Its official! I am leaving nursing.........

[Kashia, ASN, LVN]

I found the great Allnurses forum when I was a student, before I graduated. It helped me so much! And has helped me throughout the years.

But here I am posting this....I am leaving nursing. I am a LVN.

Shortly after graduating, I landed a full time job, not once but twice!

First on acute care ortho/surg floor full time then I moved and received the gift of a great job on a med-surg acute care floor, float to ob/gyn, ICU and ER. The experience I was getting was awesome.

I enrolled in the RN step up program, but for various reasons, I dropped out. No, it was not that I was incapable....my GPA in school was 3.85 which is do-able. And I really like studying.

It was due to reasons (then) that have grown into being even stronger in me to the point of I am done.

Simply put............I decided I can no longer work against my conscience.

As a nurse there have been to many occasions where I have been "required for the sake of employment" to perform, participate in things that are just so wrong. Its not

relativism that should be guiding us .....for whats that? A guideline made up in your head, "whatever works", "whatever you decide is right, is right?" "whatever the popular consensus is, oh, then it must be ok?".......no, I see just so much wrong in this thinking. It is wrong.

To have a medical system that is driven by profit and greed, where we can see, for instance- in long term care, the elderly have become a commodity. Where in acute care patients are sometimes sent home way before they should be, where drug companies are handing out and FDA approving drugs that are doing more harm than good in way to many cases................and the worst is that the very systems put in place at the beginning of our US history are no longer, due to government restrictions, able to perform works of charity.

Well, maybe one more reason I am done is I am older. The new nurses have the energy and drive to work in environments that will demand all of you.

And perhaps my contribution now can be to write. So I will end with this.........for new nurses...........

1) know history. there is one, you may have to dig a bit, but it is still there. you will find so much wisdom and truth.

2) foster your compassion and find what helps you know there is a right and a wrong.

Think of a river, whose sides are high and firm and how the water rushes past, because it is contained by edges. then think of the water flowing into a lake where there is no edge, it moves wherever it will and eventually weakens into shallow nothing.

We must regain our moral edges.

[exit96]

Thanks for sharing. I know what you are talking about.

[Fiona59]

I work in Canada, so our system is not for profit. But I know how you feel.

I moved to a unit where I don't have to work with the ICU attempts at miracle saves. I have friends who work in NICU and PICU and their patients sound more like experiments than living beings.

How far should medicine be allowed to push things? There are times that the living being is at the end and should be permitted to go peacefully and with some dignity.

[LisalaRN99, BSN, RN]

May you find what you seek.

[Blue Roses]

Good for you for standing up for what you believe in! Maybe the health care system wouldn't be so messed up if there were more people willing to do so.

[ORNursetobe33]

I envy you very much. I am constantly finding myself shaking my head more and more at the things I am seeing day after day in my job and its scaring me to death (How does one send a patient home post appendectomy with no bowel sounds?). I am going to change into a specialty in January that I think may be a little less motivated by money....but if I find that it is more of the same there, I am leaving nursing, too. It has become sad and I worked so hard but I will go back to my previous career if it means that I make the same amount of money and I am not scared to death I participated in someone's eminent demise. By nature I am not a follower and that is what my job is requiring of me.....and not enough of the nurses I work with want to or care to change it

[HeatherGurl84]

Good for you!!

[Wise Woman RN]

This.. exactly.. I have been sitting here reading the posts, and it seems that I am not so alone, after all.. I just need to keep duct tape on my mouth.. there is so much WRONG with trying to be a good nurse against the raging flow of corporate greed.. Really, thank all of you so much for writing these truths.. It's hard to be reprimanded for doing what is right.. Bless all of your hearts.. thank you..

Wise (or maybe not) Woman RN.

[HighDefinition]

wow very insightful post... yes in my hospital unit, there are patients that get discharged too early because emergency department is overflowing with patients, only to be readmitted a few days earlier.... don't quote me, but I did read an article a while back that mentioned that Hospital Readmissions account as one of the most costly expenses, and if this was avoided then there would be massive savings.... but it's a hard situation when emergency department is overflowing and there is no where to put the patients? seems like a never-ending cycle to me, just food for thought on my mind

[elprup, BSN, RN]

I do realize every job has its bad parts..but if I had known nursing was sooo dysfunctional I may not have chosen it. It makes me crazy that nursing school taught us to speak up about patients needs/fight for what we believe in. Then, when we get into the real world it is all about keeping our head down, mouth shut and butt covered. It has to get better.

[TrulyBlessed13]

Thanks for sharing. All the best to you and your future endeavors.

[Apedro]

You sound like you really care for the patient. Don't leave nursing. If every goodhearted nurse like you followed suit the nursing field would be an even ***** one.