I feel like they should change the title of this site to "reasons why my job sucks"

Red35 · Jan 20, 2013

To the OP:

I think you are taking things to personally, I'm a student and I love to lurk at ALL the topics...please ***** and complain and rant and rave. It helps me understand what nurses go through.

I think a lot of students believe when they are nurses, the light from above will follow them and everyone will bow down. If you believe this, well I have some ocean front property to sell you ( In AZ). :bored:

If you think this is bad please log into to a police forum, or a fireman forum-

If people couldn't complain and vent....well I wouldn't want to meet the nurse, police officer, fireman who can't vent to anyone.

To DoeRn...I'm sorry about your work situation-there are good people in the world and I'm hoping you see them more often.

.

BrandonLPN, LPN · Jan 20, 2013

Why am I responsible to guide and inspire anyone? Find your own path. You're an adult, not a child.

And if a bunch of strangers complaining about their jobs on the Internet is enough to discourage you from being a nurse, well, maybe that says more about you than it does about us....

1hotnurse08 · Jan 20, 2013

My brother always tells me to this day "Nobody owes you anything". He is 28 with an MSN in anesthesiology. Although he had to endure hearing my words about the ups n DOWNS of the medical field that did not get in the way of his #1 goal. My mom complained about her job (non-nursing) every night but she did it because she had children whom depended on her. I'm sure if a plant worker , auto mechanic , teacher, or any other profession has a website they would probably complain Sometimes too!! Everyday is not going to be roses. I like nursing, but it has changed. I'm an LPN and I'm very proud of my title. I commend people who do further their education. I can just imagine having IV medications to administer along with pills. I only administered pills and my job was hectic on many occasions!! And it is true about the families constantly asking for things, writing down your name n everything you do on a notepad waiting for you to mess up, constantly in a patient's room and won't let them rest but then turn right around n ask can you please call the doctor cause " the patient" is having trouble sleeping. I would want someone to give me the truth and not a fairytale. There are many other threads on here you can relate to! This is just a SN site. I like to read everything and this site is just one of many. Everybody is going to have different viewpoints. You can love a job but that doesn't mean you have to love every aspect of your job! I enjoy this site. Please keep the posts coming!!

CapeCodMermaid, RN · Jan 20, 2013

1.If you don't like what's posted here, don't read it.2. I am responsible for my own practice not for telling you how wonderful the profession is.3. In real life I am responsible for a facility with 154 patients and several hundred employees not all of whom are stellar so I need a place to vent since I can't tell them to their faces that they are stupid and how did they ever graduate from school.4. If you let the opinions of a bunch of total strangers sway you in any way about your chosen profession, you truly have problems that go beyond not liking negativity about nursing.

SaoirseRN · Jan 20, 2013

was that directed toward me?

That was directed at Orion I believe, whose reply to that poster was quite shocking.

mariav412 · Jan 20, 2013

I love being a nurse, though in my 30 years of experience, I haven't always felt that way. When I reflect back on the times I thought of leaving our profession they were usually filled with workplace woes. A supervisor who didn't respect the great work that we were doing or an organization that treated the nurses like commodities instead of people with complex lives of which nursing is only a fraction of.

I wouldn't do anything differently at this point in time, but would be more selective of the work environment and organizational philosophy of where I work. The best times in nursing were always shared with fellow nurses who love people, their patients and each other.

Nursing is a tough profession, we're put in situations that are often full of uncertainty and anxious people (patients and physicians), but it doesn't have to be woeful if we can support one another and introduce humor whenever possible. It's a serious job, but keeping everything in perspective has helped me to get through the tough times and realize that I have something valuable to offer every patient, coworker and yes even the employers I've chosen to work with.

I think the key is to get involved in changing the circumstances that create poor work environments and that has to begin with us telling employers what is important to us.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Jan 20, 2013

Ok.....I know I'm late to the game....I am still feeling like I've been run over by a MACK truck.... :barf02: . Here it goes....

hershdawg Jan 19 0
People on here need to realize that when you complain on here (and for some that all those individuals do) it really dissuades us new grads from continuing into the profession. First and most obvious question, Does anyone actually like being a Nurse? I mean granted I don't think anyone loves all aspects of their job, but does it seem like a nightmare every day? Secondly, name the best part of your area and your biggest pet peeve.

Here's the deal......

The reality of nursing isn't pretty. Nursing is HARD....VERY hard. Humanity isn't always pretty. The reality of humanity is brutal, ugly, painful, shocking, frustrating, and so VERY,VERY, SAD. Nursing is exposure to the uglier side of life....an over exposure of the uglier side of life. We see people at their WORST possible moment (most of the time) when they are sick, frightened, hurt, sad....and that doesn't bring out the best of people. When people become frightened or ill....get a fatal to debilitating diagnosis they are ANGRY....they are down right P.O'd. They have to take it out on someone and that someone happens to be us. They can't be mad at "God" ....well because he/she's God...they can't be mad at the Dr. because well...he'/she's God as well. But who is the person who will care for them no matter what....the nurse.

What I think happened....I think that nursing school stopped preparing nurses to be nurses. I think nurses stopped WANTING to be nurses.....bedside nurses. I think people going into nursing aren't going into nursing for the right reasons. I don't think they are going into nursing because they have a "calling" to be nurses. They are going into nursing because "there is a nursing shortage", they have seen ER, HawthoRNe, General Hospital, or some other fictitious Hollywood, corporate driven, endeavor to make the public believe that nursing is rainbows and puppy dogs.....that we a "respected" by everyone.....that there are "other people" who come in and take over when things get ugly.

The truth is.... nothing is further than the truth. Nursing has always been the worker bee. we are the bedside grunts. The administration has ALWAYS expected miracle for less money...the MD's have always breezed it and breezed out leaving the carnage behind for the nurses to deal with what's left behind....to comfort, care, deal with, and repair. The lighthouse (light, candle) in the ocean braving the storms.....providing light to guide the ships SAFELY home.

The difference is......I was taught this from the very beginning. I was taught that I was IMPORTANT and VALUABLE as a nurse. I was the real one that comforted and healed....that really "saved" the patients lives for no one else was at the bedside to see, hear, feel and intervene in the middle of the night for you KNOW the MD isn't there....and if the nurse wasn't there to call the MD and carry out the orders...at 3AM these patients will die.

We entered the profession.....not as a stepping stone...but as a destination. A destination that we were proud of...we were all on a level playing field....we didn't waste valuable energy on who had what degree for we were all the same. You were promoted for being stellar at the BEDSIDE...admired by your peers...valued by the MD's...a leader to be followed, and admired.

Not someone who went to school to be a nurse but "HATES nursing" so you went back to school to get your degree to "get AWAY from patients" because you "HATE" nursing to become the boss and know how to tell bedside nurses to perform tasks properly using evidence based practice....when you can't possibly have any evidence for you have NEVER "PRACTICED" bedside nursing.

Now the question is......"in five years where do you see yourself".....if you answer is...."I plan to be faithfully fulling my dream of being the best bedside nurse I can be....being the BEST MOM for my 2 beautiful children and being the best long term employee for this facility" You "LACK ambition and focus"...really? I have ALWAYS said that I want my epitaph to read "LOVING MOM, Devoted wife, beloved daughter, adoring sister....oh and p.s. she was a nurse. Yet, I have been a devoted nurse....never far from the bedside for 34 (yes that's THIRTY FOUR) years. I am proud to be a nurse and I'm a GREAT nurse. I'm smart, skilled, experienced but if no use because in this reality.....I'm under educated, I don't have the "right" degrees....so my EXTENSIVE bedside experience is of little to no value. Sad really....sigh.

So I think that many complain because it's human nature to complain. Have something good to say...you might mention it at dinner.....have a bad day.....you complain on the cell phone on the way home and it's the first words out of your mouth when you hit the door. Today.....nurses aren't prepared for the outside world......nursing isn't what they expected. Not everybody wins.....and your are entitled to nothing. Hard work and due diligence is what will get you ahead. NOTHING is free.

As far as nurses "eating their young"....is not a nursing phenomenon. Every Frat/Sorority Rush, every police Rookie, every Fire/EMS Probie, every fishing Greenhorn....is place though and initiation/probation period that is expected to be difficult...to see if they've "got the stuff".......in nursing there is a HUGE learning curve post graduation...another thing they neglect to tell you....so when new grads aren't constantly being told how wonderful they are and they aren't prepared for the realities of bedside nursing....the shock it too much to bear....when we are happy we can be alone......when we are miserable we want company.

OP................I apologize if the complaints frighten you. Yes nursing is a very hard profession. One that your school is NOT preparing you for.....no one is purposely trying to discourage anyone.....but to know they reality so you can prepare can be viewed as a gift.

Praemonitus praemunitus or forewarned is forearmed .......knowledge is power. The nursing profession has been affected like all other professions during this....what I believe is a depression....except we have public aid.

The world is not rainbows and lollipops and neither is nursing....but there is NOTHING is the world I would rather be and nothing I would rather do. The bad is really bad.....and sometime over shines the good......but those inspirational moments can be found nowhere else.

itsnowornever, BSN, RN · Jan 20, 2013

Hey "more experienced nurses" I am a bit late to the game, but this new grad is very glad for the venting. It lets me learn how to deal with the situations I have yet to face without feeling lost, I have learned from your experiences. Please don't think all new grads complain. We don't.

Editorial Team / Admin · Jan 20, 2013

How unbelievably, offensively rude. And you know what? I don't care what you think. When you became a nurse, you took on the role as teacher and role model for all nurses following you. THAT is the REALITY. Whether you like it or not, YOU are our teacher. You better hope to hell we new grads don't have nurses like you who we are trying to look up to when YOU are the patient in the hospital. I love learning from experienced nurses. Guess what? You better care how you are teaching us. WE are the future experienced nurses taking care of your kids. I never disrespected experienced nurses til I became a part if this website and saw how much we new grads are despised by so many of you. Its like "how dare anyone after us become a nurse and try to learn." Yeah, the NERVE of us.

How unbelievably, offensively rude of you to believe that every single experienced nurse OWES you the benefit of their experience. This post comes across as incredibly entitled. It's a two-way street, and it seems like you expect everything to come to you. That will not win you any friends in the real world. It's not that us experienced nurses despise new grads; we despise the lack of work ethic and the entitlement attitude.

**DISCLAIMER** This does not apply to all new grads; just those that expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter.

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Jan 20, 2013

Ok.....I know I'm late to the game....I am still feeling like I've been run over by a MACK truck..... Here it goes....
Here's the deal......
The reality of nursing isn't pretty. Nursing is HARD....VERY hard. Humanity isn't always pretty. The reality of humanity is brutal, ugly, painful, shocking, frustrating, and so VERY,VERY, SAD. Nursing is exposure to the uglier side of life....an over exposure of the uglier side of life. We see people at their WORST possible moment (most of the time) when they are sick, frightened, hurt, sad....and that doesn't bring out the best of people. When people become frightened or ill....get a fatal to debilitating diagnosis they are ANGRY....they are down right P.O'd. They have to take it out on someone and that someone happens to be us. They can't be mad at "God" ....well because he/she's God...they can't be mad at the Dr. because well...he'/she's God as well. But who is the person who will care for them no matter what....the nurse.
What I think happened....I think that nursing school stopped preparing nurses to be nurses. I think nurses stopped WANTING to be nurses.....bedside nurses. I think people going into nursing aren't going into nursing for the right reasons. I don't think they are going into nursing because they have a "calling" to be nurses. They are going into nursing because "there is a nursing shortage", they have seen ER, HawthoRNe, General Hospital, or some other fictitious Hollywood, corporate driven, endeavor to make the public believe that nursing is rainbows and puppy dogs.....that we a "respected" by everyone.....that there are "other people" who come in and take over when things get ugly.
The truth is.... nothing is further than the truth. Nursing has always been the worker bee. we are the bedside grunts. The administration has ALWAYS expected miracle for less money...the MD's have always breezed it and breezed out leaving the carnage behind for the nurses to deal with what's left behind....to comfort, care, deal with, and repair. The lighthouse (light, candle) in the ocean braving the storms.....providing light to guide the ships SAFELY home.
The difference is......I was taught this from the very beginning. I was taught that I was IMPORTANT and VALUABLE as a nurse. I was the real one that comforted and healed....that really "saved" the patients lives for no one else was at the bedside to see, hear, feel and intervene in the middle of the night for you KNOW the MD isn't there....and if the nurse wasn't there to call the MD and carry out the orders...at 3AM these patients will die.
We entered the profession.....not as a stepping stone...but as a destination. A destination that we were proud of...we were all on a level playing field....we didn't waste valuable energy on who had what degree for we were all the same. You were promoted for being stellar at the BEDSIDE...admired by your peers...valued by the MD's...a leader to be followed, and admired.
Not someone who went to school to be a nurse but "HATES nursing" so you went back to school to get your degree to "get AWAY from patients" because you "HATE" nursing to become the boss and know how to tell bedside nurses to perform tasks properly using evidence based practice....when you can't possibly have any evidence for you have NEVER "PRACTICED" bedside nursing.
Now the question is......"in five years where do you see yourself".....if you answer is...."I plan to be faithfully fulling my dream of being the best bedside nurse I can be....being the BEST MOM for my 2 beautiful children and being the best long term employee for this facility" You "LACK ambition and focus"...really? I have ALWAYS said that I want my epitaph to read "LOVING MOM, Devoted wife, beloved daughter, adoring sister....oh and p.s. she was a nurse. Yet, I have been a devoted nurse....never far from the bedside for 34 (yes that's THIRTY FOUR) years. I am proud to be a nurse and I'm a GREAT nurse. I'm smart, skilled, experienced but if no use because in this reality.....I'm under educated, I don't have the "right" degrees....so my EXTENSIVE bedside experience is of little to no value. Sad really....sigh.
So I think that many complain because it's human nature to complain. Have something good to say...you might mention it at dinner.....have a bad day.....you complain on the cell phone on the way home and it's the first words out of your mouth when you hit the door. Today.....nurses aren't prepared for the outside world......nursing isn't what they expected. Not everybody wins.....and your are entitled to nothing. Hard work and due diligence is what will get you ahead. NOTHING is free.
As far as nurses "eating their young"....is not a nursing phenomenon. Every Frat/Sorority Rush, every police Rookie, every Fire/EMS Probie, every fishing Greenhorn....is place though and initiation/probation period that is expected to be difficult...to see if they've "got the stuff".......in nursing there is a HUGE learning curve post graduation...another thing they neglect to tell you....so when new grads aren't constantly being told how wonderful they are and they aren't prepared for the realities of bedside nursing....the shock it too much to bear....when we are happy we can be alone......when we are miserable we want company.
OP................I apologize if the complaints frighten you. Yes nursing is a very hard profession. One that your school is NOT preparing you for.....no one is purposely trying to discourage anyone.....but to know they reality so you can prepare can be viewed as a gift. Praemonitus praemunitus or forewarned is forearmed .......knowledge is power. The nursing profession has been affected like all other professions during this....what I believe is a depression....except we have public aid.
The world is not rainbows and lollipops and neither is nursing....but there is NOTHING is the world I would rather be and nothing I would rather do. The bad is really bad.....and sometime over shines the good......but those inspirational moments can be found nowhere else.
Now....as we debate this subject....we need to remember to be respectful of each other......allnursesWe can agree to disagree without being disagreeable.(Gerald Ford)

Esme...I want to hug and kiss you!!!! :)

Can we have this as a national statement of nurses???? :) A TRUE media statement???

As someone of the "younger" generation, I have been fortunately taught what Esme's statement entails, through my coursework as an LPN and in my BSN coursework. I know many who have not had that fortunate reality built on...it is up to the individual to go into LIFE not disillusioned from the harsh aspects of reality. I want more people entering the profession KNOW the reality so that they are going to be at the bedside for the long haul like I plan to...at least 10-15 years and/or MORE, God willing, because I plan for the bulk of my career to be a bedside nurse, I plan to give back and educate and empower my peers...if I go back for the post graduate work, it's to serve in a higher capacity to serve my peers and patients...I hope to be semi retired by then, but if I remain at the bed side it because I KNOW I CHOOSE to, eyes wide open the good, the bad, and the ugly of what my profession has to face...and because I WANT TO!

AN if anything gives a WEALTH if information, and I too, like the nurses who have been in the profession for GENERATIONS are TIRED of the persons who "invade" this profession and have IMHO twisted reasons for entering this profession. I have precepted a RN as an LPN who kept crowing about her "worth" and status and I don't understand because I'm "just an LPN." THAT self-righteousness about "her worth" is what's KILLING the profession-she was fired due to her insubordination of her "worth", she also could not find a job because she was a ADN and worked for a Magnet hospital who only hired BSNs, which left a bad taste in her mouth, thus her attitude for working at my facility.

This "me" mentality or esteem issues that are faced at the forefront...although there is an "attitude adjustment" nursing maintains when you WORK WITH your fellow nurses, no matter how happy, dopey, sneezy, sleepy, sad, grumpy, or doc-like they are... :)

That is our profession...respect the history, take the REALITY for what it's WORTH...(PRICELESS-my 2 cents :) )

And make the decision of being a nurse on your OWN terms...ultimately it is up to anyone to choose their fate as a nurse...Just make sure you do it EYES WIDE OPEN! :)

BrandonLPN, LPN · Jan 20, 2013

I agree with Esme that it seems like so many students are becoming nurses based on a pretty skewed image of what a nurse actually does. TV, of course, portrays nursing as some exciting "life and death" adventure, where doctors and nurses work side by side to save the life of the young, attractive patient. And when all is said and done, the nurses get to bask in the glory of having saved another life.

Yeah, right. Real nursing is so different from that, I don't know where to begin.

First of all, being a nurse is NOT really about saving lives in emergency situations. I said it before, I'll say it again, too many new grads confuse nurses with paramedics or something. Our job revolves around promoting health, easing suffering, and providing bedside care. Exciting "code" type stuff is just something we happen to participate in when the need arises. Even ER nurses spend most of their time triaging and treating decidedly UN-exciting patients.

Second, we don't really work side by side with the doctors. They write the orders, we carry them out. That's pretty much it. I laugh my butt off when I see Dr House administer a med on TV. This never, ever happens. Nursing IS mostly the "grunt" work of healthcare. Resign yourself to it.

Also, your patients 99%of the time will not be the attractive 30-something with some acute disease that can be cured so everyone can have a "yay team" moment. Your patients will almost always be much older and have chronic diseases that most definetly can NOT be cured. Your job will be to treat the symptoms and hopefully the pt will become stable enough to go home. This is the real meat and potatoes of hospital nursing.

The reality of nursing is that it's a job that entails a HUGE amount of responsibility with very very little prestige or recognition. I don't think having a "calling" is necessary, but if you're looking to become a nurse for glamour or excitement, you'd do well to think long and hard before committing all the time and money....

PMFB-RN, RN · Jan 20, 2013

People on here need to realize that when you complain on here (and for some that all those individuals do) it really dissuades us new grads from continuing into the profession.

*** Yes I fully realize this but two things. First the fewer people who enter nursing the better for those of who are already nurses. Pay and working conditions for nurses have deteriated since the glut of nurse made itself felt in 2008. It's not new grads fault since the false and self serving "nursing shortage" propaganda mislead many people who would not have considered nursing to pursue nursing/ This was intentional false propaganda desinged to mislead people and it worked, very well.

Second our world does not revolve around nursing students and new grads. You guys should feel lucky you are getting a view of the underbelly of nursing in advance. Most of us didn't have that oppertunity since there was no Allnurses when I graduated.

F

irst and most obvious question, Does anyone actually like being a Nurse?

*** Yes! I love it! I have a fun and very rewarding job and am very well compensated for it. However the longer the glut of nurses continues the less that's true. Even my hospital, a hospital with a long history of treating it's nurses well is starting to realize that any of us can be replaced by a long line of new grads chomping at the bit to take our jobs