If I knew nursing was so vindictive, horrible, and crazy like this I would have NEVER entered the nursing program in my school to become an RN.
I am a soon to be finished first year student in an ADN program so I do have SOME clinical experience and know a little bit about real world nursing.
I always thought it would be a decent and respectable career with flexible hours and the chance to actually make a difference. All I see on here is how easy it to lose your job and your license, how burnt out nurses become after the FIRST year and how there's NO camaraderie between nurses.
Makes me want to just get my RN and jump ship and become a CRNA or NP... sheesh!
I think the worst job I had was as a customer service rep for a large medical insurance company. That job was H E double L between the stinking insurance company benefit policies and the consumer complaining and screaming about why such and such a claim was denied. Oh and of course we were timed on the phone, timed on bathroom break and need I go on? This all happened on a daily basis. Screw that...I'll be a nurse any day...
I worked network support in the communications industry for 25 years. Well, it has it's cutthroats and backstabbing also. It is not the job, it is the people. We are all human and we have our good days and bad days. The problem is some people have more bad days than good and seem to feel that it is the fault of the rest of the world.
Nursing is not unique in having cutthroats and backstabbers, it is just one other working environment that has it's problems. Any customer serving field is going to have problems and human nature is a b---- to deal with when the stars are not aligned. Also ambition can fuel discord. If you have personalities that want to be on top no matter who gets stepped on then voila! you have issues. To put it frankly, the working world has it's issues, we just be the best that we can be.
Don't worry they abuse the NP's and CRNA's also- it called dumping on them. I have seen this up close and in person strating in 2006- A Np with a cardiology service in a hospital, decided to cut the NP position, She was reduced to over seeing stress tests all day. Some hospitals have CCRN's with experience doing that. Wasting the NP license. Another Np showed me her list of patients to round on in the hospital for one day- 2 full pages!. The NP's I work with now- continiously dumped on- never time for their lunch. They see one patient after another every 15 min. When I have to concur with them- they are doing their notes on their last pt and hurry up hurry up! It's no bed of roses.
Ok let me give you my perspective. First off, I am old and burnt out but not in a bad way. I've been doing bedside nursing in the ICU for 25 years now and truely see no end in site. So let me fill you in on my coping mechanisms. First let's get the negatives of hospital nursing out of the way.
1. Shift work
2. Weekends
3. Sometimes life seems like it revolves around ****
OK here are the good points and what keeps me going.
1. If you are young or even old and single the world is your oyster. You can go anywhere, anytime and find a decent paying job. Try that in any other profession.
2. You can enter and exit the profession at your will, and work as much or as little as you want. Most professions are all or nothing meaning full time with a 100% commitment or not at all. Nursing is a great paying, flexible vehicle that allows you the flexibility to persue other interests.
3. The only job statifaction that you are guaranteed is given to you on pay day. If you get anything else above and beyond that it is up to you to find it. No employer or co worker has an obligation to help you with your job satisfaction.
4. If you are an hourly employee when you walk out the door you are not obligated to the hospital on your off time. Your time is your time. When they call to ask you if you want to work more, don't answer the phone if you don't want to or just simply say "no thank you" or simply "I have prior obligations".
5. Many of us have enjoyed an unprecidented amount of job security during one of the worst economic downturns in history. When there was over 10% unemployment I was constantly being offered the opportunity to work OT.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
If I knew nursing was so vindictive, horrible, and crazy like this I would have NEVER entered the nursing program in my school to become an RN.
I am a soon to be finished first year student in an ADN program so I do have SOME clinical experience and know a little bit about real world nursing.
I always thought it would be a decent and respectable career with flexible hours and the chance to actually make a difference. All I see on here is how easy it to lose your job and your license, how burnt out nurses become after the FIRST year and how there's NO camaraderie between nurses.
Makes me want to just get my RN and jump ship and become a CRNA or NP... sheesh!
Being a CRNA you will pay beau coups in Liability Insurance because you are administering dangerous anesthetics.......the same for NP because you will be diagnosing and prescibing so you better be right.......
At least you'll be better paid....Right?
This is a very hard stressful job.....we quite literally hold peoples lives in the palms of our hands. We stress and worry......terrified not ot make a mistke. Spend a lifetime being the caregiver and whipping post of the patients, families, physicians and administrators. Before you consider nursing you need to realize that you are responsible for every patient and hold their lives in YOUR hands. And you better NOT make a mistake......
Read this.........If you want insight on our frustration that even after 30years of being a nurse you will stll be tossed under a bus.....
OP would have to realize that on a site with Over 400,000 nurses, you are bound to have people with bad days. The only problem is that when they have good days they dont all come here to talk about it cos their bad days could be 1 day in 30 days.
Note: its not just the same people complaining every time. if those complaining come to talk about good days, there might be no space cos they might have 10 good days in a row
Okay so I'm tired of seeing these threads. I honestly believe that "vent" threads should be exclusive to nurses only. It seems that students don't comprehend that us nurses come on here to vent. Venting is a healthy way of relieving the every day stress that nurses go through and if someone is not a nurse there is no way they can understand it. I know students need to see the real world of nursing however, they need to go to their CI and professors to seek guidance and advice.
On another note I used to a GNA, currently a LPN, soon to be RN, and plan to get BSN. I love nursing. If I didn't like it I wouldn't try so hard to pursue my education and career goals. Is bedside nursing for everyone? No. Guess what someone have to do it and sometimes we do things because we need to rather than having a choice.
OP choose nursing at your own risk. If you can't handle the threads on this site then I don't know how you will survive in the "real world" of nursing.
Specializes in Nursing Education, CVICU, Float Pool.
OP, One's Experience in Nursing School and as Nurse seems to be a very personal experience. Each individual has to determine whether their experience is good or bad. I joined this thread when I was 17 years old, and I found out, the hard way, that not all of the posts and post authors here are happy go lucky "it's good your going to be a nurse" people, and that's OK. It really opened my eyes to how frustrating a career in nursing could be. I got even better insight when I started working alongside all types of nurses while working in the float pool as a CNA at my local hospital. I understand why many of the posters get frustrated. Our hospital is understaffed, so A CNA in the float pool may have to work with 17-34 patients by ourselves because people are constantly calling out or there is no one scheduled to come in. I hate having over 12 patients because , more often times then not, I will have 3 or more total patients that I have to do everything for, not including my other patients who need assistance. Now, despite all this, when people ask me if I like my job, I still tell them I love it. Because I honestly have more good days than bad, personally. Being in the float pool means that I get to see the whole hospital ER, ICU, Psych, Cardiac, sitting my whole shift with psychiatric patients in violent tough-cough restraints (which is a agonizing on night shift) etc..
I like that I get to experience many different types of healthcare and get some experience before I start Nursing School in Fall 2011. I appreciate the forums and my job because they prepare me for that notorious "other side" of nursing. It toughens me up, so to speak, to know that this is really want to do, because it is not as easy of a job as most people think, but I am confident that I am being adequately prepared for it.
Sorry for the length, but I hope everything turns out better for you.
Well, now that I've read the posts, it kind of makes sense...
This may sound dumb, but where are the "good" vent posts about nursing? Why focus on the one bad patient, family, day or whatever when you can focus on the 10 good ones...? I know life isn't sunshine and roses, but that doesn't mean it has to be dog **** either.
As of right now, I DO fit the demographic of a "single, young person" so that means I once I do become a nurse, the world IS my oyster (after I get that one year of exp. of course). But reading the negativity day and day out is starting to skew my view on nursing...
If I knew nursing was so vindictive, horrible, and crazy like this I would have NEVER entered the nursing program in my school to become an RN.
I am a soon to be finished first year student in an ADN program so I do have SOME clinical experience and know a little bit about real world nursing.
I always thought it would be a decent and respectable career with flexible hours and the chance to actually make a difference. All I see on here is how easy it to lose your job and your license, how burnt out nurses become after the FIRST year and how there's NO camaraderie between nurses.
Makes me want to just get my RN and jump ship and become a CRNA or NP... sheesh!
Nursing can have issues certainly but it also offers work flexibility, learning opportunties and variety that aren't found in most professions. Most definitely encourage you to get an NP or as much education as you can. Always.
And, add to this, at the end of the most brutal day, you've still helped somebody.
Please also remember you can advocate and join associations and work for change for the bummer aspects. You are young and you are the future of nursing.
Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!! We all have great days. More than the bad days. This is where we get info and advice on the crap. We really do not need advice on how to make a patient smile, or to get a family member to tell you thank you. We all have the positive light within us. It's the politics of nursing we need to support one another in. You will get it...hopefully, otherwise you will be eaten alive.
itsmejuli
2,188 Posts
I think the worst job I had was as a customer service rep for a large medical insurance company. That job was H E double L between the stinking insurance company benefit policies and the consumer complaining and screaming about why such and such a claim was denied. Oh and of course we were timed on the phone, timed on bathroom break and need I go on? This all happened on a daily basis. Screw that...I'll be a nurse any day...