Do you recommend becoming a nurse?

sunnycalifRN · Nov 18, 2009

What you're talking about isn't particular to nursing. It's all about profit. Just ask any teacher, steelworker, autoworker, rubberworker or worker in "high tech" and they'd agree with you. But, as a former "commie sympathizer", I cannot recommend the Soviet, Chinese or Cuban solutions, either. Sweden, anyone?

aloevera · Nov 18, 2009

well after 30 yrs nursing........5 at my present employer, I finally went and did a stupid thing....I got a hernia !!! (lifting, of course) I am to wear a belt (have you ever tried that???? too tight for what it needs to do, comfortable and it does nothing !! ) oh, well, I got off subject a moment...sorry....

then in one month see if I need the herniaplasty......in the meantime, not one nurse that I work with has called to see how I was or where I was, for that matter......these same people that depend on me as I do them.....

I asked for light duty, but have not heard back about that....

so, would I recommend becoming a nurse????

now is not the time to give my opinion.....

(sorry, but just had to vent a little)

lamazeteacher · Nov 18, 2009

In what other profession can you be/do so many things, and assist others, along their way?

In my 50 years practising nursing, I have worked in ERs, clinics, Home Health, Infection Control, Public Health, teaching patients and nurses, been on the cutting edge of new health care programs (umbilical cord blood stem cell preservation for 1), OB and M/S units, Pediatrics, school nursing, and for regional centers with developmentally disabled children.

I have been a patient advocate, nurse advocate, and supporter of Reform of Health Care (from the vantage point of having seen so much abuse in our system, and living in Canada when the Reform of Health Care there began).

aloevera · Nov 20, 2009

lamazeteacher.........I would love (as others would as well) to get your take on healthcare in Canada as you have worked there..........what are we in the US looking forward to???? Please enlighten us..........

sorry this is off topic but I am sure many would like to know...

Delawhere_RN · Nov 23, 2009

As a current *mature* student nurse, I have some insight, yet not enough experience to say I'd love being a nurse -simply b/c I'm not all the way there yet. BUT I love going to clinicals, I love my paperwork (even though challenging and stressful) simply b/c I love to learn. I love people and I'm old enough (maybe mature is a better word LOL) that I know that not everyone will like me nor like themselves. So with that comes people who are hard to deal with in life and I'd assume especially nursing. I relate school to raising children, challenging but well worth it. I appreciate the knowledge I have and appreciate the knowledge my teachers and other experienced nurses have so much more now. I want to be that nurse.....the one that has 30+ yrs under their belt. I think there are people who are just supposed to be nurses and that they will make it to that path eventually - but need a little knowledge, so recommending doesn't hurt :0) Some pmake better nurses in Peds, others in Psych, etc. We all have a special place to call ours LOL.

birdgardner · Nov 23, 2009

Being a nurse, sure. Becoming one, hell no, not with the job market as it is for new grads.

lamazeteacher · Nov 23, 2009

lamazeteacher.........I would love (as others would as well) to get your take on healthcare in Canada as you have worked there..........what are we in the US looking forward to???? Please enlighten us..........
sorry this is off topic but I am sure many would like to know...

Thank you for asking me, and I have to say that my experience actually working with the Canadian system, was in the province of Ontario, where it first began, in 1962. Things went along pretty much the same as it was before, I was in Public Health, working in my rural district which was 25 sq. miles, had 5,000 families, and 4 schools. I was the school nurse at all 4 elementary schools mornings, saw all patients who came home from being hospitalized, within one week at home visits, and newborns and new mothers within 48 hours. I attended all well baby clinics, immunized babies and children (we had a third of the vaccines given now). When a doctor suspected noncompliance in any patient, he (we had no female doctors) would request a home visit. All Tb patients had monthly home visits.

Since that time, things have changed greatly, as technology increases, each province determines its own system of health care, with federal and provincial funding. I just heard from a nurse working in a hospital in Manitoba, saying that the head of the system there has driven it into the ground. There are fewer nurses as no positions left empty, have been filled. Patients and physicians are complaining, and needed equipment doesn't get ordered. Being an optimist, I predict that the head of that program will leave, and more capable hands will right the disaster there.

In Ontario, my family receives timely, good care. My 80 year old sister will have a spinal fusion in Jan., having waited a few months for that (? younger patients getting it before her, as they're employed?). She's been in physical therapy constantly, and on more analgesia than I like to think about, which makes her ditsy. When she needs to see her doctor, a phone call gets her an appointment later the same day, at his office in a large shopping mall, next to a pharmacy and supermarket, restaurants and everything else a truly first class mall has.

My impression of hospitalizations, is that the care is as good as the nurse is, who is on duty. My brother-in-law's orthopedic surgeon had knee replacement surgeries scheduled as soon as the decision was made to do them (at separate times, about 10 years ago); and rather than going home directly from hospital, he spent 2 weeks in "rehab" (not like a SNF, more like a sports center where patients lived. Equipment is shared there, saving money that we use lending equipment for PT to each patient in their own home, and sending PTs to individual homes about 3 times a week. There's a sleepover camp kind of feeling there, and patients go to PT several times a day. If an infection was to occur, it would be seen immediately, rather than leaving the patient responsible for notifying their doctor of any s/s of infection.

That's better preventative care than happens here, wherein simply telling patients what adverse events to report which, having denial intervene, is usually put off, especially on weekends and after office hours, when American doctors tell their patients to go to the ER, which is a fate worse than waiting for morning, to most patients.

In Quebec the biggest change there is that doctors' offices must use French if more than 3 people work there, as "language police" will come by and fine them if it isn't done. My friend's brother who is a physician there hasn't complained about less income; and his expectations weren't high in that regard since the pay hadn't been huge previously. Doctors in Canada haven't the illusions of grandeur that American doctors sought.

There's really no way to predict how care will be in the U.S., after the reformed health care gets going. As with most things, there will be some trial and error, a lot of media sensationalism "it's not working" type of thing, along with bitter complaints from doctors regarding their earnings, which may be hourly (rather than current # of procedures/patients way), depending on the state and federal leanings (what the traffic will bear), insurance companies' and possibly public program idiosyncracies.

The advise I'd like to give, is that a positive attitude (anything's better than we have now), and knowledge that the money will be there, despite the screams of agony from extremely wealthy folks who will never miss any comfort of which their increased tax will seem to have deprived them. We'll still see their expensive cars on the road, newspaper accounts of lavish parties at their huge homes on hills....... The "middle class has suffered unfairly, in greater scope than any extremely moneyed person will, due to health care. So let's keep our heads up, our feet on the ground, and anticipate that great, more humane changes are in store. :yeah:

Crystal112 · Mar 4, 2010

yes I do recommend becoming a nurse it pays quite alot its challenging rewarding and shows that your a good person who cares about everyone and don't like to see people go or get ill and this is why Irecommend it

Just because you are a nurse does not make a person good by any means. They may have self serving motives... similarly, just becuase you are a teacher, doesn't mean you care about the students. I don't need to be a nurse to know that.

caffeineRx · Mar 7, 2010

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NeverTooLate8 · Apr 1, 2010

Nursing is not an easy career path to choose. It is certainly one of the most difficult. When friends or prospective students ask, do you recommend becoming a nurse?:)

In this "we-don't-hire-new-grads", hiring freezes abound economy - NO WAY. Right now, I would NOT recommend anyone go into nursing. I thinks it's a great career, but now is not a good itme to start, IMHO.

invernessfl · Jun 6, 2010

wow I'm surprised by the level of no's. Firstly, it pays pretty well. Second, there is immense job security. I have friends and family who would kill for this level of job security. I saw a study recently and the only job growth in the US for the past 20 years was in the medical field(it's sad but true). Third, there is a degree of satisfaction. I mean social workers help people but they get paid pennies. It's rare in the world that you can get a decent paycheck and actually do some good(unlike crook bankers). The downside is that we do work HARD lol and there is abuse from patients/docs/other nurses/patient's families

misket · Jun 6, 2010

Depends on the person. It's not for everyone. :nurse: