Do you miss bedside nursing?

ruby_jane, BSN, RN · Dec 20, 2018

NO!!! I don't miss being told I needed to take one more patient. I don't miss having to pore through written doctors orders to find the changes (that's how old I am...) I don't miss feeling rushed, feeling like I don't have time, driving home and thinking about what I could have /should have/ maybe forgot to do.

I went from ICU to public health to school nursing and have never looked back.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Dec 21, 2018

No. Not even a little.

I am a community based case manager for medically complex kids in foster care. Since leaving the hospital, I have also done home health/clinical management, per diem school and home infusion liaison.

cleback · Dec 21, 2018

I miss clinic work but not the hospital. Everyone is just so pressed for time and stressed in a hospital.. you need one thing and it's like you're asking for their firstborn.

I can't say what exactly I do know, but it's more like consulting work for uncommon diseases.

guest464345 · Dec 21, 2018

I went from ED to public health, back to ED last year and now to school nursing....never never never back to a hospital.

I saw lots of cool stuff then, and I get paid less now, but when I think back on it....just the simple things, the typical nurse complaints, like not getting to eat or use the bathroom. (If you read a newspaper article about migrant workers who had to work 13-hour shifts and often didn't get to use the bathroom you'd think, "Jeez, that is terrible, how can these places abuse people like that?"....yet most nurses are casual about accepting the same treatment themselves).

The endless efforts to speed up the assembly line, the constant demands to take another patient or discharge people faster, the feeling that you're not ever providing great care, just moving bodies in and out the door - no thanks.

Any job can get on your nerves sometimes. But now I sleep well, I have more patience for people, I have time and energy to work out, I'm not so anxious or irritable, I drink less, I get outside more. It's worth the pay cut.

K+MgSO4, BSN · Dec 21, 2018

I miss always having someone to handover to. Once my shift was done I was absolved of responsibility. I miss having someone to complain to about broken equipment or a wheelchair steering weird.

Now I love my job but I am the one arguing with clinical engineering about condemning my ECG machine as it spends more time off the ward than on, I'm the one that is sitting at home trying to write another business case to prove we need more staff overnight (again). I am the one that knows nurse A husband is beating her, nurse B has zero family or friends in the country and uses me as a surrogate mother, nurse C son is going off the rails etc..... and all for 20% less pay than my peers in all other states in the country (come on April pay parity!)

ruby_jane, BSN, RN · Dec 21, 2018

If you read a newspaper article about migrant workers who had to work 13-hour shifts and often didn't get to use the bathroom you'd think, "Jeez, that is terrible, how can these places abuse people like that?"....yet most nurses are casual about accepting the same treatment themselves.
Any job can get on your nerves sometimes. But now I sleep well, I have more patience for people, I have time and energy to work out, I'm not so anxious or irritable, I drink less, I get outside more. It's worth the pay cut.

AMEN and ditto!

Jedrnurse, BSN, RN · Dec 21, 2018

Do I miss bedside nursing?

Tee-hee. :roflmao:

But seriously... :no:

llg, PhD, RN · Dec 21, 2018

Not any more. As a former NICU nurse, I missed the babies at first. But that lasted only a year or two because I still got to do a little patient care now and then when I helped out sometimes. (I went into staff education.) Over the years, I have drifted further and further away from the bedside so that the final transition to being completely away wasn't a big deal. (though I still see some cute babies that I would like to cuddle sometimes)

AdobeRN · Dec 21, 2018

I am an elementary school nurse. A few things I miss is seeing/learning new interesting things and I miss having someone that is right here with me that I can ask questions or even just use as a sounding board when issues arise - yes my fellow district nurse coworkers are just a phone call away but it is not the same as having someone right next to you that you can say "hey look at this" or "hey what do you thing about XXX?". I do love being a school nurse - we like to say that a bad day in the school nurse office is better than a good day as a bedside nurse.

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN · Dec 21, 2018

I went from hospital nursing into correctional nursing. I would not willingly go back.

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Dec 21, 2018

I am in academia now and I truly miss my bedside colleagues, the relationships, and the meaningful parts of bedside nursing. I do not miss the exhaustion worry, and politics. I REALLY don't miss being taken for granted and the assumption that the nurse is the one who can handle every other department's work when they cut back.

My quality of life is vastly improved in the past 2.5 years after 38 years of bedside.