Is nursing really THAT bad?

[CuriousCC]

Hi, I'm new here! i came across this site in my own personal research about becoming a nurse. I graduated college four years ago with an English degree, but have been working as an Admin. Assistant and Bookkeeper ever since I graduated (I know...weird, considering my degree and all). I'm feeling the need to go back to school to pursue a more specific field, and have been strongly considering nursing....until I came here! Not to be the new "bad guy" on the block, but it seems like I have encountered way more negativity than positivity regarding nursing on this site. Is it really that horrible?! Honestly, I really want to know. Or, is the negativity more just venting?

I don't understand this major dichotomy because I have at least four friends in nursing, and they all love their jobs and have highly encouraged me to pursue it. I'm starting to think most of the negativity is focused on those who have hospital jobs. Would you say I'm correct? I think I would best suited in a doctors office, treatment center, or something in a more "routine" 8-5 environment. Thoughts?

Believe me, I know EVERY career has it's ups and downs. I'm very curious to hear from 2nd career nurses who started out in the business world and switched to nursing later. How has your transition been? Do you feel the negatives are comparable to the negatives present in almost every career? I would love to hear your input!

Thanks!

[ShannonRN2010, BSN, RN]

I love being a nurse...but its not all a walk in the park. You deal with cranky docs, cranky families, cranky sick people (who have every right to be cranky!). Its hard work, but dang its rewarding.

As for what you see on here...nurses tend to have a...um...certain sense of humor that is only appreciated by other nurses. Noone is going to get *WHY* you are annoyed or understand your pov, like other nurses!

[ShannonRN2010, BSN, RN]

People who are angry, fired, misbehaving, suspended, overworked, underpaid, frustrated and who knows what else will share with vigor on public anonymous boards - and boy are they represented here. This is not isolated to this board.

Wow...lets see, I am neither angry, suspended, frustrated, or overworked. I feel I get paid fairly for a new RN, I am not misbehaving and I have never been fired in the 8 years of being a LPN

I like to think that I am with the majority of the rest of the member of this board, not the exception!

[carolinapooh, BSN, RN]

Shannon - I think the person who said that meant that quite often on a message board, you hear those sides of the stories and not always the good stuff, not that all of us are in that boat.

[MsBruiser]

Feel free to shoot me a PM. Yes, I left a fairly well-paid business career to become a nurse. Would I ever go back? Probably not - the thought of working a corporate job again makes me cringe. Is nursing perfect? No.

Upsides: amazing schedule (hospital nurse), solid money for the education/effort required, some excitement (not too much, thankfully!), and working with some amazing patients. I have a sense of job security I never had in corporate America. I derive an incredible sense of satisfaction from my job - most days. You literally can save a life in the course of a normal day - how cool is that????

Downsides: no control over my workday, incredible amounts of administrative nonsense (nursing is the only profession that engineers complexity into their jobs - i.e.: make their own lives difficult), little institutionalized respect from MDs (think apartheid, separate and very unequal - unless MD wants to sleep with you in which case you will get lots of attention), general lack of respect from certain segments of our society (some people are amazed I can put two words consisting of more than two syllables together).

You need to have both the upsides and downsides well-sorted in your head before embarking on this career. If you focus too much on the downsides you will hate your job...

[nuangel1, BSN, RN]

i think singing to the wheat hits the nail on the head for me.and well said.i have been a nurse in variuos specialties for over 23 years.i can't see myself being anything else .i am a very good nurse.but being a nurse today means being educated,skilled,patient ,hardworking ,and having the ability to prioritize .nursing is very physical.there are days you don't get breaks or meals.you have to make the time .i have good days ,bad days ,and very bad days like aynone else .i enjoy nursing and the ability to help people .today thats not easy .but workin ed means variety .never know whats coming next its organized caos.i consider myself slightly undepaid for my area but i make a decent living.i plan on nursing till i retire .

[StrawberryBanana]

Well I'm not going to throw a bunch of sugar down your drawers.

YES, it IS that bad. Everything you hear is ONLY a fraction of what

you will see and experience.

The trade off is if you're passionate about the profession. Otherwise,

run the other way and run fast. I'm definitely not going to fluff things

up or lie to you. Nursing is abusive as all hell. I only love my job because

of the patients.

[singingtothewheat]

I've been a nurse a long time. I love taking care of patients. Everything else is pretty much a mess. I will never understand why it has to be that way. I do believe it has much to do with the profession still being mostly a job filled by women. I LOVE to see the new male grads stepping in. Enough men fill our ranks and things will change.

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

"I'm starting to think most of the negativity is focused on those who have hospital jobs. Would you say I'm correct? I think I would best suited in a doctors office, treatment center, or something in a more "routine" 8-5 environment."

That would be correct. Your current goal may .. or may not become available to you , until you have hospital experience.

Nursing in the hospital setting... will give you insight into the field.... and blow your mind with the brutal workload.

[singingtothewheat]

Hospital nursing oh my, what can be said......??? I do think that much of the negativity comes from our ranks. The work load IS brutal. The stress can be beyond brutal! You get to see some of the most outrageous things. Unfortunately, it isn't the patients that blow your mind. Self inflicted gun shot wounds, traumatic amputations, drug addiction, alcohol withdrawal, insane families and odd things in strange places are just a day in the life. It's the endless, meaningless, blather from above.

Many of the nurses at my hospital are actively involved in trying to bring collective bargaining to the table. We got here, not over things like our pay but about things like not having enough help to care for acutely, gravely ill patients, not being able to get a diabetic a snack, not having equipment that works. I am told that at one of our last meetings (it is such a blessing I missed this one) the nurses were told that par wouldn't be so important if management wasn't always having to pull out their wallets over "our" mistakes. It's obvious on a daily basis that we are not viewed as the very heart of the hospital, or that we really do go above and beyond daily for the sake of our patients and the hospital. Rather, we are viewed as a group of malcontent B------- who are bent on stealing the wealth.

There are lots of ways to get experience. Unless you are sure you are signing up with a corporation that demonstrates daily that their primary aim is to provide wonderful care to patients, you have a very tough hide or your a masochist, hospital nursing can suck the life out of you. You have to be a certain kind of nurse to do it and perhaps mentally deranged to love it.

After 20+ years in nursing I can honestly say that it only gets harder to do my job. That is true of all nursing though. We have more and more and more to do and less and less to do it with. Still, there's something about the smile on a patients face, that you helped to place there, that keeps me coming back, day after day.

[beeker]

After my night last night, YES IT IS REALLY THAT BAD lol. Off to bed now.

[Simba&NalasMom, LPN]

For me? In a word, yes, it is that bad. Sadly, I'm discovering that it probably is not a fit for me.

Having said that, I have met quite a few people who love being nurses; it totally depends on what kind of person you are. My observations are that those who are the most successful are those who are slow to become anxious, have 1000% confidence in themselves, and have a good filter between their brains and their mouths.

I think maybe for many, the only way to find out how good or bad it is is just do it and see what happens.