No I wouldn't recommend nursing

suanna · Aug 15, 2007

If one of my kids wanted to become a nurse I would advise them to have thier head examined. 20 years ago-maybe the health care system had a bit more money to throw around. In todays world nurses are becoming an expensive comodity that hospitals are looking to cut back on. That means more patients, less benifits, and grudgingly little respect. Job security is there but the same could be said for slavery. If I did't have 5 years till retirement I'd rather drive a truck. As a matter of fact my son-in-law drives a truck- he has better insurance, better 401K match, almost my wages, and has never had someone punch him, spit on him, poop for him to clean it up, or had to lift more than 30lbs. I wonder if the bag boy at my local grocer realizes I envy his job?

fortman · Aug 15, 2007

Sure I'd recommend nursing as a good career move. I've been a RN for many years now and unlike many of the responders that are very dissatisfied with their careers and agree with you about not making a career recommendation, I love nursing. I wouldn't enjoy all the nasty, gross substances they report being exposed to, the back breaking labor, long hours, blah, blah, blah. I've never worked in a hospital and probably never would. I've never started an IV or had to deal with blood. Those nurses sound like they hate their jobs and so would I. The key is to stick to a specialty where you are treated with respect and not treated like a slave. I've primarily worked in psych the majority of my career and have loved most every minute of it. If teaching a group on meds, playing some cards, doing a bit of charting, meeting with a patient's family to discuss discharge plans, shooting a few games of pool, and doing some more charting sounds like an awesome way to spend 8 hours making a living, you understand why I love it!

RN1263 · Aug 16, 2007

Sure I'd recommend nursing as a good career move. I've been a RN for many years now and unlike many of the responders that are very dissatisfied with their careers and agree with you about not making a career recommendation, I love nursing. I wouldn't enjoy all the nasty, gross substances they report being exposed to, the back breaking labor, long hours, blah, blah, blah. I've never worked in a hospital and probably never would. I've never started an IV or had to deal with blood. Those nurses sound like they hate their jobs and so would I. The key is to stick to a specialty where you are treated with respect and not treated like a slave. I've primarily worked in psych the majority of my career and have loved most every minute of it. If teaching a group on meds, playing some cards, doing a bit of charting, meeting with a patient's family to discuss discharge plans, shooting a few games of pool, and doing some more charting sounds like an awesome way to spend 8 hours making a living, you understand why I love it!

Now that's what I'm talkin' about....LOL:lol2:.

I start my psych job on Monday.....woooohooooo!

PostpartumNurse'07 · Aug 16, 2007

Sure I'd recommend nursing as a good career move. I've been a RN for many years now and unlike many of the responders that are very dissatisfied with their careers and agree with you about not making a career recommendation, I love nursing. I wouldn't enjoy all the nasty, gross substances they report being exposed to, the back breaking labor, long hours, blah, blah, blah. I've never worked in a hospital and probably never would. I've never started an IV or had to deal with blood. Those nurses sound like they hate their jobs and so would I. The key is to stick to a specialty where you are treated with respect and not treated like a slave. I've primarily worked in psych the majority of my career and have loved most every minute of it. If teaching a group on meds, playing some cards, doing a bit of charting, meeting with a patient's family to discuss discharge plans, shooting a few games of pool, and doing some more charting sounds like an awesome way to spend 8 hours making a living, you understand why I love it!

Hey fortman, what kind of psych nursing are you in? Sounds like a residential facility of some kind?

shmoofins · Sep 7, 2007

I wouldn't recommend it. It's awful (to me, anyway). I don't feel like it's a good fit for me. Even in school I felt this way but I stayed with it partly because my family pressured me to ("you'll have such a good job when you get out!") and partly because I wasn't sure what else I wanted to do. Now that I'm out of school I really wish I would have just changed my major to something I liked. I've only been out of school and working for a few months (although I externed in school so I knew I didn't like floor nursing, but decided to do it anyway...thought the floor I got hired on wouldn't be as bad...wrong!) and already I want to go back to college and do something else! I know there are lots of different options in nursing but without the experience it's harder to get those nice office jobs and things like that.

I really want out, I'm just sick of this whole profession already. Now I'm looking for a new job and I hope I can find something that, if I don't like it, at least maybe I won't hate it. I would love to go back to school for something different where I don't have to deal with sick people/confused people/bodily fluids/huge liability/crazy stressful shifts where I hardly get to sit down at all, etc. I'm not totally ruling out the possibility that I can still find something I like within nursing, but I'd still like to get out of it asap. I just feel like it's not me, like it doesn't fit my personality or something.

JenM · Sep 7, 2007

I don't have the stamina to go through the entire 25 pages. But it makes me sick to hear people say that nursing is a terrible career! I am only a student. But here's what I want to say. What did you expect nursing to be? Some glamourous job where you just "save the day" all of the time? Of course you're going to be cleaning up feces and mucous and vomit and blood. Of course you're going to be giving enemas and changing ostomy bags. Yes doctors will yell at you. Patient may scream at you and family members of those patients may do the same. The paperwork is endless. You don't always get off of your shift on time.

BUT...

If it means that you save one patient from suicide, or teach one patient how to lower their blood sugars or if you help one person feel better about themselves by just brushing their hair... isn't it all worth it?

Isn't that why we are here; to help in any way we can?

If you aren't ready to be super stressed for the rest of your life, than maybe this isn't the career path for you!

Ayvah, RN · Sep 8, 2007

I don't have the stamina to go through the entire 25 pages. But it makes me sick to hear people say that nursing is a terrible career! I am only a student. But here's what I want to say. What did you expect nursing to be? Some glamourous job where you just "save the day" all of the time? Of course you're going to be cleaning up feces and mucous and vomit and blood. Of course you're going to be giving enemas and changing ostomy bags. Yes doctors will yell at you. Patient may scream at you and family members of those patients may do the same. The paperwork is endless. You don't always get off of your shift on time.
BUT...
If it means that you save one patient from suicide, or teach one patient how to lower their blood sugars or if you help one person feel better about themselves by just brushing their hair... isn't it all worth it?
Isn't that why we are here; to help in any way we can?

I'd suggest you read the thread then before responding in this manner. Your thoughts have already been responded to:

Originally Posted by mchrisrn
Just a few thoughts from an old "bedside nurse"...we're not complaining about cleaning poop and vomit..we're complaining b/c we CANT do it soon enough and patients have to wait too long!!....we're not complaining that its hard to turn and move people and get them to the chair when theyre 300 pounds and over...but that there's NOT ENOUGH OF US TO DO IT safely for the patients OR the staff....and many of us wanted to help people but at the end of the day, we go home only thinking of all the ones needs we COULNDT attend to b/c there wasnt time...showering, bathing, brushing teeth, take a back seat to people passing out, having chest pain, arrythmias, low bp's , SOB etc. But were complaining b/c we WANT to help people, we WANT to do it right, we KNOW what needs to be done, we would want it done for us and our families, BUT WE CANT help the people!!!..

Most nurses are good, hardworking people. But many nurse's work conditions are dangerous for both the nurse and the patient. Work conditions that negatively affect the health and well-being of the staff as well as the patients wouldn't upset you too?

If you aren't ready to be super stressed for the rest of your life, than maybe this isn't the career path for you!

Sarcasm?

Lorelai22RN, RN · Sep 8, 2007

I don't have the stamina to go through the entire 25 pages. But it makes me sick to hear people say that nursing is a terrible career! I am only a student. But here's what I want to say. What did you expect nursing to be? Some glamourous job where you just "save the day" all of the time? Of course you're going to be cleaning up feces and mucous and vomit and blood. Of course you're going to be giving enemas and changing ostomy bags. Yes doctors will yell at you. Patient may scream at you and family members of those patients may do the same. The paperwork is endless. You don't always get off of your shift on time.
BUT...
If it means that you save one patient from suicide, or teach one patient how to lower their blood sugars or if you help one person feel better about themselves by just brushing their hair... isn't it all worth it?
Isn't that why we are here; to help in any way we can?
If you aren't ready to be super stressed for the rest of your life, than maybe this isn't the career path for you!

I was reading this...........student. You have no idea of what nursing really entails until you are actually a nurse.......I feel very sorry for youwhen you do become a nurse and come here to vent. All I have to say is........when you become a nurse........you will see. Nurses make alot of sacrifices..and we often pay the costs. When you cant be with your family cause you are too tired or because you are working late......or when you are exhausted or caring for insane numbers of unstable patients....you know what, never mind. You will get it.....

RN1263 · Sep 8, 2007

I'm a new grad and .....well........ I'm discouraged due to my situation. I tried E.R. and that didn't work out (do to the pace & crappy orientation). So, three weeks ago I got a job at a psych hospital and at first it was great & I loved it!

But, everything changed the next week.....another psych hospital merged w/ the facility I work at (I was NOT told this was going to happen) and it has been a "take over", NOT a "merger"! More and more employees are being fired every week to make room for the new people, policies and procedures are changing constantly and it's become a hostile, unbareable environment to work in. I literally feel sick to my stomach now when I go to work!

I realize this can happen w/ any company not just in healthcare, but geeeeesssss I can't get a break! So, now they stuck me on night shift and that is NOT going well.........my sleep and eating are totally out of wack which is making me feel SICK and on nights I feel like a combo secretary/cleaning lady.......PLUS trying to be a nurse.

Soooooooo, I'm looking for another job yet again and it sucks! OH, and I can forget about trying to get back into psych, because alot of the other nurses w/ more experience then myself are trying to get the heck out of there also and they're applying to all the open psych jobs in the area..........

Sorry for the rant!

AZO49008 · Sep 8, 2007

I'm a mid-life career changer. I had a successful, interesting career in marketing and public relations. I had a fun career...got to do a lot of creative work, got to work with some celebrities, got to be on TV & radio a lot, and made pretty good money doing it.

I've always been interested in medicine, the sciences, and the human body and its processes. After having a few family members and very close friends go through life-threatening and terminal illnesses, and after having spent countless hours in hospitals at all hours of the day, I realized nursing was where I needed to be.

While my family members and friends lay dying or recovering from some pretty dire conditions, I got to witness extraordinarily bad nursing care and extraordinarily excellent nursing care.

I lost count of the number of surly, incompassionate, aloof nurses with I-can't-be-bothered attitudes I encountered. There were so many that they sort of congeal in my mind into this big blob of negativity. From what I've read here, some of those very nurses might even be posting in this thread.

The nurses I remember, however, are the ones that inspired me to change careers and enter nursing school at the age of 43. They were the ones who took the time to show compassion, understanding, and caring despite whatever else was going on on the floor at the moment. Most of the times it didn't even entail anything particularly tangible...a smile; a look of concern; a touch on the shoulder; a brief explanation; or a promise to get back to you on something when they had more time.

I have no illusions of what nursing is or nursing isn't. I know plenty of nurses, I've heard the stories. I know there are politics, I know the American healthcare delivery system is in a shambles, I know there is a push to do more with less, I know there are long hours, I know most of the time what nurses do is taken for granted (by doctors, administrators, patients and their families), I know there are demanding patients and families, and yes...I know there is poop, puke, phleghm, festering wounds, and a whole host of disgusting things I can't even imagine exist until I actually encounter them.

Even knowing all that, I am choosing to forge ahead in my new chosen profession because I have every confidence that I can be as good a nurse as the many truly excellent nurses I have encountered. But more than that, I know I can be a MUCH BETTER NURSE than the many marginal, negative, "meets expectations" misanthropes who inhabit the profession.

I want to be the nurse that makes a difference for patients and their families. If you can't tell the difference between the forest and the trees because you're steeped in your own negativity, then kindly step aside for those of us who are up to the task, and more importantly for the well-being of your patients who deserve good nursing from good nurses.

shmoofins · Sep 8, 2007

Even though I don't particularly like nursing or feel that it suits me, I always cared about my patients and tried to meet their needs. I didn't treat my patients badly because I didn't like the job. I realize I need to get out of it (or at least out of floor/hospital nursing), because I don't want to become like those uncaring nurses and I don't want to keep doing something that makes me unhappy, but at the same time you shouldn't assume that because we complain about the job that we are bad nurses.

HealthyRN · Sep 8, 2007

As others have already said, once you become a nurse, you may have much more insight into the venting (not whining) that is going on here. I suspect that many of the nurses that responded to this thread are competent, skilled and compassionate and very capable of providing excellent, evidenced-based care for their patients.

Many of us went into nursing for similar reasons that you are: we wanted to "make a difference in people's lives" and help others through difficult and trying life events. This same compassion and concern for others is what eventually makes bedside nursing so frustrating and unfulfilling, for some of us. We want to provide the best care possible for our patients and their families. Once you graduate and have a chance to practice for awhile in "the real world". you may come to the realization that providing what you know is the best care possible is not always an option with the resources, or lack thereof, that you are given. Since you will have no control over those resources, you will be expected to just do the best that you can, even though you know that it should be done better. You may be expected to practice under unsafe conditions and take care of more patients than you know is safe. You may not be given equipment that works properly or enough equipment to do your job safely. You may not be given lunch breaks or restroom breaks that allow you to recover and do your job efficiently and safely.

What did I do to deal with the situation that I encountered in clinical nursing? I left the bedside and I now work outside of acute care. Not all nurses have practiced under such adverse conditions, but as you can see from the numerous postings, many have had similar experiences. I wish that there was a simple solution to the problems that so many nurses encounter, but I don't think that there is. While I agree that nurses that hate their jobs should try a different speciality or area of nursing, telling them to get out of the profession is not going to do anything to solve the underlying problems. Many nurses would enjoy nursing if they were treated fairly, respected as fellow human beings, and given the resources to do their jobs properly.