Medscape career satisfaction survey

[Jules A, MSN]

Interesting and as expected for most questions especially the area of not making any changes when dissatisfied and as I have seen as a result being miserable and subsequently making the rest of us miserable also. For crap sake, please, if you are unhappy find a way to make things better on us all.

"Nurses who said they were not happy that they became a nurse, and would not choose nursing again, were then asked what they planned to do with their careers in the next 3 years. Between one third and one half of these nurses had no firm plans to retire early, pursue a new path within nursing, reduce their hours, seek education outside of nursing, or leave the nursing profession entirely.

Overall, APRNs were less likely than RNs and LPNs to say that they planned to act on their career dissatisfaction. Older nurses who have not yet reached retirement age but are dissatisfied with nursing were more likely to say that they would retire earlier than planned."

From: Medscape APRN career satisfaction survey

[LessValuableNinja]

Have you seen the physician one? Ridiculous percentage wouldn't go into medicine if they lived life again, but keep doing it in this life anyhow.

[Jules A, MSN]

Have you seen the physician one? Ridiculous percentage wouldn't go into medicine if they lived life again, but keep doing it in this life anyhow.

With their investment and income I find that far more palatable.

[Aromatic]

gotta peeps dont know what they are getting into when they start med school. we got some peeps in my class that are in for a rude awakening thinking that once residency is over they get to sit on their toosh and do nothing. Still a good career but of course there are better options if money is the sole goal.

Most common reasons nurses dont change jobs or try to get out of garbage jobs is they have terrible spending habits. Very few a nurse I have spoken with have any type of savings besides a 401k. Many drive like 60k vehicles on a 50k salary. I mean lol! Same can be said for a lot of docs though too

[llg, PhD, RN]

Sometimes, it's easier to tolerate a few things you don't like than it is to change things (and risk losing all the good things you have). That's a legitimate decision to make.

[JellyDonut]

If i could go back in time and have a talk with my younger doe-eyed self I would do whatever possible to prevent my younger me from becoming a nurse. I would have told myself to aim higher and follow a different path, but many of us would like to make different decisions than we did.

I am glad I returned to school to become an NP. I have not regretted that part at all.

[Aromatic]

No doubt, I wouldnt have gone to college at all, Woulda stayed in my parents basement and done something computer related until I could monitize it.

Unfortunately I took the weak route through nursing and now med school. Neither of which are really astounding when it comes to making a huge impact on society. I do not understand why people are so dang proud when they get done with nursing, np, or med school. Its like being happy for being slightly above average.

Self education self education self education

[Jules A, MSN]

I do not understand why people are so dang proud when they get done with nursing, np, or med school. Its like being happy for being slightly above average.

I also don't get it particularly when it comes to the near hysterical defense of the alphabet soup behind their name. One hospital where I work made us all change to CRNP due to the ridiculous assortment of different letters to indicate NP and I swear one chick was nearly in tears when we discussed it with admin because she wanted her to include her specialty certification. She literally said "but I'm so proud of that" while choking back tears, it was embarrassing. As I've said before I could care less how they address me midlevel, NP, nurse, honey, whaaatev.

I'm aware that I'm only slightly above average which is possibly the reason I was previously content but never overly impressed with my relatively easy nursing accomplishments. That I did it while working like a beast and without help from Mommy, Daddy or Uncle Sam makes me more proud than the actual diplomas I received.

In today's climate where anyone can get into NP school and the market is being flooded with 20-somethings who have no RN experience but a keen focus on "work life balance" my opinion of our profession has plummeted so while I wasn't ever feeling all that smug now I'm definitely not dying to disclose my credentials at the next dinner party.

[Riburn3, BSN, MSN, APRN, NP]

I do not understand why people are so dang proud when they get done with nursing, np, or med school. Its like being happy for being slightly above average.

We live in a country where only around 30% of the total population has a bachelors degree, roughly 10% has a graduate degree, and around 2% have doctoral degrees. I would hardly call that being slightly above average. When getting your NP puts you on an education attainment level greater than 90% of the entire US population, it's quite the achievement, especially when you consider what the degree allows you to do compared to other graduate level degrees. I was very proud when I got my NP degree while finishing top of my class, paying for it all without a student loan, and working fulltime through most of it. Still am.

Totally agree with Jules A on the alphabet soup in the work setting. My hospital just puts "Nurse Practitioner" on all our badges, spelled out just like that. At least in my area, all the titles are mostly reserved for academia, even the DNP's which could go by Doctor in the clinical setting refrain from doing so outside of the classroom.

[LessValuableNinja]

But...

[Jules A, MSN]

We live in a country where only around 30% of the total population has a bachelors degree, roughly 10% has a graduate degree, and around 2% have doctoral degrees. I would hardly call that being slightly above average.

It won't be long before it will simply be average:

"Between academic years 2003–04 and 2013–14, the number of master's degrees conferred increased by 34 percent, from 564,300 to 754,500, and the number of doctor's degrees conferred increased by 41 percent, from 126,100 to 177,600."

From: The Condition of Education - Postsecondary Education - Programs, Courses, and Completions - Graduate Degree Fields - Indicator May (2016)

"Between 2008–09 and 2020–21,the number of master's degrees isprojected to increase 32 percent overall.

Between 2008–09 and 2020–21,the number of doctor's degrees isprojected to increase 57 percent overall."

From:

https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011026.pdf

[Riburn3, BSN, MSN, APRN, NP]

Even at those numbers it still won't be average.