nurses are fortunate

[angel337]

coincidentally at work last night i had 3 patients that shared with me the lost of their jobs. two of the patients were just laid off and another patient's job was relocating. these people were afraid. one lady was there because the stress of not being able to pay her bills gave her panic attacks and so she consistently suffered chest pain for 2 days. another developed irritable bowel syndrome because of her worries over how she was going to continue to live off unemployment until another job came through. i know i am blessed to have a job, but sometimes it takes another persons suffering for others to really appreciate what they have. i know for many of us, nursing is not a glamorous job. it can stressful. demanding. and we may not get compesnsated the way we should. but we all have one thing in common and that is we have the opportunity to help people every day get through life crisis. i thank god every day for giving me my health and strength to go to work. to provide for myself and my family. and even though i may get overwhelmed at times i know that i make a difference. i don't really think about being unemployed because it has never been an issue since i started a career in healthcare. but after listening to these people last night i can't help but acknowledge the big impact nurses have on society. just the short moments i spent with these patients to tell them how sorry i am for their circumstances and telling them things would get better, made them feel like someone cares. i know that i am fortunate. i would like to know from other nurses has there ever been a patient or circumstance that made you feel very lucky to have your job?

[NP2BE]

I would agree that anyone who was employed has an element of "luck" to it, but I wouldn't just place the entire nursing profession in the bucket of "grateful to be employed."

Due to financial problems, we had to lay off one of our nurse educators last week.

Nurses and nursing aren't always protected.

He or she will probably be able to find another job right away, although it may not pay as much or be as nice, they will still have decent income.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I've always had gratitude to have a roof over my head, food and a job.

When times are hard the "be grateful you have a job" kind of attitude can cause conditions to be hard on us. We had a huge layoff about eight years ago. Those of us who weren't laid off had to put up with worsening conditions, lower pay raises and high nurse-patient ratios because we were so grateful to be working. humph....

[Soonstudent]

You're right 3rd shift guy, " just be gratefull you have a job" can be dangerous.

I also believe "Luck" has nothing to do with being employed or not, sure you may be temporarilly unemployed because of a lay off, but if you remain unemployed its your own fault. I have never not been able to find a job when I absolutely had to have one. Granted the work was terrible the pay was low and I may have had to relocate somewhere I didn't want to, but I've always been able to find something. You just have to be confident and not give up. Just my opinion, Brandon

you're right also eak16, I was mainly talking about good ole US of A.

[eak16]

I am grateful to have been able to go to college. Worldwide only one in a thousand people gets to attend college. Worldwide, only one in a thousand own a computer too, so we all won twice. A lot of this has to do with the fact that we worked our butts off to get into school and to get through it, and some of it was the result of being born in a country that provided the opportuinity to become a professional and have upward mobility.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is, I am lucky/ blessed AND I worked my butt off- a winning combination

[rnmaven]

Of course no one is immune to layoffs, but where can you find a profession these days where you can meet great people and work in a caring environment? I returned to the bedside after 17 years of sales and sales management....if you want to feel job insecurity, try business careers these days. Initiially, I thought it would just be a temporary step until I found something in the sales arena to return to. However, there were very few interviews worth going on and over the span of a year I realized that the economy was turning and no one wanted to pay what I had been making. After 9/11 I decided that I really did not want to fly around on a plane. I work agency full time and decided to return to grad school.

Believe me, in comparison to most careers, we have great job security in nursing! We all know the downside to our profession, but over the past 27 years I have never been an out of work nurse. Out of work salesperson.....yes, but never an out of work nurse.

[steve0123]

I agree with eak16 - uni was the most enlightening experience for me... it really changed my perspective on a whole range of issues, and when I look back at myself 5 years ago, I could still be that ignorant. As far as work opportunities go, I wouldn't so much say we are lucky to be employed as nurses (we all had to work very hard to get to where we are today) - I think that one of the benefits of nursing though is good job security (partly because no one wants to do it... we're the weird ones...). For that I'm grateful... For the night shifts and the abuse and the lowly status - not so grateful...

[FROGGYLEGS, LPN]

With education and training, you are probably less likely to be laid off than "unskilled" workers. It doesn't make you immune to it, but I would say you would have an easier time finding a satisfactory job and not being laid off.

I have been laid off once as a nurse myself. I am glad that I do have the training that I have because I knew I could get another job easily. I was a little peeved because I LIKED my job, not because I was afraid for our future.

Speaking of lay-offs, my grandfather (yup grandfather-but he's a young one) got his pink slip this week. He's a construction supervisor and he has been with that company since well before I was born. This may just be a blessing in disguise for him though. He has the money to retire and has decided that is what he wants. I'm glad that he will have the time to enjoy himself. His job was very demanding and seemed to just wear him out.

[movealong]

I was laid off once from a clinic: they decided they had too many RNs and I could be replaced by an LPN. It all turned out for the best. It was a horrible job with the worst set of coworkers I have ever had the dipleasure to be with. 1-2 months later, found a great job that paid thousands more per year and nice people to boot. That part was luck.