Hello, nurses! Before I officially decide to go for nursing school, I wanted to get a general idea of the lifestyle of a nurse (though I know it differs for everyone). So, I have a list of questions and I would really appreciate it if you could answer any of them for me! Please include what type of nurse you are!
How often would you consider your work life to be stressful? How stressful?
Do you believe you have a healthy family life? I'm a family-oriented person and wouldn't to completely sacrifice that for my job. How much time do you have with your family?
What mood do you return home in most often?
Do you feel like you have time for going out?
Thank you in advance for any answers you are able to provide!
I am quite positive I wrote that you may have had a terrible experience. You came across as rude and debilitating in your initial post, however, I am not here to fight or argue, but rather gain insight. So, I apologize if I happened to offend you.
Thanks to everyone else who has posted. It's really interesting to see how different everyone's experience as a nurse is.
BTDT is a fantastic resource. She is neither rude nor "debilitating." She is one of the more realistic and helpful mentors on this site.
BTDT is a fantastic resource. She is neither rude nor "debilitating." She is one of the more realistic and helpful mentors on this site.
Way to step in it.
While I do not doubt that at all, I merely claimed it was the general tone of her initial post (from my own perception of her writing style and word choice). I have since apologized for any offense that may have been caused.
Thanks again to all of the new posters! I really do appreciate all of the responses.
I am quite positive I wrote that you may have had a terrible experience. You came across as rude and debilitating in your initial post, however, I am not here to fight or argue, but rather gain insight. So, I apologize if I happened to offend you.
Thanks to everyone else who has posted. It's really interesting to see how different everyone's experience as a nurse is.
The written word does not have a tone. You did not "happen" to offend me.. you were going for it, and that was NO apology.
Just when I was going to give you the secret to working from home.
Best of luck if you "happen" to get accepted to nursing school. You have much contemplating to do.
The written word does not have a tone. You did not "happen" to offend me.. you were going for it, and that was NO apology.
Just when I was going to give you the secret to working from home.
Best of luck if you "happen" to get accepted to nursing school. You have much contemplating to do.
The beginning of your post appeared satirical to me--as though you were writing off the idea of this thread. I am genuinely sorry if you did not have any negative intentions, as I was under the impression that you did. I do not hold grudges and will gladly apologize for any misunderstanding.
On a side note, written words do have a tone. According to literarydevices.net, "tone, in written composition, is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. Tone is generally conveyed through the choice of words or the viewpoint of a writer on a particular subject."
Thanks for your contribution, nonetheless. I still appreciated it.
The beginning of your post appeared satirical to me--as though you were writing off the idea of this thread. I am genuinely sorry if you did not have any negative intentions, as I was under the impression that you did. I do not hold grudges and will gladly apologize for any misunderstanding.
On a side note, written words do have a tone; it's rudimentary English. According to literarydevices.net, "tone, in written composition, is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. Tone is generally conveyed through the choice of words or the viewpoint of a writer on a particular subject."
Thanks for your contribution, nonetheless. I still appreciated it.
I was referring to "tone" as there is no feedback during written discussion such as body language and voice inflections.
But.. thanks for the lesson on rudimentary English. Apparently my employer ( I basically write for a living) and the college professor ,that klepped me out of English 101 after my first writing assignment, were wrong.
I'm a new nurse on a cardiac progressive care unit. We get a lot of patients with heart/lung issues (SVT, CHF, new onset Afib, Afib with rvr, pleural effusions, pneumonia with COPD exacerbation), patients who are too sick for med-surg (sepsis, heparin drip, cardizem drip) but not "sick enough" for ICU (often debatable), and then the patients that no other units want (alcoholics, dementia patients, psych patients with some underlying medical issue). And I usually have 4-5 patients on nights. I would say my job is very stressful almost all of the time, but I am very new. My coworkers and managers are amazing and supportive though, so that helps.
Family life is good, I work nights so I see them whenever I'm at home and I'm not sleeping. Days off I'm usually so tired I just hang out on the couch and watch movies. My family is really flexible so they plan birthday dinners and stuff like that when I'm not working.
I come home feeling exhausted, anxious, emotionally drained. Occasionally I feel like I accomplished something or I feel like my work was rewarding (learned something new, had time to help out a coworker, and was able to take care of all my patients the best I could), but that is not the norm for me at this point.
I didn't go out or party before I was a nurse. I like to stay home, occasionally will go to a friend's house. I like to go to movies and go shopping, and I can do this on my days off if I'm not too tired (I'm always tired). I'm also in an RN-BSN program, so my extra energy is usually spent doing school. So time - yes, energy - no.
I'm a new nurse on a cardiac progressive care unit. We get a lot of patients with heart/lung issues (SVT, CHF, new onset Afib, Afib with rvr, pleural effusions, pneumonia with COPD exacerbation), patients who are too sick for med-surg (sepsis, heparin drip, cardizem drip) but not "sick enough" for ICU (often debatable), and then the patients that no other units want (alcoholics, dementia patients, psych patients with some underlying medical issue). And I usually have 4-5 patients on nights. I would say my job is very stressful almost all of the time, but I am very new. My coworkers and managers are amazing and supportive though, so that helps.
Your floor is exactly what my floor does. To the T. And I had 6 patients on a 12 hour DAY shift . No wonder I'm fried.
Sorry for the OT, but it does seem the level of stress correlates with the level of abuse you are forced to take.
These are really good questions! As you mentioned, the answers you get are going to vary widely, depending on personalities and context. As for myself, I've been working outpatient oncology for 2 years (full time, 9-5, weekdays) , worked inpatient ~2 years (8 hour shifts, .7, night for ~8-9 months, evenings ~ 1+ year).
1. Stress level wise, I think there's always going to be something at least slightly stressful during the day, but I generally am able to leave most of the stress at work. It helps to have supportive coworkers.
2. Currently married with no kids. I work during the day, but my husband works from 2-10 pm. So we don't get to see each other much during the week. I would say we are doing alright and generally healthy. It has required some work for us to communicate and be intentional about how we spend time together. So not so much a problem because of my job so much as a we-gotta-figure-it-out-cuz-we're-married-and-stuff issue. But so far, I don't think our relationship has suffered because of my career choice. If anything, the experiences I've had over the past few years have helped me to be more patient and understanding (although yes, there are a few times here and there that work may have made me crabby xD). One thing I've learned as a nurse is that you never know how much time you have left, which helps to keep the negativity down and the level of affection up. I don't know if this is true for everyone else, but it has been for me.
3. Mood wise, I'm usually not moody or unhappy going home, if that's any help. I just get on with the rest of my day.
4. I get out a lot during the weekday after work, staying out reasonably late so I can get to work sane the next day.
I will say, while I was working inpatient, it was very different. I came home stressed at least a few times a week, worked odd hours so didn't have much of a social life, was pretty anxious, and had trouble sleeping. I didn't go out much, but I'm an introvert so that might have been more self-imposed (trying to be more social nowadays!). I accepted that as a "first year" sort of thing, but will admit, pretty happy to be in my current position, working with the patients I do now. :)
How often would you consider your work life to be stressful? How stressful?
Do you believe you have a healthy family life? I'm a family-oriented person and wouldn't to completely sacrifice that for my job. How much time do you have with your family?
What mood do you return home in most often?
Do you feel like you have time for going out?
Stressful? YES! Everyday, especially in your first year. If you think nursing school is overwhelming, just wait until you get on the floor and have to learn everything school didn't teach you. The stress goes home with you as well and if you don't learn how to appropriately handle it in the beginning it WILL mess with your family/relationships. I struggled with this for about 7-8 months before I was really able to teach myself to let it all go when I clocked out for the night. Some shifts are crazy enough were that's not possible, but you will learn your own way to balance it.
As for a healthy family life, no. I blame that mostly on working 3pm-11:30pm shift though. Most nights I don't get out until 12-12:30AM and when I get home I am wide awake from a busy shift getting my adrenaline going. My family works/goes to school during "normal" daytime hours. When I get home from work everyone is sleeping and can't be disturbed because they have to wake up early. I spend the night sneaking around the kitchen making dinner, catching up on bills, and household chores. By the time i get to sleep and wake up the next day everyone is already back at work/school. This shift is VERY isolating and paired with working weekends and holidays I don't often have any family time.
The mood I return home with often depends on the shift. Did I have a smooth night where everything went right? Rare, but every now and then it happens and my mood is positive. Did every possible thing go wrong this shift? A fall and incident report, x3 admissions, short staffed, patient decline and sent out, angry family members, fullmoon/sundowners messing with my already agitated elderly patients. Those nights it's very hard to leave the stress at the door when you leave and come home with a positive attitude.
Time for going out? I wish. I have good friends I see maybe a few times a year because of shift differences. Luckily they are great people and understand. I recently cut back a day in my schedule so maybe I will have time to see other human life sometime soon
I want to add that I hit my one year mark as a nurse this month and work on a sub-acute rehab unit.
How often would you consider your work life to be stressful? How stressful?
Do you believe you have a healthy family life? I'm a family-oriented person and wouldn't to completely sacrifice that for my job. How much time do you have with your family?
What mood do you return home in most often?
Do you feel like you have time for going out?
Hey :) Interesting point of inquiry, hope these help..
I've been a nurse for 7 years, during my studies I also worked as a nurses aide for 2 years. I worked on a surgical floor (cardio-thoracic and vascular) and now work in a cardiac ICU.
1. Stressful but not overly so. Working the floor was more stressful, the patients were sometimes ICU worthy but I had a big patient load; the ICU is high acuity but I feel I have more time to devote to each patient, so that works out ok. Also, if there is no new admit and no acute change in patient's condition, nothing particularly stressful is happening...
2. I have a SO and a daughter. I work night shifts (9 pm to 7 am), they have classical day-time school/job. On my work days, I don't see them that much, especially my SO, who comes from work pretty late usually, on my days off we see each other plenty. I actually like having a different schedule, gives me plenty of alone time at home (which I need).
3. Usually sleepy ! Occasionnally pissed off if we had a really lousy shift,.... or a lousy attending doctor ! I always browse the net for about 20 minutes before going to bed, I read something funny to de-stress.
4. I'm not much into partying, but on my days off, I could. I just prefer binge-watching netflix at home instead !
This shift is VERY isolating and paired with working weekends and holidays I don't often have any family time.
Time for going out? I wish. I have good friends I see maybe a few times a year because of shift differences. Luckily they are great people and understand. I recently cut back a day in my schedule so maybe I will have time to see other human life sometime soon
Does this make you regret your decision to become a nurse? Would you do it all over again?
Guttercat, ASN, RN
1,353 Posts
BTDT is a fantastic resource. She is neither rude nor "debilitating." She is one of the more realistic and helpful mentors on this site.
Way to step in it.