Do You Hate Being A Nurse?

Published

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.

Specializes in Med-Surg/Long-Term Care.
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.

Okay, ButterPecanRican, you must be a Wu-Tang fan. I'm Chocolate Deluxe mixed with a little French Vanilla. LOL!!! Just an inside thang for those that don't know.

But, to answer you're question; No, I don't HATE nursing, but I do have a dislike for it at times. And it's all because the way things are now, a nurse can't do the job he/she would like to. You have Social Workers, Case Management, Doctors, PT, OT, lab, all trying to undermind you. No one listens to the nurses' judgement. Never mind that we are the ones that interact with the patient 99% of the time. Nobody values what we have to say. So, as a nurse, I often feel that my hands stay tied.

Also, whoever let healthcare become business oriented needs their behind beat with a bamboo cane. It's put enormous pressure on us to discharge the patients too soon or cut corners to save money. The bottom line is all about money to these business-minded CEOs, COOs, Marketing people. I'm not saying that we can't save money when we're being wasteful. But we should never, ever push patients out of the door before we're ready. I feel that all healthcare facilities should be charity-run. That way, whatever the insurance doesn't cover, the hospital asorbs. That way, we don't have Case Management down our backs about getting patients out because the insurance will run out.

And if one more unlicensed ancillary person tries to tell me what's best for my patient, I am going off. I went to school and was trained to take care of my patients. I don't appreciate every Joe having something to say.

So, that's just the tip of the iceberg reasons as to why I am growing discontented with nursing.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in tele, oncology.
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.

:yeahthat:

i love being a nurse when i get to be a nurse...it's the administrative bs and abusive pts/family/staff that gets darned annoying. i've been off of work for over a week now due to medical reasons, and find that i'm off kilter b/c i'm not going into work to take care of others. my poor husband has been trying to be a good "nurse" to me but is constantly giving me trouble about how i'm being one of those noncompliant patients i complain about. :D

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
This is not what I want to hear:no:....does this mean that once I am done with school, many experienced nurses are going to look down on me and resent me and other graduates because we are new and saturated the job market? Maybe I just dont understand clearly the meaning of this statement, if someone can explain. If there is such a shortage as everyone keeps saying and with the pending retirement of many nurses, how is that satuating the job market? Please, can someone help me understand this....:rolleyes:

It's not the new nurse that I resent. Heck, I'm fairly new myself!

I resent the fact that management has no incentive to retain us because they know that several new batches of new nurses will be graduating next month from from Podunk State University, ABC123 Community College, XOXO Hospital's Diploma School of Nursing, and the Funkytown Technical School RN Program. They feel that if an experienced nurse doesn't like what he/she sees, there's plenty of new grads around the corner to fill the position without any complaints.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

i don't hate being a nurse...

at all!

i do resent however, being a disposable entity, readily replaced and once they lose their juices, there's a long line of hopefuls...

soon-to-be depleted of all they once had to give.

employers embrace quantity vs quality.

and that is the shame, the crime!!

mainly for our pts, for healthcare as a whole and of course, ourselves, who have been unjustly used to our very last 'drop'.

and drop, we do.

but not to worry.

there's plenty more where we came from.

heck, we don't even care if you dislike needy, demanding pts, or you need every holiday off.

we'll take you.

because we're (we, the ceo's) worth it.

leslie

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in L & D; Postpartum.

I don't hate being a nurse. And 30 years ago I didn't hate my nursing job. However, that has changed. The nursing job basically sucks because so much of it is NON-nursing these days, and that leaves very little time or energy for doing what we were trained to do.

Having not been in nursing school since 1976, I have to wonder what is taught these days. Do they include all the non-nursing BS, or is it all still good solid nursing? If the latter, then the new grads must indeed go into shock when they get their first job.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Okay, ButterPecanRican, you must be a Wu-Tang fan. I'm Chocolate Deluxe mixed with a little French Vanilla. LOL!!! Just an inside thang for those that don't know.

LOL, thats funny, Thanks for the response

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Burn, CCU, CTICU, Trauma, SICU, MICU.

yes and no.

i love the fact that i can find a job without worry. i love that i can change specialties. i love that i will always have decent income and benefits. i love working 3 days a week.

i hate feeling like a maid and a waitress. i hate the high level of responsibility with little to no back up. i hate the manual labor of it. i hate being looked down on.

but it balances out in the end.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

:crying2::scrying:While i do not hate the profession, i do regret ever making the decision to become a nurse, i was in my early 20's when i decided to 'take the plunge' but never once did i do my research first....i wish i had. I'm an LPN with 20 plus years in long term/subacute experience. I would love to work in a clinic or md office but they don't want to pay us what we deserve nor the benefits. I am 48 and over the past several years have come down with health issues, including rheumatoid arthritis, which will often attack my feet and ankles making it painful to be on my feet for extended periods, yet the workload just keeps piling, and management places too high expectations on us. Yet they donot walk in our shoes and never intend to.

In my honest opinion the nursing profession has gone from caring and compassion to a money making business dictated by those with no medical training. It is just downright sad....

Up Vote Up Vote ×

......forgot to also mention that i am exausted and my days off are spent on my couch recuperating from the tremendous stress......it'

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.

After today I freakin HATE it!

I worked in a nursing home today, high care dementias. And I was so ******* bored like you wouldn't believe. I am used to very busy, teaching hospitals.

After today I just felt supernumerary and useless.

Time to start brushing up on the CV and looking at those other jobs!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in cardiology/oncology/MICU.
After today I freakin HATE it!

I worked in a nursing home today, high care dementias. And I was so ******* bored like you wouldn't believe. I am used to very busy, teaching hospitals.

After today I just felt supernumerary and useless.

Time to start brushing up on the CV and looking at those other jobs!

I cannot stand to be bored at work. That is why the MICU is wonderful, but nights is a pain in the rump!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
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.

Don't hold your breath is my suggestion. The competition for fewer and fewer people with premium health care plans and the competition among providers is so huge now. That's why they started the microfocus on customer service and it's not going away.

I had a similar experience where I was complained about by a very very cantankerous younger man with cancer. I know all about the stages and he was locked in anger permanently it seemed. It's still hard not to take it personally.

he was in a furious mood when I came on shift and practically through something at me for coming in his room and disturbing him at 8am, well you know, that's my job. Then he started rattlign away in Spanish to his family about his sucky nurse. A bit later I told him in Spanish that I understood Spanish as a courtesy to help him avoid embarassment. I thought he was going to melt down. he called the doctor and complained about me and asked for a different nurse. The doctor called the clinical manager and had him transferred to his normal unit . This went to my clinical director who proceeded (I understand she had to) to ask other nurses who typically had this patient on the other unit. Thank God they all told him he was typically this way. Could have gone a lot different and I could have ended up with a big ding on my personnel chart for being mean to a patient.

(Like I'd be mean to a stage four Ca.)

So the business stuff is here to stay. Some of that is good, but not always, yet I don't know what the answer is.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion