If you could start all over, would you choose nursing again?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi!

I'm msimone and I'm an accelerated BSN student at the University of North Florida. This week I was asked to interview some nurses for an assignment and I was wondering if a few of you wouldn't mind responding to 3 short questions below. I only need two responses, but please feel free to post more than that, I'm interested to see what you all have to say. Thank you!

1) Would you choose nursing as a career if you could choose again?

2) Why or why not?

3) In which area of nursing do you work? How long have you been in that position?

Thank you again,

Msimone

Specializes in ICU and Dialysis.

1) No.

2) No other job can tell me "hey, we're short staffed so here's 175% of your normal workload. Please do it just as quickly and thoroughly as a normal workload as well, because lives depend on you not making a mistake." "Normal" jobs also won't tell me to place my food, water and toileting needs below someone else's fresh ice and extra pillow needs. Like a slave. Normal jobs also won't make me use MY vacation days for random on call days that I can't even enjoy as I'm ON CALL.

3) I'm an ICU nurse x 2 years.

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Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.

1. Yes.

2.It's a well paying career with room for advancement and flexibility. You can do pretty much anything with it. Even if I one day go back to teaching yoga, being an RN will be an asset.

I3. I'm a community psych RN for the past 5ish months. Before that I worked inpatient psych for about a year.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med/Surg, ICU Stepdown.

1.) Honestly... probably not =(

2.) I enjoy some aspects of being a nurse and I know I am lucky to work in a supportive hospital with wonderful coworkers. BUT the stress is too much. As stated above, most people can have an "off day" but if a nurse has an off day it can cause death or disability. It's too much responsibility for me. I'm the type of person to feel like a horrible person if I took 3 tries to start an IV or if I feel like I didn't notice a patient deteriorating as quickly as I feel I should have. I used to be "normal" but nursing has caused me to suffer from anxiety and perseverating thoughts, guilt, etc. It's hard to leave work at work. Almost daily I deal with people in their 20s, 30s, 40s withdrawing from various substances and dealing with their incontinence, confusion and combativeness. It's depressing and frustrating. If I could do it over would make less money and do journalism or nonprofit work.

3.) I have worked in an outpatient clinic, Med/Surg and ICU Stepdown. Hoping to one day work with babies instead of adults but in my area it's a hard specialty to get into without Peds/NICU experience.

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Specializes in Practice educator.

I wouldn't do it TODAY, but I don't regret going in to nursing 15 years ago.

The reasons why I don't recommend this profession is poor pay compared to the stress and workload as well as a rapidly deteriorating NHS under the Tories.

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No, although I do like knowing how it works, knowing the information about the human body, knowing first aid, knowing how to deal with the medical system.

Lawyer

lots of evil people I've worked with, working holidays, bosses who don't know how to be good bosses, non-nurses telling nurses how to nurse, having to work no matter what the weather

There have been some great coworkers and one boss stands out as being the best possible boss one could have, just some really awful ones, too.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med/Surg, ICU Stepdown.

Ok I posted this after a horrible shift... Today I am back into liking nursing! Just goes to show it can really change day to day, LOL sorry for the drama above. Being a nurse can be a great career but some days will definitely be tough.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ER and Administration.

I just retired after 31 years. So much has changed. A lot of the changes have not been for the benefit of the patient. I would not change my career for anything. That said and knowing what I know now, I really do not know if I would go into nursing today. My clinical experience is in critical care and ER nursing. I was in administration for the last 17 years as a department manager and a nursing supervisor. Healthcare used to be a stable and secure job. My company is now doing it's third layoff in less than eight years.

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My initial thought is NO, I would not choose nursing again. It is not my passion.

I always wanted to work as a city carrier for the post office, but felt pressured and expected by high school and family members to get a college degree instead. I worked as a CNA during nursing school and enjoyed it, so I assumed I would enjoy being a nurse as well. BUT after just 7 1/2 years of bedside nursing I am already burned out. I took a huge pay cut and tried school nursing ($13.77/h) and I don't like it either (admittedly, it was exactly 1/2 of what I made at the hospital, not a wise financial decision, as most of my paycheck went straight to daycare costs). BUT, I thought if I LOVED school nursing I could just suck it up until all my kids were in school.

I am very fortunate that my husband carries the health insurance and I am financially able to only work prn. I work prn at two nursing homes. I only work 1, occasionally 2 shifts per week. I make more working prn than I did as a school nurse (because I'm not having to pay daycare, less gas money as well). I can't think of any other career that would allow me to just work PRN, but still be able to provide financially for my family. Once the kids are older (now ages 2, 4, 5, and #4 due in April), I don't know if I will ever return to nursing full time. I still think perhaps I will look into a city carrier position as my next full time job...

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Specializes in Primary Care, LTC, Private Duty.

I'm giving myself the opportunity of moving to a new area to see if doing so changes my mind, but currently my answer is a resounding NO.

I loved nursing school and clinicals and I graduated first in my class. I worked as a CNA prior to becoming a nurse and enjoyed it. But, if I am fully honest, I have not enjoyed my almost-four years of nursing. Most of my fellow classmates, who remained behind in the area we graduated in (I moved back to my old hometown), do enjoy it, which is why I'm not just throwing in the towel now. It may just be this economically depressed area I live in, where there is a huge gap between the "haves" and the "have nots".

Reasons for my answer of "NO":

---Responsibility: Like another poster stated, I'm tired of having all of the responsibility (read: being the scapegoat for anything that goes wrong) with none of the authority to actually change things for the better/largely prevent them from going wrong.

---Physical Health: I'm tired of the guilt trip for doing the responsible thing of not exposing my fragile patients to my germs when I call in sick. I'm tired of working sick, and then a minor cold or other ailment becomes something that knocks me down for weeks because there's no such thing as "desk work" or "going in sick and just taking it easy at work". I'm tired of being threatened with being fired for being injured on the job and then having to miss work due to my injury. I'm tired of being patients' punching bags.

---Mental Health: I'm tired of being worn down because no one has each other's back and is always looking for a reason to slit another nurse's throat (the "better you than me" mentality). I'm tired of never being able to have an "off" day, of always having to be "on" and perky even if I'm made to work sick or just had a death in the family that I wasn't allowed time off to attend to. I actually got lectured for calling off work and being there for my dying grandfather's last breaths and for my grief stricken mother by the DON of one facility I worked at. Providing care to others is, in of itself, emotionally taxing enough, let alone not being supported by coworkers and supervisors. I'm tired of one's best work never being good enough for anyone.

---Healthcare Conditions: I'm tired of working in an industry that is all about making big $$$$ off of others' suffering. Most of the time, we are complicit in just further enabling people's problems, not helping them actually deal with very real physical and/or mental health problems. We all know what would benefit the population as a whole (better nursing ratios, more access to healthcare for all, better mental healthcare and access to better mental healthcare for all, more focus on preventative care, etc), yet we are powerless to change the status quo. The rich around here don't receive the same healthcare here---they stop here long enough to get stabilized and then head to the city. For outpatient care, they pay for concierge medicine. And, at least around here and the surrounding 45 miles, there is no real opportunity to explore different avenues in nursing for nurses. One major healthcare organization owns/runs it ALL, from inpatient to outpatient, VNA to hospice, general to speciality. The only specialty they don't have the monopoly on is LTC. Unless you have your BSN, years of experience specifically for the specialty you want to get into, and your certification in that specialty already, they don't want you. It's not like they offer super compensation for all of their demands, either. Most positions go unfilled and then you get to run short staffed.

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On 9/18/2018 at 7:06 AM, msimone said:

1) Would you choose nursing as a career if you could choose again?

Absolutely. This career has allowed me to positively impact my community and now, healthcare throughout the world. I feel that my work is important and valuable.

2) Why or why not?

Nursing is not just bedside. I went from the bedside to procedural to outpatient to now a corporate setting. I do not know many professions that all you to work in a hospital, lab, school, corporate setting, invent things, marketing, statistics, clinical research, and still practice nursing.

3) In which area of nursing do you work? How long have you been in that position?

Global corporate setting, 5 years.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

In the many years I've been a nurse, I've been spit at, slapped, kicked, punched, cursed and threatened. I've also been the recipient of grateful smiles, wonderful thank-you notes and boxes of chocolate. I've had horrible days where I couldn't do anything right and felt behind the whole day, and I've had wonderful days when I know I really made a difference to someone. I've worked night shifts, days and evenings and I've worked all of them in the same week. I've worked Christmases and Thanksgivings and Mothers Days and Easter. But I've had my birthday and my wedding anniversary off every year, and not many office workers can say that! When my car's engine needed to be replaced and I had no money, I worked overtime. Lots of it. Can't do that in the office. When I needed to be home with an elderly parent, I arranged my schedule so that either DH or I would be home at all times. Can't do that in an office, either. I worked every weekend when I was in graduate school, going to school full time and working full time. When my then-boyfriend moved out on Christmas Eve, I traded shifts with a nurse whose boyfriend unexpectedly flew back from the Gulf War for Christmas, and when my father knew he wasn't going to make it through the winter, someone traded shifts with me so I could drive 1000 miles to cook him Thanksgiving dinner. Not only would that not be an option in office work, office workers probably would not even think about it as valuable.

I've learned to laugh at things that would make me cry if I didn't, and I've learned to appreciate what I have because plenty of people have less. I cannot imagine what my life would have been if I hadn't been a nurse, and if I had to do it all over again, I would.

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Specializes in Neurosciences, stepdown, acute rehab, LTC.

I know OPs project is already done, but this is an interesting thread

1.) ummmmm I think so

2.) I had to develop a really thick skin to like this job and I still have pretty bad days at times. However, most days are happy and satisfying. I had to learn to take the good with the bad. I don’t have a family yet so I was able to throw my whole life into it for a while. I love the flexibility of working 12 hour shifts and self scheduling. I’ve been lucky to work with good coworkers and the facilities I worked at all gave good care. That’s pure luck though, I realize the situation is precarious around the country. I feel like i grew as a person a lot with this and my comfort bubble in life is really big compared to when I was younger. I can handle a lot more stress. I feel like if I made less money, had to work 5 days a week, or was bored at work I wouldn’t like it much. Also, now that I’m very experienced and close to a BSN, I will have a lot of opportunities to do what I want. This career really supports my passions outside of work too since I don’t have much financial stress and I get lots of vacation time at my job. I also love to learn! Lifelong learner. The pitfall is that I was quite stressed and miserable in my 20s so I feel like that part of my life wasn’t as happy as it should have been. Yet; it seems to be paying off now.

3.) RN- ASN-9 years - currently in neuro stepdown

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