that if you find you hate bedside you can more easily transition into a management position. The honest truth that you should be aware of is that working conditions for nurses in most clinical areas are NEVER ideal and that's the one truth your instructors in nursing school will never tell you... perhaps because they don't want to scare you, perhaps because they hope you'll be stronger, or perhaps because they've been off the floor and working as nursing instructors for so long that they've forgotten how bad it used to be. Most of the time it's a combination of all of the above, but mostly because a lot of nurses are getting their MBAs now so that they never have to return to back-breaking bedside work. Educate yourself on the PROS and the CONS of any profession from people currently working in those job roles you might be coveting. This could be a difficult task because I can see a lot of nurses shying away from sharing the dark side of their jobs simply because most of us entered this profession because we have a passion for helping people and (although our working conditions are poor) we still believe in the values, ethics, and morals of the nursing profession. We would never want to turn away kind, intelligent new talent but I would want others to know what they might be walking into. Personally, I have used up all of my tolerance for bull**** and abuse, that's why I can no longer do bedside nursing.

You are not a Nurse. You might be one day, but you are not one now. Even if you become a nursing student, there is no comparison between the role/ workload/ scope of practice/ legal responsibilities of a nursing student vs. a licensed Nurse. Trust me the learning curve is sharp and can be a very difficult adjustment.

I would encourage you or anyone to pursue whatever their passion/career path might be, and I would be personally delighted to help assist anyone in pursuing their dreams... but keep in mind that until you become a Nurse and adopt all the legal responsibilities that come with holding the professional title, you cannot fathom what it is like. No one can prepare you for what you specifically will encounter when you become a licensed nurse... you just have to wait and see for yourself.

Fiona59 · Apr 9, 2014

You would still like to teach in a nursing school and encourage others to enter the profession even though you are this unhappy? I am not being inflammatory, I am truly curious because I am hoping to get into nursing school in the fall but posts like this have me concerned.

Most of my nursing instructors admitted they couldn't keep up with pace on the hospital floor. They were in their mid 50's collecting their nursing pensions and working at the local educational institutes. They had very rose coloured glasses on about the "fun times we would have and that our classmates would be friends for life!" It was like they had OD'd on Sue Barton books. I keep in touch with one woman from my class and she left nursing two years after graduation.