nursing?rewarding or ....

[brandy119]

Hi can anyone who is a RN please tell me why when i tell people I am going to school to be a nurse, well at least few people they tell me horror stories about being a nurse, like how disgusting it is, how they think it is all about changing bed pans, and just working around sick people. I have heard from other people it is rewarding and feels good to help people who are sick. Just wanted some advise from someone, I am looking for a career, I am single w/2 children and want to make a decent living but also enjoy what I am doing.

Thanks for any advise in advance

: :imbar

[tvccrn, ASN, RN]

brandy, I apologize for the way you have been treated and hope that you don't let it scare you away. I have been a nurse for almost 10 years now and it's the only job I have ever had that I love. I find myself growing weary of the politics, the back-stabbing and the discontentment, but not of the patients or of the nursing.

I don't know if you have ever heard the phrase, "Nurses eat their young"

I can never figure out how seasoned nurses can tell the new ones how horrible their jobs are, treat the students like dirt, act as if they themselves were never new. We beat out chests about the nursing shortage and want to know what our administration is doing to bring on new nurses, yet when the new ones show up we bare out teeth and go for the jugular.

[redshiloh]

Just remember that in any profession there are bad apples. Nursing is one of the few jobs you can have where you can make both a living and a difference in someone's life.

But yeah, it is a tough way of life i.e. strange schedules, hectic floors, gallon sized bladders b/c you don't have time to go to the bathroom...

[SusanJean]

Hi can anyone who is a RN please tell me why when i tell people I am going to school to be a nurse, well at least few people they tell me horror stories about being a nurse, like how disgusting it is, how they think it is all about changing bed pans, and just working around sick people. I have heard from other people it is rewarding and feels good to help people who are sick. Just wanted some advise from someone, I am looking for a career, I am single w/2 children and want to make a decent living but also enjoy what I am doing.

Thanks for any advise in advance

: :imbar

IMO, if you have kids, you know what caring for the sick is. And, cleaning up the oocky stuff :chuckle . Granted, it is from those you love, but "oocky by any other name...."

I would suggest, tho, if you have doubts, volunteer at a "free" clinic for just a shift or two and see how nurses positively impact the lives of those they work w/.

SJ

[loriangel14, RN]

Sounds like the people you are talking to aren't nurses themselves. I am a single parent/student too and I have encountered people that react the same way. Having a sister that is an RN helps with the doubts, and my reasons for wanting to be a nurse are the same. I want to make a decent living and help people in need. Hang in there and don't listen to the naysayers.