new twist on the old "would you encourage your daughter to be a nurse" question

Nurses General Nursing

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My daughter is 29, works in IT at a very good job I might add. We were cleaning her stuff out of her room. She and her hubby have had there own home for over year now but you know how it takes a while to get completely moved out. Anyway, somehow the conversation came around to her friends. There were 6 of them that got their BSN the same year she graduated from college(95). Only one of them works in anything that remotely resembles healthcare and she works part time. We were joking that the real answer to that question is, "what difference does it make whether I did or did not, the truth is that she is not and would not be working as a nurse now". After we got done talking about it I went, "hmmm, I should post about that".

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That only reinforces the fact that there isn`t a shortage of nurses, just a shortage of nurses who actually work in healthcare. Any reasons these folks aren`t employed as nurses ?Did they burnout, or did they never work ?:eek:

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

I have a 22 year old daughter who is in nursing school after swearing for years she would never be a nurse. And a 20 year old son who is debating between getting a BSN or an MD. I've tried to tell them the way it is but they are not listening to me. They've heard me complain for years,and at one point my daughter worked in dietary in the same facility where I worked and she KNOWS how they treated the staff.

Their reasoning is as the shortage gets worse, that the pay has to get better. I can't say that I think that will happen, though.

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The people who came out of nursing school in '95 were part of the "lost generation". They came out at a time of layoffs and furloughs. A lot of them decided not to bother and went into other fields. Another aspect of the "self inflicted wound"!!! The ones who hung in there and still practice nursing today were subjected to a great many indignities.

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I think a lot of peoepl who go into nursing go into it for the wrong reasons and with the wrong attitude so it just doesn't fit for them and they quit. That said few other careers offer some of the advantages nursing does. I think this profession is what you make of it.

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Specializes in Everything except surgery.

I have tried to talk to my daughter about going to nursing school, but she looks at me like I have lost my mind...:chuckle. She can't stand the sight of blood, and thinks cleaning up folks is in her words "disgusting"...:chuckle.

Although she has the qualities of a nurse, a very caring nature....very self directed, multi-tasks well, is a perfectionist, ..enjoys doing for others, ..and tries to always be postive, I doubt if she would ever consider it...because she just can't see past the "disgusting "parts. She did spend time volunteering in a nursing home, and was very upset by some of the mistreatment or lack of concern by some staff members.

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Hearing about the group of BSN's who grad. in 1995 and how only one is still working at the bedside doesn't surprise me. it just reinforces my belief that with all the professions opened up to woman today, many new nurses will not stay and work under these crappy conditions for long. Unlike their moms' generation who were basically stuck b/c of the lack of opportunities in other professions. Young college educated females today have choices and they are choosing with there feet.

I am a male, but have been a nurse for 4 1/2 years and if I don't go to anesth. school I will be getting out too.

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Specializes in Corrections, Psych, Med-Surg.

Brown--sounds like social work or counseling or something like that would be more to your daughter's tastes.

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Just got off work, 12 hrs, got a cold my nose is stuffy, sore throat, feel all whiney. Our air conditoner not working right on my hall seemed more like a sauna than last week , heard that on one of our halls the censis is down so now 2 nurses are where 3 used to be, one new nurse quit yesterday. Just before I left a toilet overflowed. But heck I enjoy a challenge. My daughter is in nursing school right now and she was a CNA for about 2 years was first going into teaching but decided to go into nursing, she must like a challenge too or sadistic like her mother.

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OK...for what it's worth, I think that you could expand that observation to other disciplines as well. I'm about 6 years out of college as well (majored in astronomy/physics), and I can think of very few of my friends who are actually doing work related to their bachelor's degree (myself obviously included).

Now, I don't doubt that there are plenty of people who are running away from nursing these days because of the less-than-stellar conditions, but I thought it might also be worth considering that very few of us really know what we want to be when we grow up while we're in college. Only once we've put in a few years in the real world do we come to appreciate what apects of a day-to-day job we desire. (In my case, working more often with people than a computer; moving from place to place as opposed to sitting at a desk all day; having a great deal of variety and challenge in the workday vs. not...and so on.)

Just my two cents. :)

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It would be really hard to work as a new grad RN in today's understaffed, stressed environment where the patient acuity and numbers are higher than it has ever been in the past.

When I graduated in '83, we didn't have a preceptor program and preceptor programs are still rare today(when young nurses need this even more). Without experience and the right credentials, there is limited choice.

How many nurses could'stick it out' ?

Nursing is tough physically and emotionally. However, there are

many changes that could be implemented to change that. I don't understand why these changes(MOT, nurse-patient ratios etc) aren't implemented 20 years onward? I think the nursing shortage will get worse before it gets better and that no solution will work in the long term unless it addresses nurse retention

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Specializes in Hospice, Critical Care.

I agree with Oramar's post about the 1995 nursing grads; I happen to be one of them. There were NO jobs then. Many people I graduated with took non-nursing jobs because that's all there was. Some of then never got into nursing because, after being out of it, they got too scared to return (having never really worked as an RN).

I took a part-time nursing home job in a bad section of Pittsburgh and just kept plugging away to stay in the field.

One of my 13-year-old daughters is talking about being a nurse and she'd be a good one. Her identical sister is talking about pharmacy and just yesterday she mentioned nursing for the first time. And trust me, they hear all the horror stories. I will support whatever decision they make, when the time comes.

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