How to know if I would be a good nurse? Personality traits common among happy nurses

shavsha · Dec 6, 2001

Hi Leigh,

I replied to your private post...Read it if you haven't already. In my opinion, there is room in nursing for just about every personality. Some love OR -lots of machines, equipment, no patient contact. Others like home/health hospice. There are folks who trouble shoot IV's all day, and ER and OB nurses where it is feast or famine. I think some of the qualities that are ESSENTIAL in nursing are a good mind (ability to think beyond the box), honesty (living with personal and professional integrity), being a team player, able to get along with all kinds of personalities, and being able to set boundaries for yourself.

Also, know that wherever you work there will be negative people (who come by it naturally) and good people who are just burned out. I strive in my job to be respectful and friendly to everyone, not participate in gossip, do my fair share of making the workplace a safe and happy place to work.

From your posts I'm guessing you would make a wonderful nurse. No one would say nursing is an easy job but don't let negativity scare you away!

wildtime88 · Dec 6, 2001

Steeleferg,

First of all let me say that I was in no way attacking you. My post are pretty direct and come across like that at times. If you ever see one where I am calling someone an A hole or SOB and it is not apparent that it is in jest then that will be a personal attack, but I am not known to do that.

Here is the fact up until this point in time within the nursing profession. We have had thousands of nurses who have left and there are many more making plans to leave. These were great nurses with a lot of experience and knowledge and they were unhappy. They were for the most part happy and excited to become nurses though. The people who are for the most part planning on staying are the happy nurses as I described. Yes there will be some unhappy nurses that will stick around, some even for the rest of their careers simply because they are too close to retirement, can not afford to change jobs because of family obligations or other reasons. Some of these nurses will duck out of bedside nursing to other areas, which by the way many of them actually do not need a nursing license or education in the first place, and in so doing will leave the mess behind them physically and mentally. Proof in point, there is a major shortage in some areas where it has already been well publicized that patient safety is being directly jeopardized, but there is no major influx of nurses from these other areas jumping back to the bedside to help out in the time of need. Now I do not think any less of them nor do I blame them for their personal choice to stay away. But never the less it is a fact and the reality.

The fact is that many of these nurses did not run away because they were apathetic themselves, but do to the apathy within the profession as a whole. Many of these nurse wanted things to change and improve so they could continue to do the job they loved and choice to come into nursing in the first place to do.

There are not that many people out there who came into nursing to end up lawyers, sales people, researchers, or managers, etc.. In fact to get into these positions, there are much easier and faster ways without becoming a nurse in the first place.

As for happy nurses and apathy going hand in hand in many cases. You will see when you get in and out of orientation. You will get a chance to see who is complaining and those who are not and can decide for yourself.

Good luck to you in your studies and career choice as a whole. I hope that one day things change so that it will be a great overall choice not just for you but for all that have made this choice in the past. It would be nice to walk in and see some of the old faces back at work.

Oh and I agree happy and good are not the same thing. But that is not what was asked, and if you go back to the original post that is not was in the context in some ways. The word Happy does have quotation marks around it as a way emphasizing it.

thisnurse · Dec 8, 2001

wild is absolutely right. apathy is the reason we find ourselves in this position. i dont understand

this about nursing. can you imagine telling a teacher "we are adding two more students to your class." the teacher goes along with it...its only two. next its three, then five, then 10. can you imagine the schools telling their teachers,"we've decided to lay off some of our maintance staff. so from now on you have to sweep the floors and clean the bathrooms" or how about "we've decided that in order to meet student needs, you now must work during the summer too, if you dont, we will let you go"

how far do you think that would go?

and why is that? because the teachers wont put up with that crap. they have strong unions that actually REPRESENT them. they bargain FOR them. they speak with ONE voice. we arent like that.

we are generally apathetic.

consider this:

we are one of the hospitals getting the imported nurses. administration is pitching this is a good thing. none of us are buying that. we are losing nurses by the dozens. we are so short staffed doctors are admitting their patients to other hospitals. units are closed due to staffing problems.

adding to the short staffing are the other issues that we all face, patient safety, etc.

we are a weary, angry, and frustrated bunch.

there is a small place outside of the hospital where we are permitted to smoke. if you sit there you will hear nurses constantly complaining about these issues. they are all justified in their complaints. one day i had just had enough. i addressed them as a group. i said..."so when do we

say thats enough? when do we stop taking patients we KNOW we cant safely care for? when do we say..if the nurses keep leaving we will leave too and you wont have ANY staff? when are we going to stop letting them treat us like this?"

the normally chatty tent grew very quiet. they ALL looked at the floor. out of maybe 10 nurses NOT ONE said a word. the silence lasted for what seemed like forever. i shook my head and left.

THIS IS APATHY.

so what do i do about this? its so much easier to just find another job than to stand up...alone...to management. that is what is going to happen to me. ill not put up with being overworked until the point of being physically ill. i will not take patients i KNOW i cant safely care for. seems like the ONLY options i have are to find another position or leave nursing. meanwhile, things arent going to change at the hospital i work at now. the core group of nurses are apathetic towards the nursing cause. they make nurses who do care about our profession look selfish and radical. .

there is something to be said about being a team player. the majority of nurses out there need to decide whos team they are on...the hospitals or the nurses.

Cubby · Dec 9, 2001

DON"T DO IT!!!YOU WILL BE SORRY, MAYBE NOT FOR A LONG TIME , BUT IT WILL HAPPEN.SORRY BUT THAT IS HOW I FEEL.

NURSES ARE NOTORIOUS FOR 'EATING THEIR OWN' AND WHEN WE AREN'T THE REST OF THE WORLD IS. DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

eyeball · Jan 7, 2011

You did ask about character traits that are shared by happy and content nurses? In other words nurses who do not complain and will endure through thick and thin.
apathy
willingness to do anything they are told to do or assigned to them without objection
ability to work hard and long hours
ability to hold urine for long periods of time
ability to go without food
ability to make excuses
ability to always say it could be worse no matter how bad it gets
ability to run out of the area when a coworker complains about a problem
ability to feel bad when you are told it is your fault when in reality it is not
ability to become a martyr to save face and feel self important
ability to control the urges of wanting something that you do not make enough money to buy because of low pay when compared to your duties and responsibilities
ability to not b***h and complain
ability to face many of these things on a daily basis and be happy and content to keep coming back for more and be happy about it
These are just some of the character traits shared by good, happy nurses. Remember happy nurses do not have anything to complain about and thus have no reason to make waves. They live in a world of their own no matter what is actually going on around them.
It has also been implied by some nurses that you must have a calling in order to find true happiness in this profession in order to be truly happy. In some way this calling will give you the strength and resolve to accept the problems and allow you an excuse in which you can internalize the need to keep coming back for more punishment no matter how bad it gets.
Ask yourself, Do I have such a calling that is strong enough to endure for the rest of my life?

Sad but too true. Yesterday I had an unbearable day that was made moreso by the fact that I worked for 12 1/2 hours straight with no break, no lunch and still felt I did a crappy job with pt care. The demands of nursing simply aren't credible to me anymore.