Does nursing really suck that badly?

[Irish_Mist]

I know this discussion has likely been hashed and re-hashed several times. However, I wanted to discuss not only my concerns but my specific situation.

Here is some background information on me:

I recently graduated with a non-nursing bachelors degree. For the past two years, I have had my heart set on entering an ABSN program. But, I wanted to finish my bachelors first as I felt since I was almost done, I could apply for a one year accelerated program and essentially not "waste" my almost completed degree. I am taking A&P2 and Nutrition this semester and Chemistry and Microbiology in the fall with hopes of applying for two ABSN programs in my area.

Here are my concerns:

I read so many negative things on here about nursing. Whether it is someone complaining about their boss, a high patient to nurse ratio, backstabbing co-workers, patients who treat you like a slave, managment that doesn't get it, concerns about losing nursing license, etc etc. I understand that NO job will ever be perfect. I understand that people come here to vent. I am not judging the nurses who complain on here because everyone needs an outlet to release stress.

My fear is that I will get into a career that I hate. My fear is that I will be chewed up and spit out. I am already at a cynical point in life where I see employers in general as crapping all over good employees and rewarding the bad ones. I am at a point where I am so tired of my government internship that I will do ANYTHING to get away from it. I love the idea of helping people. I love science. I've thus far enjoyed the academic pursuit of nursing. Additionally, I consider myself to be a compassionate, loving person. I can take a lot of things in stride but I have my limits. Is entering the nursing field really that scary? Are hospitals really that toxic? Are co-workers really a reincarnation of that evil witch and her possee from junior high?

I could really use some advice from some of you RNs who are already "there" and have been in the trenches.

-Signed-

Someone who wants to help others and wants to be a nurse but is terrified of the future

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

There is an element of "keep your head down and just keep pedaling..."

Very true.

[Annaiya, NP]

I was a lawyer, then became a nurse and am now an NP. I love nursing. But it is our profession and we can make it bad or we can make it good. I have always been amazed by the number of my coworkers who were completely willing to spends hours complaining but then never made the time to go to the staff meetings. I realize there is a lot of stuff outside of our control, but a lot of people don't bother to try at all. I have been careful to only work at very good, highly respected hospitals and I think that has helped me have overall positive experiences. But I still think the experience is what you make of it.

I don't think nursing is for everyone. It is a hard challenging profession, but it is work that you can be proud of even if you're not always appreciated for it. Figure out what you're good at, whether it's teaching patients or parents, or keeping your cool in a code, or being able to say and do the right things to offer emotional support and then find the type of nursing that utilizes your skills the most. That's the best way to be happy in your job, IMO.

[SassyTachyRN]

I worked adult hematology/oncology/med-surg overflow right as a new grad. I did my two months of day shift orientation then did a month of night shift orientation. Then went to 5 8 hr shifts 11p-7a. Hated it. Begged to go to 12 hour shifts. They gave me 2 8's and 2 12's a week. Still hated it. Went to 3 12's on night shift, was a little happier but still pretty miserable. At that point I wasn't crying before and after work but I was still a big ball of anxiety on my days off. I went to day shift 12 hour shifts. A lot happier then. I think it was having all the extra support that you do on day shift. Therapy, case managers, rounding nurses, etc. But I still wasn't very happy. I took a per diem job doing school nursing and fell in love with it. I then went per diem at the hospital. I was finding that I was dreading the hospital when my shifts came and I so looked forward to my school shifts. I took a full time job as a school nurse this year and left the hospital completely behind. I'm not stressed, my health has improved drastically, I'm happier. I absolutely love my job. My husband said something that broke my heart a few weeks ago, "it's so nice to have my wife back." I didn't realize how miserable he noticed that I was until he said that.

While I learned a lot during my two years at the hospital, I think I've found what I'm meant to do and what I hope to be doing for a long time. I think finding your "niche" is so important in this profession.

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

To present my humble opinion, I think that nursing schools make you believe that as a nurse, you are going to be very focused into science, autonomy.... well that was a bull's dung. Throw autonomy out the window, and the profession is not science focused, but 100% task oriented, because all we do is carry out orders. Draw labs, medicate, npo for procedures, get consent, admit, discharge, chart, chart, chart, task after tasks. I don't believe I have seen "science" or autonomy in my profession.

I haven't read the entire thread yet. I saw this part and it really resonated with me. I got into nursing because I thought there would be a lot more science, critical thinking, skill, autonomy, etc. involved. I also "wanted to help people", of course.

I was working in the broadcasting industry, and the kind of customer service I was involved in, bending over backwards to please people over insignificant minutiae, when I could have been bending over backwards to help people with real life or death situations was dissatisfying to me on a very core, fundamental level. I am a person of integrity, and so feigning concern over whether this font or that font or this color or that color is as critical as someone's life was just something I could not continue to do.

I found nursing to be drudgery much of the time, with little critical thinking or autonomy. It's about completing tasks and providing "customer service".

I would never in a million years work on the floor again, because as bad as it can get in the ED, it's worse on the floor. At least in the ED, I don't need a doctor's order just to fart, and if my patient is a jerk, it doesn't matter because I'll be sending them on their way soon enough.

Are there parts of nursing that I love? Absolutely. I would have walked away long ago if there was nothing redeeming about it.

[mclennan, BSN, RN]

Yo! OP! I STRONGLY recommend you shadow a nurse working a med/surg floor/LTC/trenches for a good week. Not one DAY - a week. Preferably somewhere understaffed, under-budgeted, overloaded with noncompliant patients and undergoing an accreditation or state survey. Oh wait, WHOOPS, that's EVERYWHERE!

Seriously, arrange it. Run alongside a busy as heck RN on a couple different shifts and see for yourself what the daily grind is really like. For good measure do a few hours in ED, too, maybe on a full moon or Thanksgiving. And really, TRULY shadow her - don't eat if she doesn't, don't pee if she doesn't, don't take a break if she doesn't. Don't be her gopher (she'll want to use you as that). Run WITH her to the stat lab when their delivery system breaks down, run WITH her 2 floors up to the nearest working ice machine because her units' machine just died, run WITH her to Central Supply 2 buildings away to grab a debridement tray for the doc because the one on unit expired 3 days ago. Go WITH her to meet with her manager to get yelled at & written up because she refused to let a family member drink the patient's Ensure the other night.

Go watch the kind of people RN supervisors have to manage in LTCs & the family members they have to listen to scream at them because Grandma tossed the expensive silk blouse they bought her for her birthday into the soiled laundry bin & it got destroyed. Sit through the hours of required HIPAA, Privacy Act, Body Mechanics and Cultural Competency PowerPoint "trainings" required by law. Watch her spend the first 2 hours of her shift calling the pool/agency to send CNAs to cover the 4 who called off the Monday after payday weekend, & watch her get fired for going over budget trying to staff at safe levels.

Shadow a home health RN, ride along with her a few days and check out OASIS forms and the SOC process. Observe her buying her own supplies, dodging clients' dogs and cats and cockroaches, killing her car and having to decipher inept 'charting' done by aides who barely have a grasp of written language. Help her measure bruises from abuse with a little ruler and file an APS report that will NEVER be followed up on. Hang out with her at home at night while she frantically tries to chart all her visits and record all her mileage, and review charts for tomorrow's cases.

Seriously, I'd love if you tried this and got back to us. I wish like H-E-double hockey sticks someone had given me this advice when I was in your shoes.

[Cobweb]

Here. This will tell you all you need to know about nursing. #WHATSHOULDWECALLNURSING

[theantichick]

I'm coming up on a year as a practicing nurse. I'm a mid-life career changer. I took a pay cut to go into nursing. I drove a desk as a computer programmer for 18 years. The thought of doing it until I retired made me want to play in traffic. I don't regret it for a minute.

I don't particularly like the facility I'm in, and sometimes working with so many women feels like 6th grade. Some shifts are so stressful I cry in my car for a bit before I can drive home. (Not as often as when I first came if orientation. ) Yet I'll take 3 shifts here over 5 8's at a desk any day of the week. There is something to be said for driving home knowing I made a difference in my patients' lives vs. pushing data around all day.

Is nursing perfect? Absolutely not. And if you don't like what you do it's heck. Like any profession you need to educate yourself and make the decision for yourself whether it's a fit for you.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

You are absolutely right, llg. I think for the most part, posters on here were sort of along the lines of caveat emptor. But, it almost seems to be an issue of contempt on this board. I've seen various posts where someone feels they have a "calling" or "desire to help people" and have basically had their butts handed to them. My point is, is that really such a bad thing? People will enter a profession for various reasons. While I personally don't feel a "calling" is necessary, someone else who thinks so isn't necessarily wrong or bad for that. It is just a difference in opinion.

Since you are an experienced nurse, can you outline some reasons or motivations for becoming a nurse that you've seen people fall flat on their face as a result?

No.....wanting to help people isn't a bad thing. It's a good thing. Personally I think it takes a certain "calling" or type of person to be truly "happy".

But....I am a dinosaur. I went to school when we were barely paid over minimal age upon graduation...even with a college degree. My first hourly rate was $3.75/hr as a graduate nurse when minimum wage was $2.90/hr...I got a $.50 raise when I got my board results 4 months later in October. None of us went into nursing because it was a "good paycheck"...but it was a steady job. We knew up front that we were low man on the totem pole, would be working nights after orientation, you were NOT hired for specialty areas until you "got your feet wet", and you WOULD do as you were told. Kind of like the military.

We were taught to be nurses....not wanna be Nurse practitioners or CRNA's just biding time until you could shake off the dirt and move on to a real career or the manager position. We expected to work hard and that for the most part nursing is a thankless job.

I think those that find real dissatisfaction are those who went into nursing because they couldn't do something else....whether they couldn't get into med school/law school...whatever or graduated and couldn't find a job. So they went to plan B because "there are good paying jobs with flexible schedules for little education expense".

I think those that look to nursing for the solely for the "money"....quickly find that after thousands of dollars of college debt that the "money" isn't near what it should be for what is expected of them in the workplace and there dreeeeeam job isn't instantly laid at their feet. IN this instant satisfaction society with instant communication, gratification, and feedback with texting/social media patience isn't a forte....so they are frustrated and angry. They had unrealistic expectations...not every one can work with babies, the ED, or ICU upon graduation.

Then there are those who want to be nurses but don't want shift work, patient contact, nor bodily functions. These individuals believed the hype that they would be able to "write their own ticket" and "get a job anywhere" with "whatever hours they wanted"...which simply isn't true. They feel cheated and let down.....they didn't expect to find how little input/control they actually have...they are frustrated and angry. They expected to be molly coddled and petted with the "everybody wins" mentality and constantly told they are perfect...that doesn't happen in nursing the stakes are too high. Patient lives are at stake...and the general public isn't always nice.

I think it has even more to do with the sudden plethora of nurses and a saturated job market. Employers are behaving badly. Benefits are being cut. Employers no longer try to keep employees because there are 200 more who want that spot. CEO's are getting exorbitant salaries ad have no medical knowledge causing decisions that are not beneficial to patients nor nurses. For many....The negatives are out weighing the positive right now.

Nursing is cyclical and this too shall pass.

Nursing is a great profession...if you're strong enough.

[TU RN, DNP, CRNA]

Here. This will tell you all you need to know about nursing. #WHATSHOULDWECALLNURSING

Love it!!!

[Irish_Mist, BSN, RN]

Here. This will tell you all you need to know about nursing. #WHATSHOULDWECALLNURSING

Hahahaha love it!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

You are absolutely right, llg. I think for the most part, posters on here were sort of along the lines of caveat emptor. But, it almost seems to be an issue of contempt on this board. I've seen various posts where someone feels they have a "calling" or "desire to help people" and have basically had their butts handed to them. My point is, is that really such a bad thing? People will enter a profession for various reasons. While I personally don't feel a "calling" is necessary, someone else who thinks so isn't necessarily wrong or bad for that. It is just a difference in opinion.

Since you are an experienced nurse, can you outline some reasons or motivations for becoming a nurse that you've seen people fall flat on their face as a result?

One of the problems with those who insist that you must have a "calling" is that they're contemptuous of those who DON'T have the calling. After many, many threads berating nurses who were "only in it for the money" and insisting that "that slot in nursing school should have gone to someone with a real Calling!", many of us crusty old bats became somewhat tired of "the calling".

Mostly, those of us without a "calling" are respectful of those who do have it, or say they do. But the reverse has not always been true.

Among those who insist upon "the calling," the opinion seems to be that little else matters. Not the ability to retain complex information, not the math ability to calculate drug dosages, not the ability to think critically. Only those who have "the calling" will be good nurses. And that's just not true. "The calling" isn't going to help you calculate your drug doses, think critically or remember complex protocols or procedures. You might have the truest "calling" in the world, but still be unable to graduate from nursing school or to pass the licensing exam. And "the calling" seems to dissolve in the face of reality more often than other reasons for entering the profession.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

One of the problems with those who insist that you must have a "calling" is that they're contemptuous of those who DON'T have the calling. After many, many threads berating nurses who were "only in it for the money" and insisting that "that slot in nursing school should have gone to someone with a real Calling!", many of us crusty old bats became somewhat tired of "the calling".

Mostly, those of us without a "calling" are respectful of those who do have it, or say they do. But the reverse has not always been true.

Among those who insist upon "the calling," the opinion seems to be that little else matters. Not the ability to retain complex information, not the math ability to calculate drug dosages, not the ability to think critically. Only those who have "the calling" will be good nurses. And that's just not true. "The calling" isn't going to help you calculate your drug doses, think critically or remember complex protocols or procedures. You might have the truest "calling" in the world, but still be unable to graduate from nursing school or to pass the licensing exam. And "the calling" seems to dissolve in the face of reality more often than other reasons for entering the profession.

I by no means meant to imply that "the calling" is the only thing necessary to be a nurse....but you have to at least like people. I never meant to imply just because nursing is your dreeeeeeeeeam that you should automatically be accepted into nursing school. I think many have gone into nursing for the wrong reasons which makes them unhappy, sometimes difficult to work with, and sometimes rude.

I guess my experience is the opposite.... being disrespected because I think it takes someone special to really "like" nursing and that you have to at least like people. If they are in it for just the money, which is passable at best, they are quickly unhappy that they are not paid enough. Just as those who wanted to be an nurse because it's their dreeeeeeeeeeeeam and they want to work with babies are quickly disappointed by the brutal reality that nursing isn't puppy dogs and rainbows.