Does anyone have good experiences in the nursing profession

[magslu]

I have been reading so many articles of the trials and tribulations and I can relate to more of them than I want to.

In ways, I wish I read the articles in this website before I put myself through the very tough nursing school. I am only a one year LPN, with 7 months under my belt.

In this short time, I had several jobs, homecare, facility, hospice. I took on the role as an HHA in the home care one, I was summoned with a bell to give the patient her meds when she felt she wanted them, not when they were scheduled. I left that position with the agency saying this is dangerous, they returned a response of "please don't make waves for us, just do as she asks". This meant bringing my own toilet paper, doing laundry, vacuuming, washing their lunch and dinner plates and sitting in an unheated room with my own blanket.

I did the facility gig, pushing the med cart. sitting in a dirty depressing break room and watching my trainer guzzle a sandwich quicker than anything less than normal. My feet expanded like a good year blimp, my throat was dry from lack of fluid which I guess is the point to limit bathroom breaks. When set on my own, I just could not keep up with the meds and treatments. The day passed well, but the cranky night nurse gave me trouble. I quickly replied "you can yell all you want, but I am not coming back here tomorrow". The other nurses laughed, not at me, but that I stood up to her. That was week enough for me.

Then I rested with hospice as a field nurse. This came with great relief. I worked independently, probably more than I should have. I took the job on with such joy, I was helping people and no one ever made a complaint. The patients were all so happy to see me, this meant so much to me. My case manager would send me to so many patients even though we were supposed to have a split schedule where each of us visited the patients once. However, she saw me as the gopher, sending me twice and gathering my data to enter into the system as her own visit. I would speak to her on the phone throughout the day to report in and hear her parrot in the background. I really didn't mind. But, then I became the brunt of bullying, over compensated punishment, viral emails reporting a trumped up issue. Long story short, I lost the job (as I posted this last week). It was shocking although it shouldn't have been.

Perhaps what shocks me, is that my case manager never stepped up to advocate for me. To clear the accusations or have them dismissed. For the 7 months, I covered for her, we went to dinners, had personal talks, she would call me until 10pm. Now that I'm gone, I have not had one phone call. Simply, I was used. Well, I guess now she needs to do double work and has no time to sit around with her parrot all day.

Honestly, I wish I never went to nursing school. Nursing is not what I thought it would be and from reading the posts here, I'm not so sure there are any happy nurses.

[magslu]

Well you got your point out there and your judgment....great job

Yep my spelling and grammar are crap. Sorry for the poor read.

[NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN]

Not all here are judgmental. It takes a special kind of strength to endure the physical and emotional demands and never-ending abuses in this career. I left my very first nursing job eons ago after only three weeks...if it was that long. I knew then that nursing was not for me. I hated it then and I hate it now. However, it was far more enjoyable back in the day than it is now.

As my favorite quote states, "If you put a frog in hot water, it will hop right out. But if you put it in cold water and heat it up gradually, it will slowly boil to death". I'm one of those fortunate enough to have been placed in cold water. New(er) nurses are unaware, sometimes completely oblivious, to the boiling pot that awaits them, believing they are being invited to dinner as opposed to being the dinner.

The control of our profession, in my opinion, is in the hands of non-licensed, non-healthcare individuals whose primary concern is the infamous bottom line. (There are many, many threads here discussing the outcome of nursing thus far).

The good news for you, if you tough it out long enough, is that there is an area of nursing involving informatics. If I were you, I would enter an LPN-RN bridge program (one year if using the online route). Then, after receiving the RN license, I would immediately enter into an RN-MSN in Nursing Informatics (also available online in about 18 months, depending on where you go). This will get you out of harms way (so-to-speak), and place you back into an area that's familiar to you as you succeed in nursing....the better of both worlds.

There are so many options and opportunities in nursing. Most doors open so much wider as RNs though. I became a nurse investigator (state surveyor) when I received my BSN degree. Love it!!!! There are some LPNs that are surveyors with us as well. However, I returned to work prn at a hospital for skill maintenance purposes and private-sector pay.

You will need to keep working as an LPN as you progress, though, to make the transition over and upward less stressful because the powers-that-be are really big on that one-to-two-years-of-work-experience thing.

Some nurses are very happy at the point you're in now. And that's fine. If you are not, which is very clear, know that there is a bigger picture available for you that has significantly minimized the time for you to grasp because you hold that LPN license. Use it to get back to what you know (IT), but in nursing. If you play your cards right, in 2 1/2 years, you could be an RN with an MSN in Informatics. But you must not leave the workforce, even if it means that you drop down to part time or prn status, while you pursue these options.

That's my best advice to you and other LPNs who may be reading this post. There are so many options in nursing....more as an RN.

[Julius Seizure]

If I was an employer interviewing you I would want a very good answer to what YOU learnt about the terminations in your past.

you need to read better AND your spelling is atrocious learnt is spelled LEARNED

Well......learnt is actually correct. It's just not a commonly used variant in the U.S.

Anyway....good luck OP....I'll just leave it at that.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

why did I leave my high paid cushy position with a full pension and 401k that was matched appropriately ??? well, to do what any good nurse intends...to give back

Anecdotally, I have observed that the nurses with the highest self-described levels of altruism seem to have the most disillusionment with the nursing profession.

I did not enter this career pathway to 'give back' to any person or community. My goals were far less lofty and more selfish...I wanted an occupation that resulted in career mobility, flexible scheduling, educational progression, advancement opportunities, and a steady middle income.

Nursing has helped me fulfill my career goals. As off-putting as this may sound, my primary reason for being in this profession is definitely not the patients or residents. If your boss abruptly announced you would no longer receive pay for the services you render, would you continue to work for that employer? I certainly would not. I do not work for free.

[magslu]

BSNbeDONE, ASN, BSN, LPN, RN

thank you, I think this was a culture shock... I intended on getting to exactly what you said, "infomatics" !! I just want back into a corporate position. I work best there. I can handle politics much better than what I have encountered.

Thank you for well taken advice !!

[PG2018]

LPNs get some of the crappiest jobs. I don't blame you for hating them. I would too. Home health, nursing homes, and hospice are where you guys generally work. I guess the only other option is a clinic or jail the latter of which is crap too. I managed a jail clinic, lol.

Actually, I never liked nursing until I became a NP working in a solo office. Well, truth be told, it's not nursing that I like it's just my job that I like. It fits me. I've always been a bit of a loaner and big picture type of guy. I couldn't care less about the minutiae which is what nursing lives for, and I'm not a team guy either.

[PG2018]

Not all here are judgmental. It takes a special kind of strength to endure the physical and emotional demands and never-ending abuses in this career. I left my very first nursing job eons ago after only three weeks...if it was that long. I knew then that nursing was not for me. I hated it then and I hate it now. However, it was far more enjoyable back in the day than it is now.

As my favorite quote states, "If you put a frog in hot water, it will hop right out. But if you put it in cold water and heat it up gradually, it will slowly boil to death". I'm one of those fortunate enough to have been placed in cold water. New(er) nurses are unaware, sometimes completely oblivious, to the boiling pot that awaits them, believing they are being invited to dinner as opposed to being the dinner.

The control of our profession, in my opinion, is in the hands of non-licensed, non-healthcare individuals whose primary concern is the infamous bottom line. (There are many, many threads here discussing the outcome of nursing thus far).

The good news for you, if you tough it out long enough, is that there is an area of nursing involving informatics. If I were you, I would enter an LPN-RN bridge program (one year if using the online route). Then, after receiving the RN license, I would immediately enter into an RN-MSN in Nursing Informatics (also available online in about 18 months, depending on where you go). This will get you out of harms way (so-to-speak), and place you back into an area that's familiar to you as you succeed in nursing....the better of both worlds.

There are so many options and opportunities in nursing. Most doors open so much wider as RNs though. I became a nurse investigator (state surveyor) when I received my BSN degree. Love it!!!! There are some LPNs that are surveyors with us as well. However, I returned to work prn at a hospital for skill maintenance purposes and private-sector pay.

You will need to keep working as an LPN as you progress, though, to make the transition over and upward less stressful because the powers-that-be are really big on that one-to-two-years-of-work-experience thing.

Some nurses are very happy at the point you're in now. And that's fine. If you are not, which is very clear, know that there is a bigger picture available for you that has significantly minimized the time for you to grasp because you hold that LPN license. Use it to get back to what you know (IT), but in nursing. If you play your cards right, in 2 1/2 years, you could be an RN with an MSN in Informatics. But you must not leave the workforce, even if it means that you drop down to part time or prn status, while you pursue these options.

That's my best advice to you and other LPNs who may be reading this post. There are so many options in nursing....more as an RN.

Why not just scrap the nursing and go learn networking, network security, database management, coding, etc and run the hospital IT department? I've never seen an open informatics position.

Or, get random BS degree and then master's in healthcare services administration if a nexus to healthcare is wanted.

Thanks for liking my prior post, and I agree that some of us square peg nursing personnel don't fit into the round hole need look for a square hole. As a LPN, not much time or money has been wasted, and if an honest inventory of self reveals that nursing sucks then move onto another career field.

If I had my life to do over, I still am not sure what career field I'd pick. I like what I do now a great deal, but I wouldn't have liked it ten years ago, and I don't know that I'll like it ten years from now.

I think I'd like to work in intelligence. At one time, I'd have said FBI (since I come from other state law enforcement), but I no longer respect evidence collection, the court system, etc (processes if you will). I became more interested in information gathering and fact finding which is I think why I like psychiatry. I consider my evaluations "interviews." Although I like providing helping treatment to the individual with symptom amelioration, my personal reward and "big picture" is that I'm helping society by slowly creating more functional citizens.

[NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN]

BSNbeDONE, ASN, BSN, LPN, RN

thank you, I think this was a culture shock... I intended on getting to exactly what you said, "infomatics" !! I just want back into a corporate position. I work best there. I can handle politics much better than what I have encountered.

Thank you for well taken advice !!

You're welcome! Let me take this opportunity to correct myself. Most LPN-RN bridge programs are one year in length regardless of the avenue taken. Good luck to you!

[NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN]

Why not just scrap the nursing and go learn networking, network security, database management, coding, etc and run the hospital IT department? I've never seen an open informatics position.

Or, get random BS degree and then master's in healthcare services administration if a nexus to healthcare is wanted.

Thanks for liking my prior post, and I agree that some of us square peg nursing personnel don't fit into the round hole need look for a square hole. As a LPN, not much time or money has been wasted, and if an honest inventory of self reveals that nursing sucks then move onto another career field.

If I had my life to do over, I still am not sure what career field I'd pick. I like what I do now a great deal, but I wouldn't have liked it ten years ago, and I don't know that I'll like it ten years from now.

I think I'd like to work in intelligence. At one time, I'd have said FBI (since I come from other state law enforcement), but I no longer respect evidence collection, the court system, etc (processes if you will). I became more interested in information gathering and fact finding which is I think why I like psychiatry. I consider my evaluations "interviews." Although I like providing helping treatment to the individual with symptom amelioration, my personal reward and "big picture" is that I'm helping society by slowly creating more functional citizens.

Of course, the OP can get other random degrees in healthcare or anywhere else. This is so very true. My advice to her was because she chose to pursue a career in healthcare as a nurse. Letting her know that there are options in healthcare other than the point in which she entered nursing was my purpose for the response.

My plans long ago, far too late now, was to go into the military like my brothers. Back in those days, we did what our parents told us, and as such, I didn't realize I could have said no when my father (dear old dad...God love him), said that his one and only daughter was going to nursing school.

So, he paid for and threw me into the bottom of the barrel of an educated healthcare career...nurses aides and orderlies did not require anything other than on-the-job training.

So, thirty years later, him still here, but searching for my way out as well. There was no allnurses.com back then to get advice, ideas, or directional suggestions from. Come to think of it, there was no dot-com anything. So, for now, I scroll, lurk, pass along some hopefully-helpful advice along the way.:)

I was gonna become a trucker driver during the latter part of my LPN years...until I ran into a truck driver hoping to become an LPN. So, I changed my mind...you know, that whole grass-is-always-greener thing.

[TriciaJ, RN]

Yes, totally interesting. I had 36 years of IT experience with the same company, a fortune 500 company as well and with none of the nonsense I have been encountering, imagine that !!!!

imagine not sticking it out in nursing positions I find problematic !!! albeit, I was let go for reasons unknown, perhaps I was the only one on the team of a certain race and I did not fit...consider that ...

Oh...and why did I leave my high paid cushy position with a full pension and 401k that was matched appropriately ??? well, to do what any good nurse intends...to give back

fortunately I was intelligent enough to realize I went to school for more than a washer woman and a slave to a patient that mistreated her nurses

fortunately I was intelligent enough to realize that keeping up with med pass was not going to work and I found it dangerous for the patients as well as stressing myself

lets see how far you go in 36 years with your presumptuous opinions...... and lets see how burned out you get with 10 years into nursing..... pension for you is not even heard of, and I bet you can't even bring enough salary in to even consider banking any of it for the future.

you sound totally like a nurse I would dread working with, negative and SUSPICIOUS !!!

So, please before you put on that presumptuous hat, consider the situation holistically and not with personal suspicion. I thought you were trained for that

I was really empathizing with you until I read this. Whoa. Way to turn on someone. I was going to say that I've been lucky; most of my nursing jobs were really good ones. But even they caused me to want to move on eventually. For any new grad it's a balancing act: Is it just me being inefficient and do I need to stick around longer, or is this place just a total pit and I need to make tracks? We seldom get enough information from anyone's post to help them determine that. Some of your experiences do sound crappy.

Most of us don't become nurses "to give back". I'm not even sure what that means. We all have our reasons for being nurses, that most of us question at least occasionally. I've known people who became nurses later in life. For some it was a lifelong desire that they finally fulfilled. Others had feelings of altruism and had no idea what they were getting themselves into. I always think they should have just found a cause to support with money.

Good luck on whatever path you settle on.

[martymoose, BSN, RN]

gosh, if I had the opportunity to go back to an old job that I didnt mind, I would do it in a heart beat!!( my old job was sent to mexico- nursing was the only thing available/comparable to retrain in in my area- many of my ex coworkers became RNs)

I would never recommend nursing to anyone unless you are one of those people who can separate themselves from the paycheck/the job.

People wonder why some nurses arent so "friendly " nowadays. Well, duh. being constantly treated like garbage can make you that way, even if you are one of those ones who can "distance" themselves .

Good luck op in returning to IT. I'm jealous;)

[bgxyrnf, MSN, RN]

A few random experiences...

1) Having the entire department wishing me happy birthday, including with an overhead page. Birthday wishes that night came from every direction... patients, nurses, pharmacist, RT, ED docs, trauma surgeons...

2) Having heard over several shifts that a patient family was showing up trying to find me... and when they finally did, receiving two boxes of chocolate-covered macadamias along with a card containing heart-felt thanks from the patient and his family for my role in saving his life.

3) Discovering one of my colleagues in the clean utility room weeping (women cry, men weep) after we lost a kid we were coding. He and I stood there sharing a man hug, weeping together... real male intimacy.

4) Seeing on my W2 that I grossed $218,000 dollars.

5) Seeing my name in a letter to the editor written by a patient thanking us for our services.

6) Being able to personally thank a police officer wounded in the line of duty by providing care for him through the night.

7) Holding the hand of a true American hero, with whom you're all probably familiar, while a bedside emergency procedure was underway simply because he said, "I'm scared... can you hold my hand."

8) Finishing three straight weeks of consecutive 12- and 16-hour shifts and having the young 'uns look at me and say, "How do you do that?"

9) Walking in to see a new patient and having them say, "Oh, it's you! We were praying that you would be here."

10) Having a doc walk out of a room after failing to secure IV access via ultrasound and say, "The patient has asked for you to go start the line" and, after I quickly secured access, having a good laugh with the doc when I said, "Next time, call me before you use up all the sites."

11) Having a police officer let me go after he learned that I'm a nurse in the local ED. He said, "I don't ticket ED nurses... but seriously, slow down... you know what can happen."

I really could go on and on... there have been a ton of them.

To paraphrase Chico Escuela, "Nursing has been berry, berry good to me."