Nurses Who Don't Want to be Nurses

Nurses Relations

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What do you think of nurses who don't want to be nurses? Those who go to school for nursing just for the "nice checks" thinking that it's "easy money" or even those who are just going for nursing because they don't know what else to go for. Have you ever confronted anyone in that category?

What do you think of nurses who don't want to be nurses? Those who go to school for nursing just for the "nice checks" thinking that it's "easy money" or even those who are just going for nursing because they don't know what else to go for. Have you ever confronted anyone in that category?

I didn't feel "called" to nursing, & it wasn't until I started my nursing career that I truly became passionate about providing nursing care. I now see nursing as part of my identity. I think people who feel "called" don't always have a realistic view on what a nurse does d/t limited exposure. I feel I am no less passionate, dedicated, competent, & qualified than someone with a "calling".

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Specializes in ICU Stepdown.
I think to some degree, you HAVE to have empathy and compassion to be a good nurse. A person who doesn't like working with people, or has no compassion/empathy for others, has no business caring for the sick. JMO

Having said that, I don't think those people generally make it past the first semester of nursing school. Those who don't like people and go at it JUST because they think it's a nice paycheck learn pretty quickly there are easier career choices to make a buck. I wasn't 'called' to nursing, I stumbled and fell and when I dusted myself off, there was a path out in front of me, and being a nurse was at the end. :)

And those are the type of people I was talking about from the beginning! I'm not a nurse yet but I always thought there were those nurses who really can't stand being nurses and complain and dislike taking care of people, just like every other job. It does make sense that most of those people wouldn't make it in the first place.

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Specializes in ICU Stepdown.

Why does everyone feel the need to bring up a "calling"? I never mentioned having a calling or putting down people who don't have a calling in my original post.

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Specializes in Gerontology RN-BC and FNP MSN student.

If you make it through school and become a nurse, you've earned it.

You don't have to be called to be competent.

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At least one classmate graduated from nursing school and went off to be a missionary and I've read that a famous novelist graduated from medical school but decided to write instead. Whatever floats your boat. The only criticism I would have is that someone could have taken those seats that would have benefitted from them. But such is life.

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Well, my very first JOB-job was in a nursing home. There was one very bitter LPN about 50 y.o. who was raging about , I dunno,......the admin.????....something!.....I was only 19 and pretty innocent about the world. But I distinctly remember her tracing the line where two parts of a table abutted, and saying with MUCH venom, " They want you to follow their line, this line, and you'd better not even P1$$ off that line, not one little trickle , not one drop!" and on and on.

She also got mad at a patient who was sweet and cute and mostly not ever any trouble. This little old lady had been told at one point to never hold urine in her bladder for a long time because it wasn't good for you to do so (good bet SHE never was a nurse!), so, she set her alarm clock at two hour intervals while she was awake, and she would push the call bell and say,"Time to do my pee-pee!" The bitter LPN would be SO irate about it, she'd do things like sneak in when the lady was sleeping and change the time on her alarm clock or reset the alarm or turn it of. Very juvenile.

But I remember looking at this LPN and watching her go through her vitriolic rantings, wondering why on earth are you even WORKING here???

It seemed to me if she hated her job and resented the patients for being old and needing help, she should leave! Anybody with a brain should be able to figure out that aging and infirmity wouldn't be anyone's first choice of a way to live their lives! But what happened to them was simply that they woke up breathing every morning and time kept going forward.

I wonder what ever happened to her; when I left to go to nsg. school she was still there poisoning the atmosphere. I'll bet she had a massive stroke or a heart attack; not that I wished she would, but gads, her blood pressure had to have been high, the way she carried on so! Maybe SHE became a patient in a nursing home!

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Specializes in geriatrics.

Someone else's motivations are none of my business, provided they are competent at their job. For those who chose nursing because you're "called" or whatever.....that's great.

Not everyone feels the same way, and that does not devalue their work.

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Specializes in ICU Stepdown.
Well, my very first JOB-job was in a nursing home. There was one very bitter LPN about 50 y.o. who was raging about , I dunno,......the admin.????....something!.....I was only 19 and pretty innocent about the world. But I distinctly remember her tracing the line where two parts of a table abutted, and saying with MUCH venom, " They want you to follow their line, this line, and you'd better not even P1$$ off that line, not one little trickle , not one drop!" and on and on.

She also got mad at a patient who was sweet and cute and mostly not ever any trouble. This little old lady had been told at one point to never hold urine in her bladder for a long time because it wasn't good for you to do so (good bet SHE never was a nurse!), so, she set her alarm clock at two hour intervals while she was awake, and she would push the call bell and say,"Time to do my pee-pee!" The bitter LPN would be SO irate about it, she'd do things like sneak in when the lady was sleeping and change the time on her alarm clock or reset the alarm or turn it of. Very juvenile.

But I remember looking at this LPN and watching her go through her vitriolic rantings, wondering why on earth are you even WORKING here???

It seemed to me if she hated her job and resented the patients for being old and needing help, she should leave! Anybody with a brain should be able to figure out that aging and infirmity wouldn't be anyone's first choice of a way to live their lives! But what happened to them was simply that they woke up breathing every morning and time kept going forward.

I wonder what ever happened to her; when I left to go to nsg. school she was still there poisoning the atmosphere. I'll bet she had a massive stroke or a heart attack; not that I wished she would, but gads, her blood pressure had to have been high, the way she carried on so! Maybe SHE became a patient in a nursing home!

Thank you so much for this story :) it makes me not feel crazy, see these are the nurses that shouldn't be nurses!! She has no reason to be, and it makes me wonder what her motives were.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
Thank you so much for this story :) it makes me not feel crazy, see these are the nurses that shouldn't be nurses!! She has no reason to be, and it makes me wonder what her motives were.

In principle I agree with you -- life is much too short to be miserable.

But I wonder if you also question the motives of a bored accountant, or a bus driver who gets irritated with traffic, etc.

Just cluing you in: the phrase "xxx person/people shouldn't be a nurse/nurses" tends to hold a great deal of judgement, as inherent in it is the presumption that there is something that a nurse *should* be.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Why does everyone feel the need to bring up a "calling"? I never mentioned having a calling or putting down people who don't have a calling in my original post.

Because this tends to be a hot button topic when someone brings up the issue. "Calling" tends to be shorthand for the archetype of a nurse as a selfless martyr or an angel. I don't reject it out-of-hand but the Florence Nightingale Pledge contains that expectation. Lots of us don't find that really relevant to our own attitude. "Passing our life in purity" well if that was mandatory the nursing shortage would be back in a big way! It's just part of the long cultural history of nursing as a whole.

The only type I could visualize as not wanting to be a nurse would be somebody who was pressured into it by mom and dad who are bankrolling the whole ride. Perhaps they are taking up a space as they generally fail out pretty quickly when things start to get real in clinicals. We have no control over that, though.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

What do I think? That it's none of my business their motivation. Who am I to judge? If they provide good care and do their job,it's their business, not mine.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

VERY hot button topic...

I'm in the camp of as long as one can do one's job safe, effective, and efficiently, I don't need to know what their intentions are.

I have questioned a nurse in my past who ALWAYS complained when she was on my unit at least on my weekend that I worked; I pointedly asked her if she hated it so much, the WHY was she here? She must like it some extent, otherwise she wouldn't be here.

I thin that was the first and last time I asked what ones intentions were in this business; and that was only because it was BEYOND venting in my mind at the time, other nurses loved to avoid her and I'm from the adage of "life is too short to be unhappy"; it certainly wasn't judgement, and the risk I took asking her and making my comment did lead to much better shifts with this individual.

Sometimes intentions are good, noble, well-meaning; however, they don't transcend their origins of meaning, same goes for individuals who "think" nursing is their "calling"; that pales in comparison when one enters this business and can effectively master it.

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