Hospital nurses - is it really that bad?

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I am going to be writing a paper for a communications class I am taking and have decided to focus on hospital nursing..after reading so many posts on here about the downside of hospital nursing and my own opinion ..I began to wonder - "Is hospital nursing really that bad or are our expectation too high?" I would like feedback from nurse who currently work in the hospital setting..preferably those with over a years experience ONLY because new Grads, obviously, have a tendency to feel overwhelmed anyway..My opinion is..hospital nursing has changed tremendously in the past decade and, for me, not in a good way. I know work is work but I do think there needs to be a certain level of satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment in ANY job we perform. We are exchanging time in our life we cannot get back for it..I have worked as an RN for over 20 yrs - mostly in the hospital setting until 2010...Though there are parts of the hospital I miss, I have to be honest...I don't miss the 12 hour shifts which end up being 13-14, getting up early, coming home to get straight to bed so I can get up early again, I don't miss the 6-7 patient load, emptying potty chairs, cleaning up vomit, the repetitive paperwork or going from being so-so busy you can't eat or use the bathroom for hours to sitting around with nothing to do as the hours drag on. I can't say I would never go back into a hospital setting but for now, right now..no.

But for those of you who are working in the hospital setting - has it gotten as bad as I think it has/was or was it just time for a change for me? Do you think working PRN or part-time makes it easier or worse than FT? I just don't recall so much unhappiness and dissatisfaction in the profession even 10 years ago..nor so many unhappy new grads -aside from the job market sucking...thanks in advance for input.

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Specializes in Home Health.

Honestly, I have only worked in the hospital. I work a med surg unit where we regularly have 5-6 patients each. I work 12 hour days that sometimes turn into 13, 14, 15 hrs. I go home in enough time to go to bed so I can do it again the next day. I often cannot sit or pee for hours. HOWEVER, I LOVE it! I love how busy I am. I love the things I do. I really do like my job. I cannot imagine working 5 days a week or "pushing paper".

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, Peds, LDRP.

I worked as an LPN for a couple of years doing peds private duty while I went back to school for my RN. I loved my job at the time and got a lot of satisfaction from it. When I got my RN, it had been drilled into my head that I needed to work in a hospital go get "real" nursing experience and to be marketable as a nurse bc I might lose all my skills working in the private duty homecare setting. Ive been working med/surg for the past few years and have hated just about every moment of it haha. I worked part time when my son was an infant for close to a year, but had to go full time when they raised the already expensive benefits to cost even more for part timers. We couldnt afford it anymore. When I was part time, it was tolerable, but still not enjoyable. "OK" was as good as it got for me.

I have always wanted to work in L&D and I finally landed a job on an LDRP unit, which couldnt have come at a better time because I was very burned out in med/surg and was about to leave the hospital bc I had almost given up on getting into OB. Now that Im where I want to be I feel inspired to grow and learn as much as I can. I just applied to an RN to BSN program and I eventually would like to get my MSN, more than likely in Midwifery. It took a change to get me out of the funk I was in an excited about nursing again. I had no desire to go back to school at all until I got to change specialties...now Im excited and inspired again :)

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Specializes in icu, recovery room.

I have been a nurse since 1975. I worked med/surg for a couple of years. Then, I switched to ICU and I am still there. I am still working 72 hours a pay. I love it. Sure, I rarely leave work on time, I frequently do not get a lunch break, and I spent too much time with unnecessary, frustruating tasks that put me farther behind than I already am. But, I could not do or be anything else. I am proud to be a nurse. Currently, I am in graduate school. I don't know why I am in school at my age. I never want to stop learning - at work and outside of work. Why am I nurse? Not for the money, the hours, the clothes, or the exercise. I am a nurse for the smiles. If I can get one smile from one of my patients. I go home tired, smelly, and with a sense of accomplishment.

One thing that I feel strongly about is the fact that the nursing school experience does NOT adequently prepare you for your career as a nurse.

For anyone in nursing school, good luck. It is the toughest job that you will ever love.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

Good questions.

Overall, I think that nurses feel more pressure these days than they did 10 years ago. I don't recall the constant pressure from administration to push for the 'hospitality' mindset 10 years ago. Our managers get nice bonuses if our Press Ganey scores are high. The staff don't receive bonuses...we might get a pizza party or something.

I don't remember having NMs or patient relations representatives cow-towing to some of the ridiculous demands that pts make nowadays. Maybe I was just very naive back in the day, but the pts that I cared for were really sick and didn't make stupid demands like 800 thread count sheets, or Earl Grey tea every morning, every afternoon and one more time before going to sleep.

I feel that we have always had too much paperwork. I think that instead of streamlining our charting, we have even MORE flowsheets to fill out, more boxes to check, more checklists to complete...ad nauseum.

There is now more pressure to do more with less. Less equipment (because it is missing, broken or out for repair), less staff and less time. We are expected to complete all of our duties and responsibilities within our shift or run the risk of reprimand if we must stay late to finish up paperwork/charting.

Nurses aren't given the proper recognition for doing their jobs well. I don't expect a parade every time I go above and beyond to help out my peers, but I do want a 'thank you' from my boss every once in a while. I feel that the money and resources that go into "Nurses Week" are a waste. The luncheons, lectures, mini-socials, etc are held in the middle of the day. We rarely have the time to pee during our shift, much less attend a luncheon. However, I DO hear members of management rave about the wonderful spread of food and the pretty little individualized cakes they had while they were listening to the guest speaker lecture about how we should value our nurses more.

I see much more resentment these days than I did 10 years ago. We are given extra duties (e.g., more paperwork, more patients, higher acuity pts) without extra compensation. In our society, that is generally not acceptable. If we go to a restaurant and order a side salad, we have to PAY for that extra side. Hell, if you even want extra dressing, you are expected to pay $0.75 for it! There seems to be a paradox in the congruity of compensation in society as a whole and in regards to our workplace expectations.

While I have rolled with the punches in our ever changing profession, I still have hope that we will see positive changes that actually DO streamline our work. I would like to see nursing move away from focusing primarily on 'hospitality' and more focus on having time to spend with our patients. I do understand the need for hospitality, because pts want to feel that they are taken care of; this leads to more business for the hospital and the creation of more revenue. I get it. But it is simply ridiculous when a nurse is busy running a code on Pt Y down the hall and Pt W calls Patient Relations because they STILL haven't gotten their Ginger Ale-and the nurse gets called into the NM's office the next day for a 'chat'. It isn't right.

With all of that being said, there are positives to our profession. The core reason I go to work every day is because I know I am making a difference in someone's life. When I get rid of all the static and focus on my patient...I am happy.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

So if you're out of hospital nursing what are you doing now?

I hate when nurses say I'm so busy I can't take a break, I can't eat, I can't pee, I can't get out on time 12hrs becomes 14+, I'm stressed and frustrated; but I LOVE my job!

Is that denial or what! Come on, when you obviously are overworked, overstressed, and not allowed the basic civilities and legal breaks, lunch, pee, go home on time; don't time me you LOVE it!

Be honest at least with yourself! It is not decent or fair or human to be worked like a dog, and not even have time to take a break, eat, pee and get out on time.

Why do nurses admit the truth in one breath (that hospital nursing sucks) and then in the next proclaim how they LOVE it and couldn't do anything else.

Am I the only one that's not a martyr around here.

Ok there are things that you may like or even LOVE about your job, but not admitting the poor working conditions that so many of us are forced to work under is wrong! If you don't admit the truth and only make excuses, it will never get any better.

We need time to think, time to breathe, time to pee, time to eat and time to take a break, and we need to get out at a reasonable hour. Please don't minimize these violations, yes violations, of our humanity, when we are expected to work in an inhuman environment where we are supposed to totally give up any needs of our own! That is insanity!

We need and deserve and must demand better working conditions. Taking a break, eating lunch without being rushed and being able to pee are basic human needs and why do nurses feel we have to give those up at work. Why does management and the hospital culture feel it is ok to overwork us to the point where we aren't allowed such basic needs.

They don't go without breaks, meals, the bathroom and if they work overtime it's by their choice and they are getting well compensated, whereas we are expected to drop everything and stay 16 hrs if they are short! That too is inhuman.

Please don't go on telling us how you love being abused and how wonderful it is to work under abusive conditions that are simply inhuman and actually illegal. We have a legal right to have a totally uninterrupted lunch away from the nursing station, otherwise we must be paid for that lunch. While that is commonly violated, on occasion the govt steps in and makes the hospitals provide back pay for not letting their staff take a real lunch break!

Look around, it seems only nursing and the PCA's are worked to death, but you never see the PCA's refusing to take a break or miss lunch; only the nurses. Everyone else in the hospital has time to take all their breaks and a leisurely lunch but the nurses.

Why is that! How come everyone else has the right and ability to get lunch, but we're too important to leave the floor. We're too important to actually be able to take a break; that is ridiculous.

I really believe we need national staffing ratios, like CA has and that includes swing nursing staff to relieve us so we can take a real break and relax and not just come back to more chaos! I don't understand why so few nurses admit this and fight for our basic rights as a human being!

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"I hate when nurses say I'm so busy I can't take a break, I can't eat, I can't pee, I can't get out on time 12hrs becomes 14+, I'm stressed and frustrated; but I LOVE my job!"

I think what this poster may have meant is that he or she loves the patient care aspect of the job. That's how I feel. - And if that part of it is what he or she spends the majority of the time on, then in balance ... it may not be denial.

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bugsy2902: I left the hospital and am going into home health. I will tell you after I left the hospital in 2010 I did, very briefly, go back into it, another facility about an hour from where I live. It has a great reputation - which I feel it deserves - however, after one month of constant classroom orientation - from fire safety, to meeting with the CEO about the business aspect of the hospital, to luncheons with the managers to inservice after inservice on hospitality, communication, how to dress, answer the phone, safety with equipment in departments I would never been in then to find out the first 2 weeks of month two were going to be..you guessed it - MORE classroom re: computer, computer charting, problem solving if the computer broke down, and on and on, then more infection control. I realized then, this facility at least, is in educational overkill. I don't know a nurse or nursing assistant anywhere that needs 2 8 hour classes on infection control and exposure. I don't need to know the financial overlay of the hospital in detail, the basics are enough..I was hired to provide care and I understand times are tough and we are expected to work with less, more efficiently etc. but how is it cost effective to provide breakfast and lunch (and I mean NICE ones) almost everyday for these classes? It's a nice touch yes, but I would rather the money go to keeping equipment up and running or stop having employees pay for parking (really don't like this one nor do I agree that patients or visitors should pay for parking). I understand there needs to be/should be an orientation for a new job - an overview of the facility then more in depth for the job the person is hired to do - but I do NOT understand orientation being a few days this week, 2 days the next etc. for 6 weeks with NONE of it being in the department a person is hired for. Evidently, this type of orientation is not new or unusual these days. Like you, I am no martyr. Unlike the others, I do not feel the same about nursing anymore..maybe it's burn out, maybe it's the changes I've experienced personally, maybe it's the changing of nursing and healthcare becoming a little too profit/business driven for me, maybe it's all of it..I don't know..but the responses thus far lend themselves to those being unhappy in the hospital setting (and with nursing in general) much less than I anticipated.

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Specializes in PCCN.
Hospital nurses - is it really that bad?

in one word- YES.

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I've been a nurse for about 2 years and there are definitely some problems in the system. I work in California (but I'm from PA so I've seen those ridiculous ratios) I have a pretty manageable ratio and my hospital does computer charting and all that good stuff. The computer charting should have been a way for us to be with our patients more, easier documentation yada yada, however I find it repetitive. Vital signs are recorded as a nursing intervention, cna paper, on the monitor, in the chart. ...Is that really necessary? Seems kinda a waste of time if you have to chart vitals q2, or q30 min depending on what is going on.

Breaks...yeah right. I get a 30 min. lunch and from basically 1:30 to 7:30 break time doesn't exist. They don't make it possible. AND if you go between those hours and try to get a break, you get behind whether it be with your admission or all these charts you need to chart on in the computer.

I'm kinda confused... because now the hospital has this thing where we have to AGREE that we got all of our breaks and lunches at work. It's a screen that comes up on the clock in/out machine... that's so nice. And if we say disagree, it's a BIG MESS... not as in you'll ever get the breaks you need, just lots of talking to.

I am stressed out with the "extras" in our job, not the patients. If it was patient-focused, this job would be fine because you'd have the time to deal with everything that you needed to deal with. But, now it seems we are focused on hospitality and charting...? How does taking time from the patient effect both of these measures? Seems redundant.

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Yes, it is.

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I would like to mentin that it's not just hospital nursing. Also LTC and skilled nursing (and probably sub-acutes as well, but I haven't worked at one). When census is down we can manage to get everything done generally with our breaks. At full census (which is where management likes to keep it), there is really no time for breaks.

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