I am a prenursing student looking to finish up and start applying to schools this January. I already have a degree. I've been doing sales support for about 8 years - so it's a pretty stressful position in itself. However, I think I was searching in to PICU nursing and came across this website, and well, I know that people are more likely to write about the bad then the good, but wow. Is it really like this in your opinions? I've posted the original post, but the comments just go on and on.
I graduated from nursing school in 1979 and easily got my first job in a teaching hospital in acute care pediatrics. I was young and stupid and didn't put 2 and 2 together that while I hated nursing school and all the "BS" I would also hate nursing. I have not worked since 1990 because I was literally killed emotionally, spiritually and physically by this career.
If anyone wants to know why there is a nursing shortage it's really pretty easy, NO ONE WANTS TO DO IT!!! The real clincher is you work with other miserable people and wonder all along if others are hating it as much as you. (A good indication is when you start a new job and your preceptor keeps saying things like, "I hate this job.")
I worked in the PICU and also did transport and trauma. Have you ever asked someone in another profession if they ever feel guilty that someone is going to die because they dared to stuff a half a sandwich down after not eating or drinking until they felt like they were going to pass out, or do they have to ask someone to watch "their work" so they can go to the bathroom, or are they so tired after staying up for days that they are hallucinating, and this while lives are at stake.
Another thing that destroyed me was when my patients died and instead of getting a break or even a pat on the back I just got another patient. This is outside the range of being normal. I think nurses suffer terribly and from things like PTSD. We work in carnage!!! This is not normal. Things are not going to change and we are all looking at being "cared for" in some scummy hole by jaded caretakers.
Yes we are jaded for the reasons I just wrote. Think of how a "normal" person reacts to just going to a funeral, try doing it on a daily basis and having to act like it's the most normal thing in the world. Death and dying are a part of life but so is the sympathy and understanding that usually goes along with it. It's not normal to live your life in the greiving process and try to act like this is life.
Anyone who is in nursing school right now and/or mired in debt and doesn't think there is anyway out think again. There is always another path. Don't throw your life away like I did. I ended up getting a large settlement from a medical malpractice suit after becoming suicidal and being abused by a doctor. Now I am facing having to work again and the prospect of anything that has to do with nursing is nightmarish.
I am in a legal nurse consulting program and just reading the message board with all the pukey nursing enthusiasm (yes we that hate nursing know what I am referring to) I thought, "I have to have some commissuration", so I typed "nurses hating nursing" into my search engine and came onto this site. I hate to discourage people into nursing but I will give my honest opinion when asked and finally I have found some validation for my own feelings after so many years of total anguish. Maybe some of you can relate to this, it is almost a sin in some circles to say you hate something as sacred as nursing. You may think hate is a strong word but I wish I could think of something stronger, like HATE TO THE MILLIONTH POWER!!!
Don't get me wrong I was a superb nurse, but I absolutley despised every second working as a nurse. Now I live a life being so damaged by this profession. If you hate nursing like this do not feel like you are alone, there is at least myself and I am not a crummy person. In fact I am a Christian and very loving and smart (Summa Cum Laude graduate) sensitive and talented (and like I've read no I am not obese, unattractive, nor do I live on coffee and junk food). Please do not wait until you are 53 years old like I am to decide on a career move. Love yourself as much as we have loved our patients and get out while you can. Take it from me it is NEVER too late.
The beauty of becoming a nurse is that you do not have to do bedside nursing. If you do not like where you are then change it. Insurance, Elementary school nurse, Educator, Dr's office, IV team etc... Don't let the negative comments scare you.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
wow! what a negative post. it seems that the author looked at everything that could possibly be construed as negative and construed it as negative in the extreme. i fail to see how anyone who hates nursing this much could possibly be the "superb nurse" that she says she was.
anyone who has been around this board for long and has read my posts knows that i'm not one of those nauseatingly "perky" nurses i suspect the author is referring to. but i'm not obsessively negative, either. nursing, like anything else, has its pluses and minuses. i choose to focus on the positive and let the negative fade into the background as much as possible. i'd be interested to see how the author does in her next profession -- will she find as much to hate there as well?
Everyone is different, and we all manage the stress of the job in different ways. If you are someone who always takes things personally and gets stressed out easily then I would say
nursing is not the job for you. I've been doing this since 1988, and although I have recently
transitioned to a management job - after 20 years on the floor! I still like my job and I especially like mentoring less experienced nurses. Good luck to all of the pre nursing students - we sure do need you! And although jobs are a bit tight right now - you will find a job.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
to those who think the original poster is "not cut out for nursing" shame on you. i precepted on a floor where the nurses had a reputation for "eating their young". luckily, my preceptor was wonderful and when i was around the other nurses i just kept my mouth shut. we are in a caring profession, but most of the time nurses will not take care of each other. there are all kinds of excuses, blaming management, blaming "it's how it has always been done", stating that if we stand up for ourselves, we will get fired. yes, nurses are overworked, yes we work long hours - sometimes dangerously so, but, if we do not take care of ourselves - we have no one to blame but us. i will not work anywhere that i cannot take a bathroom break. i will stand up for myself and tell someone when they cross the line. why do we blame the nurse for hating their profession and not how the profession is run? it is like telling a rape victim that they must have done something to warrant the attack. why don't we treasure the new nurses for their knowledge and enthusiasm instead of beating them down? i feel bad for those who are in professions that they hate, whether is be nursing or plumbing.
sorry for ranting. take this for what is is.
excuse me? shame on me for saying that someone unhappy and emotionally labile enough to write a note like the original post maybe was not cut out for the profession she denigrates so thoroughly? shame on you. anyone who is relentlessly determined to find something to be unhappy will find it. but blaming "nurses eat their young" for difficulties you may have had in a new job is an example of not treasuring the experienced nurse for what they can teach you while still expecting that they will treasure you for your "knowledge and enthusiasm." (i'll give you the enthusiasm, but i'll say that any new grad who thinks she has a wealth of knowledge to pass on to the experienced nurses she works with has no freaking clue how little she actually does know and how much she has to learn.)
some nurses take care of their colleagues and some don't. some work environments are more toxic than others. i have found over the years, however, that those times i thought i was in the most toxic environments, some of the problem was me. you elicit the responses you get.
some of the rest of your post i can agree with -- nurses are overworked, working long hours in difficult circumstances, but we do owe it to ourselves to take care of ourselves first. (there's a reason you're supposed to put your own oxygen mask on first when an airliner cabin depressurizes.)
Oh by the way the OP was not the one to write the very negative post. The OP is a nursing student who cut and pasted a very negative post and questioned why someone would hate nursing so.
Nursing is a huge field with so many specialties, locations, and niches, that there is simply no reason that someone can't find a nursing job they enjoy. I can't think of any career that has more opportunity for diverse career interests and goals. If someone is miserable in their current nursing job, then they should acknowledge it and find an area of nursing they are suited for.
I've said it before on this site, and I'll say it again. I love my job. I love the work I do, I love my hospital, I love my coworkers. I've been itchy to do something a little more acute (like move to an ICU in a larger hospital), but I love my current job so much, I'm not sure I'll be making a change anytime soon.
I always recommend nursing as a career to those who are interested. I would be happy if my children grew up to be nurses. Of course there are stressors; but I've worked in other jobs, and I'm married to a public school teacher, and I see that the bullsh&t is spread fairly evenly across the board. My friends who are professors, doctors, lawyers, firefighters, barristas, musicians, and small business owners all experience work place politics, strange administrative and legal policies, bureaucratic nightmares, and upper level managers who are completely out of touch. You find that in every industry. Some individual facilities are much worse than others. My facility is great. I'm happy to be doing what I'm doing.
So no, not all of us hate nursing that much. Some of us actually really enjoy it.
i have found over the years, however, that those times i thought i was in the most toxic environments, some of the problem was me. you elicit the responses you get.
Specializes in Psych, Chem Dependency, Occ. Health.
I think the person who wrote that needs to find another area of nursing to try. I don't care for bedside nursing. I enjoyed working with addicts, community health, occupational health, teaching and so on. There are so many options!! There is no reason to hate a field that has such a variety of work options.
Wow. Nursing is not for everyone. There are plenty of reasons why nursing isn't made for everyone like: the smells, the cleaning up, the extreme pressure, the accountability... the list goes on and on. However, some people love it! It is a huge choice and commitment to be a nurse so it should be well thought out before starting pre reqs.
RN <><
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The beauty of becoming a nurse is that you do not have to do bedside nursing. If you do not like where you are then change it. Insurance, Elementary school nurse, Educator, Dr's office, IV team etc... Don't let the negative comments scare you.