Do you regret going into nursing?

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And why?

Specializes in CCU, OR.

Yes, FroggyMaMa, I agree. If I'd known that the market for PT and OT's is as hot as it can be.....but you have to have a young body to do the job. Mine's kinda broken.

Was the question about sounding so bitter and what job am I doing now addressed to me?

Well, if it was, I'm sitting at home doing nothing, collecting workman's comp checks, have had five job interviews and the only one to consider had NO benefits, terrible hours and only paid a max of $27.00/hr. HOWEVER, I also have a W/C lawsuit in process, so no one really wants to hire me based on that alone. There is always an excuse....

Nursing is a love/hate business for so many of us. The nursing part, the patient contact part, is usually great. the politics of a hospital aren't pretty and every hospital has them. Traveler's I've known have said that they like to travel, because they would not, could not be affected by politics much or at all. Now, when I got out of school, traveling nurses didn't exist! Wouldn't have done me much good anyway, because i got pregnant right out of school...ah well.

I have bitterness toward a system that treats a hurting nurse like a malingerer, that won't elect to send someone for a second opinion without the danger of a lawsuit. In this state, there is a cap of 250k no matter how badly you've been hurt, etc.....

I miss nursing. I miss nursing with a healthy body. I deliberately caught a patient who was falling off an OR bed, so she wouldn't suffer any injuries(and she didn't), but now I'm a nonentity to my own hospital system.

THAT'S my regret.

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Yes, I regret it and no I do not. I'm about 50/50. If I knew then what I know now about health care jobs, I would have been a Physical Therapist. Great hours, no on call, rareley a stressful emergency, lots of various work settings (almost as much variety as nurses), and amazing pay. PT's get way more money than nurses and have a much more narrow focus many times. Nurses are expected to know and do a lot more for less money. However, I do know that my mind and thought processes are that of a nurse and therefore the job suits me well.

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Sometimes I wish I went straight to the PA route. As I finish up school I seem to be more interested in the medical model of practicing rather than the nursing. In addition it seems that city policemen with no degree can start with higher salaries then a nurse in a lot of areas. It's kind of disheartening.

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Specializes in Geriatric Nursing.

It was always my pride and honor to be a nurse. Its just sometimes nurses does not know the right process of being employed...... so they end up jobless...

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Specializes in Cardiology (ITU), Acute Renal/Dialysis.
It was always my pride and honor to be a nurse. Its just sometimes nurses does not know the right process of being employed...... so they end up jobless...

Not sure what you mean? :)

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yes , i do. i hate the fact the some of the patients , resident's what ever you want to call it, are demanding. they think nurses are a maid on call. get me this.get me that. i want meds ,i want water, make my bed, get me a blanket,pillow,clean my butt. wwwha wwwha.

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It will depend on who u ask.

If you ask a new grad nurse (RN, LPN) who is still unemployed after many months of job searching with thousands of dollars in debt and constantly being asked by family members and friends that: "but nursing jobs are always in demand," and trying so hard not to be depressed with his/her current situation because he/she feels that his/her nursing degree will do no good outside of the healthcare field in comparison to other degree (accounting, social work, engineering, etc.) and wished he/she should have pursued a degree other than nursing...THATS A BIG HELL YEAH!

If you ask a working nurse with a # of years behind his/her back, it will be 50/50. Retirees always said No...duh!

It just depends on where you are coming from.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

Scenario: My mother, a cancer researcher who had spent her whole life studying and implementing new cancer treatments found herself on the other side of the fence. She suffered a seizure one night when she went to bed. She was terrified, the EMTs came out and took her to the hospital. The CT showed several tumors in her brain. A follow up MRI showed mets to the liver, both lungs, both kidneys and the spleen. She was in Stage IV, and was asymptomatic except for complaints of fatigue. She was given the moon and the stars by the kind people of Hospice, and she lived for a year to the date of her diagnosis, when her prognosis had been 6 weeks. She was 50 years old.

After witnessing the hospice nurse do everything in her power to make my mother's life and our lives the best it could possibly be, something awakened in me. I was a graphic artist for a very big marketing firm, and was pulling in an ungodly amount of money for my age. All of the success, all of the schooling, the politics and the stress of my job seemed senseless to me. After thinking about what I had to offer those around me, I could not answer a very basic question: What was I doing in my life to better the lives of those around me? The very real and very heavy weight of that answer was this: NOTHING. I was living for myself only, and to the glory of only myself. I felt wretched. I examined my life after my mother passed, as people normally do after the passing of a close loved one. I went on a soul searching quest. I could not get the hospice nurse out of my mind. She made SUCH a difference in our lives at a very precarious and scary time for us. I decided to enroll in nursing school.

I have never for one second regretted this. I feel honored and privileged to be able to impact someone's life in such a profound way. EVERY SINGLE DAY. It never escapes me that what I do is to the betterment of my fellow man, and really, that is the bottom line for me; the least common denominator in what is important in my life. I know that we have to put up with a lot of BS from docs, co-workers, administration, etc. That comes with the territory, and on a grand scale, everyone in every walk of life must put up with BS in their jobs. But we as nurses are able to touch so many lives and are able to comfort and administer to a wide variety of people in terrible and scary situations. We see a snap shot of the worst times in peoples lives. Nurses can make a scary situation bearable, and we are able to use our skills to educate families and patients to dissolve unwarranted fears (i.e., "I have this sharp pain in my abdomen-it must be cancer!" when in fact, it is just gas.). We have a huge impact on people that we see in our careers. Every single day.

Y'all, WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE! We may not reap the benefits of seeing a patient after a treatment, or after their rehabilitation, or after their surgery, but we know in our hearts that we have done our best, and that is something that nobody can take away from us. I can only speak for myself when I say that I am proud to be a nurse, and go about my day knowing that I have made a positive impact on those around me, be it a patient, a fellow nurse, a doctor, or a family member. THAT is why I chose nursing, and I will never for one skinny minute regret this decision to join such a remarkable profession.

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no, wish i spent more time in it.

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At times (most) I do regret it. I have basically been stuck as a nurse. People take advantage of some nurses. Pay is not all that. Hours /holidays have worked all of them for the most part. I would have picked another career that I would be respected.

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I do love being a nurse, I really feel it suits me. I also wish I had researched other areas of health care I may have been interested in such as PT. I think I would really enjoy PT. The jobs are just as numerous perhaps moreso, the pay incrementally better, and the work more specific and dare I say, easier. The schedules are generally better too.

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