Does anyone hate their job as a nurse?

Nurses General Nursing

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My wife and I are going back to school for nursing. And my wife asked me if I read about anyone really hating their job as a nurse. I beileve we want to be bedside nurses of somesort, not sure what unit or the ER. I guess before she starts going back to school soon she wants to confirm she won't hate her job. She will be doing the BSN since she still has to work fulltime for the next 3 years , then quiting and going full time when more financially secure. We have a 12 year old son we adopted as well. After she is done I will quit and do the ADN in 3 years. After I get 5 years experiance we want to become travel nurses if son and parents are in good shape. So does anyone really hate their job or have any good advice for us? thank you!

Specializes in CT stepdown, hospice, psych, ortho.

OP its all in whether you find the right fit for you in nursing and it can be difficult.

Even in my dream jobs I have come home dreading work the next day. I always think of these different experiences I'd like to have. I keep trying them out (psych, hospice, home health) but none of them have come close to my first love of cardiothoracic...I love taking care of heart and lung transplants and VADs and doing the education. I'm always chasing that "high".

That's the beauty of nursing. Right now the economy stinks but when things are better there are just about limitless opportunities with what you can do even with just a BSN if you network and find someone willing to train you.

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The nursing part is always a learning experience, mostly one i really enjoy.

I don't like that nursing is also a business, and many times profit centered.

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Specializes in PACU, CARDIAC ICU, TRAUMA, SICU, LTC.
There are MANY days that will make you want to take your license, put it in a brown envelope and stamp "return to sender" on it and drop it in the mailbox.

I couldn't have said it better!! Any significance behind the color brown?:yeah:

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Specializes in OB, Peds, Med Surg and Geriatric Nsg.

There are days that I regret going to nursing school and started my career as a nurse. I dread going to work and come home wondering if I did everything after my shift ended. I think it's safe to say that Nursing and me is having a love/hate relationship..

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I love being a nurse. Sometimes I have a bad day...but this happened in other jobs I had. I worked in LTC for 5 years as a LPN. That was tough, but I loved my residents. I now work on an acute stroke (also get overflow medical patients) unit as a RN and love it.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

No matter what profession you look at you are going to find people who hate doing it.

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Specializes in Psychiatry.

Hey being a nurse is a great privilege as well as great responsibility. Though its hard its always been a blissful feeling that you have cared and help patients who badly needed it. The blessing of being a nurse is greatly appreciated especially when we hold a newly born baby in our hands realizing the very gift of life and the past that we once have while holding the soon to be future that we nurses must take care of.:redpinkhe

Truly,

healthyshine

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Specializes in ER, Trauma.

There are challenges in any job and nursing is no different. I loved nursing. I put everything I had into it, and always felt I got more than that back.

My only problem with it is that you're a commodity. With years of ER experience and an alphbet soup of credentials everybody was my friend. Managers, recruiters, etc treated me like a long lost brother. Now that my back went from aging, I'm dirt. I wish I'd been as ruthless in demanding compensation as they are now in abandoning me.

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I HIGHLY recommend some time as a CNA to see what it's like to be around patients, to be around nurses, and just to get the general atmosphere of a unit. If you don't, prepare to be shocked. If you make it through graduation, prepare to have to wait a while to be hired. If you get hired, prepare for a love/hate thing that, if you are successful at it, you will not be able to leave very easily as jobs are scarce and the money you earn is addictive.

Nursing is NEVER boring, is always VERY hard work, and can be demeaning and exhilarating and fulfilling at the same time. You will walk out most days feeling like you missed something or even like a total failure. All i can say is you'd better be TOUGH -- you will need it.

Nursing sure has taught me a lot, though. I'm definitely a more resilient person, and generally happier since I am challenged. But I am also physically exhausted from it at the moment, even after 2 years.

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Specializes in Cardiology, Oncology, Medsurge.
There are challenges in any job and nursing is no different. I loved nursing. I put everything I had into it, and always felt I got more than that back.

My only problem with it is that you're a commodity. With years of ER experience and an alphbet soup of credentials everybody was my friend. Managers, recruiters, etc treated me like a long lost brother. Now that my back went from aging, I'm dirt. I wish I'd been as ruthless in demanding compensation as they are now in abandoning me.

I'm so sorry that this happened to you! Why can't we support one another as nurses? There's definitely something wrong in this!

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L.O.V.E my job! Its hard, no mistake. But I really do love it.

(Hated nursing school though. Glad I stuck it out.)

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Specializes in M/S, Travel Nursing, Pulmonary.

Yes, most of the time, I hate nursing.

Its not the nursing career I hate though, its the field I've allowed myself to fall into. Medical/Surgical nursing is not for everyone, and it is far from being my niche. VERY FAR. There has to be more to nursing than chasing old ladies around the room in circles saying "You are going to fall, lay down please" while they chant at you senseless responses like "Weeeellll, I've been walking since I was three months old and I can do it now, when I was your age I walked from home to work........over 300 miles, everyday. Don't tell me I'm going to fall". Then they fall mid sentence, family and manager blame you and tell you you are the worst nurse ever...............do it again the next night.

I'm working on getting away from M/S nursing. Its not going as well as I would like, but I'm finding opportunities. I think my outlook on nursing as a career will change as soon as I know I will be away from it. The economy has made it hard to change fields, people see my experience in nursing and flexibility on the schedule and can't help but hamstring me back into the field. I've turned down four positions in the last few months. All of them started with interviewing me for something else, claiming the position I applied for was filled by someone with experience then offering me the standard "M/S off shift" position. I kindly turned them down and said I already had that and didn't see any reason to give up my seniority for a lateral move.

I do have an interview coming up soon though and the HR dept. at this place has assured me there are really positions outside the M/S units hiring. :yeah:

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