faulfillment and satisfaction in the nursing profession

[prospectivenurse22]

Hi there,

I'm currently a student in the last year of a degree completely unrelated to nursing. If I graduate from this degree, I am guaranteed a job in the federal government. My problem is that the job resulting from my degree is not fulfilling. Over the years, I have worked many jobs including retail and did co-op for my current degree, which consisted of me in a cubicle in front of a computer. I actually started missing my retail jobs because of ppl interaction, and that I would help people in one way or another. I don't want to be in a boring and meaningless job my whole life, yes...it will give me ample vacation days and go beyond just paying my bills...but I want to be true to myself and acknowledge the fact that I want a job where I take care of people and am challenged every day, so I am seriously considering a second entry nursing program at the University of Ottawa.

My question is, how satisfied are you of your profession in nursing? What are the good and the bad about your job? And finally, do you have any advice for me at all?

(sorry, spelling error in the title...it's been a long night of reflecting on my choices)

[dishes, BSN, RN]

Yusra

I worked in insurance before before becoming a nurse, the insurance job offered good working hours and a paycheck, but it did not offer fulfillment. On the other hand, nursing has been very fulfilling because my knowledge and skills have improved the quality of others lives, have helped save lives, helped bring lives into and ease lives out of the world. I am so glad I left that cubicle job and became a nurse, I hope you will find nursing just as rewarding.

dishes

[prospectivenurse22]

Thanks again dishes! Nursing just seems more and more like a profession I want to be in, and not my boring cubicle job. Now it's just a matter of raising my GPA and applying for the next year.

[RN_waitlister]

Hi, I'm not a Nurse yet (still on a waitlist to become one) but I'm in the same boat as you. I work at a job that I do enjoy but it's also at a computer and gets very tedious. I feel I'm not learning anything new or advancing. I don't hate the job but I think Nursing will be a good profession to switch to. It'll be very challenging, active, and rewarding. So you are definately not alone. Just research as much as you can about it so you know what it's all about. This site is a good one to find out what the real job is like. I still have over a year till I'm in school so I'll be researching my butt off on the Nursing profession to make 100% sure it's what I want to do; but so far I'm excited to start!

[Fiona59]

Hindsight is 20/20.

If I had it to do all over again, I would choose the diploma in Health Records Technology.

Yes, there are very good days when you feel like you are making a difference in peoples lives but they become fewer and fewer as the years go by.

You see the "frequent fliers" return again and again. You get attached to patients with a terminal illness and it hurts. You get the patients that know how to work the system. The families who cannot be pleased no matter how hard you work, Florence herself couldn't keep them content.

Dishes has never really said where they work but in the last decade, I've worked in the community, continuing care, and in acute care. When I started out as a new nurse, it was hard to find work, so new grads took whatever work they could find. Holding two or three casual positions was the norm.

You quickly learned where the issues were in the healthcare system and where you'd never want to take a permanent job.

The verbally abusive, violent, aggresive patients tend to scar you and you will remember them far longer than you will the patients you made an influence on.

Yes, many of older nurses are scarred and hardened. But it's the only way sometimes to survive in the inner city hospitals and clinics.