Lifestyle of a Nurse

martymoose, BSN, RN · Aug 16, 2016

The system I work for now is awful. The hospital I work at is poorly run. The unit I work on has constant turnover and ineffective management. The patient load is ridiculous and the patient population can be very challenging. I am a floor nurse and I have very little autonomy or power over the decisions that rule my workday. With the recent changes in healthcare and the lack of responsibility and ethicality in the business world, healthcare has devolved into paperwork to CYA in the case of an inspection by one of many governmental bodies that oversee hospital function. Then there are the legal issues from lawsuits.

Hmm, I live in NYS and your place sounds like mine One of the reasons I want to leave nursing.

beckster_01, BSN, RN · Aug 17, 2016

Stress: The first year is very stressful. You will second guess yourself, make mistakes, make people mad. But its all worth it when you get to the point where people are asking you questions and you realize that you are actually competent. After that the stress comes mostly from the system, and you either cope with it or you don't and find a new job.

Family life: No kids yet, but the upside of nursing is that even though you get crappy hours, it is a flexible job. When I have kids I can ask to go to straight nights (I will sacrifice sleep for being able to see my kids during daylight hours), weekend contract (which would free me up during the week and the husband can do childcare on the weekend), drop to part time, or find a cushy office job and work 9-5 but be bored stiff. As you can see, there are ups and downs to everything, an ideal situation would be if I only had to work when I wanted to (ha!)

Mood: Most of the time I am fine. Tired, but fine. Sometimes I come home angry. Sometimes I come home sad. Sometimes I come home happy.

Going out? Not my scene. I think people manage to make time for it.

Again, good set of questions and I think you are taking the wide variety of answers in stride. Good luck with your decisions!

cardiacfreak, ADN · Aug 17, 2016

I have worked night shift on the same unit (Progressive Care/Step-Down ICU) for 17 years. The majority of our clients are CVAs, post-op CABG, CHF, DKA, we have cardiac drips, heparin drips, insulin drips, etc. Our nurse:patient ratio is normally 1:3(4) on day shift and 1:4(5) on night shift.

How often would you consider your work life to be stressful? How stressful? As you gain more experience your stress level decreases. I still have stressful nights but it is very rare that I am at a loss for what I should do, and in that rare situation, I utilize our rapid response team. My stress usually comes from having multiple admissions and critical patients and my co-workers being newer nurses with less than 1 year nursing experience.
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? My unit self schedules so it is easy to schedule around upcoming events. Working night shift, sometimes I lose some sleep, but I think my family is worth it.
What mood do you return home in most often? I learned a long time ago to leave my bad mood in the parking lot. Granted, sometimes this is not easy to do, but it is rare that I come home in a bad mood. Usually I'm just tired. Sometimes if an emergency has occurred close to quitting time, I may still be on an adrenaline high, but I have found a glass of wine or a cold beer or two will settle me right down.
Do you feel like you have time for going out? I don't go out much, but my co-workers who are in their 20's seem to find lots of time to go out and post their shenanigans on facebook. We are only required to work 3 weekend shifts. I have been known to show up at a local watering hole after work that opens around 0700. You'd be surprised how much business they do early in the morning serving nurses from 2 local hospitals. We often joke that they should change the name of the bar to The Nurses Den.

dec2007 · Aug 17, 2016

1. My work life is hardly ever stressful these days because I now work from home. My work life was somewhat stressful when I was a floor nurse due to my introverted personality: I dislike small talk, schmoozing, and the nuances involved with soothing people's anxieties.
2. I am childless and live alone. I visit extended family out of state several times yearly.
3. My work day ends with me being in a great mood. I realize I struck gold by landing a job that entails no direct patient care or disrespect from their families.
4. I have plenty of time to go out.

I':grumpy:m jealous!!!!

lavenderskies, BSN · Aug 18, 2016

The answers to your questions are entirely subjective and individual. Nursing is a stressful career and it impacts their family differently.
I also now work from home... it is a different level of stress and my family realizes the need for a quiet environment and the fact they cannot even walk into the room when I am working ( HIPAA).
Your family life WILL suffer. You will be working nights weekends, and holidays. They will NOT understand why you will not be available.
Upon returning from a shift, I was emotionally and physically exhausted.
Going out ?

To be fair to the OP when you tell someone that their family life WILL suffer and their family will not be understanding based on your experience and that you were physically and emotionally exhausted.....does sound pretty "horrible".

canigraduate · Aug 19, 2016

I am currently looking for a new job. I stayed at this one so long because I was depressed and didn't think I could do any better.

I have heard of a few good places that treat their nurses with respect. Hopefully I will get on at one of them soon!

guest974915 · Aug 19, 2016

I would tell anyone contemplating entering nursing to think long and hard. I have been a R.N. for almost 25 years and though I consider myself a kind, compassionate person who strives to ease other's sufferings, to be honest my decision was mostly motivated by the desire for steady work and the flexibility that nursing affords. I do believe, however, that nurses really do make profound differences in the lives of vulnerable people and families, and that it (Nursing) remains a truly noble profession. That being said though, I look at other bachelor's-prepared professions-i.e. engineers, CPAs-both with the possibilities of much greater earning potentials, better; hours, working conditions, and general respect/treatment by employers and other professionals (my opinion of course). In my career over the years, I've experienced a dramatic erosion of benefits, increased responsibilities and stress, and a thinly veiled, but very real age bias toward older nurses. I also routinely witness high revenue-generating surgeons speak to nurses insultingly and with total disregard, condescension, and hostility-this behavior is not necessarily condoned but believe me, it's tolerated in multiple practice settings and areas. I've kind of soured on nursing and if I had it all to do over again-well, I might just reconsider my career choice.

Sage611 · Aug 20, 2016

This is just terrible. I start nursing school next week and have been second-guessing that decision ever since the discovery of this site. The general consensus seems to be nursing is the pits. :barf02:

Ruby Vee, BSN · Aug 20, 2016

This is just terrible. I start nursing school next week and have been second-guessing that decision ever since the discovery of this site. The general consensus seems to be nursing is the pits.

Oh, good lord. Nursing, like everything else, has it's ups and downs, but you largely get out of it what you put into it. You can look at the schedule as a "social life killer" or you can look at it as flexible. You can look at the work as "nasty and demeaning" or you can look at it as stable, indoor work with solid, middle class pay and benefits. It's all up to you. You do realize, don't you, that folks on the internet are more likely to be unhappy than happy. People are quick to post about negative events, slow to post about the positives. (There's FaceBook for that.)