Getting into Nursing Just to Get a JOB!!

[allison_lpn, LPN]

I'm a nurse and I've ALWAYS wanted to be a nurse. I decided to be a nurse because I am a nurturer by nature. I absolutely love taking care of people and doing my part to make them feel better when they are feeling their worst.

I am having a problem with the fact that so many people are deciding to get into the medical/health field, just so that they can get a paycheck. This job is one that requires not only talent, but especially heart. It will be interesting to see where the industry goes over the next few years as people get into nursing that don't belong there. I see all the time the media pushing that people go into healthcare, because it is uncrushable. Because no matter what is going on with the economy we still need clinicians. But how qualified are they? And what will happen when the economy bounces back and those people go back to their high paying executive jobs.

I know this is going to have an impact on the ability to get into nursing school as well...because you have that many more people applying, therefore making the waitlists even longer.

:twocents:This is just something I've been thinking about lately!! I'm interested to find out what other people think!!

[EastBayCAStudent]

This is an interesting problem, but I would hope anyone who doesn't "belong" in nursing would figure it out pretty quickly and move on.

I'm personally working toward my RN after getting laid off from another (miserable cubicle) job. I don't see it as getting into a field I don't belong in, I think the cards dealt me a crappy hand in my first job out of college, and I was presented the opportunity to rethink my career path. I think nursing will be a better fit for my personality and I hope the people I work with (when I get my first RN job) can see it that way and not as you described.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

we need nurses. having a steady job is as good a reason as any to become a nurse. if the person lacks compassion and isn't able to deal with bodily fluids and whining, i don't think they'll stay long in the profession! (or they'll quickly rack up their two years of experience and go on to graduate school . . . sigh!) but with 60 years of nursing experience between us, my husband and i have both been able to overcome our aversion to the above and be effective rns, for all that neither of us experienced a "calling" to the profession.

[allison_lpn, LPN]

Ruby- you probably know more than anyone how this problem already exisits...and I know from nursing school how quickly the bad seeds are weeded out.

[loveshospital]

we need nurses. having a steady job is as good a reason as any to become a nurse. if the person lacks compassion and isn't able to deal with bodily fluids and whining, i don't think they'll stay long in the profession! (or they'll quickly rack up their two years of experience and go on to graduate school . . . sigh!) but with 60 years of nursing experience between us, my husband and i have both been able to overcome our aversion to the above and be effective rns, for all that neither of us experienced a "calling" to the profession.

only nuns have the so called calling because they work for free.with that said i believe that people who pick a job to only provide means for themselves will end up miserable bored,unsatisfied,indifferent to their career.

[allison_lpn, LPN]

NewCareer4Me- I know there are plenty of cases like yours, where people are looking to a new career and I haven't always been in the medical field I worked for the airline for years before persuing nursing. I just "hope" people are getting into it for the right reasons. Good Luck with your schooling!! and Congratulations to you for choosing...in my opinion...the most rewarding career out there!!

[EastBayCAStudent]

NewCareer4Me- I know there are plenty of cases like yours, where people are looking to a new career and I haven't always been in the medical field I worked for the airline for years before persuing nursing. I just "hope" people are getting into it for the right reasons. Good Luck with your schooling!! and Congratulations to you for choosing...in my opinion...the most rewarding career out there!!

Thanks alleigh. I am pursuing my CNA right now, so that I can make some money while I'm going to school. Hopefully that will help me get my bearings in the healthcare field and help me feel confident in my choice.

I can say from experience that it's not easy to choose your career without having experienced the reality of it. It's true for business, and any other job. Nursing is a career heavily affected by the economy and I have read that in hard economic times, nurses who have moved to other careers tend to go back to nursing. When the economy picks up, some nurses find other things to do. So the market saturation (in some areas) is due to more than just new nurses.

Hopefully we will see the job market improve soon. I think it should slowly improve. The bottom line is that more and more people need medical care. The hospitals can try to shuffle nurses around a million different ways but they will still need more nurses.

[whoknows56]

There's no law that says you have to love the idea of doing a certain career to get a degree in a certain area to get that career. If a person gets into a nursing school and graduates with a nursing degree to just have a decent job, then more power to those people. They are the ones that have to live with their career choice, not you. So just worry about yourself and watch your own back. The last thing I would want is a co-worker saying that I'm not right for a certain job even though I do the job and are competent at it. I know a lot of people that went into nursing to just get a decent job. Many of these people have biology degrees and other degrees (sociology, psych, etc). They all do their job just as well as the nurses who worshiped every day of the thought of being a nurse.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

I know two nurses.

The first got into nursing because she really wanted to help people; because she loves to "nurture" people. She is as dumb as a box of rocks and it's a wonder she made it through nursing school, let alone passed the NCLEX. If you need your bed made or if you haven't had a BM for a few days, why she'll take care of it. If you don't feel well and want your Mommy, why she's the nurse for you. Protocols were made for this nurse, because they take all the thinking out of nursing.

The second one is as smart as a whip, and got into nursing so she could provide for her family. She was tired of struggling financially and wanted a stable and secure job. This nurse could have been a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon, but she chose nursing because it gives you the bigger bang for the buck in regards to length and expense of education and earning power. She is the one the charge nurse always assigns the most complex patients to, because the charge nurse knows she can handle it. This nurse knows the difference between when a protocol applies and when it doesn't, and is quick to act in the best interest of the patient.

Hm, guess which nurse I want taking care of me and mine?

[David13, MSN, RN]

I posted a similar reply in another thread a little while ago. The most important thing, in my opinion, is not that the nurse "has a calling" for the nursing profession, but that he or she is competent and responsible. Although passion for a job can be a motivating factor, it does not necessarily make for a good nurse. One can be passionate and incompetent at the same time.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

Another thought I'd like to share is that perhaps this economy will be a good thing for nursing. Perhaps it will pull people into the profession that may not have considered it before and who will make damn good nurses. We all have something to bring to the table; different strengths and weaknesses that will make for a well rounded profession. Increasing the diversity of these strengths and weaknesses could have a positive impact on nursing as we know it.

[linzz]

I did not go into nursing out of a sense of calling, duty or anything like that, although I am a caring person. My reasons were that I am interested in medicine and loved science all through school and that I got tired of making very little money.

I think as mentioned above, good nurses come in many different forms.