I definitely not recommend nursing.

1styear · May 11, 2004

I see that my post has generated a lot of heated discussion. You are correct in your observation that I'm a nursing student who will graduate in December. I live next to Manhattan and the starting salary is $60k/yr. I honestly didn't know it was so much lower in other parts of the country, I thought it was just adjusted to cost of living but apparently it's far less than that in some parts. I was a little agravated with that poster only because every other nurse I encounter has nothing but complaints about their position. So that's 50% of the nuses I encounter, the other 50 are thankfully very happy with their positions, found their niche and have made the best out of their careers and lives so that it's suited to making them happy. There are a lot of opportunities in nursing and a lot of positions outside of the hospital(no they don't fall in you lap --you have to look for them) so it's difficult to hear people feel trapped. I didn't have to word it so harshly -my bad, I think my response was directed at the number of times I've heard it rather than at that one poster.

Calfax · Jun 2, 2004

Reading through this thread, I've felt both ways.....nursing is as easy to hate as it is to love. Male nurses are still a minority and I am a military nurse as well making me even more of a red-headed stepchild (you know the loud-mouthed obnoxious one). It is my privilege to serve as a nurse in the Navy and I work as hard as any of you but with no overtime. My patient loads are always high, we are always short and the deployments away from home and family always long. It will never get any better. Ever. We will always be stretched just to breaking. That is the nature of my job. But I'm a nurse....and given the times when I have to choose between being an officer and a nurse.....I always choose to be a nurse and my nursing designators are proudly tattooed on my arm under the trident and US flag for all to see.

I could have been anything I chose to.....but I wound up a nurse and so be it. Every night I go in there and give 100 percent. But you know what? I'm tired of working my fingers to the bone, every holiday, 12 hr. shifts (3 long years of nights) and never being able to have the resources to do my job properly, of having next to no administrative support and bearing witness to the arrogance of physicians. I moonlighted at a civilian hospital and it's as dismal there too. I was treated with little or no respect there either.

No one wanted to hear about progression or impliment changes of any kind. They didn't care about the staff or the patients, only what revenue they could suck out of the patients. So be it.

Those who posted saying that nursing isn't worth it are right....the working conditions suck. But are people doing anything about it? No. There's no marches, there's no walk-outs, there's no demands for better working conditions and god forbid anyone mention a union.....you all sit there and gripe and complain but we never do anything. And try to get 3 nurses together to agree on anything. And we never back each other up, ever.

Well, I'm tired of it. No more.

Take nursing back. Demand 8 hr shifts. Demand decent patient ratios. Demand good supplies, demand less stupid paperwork and computer systems that work. But we gotta back it up. Strike and make a media event of it. Go work agency (why do the same job for less money).....better yet, you and your co-workers form your own agencies and write your own contracts.

Outmaneouver your management at every turn. Lobby....make noise....be vocal. Every other human group out there has someone making noise, why not us? If it's one thing the military has taught me, it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.

I'm not waiting anymore. I'm going back to get my MBA. When I'm done, I'll return to nursing.....but with juice. I'm then going into business. Contract services for whoever will pay. Nursing care is not a right, it's a service. If you want good care you have to pay me and my fellow nurses well. We need to become as ruthless and aggressive about our working conditions as any other trade.

shel_wny · Jun 2, 2004

Reading through this thread, I've felt both ways.....nursing is as easy to hate as it is to love. Male nurses are still a minority and I am a military nurse as well making me even more of a red-headed stepchild (you know the loud-mouthed obnoxious one). It is my privilege to serve as a nurse in the Navy and I work as hard as any of you but with no overtime. My patient loads are always high, we are always short and the deployments away from home and family always long. It will never get any better. Ever. We will always be stretched just to breaking. That is the nature of my job. But I'm a nurse....and given the times when I have to choose between being an officer and a nurse.....I always choose to be a nurse and my nursing designators are proudly tattooed on my arm under the trident and US flag for all to see.
I could have been anything I chose to.....but I wound up a nurse and so be it. Every night I go in there and give 100 percent. But you know what? I'm tired of working my fingers to the bone, every holiday, 12 hr. shifts (3 long years of nights) and never being able to have the resources to do my job properly, of having next to no administrative support and bearing witness to the arrogance of physicians. I moonlighted at a civilian hospital and it's as dismal there too. I was treated with little or no respect there either.
No one wanted to hear about progression or impliment changes of any kind. They didn't care about the staff or the patients, only what revenue they could suck out of the patients. So be it.
Those who posted saying that nursing isn't worth it are right....the working conditions suck. But are people doing anything about it? No. There's no marches, there's no walk-outs, there's no demands for better working conditions and god forbid anyone mention a union.....you all sit there and gripe and complain but we never do anything. And try to get 3 nurses together to agree on anything. And we never back each other up, ever.
Well, I'm tired of it. No more.
Take nursing back. Demand 8 hr shifts. Demand decent patient ratios. Demand good supplies, demand less stupid paperwork and computer systems that work. But we gotta back it up. Strike and make a media event of it. Go work agency (why do the same job for less money).....better yet, you and your co-workers form your own agencies and write your own contracts.
Outmaneouver your management at every turn. Lobby....make noise....be vocal. Every other human group out there has someone making noise, why not us? If it's one thing the military has taught me, it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.
I'm not waiting anymore. I'm going back to get my MBA. When I'm done, I'll return to nursing.....but with juice. I'm then going into business. Contract services for whoever will pay. Nursing care is not a right, it's a service. If you want good care you have to pay me and my fellow nurses well. We need to become as ruthless and aggressive about our working conditions as any other trade.

AMEN! I'm just a wee nursing student/CNA but I'm behind you full tilt!

Shel

mstigerlily · May 5, 2005

I live in San Diego, CA. I've been at my very first job just three months and have only an ADN degree. I make $27.03/hr so far with a $4/hr night differential (and I work nights now - we have 3 12s per week but you can also work any combo of that 2 wk/then 3, 2 a week, etc). BSNs are paid about $1.50 more an hour, MSN's I think $2-$3 more (to start). I am a nurse in the mother/baby unit and I just love it. Patients are happy and well, a lot of teaching is involved. I go home tired but happy. I find I have a lot of time with my three kids, much more than I had working a 9-5 job or even working days. I like my hospital very much, I work at Scripps La Jolla and our hospital just received magnet status, one of only five hospitals in Ca to do so.

Our director and manager is very fair, a little intimidating but fantastic lady. We write our own schedules and are only required to work one weekend a month and two holidays (one summer, one winter) per year. Our benefits are fantastic and reasonably priced. We get 21 paid days off per year which accrue from time of hire. After 5 yrs we get 28 days! Double time is paid for extra shifts and a lot of nurses do this all the time. Gosh, I sound like a recruiter - but I really am happy where I am. I've only been a nurse for a few months though but I'm so happy I made this career choice.

I am sorry you are having a bad experience. Come to California! We need nurses badly. Although cost of living is high - I was born here so I'm used to it but it's a big shock if you are coming from somewhere else :) .

Melissa

tencat · May 5, 2005

Wow, it's amazing how many similarities there are between the career of nursing and the career of teaching. I'm a teacher, soon to be BSN student, and I've ntoiced that teachers also don't stick together, and often they won't join unions. Work conditions are less than adequate, and "management" aka Administration, won't treat them better, partially because they don't demand it. I think nurses, police officers, and teachers should make up their own special union. Can you imagine how powerful we'd be if we all stuck together and demanded the respect we deserve?

froggy4 · May 13, 2005

It's unfortunate but true....if you get into nursing it should be more of a calling than a job/career, because you're not going to get compensated for the physical, mental and emotional effort you will put out.....Let's face it, almost everyone thinks of the nurses as worker bees. The patients need to be cared for, thus there are nurses. However, we are not respected enough to be treated compensatorily or paid compensatorily for what we contribute. I have wracked my brain and so has the nursing community to address this problem. Meanwhile nurses have left the field and few are joining. Yet, society still needs nursing care.....Mhmmmm what to do? I myself, a BSN, since 1985, mostly in the field of Perinatal nursing (with a VERY sore back, large bladder and never a chance to eat or take a break!) am trying to get into Legal Nurse Constuling. Is this the answer for me? I don't know, but I'm going to try because I am a single mom of 3 boys, 2 dogs and a tree frog!!

I'll say one thing about nurses, we are infinately compassionate, extremely tough and an overall incredible species!!

To all nurses out there....keep trying to improve your situation and don't forget to take care of each other along the way....if you have to leave nursing to save yourself, so be it, build on what you had and move forward!!

Good Luck!!

Froggy 4 :)

Danielle4 · May 13, 2005

Wow, it's amazing how many similarities there are between the career of nursing and the career of teaching. I'm a teacher, soon to be BSN student, and I've ntoiced that teachers also don't stick together, and often they won't join unions. Work conditions are less than adequate, and "management" aka Administration, won't treat them better, partially because they don't demand it. I think nurses, police officers, and teachers should make up their own special union. Can you imagine how powerful we'd be if we all stuck together and demanded the respect we deserve?

I agree. I also think medical technologists should join the union. they are underpaid and underappreciated too.

Danielle4 · May 13, 2005

Reading through this thread, I've felt both ways.....nursing is as easy to hate as it is to love. Male nurses are still a minority and I am a military nurse as well making me even more of a red-headed stepchild (you know the loud-mouthed obnoxious one). It is my privilege to serve as a nurse in the Navy and I work as hard as any of you but with no overtime. My patient loads are always high, we are always short and the deployments away from home and family always long. It will never get any better. Ever. We will always be stretched just to breaking. That is the nature of my job. But I'm a nurse....and given the times when I have to choose between being an officer and a nurse.....I always choose to be a nurse and my nursing designators are proudly tattooed on my arm under the trident and US flag for all to see.
I could have been anything I chose to.....but I wound up a nurse and so be it. Every night I go in there and give 100 percent. But you know what? I'm tired of working my fingers to the bone, every holiday, 12 hr. shifts (3 long years of nights) and never being able to have the resources to do my job properly, of having next to no administrative support and bearing witness to the arrogance of physicians. I moonlighted at a civilian hospital and it's as dismal there too. I was treated with little or no respect there either.
No one wanted to hear about progression or impliment changes of any kind. They didn't care about the staff or the patients, only what revenue they could suck out of the patients. So be it.
Those who posted saying that nursing isn't worth it are right....the working conditions suck. But are people doing anything about it? No. There's no marches, there's no walk-outs, there's no demands for better working conditions and god forbid anyone mention a union.....you all sit there and gripe and complain but we never do anything. And try to get 3 nurses together to agree on anything. And we never back each other up, ever.
Well, I'm tired of it. No more.
Take nursing back. Demand 8 hr shifts. Demand decent patient ratios. Demand good supplies, demand less stupid paperwork and computer systems that work. But we gotta back it up. Strike and make a media event of it. Go work agency (why do the same job for less money).....better yet, you and your co-workers form your own agencies and write your own contracts.
Outmaneouver your management at every turn. Lobby....make noise....be vocal. Every other human group out there has someone making noise, why not us? If it's one thing the military has taught me, it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.
I'm not waiting anymore. I'm going back to get my MBA. When I'm done, I'll return to nursing.....but with juice. I'm then going into business. Contract services for whoever will pay. Nursing care is not a right, it's a service. If you want good care you have to pay me and my fellow nurses well. We need to become as ruthless and aggressive about our working conditions as any other trade.

I agree with you 100%! Good for you.

sunshine9 · May 13, 2005

I'm going through nursing school in the fall and I am reading all the different comments. It really hasn't changed my thought of going at all because I have heard all of the different ups and downs of the career. But has anyone gone on to work in nursing in a different aspect besides just working in a hospital. It sounds like a lot of the burnout that people are having is from working in hospitals and so forth. One of the main things that I thought was going to be beneficial in nursing was that there was different avenues that you could travel in your career. Do you find it hard to find those different avenues? Has anyone gone on to something in else in the nursing field where they able to utilize their license and felt appreciated and important and enjoy what they do now? I know that there may be more schooling involved and so on but I was just wondering. If your in a rut do you stay in it or take a what you have and work with it.

Nurse Izzy · May 14, 2005

"And I would like to know where in this country an RN makes $25.00 to $30.00 an hour. "

Alabama, Georgia. As a new new grad (within the past three years), I started out making $17.25/hr base plue $4.00 shift diff equalling $21.25/hr - fresh out of school. That was in a critical care area, but there was not extra pay for critical care - the pay was the same for all new grads regardless of the area worked.

A friend works in the OR, makes over $32/hr with about 10 yrs exp.

Another friend is a new grad this year and will be starting out at $28/hr in CCU.

These are all Non-travel positions. I was offered a travel position at a rate of $32/hr, $1200/month housing allowance plus $500 travel reimbursement.

The money is there.

Why do I do it? Because I learn every day. I learn about myself and life in general from my patients and that makes it worth it.

Melody1968 · May 14, 2005

I basically gave up 2 years of my sons lives when they were 8 and 10 to complete my RN. I never saw them awake till the weekend. I had school from 0630 till 12:45 and worked as a secretary on a psych unit from 1400 till 2230. I thought I was doing it to provide them with a secure future. All it gave them was a mother who was stressed out, had back surgery twice, and missed their school concerts and PTA meetings because she was always at work. Luckily they are now grown and have turned out well. But I missed too much, and I can't get it back. I don't feel we are compensated for our sacrifices, nor are we supported or respected by "mahogany hall" administrators. And I would like to know where in this country an RN makes $25.00 to $30.00 an hour. I've been an ICU nurse for 10 years and the best I pull is $18.00. No it's not just about the money, it's about not having the time to give the nursing care you want to give. If I have a patient going for CABG, and they are nervous and scared, I don't have time to sit and explain and encourage, but I'm supposed to take the time to write on the education sheet the teaching I've done. That's hypocritical, but it's the facts. No I wouldn't recommend this back wrenching, exhausting , thankless, tiring, heart wrenching, disrespected job to anyone.

I couldn't have said it better myself. The RN is always the one who is responsible too. If the doctor writes an order that is not right, you better know how to figure it out. The nurses aids think the RNs are lazy. The nurses are caught between a rock and a hard place. Don't even get me started on calling the doctors....thats another whole can of worms! I have two herniated discs in my neck and $30 hour wouldn't help it right now. I am in pain constantly. So do not go into nursing!!!!

Candidnt · May 15, 2005

As I think about it, it is difficult to recommend nursing to people unless they really want to do it...think about it, there aren't enough of us, hospitals downsizing, consolidating, eliminating positions, expecting us to do more with less (supplies, technologies, coworkers, etc)...people living longer, getting sicker...we're supposed to be sending them home sooner, so they can take care of themselves; having worked home health, I see that doesn't work out as well as we plan, so they end up back in the hospital again (and again and again)...we're frequently short staffed; administration/managers/supervisors don't look at acuity or nurse/skill mix or anything like that, they see empty beds and want to fill them, regardless of the consequences to us (and the patients we already have to deal with). Less women choose nursing as a career, since other options are available to them; it's difficult to get men into nursing as well.

Who wants to play in crap? And for the pay we get? We can either play in it, or we can sit in front of a computer all day for just as much money (if not more). And it's going to get worse; as we baby boomers (and I'm one, right at the tail end of it) get older and retire, and get older and sicker, etc, we're going to put more strain on the system, and the nursing shortage shows no end in sight. Nursing schools are closing (consider Niagara U, Syracuse U, Lycoming College, Albright College, and others), but the problem isn't that there aren't enough nursing schools, there's not enough faculty to teach.

As for most community colleges, yes they have long waiting lists, but most people usually drop off or give up after so long, and in most of those schools (except for major metro areas, I guess) the class sizes tend to be small. Then you consider attrition, people dropping out, etc. Then those who do get into nursing, either get tired of playing in crap (with no help) or get tired of being treated like crap (with no help). I love nursing, but I will admit to burning out, and I can't say there are times that I haven't thought of doing something else (I'm currently going through that now) or wished I had done something else instead. Nursing has a lot of internal problems that it needs to fix, if things are going to start getting better.