Do you regret being a nurse

Nurses General Nursing

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Do you regret becoming a nurse?

At this point in time, I do regret becoming a nurse. This results from a combination of the working conditions and not having a compatible personality for nursing. It's just not something that I enjoy. For quite awhile, I felt guilty about this because who wouldn't want to "help" other people and be there for them in their time of need? I've finally realized that is not all that nursing involves and there are plenty of other careers out there that allow one to help others. I am going back to school for another career and maybe someday I will be able to say that I don't regret becoming a nurse because the knowledge will provide a unique perspective in my new career.

I dont regret doing my nurse training as the 3 years I spent at uni were brilliant. However, in many ways I do regret becoming a nurse. Its not the actual nursing that I do not like, as I love working with clients with Mental Health problems, and have met and cared for many really nice people. I have also worked with some good people. However, nurses are not valued, particularly in the private sector, although the NHS has its problems as well. Management are totally out of tune with what nurses have to cope with, and with the amount of admin that htey have to do. An admission can take up most, if not all of a shift, and at times, I have had at least 4 admissions and discharges to complete on a shift. Invariably some of the work has to be left for the next shift, which is not good for the clients being admitted. If, and this has happened many times, a nurse is the only qualified staff member on shift, they are left to do everything, meds, ward rounds, admissions, discharges, general ward work, and lets not forget actually spend time with the clients.

At the end of the day, its always the nurses that seemed to get the rough end of the deal, and are made scapegoats when things go wrong.

In the private sector the owners of nuring homes are driven purely by profit, and do not care about the residents wellfare.

I do not regret that I am a nurse. Sometimes I regret the situations my hospital or co-workers have put me in. Most of the time I try to make the best of these regretful situations, and remember that I have a job that I love and am proud to do.

Right now, yes I do. There is just so much that's wrong with the profession these days. If I could work in a nurturing environment, take the time to give each of my patients all the care they need, had the support of peers, management, MD's.....then that would be a different story. If nursing was what I'd thought it would be, and the way it should be.... well I guess so may nurses wouldn't be answering yes to this question.

Specializes in cardiac med-surg.

no, its tough but i still thrive on it

no i do not regret becoming a nurse or being one now. however, hindsight being what it is, there's no way i'd do it now. i agree with what others have said regarding administrative treatment of nurses. i have some serious concerns about how good nursing care will be in the not too distant future as nurses are spread thinner and thinner, required to be more of a computer whizz than a hands-on care giver and unlicensed personnel are given their tasks. it scares me.

My thoughts exactly.

Specializes in Telemetry, Med-Surg, Long Term,Ortho.

No I don't regret it.

I am also worried about life after school too, but I have noticed that NPs and military nurses seem to have greater job satisfaction than ARN and BRNs. So I am making a bee-line for NP. I don't suppose you folks could indicate your degree so I could test my hypothesis? :D

No. But I regret some of the issues that challenge nursing today.

I agree. I've gotten a lot from nursing over the years in terms of self-respect, empowerment, etc. I'm a very different person now than I was way back then.

That said, I'm about fed up with it all - the fight to gain recognition for what I do in an industry that I see as going down-hill.

What SmilingBluEyes said. :)

Ditto:uhoh3: :uhoh3:

Specializes in Critical Care, ER.

No, I do not regret being/becoming a nurse. Would I do it again... nope! :chair:

Depends what type of day I'm having...

Yep the bad days are hard and for me, I have a lot of bad days.:uhoh3:

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