Anyone here who loves bedside nursing?

[LibraNurse27, BSN, RN]

Hi all, I see a LOT of posts here along the lines of hating bedside, not wanting to be a nurse, regretting becoming a nurse, burnout, etc. I also burned out at the bedside for many of the reasons discussed at length here. I'm wondering if there are any nurses who actually love bedside, and if so, what do you like? There were aspects that I truly loved, but in the end the cons outweighed the pros. If you love it, what type of work environment do you have and what is your specialty? I'd love some positive and encouraging posts about bedside for new grads to read, but sadly I'm not the one to write them! I will say it can be rewarding and a huge learning experience.

[SmilingBluEyes]

I loved it for years. (roughly 15).

Way back in the 90s when I became a nurse there was not the insolence and violence we see now. I loved caring for people and loved the rush of acute care and crises. I can handle any crisis and thrive. I can't handle being hit/abused or verbally attacked anymore. I am too old for that.

I hope others chime in here and tell us good stories. This could be an amazing thread. I would love to see nurses who are happy doing bedside nursing.

[LibraNurse27, BSN, RN]

3 minutes ago, SmilingBluEyes said:

I loved caring for people and loved the rush of acute care and crises. I can handle any crisis and thrive.

Awesome! I love the caring for people but not the crises, LOL! I loved my jobs as a food service worker at a salad bar and managing the equipment check out desk at a gym, but could not survive on those here in the bay area. Maybe I am not an ambitious person = ( I HATED rapid response and codes and felt nauseous every day before my step-down unit shifts. OK this is not positive LOL let's hear from those happy nurses! 

[NightNerd, MSN, RN]

I'm in med-surg, and though I don't think this will be something I do for the rest of my career, I do like it and find it compelling. I enjoy the variety of people I meet and treat, and there is always something new and weird to learn. There are enough rapids and other emergencies to keep things interesting, but I also get to see people get better and go home (or at least to SAR, LOL). I am not an adrenaline junkie by any stretch, but I do find that I grow a little more confident with each situation that comes up, and med-surg (usually) allows some gradual growth in that area.

I also have to say that as many negative and nasty people as I've met as a nurse, I've also met some truly kind, strong, wonderful individuals that allow me to reserve some optimism for our species. Even though I am 100% more jaded than I was before becoming a nurse, I met enough great people and participate in enough little miracles that it hadn't completely ruined the world for me.

Hahaha this is not sounding incredibly positive, perhaps. I don't mean it to sound bleak. Your worldview has to change a little bit to survive in nursing, but I don't think it's ultimately made me unhappy. It's definitely pushed me to define my boundaries, know what is and isn't acceptable treatment from others, and advocate for myself and my coworkers at least as much as I do for my patients. Now that I can do those things, I'm satisfied in my work, and that is good enough for me.

[SmilingBluEyes]

15 minutes ago, NightNerd said:

I'm in med-surg, and though I don't think this will be something I do for the rest of my career, I do like it and find it compelling. I enjoy the variety of people I meet and treat, and there is always something new and weird to learn. There are enough rapids and other emergencies to keep things interesting, but I also get to see people get better and go home (or at least to SAR, LOL). I am not an adrenaline junkie by any stretch, but I do find that I grow a little more confident with each situation that comes up, and med-surg (usually) allows some gradual growth in that area.

I also have to say that as many negative and nasty people as I've met as a nurse, I've also met some truly kind, strong, wonderful individuals that allow me to reserve some optimism for our species. Even though I am 100% more jaded than I was before becoming a nurse, I met enough great people and participate in enough little miracles that it hadn't completely ruined the world for me.

Hahaha this is not sounding incredibly positive, perhaps. I don't mean it to sound bleak. Your worldview has to change a little bit to survive in nursing, but I don't think it's ultimately made me unhappy. It's definitely pushed me to define my boundaries, know what is and isn't acceptable treatment from others, and advocate for myself and my coworkers at least as much as I do for my patients. Now that I can do those things, I'm satisfied in my work, and that is good enough for me.

Well said.  I love what you had to say in your entire post but the Bolded part is so true. I have, too, learned to define boundaries and find the golden nugget in the pile of poop. And I have to say I do like working with the same patients, for the most part, in what I do now. We form lasting relationships (albeit some dysfunctional, LOL), that make me glad I do what I do.

[LovingLife123]

I enjoy being a bedside nurse.  I do not want to be an NP nor do I want to go into any type of management.  There are things about bedside I do despise, but I love patient care.  I love the puzzle that comes with figuring out my patients and what I can do to help heal them.  

I had a very complex case yesterday and I enjoyed getting to do all the things I love to do.  Advocate for my patient, trying different treatments to see what worked, supporting the family.  That’s what I love.  The short staffing, and redundant documentation need to go.  

I’m in a specialized ICU.  

[LibraNurse27, BSN, RN]

@NightNerd I loved your post! I agree bedside nursing increases confidence and resiliency. And, there are some wonderful patients to meet in the hospital. Seeing pt progress is also super rewarding. Thanks for sharing!

6 minutes ago, LovingLife123 said:

I had a very complex case yesterday and I enjoyed getting to do all the things I love to do.  Advocate for my patient, trying different treatments to see what worked, supporting the family.

That's awesome! I'm glad there are great nurses out there advocating for patients and keeping the family informed and involved = )

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Med/Surg was a great job…until it wasn’t. Chronic short-staffing combined with micro-management became the order of the day when a new corporation bought out my hospital, and conditions deteriorated quickly after that. Most of the older nurses were pushed out of their jobs and even all the union leadership was young and ambitious, so we didn’t have much recourse. I myself had a breakdown at work and walked away, literally, before I clocked in one morning. 

I never worked in a hospital again. I was mostly in management for the rest of my career, and while I still miss some aspects of bedside nursing, I don’t regret leaving it. I enjoyed having some autonomy in my work, and while that level of responsibility eventually led to another breakdown, I got some great years in before I left nursing for good. But now, whenever I’m a patient in a hospital, I do what I can to make their day easier, because I know how hard those nurses work and it’s way worse now.

[LibraNurse27, BSN, RN]

13 hours ago, VivaLasViejas said:

it’s way worse now.

Interesting! I heard from the older nurses at my hospital job that things had changed for the worse, more corporate environment, focus on satisfaction scores rather than patient care, worse ratios, budget cuts, more pay for upper admin and managers that left less funding for staffing and equipment, and more violent patients. One bladder scanner for ICU, Stepdown, and ER but we could see how big managements' bonuses were since it's a county hospital and salaries are public.

I would love to go back in time and see how nursing was before. I am thinking nurses may not have been as well respected, and one older nurse mentioned being viewed as a handmaid to the (almost all male) doctors. Maybe things have improved in some aspects and worsened in others. 

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

I still love being a bedside nurse. I'm in a small ICU in a community hospital. I work night shift and I love the autonomy of night shift, the fact that sometimes I have enough time to spend with patients to give them the attention they might need or to answer questions and reassure them.

I don't like: being in charge about 90% of my shifts, being short staffed (I was tripled three of my last five nights), and the management in my particular unit is the worst I have dealt with across two careers and many work environments. But, most of the time I can put that aside because the satisfaction I get from my work outweighs that part.

We have a young patient in the unit and her parents have been at the bedside for days. When I got into work the other night, mom said "Oh, thank goodness you're here." I don't usually care about external recognition or feedback, but it felt good to know that I had personally made a positive impact for this patient and her family in a particularly stressful time in all of their lives. 

[LibraNurse27, BSN, RN]

1 hour ago, JBMmom said:

it felt good to know that I had personally made a positive impact for this patient and her family in a particularly stressful time in all of their lives. 

That is wonderful! We need nurses like you at the bedside. Being tripled in ICU sounds terrible. I'm impressed you can persevere despite the staffing issues and management. I hope things will get better and keep up the good work! 

[Kitiger, RN]

3 hours ago, LibraNurse27 said:

Interesting! I heard from the older nurses at my hospital job that things had changed for the worse, more corporate environment, focus on satisfaction scores rather than patient care, worse ratios, budget cuts, more pay for upper admin and managers that left less funding for staffing and equipment, and more violent patients. One bladder scanner for ICU, Stepdown, and ER but we could see how big managements' bonuses were since it's a county hospital and salaries are public.

I would love to go back in time and see how nursing was before. I am thinking nurses may not have been as well respected, and one older nurse mentioned being viewed as a handmaid to the (almost all male) doctors. Maybe things have improved in some aspects and worsened in others. 

I worked midnights Med/Surg float for my first year as an RN (1979). I was a diploma grad from that hospital, so I already knew the various floors. Around 2 or 3 in the morning was my favorite time. That's when the patients who couldn't sleep just wanted to talk. Often, they were trying to get their arms around a new diagnosis, or their worsening health. I usually had time to sit with them. 

This was back when people came in the night before surgery, and stayed 4 or 5 days after surgery. Open heart surgery was at least a 2 week stay. We had one patient in almost 6 weeks for IV antibiotics Q6hrs. The cardiac stepdown unit was for patients who needed to be on a heart monitor, or someone with "Chest pain, rule out MI". (OK, it's "AMI" now.)

Our cardiologists were just starting to do a brand new procedure, "Balloon Angioplasty". Before that, we kept patients with an MI on bedrest/bathroom privileges, kept them quiet, gave them oxygen, medicated with Nitropaste (measured out on its crinkly plastic that we stuck to their skin), and meds like Quinidine, Isuprel, Indural, and Lidocaine. Vitals Q4 hrs, IV at keep open. 

Now, they go straight to the cath lab. With angioplasty, they can go home without any damage to the heart muscle! 

Some things truly are better. ?