Nursing & website is depressing!!!

[SeanyRN]

i've noticed a trend on this board. nurses on this board dont like being nurses and it is very sad and discouraging. everyday i check out this board to see what people are talking about. there are always threads about "quitting 4 months into nursing, why are they all leaving, what career would you have chosen if you werent a nurse, help new job and miserable already, anyone quit a job to go into nursing and then regretted making the decision, etc,etc,etc. i read these threads and it makes me very scared about the future of nursing. something has to be done!! i've been a nurse for 8 months. and im starting to feel the same way. when people say wow you have your bsn. i think to myself who cares, nurses get treated like crap. today i had to call about 8 different doctors, a dialysis nurse, case manager who had no clue what to do, and inform them on the care of the patient. this is why so many people leave nursing. i hate having to say "im going back to school next year to be a crna or maybe med school" depending on how i feel. why do we get treated soooo bad.

another thing im upset about. i wasnt suppose to work today. management begged me to come in on my b-day to work only a half day and another nurse would do 1p -7p. you guessed it at 1 pm there was no nurse to relieve me. i stayed until 7 pm on my b-day when i wasnt even suppose to come in. management all of a sudden couldnt be reached! i felt so used and disrepected. has this ever happen to anyone. oh yeah the nurse who was scheduled to finish the day was still on orientation and couldnt come in. what should i do about this situation?????

[clemmm78, RN]

You have to realize that forums like this are where people can go to get others to help them with problems or issues. It's like that with almost any type of forum.

I have a greyhound. I found a great greyhound site but if you read it without knowing about greys, you would think they are the highest maintenance of dogs. They're anything but. However, in that forum, people go to find out how to deal with problems that they do have from time to time.

Same thing in a parenting forum. People write to get answers to problems with their kids. It's the nature of the beast. People rarely shout from the rooftops about how happy they are - we just don't tend to do that. But, we will seek out others if we need help.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Check out Success Stories in Nursing to see how we have made a difference in other's lives.

[Katnip, RN]

Keep in ming that this board is a safe place for nurses to vent about problems unique to nursing. Most other people who are not in the business can't understand the problems, so where else would you go but to other nurses who've been there?

Yes, nursing is tough. So are many other industries, and people need to vent, to bounce ideas off one another. That doesn't mean all nurses have a bad day every time they go to work. We just don't always post about the majority of the time when work is just ordinary. That would be boring.

Sometimes it just takes a bit of job hopping to find just the right niche.

And I agree...don't answer the phone on your days off. Or get caller ID.

[oldiebutgoodie, RN]

This is my second career, and frankly, I wish I hadn't done it. I wish I had done X-ray school or med tech or something.

But it seems that a lot of the problems in nursing boil down to this:

1. Pt-nurse ratios

2. Schedules

3. Horizontal violence

At least nurse managers could directly address the schedule problem. For example, why do so many hospitals still have rotating shifts? People hate them, research shows that changing sleep patterns frequently is detrimental, and patient safety can be at stake. Yet so many hospitals still use rotating schedules.

And it is so easy to address weekend staffing by creating weekender positions that pay more. Yet these common-sense solutions don't seem to be implemented more. I would imagine they would be cost-effective, as well, due to reduced turnover/sick days.

I think that our national nursing organizations need to directly address the horizontal violence issue. I have never experienced such negativity, cattiness, "tattling", and disrespect as in nursing. Read the "First Year in Nursing" boards and see how new nurses are treated. No wonder there is a nursing shortage.

Somehow, we need to raise awareness of this problem, and nurse managers need to be trained to nip it in the bud, protect newer nurses, and foster positive environments.

Pt nurse ratios will have to be addressed on a state or national level by legislation.

Just some thoughts,

Oldiebutgoodie

[htrn]

l think one word we as nurses need to learn how to say, and say with conviction, is NO. It should be taught in nursing school and reenforced in the NCLEX and during orientation. If we do not take care of ourselves, we cannot take care of anyone else.

One thing I noticed from the OP was the very high turnover rate at the facility. That was one of the first questions I asked when I applied/interviewed for a job. I am very happy where I work for the most part. People stay at this hospital for over 40 years - many people stay for that long. People retire and come back to work casual. I have been there 5 years and am still considered one of the new kids.

[NurseCherlove]

this is the "honeymoon" syndrome.

LOL!! Too funny! (and sadly, too true).

[muffie, RN]

no is the most freeing word anyone can learn to use

[JBudd, MSN]

I've noticed a trend on this board. Nurses on this board dont like being nurses and it is very sad and discouraging.

Okay, here you go. I like nursing. I like my job 80-90% of the time. I've been at it 25 years. I am on my second employment with this hospital, going on 14 years this time, left the first time for family reasons. Went on stike once, helped make things a lot better. I am proud of my work, my coworkers, and the things I do. I grumble and mumble when we don't have enough staff, or be able to get patients out of the ER onto the floors or in the unit, but I do get paid time and a half when that happens to compensate for doing extra work. Through nursing I've gotten to work overseas, spend the summer at camp, learn several different specialties, and make a difference in people's lives. I have people I don't even recognise come up to me and thank me for something I've done for them or a family member, I don't remember the details but they do. My kids brag about me (well, I brag about them too ). When I go home, I've done what I could to make my part of the world a little bit better.

I come here to see what is going on with other nurses, and when I can, offer a word of sympathy. I get a lot of good laughs too, plenty of funny threads. This is a place to share, commiserate, laugh, rejoice, and connect. Not a lot of people outside of nursing can truly understand what we share here.:pumpiron:

[fiveofpeep]

thanks all of you for your reassuring words!

i am a nursing student and have also seen the negativity on allnurses.

i know that when it comes to communication think of relationships.

most of the time i only talk about my boyfriend to my girlfriends when i am really pissed off. i need their support. that does not neccessarily mean that there arent times where he makes me incredibly happy too.

it feels good to know that alot of you do enjoy your jobs. i could not imagine being anything else than a nurse when i grow up. helping people when they are scared, bringing new life into the world, or just doing the boring day-to-day stuff--i hope i will be able to see positivity in most things.

i definately dont want to go through all of that and experience a burnout so soon either.

good luck and i am so sorry you had to work on your birthday. that is very poor management.

[santhony44, MSN, RN, NP]

As others have said, this is a place to complain and vent.

Personally, I don't know anyone in any job or profession who does not have complaints at times, and that includes the self-employed.

Some threads on the board, too, like "what would you do if you weren't a nurse" as as much fun and fantasy as anything else.

None of us have our every talent, ability, and love expressed in nursing. We all have other aspects of our "selves" that need other outlets and some of these threads express those.

[nursemike, ASN, RN]

My experience has been that anything that's all fun, all the time, costs me money. But I love my stupid job.

Sometimes you have to read between the lines. For example, when my CN overheard my remark to myself when my card key wouldn't open the med room door for like the umpeenth time the other night, I simply pointed out to her that what I said could literally mean a puppy, and who in the world could be offended by a puppY?

Man, I hope they get that SOB fixed, soon.

[CseMgr1, ASN, RN]

Quite frankly, I don't know what I would do without this website.

As a previous poster stated, Allnurses provides a safe haven for us in a world in which very few seem to care about or understand the unique problems of nurses. The only person who ever really cared or understood the problems I was having both personally and professionally was my Mother, and she passed away in 1998. We used to talk every day, and I found myself still reaching for the phone to call her for weeks after she died. My sister does not want to hear about my problems, for she has too many of her own. My best friend who I have known since the age of 12 moved out of state years ago after her husband was transferred. And my son, who is tied up with a demanding job, three kids and a bratty wife, is too busy to talk to me. So, here I am. And I can't think of a better place in which to come to every day.