My doubts about a future in nursing

Valerie Salva, BSN, RN · Apr 6, 2008

Having trouble reading your post, as it's in one giant paragraph.

SteveNNP, MSN, NP · Apr 6, 2008

I'm confused as to what your actual question is.... Is it that you are trying to get us to convince you that you are somehow wrong?

You are very right on many points. The hours are long, staffing and pay contribute to a high level of stress, patients often do not take medical advice to heart, a lot of nursing education is superfluous, and sometimes autonomy is limited.

That being said, nurses put up with all the above because we enjoy helping our patients the best that we can, and many of us love our jobs. There are many places out there where the environment is nurturing, not toxic,and many personal, professional and financial benefits exist.

School is a 4 year blip in the scope of your career as a nurse. Focus on getting the most from your education, and find an area that interests you, and that you can invest yourself in.

Nursing is not a career for the faint of heart. You shouldn't go into it for the money or job availability/flexibility. If you do, all the things you mentioned will make it a living nightmare for you. You do it because you want to be a nurse, and you want to make a difference, no matter how small.

clhRN2b2010 · Apr 6, 2008

Maybe a break would do you well? The lovely thing about life here and now is that we don't live in a soviet block country where it is decided for you what you will do for aliving and you do it every day for the rest of your life until you die. You have choices and you can move into and out of various areas.

I went into pharm. sales after by BS in HlEd. It looked so great from the outside, company car, lots of money, travel, nice clothes..blah, blah. For me, it ate my soul. I wanted more and different. So, now I am preparing for a career in nursing. Maybe I will get into that and realize I don't want to do that forever either. I do believe that there is much more opportunity for specialization in nursing. Within patient care, I have multiple levels of education and specialities to work in. I could do research, become an entrepanuer, or write a book on something regarding health care that I am very passionate about. I can take on a teaching position somewhere when my kids are college aged and obtain a nice discount for them .

The point is, I feel where you are and only you can decide if it is for you. Your frustration is palatable and I wish the best in whatever path you choose.

angel337, MSN, RN · Apr 6, 2008

maybe its just my experience, but i don't see the misery that alot of people on this site complain about in their nursing careers. most nurses that i know love what they do and are very happy with their salaries (especially in this economy). nursing is not for everyone. some specialties are better than other ones, some workplace environments are better than other ones. i personally don't plan to stay at the bedside until i retire but for now i like it, make a comfortable living and i work at a great place. when you focus to much on the negative its pretty hard to notice the positives.

SandraCVRN · Apr 6, 2008

NewJA, All nursing areas are not as stressful as you think and like what your roommate is going through. You don't state what area of the country you are in but even as a new grad I was rarely so overwhelmed I needed to quit after only 6 weeks.

Good luck to both of you.

PS, try editing your post maybe you can add some spacing that way.

alem-tsahai · Apr 6, 2008

Sounds like you're trying to talk yourself out of nursing school. Don't do it. Your roomie is stressed now, but talk to her a couple of years from now. She'll be fine.

And yeah nursing school is 80% BS, but what kind of school isn't. Just go through the paces and don't look back.

Do what my friend advised me to do when I was questioning the whole "to be a nurse or not" thing- just do it. If you don't like it, do something else. At least you will know. And having that license will come in handy outside of the hospital setting. Nursing isn't just hospitals and clinics and home health. You'd be surprised to see where you could go.

Good luck!

lucky1RN · Apr 6, 2008

"to be honest, i believe that the western medical community and entire health care system is an absolute disaster, more conducive to keeping people ill than to true health and healing. the entire system is designed to manage the mess that people make of their lives through living dangerously (smoking, bad eating habits, sedentary life, etc.....)" we are either part of the problem or part of the solution...why not direct your energy toward being part of the solution?

"as well as to deal with emergencies (which i literally could not deal with, due to the toxic level of stress that would put in my life)". kudos for recognizing this in yourself. some of us thrive in a critical environment and see it has positive stress...not toxic stress.

"i have also noted that it is extremely obvious that the majority of the education required for the rn, while it should be extremely important to the job, is in fact totally useless or superfluous. when it comes down to it, the nurses job is comprised almost entirely of the above list of very exhausting and stressful chores..... which i could learn how to do in a 1 year program" wow. you have been grossly misinformed. any nurse that is only focused on tasks and not using his/her education is a danger to the patient. a tiny example is when a confused pt is anxious...is it mental anxiety? cerebral edema? hypoxia? a drug reaction? an mi? you can't just focus on the "task" of throwing some ativan at the pt.

"the typical 12 hour shifts from either 7 pm too 7 am, or from 7 am to 7 pm.... (i would never do either of those shifts, not for a day, let alone indefinitely)" suit yourself. i love working 3 days a week and choosing which shifts and days are best for me.

"she has just started in the job about 6 weeks ago, and she is talking about leaving already. she comes home looking so excessively exhausted and stressed that she literally looks like she was lucky to make it home at all." uhhh...you mean your roomate has been a nurse for 6 weeks? ya, she's gonna be a little stressed out. she will be working hard to keep her head above water. time management is not something you can teach/learn the short amount of time you're in nursing school, it only comes with experience.

"relatively cushy job at the va, or in some other unforeseen capacity that is low stress" you know, i totally agree that nurses should not suffer mentally or physically for their work. but, nurses are professionals and are expected to function in a professional capacity. all professions carry a certain amount of responsibility and stress. those "cushy" jobs are typically for nurses with many years experience for a reason. they are only "cushy" because the nurse no longer experiences stress in the same way due to his/her experience.

"just do medication management. but then, i would just loathe peddling medications to people who could drop them id they'd just live healthy" again, i think you've been misinformed about the scope of nps. true, much of their work is dealing with pts who won't/can't help themselves. many people could stay off meds with lifestyle changes. however, what about the kid with strep? the 23 year old athlete with primary hypertension? the construction worker that nearly cut his finger off? the schizophrenic? the mother of 4 with breast cancer? it's not just doctors taking care of these patients.

"for a person with health issues or other challenges going in to it, the career seems like a ludicrous choice, unless the person wants to stay on the academic side of things and just become a professor (where they will need 2-3x the education with about 1/2 the maximum earning potential..... and then they can take part in the system of instructing all that excessive material that i mentioned earlier.... hmmm...... that's a no-brainer)"

so you group nursing educators into that "cushy" group? ya, being a clinical instructor with 8 students...with 4 patients each...which means you are ultimately responsible for 32 patients today...ya, that sounds like a walk in the park to me :bugeyes: .

i, for one, love my job. it's a rollercoaster ride every day. complete strangers trust me to take care of them when they are most ill. at times, it's overwhelming but i have an awesome support system of sister/brother nurses. every day i work i decide to do the best i can with the circumstances i'm given in the time i've been allotted. but then, i've never been one to back down from a challenge.

i applaud you for learning early on that nursing is not the career for you. keep exploring your opportunities. i wish you luck in finding a career that fulfills you!

NHCNurse · Apr 6, 2008

I am not sure what you are trying to ask or the point you're trying to make?

Bottom line, we live in America where you can decide the career that is best for you. Nobody is forcing you to become a nurse and if you have such a negative impression of it, then don't do it.

I work hard and love what I do. It is not a perfect profession, but I'm not sure there are any out there.

edc1951 · Apr 6, 2008

NewJA,

I thanked you for your honesty and willingness to reconsider your career in nursing because you are questioning whether you can fulfill your first desire.

I too have become very upset by the changes (mostly negative) I have seen in the past 30 years but will tell you about my career because it is really a question of finding your niche and always doing what you know is right. It is about asking when you are unsure, reading and discussing and ignoring those nurses who may feel that you are trying to be "better than" them because you seek to gain knowledge. Believe me, they exist and will try to wear you down. Remember, you may be perceived as a threat to them but you will be legitimately liked and trusted by the patients to whom your allegiance and high standards are owed.

I started at age 26 in nursing school and did a Associate degree. At that time ('76) there were still quite a few non-diploma programs which had already started to be phased out I chose not to do a BSN, thinking I'd work on it later. 30 years later and that later has never come.

Just before I graduated I was offered a job as a school nurse at a boarding school. I took it. I was the only nurse for 130 students at a school in the mountains of NH. My first 3 months were trial by fire. Not only did I resolve after the first week to take only rectal temps leading to some humorous situations with teenage boys dropping their pants to try to embarrass me. I grew up with 3 brothers. It didn't. (To get out of class, students would drink hot coffee and then come upstrairs complaining of feeling sick:-)) In that time though, I was also faced with several students who came to express problems with drinking, questions about their own sexuality, parents who had waitied until they were away at school to announce their impending divorce, allergies, broken bones... I spent A LOT of time reading. I didn't have the 'net or co-workers but I had a wonderful doctor in town and, on several occasions, I called school nurses of other boarding schools to ask their advice.

The next year I went to another school that needed a school nurse who could also teach a health course. There was another nurse there and we took turns in the infirmary and I designed and taught the health course. I did not think the old How to Brush you Teeth and Wash your Hands was what these kids needed and covered subjects like sex, suicide and drugs in addition to healthy eating and living. It was a success and made a requirement for graduation. But, enough of my research into my future made me realize that getting at least 2 years of hospital experience under my belt was necessary and I moved once again to a city to pursue that goal.

2 years on a med/surg floor and I had tons of experience. I worked in a teaching hospital with a group of interns who were the best! We had the only isolation rooms, a city with a very diverse population so lots of experience learning cultural attitudes, codes, nursing home patients and family members of the city officials, etc. The hospital was a Harvard teaching hospital and many of the attendings were also great. Another nurse and I instituted a program where the docs had to endure ALL of the tests they would do to a pt. This included the ol' gyny exam, even for the men. We just left them in the stirrups, pants off, draped with a paper drape and temp cranked down, for 1/2 hour. They got the idea.

After those 2 years I was offered a job in home health and eagerly took it as one of the biggest frsutrations I had was seeing pts. given information that was intended to empower them to keep themselves healthy and being too stressed and tired to learn it. They would get home and forget it. As a visiting nurse I got to go in and work with them on it. I did a lot of on call work and changed dressings and foley caths and did manual disimpactions so often I would dream about them! I also got to work with one of the first Hospice organizations as our agency's laison. I also got to work on a committee that redesigned our paperwork to make it more "user friendly."

Then, 2 years later, I went to the Middle East to work as a volunteer in Lebanon when that country was invaded by Israel. It was a war, we had no water at times, we had no medications, we were under bombs and I saw people of all ages and stations in life dying. I continued after the war ended working for a relief organization supervising programs in health clinics and hospitals that were being started or restarted. I learned how to sterilize instruments by covering them with alcohol, lighting them to burn for 3 minutes and then cooling with sterile water so the surgeon could perform the 20th operation of the day. This surgeon is now rewriting the entire war surgery manual for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

After a year, I moved to Cairo to teach at a nursing school and work as assistant matron of nurses in a new hospital. Once again, in addition to becoming proficient in Arabic which I'd started to learn in Lebanon, I learned how to teach nurses to maintain infection control techniques even in the absence of what we take for granted over here, how to teach doctors who were used to treating nurses as servants to work with them (BTW, about 60% of my students were men so this was not a sexist thing). I got to see a hospital which had been one floor of an apartment building grow to a three floor free standing institution with a kidney dialysis unit, cardiac care and a staff of nurses and doctors who took pride in their work. 3 years later I returned to the US. I had worked as a volunteer for the past 4 years and though I was richer for the experience than I could ever have imagined my pocketbook was bone dry and I had just turned 35.

It was quite a culture shock when I got back to the US I was faced with the waste and disregard for health that seems to pervade our society on all levels. I stayed with my mom in FL for a few months and then returned to my first hospital in MA for the first year. For personal reasons I then chose to move to NC and change to pediatric nursing. However, 6 months of working with school age peds pts. mostly with cancer and I realized that was not for me. The kids were amazing and I learned so much during that time especially chemotherapy and working with CF, liver transplants and HIV pts. but I when I was offered a job again by a home health agency I knew it was where I belonged and accepted the job.

For the next 3 years I went from visiting pts. and supervising home health aides to home health aide supervisor. It was during these years that aides needed to become certified (previously there was just training) so I got to teach the certification classes. I had found my niche. I LOVE home health aides. They have one of the hardest jobs of anyone and they get paid ridiculously low wages. They often face the same things as LTC nurses but are all alone. I found that teaching and working with these (mostly women) was what I was good at.

However, I then had to move back to my hometown (in the USVI) for 3 years and ended up working as an office nurse for an allergist. Once again I learned a lot and 3 years later I moved back up to the states to marry my first love (23 years after we broke up.)

I went back to work as a home health side supervisor but a year later, at the "old" age of 44 I was pregnant with my first child and because I was working in NYC, I chose to take a position with our company doing discharge planning at a hospital where I would not have to spend all day riding buses and the subway with my ever growing belly. When my son was born I took some time off and then returned to work for 2 years, as a visiting nurse/aide sup, before the family moved again. This time we were in a rural area where childcare was non-existent and I took some time off. However, because my father in law also lived in the area and was a retired surgeon I continues doing some nursing usually helping out with family friends who needed care.

Then we moved again 4 years ago and after choosing to wait until my son started middle school I returned to work in a LTC. The worst! The pt. population was wonderful but I have never heard such complaining as I did from the nurses. My floor was a short term stay and rehab floor so the patients were largely A&O but the heavens forfend if one of them dared to ask for something that a particular nurse found inconvenient. Were there good and caring nurses? Yes, but even they seemed to have adopted the idea that it is not OK to report when a co-worker has not done what is right. In my time there I saw a nurse record vital signs when she had not taken them (unless he was really able to remember 12 TPR and B/P after doing a med pass at the same time as she was supposedly taking them, documentation that tasks had been performed when a quick investigation would show they hadn't. Meds recorded when not given and when the A&O pt. reported it being told by the nurse that "she's full of s***", the list is sickenly long but when I realized that administration was more interested in passing the yearly inspection and would go as far as altering records and hiding the truth I left.

Now I am back where I love my work-I teach, I get to write pt. and HHA edication manuals and I am working per diem so I have time for my family and can do a lot of work at home.

In 30 years I have seen some of the best of human nature, the best of doctors and nurses and I have seen stuff that makes me wonder what kind of nursing instructor would have allowed some nurses to go beyond the first semester. (Sadly, I know...when I was in nursing school one of the top students cheated on almost every exam.) I know that many of my co-workers, especially at the LTC, had lousy home lives and were sometimes the only wage earner bt too often they were more interested in their time off and pay than the work that pay was for. Through the years what has gotten me through is the realization that there are many places and areas of nursing. Had I to do it all over again I am not sure I would have gone on for my BSN but in this day and age, I would. My best friend from the first hospital is today a Psych NP and does fantastic work. She loves her job and it is what kept her sane as she went through a divorce from her husband of 24 years. (It is also repsonsible for her finding her new love and her self worth, due to the work she does, led to a relationship that is based on love and respect. She and I share that since we both know that we have always tried our best to learn and to grow while staying true to our first goal-caring for the patient-whoever, wherever, whatever s/he may be.

Good luck. There really are many roads to follow and don't be afraid to leave one if it isn't going where you need to go.

SICU Queen · Apr 6, 2008

Do yourself and the world a big favor: don't go to nursing school.

FionaSophia · Apr 6, 2008

I agree. DO NOT BECOME A NURSE> If you are this negative at this point... Figure something else out. It seems like everything about nursing disgusts you so why put yourself or anyone else through it. Best of luck finding your place.