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Discussion

Do You Hate Being A Nurse?

Hello everyone, i'm a nursing student finishing next semester but i currently work as a clerk on L&D. I would like to work on this unit when i graduate but I sometimes get discouraged because i hear alot of the nurses complaining about thier job. I thought it might be just a bad day but its many nurses and all the time. I feel kinda of scared going into this career although im really passionate about it.

I also would like some advise on how to handle the transition from student to RN. It's getting closer and closer to graduation and every day i get more and more nervous and freaked out by it.

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No matter who you are or what job you have, you complain. People don't like to work. I complain at times, but of all things I could be doing, whether they paid twice what I am making now, I would rather be doing what I am doing. I might moan and groan about it occasionally, but in my heart I'm a nurse. Whether I have this as a job, or a career, that is who I am. Being a nurse is like being a mom. It never ends. You are always and forever a nurse (hence my log in name) No matter where you are, what you are doing, you are a nurse. To your friends, family, people in the super market. At schools, parties, family get together's, driving down the road. It is something you become, or it becomes you. It follows you everywhere. It is a big responsibility, but I love it. No matter where I am, I'm thinking like a nurse, acting like a nurse, analyzing like a nurse, assessing. Anyway, once again I am rambling. Hope all goes well for you in school. Good luck.

I don't hate being a nurse.

I just hate being a customer service representative that doesn't get tips and doesn't get back up from management.

I've been a nurse for five years and I've yet to have a complaint/write up that didn't involve some fool feeling slighted because I wouldn't hand them water that was within reach or wouldn't find five lunches simultaneously for five idiot family members. What really rubs me the wrong way, is that it isn't policy for five family members to receive free lunches but nobody backs you up for the complaint the family made saying "Well, we don't provide free food". Management just act like it's all my fault I'm enforcing their rules.

Once hospitals/facilities start acting like they provide healthcare again instead of pretending to be the Ritz Carlton but with one sixteenth of the help I'm sure I'll feel fine.

  • Experts

While I have good days and not so good days overall I love being a nurse and look forward to going to work.

  • Author

That's how i hope i will feel when i become a nurse. I hope my Passion overcomes my fear. thanks

Do I hate being a nurse? Some days.

It is good that your working in the hospital as a student because you have a sense of what your walking into. I wish I had done that as a student. It might have changed my mind because I honestly have learned more in 1 year of work than I ever did in 4 years of nursing school. Not to discourage you, but I wish my passion and heart was enough and that it outweighed all the negatives.

I can't answer that question yet, but all of the nurses I work with really enjoy their job.

I love being a nurse!! Some nurses do hate it, some just hate work, others just like to complain. I think it's important that you don't let other nurses discourage you. That has happened to me, also. It's not a passion for everyone, it's a job, but it's a passion for you and for me and you have to keep that.

I think most people love being a nurse, but just hate the fact that due to high patient loads and paperwork/customer service demands, they are not able to give the level of care they want. That can be unbearably frustrating and downright dangerous at times.

Let me preface this by saying that I am a total noob and only worked on our birthing center for 6 weeks before leaving because I couldn't handle working nights (no sleep).

I hated it.

I have a long way to go and lots more to experience before I can say definitively if I hate being a nurse. I sure hated our birthing center though. It was not one bit the way I thought a "birthing center" would be. I am all about holistic nursing, they were all about medical interventions and a very medical birth.

All I did all night was vitals, assessments, charting, changing beds, charting, vitals, assessments, charting, changing beds, charting, doing the garbage, charting, finding out when the babies last ate and for how long or how much, charting, checking and rechecking orders, charting, making sure the nursery was doing what they were supposed to be doing for my babies, charting charting CHARTING. The charting was freaking ridiculous. I understand the CYA aspect of it, but it was insane. I got to spend about 1 minute teaching the patient breastfeeding or newborn care or postpartum care or whatever. And that's where my strength is. So I'm going to try to find a job where I can really offer new mamas that teaching.

I did enjoy the newborn care I got to do - hearing screens, bathing, assessing the baby, etc. I would always try to steal a few minutes after their baths to snuggle and hold them tight. That was worth the hell I went through not sleeping for those weeks.

If you enjoy vitals and assessments, and don't mind insane amounts of charting, you will enjoy a typical L&D floor.

  • Experts

Although I like many aspects of being a nurse, here is a list of things that I hate...

1. The lack of respect from doctors, patients, family members, coworkers, managers, and society

2. The increase in accountability for patient outcomes, without the corresponding increase in salary

3. The fact that new nurses are churned out into the workforce every 6 months, further saturating the job market for nursing

4. The general consensus that nurses are warm bodies who simply fill shifts

5. The low workplace morale that can often be observed at many healthcare facilities

6. The low self-esteems and passive aggression of some nurses

7. The increase in lateral workplace harassment

8. The public's very outdated perception of the nursing profession

9. The fact that there is a myriad of different ways to become a nurse (LPN, ADN, BSN, MSN, Ph.d)

10. The female domination of the nursing profession

11. The desire for hospital administrators to maximize profit margins, without regard to nursing staff or patient safety

12. The practice of recruiting new nurses, rather than the retention of highly experienced nurses

13. The expectation that nurses can "do it all" while working understaffed, and lacking supplies

14. The expectation that the nurse is also the customer service rep, bellhop, concierge, waitress, clerk, messenger, courier, pillow fluffer, and receptionist

After being a nurse for over 7 years, working in a range from Med-Surg, to ER and Labor and Delivery, Floating ER and Med- Surg. I can honestly say I HATE being a nurse. I'm getting to the point to where I hate everythang about it, I'm currently looking into getting my own buisness and traveling into a whole different direction and never looking back.

I love being a nurse and Amen to The Commuter. That says it all for me.

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