I'll preface this by saying that I did not write this as a solid pragraph. Having spent some time trying to figure out why it's not keeping my breaks, I'll just have to go and post it as it is changing it. I have decided to post my doubts about a career in nursing. I will present a serious of doubts and drawbacks, and what I am after is some people who may dispel erroneous or self limiting cynicisms. I originally was attracted to three things: 1) The potential to actually help people find or maintain real, lasting health. 2) The high job availability & schedule flexibility, short contracts, etc.... 3) The compensation & related factors - traveling opportunities, bonuses, etc... Having learned more about nursing by reading about it, watching nurses, discussing it, living with a nurse, and so on, I have found #1 to be a total illusion. The only chance I would have to do this whatsoever in the capacity that I am talking about would be either as a nurse practitioner (would have its limitations as well), or in some sort of private practice or other private venture. It appears that any other position would be exactly the opposite of what I want in #1. I have found that the stress and various colossal drawbacks of the job (and the nursing school itself for that matter) grossly outweigh this factors of job availability or compensation. 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.....) 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). I thought I woould bring a different perspective and approach to the field of heallth care, and teach patients to live healthy, and show them a degree of compassion and patience and caring that is so woefully absent in America's health care system... But then I watched and listened, and realized that this is probably the same fantasy with which other people approach the career. Any such illusions are smashed on or before the first day of work. Having said that, I am having trouble imagining myself in a position where I run my but off dealing with an absurd patient:nurse ratio and working as what appears to amount to what I now think of as a sort of blood pressure slave..... monitoring machines, giving meds, managing pain, and answering patient requests and complaints as well as doing paperwork - all far beyond the limits of how much of this type of stuff any given nurse should be reasonably expected to deal with.... 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..... doesn't require or justify 4 years of schooling - I've even heard that from R.N.s. Now do that in 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) ...well let's just say that before we get too that final issue, I have already long since talked myself out of it. Sure, as a travelling nurse, I could make 40K in 6 months and take the rest of the year off to do whatever I pleased. But could I handle even one week of those 6 months? I consider the quality of my life on a day by day basis - I don't make myself suffer for 6 months at a time while looking forward to my time to do what I want. With all those obstacles I have focused on, I have to admit that there could be many opportunities where the majority of those challenges would not be present. These may make up only about 3% of al nursing jobs, but with such a ludicrous shortage, it would be inevitable I could get such a position. Take home care nursing, or administration, or starting a nursing registry, or even working in a doctor's clinic instead of a hospital. Sure, I could do something like that, IF I found such an opportunity before going insane trying to work in a hospital.... but even then, in no case is the registered nurse credentialed or legally allowed to be giving the type of holistic health counseling that I would like to provide. So, this suggests private practice as a nurse practitioner..... but that turns out to be quite a bit more schooling in nursing and much more of a long term, dedicated business venture than I am willing to commit to. I live with an R.N., and I have heard her complaining vehemently about that very shopping list I have mentioned, without me feeding any of this stuff to her first... That's saying a lot considering that she is a person who never complains about anything, or backs down from any challenge. 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. Her job is literally dangerous to her health, and too the welfare of her patients, and she is acutely aware of both truths such that she has nightmares about it and dreads going t o work at all. I just kind of nodded and sympathized, wondering how she could possibly have made it all the way into the first day on the job without having figured all that out ahead of the time. In fact, I had already figured out and foreseen the exact things she is complaining about, and many more, when I was only 1/2 way finished with my prerequisites. It's sad and pitiful to see her on her days off trying to talk herself into persevering and enduring, with optimism. In fact, the job is crushing her spirit and she needs to get out of it as soon as possible before she destroys herself or burns up 3 years of her life in that suffering. She talks about preparing for her future and so on.... what happened to the present?!?!?!?!?! Inevitably I can see that she will stay in nursing. She'll just keep suffering until she winds up in a position that is also terrible, but not nearly as bad as the the job she is at now.... Perhaps years into the future, she will have gotten into a relatively cushy job at the VA, or in some other unforeseen capacity that is low stress..... I can't imagine doing that to myself. I could see myself eventually doing something useful with nursing..... and it would also be very useful personally in caring for my parents or my own heath... The question is, does that make sense, and could I even endure the clinicals? ....... that was rhetorical... Indeed, I could work as an NP in my own office - just do medication management. But then, I would just loathe peddling medications to people who could drop them id they'd just live healthy, and wouldn't care at all for working in an office - to tell the truth, I'm an outdoors person. I have read that over 40% of all RNs leave the career entirely. 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)
I think it can be useful for someone who is in the OPs situation, pondering what she's pondering, to put it down for reflection and to share her thoughts, fears, perceptions, understandings... to bounce her thoughts off others who have experience in and knowledge of the field.
I dislike overly cheerly encouragement to become a nurse and I dislike judgemental, condescending dismissals of another's future in nursing.
I am reposting the original post to see if I can get paragraph breaks. Someone suggested that I edit it, but I don't see an edit option for these forums.
Thanks all for the feedback.
I have decided to post my doubts about a career in nursing. I will present a serious of doubts and drawbacks, let me know what you think.
First, I originally was attracted to three things: 1) The potential to actually help people find or maintain real, lasting health. 2) The high job availability & schedule flexibility, short contracts, etc.... 3) The compensation & related factors - traveling opportunities, bonuses, etc...
Having learned more about nursing by reading about it, watching nurses, discussing it, living with a nurse, and so on, I have found #1 to be a total illusion. The only chance I would have to do this whatsoever in the capacity that I am talking about would be either as a nurse practitioner (would have its limitations as well), or in some sort of private practice or other private venture. It appears that any other position would be exactly the opposite of what I want in #1.
Further, I have found that the stress and various colossal drawbacks of the job (and the nursing school itself for that matter) grossly outweigh the factors of job availability or compensation. 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 seems primarily designed to manage the mess that people make of their lives through living dangerously (smoking, bad eating habits, sedentary life, etc.....) as well as to deal with emergencies (which I personally could not deal with at all, due to the toxic level of stress that would put in my life).
I thought I would bring a different perspective and approach to the field of health care, and teach patients to live healthy, and show them a degree of compassion and patience and caring that is so woefully absent in America's health care system... But then I watched and listened, and realized that this is probably the same fantasy with which other people approach the career. It seems that any such illusions are smashed on or before the first day of work. Having said that, I am having trouble imagining myself in a position where I run my but off dealing with an absurd patient:nurse ratio and working as what appears to amount to what I now think of as a sort of blood pressure slave..... monitoring machines, giving meds, managing pain, and answering patient requests and complaints as well as doing paperwork - all far beyond the limits of how much of this type of stuff any given nurse should be reasonably expected to deal with....
Also, 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..... doesn't require or justify 4 years of schooling - I've even heard that from current R.N.s.
Now do the job in 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) ...well let's just say that before we get too that final issue, I have already long since talked myself out of it. Sure, as a traveling nurse, I could make 40K in 6 months and take the rest of the year off to do whatever I pleased. But could I handle even one week of those 6 months? I consider the quality of my life on a day by day basis - I don't make myself suffer for 6 months at a time while looking forward to my time to do what I need to do for my own happiness and health.
However, with all of those obstacles I have focused on, I have to admit that there could be many opportunities where the majority of those challenges would not be present. These may make up only about 3% of all nursing jobs, but with such a ludicrous nursing shortage, it would be inevitable I could get such a great position. Take home care nursing, or administration, or starting a nursing registry, or even working in a doctor's clinic instead of a hospital. Sure, I could do something like that, IF I found such an opportunity before going insane trying to work in a hospital....
...but even then, in no case is the registered nurse credentialed or legally allowed to be giving the type of holistic health counseling that I would like to provide. So, this suggests private practice as a nurse practitioner..... but that turns out to be quite a bit more schooling in nursing and much more of a long term, dedicated business venture than I am willing to commit to.
I live with an R.N., and I have heard her complaining vehemently about that very list I have mentioned, without me feeding any of this stuff to her first... That's saying a lot considering that she seems like a person who never complains about anything, or backs down from any challenge. 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 manage to get home at all. It is obvious just from looking at her when she comes in the door that her job is literally dangerous to her health, and too the welfare of her patients, and she is acutely aware of both truths such that she has nightmares about it and dreads going to work at all.
I just kind of nodded and sympathized, wondering how she could possibly have made it all the way into the first day on the job without having figured all that out ahead of the time. In fact, I had already figured out and foreseen the exact things she is complaining about, and many more, when I was only 1/2 way finished with my prerequisites. It's sad and pitiful to see her on her days off trying to talk herself into persevering and enduring, with optimism, as I feed her a little obligatory moral support (You'll be alright", or "You'll get a better position").
In fact, the job is crushing her spirit and she needs to get out of it as soon as possible before she destroys herself or burns up 3 years of her life in that suffering. She talks about "preparing for her future" and so on.... What happened to the present?!?!?!?!?! Inevitably I can see that she will stay in nursing. She'll just keep suffering until she winds up in a position that is also terrible, but not nearly as bad as the the job she is at now.... Perhaps years into the future, she will have gotten into a relatively "cushy job", or in some other unforeseen capacity that is low stress..... and she will have given up her former impressions about the meaning of happiness or a good job.
I can't imagine doing that to myself. I could see myself eventually doing something useful with nursing..... and it would also be very useful personally in caring for my parents or my own heath... The question is, does that make sense, and could I even endure the clinicals? (That was a rhetorical question...) Indeed, I could work as an NP in my own office - just do medication management. But then, I would just loathe peddling medications to people who could drop them if they'd just live healthy, and I wouldn't care at all for working in an office. To tell the truth, I'm an outdoors person.
I have read that over 40% of all RNs leave the career entirely. 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 2-3 X as much 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 to other students on the premise that they are making a good choice, when 40% of them will themselves leave the nursing career because they can not bear it....
Hmmm...... That's a no-brainer... I would feel sort of like a drug dealer if I did that.....
Well, that's a wrap.
Thanks all for the feedback, some of which really makes me thankful that we have some good people who can handle the nursing job. In response to one of the other posters, indeed, I do think it takes a certain kind of person to do it, and I am not that person.
I don't really understand the need to publish the long manifesto here about all the things that seem, from the outside looking in, to be wrong with the occupation. Is the point to try to convince the rest of us that we've made a bad choice? That the OP is smarter, more sensitive, and more enlightened than us? Are we supposed to try to talk the OP into changing her/his mind? Or organize and work together to try to change all the things about nursing that the OP doesn't like?
If you don't want to be a nurse, fine -- no one's going to make you be one. We're each free to choose our own path ...
To be a nurse is to be willing to deal with the good and bad in all people, to be able to to handle way too many tasks at one time, and still be able to think on your feet. The stress will take many of us out of the picture. Management will rarely support us, families will question us and patients will be drive us to distraction. That being said, I would not want to do any other job in this life. I have worked in factories, stores, offices, bakeries, for 22 years, before returning to school to become a Nurse. I knew what I'd be getting into.
I have been told it takes a special person to do this job. I have met many such people who are indeed very special. I have also met those sad ones that entered this field just for the pay and job security. Over time the stress builds and they lose what compassion they started with. The ones that pay for that lack of compassion is the patients. I work LTC, my charges have led thier lives caring for family and friends, now they need the help. They don't need to be treated like thier in the way, interfering with other chores. That you discovered the job is not for you before you started is wonderful. There are so many things to do in this world, find the job that suits you, that is you. Don't take a job that you hate going to every day. As my charges will tell you, "Life really is to short!".
To EDC1951,
WOW! What a wonderful life you have led. When I read your reply I am amazed at the thought of all the hearts you've touched. There is a Very Special place for you in Heaven. Of that I have no doubts!
Newja, Good luck in finding where you belong, may it be all you desire.
I'm not going to dog you for posting. Nursing has drawbacks - any person who looks at the career critically and honestly should be shocked and a bit dismayed.
Please - let people know about those. Spread the word. Vote on those issues. Because someday - we're going to be responsible, most likely, for your life. That's just a fact. And if it isn't yours, it will be someone you love dearly. So help us out - take all that information and create positive change.
The nurses that I know deserve it. But just for the record - the men and women that I work with (from the diploma nurses to the advance practice nurses) all are smart enough to have already figured out the bad parts. They all have their own ways of dealing with it, coping with it and hopefully many of them are trying to change it bit by bit. Nurses may not be better than anyone else - but I absolutely love them and think they are brilliant, resilient, resourceful and strong. If you haven't seen that, take my word on it.
That being said - good luck in your other career choice. Perhaps an alternative health practioner?
I was also a little surprised by the negativity among the responses on this thread.
I mean, if someone professes doubts about a career they're contemplating - nothing wrong with that. No reason to jump on the person. Migosh.
Why can't the responders just say, "Looks as though you don't really want to go to nursing school. I understand some of your concerns. (INSERT POLITE COUNTERPOINTS). There are many options out there besides nursing if nursing does not appeal to you."
Politeness 101.
Politeness 101 goes both ways. If I were exploring XYZ career, utilizing allXYZers.com as a resource, and then concluded that XYZ wasn't for me, I doubt that I would post a long-winded philosophical critique of the profession on allXYZers.com. I would simply move on.
OP, you have weighed your options, something millions of people do every day. Now go find your passion. Good luck to you. :)
I don't know... some responding posts seem to be helpful and smiling, but really have a jab to them. The OP, meanwhile, was just being honest and open, without being personal to anyone in particular. Many of the things she observes I suspect are... true.
marie-francoise
286 Posts
Very well stated, jjjoy!