does anyone regret becoming a nurse?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hello everyone, hope you are all doing ok and thank you brian for you wonderful website. I am a senoir in high school and will be going to nursing school after i graduate:nurse:. My question is, does anyone regret becoming a nurse? If so, why do you regret this decision.

Specializes in Trauma/Tele/Surgery/SICU.

I regret it immensely. It is a brutal job with no respect and the pay is no where near worth it.

I am sick of dodging punches and attempted bites, families that hold vigil at the bedside and micromanage EVERY little thing you do, management that is constanly screaming "do more with less" and who then throw you under the bus when a pt. falls or develops a pressure ulcer. Pt.s who go crazy when you show up at 3:03 with their dilaudid that was due at 0300. Dr.s who leave you and your pts. hanging with no orders and who act like you are imposing on them when you ask them to do THEIR job!

PCT's who spend their whole shifts hiding. Unsafe ratios and the assembly line of admissions. X-ray techs who get peed off when they take it upon themselves to cancel my CXR for a pt. with a chest tube because "they just had one yesterday" when I ask them what medical school they graduated from.

But mostly I resent the fact that I am expected to care for critical patients without benefit of the ratio and resources of an ICU!

I am hoping it is just the unit I am on and that a change in facility will renew my spirit.....I fight like crazy for my pts, but I am afraid I don't have much more fight left in me.

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I do regret it at times. I hate several things about it: doctors that are complete jerks to you just because they feel entitiled to. You have nurses that will want to know most of your business , women are just noisy as hell. Dont wait for anyone to back you up on anything. Nurses will backstab you at the drop of a hat. Over the years, the one thing Ive seen is there is a lack of respect for nurses and it is growing; Ive seen a lack of professionalism in the profession in general. You will work immensely hard for your money...and the money in my opinion is average but not great if you consider the stress, fatigue after work. If you still want to help people, there are other avenues ....speech therapy, occupational therapy , physical therapy. I agree with the poster that you should volunteer at a hospital and try to become friends with nurses. Ask them for advice. You will get mixed reactions. At the end of the day, know what you are getting into.. Do your homework. I wish I had.

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

I hate the weekend/holiday obligation... other than that there's not much I really can complain about. I love that it keeps me busy (yes some nights are overwhelming but I find we lean on each other to get stuff done). No night ever is quite the same. You have the ability to comfort patients and families and even prevent a patient's physical decline with your assessment skills. And the great thing about nursing is that there's so many settings, high or low acuity, so many shifts available, weekdays 9-5 to weekend baylor shifts to 3 twelves to 5 eights. Yes, it is hard as a mom to manage daycare sometimes but I am grateful I don't have to have them in daycare 40 hours/week either, as a 3-11p, 32-hour full time RN (what other industry has those hours?). If you get burnt out in one area - run, don't walk to something completely different. The pay is decent, the job security is high, and most importantly, I feel good about what I do. There's always more to learn, and you're never going to reach a "knowledge ceiling..." if you're looking for a career where you can truly grow, this is it.

That being said, when I first graduated, I actually felt I had made a mistake for a while. I don't know why. But what I've found has kept me going is my drive to continually learn and push myself to look at what I'm doing as a nurse and find ways to do it better. This keeps me going on the days I feel overwhelmed and fatigued.

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.

If I really think about it, I would say that no, I don't regret becoming a nurse. To be employed in this economy and to have the earning power I have is very nice.

However, I frequently don't like my job. Bureaucratic decisions that result in shortages of staff and equipment has made this nursing thing sheer hell. And don't even get me started on Press-Gainey and that bull. I am NOT a customer service representative. I am a nurse.

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Specializes in Cardiac.
I regret it immensely. It is a brutal job with no respect and the pay is no where near worth it.

I am sick of dodging punches and attempted bites, families that hold vigil at the bedside and micromanage EVERY little thing you do, management that is constanly screaming "do more with less" and who then throw you under the bus when a pt. falls or develops a pressure ulcer. Pt.s who go crazy when you show up at 3:03 with their dilaudid that was due at 0300. Dr.s who leave you and your pts. hanging with no orders and who act like you are imposing on them when you ask them to do THEIR job!

PCT's who spend their whole shifts hiding. Unsafe ratios and the assembly line of admissions. X-ray techs who get peed off when they take it upon themselves to cancel my CXR for a pt. with a chest tube because "they just had one yesterday" when I ask them what medical school they graduated from.

But mostly I resent the fact that I am expected to care for critical patients without benefit of the ratio and resources of an ICU!

I am hoping it is just the unit I am on and that a change in facility will renew my spirit.....I fight like crazy for my pts, but I am afraid I don't have much more fight left in me.

OMG, do you work on my unit?! This sounds exactly like the place I work. I feel like this is probably everywhere, the way healthcare is today, it makes it hard to do your job. I miss the "pt centered" healthcare, now its just big business.

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Regrets.... I"ve had a few!!!! if you a smart enough to get into nursing school, you are a bright individual. PLEASE go to your counselor, parents, whomever, and explore other career options. There are many opportunities for smart women other than nursing. I desperately wish i would have put my great mind and efforts into ANYTHING else but nursing.#1....it is a female profession, therefore, the pay and benefits are are NOT comparable to a male dominated field.#2.... You will work like a DOG and not be appreciated by anyone, except a few patients.#3.. Please stay n this site and find out the TRUTH about nursing.

Run..run.. my little dear,,, AWAY from nursing.;)

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Regrets.... I"ve had a few!!!! if you a smart enough to get into nursing school, you are a bright individual. PLEASE go to your counselor, parents, whomever, and explore other career options. There are many opportunities for smart women other than nursing. I desperately wish i would have put my great mind and efforts into ANYTHING else but nursing.#1....it is a female profession, therefore, the pay and benefits are are NOT comparable to a male dominated field.#2.... You will work like a DOG and not be appreciated by anyone, except a few patients.#3.. Please stay n this site and find out the TRUTH about nursing.

Run..run.. my little dear,,, AWAY from nursing.;)

Interesting. Nursing has afforded me many opportunities. Everyone has different experiences.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.

There are a lot of days I am disappointed in the direction nursing has taken. It makes me wonder if I'd have been happier doing what I had considered doing instead of nursing. I've been in nursing for a long time, and there have been many changes, some for the good, but a lot that haven't been so good. I often wonder how I'll be able to hang on another 20 years till I can retire.

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Nah. A job is a job, and this one pays well and has good benefits.

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Specializes in CCU.
Regrets.... I"ve had a few!!!! if you a smart enough to get into nursing school, you are a bright individual. PLEASE go to your counselor, parents, whomever, and explore other career options. There are many opportunities for smart women other than nursing. I desperately wish i would have put my great mind and efforts into ANYTHING else but nursing.#1....it is a female profession, therefore, the pay and benefits are are NOT comparable to a male dominated field.#2.... You will work like a DOG and not be appreciated by anyone, except a few patients.#3.. Please stay n this site and find out the TRUTH about nursing.

Run..run.. my little dear,,, AWAY from nursing.;)

Can you give examples of other fields that pay similar or better than nursing? I am a new grad and I deeply regret going into nursing and already thinking of going back to school for something else. I just don't see how I can spend a lifetime working in this field like a dog and getting paid scraps.

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Specializes in hospice, ortho,clinical review.

Interesting, I never thought I'd be one to say this, but right now yes I do regret it. If I would have a complete picture of what I was getting into, instead of the snapshots that this site provided me with, I know for a fact I wouldn't have put myself through all of this. It's a 2nd career for me and I've not seen such total disrespect within a field as I have here.

I'd love to be like the poster that has the few experiences that make the bad worth it, I thought that would be me. But it's not. In LTC it's impossible to give quality care to 25+ residents and feel good at the end.

Now in the hospital I've been treated like a puppet and expected to take it b/c that's the way it is, and it's competitive, well right now you can have it. I'm sorry I killed myself since '07 for this. I was very happy doing pre-reqs so I love to learn, just not in a pressure cooker environment.

I have no idea what the future holds. I know I want out of the hospital as that was never a goal in fact I wanted to circumvent it, but I can't do what I eventually want w/o this experience. Maybe I'll feel different in a year, but right now, yes I deeply regret it, because life is too short and too precious to even feel for a short while, like this.

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Specializes in CCU.

thats exactly how I feel. Everybody keeps telling me that it will get better after some experience, perhaps a year but life is definitely too short to feel so miserable going to work, even for the so-called and much needed experience. I just wish I could've seen more of the problems with the field before sacrifcing so much to get into this field. Now I know there are those who love this type of work, but I am not a glutton for punishment, I don't know if I can subject myself to this field and being unhappy all the time.

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