No I wouldn't recommend nursing

Nurses Career Support

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It surprises me how many students are going into nursing. I had my BSN since 1992 and have worked in the hospitals since then. Nursing is back-breaking labor with the reoccurring role of cleaning poop. There is no way my back can last another 20 years until retirement. Pick something else to go into.

Manuel

here's how see it, nursing that is

A new top because a pt with dementia spit out there medicine: $18

A new pair of good nurses shoes, because of all the walking you do in 8/12 hour shift: $115

The frustration of faullty equipment, long hours, lack of support from managers/supervisors and low pay, etc: the cost varies

The one heart felt 'Thank you' from a pt you cared for (which may very well be few and far between): Absolutely and totaly price less!!

Like other posters have said, nursing if not for everyone. But that one 'thank you' I may get, makes it ALL worth while......at least for me.

Would I recommend nursing.........in a heart beat!!

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As the nurse to patient ratio and acuity level continue to increase (as seen in my own personal experience) I don't feel that the payscale is in proportion to potential liability (whether due to time constraint and an untimely short cut or simply a frivolous lawsuit which nearly everyone knows CAN happen and sometimes a flawed legal system allows to conclusion). As well, I wish that the health care system in general offered nurses better healthcare benefits as we are wearing out our bodies at a quicker rate than, in my own opinion, many other professional areas.

I have to agree with some of the other nurses here when I say that I just don't know how I will be able to physically continue in this profession to retirement. I like the ideal of nursing being a calling and i'm impressed when I hear someone say that they want to become a nurse but sometimes I don't think it's the most logical of choices. My daughter is impressed by the money which I make (I don't work OT) but she says she will never consider nursing because she's seen the mental and physical toll which it can take. I would like to BE a nurse, but sometimes I just feel like i'm an educated assembly line worker. :twocents:

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I would completely reccomend nursing. I have been in healthcare for 18 years and an RN for 14 of those.

I have worked in a Nursing Home, Telemetry, CVICU, CCU, Float Pool, ICU and now as a Project Coordinator in administration. I am going back for my Masters Degree within the next year.

How many other jobs would afford you these varied opportunities. I would have to agree that bedside nursing until I am 50 or 60 is NOT an option due to the toll on your body and long hours. I have made a great income with a flexible schedule-not many jobs would be quite like that.

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I was at a clinical last night in L&D. The patient/ nurse ratio was 1:1. I was there for two days 6 hours each. I did not see any back breaking labor, I saw a lot of nurses sitting at the nurses station charting. Is this typical of L&D? Post Partum was even slower.

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I was at a clinical last night in L&D. The patient/ nurse ratio was 1:1. I was there for two days 6 hours each. I did not see any back breaking labor, I saw a lot of nurses sitting at the nurses station charting. Is this typical of L&D? Post Partum was even slower.

I have not worked in L & D, but from what I have heard, there are slow days and busy days. As opposed to med-surg, where it is almost always hectic and stressful.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I am a first year nursing student, and I have worked in a hospital as a secretary for six years and I have seen all of the B.S. nurses have to put up with on a daily basis. However I have had many other jobs in several different fields (computers, environmental laboratory, offices) and the same stuff happens there the mandatory overtime for salaried employees, the mandatory travel, the 70 hour workweek for a measly $12 per hour (an no ot for salaried personnel) the complete lack of support from management, and I am positive that there is no other place other than nursing that I want to be. I am well aware of the pitfalls and yet in the end I know that taking care of patients is my calling and my choice of profession. Change will hopefully come from within our profession so we can welcome new nurses to our ranks without hesitation.

Peace and tranquillity to all the nurses out in the trenches!!!

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What is contract nursing?

Well in my situation I don't work for an agency, I do work for the employer that I am employed at, but I only work a few hours a day, just to administer meds and maybe do some basic stuff. I pick from the hours they have available....I am not required to do any certain amount. The pay is high but there are no benefits and there is a lot of driving involved. Usually the work is 2-3 hours. I might do 1 or 2 of these a day. You are not guaranteed hours or even that you'll have a job next week. But it's paying the bills for now. Though I am always on the lookout for a permanent position somewhere. I never know how much money I am going to make with this job. It's a good second job, though. If I get a new job I would still like to pick up a few hours of the contract work.

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I cant help but laugh at these negative posts on nursing. There is no other career where you can easily pick up and move to another state and still find a job in a week, Pay is great, overtime available, and you get to help people. Sureyou may have to work on weekends, at night or holidays but i would much rather do that then what i do now. here is my current job situation...Unrealistic sales goals, management pressure to hit numbers, constant travel-away from family, dealing with customers that dont give a damn about you, kissing butt just to get a deal, and when you cant sell(even though the quotas are unrealistic and you work your butt off, you may still get fired. and no pay unless you sell something. Nursing isn't bad compared to sales. And oh, if you all think that pharmaceutical sales is the greatest thing since sliced bread, its not. if the drug you sell isn't covered by the drug plan by that docotr, good luck getting him to prescribe it. and that job is not sales, its PR. nursing and any similar job is the way to go. yeah, cleaning up poop and other bodily fluids are gross, but i know that is n't a a constant hapening day to day. good luck!!!!

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yeah, cleaning up poop and other bodily fluids are gross, but i know that is n't a a constant hapening day to day. good luck!!!!

Hmmm, in many areas of nursing it is :specs:

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wow! as a 3rd year student reading that kind of puts a downer on things! It seems work conditions can be just as bad in the USA then it is here in the UK. But like some people have mentioned it does depend on the area you work in. I don't think it's all about cleaning up bodily fluids and breaking your backs, it is about caring for the patient. If anyone I feel sorry for the health care assistants, who tend to clean up all the poo over here in england not so much the trained nurses! Some trained nurses here in the UK think that they don't have to do the washes and make the beds which I feel is bad as how do you do a proper assessment of the patient if you don't care for all their needs??? Anyways thats my opinion!

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:eek: Woa! What's all this hostility about. I quit a 50k job to get into nursing. I was a graphic designer and had my own business. My mom works in the medical field and kept pushing me to get into it for the money. I kept resisting and went and did my own thing. 10 years later my dad had a triple bi-pass a year and a half ago and my gandma passed away this past year. All this made me reevaluate my life. Yes I was making great money, but somthing was missing. Now I am currently a CNA student and I am doing my clinicals. Nursing is a hard job and not for everyone. The one week I have done clinicals made me realize that nursing is for me. I am not doing it for the money but because i like helping people. Not everyone likes their job. I hope alot of people who are unhappy are just venting because they have had a bad day. I have been in clinicals for one week and have had some great residents. The job is not pretty and fancy but knowing that I have helped them makes it alot easier to deal with. For those of you who are unhappy I hope that you find a career you enjoy. Sorry this is so long I just think that the people who are posting the negative are forgetting why they went into nursing in the first place.
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Sobering to read these posts...

Nurses aren't to blame for the condition of the field or health care in general. Reading these stories, I'd say that many of you go above-and-beyond each and every day. There aren't too many professions that make the physical and mental demands on you that nursing does, but get paid so little and accorded so little respect. Sure - MDs work monster hours, but they get better pay than we do. The way I see it - and I'm new so I could very well be wrong - is that nurses don't bring in revenue. They are an expense, a large fixed cost for a hospital. That drives the beancounters nuts. So - they have every incentive to cut nursing to the bone and push us as hard as they can, to reduce the impact on the bottom line. I tell non-health care types about working conditions in health care and they either can't believe it or they get amazed that anyone would work under such conditions. Ultimately, the shortage may force healthcare institutions to make real reforms, but right now all I see are band-aid types of solutions to the RN staffing crisis. And it isn't just some RNs who are unhappy with health care. My brother is an MD and he tells both his kids - college-aged - to avoid medicine. So plenty of MDs and others are dissatisfied. If you are one of those people who likes nursing and can tolerate the conditions, you can do pretty well these days - espcially if you know in-demand skills.

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