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

[Kashia]

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.

[martymoose, BSN, RN]

I think the problem is the disconnect between all the corporate BS and what REALLY goes on with floor nursing. While the management is busy constructing customer service-oriented utopian policies, they fail to provide enough staff to bring down the patient/nursing-CNA ratios to a level where those in the trenches could even hope to meet said standards of care.

Example: new admit, w/ dementia, Below the knee amputation, no family or history, WANTS TO STAND UP EVERY TIME YOU REPOSITION HER TO SIT BACK, completely confused, no walker, no wheelchair. Now tell me, how is the nurse going to care for this patient and the other 22 assigned to her that night (some others with dementia who also stand up every few minutes, who also are a fall risk) if the CNA is refusing to take turns watching her? With patients like these, the care grinds to a halt because one person cannot be in twenty different places at the same time.

Until issues like these are addressed, health care will not improve.

I can offer one solution- have fewer managers and more floor staff to do the actual hands on care. That would discourage the cutting of corners and improve compassion from nurse to patient.

soooo true.

I think corporate people are " glad it ain't me" having to deal with these situations. They don't care , as they will never be in any of the situations described.

I'm sure if a pt was falling down right in front of them, they would walk away. And blame the nurse.

Staffing??? bare minimum as long as it doesnt cut into their income for their 1/2 million dollar home and yacht. lol

[elprup, BSN, RN]

There are over 700,000 allnurses members now. Just think of the amazing things we could when we all stand together!

[humblehealer]

Hello,

I want to commend you for taking a bold step and going for your dreams. I also dropped out of nursing school a few years ago. It was one of the most miserable years of my life because I saw so much and questioned the profession as a whole. I found myself crying all the time and stressed out that I lost so much weight. I lost my grandmother during that time and coupled with the stress, couldn't take it anymore. I even had a classmate that had a heart attack while we were in the program. Life is truly to short to spend time doing something that make you unhappy. Was the money worth selling my soul and doing things that go against my conscience? I have a high IQ as a child and posses tremendous talent in so many areas. I decided to use my talent in caring for others and giving back through other routes. I completed my degree in Healthcare administration with honors and decided to give people a platform to work in a happy environment and not be forced to do things that are against their values. I started my own company and seek to grow as a philanthropist and a motivational speaker. There is a happy ending, I am doing what I love as an administrator and owner of my own company and plan to write books to encourage others. I am channeling all my natural energy into leaving a positive impact on the world and funding my philanthropy. Good luck in your future endeavors and may God's direct you on what to do next. It will get better!

[Fiona59]

RNs need to be smart--very smart. It's a very outdated, damaging idea that docs and folks with advanced degrees are necessarily smarter than everyone else. Perhaps that CNA or LPN is smarter than all of them, but they never had the opportunity to further their education?

I find it incredibly sad that you'd suggest something like this on a nursing board. And where better to start in gaining valuable bedside experience than as an entry-level LPN/RN?

Pre-nursing student, had a look at their posting history.

[SoldierNurse22, BSN, RN]

Pre-nursing student, had a look at their posting history.

Makes more sense now, but still sad. And scary--to think that a pre-nsg student doesn't think s/he needs to be as intelligent as the physician s/he's working with!

[jsawyer]

Kashia, I appreciate your commentary on the state of Health Care. I had a two month externship as a Medical Assistant and in that short bit of time I observed that there really is politics in the healthcare field. Yet, despite the politics of business; I believe nursing is a noble profession and that nurses do more good than harm. My father was seriously ill one day and was out of his mind--right outside a clinic. Everyone at that clinic, healthcare staff, went to help my dad. That did everything they could do to help him--with real compassion.

I am not naïve; I know that there will be stresses related to the work of being a nurses. I know that there does exists politics; still, I believe that nurses do more good than harm.

Also, I believe that not all hospitals are created equal. I know that some have a better reputation. I believe as an RN, we have choices. I am open to all your feedback and suggestions.

[DannieHorton]

I have been in nursing since 1976 and my rose colored glasses were shattered early on. I have found that you have to choose your battles. I have gone into battle when I knew that if I had not, my patient would be dead before he got into the wheel chair. Fortunately I had documented well and my supervisor backed me. Document like you career and life depends on it, it usually does and remember what makes you a nurse is the fact that you truly are the patients advocate and often the patients only advocate. I will keep my butt covered but I will not keep my head down and will open my mouth when I know that my patient's life is at stake.

[on eagles wings, ASN, RN]

wish you the best