Is it just my idealistic view of what a nurse should be or does this bother other nurses? I have heard several times lately and have read articles of people who are going to nursing school, not because they want to be a nurse but because they want the paycheck and a stable job. My sister in law is one of these people. She said to me, " I really don't want to be a nurse but I figure that I can work as a nurse while I go back to school." I find that mentality very frustrating. I worked very hard to become a nurse. I worked as a nursing assistant before I became a nurse so I could make sure that I knew what I was getting myself into, I shadowed nurses when I was in high school. I really feel that this is what I was put on this earth to do and to hear people talk like this who have absolutely no concept of what they are getting themselves into and who have no respect for the profession just boils my blood. I feel like these people, who have no intention of staying in nursing for an extended period of time just make it harder for the nursing student who actually wants to make a career of nursing because they take up spaces on the wait list for getting into nursing school.
Maybe some of these people will be excellent nurses and will contribute well to the profession but I personally would not want a nurse to take care of me who only got into the field because they wanted a stable paycheck.
Don't you agree that to do well in nursing you have to have some desire to be here in the first place? These are people's health and lives that we are dealing with. This field isn't just about a paycheck!!!
I know I'm probably being naieve and idealistic when I say this but I really feel that nursing is a calling, not a JOB!!! I've been doing this type of work for going on 10 years now and I have felt that way about it from day 1.
What do you think? Does it bother you that people are getting into nursing who have no desire to actually be a nurse? Just wanting to hear other people's perspectives on the issue.
Totally off the subject at hand.......................your signature. Here it would be support the oil industry, gas went up here in our small town $.20 a gallon, great while it lasted!
Yeah, but who cares if it increased by $0.20, when its still unrealistically low? As much as I enjoyed filling up my tank from bone dry for $30, it actually really scares me that the price of gas dropped by $3 in as many months. Not a good sign at all....
While we're off topic, does anyone else feel torn about supporting the auto industry? I feel like I should, but only because of how many people would lose their jobs if one of the big 3 failed. On the other hand, I feel like American auto makers are failing due to their own incompetence. Somehow they became marketing firms first, and engineering firms second, if at all [as opposed to say, BMW, who have it the other way around]. Seriously, the engineering and technology that goes into all but a handful of their cars is an absolute joke, and they wonder why they aren't making any money. If we didn't have to worry about collapsing the economy of the entire state of Michigan, I'd say let nature take its course...
Yes but they should interview ALL the potential future nursing students for personality traits...just like they they do with a future stewardess candidates.They dont like your smile,you might not be cut of for nursing.
They do that???
No wonder every airline flight attendant I've ever met has been unnaturally cheery.....
i have been a nurse for many years and i went into nursing because of wanting to care for others. yes i have made decent money and continue to do so. many of the nurses that work for me (yeah i'm in management) make more money than some of our doctors and myself if we figured out the hourly pay that i would make considering how many hours i put in each week. nursing is an excellent career and in certain parts of the country nurses make close to or over $100k /year. new grads in my city start off making 60k/ year. my issue is when you have a job you should come to work to work. i take exception with the nurses that feel they can come to work and complain that they actually have to work during their shift. some of my staff feel that a set of vital signs and making sure that the patient is fed is all that they need to do (then they can sit around, gossip, read magazines/novels or complain). of course these are the same nurses that complain the most that there is not any discharge teaching completed at the time of discharge or heaven forbid they have to actually talk with the patient or family. some staff do not even introduce themselves till several hours after the family arrives. we are professionals so let’s all act like professionals. this means following policies and procedures, completing competencies, helping each other out, clean up the messes you make and not complaining in front of families. i love nursing and hope that most nurses who go into nursing feel the same otherwise; look for another area of nursing or a career you are happy with. there is plenty of ancillary staff that works in hospitals that make a lot less money than the nurses and they actual are working hard their entire shift.
Yeah, but who cares if it increased by $0.20, when its still unrealistically low? As much as I enjoyed filling up my tank from bone dry for $30, it actually really scares me that the price of gas dropped by $3 in as many months. Not a good sign at all....
Ummmmm, that is what I was referring to, while $.20 isn't much, it is on the rise I'm afraid. I filled mine from empty a few weeks ago only $24. When you are on fixed income like many of us here, you sit at home when it gets to $5. a gal. Like I said it was great while it lasted........
While we're off topic, does anyone else feel torn about supporting the auto industry? I feel like I should, but only because of how many people would lose their jobs if one of the big 3 failed. On the other hand, I feel like American auto makers are failing due to their own incompetence. Somehow they became marketing firms first, and engineering firms second, if at all [as opposed to say, BMW, who have it the other way around]. Seriously, the engineering and technology that goes into all but a handful of their cars is an absolute joke, and they wonder why they aren't making any money. If we didn't have to worry about collapsing the economy of the entire state of Michigan, I'd say let nature take its course...
I totally support the auto industry, I have many cousins in Mi, they work at Ford. It's the rich dudes that worry me. Go Chevy, buy American!
You had better slap a pretty smile on your face when you go to the bedside because this is the reality of the situation. Avatar scores are based on your pt's perception of your performance. Items they deem important, such as how prompt you are to answer their call bells and get their spouses a blanket, etc. They will remember a joke or a simple gesture long after they are gone. Never mind you checking their meds carefully or confirming orders. They don't see, nor do they understand that. So in reality they will remember the techs longer than you because the tech bathed them and changed their sheets. Now here comes the rant. Staffing = positive scores. Staffing = pt safety. Cut staffing and lower the approval scores and pt safety. How does this relate to the original post?
Nurses need to be viewed as the point where the rubber meets the road. The last line of defense between the system and the pt. The consumet professional, educated and versed in direct pt care. If you are hearing the theme from Superman, no problem. Half nice guy and half hardass. As long as we hold the discussion about who cares more, you or me? This profession. Substitute "calling" if you need to. Will NOT be elevated to the level of respect that it deserves. If I have to chose the surgeon working on my daughter's brain and it comes down to an insensitive, selfish, obnoxious, jackass that finished first in his or her class vs. a caring, empathetic, lovable, warm, hugable, barely passing
med school surgeon. Give me the jackass every time.
Because here is the test. If your auto mechanic was really sorry that he never fixed your car right, I mean really sorry. Really sincerely sorry that he didn't get it right. How many times would you let him work on your car?
This profession is not about who cares the most. This profession is about performance.
American auto manufacturers should go bankrupt. Build products worthy of my money and trust and I will quit buying Nissan, and Toyota cars and trucks. Real simple. Keep getting hair in my burger and I stop eating there. You deserve to fail because you built a bad burger. Build a crappy car, same thing. Pay seventy dollars an hour to someone to turn a screw. Good Lord. How much do you guys make an hour, and they expect to pay the union guy that sweeps the floor more than some RNs make. What could be the problem?
American auto manufacturers should go bankrupt. Build products worthy of my money and trust and I will quit buying Nissan, and Toyota cars and trucks. Real simple. Keep getting hair in my burger and I stop eating there. You deserve to fail because you built a bad burger. Build a crappy car, same thing. Pay seventy dollars an hour to someone to turn a screw. Good Lord. How much do you guys make an hour, and they expect to pay the union guy that sweeps the floor more than some RNs make. What could be the problem?
I sure know some maintenance people who work at a hospitals and make more money than RN's
American auto manufacturers should go bankrupt. Build products worthy of my money and trust and I will quit buying Nissan, and Toyota cars and trucks. Real simple. Keep getting hair in my burger and I stop eating there. You deserve to fail because you built a bad burger. Build a crappy car, same thing. Pay seventy dollars an hour to someone to turn a screw. Good Lord. How much do you guys make an hour, and they expect to pay the union guy that sweeps the floor more than some RNs make. What could be the problem?
I do agree that the bailout is only putting a bandaid on a wound that won't heal. The auto companies need to make serious changes in the way they design their cars but I wouldn't call them crappy. A UAW worker in Michigan makes about 28 bucks an hour. That's about as much as I make. The contracts between GM/UAW do need to be renegotiated so that GM is not taking the hit for a lot of the benefits. Job banks need to go. Don't get me wrong, I do support the auto industry. It is the foundation of Michigan. If we lose the auto industry but massive unemployment will cause a much bigger crisis. Anyhow, why should the workers take the hit? They aren't making millions of dollars and flying in corporate jets like the execs.
I buy Saturn and Saturn only. My first car was a Saturn SL1 and it had great gas mileage, my second car was a Saturn Vue 2005 and that had great gas mileage and my current car is a Saturn Vue 2006 because I got into a very bad car accident where I rolled my 2005 Saturn after losing control. It rolled over 4 times. It was the scariest thing I have ever went through. I thought I was going to die. The Vue landed on its rooftop. I was able to unbuckle my seatbelt and crawl out of my Vue in one piece. The only injury I had was a huge contusion from the seatbelt. When my Vue was towed to the tow yard, I had to go and retrieve some things that were left in it and the only damage that there was, was front end damage,the driver's side door. Call me crazy but that's really good for a car. Of course the insurance company totalled it and I had to go buy a new one. Anyways, not all American cars are bad.
Is it just my idealistic view of what a nurse should be or does this bother other nurses? I have heard several times lately and have read articles of people who are going to nursing school, not because they want to be a nurse but because they want the paycheck and a stable job. My sister in law is one of these people. She said to me, " I really don't want to be a nurse but I figure that I can work as a nurse while I go back to school." I find that mentality very frustrating. I worked very hard to become a nurse. I worked as a nursing assistant before I became a nurse so I could make sure that I knew what I was getting myself into, I shadowed nurses when I was in high school. I really feel that this is what I was put on this earth to do and to hear people talk like this who have absolutely no concept of what they are getting themselves into and who have no respect for the profession just boils my blood. I feel like these people, who have no intention of staying in nursing for an extended period of time just make it harder for the nursing student who actually wants to make a career of nursing because they take up spaces on the wait list for getting into nursing school.
Maybe some of these people will be excellent nurses and will contribute well to the profession but I personally would not want a nurse to take care of me who only got into the field because they wanted a stable paycheck.
Don't you agree that to do well in nursing you have to have some desire to be here in the first place? These are people's health and lives that we are dealing with. This field isn't just about a paycheck!!!
I know I'm probably being naieve and idealistic when I say this but I really feel that nursing is a calling, not a JOB!!! I've been doing this type of work for going on 10 years now and I have felt that way about it from day 1.
What do you think? Does it bother you that people are getting into nursing who have no desire to actually be a nurse? Just wanting to hear other people's perspectives on the issue.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people going into nursing for all the wrong reasons and when they get to the floor of either a nursing home,hospital,rehab, clinic or whatever it usually shows up in their response to patient and family needs or in their inability to multi-task.
Specializes in psych, addictions, hospice, education.
I wonder if the idea of nursing being a calling is something that is a traditional value--many of the first nurses were nuns who took care of the sick. They had a calling to serve God and were supported by the church, so they didn't need to work for a wage. Also, our fearless leader Florence Nightingale was independently wealthy, saw the suffering on the battlefield, and wanted to help, but did not need to work for a decent wage. Now, nurses need to survive financially. I can't say I know any who don't need a paycheck.
Back in the olden days, but as recently as the 70s, nursing schools taught their students to be wonderful caregivers, but they were also taught to follow strict rules of behavior (skirt hem only so far from the floor, cap starched and ironed, following "orders"). That carries over into present-day nursing too.
Also, historically women have been raised to care for others at their own expense. SInce nursing is a profession that mostly women go into, that attitude is in-play
On another topic mentioned in past posts...art vs. science. There's a theorist named Patricia Benner who wrote about the stages of expertise in nursing. One starts out with the science and with experience works toward and through competence toward expertise. Not everyone gets to expertise, and no one is there all the time. Expertise is where the art is present--one has it in the heart and knows what to do almost without seeming to think about it (and does it with open heart and happy spirit).
May the spirt be with you! I think anyone writing in this forum shows that he or she cares alot about it or wouldn't be taking the time to give an opinion! :clphnds:
Everyone is more or less saying the same things! And we're preaching to the choir!!
OC85
263 Posts
Yeah, but who cares if it increased by $0.20, when its still unrealistically low? As much as I enjoyed filling up my tank from bone dry for $30, it actually really scares me that the price of gas dropped by $3 in as many months. Not a good sign at all....
While we're off topic, does anyone else feel torn about supporting the auto industry? I feel like I should, but only because of how many people would lose their jobs if one of the big 3 failed. On the other hand, I feel like American auto makers are failing due to their own incompetence. Somehow they became marketing firms first, and engineering firms second, if at all [as opposed to say, BMW, who have it the other way around]. Seriously, the engineering and technology that goes into all but a handful of their cars is an absolute joke, and they wonder why they aren't making any money. If we didn't have to worry about collapsing the economy of the entire state of Michigan, I'd say let nature take its course...