why so many negatives about nursing?

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I was reading another thread about someone wanting to leave their job to pursue nursing, and all the comments consisted of negativity about the nursing career. Is nursing really that awful? I'm still in undergrad and thinking about pursuing a second-degree BSN and working as a psychiatric nurse. But from what I see, all the nurses on here seem to hate being a nurse. Nursing seemed like the best choice for me having a psychology degree....but now I'm starting to reconsider with seeing all the negativity. So, why are there so many negatives about nursing?

Specializes in Geriatrics, Telemetry, Med-Surg.
Out of curiosity for the nurses who have replied - what keeps you in nursing?

My student loans. My husband says I'm not allowed to pursue another career until my loans are paid down. Truth be told, I love taking care of people. I really do. That's why I feel so bad about wanting to get out of the field I worked so hard to get into to begin with. Nursing has been a letdown. As many others have mentioned, it's 5% patient interaction and 95% busy/paperwork. My mom has been a nurse for nearly 30 years. She says nursing was nothing like this when she started. She's also one of those 'older nurses' who is trapped in an unsafe, unethical position (a NICU with a 4:1 ratio) because hospitals wants BSNs and she's 'too old' to pursue another degree.

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It is not negativity but a feeling of despair that is present. Nursing is a very difficult field. Too much work to do.

Poor staffing, back stabbing, lack of supplies, lack of support staff etc. are what nurses deal with everyday. Nurses come to the field for many reason.

The reality of practice as a bedside nurse is brutal.

while some nurses have a roll with the punches mentality, the reality of what nursing is overwhelms some. Nursing will exhaust you physically and emotionally.

Employers are concerned about getting the work done. You are expected to give and give more. Standing on your feet for 12 to 13 hours at a time is not fun. Dealing with rude doctors, nasty patients, unrealistic family members is not fun. This is day after day, year after year. Add to this is the boss who add more paper work to satisfy some new regulatory regulation.

Making this drama even worse is that their is very little opportunity to advance out of nursing. You can become a manager but you are on call 24/7 without 24/7 pay or the resources to get the job done. You could go into case management but if you don't meet LOS goals you will be let go. Or better yet you could be a NP. While you are not pushing a med cart, you are still a junior member of the healthcare team plus you are now under the direction of a physician who has billing targets and productivity metrics.

Before you start your nursing education, work as an aide in a hospital or a nursing home. See what nurses do. Nursing education is expensive and time consuming. Before you jump in, see first hand what you are getting yourself into. By the way...nursing is not a versatile as you have been told. And now experienced and new nurses are having a hard time finding work. Look before you leap!

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Out of curiosity for the nurses who have replied - what keeps you in nursing?
I love my patients...I love being a nurse. I appreciate the little things and throw out the crap.
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Specializes in ED.

I love nursing. I love my job. I've been a nurse for 20 years and I have never wanted to do anything else. I work my butt off every shift, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I work in the ED and we work as a team, nurses, physicians, techs. As far as lack of respect, I don't allow it. Maybe it's because I've been doing this job for so long, but I do not allow anyone to be disrespectful to me and I'm lucky to have managers and physicians I work with back all of us up.

I find it disheartening to read so many negatives about this profession. Yes, I know the reality of nursing is much different then what we were all taught. To all the potential nursing students out there, keep the faith. The work is hard and there will be days when you will wonder why are you doing this, but in twenty years, I can say that those days are fewer than the days that I am glad I am a nurse.

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I can't personally comment, but I did receive some encouraging words recently from an RN extraordinaire, who cared for my sister-in-law up until her death at age 35 from cancer. The family was so moved by her incredible care and passion for her work that we're still in touch over a decade later. This nurse has been in the profession for a long time and specializes in hospital critical care.

"It is a new day each time you walk into work. That is why I have loved it for so long. You never get bored and you are always learning. It is a great career, I love it. I still work in the unit three days a week. The unit is very dynamic, always changing, with 2 intensivists on in the day, and one on at night. It is great.

I do love teaching nursing, and as you know, I love my profession. I am in love with the students and we are just finishing up rotation before graduation! I love it."

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The medical field is part of who I am. I cannot get away from it. Do I "love" nursing?" Sometimes. Sometimes I'm high as a kite. And sometimes I hate it (for many of the same reasons others have mentioned).

I've been in this nursing gig for 22 years, and have seen a lot of changes. I am not a "cranky old bat" and have no issue with technological changes, because, like anything else you learn as you go.

I think much of what we're seeing in terms of dissatisfaction is not in dealing with rude patients, demanding supervisors, cranky doctors, and being the "go-to person" for the entire interdisciplinary team (the buck stops here), because it's always been that way. Nothing has changed there.

What has changed greatly, however, especially in the last 10-12 years, is the complexity involved in the actual delivery of the same patient care.

A simple, "no brainer" task or procedure that used to take five minutes, now takes ten or more. There's a lot of reasons for this, including technological checks and balances, cumbersome charting, diversification and expansion of roles and responsibilites within the mulitdisciplinary team, and ever-expanding regulations and necessary steps for even the simplest of tasks.

It's a bummer. More bureaucracy, and more impediments to the actual delivery of care are being shoved into the same amount of hours. It makes it difficult to enjoy the delightful aspects in process of the art of medicine.

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I love nursing. I love my job. I've been a nurse for 20 years and I have never wanted to do anything else. I work my butt off every shift, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I work in the ED and we work as a team, nurses, physicians, techs. As far as lack of respect, I don't allow it. Maybe it's because I've been doing this job for so long, but I do not allow anyone to be disrespectful to me and I'm lucky to have managers and physicians I work with back all of us up.

I find it disheartening to read so many negatives about this profession. Yes, I know the reality of nursing is much different then what we were all taught. To all the potential nursing students out there, keep the faith. The work is hard and there will be days when you will wonder why are you doing this, but in twenty years, I can say that those days are fewer than the days that I am glad I am a nurse.

I worked ED and loved it, too. I think the culture in a lot of ED's is very different than floor nursing or critical care. I've done all of the above. ED was my favorite (aside from inpatient acute dialysis) for some of those very reasons. While it is competitive and high stress, I think the closed environment lends itself well to a team mentality. Usually.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Jessy RN you summed everything up very nicely. I work the bare minimal to pay my bills and put food on the table. And I don't enjoy my off days because I don't have extra money to do anything fun. And I dread working an extra day to have extra money to do anything fun. Bedside nursing sucks the life out of you.

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I agree although I've been having some really good shifts lately, the memories of all the bad ones keep me from working overtime which I really should be doing so I can get out of debt and get my student loans paid off and make up for all the lost time in retirement savings. I just can't bring myself to pick up extra shifts because you never know what's in store for you and what you will have to deal with! I've always found nursing to be stressful and difficult, it has never come easy to me in all the years. Over the years as I've grown in confidence and knowledge, other stressors come to the fore. I've noticed the computer has been a big stressor for me and I hardly ever posted before we started computer charting! It is ridiculous how they micromanage via the computer scan percentages, late meds, etc! You can't just turn it on and go, instead you have to go thru various screens and answer all the questions before you can pass your meds and be on your way. Also you're lucky if you can find a working computer because they have no battery life! Silly reminders telling us to look our patients in the eye, of course, we are forced to look at the computer to document and pass our meds! Then the endless alarms just are so jarring and get on my nerves. Of course the dementia, drug/etoh withdrawal and confused people crawling out of bed, alarms blaring, sometimes violent, and the very heavy patients that can literally break your back. I've seen too many coworkers injured from either the violent (punched, kicked, bit, bottle of urine thrown) or superobese patients and too many living in chronic back pain from the same! One pt attacked several staff over his stay punching, kicking, choked and pulled out hair and then was crying that no one was helping him. Really, give me a break! Thru the grace of God I was spared physical attack and kept my distance as much as I could, but I'm sorry I just can't bring myself to work overtime when these are the type of patients we are stuck dealing with! I guess I will just be poor and in debt for a while longer!

These nursing students claiming they will handle it all so much better get on my nerves too. Good Luck with that! I don't believe they will be any more successful in coping and being happy as a bedside nurse than the majority of us here!

I'm too close to retirement to spend the money for BSN/NP etc and I honestly wouldn't jump into case management given the insurance pressures and lay offs I think will be the end result of Obamacare now that the sick can't be denied coverage! Most of the young new nurses by me are already going back to school to get away from the bedside and getting their NP. The hospital floor is becoming a paid residency for a majority of the new grads as a stepping stone to be an NP. I think that will be somewhat better than floor nursing, but still run like an assembly line, hurry up and see more patients so we can make a profit! I don't think escaping to be an NP will turn out to be a dream either, just different stressors and less physical and no alarms to listen to. How I wish I didn't have to listen to the endless alarms!!!

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Specializes in PCCN.

wow, i could have wrote that- had to double check author

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Specializes in ICU, PACU.

I come from a family of nurses. I read all about it here in the forums. So you'd think I had a good idea of what I was getting into, right? Wrong. That idea was NOTHING compared to when I actually started working and personally experiencing all the bullcrap on the floor. I repeat--NOTHING. I guess in reality, I really had no clue.

I started out on a Med/Surg floor. I thought that as long as I'm doing something with a semblance of being fulfilling, helping people, and all that idealistic yadda, yadda, yadda, I can deal with all the nonsense that comes with nursing. Wrong. The good side of it doesn't always outweigh the bad side. I was having more bad days than good days. You have to deal with unsafe staffing, verbal abuse from either the patient, their family member, doctors or co-workers (lots of anger, huh?), charting half the time and still charting at the end of your shift, having to run to pharmacy to pick up missing meds, etc. The same patients keep coming back with the same problems. Vent patients staying on the floor for months and never getting better. It felt like you were just helping them prolong their misery. I had zero job satisfaction. I was starting to hate being a nurse.

But I do love the conceptual act of nursing. I love my patients and they generally love me. I recently found my path on a surgical floor with a high turnover. I love seeing patients leave better than when they come on to the floor. I have a supportive manager and good co-workers. Now, I have a lot more good days than bad days which is great.

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Specializes in geriatrics.

It isn't just venting or politics. The reality is, nurses are working short, under employed, laid off, and unemployed since 2007. Facilities are more concerned about profit margins, and I've seen many websites now stating "No new grads."

Fair? No. However, that's what we're all facing. Unless you're willing to work rural, have a back up plan because the metro areas are saturated with new and experienced nurses. In fact, when I applied to Santa Barbara in 2010, the recruiter informed me that she had 500 applications and two positions. Similar demographics now throughout the US, Canada, Australia. These trends are pervasive.

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.
It isn't just venting or politics. The reality is nurses are working short, under employed, laid off, and unemployed since 2007. Facilities are more concerned about profit margins, and I've seen many websites now stating "No new grads." Fair? No. However, that's what we're all facing. Unless you're willing to work rural, have a back up plan because the metro areas are saturated with new and experienced nurses. In fact, when I applied to Santa Barbara in 2010, the recruiter informed me that she had 500 applications and two positions. Similar demographics now throughout the US, Canada, Australia. These trends are pervasive.[/quote']

The funny thing is, when people see how overworked and understaffed nurses are, it perpetuates the myth that there's a great job market out there.

Hospitals need nurses, so of course they're hiring, right?

Psh. My unit (and entire hospital) is horribly understaffed. Nurses and techs routinely work 5 or 6 shifts a week just to cover the bare minimum staffing needs. I guess it's cheaper to pressure everyone into working overtime than it is to provide benefits for new employees. At first we were told nurses would be given a maximum of 6 pTs and techs a max of 14. It turns out what they meant was we will ALWAYS have the max amount of pts. If census is low enough for every nurse yo on,he have 5 pts, they'll send someone home and get everyone up to 6.

We have a scary amount of falls. Is there any wonder? How does one tech keep 14 (up to 20 some days) people safe? They don't even provide sitters. If we have someone that MUST be watched, someone from the desk or the floor will just have to do it, which means a hell of a day/night for everyone.

I pretty much have a guaranteed job waiting for me after graduating, and I'm just praying I survive until I get my BSN and enough experience to get out of there - with my license intact.

Scary how they've managed to flood the market with people DESPERATE to land a position in the midst of atrocious working conditions.

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