You can always tell when I've been hanging out on the Allnurses.com forums too much -- I get up on a soap box. I'm amazed, though, at how many new nurses are grasping at straws to find "reasons" to quit their first jobs because they're unhappy and they're just positive that things are going to be better elsewhere. Even if there is no elsewhere in the immediate future. It's not THEIR fault that they're miserable -- it's the job. Or their co-workers are all mean and out to get them. (Probably because of their incredible beauty.) Staffing is a nightmare, the CNAs are all hiding and they're afraid they're going to "loose" their license. They'd better quit RIGHT NOW, so they don't "loose" that license. (I wonder if that one is as transparent to spouses who are looking for a little help with the rent -- not to mention those school loans you've racked up -- as it is to some of the rest of us.) The job is ruining their lives and their mental health -- they're seriously worried for their mental health if they don't quit right now. Where did all of these fragile people come from?
Seriously, folks. The first year of nursing sucks. You have the internet and all of that -- how could you not know that the first year of nursing sucks? It does. We've all been through it. The only way to GET through it is to GO through it, but there's a big group of newbies every year who are SURE that doesn't apply to them. No one as ever been as miserable as they are. No one understands. They HATE going to work every day. Management is targeting them and they're sure they're going to be fired. They're concerned that their mental health might be permanently damaged by the trauma of staying in that job ONE MORE DAY. Given the inevitability of "loosing" that license and permanent damage to their mental health, it's all right to quit that job tomorrow, isn't it? Or maybe it's that their DREAAAAAAAAM job is opening up, and they've been offered the job. It's OK to quit this job to take their DREAAAAAAAAM job, isn't it?
How do they even know their dream job is hiring if they have every intention of making their first job work out? What are all those job applications doing out there, floating around if they're serious about this job? You DID intend to keep this job for one to two years when you took it, didn't you? If not, shame on you!
The first year of nursing sucks. You're going to hate going to work every day, and some of you are going to cry all the way to work and all the way home. You'll be exhausted, both mentally and physically and your normal hobbies and activities may take second seat to the job. You'll be constantly afraid of making a mistake, and you will MAKE mistakes. You'll feel incompetent. You may lose sleep because you're worrying about your job. Switching jobs isn't going to miraculously make you confident and competent. It's just going to delay you on your path through that first miserable year. It may even look bad on your resume, paint you as a job hopper. (I'm always shocked by how many new nurses are on their third or fourth job in less than two years who will assure me that they're not job hoppers. Honey, if you're on your third job in less than two years, you're a job hopper. Really.)
Don't people have bills to pay? Or is it that no one feels responsible for paying their own bills anymore? How is it that so many people feel free to just up and quit a paying job without another one in sight? I guess I'm getting old, because I really don't get it.
Not really educational. More entertaining than anything, usually when I'm trying to search the universe for answers on why someone ticked me off today.
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
I am not a fan of this thread. It is pretty cranky to be honest.
Youngsters these days aren't in the same place we were (I am Gen X.) at their same age. Their childhoods were spent during an economic time of prosperity. The average middle class kid was raised with the expectation that things will continue to be economically sound and pursuing personal fulfillment is not only good but the right thing to do. Sadly, right as it is their turn to hit the workplace the economy sours and life is a whole lot different. That takes some adjusting and at a time when needing to be mature has drifted toward the late 20s instead of the late teens, thus making that mental shift pretty difficult. I find myself feeling more protective and mentor-ish than peeved at the sense of wanting work to be personally fulfilling and the desire to cut bait and find a different lake to fish in when things are hard. They just aren't used to hard. That isn't their fault and they WILL learn. They don't need me pushing them down as they stumble. I won't let them deny that wall exists, but I will encourage them to get over it. Literally and figuratively.
I respect their right to choose where and how they work. I respect their right to gain hard knock experience however it comes to them. I accept my role in helping when they ask for advice. And I completely accept that they alone are responsible for whatever choice they ultimately do make. Hardship teaches resiliency. They can choose for themselves whether they want the hardship of a job they hate or the hardship of struggling to pay bills after quitting it. Either way, learning takes place. Something in me feels deep compassion whenever I see an individual shocked by hardship and the brick wall that reality can be. I can't change the reality. But I can be kind as they learn to navigate themselves around, over, through that wall.
I think being patient and kind to others increases the odds of others being kind to us. And God knows I am in need of kindness and patience from others more often than not.
I'm a fairly new nurse and can honestly say I've yet to encounter a "crusty old bat" in the workplace. I think the phrase "nurses eat their young" needs to just die and go away, I'm embarrassed to say that "my" generation of nurses (not MY generation as a whole, because I'm an older new nurse) keeps perpetuating that myth and all they do is come off sounding like whiny little brats.
Great post!
I've been here on AN for over 10 years and we've discussed the "Nurses eat their young" myth so many times. I'm glad to see a new nurse address this.
In all walks of life there are mean people. On a recent thread I talked about my daughter's journey through school to be a hairdresser (backstabbing wenches) to trying to make it in the world of chefs . .. .where for the most part women are not welcome. I didn't become a nurse until I was 40 and my previous jobs always had some mean folks.
Of course, the negative parts stand out and we forget the positive parts. I had a very nasty mentor when I first started but it had nothing to do with ME. She was nasty to everyone. It took about 9 years but she was finally fired.
As to NCLEX - the summer before I started nursing school I read Echo Heron's first book about her experiences through nursing school. The testing back then (1970's) was a two day written essay-style exam in Sacramento. That's waaay different than the computerized NCLEX of today.
I love the idea of placing a photograph of a time when there was real hardship to keep our focus on what is good.
I also love the idea of standing up for yourself no matter what the cost.
Specializes in Nursing Education, CVICU, Float Pool.
New nurse and I LOVE my job! I love working with my patients(L&D). There are a few bad apples(staff and pt alike) but for the most part I enjoy work every single day and look at it as a learning opportunity. We are hopefully relocating this summer though out of state(after almost a year), but no way would I think of moving without a job lined up! Oh and I think people who say they weren't prepared for the work...either weren't adequately exposed to it during school or clinicals...During our clinicals over the last 2 years, we were told over and over about staffing problems, and how nurses are overworked, less resources...we all went into it with eyes wide open. No naïve little girlie here.[/quote'] Ditto.
My first year thus far (8 months in) has been every bit of amazing and enjoyable. I could imagine having a better experience. I consider myself fortunate. We have a really good staff that works together and that are willing to be a resource when it comes to teaching/improving, with professionalism.
I have had times that were challenging, but I've yet to even think about the phrase "I hate my job" or "I'm quitting". I've certainly been learning a ton, especially when it comes to "fresh hearts". I work on a CVICU and we have a great standard for support of all staff, old or new. It's rare we have to come in on call, or that people call out. The CVICU was my dream job, and I get to work that dream job every week. I am undoubtably fortunate.
We live in an age of instant gratification. If graduate nurses don't want to wait more than 24 hours to find out if they passed NCLEX-RN, then why are we surprised when they don't give a job more than a few months before they quit to find "something better"?
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
You sound like someone who definitely isn't a Millennial. It seems your issue is with the generation and not with the actual "new nurse" itself. You're getting old, OP. All of the "symptoms" you've described run right in line with the characteristics of the "Millennial" generation. And it has more to do with how they were raised and much less due to being a "nurse". This is an "issue" all over the nation in all different kinds of career paths. And it only seems to be an issue for Generation Xers and Baby Boomers, who are retiring in the next 10 years.
Change in the workplace is such a difficult thing for people to adapt to, but I'm afraid you are just going to have to adapt instead of wasting precious time complaining about it on the internet.
So, older nurses aren't allowed to vent? Only new nurses can complain about their co-workers?
While I have "liked" some of the posts in this thread, I have also felt a little uncomfortable with the harshness of some portions of it. My feelings are somewhat "in the middle" on these issues.
I understand that many new nurses are surprised by the difficulties of the jobs they take. I sympathize with their struggles to develop the skills and strength required to thrive. I do my best to support them and give them a little time to mature. You're right, not.done.yet, they are unprepared to handle "hard." But as Ruby said in her original post, "The only way to get through it is to go through it."
Unfortunately, I have met several (and encountered several here on allnurses) who aren't willing to even try ... who pout, cry, point fingers of blame towards everyone else, and threaten to run away every time something is difficult or something doesn't go their way. They seem to have no ability to cope with the normal ups and downs of life.
... And the ones who write constantly about their mental health being so fragile ... well ... if that's the case, they really do need to change jobs because they are clearly not cut out for most nursing jobs. (I guess schools are being too soft on their students now-a-days.)
...And the ones who are paralyzed by an overwhelming fear of losing their license are ignorant of the facts. Nurses rarely lose their licences ... and for the vast majority of those who do, they do so because of willful, malicious acts or repeated drug abuse, etc. -- not because of accidental, unintended accidents/mistakes.
I want to be kind to them all -- really I do -- but the ones who won't even try to become stronger give me concern for society. Are we really becoming a society of wimps? Our ancestors endured hardship to survive ... crossed the country in covered wagons ... fought the Civil War ... World Wars I & II ... the Great Depression ... the Dust Bowl ... the 1918 influenza pandemic ... etc. Had those previous generations been so wimpy, the world would be a much bleaker place.
I guess in the end, I see the wimpy ones as forming the "masses of people who die anonymously in disaster films." And while I want to save them all, sometimes I question whether or not I shouldn't save my energy and just focus on saving myself and my loved ones -- like the heroes of those movies usually do. Let the weak die (and a few noble ones sacrifice themeselves) and be one of those standing in the end to rebuild after the disaster is over.
I am not a fan of this thread. It is pretty cranky to be honest.
Youngsters these days aren't in the same place we were (I am Gen X.) at their same age. Their childhoods were spent during an economic time of prosperity. The average middle class kid was raised with the expectation that things will continue to be economically sound and pursuing personal fulfillment is not only good but the right thing to do. Sadly, right as it is their turn to hit the workplace the economy sours and life is a whole lot different. That takes some adjusting and at a time when needing to be mature has drifted toward the late 20s instead of the late teens, thus making that mental shift pretty difficult.
I find myself feeling more protective and mentor-ish than peeved at the sense of wanting work to be personally fulfilling and the desire to cut bait and find a different lake to fish in when things are hard. They just aren't used to hard. That isn't their fault and they WILL learn. They don't need me pushing them down as they stumble. I won't let them deny that wall exists, but I will encourage them to get over it. Literally and figuratively.
I respect their right to choose where and how they work. I respect their right to gain hard knock experience however it comes to them. I accept my role in helping when they ask for advice. And I completely accept that they alone are responsible for whatever choice they ultimately do make. Hardship teaches resiliency. They can choose for themselves whether they want the hardship of a job they hate or the hardship of struggling to pay bills after quitting it. Either way, learning takes place. Something in me feels deep compassion whenever I see an individual shocked by hardship and the brick wall that reality can be. I can't change the reality. But I can be kind as they learn to navigate themselves around, over, through that wall.
I think being patient and kind to others increases the odds of others being kind to us. And God knows I am in need of kindness and patience from others more often than not.
This thread wasn't nice.
Although I enjoyed your post, Ruby Vee does present a very interesting question.
There are a percentage who do struggle and continue to struggle throughout their career; it isn't "nice" either, regardless of their age...some NEVER get comfortable, and generations of nurses do suffer when bridges do get burned.
On the other hand there are far more success stories than failures; and it is solely dependent in the nurse.
If anything, this post allowed or some self reflection; at least for myself who has had the experience of being a new grad, moving from novice to expert and transition to an RN, now to move from novice to expert AGAIN, now with a job market that I am sure has been endured in the past-I've shared my story about the last economic bubble burst and changes to hospital reimbursement in the early 90s and a nurse telling me NOT to go into nursing as a middle schooler, on a previous post- yet have been and will continue to be a nurse successfully.
What I have learned is many things DO stay the same; it does take some resiliency building to create a good career, and it's not "nice" nor it is pretty, but there are far more nurses available who BTDT than mythical NETY who help shape us any way they can; we have to shape ourselves as well; this thread was a very good "check-in" on what principles I stand on, or at lest when I was a LPN, and what I have transferred and transformed into as an RN.
how does it affect your life if random strangers on the internet quit their jobs? why do you care? it doesn't, and you shouldn't.
@ceccia ... We're all in this together, and I can only imagine that as a seasoned nurse @Ruby Vee is thinking about all the new grads that have come into her unit and up and quit because they couldn't handle it... It just isn't a good look.
Madras
270 Posts
Not really educational. More entertaining than anything, usually when I'm trying to search the universe for answers on why someone ticked me off today.