New & Ready To Move On To Bigger & Better

RNroseshea · Dec 12, 2007

I agree with you as I am going through similar circumstances. However, the patients are not usually the problem in my case, it is the staff..or lack of staff.

Hope things get better for you if you decide to stick it out.

Jo Dirt · Dec 12, 2007

I understand EXACTLY how you feel.

We are in a sucker's profession. Maybe we should get into administration?

kanny · Dec 12, 2007

Hi, i agree with both of you. the circumstances i have seen are really bad in nursing...i hate tooo. specially the staff, management.....politics....oh god. Patients are okay....may be i havent worked that much since i got my lic this year in march. even i am thinking to go for a better field as am i also working in computers....i think thats better for me. i totally agree with NEWrad07 ..."I hate that I cannot sleep the night before I have to work because I dread going to work the next day. I hate smelling like !@#$ when I go home. "

ebear, BSN, RN · Dec 12, 2007

NewGrad,

I am so sorry that you are unhappy. The first couple of yrs. are always so hard! Stick it out a little while, if you can. You don't have to take "disrespect" by ANYONE! Professionally, but firmly, make that known. That will get a little easier to do as you go.

Do you think it would help to transfer to another dept? You TAKE your lunch--all of it. Otherwise, fill out an adjustment form for lunch compensation. Your managers are responsible for arranging your coverage during this time; of course, there are times of extenuating circumstances, but this should not be an everyday occurrence.

Hang tough!

ebear

ernursewendy · Dec 13, 2007

I have been a nurse for about 15 years. I have not loved everyminute of it. However I do love it. I have learned to handle this stuff with humor. I will tell patients while I am being there consierge(?) I don't know if i spelled that correctly That they will have to fill in for me at my nursing job. Usually they laugh and understand. The MDs on the other hand I tell them that if they want to be called DR then I am to be refered to as Nurse Marean. I call them by their first names and inform them that if they want it done they need to write it. I don't do verbal orders when they are standing on the same floor as me. Once we get this out of the way we have an understanding . Since I became my own advocate I have enjoyed my job much more. I also always take my full lunch and if I don't you can bet I get paid for it.

ybmad · Dec 13, 2007

I hate this job. It is so hard to think of my job as a "career" when I get paid the same as a waitress & get treated like one too. I am disrespected on a daily basis by patients, their families, and especially the doctors. I am ordered around by doctors like I am a damn slave. Even with the most seasoned nurses, all integrity goes out the window when a doctor comes to the unit. I HATE that I have 15 minute lunches (that's usually all I have time for), yet I automatically get 1/2 hour cut out of my paycheck. I hate that my unit gets praised for it's "Top 10% in customer service" rating, yet the hospital gives bonuses to all the administrators and not the nurses who earned the honor in the first place. I hate that I am treated like a waitress by my patients. I hate hate hate that I wasted.. yes WASTED... 4 years of my life to become something that really could have taken me less than 2. I hate that I cannot sleep the night before I have to work because I dread going to work the next day. I hate smelling like poop when I go home.

I am a new grad and feeling the same way that you do. I spent 5 and 1/2 years to get my BSN, just graduated this past May, and I to am feeling that it is wasted time. I am reduced to wiping behind and giving water and other drinks, at least waitresses do not go home smelling like poop and that would have taken a lot less time and stress to obtain than this. It feels as if there is no respect for you as a person let alone as a professional on behalf of the doctors, patients, and families that you deal with not even going to go there about my fellow nurses with the so called veteran status, you all know what time it is when it comes to old and new nurse. In school we are made to do so many science and math classes as well as every other type of class and yet no one really respects the time and effort that you have invested. Right now I am on a Med/Surg floor grinning and bearing everything that goes along with that, everyone that is a nurse should no what I mean, until I can get at least 6 months to one year of experience so that I can do something else with my degree and all my hard work besides being a servant that is not respected or even valued. Yes, my smile is so pasted on every day!

Again no wonder there is a nursing shortage, now that I am on the inside looking out I can really see why. I am just praying to make it at least 6 months before enough is enough for me as well.

EmmaG, RN · Dec 13, 2007

For those new grads who feel this way, I'm curious what your expectations were throughout school and upon graduation.

Curious1alwys, BSN, RN · Dec 13, 2007

For those new grads who feel this way, I'm curious what your expectations were throughout school and upon graduation.

You know, I think most of us saw these conditions to some extent during school and just tried to ignore them so we could just finish and get that degree. Some of us maybe thought it would be different when we were actually practicing...some of us didn't fully realize how crap it all was until we actually graduated and started working as RN's. It may have been a stupid decision to stay in school, pursuing this degree in spite, but for me personally, every time I tried to quit there was someone there talking me out of it. "It will be different when you are on your own and can do your own thing" the nurses would tell me. But then of course some would ask you why in the world you chose nursing, lol. My friends would say "You just need to find your niche" etc, etc. My husband would say "but you've come this far".... It seemed a better idea to finish school and see than quit and never know.

Sometimes I do regret pursuing this degree. I really do. Because now if I want to do something else, nobody gets it. I just get that confused stare. lol. But, most of the time I am still glad I finished, because I do have the degree, I do have options, and who knows, maybe there IS a place for me in this field. Maybe that is some of the other newbies problems as well...they haven't found their "niche".

One thing I WILL NOT do is lock myself into this profession by getting a $2600 mortgage or something. I will live below my means to make sure that I can take a pay cut if I have to. I feel so bad for those that are locked into this career out of necessity AND hate it. I am one of the luckier ones.

Does that answer your question?? :lol2:

MrsCannibal · Dec 13, 2007

I'm sorry that you are having such a tough time; have you thought about finding a nursing job that doesn't include bedside care? There are other nursing jobs besides working in a hospital, maybe you need to get away from the hospital setting!

marie-francoise · Dec 13, 2007

I'm a nursing student in an ADN program it's dawning on me - actually, has dawned on me - that BEDSIDE nursing in the past ten years has really seemed to gone downhill. The way the health care system - particularly the hospital system - has changed and is now run seems to be in large part to blame (i.e., excessive focus on $$$$).

I think the other aspect to the bedside nursing problem is that direct patient care just is not innately for everyone. After experiencing clinicals, I'm doubting that it's for me, alas!

In the old days, women didn't have much of a career choice - teaching or nursing (or that other, oldest of "professions"....), even if these jobs did not match their personality and they didn't like working directly with people, esp the hands-on care required in bedside nursing.

The attitude of the old days was, "Women are all heart and naturally gravitate towards tending, nurturing roles, so must be either teachers or nurses."

Now, that is not true - women come in all varieties & some would prefer, say, an analyst's desk job. And now that we have many more career options, those women who actually don't like direct patient care or teaching kids can choose other career options, and.... they are choosing those other options.

To compound it, nursing itself has gotten a lot more complex and now requires a very large knowledge base and skill set. So, we learn a heck of a lot in nursing school, and yet the bedside nurse still seems to be viewed as a "lowly" technician, rather someone who really does have a substantial amount of knowledge and skills. The bedside nurse isn't given the respect that her education and daily application of that education would warrant.

I admire the bedside nurse. It must take a huge store of stamina and time management to be one. And the more I dread bedside nursing, the more I admire those who do it!!

Even as a student, though, I'm becoming increasingly skeptical of the working conditions of bedside nursing (which I'd have to do as an ADN RN). My skepticism has resulted from:

--What I've learned through talking to (ex-) nurses

--Looking around me during clinical

--Looking through the papers and seeing all the nursing job ads (hmmm... now why doesn't anyone want these jobs?)

--Seeing that we now have to import nurses to do bedside nursing

--Hearing so many consistent stories - so many - about insane patient loads and silly amounts of documentation ('cause ya never know about that court case a coupla years from now...!) and stress & burnout

--Going to different blog sites (not just this one - various nursing-related blogs tell similar tales of high case loads, lack of respect, and worry about patient safety)

--Hearing about the nursing shortage (it's NOT just a shortage of instructors - sometimes I think that reason is emphasized as an excuse to avoid talking about the real reason: i.e., fewer and fewer people are willing to work at or stay at the bedside)

--Hearing about the cattiness that seems to pervade many workplaces. Maybe we need more menfolk in the profession to neutralize some of the tensions that occur in a mostly-female work place. (Note: I'm female & a feminist, so I don't say this in a self-derogatory way.)

Plus, all this added to the fact that I fear that direct patient care + dealing with the general public in a service-related way is just not for me. It's not for a lot of women.

I got all A's this semester, but this cannot change the fact that direct patient care may not fit my personality. (Maybe it will grow on me - I will give it some more time.)

I do wonder how the US will improve the conditions of the bedside nurse. I think the feds will have to step in one day - I really do. Because hospital admin won't, if their focus is $$. They will continue to say "we only have a ___% nurse vacancy here at this hospital", which will be artificially low due to institutional high case-loads.

And the way hospitals are run is rooted in the current health care reimbursement system. So, why I think the govt will have to ultimately address the nursing shortage through reforming health care in general.

Pay raises must happen as well, since the system effectively rewards nurses who go on to get degrees that will take them away from the bedside. Maybe bedside nurse pay should be closer to that of nurses in higher-up positions.

ItsyBitsySpider, BSN, RN · Dec 13, 2007

I think it's safe to assume that most nursing students expect, at the least, to be respected and valued. I'm sure they also expect to work in a supportive, SAFE environment. I also don't think these are unreasonable expectations. Unfortunately, they are, in alot of hospitals, unrealistic.

This is the reason why I have chosen never to do bedside nursing and I don't regret it. Unfortunately the amount of nurses taking the crap far outweigh the ones who don't and as long as that is the case, we are fighting a losing battle at the bedside. As far as being respected, you absolutely have to demand respect. In the face of an ego-inflated MD, know-it-all nurse, demanding family member, or whomever else feels that they can treat you like crap. You may catch slack for standing up for yourself but once you've established that you won't be licking anyones shoe soles you'll be ok.

Please don't regret going into nursing. There are too many options for you to feel you have wasted all that time. Please do just a little research, there are many jobs out there that you will enjoy, feel valued, and get paid well to do. I have found mine and it didn't take long at all. Good luck.