How many of you actually enjoy your job?!

Wave Watcher · Feb 8, 2015

As a school nurse I now love my job. As a previous floor nurse....hated my job. Although, I had wonderful co-workers!

Ruby Vee, BSN · Feb 8, 2015

Hi All!
I am a brand new nursing student, and I was instructed to join allnurses.com for a class. Now, as you can expect I have this picture of my head when it comes to nursing of helping others, having awesome co workers, and just having an awesome job in general! I understand that it is not always sunshine and rainbows, but I hope the good will outweigh the bad that could possibly happen. This is why I decided to become a nurse, but coming onto this website scares me! All of the threads I see are titled "I hate my job", "I should not be a nurse", "My co workers hate me", and things like that. It seems to me like these are all new nurses just starting out and still trying to find there way in the nursing world, but all of these posts are very intimidating to someone who will be in their shoes in just a few short years. So, I guess this brings me back to my original question. How many of you actually enjoy your job?

Happy people don't usually waste their time coming to the internet to vent. It's only when they have an unhappy day or situation that they'll come here and vent. Unhappy people seem to spend an awful lot of time here describing in great detail their unhappiness.

I tend to be a happy person -- most of the time, I like my job. Some days I love it, some days I hate it. I love and respect my boss. Most of my coworkers are fabulous. Those who aren't, I can get along with. I don't have to take them home with me. I've been at the bedside since 1978 and will retire from the bedside in this ICU.

mclennan, BSN, RN · Feb 8, 2015

Nope. Hate it. Have hated it for years. Nursing is poopy and dumb.

DawnJ · Feb 8, 2015

I love my job, but have to say that none of the nurses I graduated with last year say they do. I think they either got into the specialty they wanted and found it lacking, or didn't and are slogging away at something they COULD get hired in as a newbie. I feel I'm making a difference for people, and I laugh every single day to boot.

PA_RN87, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN · Feb 8, 2015

You'll always find people who love their job, and who hate their job. That's a guarantee. Everybody has a "dream job" in mind, something they could definitely spend their lives doing and be genuinely happy. Mine? Paleontologist. You know what really isn't practical for a stable, financially comfortable life in Pennsylvania? Paleontologist. Not everybody can make a living doing what they genuinely love, so they do something they're either good at, or can tolerate, to earn the ability to spend time doing something they really love doing.

So what's my point? Yeah, you read a lot (a LOT) of posts on here written by people who "want to quit," or "really hate their job." But maybe they're just working in a field that gives them the opportunity to be happy elsewhere. It is, after all, work, and not play. So, what's the line separating those who just "hate their job" and those who really should find another field or choose another profession? That's a pretty big gray area which isn't really easy to define, but here's my take on it:

Does your hatred of your job inhibit you from performing your duties and responsibilities to the required standards? In other words, are you actually struggling to succeed and provide competent care, or do you just hate doing it? If your disdain for the job is combined with an inability to do that job, you probably should consider another field. HOWEVER, you know the great thing about nursing? There are sooo many different specialties, that maybe you just haven't found your true niche. Bedside nursing is NOT for everyone, but that doesn't mean you wouldn't thrive as a school nurse, or public health nurse, or research. Speaking for myself, I'm a bedside nurse on a medical oncology unit. Staffing is never sufficient, and we're constantly forced to take on more responsibility with fewer resources and sub-standard pay. I can say I do hate my job. What gets me through each day? Knowing that this phase in my career is only a stepping stone to what I truly want to do, family nurse practitioner. There's also something to be said for the rare occasions where you really do make a difference in someone's life, making the hard days a little more tolerable.

So yeah, you read a lot of "hate my job" posts, but chances are, it's more complicated than that. Read those posts with a grain of salt, and consider that perhaps they really are just venting after a particularly bad day at work, before running off to go jet-skiing in the Caribbean (or whatever people do for fun these days).

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · Feb 8, 2015

Just the nature of the internet. People are much more likely to complain than praise. For the most part I would bet that most of us [not all] still enjoy our jobs, or at least still enjoy nursing to some degree.

anon456, BSN, RN · Feb 8, 2015

Most of the time I love it. I loved it more before certain changes were made to the unit by higher-up's and we lost some good people over that change. I still love the nature of the work, even if I don't love some of the other things that seem to distract from that work on a regular basis.

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · Feb 8, 2015

Nope. Hate it. Have hated it for years. Nursing is poopy and dumb.

Yipes! If this is true, why are you still in nursing? There has to be something that's better if you really have hated it for years.

ps I hope you're kidding since "poopy and dumb" sound like something my toddler nephew would say.

Nurse.Gina · Feb 8, 2015

Love my job! I couldn't imagine being anywhere but acute care though. I guess everyone finds their thing.

CamillusRN, BSN · Feb 8, 2015

In my opinion, comparing the number of complaining posts on AllNurses to the number of "learning" posts ("what's the best way to . . . ," "what classes/certifications . . .," "how can I learn more about . . .") will help you get a good idea of how many people love their work as opposed to not. My rationale: people who hate their jobs don't ask advice on how to do it better.

Best of luck to you, and I hope you find fulfillment in one of the most noble and selfless professions I can think of.

1beautifulmess · Feb 8, 2015

Nursing is often a thankless job. It's definitely not the job that you choose for the rewards. Some areas of nursing are better than others but that's also based on the nurse's personality. The great thing about nursing is that there are so many areas-traditional and non-traditional- to choose from that finding your niche could solve most nurse's problems. There was something I loved about every area of nursing at some point before I moved on. I found out that I prefer Rehab nursing more than any other because it's the most cohesive to me when factoring in other disciplines (PT, OT, Psych, Med). I work in Mental Health now in a residential rehab program that's the mental side of rehab. I love this part too. I've found that I was most happiest when I worked with a really great team of people and most miserable when I worked with trouble makers. You can't always choose who you work with though but having clear cut job duties means on those not so great days, I can come in do my assignment and go home.

registerednutrn, BSN, RN · Feb 8, 2015

Depends on the day. I have some days where I absolutely love what I do and then there are days when I finally get done for the shift that I swear I will never go back. I go home go to the bathroom and sit down and eat. Then I go to bed and the next morning I realize it was because I was just hungry and tired. All in all there are parts of nursing that are wonderful such as when you see a patient that has been very ill get to go home and parts that are not so great such as grouchy docs or when a code doesn't end well. Honestly more every nurse would love their job if we didn't have to deal with employers allways trying to run shifts short staffed and there were not the politics to be played (I hate the politics most of all).