Nurses Who Don't Want to be Nurses

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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?

Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
The fact that you have another degree & then went to nursing school doesn't mean you failed pursuing another career. I obtained a BA in political science before going to nursing school & was gainfully employed prior to starting my nursing pre-requisites. How odd that you would look down on someone for getting an education!

I don't think the person is looking down on anyone for getting an education. I think "failed attempt at another career" is just a turn of phrase, and they just mean "second career nurses"

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
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 we've seen posts just like yours over and over through the years. You may not have used the exact phase, but the implication was certainly there: if you don't have a "passion" for nursing, if you got into nursing for what you deem are the "wrong" reasons, then you're just taking up space that could be occupied by someone who is in it for the "right" reasons. And it's hogwash.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
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 stories like that, she is probably a bitter, miserable human being who would not be happy in ANY job. That has nothing to do with not being suited for a certain profession. That is just not being suited for being around other people.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

Nursing seems to have this "martyr" complex where intentions and motivations are questioned by complete strangers. You don't hear about other professions questioning people's motivations, why should nursing be any different? I have found that those who walk into nursing with this grand delusion about holding hands and saving lives and being praised are usually the first ones who get burnt out. Those with a more practical view see nursing as what it is: a job. A way to pay the bills and support the family. A vehicle to advance oneself in society.

All that matters is that the nurse is competent and respectful.

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Specializes in Psychiatric Nursing.

I once worked with a nurse who hated being a nurse and was very outspoken about it. It was hard to work with her. I was an LPN at the time, working extremely hard to earn my ASN degree, and was trying to surround myself with people who were a positive influence. Every day, this woman would say, "I hate this job. I just hate nursing, period." I'm so glad I have never felt that way. In 12 years, most of the nurses I have worked with have really enjoyed what they do. I'm not sure what the unhappy nurse's reasons were for hating the profession so much. I'm happy that she doesn't work at my facility anymore, though! Who needs that kind of negativity? Not me!

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Specializes in pediatric.

When people ask me, "Why did you become a nurse?" I tell them, "It wasn't for any noble reason! Money and job security." But you know what? I am damn good at my job, my patients (and their families) love me. I am competent, proactive, and found I really do like being a nurse! I was a self employed licensed massage therapist for 13 years prior to nursing, and have always been fascinated with the human body. Nursing is a great way to combine my awesome interpersonal skills, interest in human behavior/dynamics, and the science of the body. But I didn't grow up dreaming I'd become one some day.

I agree with most of the posters here- the 'why' you're in this profession isn't as important as the 'how' you perform in this profession, because ultimately, that's what matters most. ;)

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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!

Having to listen to some old fool say "Time for my pee pee" multiple times a day, every day would end up burning my cookies too.

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

Personally I did not see judgementalism or 'motive' being questioned, or looking down on people, in OP's post. I think most all of us have run into the nurse who hates the job with a purple passion or resents her patients, or is only in the profession trolling for a doctor/husband, or for the money. She also didn't say anything about having or feeling 'the calling'.

In my example, I think the bitter LPN would, as someone else posted, be dissatisfied in any job and would poison the atmosphere where ever she worked. So, maybe it paid better than packing stinky fish at the fish-plant, maybe the smells weren't as offensive in the nursing home as in the fish-packing-plant.Maybe she looked down on people who did work at the fish-plant , whose response to the wrinkled nose would be a shrug and to simply say, "It smells like money to me!" I use the fish-packing not as a metaphor, but because it was one of the only other 'big' employers in town.

Maybe she went into nursing because she felt it or she was 'better' than that other choice, that she deserved more. She would be as unpleasant as possible, no matter where she was; that seemed true enough to me. So why chose what is a essentially a purportedly 'caring' kind of job when she obviously did not care for the job?

A person who can still competently performs their duties but who is "missing a certain something" usually associated with that job is perplexing. If they deride the profession as just a good way to make money, it can be belittling and demoralizing to the rest of us. It would seem to me that just going through the motions, however correctly, doesn't really add anything to a work environment.

My perception of OP's question is how do you deal with someone who approaches their jobs in that manner? A CPA who hates money and math? A receptionist who hates answering the phone, who treats folks who approach their desk as an intrusion on their time? A doctor who triple books appointments and spends five minutes with their patients? A cafeteria worker who slops food on the customers plate like it is disgusting? There are examples in every job or profession. This just happens to be a nursing forum, so the question is about nurses who hate being nurses.

I think, from the responses, some of the poster's reading of the comment/question in OP's posting has more to do with knee-jerk reactions and semantics.

The question is a simple one that distills to this: What do you think of nurses who hate nursing and you have encountered people like this?

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Lol, it seems like the percentage of people who became nurses after a failed attempt in another career is higher than that of most other professions. I know I number among those who already had another bachelor's degree!

Wake up call! We now have almost 50% of college grads that are underemployed today because there are simply not enough true college jobs out there. Whether they were able to use their degree is besides the point. Some were fortunate and able to but decided they wanted a change or were laid off or outsourced. So many jobs are being outsourced today. Even radiologists are being outsourced to India! Computer programming jobs being outsourced to India and bringing in people on visas! Even secretaries and accountants are losing jobs thanks to computer software and robot voicemail. The only jobs that have some chance of security are those that require hands on care that can't be outsourced!

Aside from people with other degrees, states are also pushing unemployed workers and single mothers into retraining programs for nursing. Nursing is one of the few professional jobs that has a projected increase in job openings. Many jobs are contracting and disappearing from the economy altogether.

I feel people coming into nursing from other fields and degrees bring diversity and enrich the profession. Variety is the spice of life remember!

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
It's not a big deal if someone chooses to be a nurse for the pay, but for that to be the ONLY reason, I honestly don't get it. I feel like if you don't have a true purpose to being a nurse, you're going to be burned out so fast because from what I've read, it's not an easy job. I've also seen posts about people hating their job and maybe people go into nursing with passion and are excited for the job and end up hating it, but it seems as if you're more likely to end up hating it if you didn't have a true drive to be a nurse in the first place. Also, those who go into nursing just because are taking up spots for those who actually, truly do want to go into the profession and most likely aren't giving patients as much care as another nurse. I'm not judging, but it's a lot to think about and I wanted to know others' opinions.

From what I've observed over the past four decades, it's those who feel they have a "calling" for nursing who burn out the fastest when the job doesn't turn out to be what they thought it would be. Those of us who went into it because we found anatomy and physiology fascinating, because we wanted an indoor job with a steady paycheck and good benefits or because our first choice profession was for some reason not open to us seem to have more staying power.

You have no idea why someone else "really" went into nursing, and no basis for judging that those without a "calling" or a "true drive" or whatever they're calling it this week aren't giving patients as much care as another nurse. I suspect the entire crux of your argument is the "taking up spots for those who actually, truly do want to go into the profession." I don't know whether you got into your program or not, but we often see posts here from those with a "calling" who are upset because someone who "is just going into nursing for the money" got accepted into nursing school before they did.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I don't care if you have a "calling" for nursing if you don't have the grades to get a spot in a nursing program then it was not meant to be. To those complaining about the wrong people getting nursing school slots or they didn't use their nursing degree, it really is none of your business. Nursing is similar to medical school, it is competitive and science, math and good grades matter. Science is really more of a weeding out process than practical. If someone really wants to be a nurse or dr than it is up to them to study and get good grades.

I believe almost anyone can do well in school if they are motivated and take the time to do the work. Read supplemental books or get tutors if you're having a problem. I've mentioned before if you have problems with math get the solutions manual to the textbook. It probably isn't offered at the college but can be ordered online. I assume the same solutions manuals are available for science classes. It saves you time and frustration and shows you the formula step by step so you can get the right answers without spending hours spinning your wheels getting the wrong answer. I did very well in college algebra thanks to a great teacher and the solutions manual. It was well worth the cost. I didn't go to college right out of high school so math was rusty. I started reviewing with such books as Math made easy. There are many such books out there that can help refresh your knowledge in math and science. I used a boards review book in nursing school to supplement my nursing textbook. These strategies worked well, I was even on the deans list.

Also not everyone stays in the same job or career. It is quite common to change fields. I'm reminded of Naomi Judd who actually became infected with Hepatitis C from working as a nurse before she became a famous country singer. Thankfully she achieved remission with the newer antivirals available today.

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As a patient, I don’t care why someone decided to become a nurse , as long as they provide good care and are friendly why does it matter, although sometimes I ask out of curiosity why they choose nursing.

I had a nurse tell me she became a nurse because she was a single mom and wanted a secure job to be able to provide for her kids.

I had one tell me she had a son born with cerebral palsy, but was more severe than mine, and she decided to become one because of the great care, compassion shown toward her son by the nurses who help care for him and she wanted to do the same for others.

Another just loved science, and the human body, and helping others, so she went into nursing because it combined all of her favorite things.

Regardless of the reason they all provided great care and that’s that mattered to me.

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