My short answer is no. A little background. I've been a nurse for 17 years. Before that, a CNA for 10 years. It's all I really know since finishing high school. I've seen a few changes since I first started. Patients are sicker. Hospitals only think of the bottom line. Nurses aren't valued but are instead a bothersome "expense". My years in med/ surg and tele have made me nervous, OCD, PTSD, depressed, IBS, among other things. I can't believe some of the horrific stress I've had to deal with. I now have a "cushy" RN job in periop, but now the push is make us pre-op nurses learn pacu nursing even though I have no critical care in my background. I have 15 years or so before I can retire. I just wanted to go out gently, but now it sounds like the horrific stress is coming back unless I get into a different kind of nursing. I've come to the conclusion there IS no better nursing and that it all sucks. I've warned others ( friends, family) to not go into nursing. Nurses seem to have little say in how we are treated. We are still a "profession" that needs a lot more growing up.
Whew! Feels good just to write it all down. Ok, go ahead and start chastising me, flaming me, telling me "you just have to find the right job", nursing has been good to me, I get a warm feeling when I touch someone's life blah blah....
