Does nursing change you into an angry person?

[DesireeBeyerGreen]

I read a lot of posts and my aunt who has been an LPN for over twenty years has told me to stay far away from nursing. She works in LTC, I believe, mostly nursing homes. I don't think I have ever heard her say anything good about the field. I want to be a nurse. I admire the field and the men/women who do it every day. I think if I'm going to work and work hard it should be doing something that benefits mankind as a whole. I can't think of anything better than helping sick people. Corny, maybe, but I'm an corny person. My question is...does nursing turn you into an angry, bitter burnt out person. Only if you let it or is it just inevitable by how the whole system is set up?

My goal is to make a career out of nursing. I want to learn as much as I can and advance as far as I can go. I come from nothing, high school dropout, married young, kids young, and I'm one class away from being accepted into the LPN program. I want to make my children proud of me. What's your opinions nurses? Does your job make you a hateful person?

[brithoover]

Only if you let it!! I believe if you find the field of nursing you will be fine. Trust me there are always bad days, but as long as there are more good than bad you would be fine. If you feel yourself on the slippery slope of burn out, just switch fields!

That is the great thing about nursing. There are hundreds and hundreds of different jobs!

[Swellz]

I'll be a new grad this May, and I have to say, you can tell which nurses love nursing and which come to work for the sake of keeping a job. I hope I will always be the kind of nurse who loves nursing, but there is so much flexibility in the healthcare field that I feel like I could always find some place if bedside nursing makes me loopy in ten years.

I'm sure regardless of your path, you have already made your children proud!

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I can only speak for myself. . .

I've been in nursing for a little more than seven years and I'm not hateful, angry or bitter. However, I have teetered on the edge of burnout at least twice during my short career, and I notice that cutting back on my working hours greatly helps with the mental rejuvenation.

I do notice that I'm becoming more emotionally detached with each year in nursing. After seeing so much human misery, suffering, profit-mongering, verbal abuse, and cutthroat politics, I find it easier to tune people out rather than get involved in their shenanigans. I prefer to go to work, go home, and forget about my job when I am off the time clock.

[elprup, BSN, RN]

Grrrrrr. :)

[Fiona59]

I don't think it's anger. I think it is an increased BS detector. You find yourself questioning why with a lot of interventions and "just because medicine can, should they?"

You quickly become aware of entitled people consider themselves to be.

I don't hate people in general but there are days I hate my job, coworkers and patients

[ShyeoftheTiger]

Only you can change you into an angry person...

[redhead_NURSE98!, ADN, BSN]

NO! I was angry before I was a nurse. :)

[krocks1218]

I was going to start this comment in all caps like I was raging but I figured it wouldn't translate as sarcasm! :) Anyway, nursing doesn't make you angry. LTC is a whole different beast but as in every healthcare setting it's the bureaucracy that's the frustrating part. I've been an LPN since '05 (just passed my RN boards) and LTC was very stressful at times. Some places I worked, I had to medicate 80 people and the med pass was like 7,7:15,7:30,8,8:30,9,9:30,10,10:30,11,11:15,12,12:30,1,1:30,2 (I'm NOT kidding either!) and the supervisor would get irritable if it wasn't completed on time. Of course, I said very politely to show me how to complete the pass on timewhich never happened. Truth is there are some sour, bitter nurses out there and ya gotta ignore them. Ifcthis is your passion then do it! Good luck to you

[libran1984, ASN, RN]

Perhaps you should read my post on LTC to get an idea of why your aunt has such negative perceptions....

https://allnurses.com/geriatric-nurses-ltc/i-hate-ltc-828034.html

[ktwlpn, LPN]

I read a lot of posts and my aunt who has been an LPN for over twenty years has told me to stay far away from nursing. She works in LTC, I believe, mostly nursing homes. I don't think I have ever heard her say anything good about the field. .... Does your job make you a hateful person?

Apparently it turned your aunt into a very unhappy lady.I can't imagine hating my job for twenty years.Why don't people like that look for another position? I don't get it-there just is not enough money for me to be miserable for 8 to 16 hours a day.

[noyesno, MSN, APRN, NP]

Yeppers.