Im Having a hard Time Deciding if I want to be a RN.PLEASE HELP I NEED ADVICE!!!

Nurses General Nursing

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I researched Nursing for 2 years and I finally took a PCA position at a Big Hospital and at first I loved it, But the woring environment my co-workers are all nasty and negative and seem to be stressed all the time. I have even been told by a Nurse I should consdier something else cause Nursing is not all that. I work with other Nurses that float to our Unit and they HATE our floor. They say it's the worse one in the hospital. I have this jaded view of Nursing now. I dread going to work and I do not like cleaning up patients most are Incontinent of Urine and stool 90% on Isolation. I am not sure if is just this Critical Care Step Down Unit or is all of Nursing consisting of High Stress and Burn out and cleaning up Poop all day. Then hear some Nurses say they LOVE being a Nurse. Like I read it often on All Nurses.

I hope to start pre-reqs for Nursing this fall, But I have seriously reconsidered. I want to make a smart choice. I feel like Nursing is a great career but maybe I was placed in a bad area as a PCA or maybe it's the PCA duties Im confused. Also the pay SHOCKED me. I was told you will start out making $20.99 is this normal? I was told my hospital is the highest paying in our city??? Could someone please help me clear the confusion? What areas of Nursing could I consider that may not be so needy and Sick. Im sick of the smell of Poop and having to deal with MRSA and Encenobacter!!! I love the patients it's just the environment and the negative co-workers it's making me so miserable Im consdiering forgetting about Nursing all together at the end of my shift Im stressed and tired.

I read Articles by RNs and they seem very happy with what they do. I did meet one RN who told me to look into other Nursing options there are peanty. I just don't know how or where to start. Can someone PLEASe give me some encouragement and advice. I feel in my heart Nursing is my calling but everyday as I clock out I say to myself What the hell? is this why Nursing has such a high turn over? Maybe I don't want to be a Bedside Nurse? ARRGGHHH Im getting tense just talking about it! please give me some clear advice and what are my options. My goal was to become a Nurse Practioner thats my dream, or maybe getting a BSN then MHA...Please Help!!!:crying2:

Specializes in Med/surg. ED. Palliative. Geront.

If you're not sure if you want to be a nurse or not, then you shouldnt go into it.

Dont waste years studying for something that you may not want to do.

If you're not 100% absolutely positive you want to do nursing, then don't go for it - you'll be doing yourself and your patients a disservice.

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Specializes in Operating Room Nursing.

There is much more to nursing than poo and infections, but it is a reality of our job. I work in the OR, most of the time I don't get a code brown but occassionally...well we have to clean it up. It's just a part of nursing you can't avoid. I don't know any nurses who enjoy cleaning poo, I would be a little worried if I met a nurse who thrived on cleaning poo.

Perhaps you might want to consider looking into other specialty areas of nursing, to see if anything suits you. It's probably a good thing that you have seen the ugly side of nursing before you commit to becoming one.

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I too will be starting my pre-nursing this fall. I also have gone back & forth in my head. "I'm too old", "It's 4 years" , "Am I crazy for doing this", "Is this really what I want". However, I know this IS what I want. I've always wanted to work with diabetics. My family is loaded with them & I've watched so many die young, mostly due to refusal to follow DR. advice. Anyway to make a long story short, I'm aiming toward a dialysis company near my home. They've already taken me on a tour. If I get hired they will reimburse me for a big chunk of my tuition. They also go to 2 diabetic camps every summer & they do missions all over the world! I have never been more excited about a company in my life. I can't wait till I'm done with nursing school to get started. It's what I want. I also like the fact that I had been looking into travel nursing & I can do that with this company or on my own with another travel company. It's my choice & I love that.

Dialysis may not be what you are looking for, but I agree with NurseKitten, we will have lots of choices:yeah: I don't know of many jobs that you can make a difference in people's lives & have so many choices of how to do that. Don't give up before you try. Just start researching your choices before making any rash decisions. Nursing may not be for you, but how will you really know if you don't give it a chance? Just a thought. Good luck with whatever you choose to do.;)

Thank You. So Much for this advice. Where are you from. I would LOVE to work for a company such as the one your talking about. Being a Diabetic Rducator would be great for me cause I love fitness and Nutrition and who needs it more than Diabetics. I would like to start a fitness camp of my own cause I plan on getting certified as a Personal Trainer as well. And Travel Nursing is a dream of mine as well as Medical Missions. Thanks again for your kind advice!

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Oh my goodness...honey, listen to me:

It sounds like you work in a hellhole. Every hospital has them. It is not endemic of every job in nursing...far from it. Get your experience, and go to school. Get the tools you'll need to help change it - maybe not on that floor, but somewhere, somehow, within the system.

Does it suck some days? You betcha.

Do I go home in tears sometimes, utterly frustrated? You betcha.

Have I saved countless lives? Yup. Gonna go do it again, tonight.

Have I comforted and educated thousands upon thousands of patients and their families, teaching them how to be well and helping them accept things that aren't going to change? Yup. Gonna go it again, tonight.

Sana: I don't think ANY of us love cleaning up poop and dealing with MRSA and other infectious processes! I know I sure don't, yet I know without a doubt that I am doing what I was meant for in this life.

To dismiss the OP's question in the broader sense based upon a very small section of what the overall scope of care encompasses is not any of us a favor: it discourages her and we don't end up with another potentially valuable member of the profession.

I don't like cleaning up poop, but I love getting them clean, comfortable and smelling nice. I love the results it gets me: lower BP's, fewer arrythmias, less fighting of the vents, SIGNIFICANTLY less agitation in my elderly, and better outcomes all over. Well rested patients = healing patients, and it's part of what we do to help them become well rested.

Angela, consider transferring to a new unit. It sounds like you are getting burned out on your current one. That doesn't mean you're a bad person, bad caregiver, or don't have the potential to be a nurse. It just means you need a new change of scenery. Most nurses work in many different areas throughout their career. It's the beauty of a nursing license: You are portable, and YOU HAVE CHOICES!

Start taking your pre-reqs. Even if you decide against nursing, you will have that many more credits towards a degree of some sort - and a degree is just about manadatory for anything, these days. No education is ever wasted.

Good luck, and let us know if we can help in any way. :)

I quick replied to your message thanking you earlier after snapping at Sana2007 but didn't add your message to it. I just want to make sure you know Im Thanking you Nurse Kitten. Thanks!

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Go to school. Get your RN degree. Do not let some negative surroundings drown your dream! You DON'T HAVE TO CLEAN UP URINE/FECES ALL DAY! Becoming a RN opens MANY doors in your career! Any thing from being in a doctors office to working at Johns Hopkins! As far as pay, with any job you have to work your way up the ladder! Go for it!

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Just remember before you get to make the choices you have to make it through nursing school. Many of the first clinical placements will "weed" out those who aren't in it for thr correct reasons.

Poop, you will find it everywhere in a hospital setting. L&D, Mums poop when they push and you get to clean it up. Babies in the nursery poop, and you clean it up. Dialysis patients can lose bowel control and yes there are aides but still there is poop.

MRSA is all over the hospital and out there in the community as well.

Working in the community is a whole other cans of worms.

Again Poop Isn't my main concer, My kids Poop, My Dog Poops and yes I clean it up. It's not that serious. But Working with Nurses who *****, Moan and complain about everything is BS to me. I even hear horrible comments about patients and jokes made about family members. I have seen discusting behavior I think That is a big deal I can handle the Poop and not every floor is incont. of Stool as much as ours is. Thats one thing all of our unit agrees on and most Nurses are cussing about.

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Slow down and take a deep breath in and out Angela....it will get better. My wife are in the same boat as you and many others out there right now. We are both CNA's in LTC and have plenty of poo, pee and other stories to gross out most. Remember! you are choosing this profession because you feel the need to care for others...Period. No it's not always pretty. We have all been bothered by having to change and re-change the same person 3 or 4 times in an hour. You have to think about the "other" times and the "other" care you give. Asking someone how they are doing today, helping someone get their food tray ready, helping that person who had a stroke get dressed everyday...etc. We work on the bottom of the totem-pole and this is where we learn the basics of nursing, patient or resident care.

My wife and I are both 42 and we aren't so thrilled about the mess either, our children are grown and we've BTDT. I promise you it will get better with time. Just hang in there and take some time to smell the roses and not the poo! :D

(I know I'm going to pay dearly for that corny line....but that's life!)

Best of luck to you on whatever you choose to do!

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Hey there! I just graduated nursing school (and passed my boards this week...thank you Jesus) but i have been a patient care tech for 11 years. I have had wonderful days and really crappy days but the one thing I know is that everyday I have made a difference. I worked in a long term care facility years back and i was so overworked that I literally dreamt I was at work almost every night and because of how overworked I was, I got burned out, I quit and started waitressing for about a year....only to finally land a job in a CCU with lower patient:tech ratios and it was then that I fell in love with my job all over again. I cried my last day of teching and will never forget the last patient I served on my last day. My point in telling you this is that it sounds like there is some really negative socialization going on where you work and that the nurses there may too be overworked and it comes across to you as purely negative. NURSING is not like this everywhere, there are some places where it is but not all. As one of the other posters said, nursing gives you variety. You are essentially your own business. You can do travel nursing with short-term committment and big bucks or you can try different areas like Mother-Baby, oncology, medical surgical floors, hospice, home care nursing, doctors offices, public health (Public Health--most want at least a BSN) and after you work for a little while at the bedside go back and get your nurse practiioners license. Now I am in the state of Ga. and I got offered more than 20.99/hr base pay to start and I will start out on nights and make over 30.00/hr because of shift differentials. The securtity of being able to pay your bills is there.

Also, the happiness of a person's job does correlate with how well management promotes job satisfaction so part of the problem may be with the manager....who too....may be overworked and doing the best they can.

I say, if you feel this is your calling don't let the negative environment make you feel that nursing is not an option. If you truly care for people then you need to pursue this.

Now, as far as the poop and infectious stuff, know this. We are in a time when people are sicker than they have been in a long time AND because of technology they are living longer. We are also in a time where the baby boomer population is beginning to age and see health problems as well. MRSA is a serious epidemic and is not going to go away anytime soon so no matter what nursing you do, you will see MRSA. I have a philosophy about cleaning up poop/pee/pus/blood and its this....I am honored to do this for my patients because if it were me in that bed, I would be embarassed and horrified and I would want to feel that the person doing this for me feels honored, not repulsed. We are washers of feet and holders of hands. We see people when they are at their very worst and it is at that time that I commit to being at my very best. Just remember this is GOD's work we are doing and although some days will SUCK....its the days that we triumph that we must hold on to and know that nursing is a calling, not everyone can do it so those that are called up and commit to it must do it well.

You'll be fine, try another floor and don't let the negativity scare you off....theres alot of positive for you to discover and nothing feels better than graduating, passing boards and knowing that your future has been laid at your feet by God himself. DONT BECOME JADED, become a nurse!! My best to you!!

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The company I was speaking of is DaVita. Check it out on the computer. Their website is very informational. They have offices all over the country.

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Great thread. I appreciate you asking the question that I needed answers to. I enjoyed reading the perspective of both seasoned veterans and recent graduates.

I had a career in another healthcare field at one time and am currently a medical transcriptionist. Nursing appeals to me because, as a military wife, it is very portable. I am familiar with the bad side of caring for a patient. I am nervous that I will not find the patience that I will need to give the mean patient the same quality of care that I am capable of giving a good patient. As I move closer to middle age I seem to be getting grumpier.

In all honesty, and how many of you students can deny that you thought the same thing?, the pay scale for an RN is also very appealing. Even working part time as an RN would be of tremendous benefit to my large family and the low pay of the Army. I do not want to do this just for the pay though and am currently trying to decide if I have the desire to do this to fullfill the calling to be a nurse, or of my desire is truly more for the paycheck.

Job stability is also a tremendous appeal. MT jobs are being sent to foriegn countries almost every day. A nurse will not be replaced by someone in another country who is willing to work for less, and a nurse will never be replaced by a computer.

Are these good reasons to become a nurse though? I am still trying to sort that out. I have most of the prerequisites completed from when I went to college many years ago. I will be taking the rest in the upcoming school year.

I have been a stay-at-home mother for over 9 years now so you can imagine my anxiety at the thought of returning to the workforce in patient care. Will I have enough left to give my children at the end of the day?

So many questions and all of the are ones that I don't think I can answer until I am actually doing it.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.

I think you should go to nursing school, get your RN.

I was in the same shoes as you in my younger days and just didn't

know if that's what I wanted or not. Well, I didn't go. When I

turned 40ish, I didn't want any regrets, so I went. Looking back,

I wish I would have done it when I was younger. There is so much

in nursing that you can do. It's a very rewarding career in my opinion.

Just do it!

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Specializes in Case Mgmt, Anesthesia, ICU, ER, Dialysis.

Let me second the support for DaVita as a place to work. The bulk of my dialysis experience is with them...they're not a bad place. The money's not great, but it's liveable. You'll work your butt off, but you will learn tons.

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