Fed up with nursing, advice please.

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

Howdy all.

I joined this forum not long ago, and some of the topics here are very interesting. It is good to read the differing points of view, also to vent off some steam! I am a RN BTW, and have worked in hospitals my whole life in differing jobs (not all nursing jobs).

I am in WA and working through an agency. I gave up studying law (only started the first unit, first semester) to do a Post Grad Dip in Renal Nursing. That was a HUGE decision for me, as I was really excited about doing law.

I was working through another agency but that didn't work out, because they wanted me to drop everything I was doing to run out to work. I told them my study comes first, not their work (which they knew) and the manager was unbelievably rude and obnoxious. I work for another agency now who seem quite good (time will tell!). I took 2 weeks off after being let go from the first agency, as I was so stressed my BP went up to like 180 (I have mild hypertension, am on medication) and looks like I failed my first subject of the Grad Dip Nurs (though final maks haven't been posted). So I am now suffering depression from that. I spent every night working on this unit/subject, & gave my all to my assignments, did heaps of research, listed that in the references, quoted well, etc. I also worked hard at many boring jobs, whilst studying to get my Bachelor and gave up a lot of things - now, I'm wondering if it was worth it.

My main problem is I am totally fed up with nursing. I was studying evidence based practice, and it was so boring, I nearly dropped out, but persevered instead (I usually don't give up on things easily). I hate running out doing shifts, though afternoons is not too bad. I hate being on call. And the government has put a moritorium on permanent nursing jobs, where you need like 10 years experience to get a perm job here.

The agency put me in psych (did a psych special last week), and I am totally fed up with it, though the money is good. I find many of these psych patients don't take responsibility for anything in their life. They become extremely abusive and belligerent when asked to do just one little thing. I think they like being awkward because they like to be waited on hand & foot - they won't do anything for themselves. I am tired of pandering to these lazy, overweight patients. We are not allowed to say: you need to take responsibility for yourself and own up to what you do/are doing. No-one is allowed to say anything like that to a patient. I know many of them get Dx with a mental illness, but I don't think they are as sick as the Drs think they are. Call it lack of knowledge but I have worked in hospitals for a long, long time (not just as a RN). I want to help people but many of the patients (not just psych), say rehab as well, will not do anything to help themselves or change their lifestyle, even in a little tiny way. I find it frustrating we can't say anything to them, and they can treat us how they like. I think these patients are lazy and and need a good kick in the behind. I don't believe in pandering to people's every whim makes them get better; once people take responsibility for themselves, and admit they have problems, I believe it empowers them. I know there has to be a middle way, but it doesn't seem to work. These patients like staying in their drug induced, alcoholic comas and violent relationships, where they smoke endlessly and abuse their children. I am honestly and truly shocked by some of the violent things they don't get prosecuted for. Do you think that if someone is mentally ill (properly Dx I mean), and if they commit a violent, physical act towards say their own child, they should be prosecuted or not? Any comments are welcome.

I am sick of the whole nursing scene. I remember everyone telling me I would love it, what a worthwhile career it would be and how it would open all these doors. The opposite is true. I just wondered if anyone feels the same (I know some people do) and any suggestions of what else I can do? And please don't just tell me to 'change my attitude' - I need mature suggestions.

Someone said on here not long ago that you can only do bedside nursing with a degree. I would have to agree. It is not the magical wand that everyone made it out to be, and does not automatically lead onto another career unless you do like 2-3 more years of a diploma/certificate (even then you have to have experience in the area). In WA you can't work in any speciality area I have been told, unless you have that particular qualification, not even one shift as an agency nurse (too many legal implications).

I am usually a very strong person, but don't feel strong anymore at all. I am fed up with the whole nursing scene. All the chemistry and physics I struggled through, and learning nursing diagnoses, was all a crock as far as I am concerned. Nobody seems to know what you are on about, and they don't use it. And I have worked with many nurses who just plain don't care about any of their patients, and I am getting the same.

I hate becoming cynical - it is an awful feeling, and I don't like being like this. I was going to initially become an EN, but everyone persuaded me a RN job was much better; now I have to disagree.

Should I quit my Diploma or keep struggling to see if things get better? Only thing is if I don't like it, I will still have to pay for the unit/subject.

Sorry for the long rant - needed to get if off my chest!

Any comments are appreciated. :)

[ceridwyn]

I understand where u are coming from. I started a grad dip in diabetes ed. about 3 years ago and got 50 for each subject aftergetting distinctions in my undergrad, totally lost interest.

Went and nearly completed a grad dip in primary teaching......have one subject to go, when I decided, I could not stand teachers, nor being couped up in the one place 8 hours a day, was no good at discipline....cannot yell at little tuckers, its hard enough going to school everyday away from family without some teacher yelling at you all the time.

Then I went and studied law for one year, while nursing at a hospital on bank. I keep thinking what else there is to do......I do community nursing now, no nighshifts nor evenings a a great bunch of colleagues, except for one or two, who give the the absolute...sh..........ts.

A manager that panders to the sucky up nurses. I am getting to old to stand on my head to attend dressing to leg ulcers.....so I am going back to do the diabetes ed. cert.

Then I thought about midwifery......but I think it would be a bit tuff physically and shift work again yuk, yuk,

I am thinking about accountancy.....lot more money and u can be your own boss.... YIPPEE.

Question is, do u like renal nursing......I could took diabetes for ages to anyone that wants to listen.....its just finding a job in it.

Over here in Vic to do the renal grad dip, u must have a permanent job at least 3-4 days a week last I took a look at the post grads.

You need colleagues that u can vent with, complain with and have a giggle, which is the only reason I am still at this place I work, you do not have this support.

Do not think it is nursing that is treating u bad, I believe it is society as a whole. Nobody could give a sh....ttter about anybody else, hence u must start depending on yourself.....If u keep battling this grad dip.....like my grad cert.......u will have it when u are at the right place at the right time......on the other hand, think of how proud u will be finishing something even if there are a few setbacks.

My mental health lecturer gave the best advice I have every heard.......you always do the best you can do at any given time, just sometimes our best is not as good as it is at other times.....you study hard, was having other stresses like work, or something else, gave it your best shot....will be a walk in the park next time.....do not give yourself a hard time... you is all you have got.....family helps, friends helps.....but its you that in the end looks after you. Keep us posted what u decide or how u are going.

ps. REally got annnoyed today.....bl.....dy drivers cutting me off, pulling out in front of me, even got abused by a push bike rider, what a nerve!!! and on top of that it was so cold it would freeze the bits of a brass monkey, I think everyone is down at the moment, its winter. keep your pecker up, C

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

Thanks Ceridwyn.

Yes, I remember the freezing nights in the Adelaide hills getting up at 5.45 am for work, to start at 7.00 am! And the drivers in Adelaide are so rude and obnoxious. I refuse to do earlies now, or late/earlies, thank God.

I don't know if I like renal nursing, but I get accommodation with the job, in return for decent pay and only have to be on call every 4th weekend (but can pick up more hours if I like). So seems like a good deal. I am doing agency work to get the money to get up to NT, before Jan 2011. Seems like I will never make it. The depressing part is my family was going to help me out, but they have now cut me off (long story which I won't bore you with).

The thought of even going back to another shift is just depressing as hell. When I first started nursing I was excited. I thought I couldn't get any more depressed even after my boyfriend (on & off) didn't want to be with me after 16 years of knowing each other. Seems like everything has gone wrong for me lately! I usually try to keep positive and looked forward to going to work as a distraction, but now I can't be bothered listening to all their stupid complaints. I hate the ones who constantly stay in bad relationships, the young girls (and they get younger every year), who have babies and 2 days later they are out partying at a nightclub and leaving grandma with the baby. I HAVE met some really nice, responsible young people, but they are few & far between. The older mothers I have encountered aren't much better. And the govt, in it's infinite wisdom, has decided to give them all 18 months paid leave! In SA (where I'm from), the girls will just dump the babies on grandma and go to the pokies - I used to work in them so I knew most of them. One politician today said they druggies/drunks/promiscuous girls will just open their legs and take advantage of it - and he is right.

I hate the druggies and alcoholics, who dry out in hospital a bit all on the tax payers money, and laugh at us running around after them. God forbid we should tell them to get a grip and if they don't comply with outpatient treatment programs, we won't admit them again. No, that would be too hard for the Rudd, or any gov't, to apply cos they will lose too many votes. I say to those out there who AREN'T nurses, you come in and clean up their filth. Come and look after the ones who deliberately poo the bed after you have just changed it, and who fart in your face. These are not people with dementia. I only ever saw one CNC (CNS) yell at a patient and threaten to transfer him out of the hospital, because he felt up a young, student nurse, who was sobbing & crying. He told me afterwards he was sick of management ignoring the real problems on the floor. He had complained so many times about it and of course, nothing had happened. I was so glad he told this patient what he thought of him in plain language. God forbid we should stand up for ourselves!

I think nursing is a thankless job. One patient, who we had all run our butts off for, said, when someone asked him to do something for himself (can't remember what it was) said: 'Why shouldn't you do it? You get paid for it". That was his attitude. I felt like telling him he sucked badly.

Anyway, I better get off of here. Thanks for the words of encouragement, it is much appreciated. I have applied for some permanent jobs, and to do a job at home. Maybe something will come up, but I am getting to the point where I will just tell someone to p**s off one night, and to grow up and start acting like an adult, not like a spoiled, whinging child.

At least there is this forum for us all to whinge on as well!!

Cheers.

[ceridwyn]

There appears to be a lot of people now out there living off benefits and believe everyone should support their lifestyle.

I myself now earn enough to have the benefits pulled (single mum, not of my making) and I am now hounded by centrelink more than when I got the parenting payment!!!! coz they want to make sure I was never overpaid any benefits. I have been told they think I am fine because I hardly got any pension the last few years, maybe a 10-20 bucks now again, but they want to make sure......will cost the taxpayer thousands to check me out, because they want to go back 5 years......all for the sake of maybe a couple of hundred dollars that could even be owed to me.

If I had sat on my bum and done nothin...smoked went out boozing, brought a different boyfriend home everynight to the children, I would now not been bothered by centrelink, not be stressed about this, and still be receivng my 1200.00 a fortnight thanks to the taxpayers....thanks King Rudd and all your public servants..

I figure that it is only by the Grace of God or whoever it is that has the grand plan that we are still eating, drinking and doing this work thing, because I am sure we with the brains and the critical thinking skills and looking at the whole picture and taking responsiblity are in MINORITY, we are the workers that keep everything going while tthe politicians and all the others that do not get off their b...ms and do something, blame others for their predica ment have the brain of a pea.......

Its like we have be like this so everyone else can do their own thing!!! play all day in their sandpits but will never join our sandpit. I think like this, keeps everything in perspective.

Another way of looking at the ones that feel they are owed everything is that they really are as jealous as hell, they know you really have the brains and they do not and so they use these basic control skills that they can use on you. One nurse I knew said," how marvellous", whenever one of these people would use their control skills. said that. Remember, only you can make yourself feel bad. They are just the instrument and if they do then they have used that control, its not the act of you doing it, its the feelings that come with it that make you feel the lesser, servant person. And after all who cares what they think of you!! brain of pea, remember this.

Just because we are nurses, does not mean, we are Mother Theresa's or some sort of joining a convent thing...a religious calling, society forgets this, we did not do this job as a calling, but a way of making money, like the checkout people at woollies, like the accountants, like office staff, like the people who fix roads, like the people? who work? at centrelink.....we do not have to care about everybody and see the good side of everybody and everbodys situation....there are morons and we should be allowed to state this in public and be able to say, directly, "' I do not care tell someone who actually specialises with your sort of problems.

On stating this though, we do not put people in jeopardy, but we do not need to put ourselves out there being abused, nor feeling ffearful, nor should we need to agree with their views on their lifestyles if they are causing themselves harm and money to society.

At the moment we have to go to education about the latest people that have come to our society.......so we can look after their health needs the way they want........come on........Mother Theresa syndrome again used by our society, against the nursing profession... The medical profession does not do this nor the OT's, nor the physiotherpists, nor dentists, nor any allied health nor speech therapists nor dental nures, dental therapists, vets etc etc. How far are nurses to be stretched, do we have no culture of our own? are we to be considered blank canvas's that our clients/patients, society just draw upon. ?

Ever been at a party or with family, and heard öh, so and so will be able to care for that if anything goes wrong..blah, blah blah. I wonder if the checkout chick at woolllies is asked to go and get the food because that what they do for a living!!! at parties or gatherings.

Lucky in my job see more of the oldies that have at least contributed to society and I love talking and learning from them, we see their families that are inspirational and some families that are complete oxygen thieves. Its seeing the great families and people that make it all worth while and I see we are in minority and everyone that I consider pea brains are actually the ones missing out on a great life.

Thank God there appears to be sunshine today.....back to playing in the motherhood sandpit. seeya...my rant, crap, crap centrelink and societies views on nurses.

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

Well C it is official.

I got an email stating I failed my 1st, boring unit in renal nursing.

Well I sat and thought long and hard and I have decided to quit that uni (Charles Darwin) and to do psych nursing here at a uni in WA (if I get accepted). I have been working in psych and find it quite good, have bad days sometimes, but no nursing job is going to be perfect. I like the analytical thinking and the counselling part, and I can do the latter as a major in my psych studies.

Still struggling with not much work, bills, creditors hassling me. What is a girl to do? Any suggestions? I don't have any other post grad qualifications and only about 1 year RN experience under my belt.

Even rang & begged for a shift today; nothing at all (not unusual on a Sunday).

Thinking of just selling the car & going overseas, but there aren't many nursing jobs there. Maybe I could do admin/clerical work, but unsure of accommodation etc.

Oh well better go soon as I am getting weary.

Hopefully next week will be better.

Seeya C please answer soon.

[talaxandra]

Have you considered doing a stint of remote nursing, Carol? It pays very, very well and is really different from ward work. Friends who've done it say they felt kick-started, thanks to a combination of taking time out from their usual routine and reframing their picture of health care. There's a lot more autonomy, too, but you'd need to shift your outlook on a couple of things if you want to get the most out of the experience.

[sydneymum14]

I do Agency work with Oldies and love it. totally different values and morals. Wouldn't touch psych if I can help it. I am a diabetic and have been for 42 of my 44 years so if you need any first hand info on diabetes, pump use, managing etc then I'm your girl.

[sassy_squirrel]

Thanks Ceridwyn.

Yes, I remember the freezing nights in the Adelaide hills getting up at 5.45 am for work, to start at 7.00 am! And the drivers in Adelaide are so rude and obnoxious. I refuse to do earlies now, or late/earlies, thank God.

I don't know if I like renal nursing, but I get accommodation with the job, in return for decent pay and only have to be on call every 4th weekend (but can pick up more hours if I like). So seems like a good deal. I am doing agency work to get the money to get up to NT, before Jan 2011. Seems like I will never make it. The depressing part is my family was going to help me out, but they have now cut me off (long story which I won't bore you with).

Hi,

Sorry to totally go offtopic. But I noticed you were talking about getting up to the NT - I'm guessing for work?

If so I just thought I'd pass this link onto you http://www.nursing.nt.gov.au/ it might help you out a little. Just to let you know though - the housing situation in Darwin is really bad. Rent is sky high and there are very little available rentals. I was living with my parents for about 9 months after returning from uni before I found a rental property that my fiance and I could afford.

Anyway I can't really give you any advice about your situation sorry, but *hugs* I hope it all works out for you. Maybe you just need some time away to figure out exactly what you want to do. If you are able to that is, maybe try doing a different job for a while (even away from the Healthcare sector) to just clear your head and look after yourself. You may find a new appreciation for nursing or you may decide you don't want to do it at all.

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

Have you considered doing a stint of remote nursing, Carol? It pays very, very well and is really different from ward work. Friends who've done it say they felt kick-started, thanks to a combination of taking time out from their usual routine and reframing their picture of health care. There's a lot more autonomy, too, but you'd need to shift your outlook on a couple of things if you want to get the most out of the experience.

Heya

I asked re remote nursing and I have worked in an Aboriginal Health Unit at one of the big teaching hospitals over east. But they all want 2-3 years experience, ED experience and you have to be knowledgeable in just about everything, as you have to deal with everything and anything that comes in. They even want midwives/RNs out there as well, so that isn't really an option at the mo (but I will keep bugging the agency!)

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

Hi,

Sorry to totally go offtopic. But I noticed you were talking about getting up to the NT - I'm guessing for work?

If so I just thought I'd pass this link onto you http://www.nursing.nt.gov.au/ it might help you out a little. Just to let you know though - the housing situation in Darwin is really bad. Rent is sky high and there are very little available rentals. I was living with my parents for about 9 months after returning from uni before I found a rental property that my fiance and I could afford.

Anyway I can't really give you any advice about your situation sorry, but *hugs* I hope it all works out for you. Maybe you just need some time away to figure out exactly what you want to do. If you are able to that is, maybe try doing a different job for a while (even away from the Healthcare sector) to just clear your head and look after yourself. You may find a new appreciation for nursing or you may decide you don't want to do it at all.

Hi there

I can't go up to the NT now, because I failed my unit. I am waiting for the course coordinator to contact me, but thank you so much for the information. I had been told housing in Darwin was bad, I didn't think it was THAT bad. Any information b4 hand re a job is always great. I am feeling so down because I failed my unit, & I worked quite hard (or so i thought) to pass. I failed every component by the looks of it; I have failed one unit b4 but we were able to re-sit the exam. However there is no exam for this unit, just 2 assignments and discussion board comments. But it was so totally boring, I kid you not. Even statistics in pyschology wasn't as bad! I reckon mental health will be good - I like working in psych, though not everyday is great (as with any job). Either that or if I don't get in, I will go back to law like I originally was going to study.

I really do appreciate the hugs - thank you, thank you. It is hard for me living here as I don't know anyone as yet, have no family here & they are estranged from me anyway. So allnurses is a virtual lifeline for me.

Thank you so much for caring.

[talaxandra]

Heya

I asked re remote nursing and I have worked in an Aboriginal Health Unit at one of the big teaching hospitals over east. But they all want 2-3 years experience, ED experience and you have to be knowledgeable in just about everything, as you have to deal with everything and anything that comes in. They even want midwives/RNs out there as well, so that isn't really an option at the mo (but I will keep bugging the agency!)

Well that sucks! On reflection I suppose my friends and colleagues who've worked bush have been out a while, though at least three had no experience outside ward-based med-surg. I'll try to come up with other options for you

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

Well that sucks! On reflection I suppose my friends and colleagues who've worked bush have been out a while, though at least three had no experience outside ward-based med-surg. I'll try to come up with other options for you

Thank you so much for your time & effort. Who did your friends go through, was it an agency? I am in Perth at the mo.