I noticed this problem at the end of first year. I became a really negative person, hated life, thought everything was unfair, and I'm 100% sure it was because of my first year of nursing.
I did a complete 360 on my negativity the next year, and made many new friends and started my own business while in my second year of nursing. But, I only was able to do this because I started to focus on things outside of nursing. I still get straight As, but my heart is not in it.
Is it just me? Do I just not like nursing? Or does anybody else experience this?
But seriously, for my 2 cents, no. Not negative. Disillusioned, definitely. Maybe some jading around the edges.
When I think back to the first three years after school, long, long, loooong time ago, my classmates and I wanted to set the world of nursing on its head. We were going to set the world right. I have since noticed that the only thing that matters, career wise, is to make a difference, no matter how small, in someone else's life while using what I have learned over the past decades of nursing.
To tell the honest truth, I was in a negative place before nursing school. It was going through school that brought me out of it.
Oh, and that the world is gray. Definitely gray (no comments from you Far ).
Sometimes work is very hard.But in general, any negative .And free time I not think about the fate of the sick and the fate of the medicine, I dedicate time to child and husband.
Yes, the first year, I feel, is definitely making me more negative than I ever have been. Like many other new grads have said, this is not what I thought nursing would be, even with my clinical rotation experience in school. It takes a lot of effort to be positive in what I feel is such a negative environment (my unit). I frequently hear that other RN/CNAs hate floating to our floor. I feel burnt out already.
Almost 41 years as a nurse, and retiring at the end of the month....Nursing has hardened me for sure, not so much because of the work but the management and it is a totally thankless job these days with zero support from management, and the public sure doesn't seem to appreciate what we do. I am glad to be leaving a profession that in the early days I loved and now just tolerate...gone from young and naive to cynical and somewhat negative. I almost quit in my second year of school but my supports talked me out of it....I was smart and a good nurse....I am glad I stayed and have enjoyed most of the years and absolutely hated some of them. Follow your heart and talk to people who care about you. An almost retired RN
Negative? Not really. I was a pessimist with a carefully guarded hopeful center when I started nursing school. That hopeful center has been pressure cooked into a core of cynical realism with occasional sparkles of hope.
Many professions cause stress, especially in the first year. In nursing you do have to learn how to handle all types of situations. If you find you can not do this without becoming negative, maybe nursing is not for you! I am retired, but spent 38 years in the profession. Most of this in ICU and ER, plenty of stress there. But in the long run, many more positive returns than negative ones!
I will add, nurses are definitely facing an uphill battle with short staffing and basing performance reviews by patient satisfaction surveys. These surveys are answered by people who do not have a clue about what we are really all about, and only looking at their side. Like a patient at the ER c/o toothache for weeks, but think they need to be seen right away!! Wish there was a way to teach them the facts, but the only ones I can think of probably are not exactly ethical!!
I definitely had a more negative personality while working my first job out of school. Now in my second job, I'm much more positive, partly because I love what I do and partly because I'm so happy and thankful to not be at the first job!
ShaneTeam
201 Posts
But seriously, for my 2 cents, no. Not negative. Disillusioned, definitely. Maybe some jading around the edges.
When I think back to the first three years after school, long, long, loooong time ago, my classmates and I wanted to set the world of nursing on its head. We were going to set the world right. I have since noticed that the only thing that matters, career wise, is to make a difference, no matter how small, in someone else's life while using what I have learned over the past decades of nursing.
To tell the honest truth, I was in a negative place before nursing school. It was going through school that brought me out of it.
Oh, and that the world is gray. Definitely gray (no comments from you Far
).