Leave Good Job for Nursing?

marie-francoise · Mar 9, 2009

I would never leave a good secure job with good hours and bennies to go into nursing! Nursing is a very, very tough career, and many nurses are ambivalent about nursing. I know you are going to do whatever you want to do- but nursing is a very difficult, demanding career, and is very unsure in our current economy.
Read the "first year in nursing" forum before you make your decision!

I agree. I'm finishing up my ADN after working at desk jobs. I also have two other degrees (went into nursing later in life). BUT, I have to say, after learning about nursing and going through clinicals, I am DREAMING of a nice desk job. I'm nostalgic for my old desk jobs. I've learned that nursing is tough and getting tougher. Before applying to nursing school, I did not appreciate how stressful, demanding, draining, exhausting, and, many times, how butt-kissing, etc., nursing can be. And this is from a student's perspective. I can't imagine a full patient load, three 12-hour shifts, constantly running around like a beheaded chicken all day/night...

I'm grateful for the knowledge I've gained in school; but do we prospective nurses really want to step over into the abyss that is today's bedside nursing? For myself, for my own quality of life - I think not. I just speak for myself.

Read the posts on this site, and on other candid blog or forum sites about nursing as a career, and shadow a med-surg nurse for a day or two at least, before you commit yourself. I remember being angry at those who tried to dissuade me from nursing. But, now I can see.... THEY KNEW.

Faeriewand, ASN, RN · Mar 9, 2009

I must say I am shocked, absolutely shocked, at all the negative words of advice given in this thread. I see the nurses all say not to go into nursing? not to follow the dream? omg.

I just want to encourage those who want to become nurses to follow their dream. There will always be nurses who like nursing/love their job and nurses who don't.

My first CNA job was with an elderly lady in a wheelchair. When I told her I was going to school to become a nurse she said, "I wanted to be a nurse." She told me that twice. I looked at her with great sadness in my eyes. Her body was crippled and she was in the twilight of life and she had never pursued her dream.

I've posted on the first year in nursing forum and said my first year really isn't that bad. I"m getting along well and I'm able to handle things. I make mistakes and learn from them. I continue to ask questions. But I think my positive experience has a lot to do with the California 5:1 ratio. I think nursing burnout is because the others don''t have the same protection I do.

I've been working med/surg for 6 months now and I really love my job. OT is frowned upon and everyone usually gets out on time. We usually all leave at the same time, sometimes waiting for each other so we can all take the elevator down together and walk outside. Usually we are laughing and cackling the whole way.

I must say that when I first came upon allnurses that the posters here really gave me a negative view of nursing and I thought that when I started my first job it would be a Beotch and all the experienced nurses would think I was stupid because I was new. Reality has been different. No one would consider speaking so disrespectfully to another on the floor. The nurse manager might handle a thing or two. But really, no one makes another feel useless and stupid.

So at least for me, the view of nursing that I got from allnurses was skewed.

Follow your heart. :heartbeat

againmlg · Mar 9, 2009

Obviously people need to make their own decisions and weigh all the options when it comes to changing careers. Personally I think if you're older it's smart to look at debt incurred while in school vs prime earning yrs one has left. Yes there are some non-clinical options in nursing but not as many as I'd hoped and they don't pay well. I left a corporate job to become an RN in my early 30's. I wanted a job that would give me more of a feeling of fulfilment and purpose. But after 12 yrs of working as an RN I realized that often I didn't feel I had the time, support and resources to do nearly enough for my patients. Slowly I started to realize that my physical and emotional exhaustion from nursing was also forcing me to short change my family.

So in the early yrs I job hopped a lot looking for a good "fit". After 1 yr of f/t nsg work in a LTC followed by 2 yrs f/t hospital work, then a switch back to f/t LTC, then yet another job change back to f/t acute setting....I was STILL never able to feel like I was fully able to de-stress from the work responsibilities and the many conflicts I witnessed between my co-workers. Often at home I felt like I was either a little 'zoned out' or I was rehashing and ruminating on things that had happened at work. When I started hearing call bells and phones ringing in my sleep, I realized I needed to switch to part-time or prn hrs. So like ShiphrahPuah pointed out, not everyone can afford to work p/t but for me that was the solution. Everyone considering this field just has to go into it with eyes wide open, weighing all the pros and cons. It was tough being a new nurse with little support 12 yrs ago. with more hospitals cutting budgets, I suspect it hasn't gotten easier for the grads of today. fwiw - I wish but in all honesty I don't see the hospital budget cuts getting better, or the economy turning around within 3 yrs.

However, there are some tough things about nursing that I did not fully understand before I actually started working as a nurse. A twelve hour shift easily and often becomes a 14 or 15 hour shift. When you work back-to-back days, ALL you have time for is work and sleep. I end up feeling so checked-out on my family since I drag myself home and have to get to bed right away in order to get enough sleep before work the next day. I cannot do ANYTHING else on days I work -- forget picking up groceries, helping my kids with school projects, etc. And the day after I work 2 or 3 days in a row I am so beat that I am pretty non-functional around the house. Some patients you have will be wonderful, but a lot will be self-entitled and demanding and treat you like their personal waitress. You start hating carrying a portable phone in your pocket because it rings every five minutes. Nursing is physically very hard. I run my butt off nonstop, and there are some days I don't eat or pee in 14 hours. You have to take time to drink water and get to the bathroom or you'll end up with kidney stones, but by doing so something has to give and you will miss some things and get yelled at by the doctor or the nurse that you give report to next shift for missing something. Your feet and possibly your back will hurt from being on your feet all day (DO invest in good shoes because that will make a huge difference). You will have so much charting to do to cover your butt that you will spend more time charting to prove you are doing patient care than the time you spend actually giving patient care. The hospital will always want to save money and will send nurses home on days that things are a little slower so that you will almost always have a maximum load when you are at work. You will not be able to spend the time with patients and give the care that you want to because you are stretched so thin and feel pulled in a hundred different directions. Some days I feel such distress because I know certain patients really need more and I WANT to give that to them, but my load is such that it is really hard to do that (or I may have to really overlook my most stable patient for a big chunk of time in order to provide that to the other patient, but either way I feel like I am not doing the best for every patient I have). I wish the system was different so I could be the nurse I envisioned myself being when I was in nursing school. I would even take less pay for a more reasonable patient load, but I know if the hospital ever did that, they would eventually abuse that and require more and more at the lower pay rate and it would be worse in the long run. I can see how nurses easily get burned out or get compassion fatigue. I worked full-time my first 7 months, and all the stresses really started getting to me. Fortunately my family situation allowed me to cut back to part-time (two 12-hour shifts which often end up 14 or 15 hour shifts). I am able to keep a more positive attitude since cutting back my hours, but I know some people do not have that option.

expo4u · Mar 9, 2009

This poor economy wont last forever. It will take a while to get through school. Is it possible to work in your current job part time? Are you able to attend school part time?

LovesGreyhounds · Mar 9, 2009

Thanks to everyone who has replied! Wish I knew the future - ha ha - but so does everyone else! Everyone has given me alot of things to think about. This is a great place to come & ask advice. I've been asking for little signs from God to show me which way to go & so far the signs are showing me to go for it, but we'll see. I haven't made my mind up yet.

foreverday · Feb 23, 2010

Run for your life, nursing now is not what you read in the books. I feel stupid that I choose nursing. I warned you
:hlk:

Yes me too:crying2:.

**RosesrReder, BSN, MSN, RN** · Feb 23, 2010

It is such a personal decision and at the end I believe you should follow your heart and gut!

That being said, I PERSONALLY would not do it. I love nursing to pieces but I have never come even close to securing a position like the one you already have. Bluntly speaking, I have always wanted to be a ballerina too, but at my current 200+lbs it won't happen ;-) I've always wanted to be a singer (j/k)............you get my drift.

Nursing is all I know, because it has been my first career and before that, it was just basic fast food type of 'jobs'. Nursing is great and all, but there ARE much easier ways to earn a living, have decent hours and less stress (relatively speaking).

Bottom line, do what YOUR gut instinct tells you. If nursing doesn't work out, you could always go back to doing what you currently do.........right?

GL