Have you read "Nursing Against the Odds"?

[ohcomeon]

If so, what are your opinions on the book? Is it a pretty acurate portrayal of nursing? I am still a student and while it is eye-opening for me, it doesn't make me want to be a nurse any less. Just wondering what others think about the book.

[drmorton2b]

I have read all of Suzzane Gordon's books. I wasn't really surprised. Nursing has a high burn out rate.

Nursing education is lacking compared to other professions that require residencies before being set lose on your own.

With any profession Nursing is something that requires one to think and research before they go through the process of becoming a nurse. It took me 5 years to decide and a 3 year waiting list to end in Fall 2009. I can't wait I am counting down the days. It also will require life changes on my part. Quiting my job and moving back in with my parents.

In my opinion Unions are still strongly needed in Nursing due to the low pay and do more with less and less attitudes of a lot of these facilities.

Also the lack of public understanding of what Nurse's really do.

[Ginger's Person]

I hope I have the strength to be an idealist and not a Pollyanna or a money grubber once I start working!

A gave this book to a med student friend of mine, who's reading the first section on medical hubris. He's really enjoying it, and I hope it will influence his practice. This book is really scary to read before you start nursing school, but it's also really energizing to know that there's so much we can do to change the system. I totally agree with you, drmorton2b, and with all of these second degree BSN programs popping up, nurses in the coming years are going to have more education than ever before. More years of college may not make their psychomotor skills any better, but I think it could raise nurses expectations for how MD's, administrators, and patients treat nurses, and raise their demands for better on-the-job training programs.

I hope that's what it will be like, although maybe everyone will just be too tired after their 12 hour shifts

[Koyaanisqatsi-RN]

Nursing does not hold the patent on job stress.

THANK YOU.

I myself am just an RN student but my sister has been an RN for years now and she says her absolute biggest pet peeve is not the doctors, not the patients, and not the patient's families. It's other nurses who are convinced the world revolves around them and they are literally the only ones in the world with a very stressful job, and how NO ONE could ever understand the plight.

Ridiculous, and undermines nursing as a profession because we can be seen as whiners, when EVERYONE has it tough.

Also the lack of public understanding of what Nurse's really do.

This is partly nurses' fault also though, I think.

We get offended when someone says nursing is just butt-wiping and bed bathing, yet we'll gripe and say that's all we did some days. We'll insist that nursing is an evidence based practice yet allow garbage like 'disturbed energy field' into NANDA. It's a more common problem than just strict public perception.