Got No Job? Come be an RN !

[madwife2002]

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.

[Patsy M]

I think it's fair to say that there are really good compassionate nurses, there are clearly technically skilled nurses, there are nurses who are reliable, some not so much, some articulate and bright, and well, somebody had to graduate last in their class. There are very, very few with all those qualities. What is really nice is the variety of disciplines we can pursue in nursing. In every job I 've had, I have seen the same mix of people. If people are drawn to nursing for job security and a paycheck, so be it. If they work out, fine; if they don't they usually weed themselves out or the company weeds them out. Is it easy? I've never had an easy nursing job, but as someone said to me, if you love what you're doing it's really easier to go to work, I agree...I will never be a millionaire, and I would always take a couple extra hours sleep in the morning. But, I work and am grateful for having a job.

[Patsy M]

I'm not sure whom, if anyone, this is directed toward. I don't think I'd ever accuse the OP of "innocent" enthusiasm. I guess I'd have to agree that innocence doesn't last long. As the poster notes, you see a lot, and it ain't always pretty. But I do think that while enthusiam may wax and wane from shift to shift, it is entirely possible to maintain a general level of enthusiam over time. I'm not exactly a haggard veteran, so I may sing a different tune five years from now, but so far I've been finding that the more I understand people, the more I understand them. By that I mean that seeing under their skin (figuratively, usually) makes it easier to, if not forgive, at least suspend judgement. (And I'm not sure it's my place to forgive, anyway.)

I've had patients who were shackled to the bed and under guard who called me "sir" and thanked me for everything I did. I've had upstanding citizens I probably wouldn't want to be friends with away from the job. I watched a young man die after days and days on comfort care, and if all you knew was what you read in the paper, maybe you'd say he deserved it, but the family I had to console as his body fought for every breath of a life he'd discarded--they sure didn't deserve it, and however screwed up he had been, who knows what potential was lost.

I really don't know about higher callings. I go back and forth on that. But I think I'm on madwife's side in that I truly believe this work demands that you give of yourself and open yourself to people. Maybe in part because I work in neurosciences, I think it's important to find ways to connect with my patients. Truthfully, I am more emotionally invested in my cats than my patients, but while I'm on the job, my heart and mind are there with my patients. If I can find that commitment simply from a sense of duty to do my job well, fine. If I need to believe I'm doing God's work, so be it. But if I'd rather be golfing, I need to call off and go golfing, and if that's more than a rare moment of distraction, I need to find a different line of work. (Hypothetically. In reality, I detest golf.)

Kudos to you for being able to separate yourself from your patients...everyone needs to at some point...patients can be very needy!! You have very lucky cats!!

[peggynurse]

A comment about the nursing shortage....."i don't know why they just don't hire..."

i agree. It's not real easy to get a job. They don't call you back. You apply online..you never hear from them...what about nurses like myself who have been out of the hospital for years...there is no training for us who might consider going back. There are some great nurses out there....but the hiring process is pretty slow.

[crklynrose]

Dear Madwife - Now this is the nurse I've always looked up to when I was sick or family members were in the hospital for long periods.....THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU

[kenglandcnrn]

I have to agree, too many are in it for the money and it shows in their performance. They are the nurses you follow who leave their patient's and their rooms filthy. You walk in to a patient who still has breakfast on their face and gown and are lying in urine and often times stool that has obviously been there for some time. And they are the same ones who are never happy with their schedules.

After 18 years in a profession I felt was my calling, I am considering getting out of bedside nursing.

[jelptex]

It seems to me anybody and anybody can do nursing, doesnt matter if you are really interested or not, not important if you care about people or not, not relevent if you have a passion for nursing or not just come along we will train you and then you can look after our sick, eldery, 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 knowlege and can educate. I can make that person feel safe, I can make them laugh even when they dont 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 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.

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.

Can anyone tell me why (in this MISERABLE US economy) an experienced RN cannot apply for work as a CNA in order to feed themselve/family?

[PACNWNURSING]

Can anyone tell me why (in this MISERABLE US economy) an experienced RN cannot apply for work as a CNA in order to feed themselve/family?[/quote

I agree, hospitals rather you work as a waitress then utilize your many years of experience. I was an LPN, moved to Utah obtained my RN license and they would not allow me to get an LPN license because your not allowed to have a both an RN and LPN license so I could not apply to any LPN jobs.

[beauty_132]

My first semester we had 50 students. only 20 went on to next semester, because they realized how hard it is just to get through school... i think that this is a good example of weeding out the ones not commited.. if someone is willing to go through that much school i think they should get the benifit of the doubt that they are there because they want to be, not for the money....

On the flip side the reason i choose to be an RN is because of personal expierences i have had with nurses, on more then one occasion i have had ones that just make you miserable.... when i had my first and second child the times that should have been the happiest was made miserable because of the way i was treated.... I choose to do this because i belevie that no matter what you are being treated for the one person who has the biggest impact on your recovery is the nurse, and personally i would like to weed out those who have burnt out and are miserable.... or those who just dont give a crap and have no compassion. i can see your compassion but.......

As a student i dont beleive that the only problem is those who choose it for money.... there are those who came in for the right reasons and just couldnt hack it, but need the money......

[beauty_132]

sorry one more thing..... My cna prereq and my first semester was in a nursing home.... I hated it, i did not like seeing the way some pts were treated and i didnt like the thought of just being dumped there to die so to speak. but after a year and learning that at 23 i have a really pleasently good nack for working with the elderly, ii think i wat to specialize in hospice when origianlly i was interested in OB.. nothing ever stays the same and people are always changeing, things happen that make people detached and things happen that make a person care more.... and the problem does not only lie with new grads.... what about the burnouts?

like i said earlier i choose this profession for a selfless reason but i have other agendas as well, and feeding my kids is one of them..... for everyone who judges nurses who look uninterested how do you know that that is how they really are, i heard one of you say that they feel like they are in an acting role and can be who the patient needs you to be..... well how do you know that those who look uninterested arent acting as well as a defence mechanisim? maybe they care to much and dont want to bring how they are feeling to there family? or maybe they just dont want to burn out and instead stay detached so there judgement does not get cloudy? who knows because unless you walk in there shoes you do not know what that persons motives are or why they do it. you can only speculate which is exactly what you are doing, nursing judgement does not include being judgemental against nurses..... I have had alot of medical problems and from expierence as the pt i have noticed that those with the higher calling are the ones who burn out and give horrible pt care.......mainly because they dont leave work at work.... i dont care who you are, everybody has the right to choose which ever career they want for what ever reason they want.... and if they are taking care of there pts to the best of there ability then who is to judge them? and if you wanna be with others like you for the higher calling and the passion and your not worried about they paycheck go work at a free clinic for little to no pay, to help those who cant even afford quality medical care and prove yourselve.... until then stop being judgemental and trying to call people out until you have walked a day in there shoes and actually know what you are talking about.

[beauty_132]

as my instructor says,"worry about yourself and what you are doing not what others are doing, its your licenss and no one else can loose it except for you"

[dlatimer]

You are experiencing the school v. real world shock. I hope you can hang on your commitment to selfless ideals and still become employed. Know your limits and stay within them. Best of luck.

On a related note: Maybe some of the rot in the hospital/health care system is starting to come to the surface? Dr. Mark Midei Faces Suits Over Cardiac Stents - NYTimes.com

[RN1980]

funny, some of the best nurses i've ever been around will tell you they are in it for the money..or buying time for something else. i talking really sharp nurses that have helped save many a near dead pt. i guess some folks just have the knack wheather they are in it for the right reasons or not. go figure...