Nurses Who Shouldn't be Nurses

Nurses General Nursing

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We had this huge discussion at work today, and i thought i'd get your opinions.

The statement was this: "We have to many people becoming nurses for the money. Its not like it used to be, where a nurse chose to be a nurse because they liked helping people. Its all about the money,."

We were talking about the increased patient complaints, and an older nurse stated the above and thats the reason for increased patient complaints.

So, what do you think.

You have a good point. The instructors I have met have been very professional and very difficult. My advisor also keeps me well informed on where I need to work harder etc. She is many of the students advisor and she has recommended many of the students to pick another field of study. When judging the few students that I suspected would either flunk or get dropped, I took into consideration their maturity level. They were the social introverts in class, forming cliques and nit picking others, much like highschool. Mind you, it has been 11 yrs since highschool for me so I tend to forget how they act. I also viewed their integrity and in most cases lack of. They came to class when they felt like it, never did home work and showed up only for tests and failed most of them. Clearly they were not nurse material.

Like you, I met a few excellent students that were in their final semester. A few ended up flunking because of sloppy paper work, slacking in clinical and not getting their assignments done, not doing the proper amount of research for papers and care plans. These were generally astute people with good GPA's. I play it safe and meet with my advisor when I feel confused and insecure. Nursing is not an easy field of study and many prospective students assume it is a cake job. They watch these drama's like ER and HOUSE and think "that would be so cool". In reality, a patients life can lay in our hands. If we misread the doctors scribbles, we can kill a patient. There is a lot of stress in any medical field and ethics are a must. We will all reach a point where we will think "what was I thinking" and become insecure in our decisions. That is when we must re-evaluate our path. If a person is in it from the heart, they belong and should never give up. The nursing field needs them.

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Specializes in Telemetry, ICU, Resource Pool, Dialysis.
They were the social introverts in class, forming cliques and nit picking others, much like highschool....I also viewed their integrity and in most cases lack of. They came to class when they felt like it, never did home work and showed up only for tests and failed most of them. Clearly they were not nurse material.

Unfortunately, I work with some nurses who are just like this - several, actually. They are the ones who have charted 2 sentences for a 12 hour shift. Get a write-up a week for small errors. Show up late to work everyday. And don't really seem to care. I don't get it. But my time gets wasted trying to clean up after them. I don't really care about anybody's motivation to be a nurse, I just expect people to do their jobs. And in this profession, a sloppy error, or an indifferent attitude can cause harm. I also know a lot of nurses who don't have a great deal of compassion, but they are good nurses - they do the job at hand, and do it well.

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Specializes in Telemetry, ICU, Resource Pool, Dialysis.

The single biggest expense for McDonalds? Legal defense fund???:chuckle

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Specializes in Obstetrics, M/S, Psych.
The single biggest expense for McDonalds? Legal defense fund???:chuckle

That must be it. One never knows when they may get assaulted by a hot cup o' joe! :chuckle

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Unfortunately, I work with some nurses who are just like this - several, actually. They are the ones who have charted 2 sentences for a 12 hour shift. Get a write-up a week for small errors. Show up late to work everyday. And don't really seem to care. I don't get it. But my time gets wasted trying to clean up after them. I don't really care about anybody's motivation to be a nurse, I just expect people to do their jobs. And in this profession, a sloppy error, or an indifferent attitude can cause harm. I also know a lot of nurses who don't have a great deal of compassion, but they are good nurses - they do the job at hand, and do it well.

We've become all too familiar with these nursing types, don't you think? These 'political experts' are always the unit manager's best friend. "They" are always ssooo happy to point out someone else's mistake but will never admit her own.

I followed one of these delightful creatures in my first job. At 0920 there was an order to make the patient NPO and hang NS. Not only did she not explain this to the patient, she didn't follow thru on the orders, even though she initialed them and took them off. She didn't change the kardex, didn't hang a sign for the patient to be NPO, didn't tell me in report. The patient was to have a GI procedure (first case) in the early AM under con sed.

I ended up with some oh-so-precious free time and looked thru her chart while waiting for a call back from a resident on a different case, and saw the order. This was at 2130. The patient had eaten dinner already, no fluids hung. My heart sank. I told the charge nurse and we rushed to get those fluids up and page the doc with this news.

Luckily, the doc was the sort who never got PO'd at this kind of thing. She rescheduled her case for later in the morning. I was pretty scared the doctor would take a piece out of me, but she was actually very nice about it.The patient was hopping mad, especially when we had to restart the line because of course it didn't work, although I had flushed the SL when I came on shift (I usually did so during my initial assessment).

The charge nurse asked me to write her up. I did so and nothing every happened. The same nurse got ticked at me (so the unit manager must have said something to her) one day and wrote me up for wearing my hair down. On a Saturday. :no:

The ones who shouldn't be nurses? The incompetent ones like the above-mentioned 'prize'.

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Specializes in Telemetry, ICU, Resource Pool, Dialysis.

The ones who shouldn't be nurses? The incompetent ones like the above-mentioned 'prize'.

Exactly. I've had an uncountable number of experiences just like the one you described. So frustrating.

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Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).

The single largest expense at McDonald's is the same as a hospital's: labor. At least, that's what they said, many years ago, in their training video. Which, if you've ever worked at McDonald's, suggests they must get their meat awfully cheap.

The other fun fact I still remember is that McDonald's sells more Coke products, worldwide, than anybody, including Coke.

Say what you will, but if I owned a couple of their franchises, I think I might cut my hours back a bit.

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The single largest expense at McDonald's is the same as a hospital's: labor. At least, that's what they said, many years ago, in their training video. Which, if you've ever worked at McDonald's, suggests they must get their meat awfully cheap.

The other fun fact I still remember is that McDonald's sells more Coke products, worldwide, than anybody, including Coke.

Say what you will, but if I owned a couple of their franchises, I think I might cut my hours back a bit.

Ah, demon temptation, get behind me! :rotfl:

Now I'd rather a couple of franchise, sit back and watch the $$$$$$$$$ pour in.

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Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).
Ah, demon temptation, get behind me! :rotfl:

Now I'd rather a couple of franchise, sit back and watch the $$$$$$$$$ pour in.

I meant that I'd cut back my hours at the hospital.

Not that I'm in it for the money, of course.

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:uhoh21: Bump

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Specializes in Critical Care.
That must be it. One never knows when they may get assaulted by a hot cup o' joe! :chuckle

Anytime I get a pt a cup of coffee I say, "Now I have to give our famous McDonald's warning: It's HOT!"

~faith,

Timothy.

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I'm responding to the original post-I haven't had time to read everything. I am someone who is considering going into nursing as a second career. My previous career was kind of unsatisfying, career opportunites are somewhat limited, and the pay was very low, even though I had the required master's degree. So, yeah-I guess you could say that one reason nursing is attractive to me is because I will make more with an associate's degree than I will make with my master's degree in my current field and there are lots of job opportunities. I have a husband who's line of work is somewhat unstable and unpredictable, and I have 2 small children. I do want to choose a field (this time) that will allow me to support my family if need be.

That said, I don't think that the fact I've wondered about the $$ makes me someone who is unfit to be a nurse. I was pre-med in college but ended up choosing a slightly different career path at that point. I have just completed a CNA course and have done 30 hours of clinical work in a hospital, wiping people's backsides, taking them to the showers, changing their sheets, getting them drinks, getting their nurse when they need their pain meds, etc... I enjoyed it and feel that nursing may be a good fit for me. I'm even planning on working part time for a home health agency, which is flexible enough so that I can work around my husband's schedule and not put my kids into daycare. I'm extremely conscientious and detail oriented. I've been lurking on this board for a long time and don't feel that I'm going into nursing with some unrealistic pie in the sky kind of expectations, despite people warning me about burnouts, long shifts, abuse from patients and doctors, etc...

When my mother was in college, people told her she could be one of 2 things: a nurse or a teacher. I'm quite sure many women went into nursing during that era not b/c they felt some kind of calling, but because nursing was considered one of the few acceptable careers for a woman.

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