"I don't want to do bed side nursing"...SAY WHAT!

Nurses General Nursing

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had a couple different nursing students say: "well, i'm going to school so i don't have to do bed side nursing". one even told me she want to work in plastic surg. office, not at the bed side. o.k. , i'm an "old nurse...47 yrs old", but when i went to nursing school in the 80's , we knew we knew we would most likley have to work our way into other areas of nursing after some experience in an acute care facility or some other such place. i hate to sound like i want to eat my young but, a part of me wants to see these new nurses go through the ranks like many of us did. not because i want to see them go through he double thooth picks, but because i feel , taking care of pateints, hands on , learning orginizational skills, pt. asses. , are the best way to learn nursing skills. as a critical care nurse of 27 years, i continue to be amazed at how much i can find out about a pt. during a bath and bed change. we have beds that turn, vents that suction, monitors that alert a critical care team half way across the city, bells, beeps and whistles,,,,what ever happened to good old hands on. i think it is funny that a nursing student thinks if she goes to a plastic surg. office she will only see tummy tucks, face lifts and boob jobs. she's forgetting the big ugly draining wounds , burns, and amputations etc..these office settings see. would love to be a fly on the wall when she takes care of her first pt. with these things and says......"oh my gosh, a plastic surg. takes care of these people too...!" guess i'll go into dermatology.... ha , if you've been around the block you know what awaits her there too. hee heee....but i swear i don't like to eat my young !:lol2: :rotfl: :clown: :lol2: :lol2: :uhoh3:

Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.
ALSO, with plastic surgery you are dealing with an ENTIRELY different type of patient than your typical "sick hospital patient". These are patients with ALOT of money ( alot of times, not always) and they can have VERY demanding personalities.

No offense, but I'd rather clean C-Diff, GI bleed and pee puddles for 12 hours. Kudos to anyone who can hack that.

Specializes in EC, IMU, LTAC.

Hmph. Doctors pay their dues via the hell of med school and internship. Nurses should too. I was a CNA, and I have sworn never to be above anything. I am aware that I'll prolly be too busy to take care of CNA/PCT assigned stuff, but I hope that the humility is enough.

Specializes in ER.

And that, folks, is my :twocents: worth.

Holy mother of pearl, that was more like a buck.

Specializes in PICU, Nurse Educator, Clinical Research.
Holy mother of pearl, that was more like a buck.

:chair:

sorry 'bout that....I do the same thing when I leave people voicemails. ;)

what I *do* know is that some people will never be fulfilled by doing bedside care, but they will make excellent nurses in other settings.

*Never* sure is a long time. I just think that a year is not as long as it seems. It would only enhance the other settings to have some experience in the basics. It's not just med/surg, either. I think "bedside nursing" is the key, whether it's peds, ICU, or med/surg. You learn time management, critical thinking, prioritization, and organization...all that stuff they just briefly touched on in school. If you hate it, don't stay, but I think the majority should try it.

Specializes in cardiac/education.

I am in school, and I don't really care for bedside nursing. Not because of patient care but b/c of the "chicken with your head cut off" feeling. The treatment from doc's. I don't like what I have seen in the hospital. I LOVE learning, though..That said, I would never graduate from school and hop into some job where I wouldn't get much practice in my skills or the opportunity for learning. I think "bedside nursing" IS essential for the new grad or you just aren't going to know what you need to know baseline to be a competent nurse. School just doesn't prepare you adequately enough. I might hate every minute of it, but you can bet your bottom dollar that I will stick it out the first year atleast. That is why I am externing in an area I really don't want to go into (med surg). Learning what I need to know is much more important to me than immediately finding my niche.

JMHO.....

Specializes in cardiac/education.
Does caring for people only take place at the bedside? My MIL worked as a cancer research nurse for nearly 30 years- she rarely did any direct bedside care (if ever), but she cared for hundreds of patients.

:yeahthat:

Specializes in School Nurse-ran away from med-surg fast.

Ok, had to throw my 2 cents in. Nursing is a wide open profession. I do not think we should judge each other. I graduated in May of this year. I worked on a med/surg floor and was miserable. I felt like throwing up before every shift. I was amazed that in "bedside nursing" I had no time to touch or spend time with my patient. I never got breaks, had a drink of water, or went to the bathroom. Not with 6-7 patients on pain meds every hour, plus tons of other scheduled meds. I felt like a "drug pusher", not a nurse. I felt like I was not using any of the skills I learned in nursing school. I found out I was pregnant, my BP went up and I started bleeding. I quit, not because I felt anything was beneath me, but because my unborn baby's health was at stake.

Now, I am working as a school nurse. Now, many of you may not consider this "real nursing." But you know what, pushing meds only takes up about 10-15 minutes of my day now. I get to spend time teaching my students, listening to their concerns, building a relationship with them. I have gotten kids free glasses when they can't afford them and albuterol inhalers for kids that have been without them for months (or have never had them because their parents wouldn't take them to the doctor for their undiagnosed asthma until I intervened). No, I do not pesently have any kids with catheters, wound care needs, or tube feedings (just one who needs trach care). I love the low income population I serve, I look forward to going to work everyday, I am happy, I eat lunch every day (even though it is always at my desk). I am a patient advocate and use my physical assessment skills which I learned in nursing school everyday. I feel I have learned more than I ever did on that med/surg floor about being a nurse. My unborn baby is thriving and growing, my health is good.

So, look down on me if you wish. However, I am touching people's lives. THAT is what I became a nurse!!

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
Originally Posted by jaslo98 viewpost.gif

ALSO, with plastic surgery you are dealing with an ENTIRELY different type of patient than your typical "sick hospital patient". These are patients with ALOT of money ( alot of times, not always) and they can have VERY demanding personalities.

This is why i don't work in plastics. It made me way too aware of how out of whack some people's perspectives for when i saw women (girls, really) coming in for breast implants because "my boyfriends likes big ones, all men like big ones". Sheesh, no THANKS.

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

I've seen a few nursing students that claim they just want to work in management and skip the whole "bedside" thing. And think they can actually do it.

But i honestly cannot believe that my supervisor would truly understand where her employees were coming from unless she was one of them at one time.

Honestly, part of the reason new grads don't want to go into floor nursing is because of the attitudes they dealt with from floor nurses during their clinicals. Who would really want to work in that environment???

Nursing isn't the military...it is a wide-open profession. We are fortunate enough to have enough opportunities now to work in specialties out of school or with limited experience. I know it doesn't seem fair but the hostile attitudes of a Med-Surg unit isn't appealing to anyone.

If they don't want to do bedside nursing, then don't do it. Let a nurse who really cares do the bedside nursing. That's who I would want to be at my bedside if I was ill.

I agree!! I'll never forget the OB nurse I had when I delivered both my kids. (I couldn't believe I got her again the second time!) She had a terrible disposition and attitude. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why she was an OB nurse. I was never so glad as when she left me alone all night with my second (although she did come in HOURS later that night to yell at me b/c I'd nursed my baby when she'd wanted to weigh him first -- uh, excuse me, he was hungry?).

Anyway, what I'm getting at as I vent is nurses need to like what they're doing and I'd just as soon a graduate nurse figure out asap what s/he likes and not use so many patients as guinea pigs while s/he tries to figure it out. I understand we need to learn basic skills, but let's do something we enjoy. I know that I do not want to work the floors at the hospital where I will probably go work, b/c the RN-to-pt ratio is 10:1, with one LPN to help and maybe a CNA on a good day. That's too many for any nurse, anytime. Fortunately, when I graduate, I will have other opportunities b/c they hire into the emergency and critical care units. I personally enjoy bedside nursing, but if I didn't, I know there are many other areas I could work in. That's the wonderful thing about the nursing field.

Sorry so long! Feeling verbose today!

Linda

GN May 07

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