It seems to me anybody and anybody can do nursing, doesn't matter if you are really interested or not, not important if you care about people or not, not relevant if you have a passion for nursing or not just come along we will train you and then you can look after our sick, elderly, frail, poor homeless, drug seekers.
Without passion, without caring, sometimes with little comprehension of what that poor sick person in the bed needs.
I am fed up with hearing about people seeing nursing as a quick route to money it is so much more and it offends me that nursing is used as a short cut to being employed. We should have stricter entry rules and by this I mean more screening to make sure the nurses coming into the profession actually want to be a nurse for the right reasons and employment not being one of them.
We all know nursing is a hard profession it takes from your soul sometimes but you know who has the passion because they ride the storms better than the nurses who dont have it.
I have had a passion for nursing most of my life and I am now struggling with some of the harsh realities-but give me a patient any patient and I come alive, I thrive. I forget why I am tired after all my years, I forget why I want a new job, I forget why the management make my life harder each day.
For me nursing is almost like acting I can be somebody else with a patient I can be who they need me to be for that person and their family, I have the ability to calm a tense situation, I can bring trust to the room, I can make that patient feel like they are the most special person in the hospital and that nothing is too much trouble for me. I have knowledge and can educate. I can make that person feel safe, I can make them laugh even when they don't want to, I can be their advocate, their confident, their friend, but also I can persuade them to take the shot, to take the medicine, to go for the test. I can hold their hand and I can be firm. I can predict their mood and can listen to their worries and woes. I can educate their families and friends and I can educate and train their future RN's.
It doesn't matter that outside that room chaos is happening, that 3 other pts need me as much if not more than the patient I am with. They at that moment are the most special important person in my working day.
In 20 years I have had this ability it has shone out of every bone in my body. I have smiled constantly even if my world is falling apart. I have the passion I can make somebodies life better, I know my 'stuff' and I care.
Good Luck, I have had a terrible time finding a job. I have extensive experience, graduated with a 3.9, and I have excellent references.
BTW, once you become a nurse, and are living in NYC on 65K, I think you will find it is a marginal salary.
If you are going into this solely for the $, be prepared to possibly be unhappy.
Twelve hour shifts(weekends,holidays,nights) which change days from week to week combined with poor staffing and sick patients who can be very demanding and do not care that you have other patients may quickly change your mind. If you have not done so, follow a nurse for several shifts and then decide.
Nursing is no glamorous profession and you will earn and work harder than ever for each and every penny you make.
Also know that 65K is before taxes and benefits are taken out.
Do you want someone taking care of your loved ones solely for the money? I have a strong belief that you will be very disappointed. Please think carefully about this. Good Luck.
You are so right!!!!!!!! With the economy the way that it is now, so many people are seeking nursing careers just because of the money. I've always had a passion for the nursing field. I'm currently finishing up the last of my prerequisites and looking forward to becoming a nurse. I have friends as nurses and have been working around nurses for over six years. You must have the passion and patience to be able to handle this field. The ones who are not passionate about this field and is only concerned about the money will possibly bring down the quality of care for the patients, and/or will not last long as a nurse. I see so many people entering the field for the wrong reasons and it makes me sick to my stomach!
Good Luck, I have had a terrible time finding a job. I have extensive experience, graduated with a 3.9, and I have excellent references.
BTW, once you become a nurse, and are living in NYC on 65K, I think you will find it is a marginal salary.
If you are going into this solely for the $, be prepared to possibly be unhappy.
Twelve hour shifts(weekends,holidays,nights) which change days from week to week combined with poor staffing and sick patients who can be very demanding and do not care that you have other patients may quickly change your mind. If you have not done so, follow a nurse for several shifts and then decide.
Nursing is no glamorous profession and you will earn and work harder than ever for each and every penny you make.
Also know that 65K is before taxes and benefits are taken out.
Do you want someone taking care of your loved ones solely for the money? I have a strong belief that you will be very disappointed. Please think carefully about this. Good Luck.
1. Places are still hiring new grads - it's just that there is competition for the positions. I'm sorry that you are falling behind the competition and not finding a job - you can always move to another state, or another country for that matter) that is not having these problems because the nursing field, although hit by the economy, hasn't been hit as nearly as bad as other fields.
2. Living in NYC at 65K to start is way better than the starting wages of a public school teacher, which is 44k (before taxes); or private school teacher , which is 31k (before taxes); or a copy editor, which is 28K (before taxes); or NYC Police Officer or Fire Fighter, which is around 40K (before taxes); NYC Corrections Officer, which is around 35K (before taxes). Also it would be keen to note that in order to be a NYC Police Officer, Fire Fighter or Corrections Officer - you need at least 60 college credits which is equal to about an Associates; for a copy editor or private school teacher, you need at least a BA; and for a public school teacher, you need at least one BA or BS, and one MS...but if you want to max your pay, you need 2 MS. So if you think 65K is a marginal salary - then you need to tell me when you are in the real world because that world that you are living in now is fantasy one. Seriously.
3. Any job in which a person works in shifts - people are going to work weekends, holidays, nights, overtime, etc. It's part of the territory. Nursing isn't the only job like this - many jobs are like this.
4. When I was a perm. sub at a school for 6 months (the teacher got put into a rubber room for slamming a door on a student's hand), I had to deal with over 120 students in an inner city Junior High School that had a major gang problem. I've seen the principal of the school mowed down by the student body during lunch because a fight broke out between the crips and bloods. I had to teach 8th graders that had tattoos and deal with 11 year olds that were dealing with subjects like should they bring knives with them to the park after school so that they could be safe while playing. I'm sure that I can deal with demanding patients.
5. The money and job security were not the only reasons that I wanted to be a nurse - they were major reasons, but not the only ones (I did underline that in my first post). I also want to get into nursing because I like working with people, I;m good with people, I like helping people, I'm great at science, I like to be kept on my toes and I empathize with people - I think Nursing is a good choice for me. But again, it's a second choice for me after putting almost 8 years of my life (including work in my BA and my MS - I'm 2 classes shy of getting my MS) working on becoming a teacher. And one of the main reason that it's a second choice for me, and not the first one, is because of the money and job security. Teaching doesn't bring in the bucks like Nursing and, unlike Nursing, Teaching isn't seen as a skill but rather as some sort of thing that anybody could do if they could just handle the kids (which is a pile of hogwash).
6. I know Nursing is hard but don't sell your career short by emphasizing caring while selling short the skill portion of Nursing. I know caring is a lot of what Nursing is but it's not the most important bring that Nurses bring to the table, if it was anyone that cares could be a Nurse. It's a particular skill set that you learn, that you are tested for at the end of your learning experience (NYCLEX) and that you use when you get hired. I think most people that do go into Nursing care to a point but they know that there are other reasons to go into Nursing - don't buy into the commercial.
If I wanted to go into a job solely on caring, I would have become a social worker....28K (before taxes), 4 years of college.
"It doesnt matter that outside that room chaos is happening, that 3 other pts need me as much if not more than the patient I am with. They at that moment are the most special important person in my working day"
I totally agree with your post especially the part I quoted. I am a new grad and providing good care takes time. How do you do squeeze in advocating for the patient, giving TLC, listening to concerns from patient, getting all charting done, meds passed, orders faxed, entered in computer and still have time for a break... oh and actually get off work on time? Would you mind reading my post under new nurses and help put some things into perspective for me?
Specializes in ICU, MS, Radiology, Long term care.
If there is true competition for the nursing jobs then the best at caring will get those jobs, right? I continue to see jobs posted for a year. Surely lots of nurses have applied. I honestly think it is a ploy to deceive the regulating agencies that the health care organizations are doing everything possible to achieve adequate staff/nurse ratios. It's just the 'nurse with the right credentials' hasn't been found. In the mean time, labor costs are trimmed. Someone needs to let the public who waits two hours to see a provider in an ER know.
Seems like a valid analysis to me dlatimer. I'm not so sure that there is actually a nursing shortage. It seems to me like an administrative/budget issue and not being able or willing to hire nurses. I graduated with a LPN class of 36 in May and only 7 of us have found jobs. Granted we are LPN, not yet RN. However with the elderly population on the increase, I would think there are plenty out there for LPN's. We live in a large metropolitan area.
Specializes in ICU-Step Down, Cardiac/CHF, Telemetry, L&D.
To tell you the truth, I could care less about why someone decides to become a nurse. I can't judge anyone's motives. I enjoy the fact that so many nurses are very passionate about their jobs. I believe that everyone who puts up with all of the abuse that the nursing field gives out must care a little. Nurses who do not show a lot of passion aren't the problem. The problem is management. They could care less about those patients, they only see numbers. They try their best to cut nurses and increase patient loads. Where is their compassion? Have you ever thought that those nurses who do not seem compassionate may just be some of those people who don't show their feelings? Maybe they truly used to care and have become scorned from the abuse from patients, families, and management. I personally left the hospital setting and went to home health because of these reasons. I really feel that the hospital is not for me. Do you honestly think that the hospital feels any compassion about their nurses especially when it comes to budget? If it comes down to them making a choice between a nurse and her 3 kids or saving 10.00, guess which one will win!! Basically, I think that the lack of compassionate nurses is a direct result of abuse!
Specializes in ICU, MS, Radiology, Long term care.
Merc, I have noted this myself. In the 1970's the hospitals 'wanted to do the right thing', but was often without the funds. In stepped the for-profit and not-for-profit companies who were able to buy these hospital systems cheap since most had a thin margin of profit or were in debt. Since the corporations only wanted to make money they quickly changed to 12 hour shifts, only 2 nurses to cover a 24 hour period and overtime was reduced. Staff was cut to bare bones and as abused, overworked nurses left new ones were recruited. A hospital near me will pay your tuition at their nursing school if you will contract for 2 years after graduation. The message seems to be: 'Don't worry about burn out, we'll just make new ones'. Besides old ones make more money and may understand what is really happening and want to change it. The regulators don't care about experience, only number of licenses. The doctors won't complain as long as they make money. As avarice grew in administration it trickled down to bedside nurses. I guess trickle down economics (or morals) does work. Has anyone else noted this?
You should not write things that make you sound like a fool. You choose nursing to pick on when while nursing only touches less than fifty percent of American people, politicians touch 99 percent of the population (1% is made up of politicians and family.) You wanna talk about someone who takes a profession just for kickbacks and money, its your local representative.
Specializes in ICU, MS, Radiology, Long term care.
If you're addressing me, then I agree that politicians are viewed as corrupt and rightly so. To quote from this article by Dean Baker: [re: the economy: ] ... If this disaster was preventable and we know how to get out of it, why didn't our leaders try to stop it before it happened? Why don't they take the steps necessary now to get the economy moving again?
The answer to both these questions is simple; the politicians work for someone else.
I was referring to the health care system of this country which may be just as corrupt. This is the 'trickle-down' of moral decay and greed.
Specializes in ICU, MS, Radiology, Long term care.
This article in the NYT today highlights the deadly problems with manufacturers of medical devices getting FDA approval for devices that could be dangerous because of the compatibility of connections. It points out nurses who connected feeding tubes to IVs. Would increasing education keep this from happening? I can only speak for myself, but I would never do something like that. It is too obvious. Is this just another symptom of corruption in the health care system?
Spode
72 Posts
Good Luck, I have had a terrible time finding a job. I have extensive experience, graduated with a 3.9, and I have excellent references.
BTW, once you become a nurse, and are living in NYC on 65K, I think you will find it is a marginal salary.
If you are going into this solely for the $, be prepared to possibly be unhappy.
Twelve hour shifts(weekends,holidays,nights) which change days from week to week combined with poor staffing and sick patients who can be very demanding and do not care that you have other patients may quickly change your mind. If you have not done so, follow a nurse for several shifts and then decide.
Nursing is no glamorous profession and you will earn and work harder than ever for each and every penny you make.
Also know that 65K is before taxes and benefits are taken out.
Do you want someone taking care of your loved ones solely for the money? I have a strong belief that you will be very disappointed. Please think carefully about this. Good Luck.