"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 School LVN, Peds HH.

I've been in schol for about 3 months now. we started our clinicals about 5 weeks ago, and we're in an SNF. Its been really interesting to see who goes the extra step to take care of the patients COMPLETELY and not leave all the work to the aides. Everyone there is so busy, the LVN's and RN's have no time to do anything but pass out meds, chart and all that good stuff. The aides really run that place. We've been pretty much CNA's since we got there, and its been a very humbling experience. I know that out in the real world, I probably wont have a chance to care for patients like I am doing now.

students with no nursing experience (aren't the young cute?) badmouthing bedside nursing. Now where would they learn an attitude like that if they didn't hear that old song from other nurses?

Well, I know some people are just jerks, period, but...some of the students that I have worked with (and even went to school with) have seemed very scared. Maybe they feel that office nursing or something that's a step removed from pt care wouldn't be as scary. Just a thought, I dunno.

I can understand why some people do not want to be a bedside nurse-besides the physical toll on your body, the emotional toll can be extreme. As a student I did an externship on an Oncology floor with some med/surg patients-it was extremely rewarding, I learned alot-BUT I ALSO CAME TO CARE EMOTIONALLY FOR THESE WONDERFUL PEOPLE. They are all gone now...I kept in contact during the year I was in school with the nurses I had worked with and some of the families. As much as the floor wanted me on graduation-I went to the ER where I worked as technician. It is still hard to lose someone or see a family suffer. Sometimes my peers laugh at me (some mean-some just saying I haven't got it yet) when I do a full assessment(wound dressing changes)- or provide mouth care to a patient whose mouth is disgusting and can't do it themselves. I will always be a caregiver...but I agree with the post that states we should work with our strengths. I think our job is hard enough and we shouldn't pass judgement on each other-we should be a team. Be a force for good in whatever way you can, and if others try to put you down-put your head up and take the lead...others will follow. In a strange twist of fate, my daughter has decided to become a nurse-she will be starting clinicals-I love her, but have never seen her in the role of caregiver(didn't even babysit). I have not discouraged her-she is smart and funny and would make anyone's day. However, I don't ever see her as a bedside nurse!! Business nurse, public relations you bet!! So what's wrong with that-we need nurses to represent the rest of us with some business acumen. On the other hand, she has been volunteering with cancer kids and loves it! What do I know?

I was just reading some of these posts, let me get something straight here in ohio, pay is only 19.17 hr to start out, my husband, a garbage man, makes more money hauling trash than i will as a nurse. Granted, i am just starting, i just graduated. But dang, thats kinda crazy. He drives a semi for 10 hours a day making 22.00 an hour and i wipe butts and make 19 lol

I see many folks in jobs that don't require much education that get paid quite well. The drawback is that if they get laid off or need to quit for any reason, they wouldn't be able to find a similar job for similar pay. I don't know if that's the case here.

Specializes in Emergency Room.

This is exactly why nursing on a whole is stagnant, compared to other professions, the perception being Nurse= bedpan, bed baths, wiping butts. Hollywood's perception is Gray's Anatomy, etc.. Nurses standing around looking pretty, flirting with everyone. And if everyone were honest, no one looks forward to having 10 patients and having to wipe someones ass, clean vomit, smell feces, or clean up dirty linen.... Therefore people avoid bedside nursing for those reasons and more... And that is ok... For those who can do bedside nursing I applaud them for those who can't hey you know what there is room for you in nursing... Nursing is so diverse today, not wanting to do bedside nursing does not make you any less a nurse..

Ooh, good thread! I was just talking about this the other day with a coworker!

There is this girl who went to hs with me. We graduated in 2000, and she is still in nursing school. She is very opinionated and thinks "icky" things are beneath her. Well, right after I found out that she was going to start nursing, I saw her at a party, and she was asking about it, seeing as how we went to the same large university and would be in the same program. I recommended that she get a job in a hospital to get her feet wet. OOOHHHH no! I believe that her exact words were "being a tech is the most demeaning job in the world and I would never do it". First of all, I was working on year #4 at the hospital when she said that, so it didn't go over troo well with me. But my response was "HEL-LO! Nursing assistant?? They help NURSES! Who do you think is on the other side of that bed??" So she basically went on to say that direct pt care is for the birds. She continued to say that she was going to be a NICU nurse. Her reason? "Babies haven't sinned yet." Okay, so she's clearly not Catholic. I said, "Babies might not have done anything bad, but what about the fifteen year old parents?" Oh I should mention, that while I am a religious person, I don't think that anybody is going to go to H*** if they dont' go to church every Sunday. This girl told me in hs that I am going to H*** because I don't go THREE TIMES A WEEK like she does. So religion is very important to her, and she doesn't get along too well with people who don't believe the same things that she does. See a problem yet? Anyway I tried to explain to her that not all preemies are born to loving married couples. She told me that the baby is the patient, not the family. So yeah, she just doesn't get it. Now she is taking some time off because the stress of one class at a time is just too much. She is a hostess at a restaurant in the meantime. I'm sorry, I know that classes can be very difficult, and sometimes you have to back down and go a little slower, or maybe repeat one that you had a little trouble with, and there is nothing wrong with that. But she has been taking one class at a time since 2000 and she's still not there yet. If she can't handle that, how in the world is she going to handle being an RN?

As for the plastic surgery thing, fine, do what you want to do, but you are going to be much more beneficial if you get some experience first. If you wanna do plastic surgery, then go work on a surgical floor for awhile. Sad thing about that is, though, that some offices, and I'm not saying all, but some will take RNs based on their appearance. I know because it happened to a friend of mine. She was offered a job by a surgeon just because she was a hot young RN. She didn't take the job, but it does happen.

I don't think enough people start int he proverbial mail room and work their way up anymore. There's a lot to be learned from school, but there is SO MUCH to be said for experience!!!!! As a patient, I would want an RN who had been around for awhile. And a year goes by so quickly, I doubt it's going to ruin anyone's life to get a year under their belt before they jump into a specialty. :twocents:

It sounds like this girl is not going to make it. I had my Son when I was just 15 years old and I am providing a loving family for him. That is part of the reason why I wanted to become a RN. Although I have to agree some teen moms dont do the best job at raising their children.

I'm not knocking anybody - since when is it my right to judge? It sounds like you're very responsible and doing a wonderful thing - for yourself and for your son. Way to go! I wish more people were like that. Unfortunately, this girl is doing very well in the classroom - but terrible at clinicals. They did ask her to repeat one class because she was doing awful in the clinical setting, and guess what it was...mother/infant! So yeah, I just hope she realizes before it's too late that maybe she has chosen nursing for the wrong reasons.

. It is one thing to cry when you are sick, it is clearly abusive when you have a rational patient biting/kicking/insulting those trying to help them or flashing the nursing staff.

Sorry, don't mean to be rude, but I've been a nurse for 25 years and I've NEVER seen anybody RATIONAL do these things.

IMO, that's pretty much much like an oxymoron.

If people DO irrational things, how can you call them "rational"?

I have seen many, many new nurses have these kinds of ideas; seeming to think they want to be paper pushers only.

It's actually so prevalent that I was wondering if it had something to do with the way they are being educated.

I worked with a group of RN students last month that many had not even put in a Foley, or had an opportunity to even attempt and IV start.

Sad, what?

You know, as a student I enjoyed one of the crazy med-surg floors we were on this fall, but I only had 2 patients. Working there with the responsibility and the full patient load may change my mind. I think it is good when people have a good idea of where they want to go. I am leaning toward a PACU position, but have not gotten to observe or learn in that enviornment, so who really knows. I like the idea of ICU also, but have to admit that when I ran down there to look for a missing patients robe, I was shocked at how vastly different the atmosphere was. DEAD SILENCE. (I don't know if I would like that on a regular basis). We go to OB/peds next and I kind of have a preconcieved notion that I am not really interested in L/D due to a variety of reasons and a main one being I don't want to deal with tons of family and friends day in day out, but who knows? I might end up loving it. In any case I hope I have a cleared picture when it is time for my preceptorship at the end of NS.

Specializes in EC, IMU, LTAC.

If nurses are doing bedside nursing just for the experience, fine. However, that does not justify the piss-poor attitudes that I've seen and heard about. I worked as a CNA in a nursing home for the experience and HATED it (well, I loved the residents, hated the work conditions), yet I kept a good attitude, never complained in front of the residents about hating my job, and never rolled my eyes or acted like I was above anything. I did my job, never flaunted how I was planning to go on to "bigger and better things," and never though that I would rise above wiping behinds. I also had nothing but respect from the nurses who did not consider themselves above CNA work. They very rarely had time to help with it, but just a smile and hearing that they were once CNAs made me feel respected and valued.

Seriously, if you're in a situation in which you're not happy, either get out before your spread your cancerous misery, or grin and bear it and let it build character!

If nurses are doing bedside nursing just for the experience, fine. However, that does not justify the piss-poor attitudes that I've seen and heard about. I worked as a CNA in a nursing home for the experience and HATED it (well, I loved the residents, hated the work conditions), yet I kept a good attitude, never complained in front of the residents about hating my job, and never rolled my eyes or acted like I was above anything. I did my job, never flaunted how I was planning to go on to "bigger and better things," and never though that I would rise above wiping behinds. I also had nothing but respect from the nurses who did not consider themselves above CNA work. They very rarely had time to help with it, but just a smile and hearing that they were once CNAs made me feel respected and valued.

Seriously, if you're in a situation in which you're not happy, either get out before your spread your cancerous misery, or grin and bear it and let it build character!

:yeah:

Bravo, well said!

Well you know, not everyone goes into nursing today to be a Hospital floor nurse, and by no means is there anything wrong with that. I am in my 3rd semester of RN school and I have done my fair share of cleaning all kinds of bodily fluids up and off of people, floors, toilets, etc.

However, that does not mean when I get out of school that is what I want to continue to do. I am personally interested in working with psychiatric patients (Nurse practitioner psychology) (maybe) will it be easy no, I will have to go through lots of school & more, and I have considered working in a PS office, I have several friends that do and love it.

I had an instructor my 1st two semesters that was "old school", again nothing wrong with that. But that is not what I went into nursing for and there is nothing wrong with that either. There are so many specialty fields in Nursing now that everyone has a choice. I think if a student realizes they are not cut out for an area during school, that is great, then you don't have nurses treating patients like crap, they are working in a different area they are comfortable with.

Also, Nursing is not the same as it use to be, they have cut out bed making and all that stuff in school due to CNA's. Some schools require a CNA certificate before you enter RN school, which mine did, but most do not. I worked part time at my local hospital during my first semester as a CNA and trust me, the RNs did not clean butts or change beds. I did it.

No, I am not too good to wipe butts, do I want to do that when I get out of nursing school? NO. However, I may have to work my year on the Hospital floor just like everyone else, and that is OKAY. Because no matter how bad I think it is, usually it is ten times worse for the patient, and I go right in that room with a smile on my face and treat my patient with dignity.

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