Is it just me or does everyone hate nursing?

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All of the experienced nurses on here really seem to hate their job, and it is disheartening.

Students will express concern over the severity of certain clinicals, and so many people say we've signed up for the wrong career, or we need to get over it. We're students, we aren't nurses yet. Everyone also always assumes we will be a staff nurse in a hospital. What if we're a nurse in a doctor's office, or clinic? What is we were doing administrative duties, or want to be a school nurse?

And honestly, twelve hour shifts aren't the worst things in the world. I think half these nurses who complain so much probably never had another job before nursing. Many jobs can require 15 hour shifts with no breaks.

I just think nurses who post in the nursing student forums should be a little more supportive.

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Specializes in Childbirth Educator, Birth Doula.

Hehe, go hang out in Public/Community Nursing- everybody loves their jobs over there!!

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Specializes in Childbirth Educator, Birth Doula.

Also, from what I've seen, nurses are notorious at not taking care of themselves and not doing necessary burn-out prevention measures. As a student (and a mother), I'm making it a HUGE priority of mine to do stress management and take care of myself. I know what burn-out feels like and I don't want to go there. That's a big part of it, IMO.

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

Because when everything is going well, we don't usually feel the need to vent and seek support..... we are too busy being somewhere else and enjoying it :roflmao: And most nurses are staff nurses, huge number of staff jobs as compared to school or office jobs. School is hard, but in different ways than earning a living as a nurse. It has a time limit! I personally want 12s, not 8s, and I have worked both. But when a shift is nasty, nonstop, and downright ...... unpleasant shall we say?, going home in 8 seems like a dream.

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

And by the way, I like nursing! Both bedside and teaching. 32 years at the moment.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

Take what you read here with a grain of salt. I do love my job but some days I hate it too. I come here to complain, vent, get others thoughts.. Reread this post a few months after being on your own.. You will understand soo much better. I am not being condescending to you or your concerns, its just a fact. You don't know what "nursing" is until you have been there.

No matter the setting, we all face similar challenges.

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I don't take anything anyone has said in this post as condescending or rude. I understand these things; it's just that as a student some of the things you see on here are very disheartening.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

It's simple human nature to be more vocal when things don't go well. Unfortunately for many nurses, family members just don't understand our jobs, and this is a safe place to vent, get feedback, and learn from others who have been in the same or similar situation. Everyone has good days and bad. The other week, we had a former trauma patient bring in lunch for the whole department. The change from what we saw from when the accident occurred to how the person is now was amazing. That was a good day. The other day, we had several ugly surgeries. One patient never made it out of the OR; the other died shortly after transfer to the ICU. Which of those situations do you think people would need more support to deal with? With a decent amount of anonymity, this website offers safety for free expression and members can offer support.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

For the record I love my job.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I think half these nurses who complain so much probably never had another job before nursing.
Many of the nurses on these forums are career-changers who have certainly had jobs prior to nursing. Quite a few former engineers, teachers, social workers, lawyers, and blue collar workers are now working as nurses.

My job history is pretty downscale. . .I've worked at McDonald's, Wienerschnitzel (a hot dog fast food joint), Target, the 99 Cent Store, two grocery stores, two group homes for adults with mental retardation, and a paper products factory. I started training at 23 and became a nurse at age 25.

Many jobs can require 15 hour shifts with no breaks.
Yep. I worked 16-hour weekend double shifts every Saturday and Sunday as a charge nurse in various nursing homes. I purposely worked two 16 hour shifts per week in order to have Monday through Friday off. I'm the type of person who does not want to be at work five days per week.
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Specializes in Emergency Department.

I think that by nature that people are very vocal when they are feeling very disheartened about something. It's just people like to vent about things. I'm not sure why, it just seems to be in our general nature to do so. Some people do those things and say things when things are going well, but I guess people just like to vent.

I think that some people are just a grumpier by nature and they tend to grumble a lot more than others. Between us two, is certainly possible that we just simply see a lot of people that are not all that happy with what they do. Some people would be just unhappy regardless of what they do.

In my case, a couple of months ago I could have kicked myself quite a bit and grumble a lot about things that were going on at the time. Instead, I chose to take a more positive route and adopt a more positive attitude about things and it's turned out very well for me. I actually like what I do. I am still a student, but I have a better idea about where things are and how things go than I used to. I also have kept my ears open around the hospital units that I've been on and for the most part, most of the nurses really like their jobs. Most of the nurses tend to really support each other and help them get through things. And that's a very positive way for them to really get through things and it helps, in my opinion, people maintain that positive attitude.

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Specializes in Pedi.

"Hating nursing" and "hating one's job" are not the same thing. I love being a nurse and have never hated it. I have, however, hated some of the jobs I've had at times. The beauty of nursing is that it's so diverse that if you grow to really hate the field you're in, you can change it.

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