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!
Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
Here in my "real world" our facility has laid off nurses and cut staff in every other department. We have not gotten a raise in two years,we lost tuition reimbursement last year,we lost our uniform allowance three years ago.We have brought in an outside agency to take over our rehab dept,and outside ageny to consult with our admin to actually run the place day to day. Our staffing is almost %50 pool nurses (and most of them plant themselves behind the med cart for the entire shift and we spend most of our time doing the crap that they say they don't know how to do) We are all trying to stay under the radar-no one wants to make a stupid mistake and loose their job and that is our reality.Many of us have been there ten years or longer and they want us and our benefit packages gone......Sadly the job market is dismal in this area-there is NO place else to go.......I've seen more back stabbing and tatttle tailing in the past year then in the past ten...
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!
OMG, you haven't even finished the first year of nursing school...You have no idea!
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.
I would vote for that. Or at least a "specialty" thread that is confined to licensed nurses.
I am happy to see the plethora of positive responses in defense of the nursing profession. Reading these forums makes me apprehensive as a student as well, and it's good to see people defend it. The reason I wanted to be a nurse is because I don't like sitting around doing nothing at work.. 9-5 at a desk would be incredibly depressing to me... and I was hoping to see that many nurses enjoy the hustle and bustle of the daily work. Thanks for all the responses :)
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
Well, because nurses are.......nurses. We are trained to, we want to, and we strive to give excellent care to every single patient. Those patients that we didn't have time for or who took all our time and still complained, weigh on our minds. And allnurses.com is (or should be - sometimes questionable) a place to come where everyone else understands (or should - sometimes questionable) because they too have had such days or such patients.
I would vote for that. Or at least a "specialty" thread that is confined to licensed nurses.
But oh dear:eek: That would be discrimiation.
Yeah I suppose you are right. I'm wasn't trying to be rude but sometimes I get tired of seeing this threads. I do always have the choice not to read them I guess just as students have the choice not to read vent threads.
If a vent thread makes you not want to go to nursing I would strongly suggest doing a different career. When I was a student no amount of vent threads could deter me from nursing. It has always been a dream and passion of mine. I used the vent threads as eye openers as what to do and not do in nursing and how to avoid stressful situations if at all possible. At the end of the day I had enough common sense to realize that nursing has its good and bad days.
OP, I can see what you're saying. I'm starting school in the fall and sometimes I wonder whether I'm doing the right thing, if I want to go into a field where there's so much crap to deal with. But there are a few major points I keep coming back to:
1. obviously, there's no need to "vent" about good days, but they definitely do happen. So I try to see the negative posts as just part of the picture...and as addictive as this site is, I make sure to take some days away from it. :) Just for the sake of sanity!
2. Any job out there has the potential for crappy coworkers, institutional issues, funding cuts, overwork, etc etc.
3. Anything truly worthwhile in this world is going to involve some risk, and possibly some sacrifice. So there's definitely the risk of some really bad jobs or work environments, but there's also the possibility of a wonderful workplace and cohesive team (they may be rare, but do exist). Which brings me to #4...
4. Nothing is permanent. Being in a crappy job doesn't mean you'll be there forever. I think having a plan B is a totally essential part of professional wellness. I totally agree with onaclearday about this...feeling stuck will make everything bad seem that much worse. So if you get out there as an RN and it is actually horrible....keep researching and reminding yourself that there are other options.
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 disagree with you so much. First off, you can't become a CRNA without at least 3 hrs of critical care nursing. As far as NP goes, unless you work as nurse, I don't think you'll ever excel in that position either. When I became a new nurse, I found that all nurses.com had a wealth of information that helped me greatly to build my practice that makes me the great nurse I am today! It's not all negative around here. Sure, others may come here to vent, but how can you say " if I knew this before school". You need to form your OWN opinion about nursing before you go wanting to "jump ship" and don't take everything you read on this website to heart! Come on, your not even a nurse yet!
Nursing is a decent and respectable career. Reserve your judgement/opinion until you walk a mile in our shoes. There is plenty of camaraderie on my floor. There is usually 1-2 bad apples but i dont let them spoil the whole bunch. Maybe after you
become a nurse and work the floor you will gain a new perspective on it all. But please come back and share your "thoughts" after you become a nurse and worked for about a year. Take care and wishing you well in nursing school!
As a lot of people have said, most of us are venting on this site. We of course vent about our bad days. I've been nursing for 25 yrs and I love it. I have really bad days and really good days. I also have some that are in between.
I work on a really great unit and we work well together. There is no back stabbing or talking about one another. If we see someone is rally swamped we ask what can we do to help and we all do it for each other.
I've done my share of complaining on this site too and if I have scared anyone off I'm sorry. Please do understand, that we do talk about our bad days more than our good to get it out of our systems and then go back to work with a good attitude.
Good luck to you (the original poster). Get your floor nursing experience and then see how you feel. You may even vent a little too.
I'm going to go out on a limb and disagree with the numerous posts of people who say that (floor)nursing is just like every other profession. I've held a half dozen other jobs besides nursing and no other job had the extremes that floor nursing has. In no other job have I gone home shaking, knowing that the lack of staffing almost killed one of my patients. And in no other job have I gone home after saving a life. Politics are, yes, in every job, but there are extreme highs and extreme lows in hospital nursing which few other jobs come close. Its not all merely venting either -- floor nursing has serious issues threatening patient health and safety which one would be foolish to pretend doesn't exist.
I'm going to go out on a limb and disagree with the numerous posts of people who say that (floor)nursing is just like every other profession. I've held a half dozen other jobs besides nursing and no other job had the extremes that floor nursing has. In no other job have I gone home shaking, knowing that the lack of staffing almost killed one of my patients. And in no other job have I gone home after saving a life. Politics are, yes, in every job, but there are extreme highs and extreme lows in hospital nursing which few other jobs come close. Its not all merely venting either -- floor nursing has serious issues threatening patient health and safety which one would be foolish to pretend doesn't exist.
ktwlpn, LPN
3,844 Posts
Here in my "real world" our facility has laid off nurses and cut staff in every other department. We have not gotten a raise in two years,we lost tuition reimbursement last year,we lost our uniform allowance three years ago.We have brought in an outside agency to take over our rehab dept,and outside ageny to consult with our admin to actually run the place day to day. Our staffing is almost %50 pool nurses (and most of them plant themselves behind the med cart for the entire shift and we spend most of our time doing the crap that they say they don't know how to do) We are all trying to stay under the radar-no one wants to make a stupid mistake and loose their job and that is our reality.Many of us have been there ten years or longer and they want us and our benefit packages gone......Sadly the job market is dismal in this area-there is NO place else to go.......I've seen more back stabbing and tatttle tailing in the past year then in the past ten...