Got No Job? Come be an RN !

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. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

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.

Specializes in Gerontology, nursing education.

One thing that concerns me about this thread is---

Why is there a perception that passion and intellectual/technical competence are mutually exclusive? There seems to be this stereotype, often perpetuated by the popular media, that nursing is a job that doesn't requite much brainpower, just a lot of good intentions, and I think that stereotype does a huge disservice to our profession by devaluing it.

On the other hand, does it really do the profession any good to tout knowledge while disparaging altruism? I mean, most people don't go into any sort of helping profession only for the money---and if they did, there would certainly be many health related, technology based fields that would require far less interpersonal contact---and less contact with, ahem, bodily fluids than nursing.

I guess I just think life is too short to be stuck in a job that you dislike because you think the money is too good. Now, if your perspective is that the money is adequate compensation for your effort, all the power to you. And if you think your service to humanity, to God or the Universe or whatever is enough to provide your job satisfaction, again, that's great---it's awesome. I can't judge what makes someone else happy or gives someone else fulfillment in his/her life. I do know that I've worked in jobs that have paid very little and have reaped many rewards that have not been tangible---and I've worked in jobs that have paid well and absolutely sucked the spirit right out of my being. I know of someone who is a physician, well paid, highly respected---and miserable because he hates what he does. My DH, on the other hand, is a minister, paid very little but is probably one of the happiest and most self-actualized people I've ever met. It's all a matter of perspective.

Having said that, I do understand what the OP is saying by expressing frustration with the attitudes of non-nurses who are trying to paint this glorious picture of nursing as this amazing, well-paying, secure profession guaranteed to survive even in a recession. I get the idea that the OP is irritated, as am I, about this image presented that nursing is a job anyone can do (as long as they attend the school that's being advertised) and that a lot of people are led to develop unrealistic notions of the profession based on these slick advertising images or so-called pieces of "journalism" that tout six-figure entry level salaries and claim that nursing is "recession proof". Those people who invest their time and money in nursing school may end up being sorely disappointed when the reality of a poor job market and some of the day-to-day realities of nursing hit the fan.

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Specializes in A myriad of specialties.
well, the thing is, someone's got to replace all these folks that have been in 20+ years. they will not be working much longer. it makes me wonder, what were the standards 20+ years ago? i don't think it takes just "heart" you have to be an academic scholar, and i don't think its easy to find both traits in alot of people.

well, things were a bit more lax (than they are today)when i attended nursing school 25-26 years ago. we sure as heck didn't have to have a 3.5-4.0 grade point average. i had a b-c average and got in with no problem. we wrote essays describing the reasons for our desire to become nurses. we interviewed with the head of the nursing program; shortly thereafter, received the letter of acceptance.

my instructors didn't treat us like second-class citizens(i hear and read tales of second-class treatment in today's nursing schools). there is no reason at all for instructors to behave that way. they were all students at one time. too much emphasis is being placed on the gpa; nurses should not be textbook regurgitators.:devil:

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.

There appears to be a lot of reading between the lines of what I wrote in my blog and a lot of asumptions made.

I dont read anywhere where I wrote you don't need intellegence or I want to nurse alone without help?

I am writing about my passion I am writing that I dont want people in the profession who dont care about the patient who are only in it for a quick fix to unemployment. Remember it is only my opinion and that really doesnt count for a lot in the big world of nursing.

I dont find the money great when I think of all the qualifications I have, all the years it took to study we are definatly not compensated financially.

It is not just a job and I feel for people who feel that way, I find it a very rewarding profession, but it is hard work and it does wear you down. I do not eat the young of the profession I can assure you of that.

I feel very comfortable in my own shoes I have nothing to apologise for, but those of you who feel threatened by my writings maybe you should look to your own heart and search why you feel so annoyed at my scribing's and maybe you will actually find that the passion you felt in replying is because you actually do have passion for your profession!!!

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
You should perform your nursing skills without receiving a pay-check for them.....then, check your "passion" level for it!!! What a saint!

Please tell me where I said I nurse for free?

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Kudos, OP. I am soooo with you. Sick of seeing nursing as a "stepping" stone too for those who just want to "bide" their time--sometimes only ONE YEAR-- to get their NP because being a regular nurse just "isn't good enough."

In today's market,yes- being a regular "just isn't good enough"! One has to make oneself very marketable, and if the more titles you have after your name, helps that along, then fine.

With the outpouring of nurses (no mention of the nursing shortage here pls) then one's got to become equally competitive and rise above the pack. It's all a process. Now it's BSN that is being wanted, if that. Next it's going to be some higher degree in nursing. Why wait till that time?If you can get whatever else degree you can at this time, pls I'd suggest to anyone to shoot for it.

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It's not just RN's it's LPN's and MA's too. I agree, people think it's a fast easy buck from the outside, I do hope the schools weed these people out. However, on the flip side, I can see some displaced auto workers used to strong unions not being treated like pond scum. So who knows there certainly are pluses and minuses.

I went to school when nursing was considered a "calling" and you were interviewed and tested psychologically before being admitted to nursing school. Now they look at pre-req grades and test scores.

That is true about the test scores, but the level of difficulty in a LPN or RN program means that need good reading and math scores.

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There appears to be a lot of reading between the lines of what I wrote in my blog and a lot of asumptions made.

I am writing about my passion I am writing that I dont want people in the profession who dont care about the patient who are only in it for a quick fix to unemployment. Remember it is only my opinion and that really doesnt count for a lot in the big world of nursing.

How very egotistical! "You don't want," aye? Very high and mighty.I so very want to know your job description, truly I do.

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There appears to be a lot of reading between the lines of what I wrote in my blog and a lot of asumptions made.

I dont read anywhere where I wrote you don't need intellegence or I want to nurse alone without help?

I am writing about my passion I am writing that I dont want people in the profession who dont care about the patient who are only in it for a quick fix to unemployment. Remember it is only my opinion and that really doesnt count for a lot in the big world of nursing.

I dont find the money great when I think of all the qualifications I have, all the years it took to study we are definatly not compensated financially.

It is not just a job and I feel for people who feel that way, I find it a very rewarding profession, but it is hard work and it does wear you down. I do not eat the young of the profession I can assure you of that.

I feel very comfortable in my own shoes I have nothing to apologise for, but those of you who feel threatened by my writings maybe you should look to your own heart and search why you feel so annoyed at my scribing's and maybe you will actually find that the passion you felt in replying is because you actually do have passion for your profession!!!

I know exactly what you are talking about, I call it the "love" of nursing. When I read posts here and the first question is how much money can I make ....I think that is not what nursing is all about. It gives me a high when I have made a difference in a patient's life.

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:nurse:

Nursing is the hardest job in the world. You see people at their best and their worst.(Both patients and staff.)

Some things you see will break your heart. Some things you do will physically break you like lifting a patient without adequate help. You may be physically assualted by a patient, or sworn at with words you don't like.

But nurses are there to help.

I think everyone has their own burn out level. I reached mine a few times, but found myself back in the nursing field, partly because after 36 years, I really am trained for nothing else. In the past two years, I have faced a breast cancer diagnosis with chemo and radiation. The hospital I worked at chose not to give me any more time off after 6 months ( I did not want to have direct patient care during this time due to MRSA,VRE,etc.)

I now find out I have significant osteoarthrtis of both my knees and realize I will not be able to return to nursing.I am applying for disability.

I have had mixed feelings about not being able to practice my chosen profession any longer. Part of me doesn't miss nursing at all because the job just seems to get harder and harder.But there are sometimes I felt I have really made a difference in a patient's life. I do think nursing is really a calling.

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
How very egotistical! "You don't want," aye? Very high and mighty.I so very want to know your job description, truly I do.

LOL

Why do you want to read my job description? I am just an RN? Read any RN job description in the country it will all more or less say the same thing I believe.

What is wrong with actually coming out and saying 'What I want'?

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
How very egotistical! "You don't want," aye? Very high and mighty.I so very want to know your job description, truly I do.

PS if I was Egotistical I wouldn't have approved many of the posts on this 'blog' or 'thread' how ever you look at it because I have total control on who gets to have their say or not!

For the record blogs are moderated and I have approved all messages to date!

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I became a nurse because I liked science, I wanted a job where I did not just work in an office or a lab. Also, I liked working with people and I was told I would be a good nurse. I didn't really know much about nursing before I started school, but I figured I would give it a try. So many people have so many reasons. I love nursing and when I think about it, even though I did not know at the time what I wanted to be, if I went back to my decision to go to nursing school I would make it again. I would still choose to work in the ICU because I like all I get to do there and I would still be pursuing a masters (not because I think being a regular RN is not good enough) because I always wanted my masters and I don't think than more education ever hurt anyone.

While I do not think nurses have to be martyrs, I do think that a nurses do have caring and compationate personalities even if they say they are in it for the money because, if we didn't care, we would not be able to do half the things we do (because not everything we do is so glorious).

I don't even care if people say they are going into nursing for the money. The thing that bothers me most is then people do not realize how much nursing involves. I am not talking about the compasion and caring. I am talking about the knowledge and responsibility and continuing education that it involves. I just don't like the fact that some people thing that it is an easy to be a nurse. It can be stressful at times and physically exhausting (you are on your feet all day). You work hard for your money, it is not just handed to you. You are not there to just follow out doctors orders, you are also getting paid to think and make decisions using critical thinking.

Go into nursing for whatever reason you are going into nursing, but do realize it isn't easy money. If you like the job that is great.

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