Are there any positives to being a nurse?

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Hello everyone,

I am pondering becoming a nurse because like everyone else I have felt pain before. When I'm in pain the best thing is to have someone with you that can hold your hand and assure you that everything is going to be ok. I want patients to feel secure around me and know that I'm there for them in a time of such distress and anxiety.

Many of the threads in this forum (not all) highlight all the negatives, lack of support from fellow nurses, lack of training and orientation, demanding patients, demanding family members, shortage of staff, no flexibility in vacation time. Some people here describe nursing as the worst job on earth!

Please can someone state some positives.... :)

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Specializes in ED, SNF, ALF, PEDS.

I have a 115 reasons why I think nursing is the greatest job in the world...they are "my residents". I know that at the end of the day I made a difference. Not all days are great, but there are short moments throughout the day....some are very defining :) You are your own voice and know what you do and don't want, so when looking for a job...find a place that YOU feel comfortable....

but then again I believe you don't pick nursing....nursing picks you....

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:nurse: helping others!!!!!

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Oh, not all patients are annoying...

Some are tubed, sedated, and have family 3 states away!

;)

No. The real answer is that you can go home every day knowing that you have made a difference for sombody. You have made somebody's life a little better, a little easier.

You have given pain medicine to some in agony.

You have given comfort to someone fearful of a medical procedure, or death

You have held a child's hand and wiped their tears after giving them a "scary" shot, an immunization that may save their life some day.

You have provided comfort and dignity to a dying patient.

Even on the days where you feel like you haven't done anything right or effective, you still have.

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Specializes in Cardiology, Oncology, Medsurge.

Seeing a dramatic recovery of a patient who showed signs of waning earlier. No one can predict the outcome...even if you do your best work things can unravel.

The finest reward is when you see someone who appeared one day to be struggling, pale, weak, and in and out of consciousness one day and a glowing beaming person the next. You say to yourself what better reward is this!?

I had a patient describe what a nurse is and she said "Imagine to yourself that you are on a ship in the midst of a storm with wind and rain and punishing waves. You are standing on the deck of the ship. The nurse is there holding you as the waves pound against the ship giving you solace during the trial."

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Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.

We have this guy on our floor, he's in his mid 60s and a little confused. I've seen other nurses take care of him and basically tell him to lay there and be quiet. I actually took the time to hold the guys hand the other night for a few minutes. What a difference it made. It settled him tremendously. Sure nursing is a very stressful job, but it's moments like these where we can make a difference.

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In NICU we see a lot of our patients go from really sick, intubated, on drips to crying Q3h feeders who just want to be held and played with. That is the biggest reward to me.

I am still new at this helping families business, but every time I do something that makes them feel more comfortable about assuming their child's care, or they forget about their setting for a moment and get to enjoy being a parent, I love it.

I am VERY emotional about my job. The highs and the lows, I feel like I experience and exaggerate them about the same. Because when I hate it, I hate it... but when I love it, I get teary, choke up, have chills, have to share my "big moments" with everyone I know. Every job has lows - but I don't think they are as emotional because they are not about PEOPLE and the essence of lives.

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I think there are a lot of negatives in nursing, mostly because of the greedy big business society. Most nurses get into this wanting to help people get better but the politics beheind it is what makes it bad. One day maybe all the nurses will satnd up and say I am not going to take it anymore!!

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Hello everyone,

I am pondering becoming a nurse because like everyone else I have felt pain before. When I'm in pain the best thing is to have someone with you that can hold your hand and assure you that everything is going to be ok. I want patients to feel secure around me and know that I'm there for them in a time of such distress and anxiety.

Many of the threads in this forum (not all) highlight all the negatives, lack of support from fellow nurses, lack of training and orientation, demanding patients, demanding family members, shortage of staff, no flexibility in vacation time. Some people here describe nursing as the worst job on earth!

Please can someone state some positives.... :)

Pays is decent & you can work 'off' hours which is a good thing for some people (especially if you don't yet have a family of your own). People will appreciate you occasionally & that really feels nice. After a days work you know you really did something & contributed to help people. You get more familiar with some human raw emotions which can maybe make you a better reader of human nature.

You get to learn some really neat stuff - isn't the body fascinating? It is a job where your experience & education builds on itself. When you stay in the profession for a long time you typically get paid better.

I do have to add that I never found the right position in nursing even though I got my RN. I'm not totally sad about this because I go to a desk job everyday & never have to worry about life/death situations. I can leave my job at work most days too, unlike in nursing, where lots of luggage comes home with you. You can get a job almost anywhere in the US, which is a great sense of financial security. I imagine if I ended up moving to some nowhere town it might be the only decent job I could find & I'd need to reenter.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

Positives to nursing:

1) Working with a great bunch of other nurses

2) Great job for meeting a wide variety of people close up

3) Perfect job for people watchers

4) Well paid

5) Good job for parents because of variety of hours available

6) Intellectually stimulating many ways

7) Funny things happen sometimes!

8) Emotionally satisfying moments are frequent

9) The work is more meaningful than many other lines of work

10) You can get a well paid job in many localities

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Specializes in Adult Acute Care Medicine.

Yes it is stressful and difficult much of the time.

Still, each day you have the opportunity to positively impact many other human beings lives. It truly is a job unlike any other. It certainly is not the job for everyone (or even most people).

I think a lot of the "negative-nursing" threads here that you mentioned, are a means of stress release. I dont think most would continue in this profession if they truly were unsatisfied.

Good luck to you!

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