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

If it is for money the answer is no, but there are reasons that I would recommend nursing.

Now I have a question. Many people seem to act like nurses don't get paid anything. At the hospital I work at ADNs start out at 23 dollars an hour. Do any of you really think that there is any other job that would pay someone with a 2 year degree 23 dollars an hour to work 36 hours a week. I think not. I definitely am not making that and I have a bachelors in biomedical sciences and am going back to get my BSN because I enjoy providing direct patient care, but also because it pays wonderfully and the shifts appeal to me. Even if I worked in a large pharmacuetical research center now I wouldn't start at that. I really think that many nurses just don't see how good they have it. It is work. It isn't meant to be fun. If you think you can find better money else where with the same amount of education and work less, by all means be my guest, but I wont be holding my breath.

I'm not a nurse yet, but I've been an aid for 8 or so years, along with a few other jobs. I've gotta say I'd rather clean up poop than work in retail. I know a whole lot of nurses who wouldn't reccomend nursing as a career, but they are all still nurses, and that says something. Most of them also admit to loving their jobs, or at least to loving their patients.

I'm not a nurse yet, but I've been an aid for 8 or so years, along with a few other jobs. I've gotta say I'd rather clean up poop than work in retail. I know a whole lot of nurses who wouldn't reccomend nursing as a career, but they are all still nurses, and that says something. Most of them also admit to loving their jobs, or at least to loving their patients.

You're a wonderful person and you love what you're doing. You have lots of heaven points now. Continue and follow your noble calling.;) Cna's does so much in their job. There's a purpose for every person's chosen field - i admire everyone who finds enjoyment in what they do, be it in nursing or retail. I worked in retail before and loved the people i worked with, learned from shared life stories of associates and some business sense. Now, i had overcome all those created wants as i had handled almost every merchandise transaction in all departments in a big store. ( now learned how to be spendthrift :biggringi and ready to save for the future...lol...). Good Nurses...Blessings will be yours for sure...and for everyone with good hearts and sincerity.:roll

Specializes in primary care, pediatrics, OB/GYN, NICU.
I am very surprised at the number of postings I have seen that are so negative about nursing. I wonder why these people have remained in a profession that they seem to dislike so much?

Granted, nursing can be hard physical work. It can also be very mentally taxing. I, myself, have participated in many "code browns" in my nursing practice. I, too, have spent many hours turning and bathing and feeding and ambulating patients. I, too, have spent many hours explaining to family members the care they will need to provide when their spouse or S.O. or child returns home after being hospitalized for whatever ailment or emergency they have been admitted for.

But if your focus is only on the physical work of the profession, I need to say that you seem to be missing the reason most people become nurses.

For those of you who have lost sight of what a nurse is, I'd like to refresh your memory. For those of you who don't know, I'd like to enlighten you.

A nurse:

-- Combines science and technology with people skills including

communication, problem solving, teaching, and compassion.

-- Touches people's lives at a time when they need help.

-- Is one of the most respected professions in the United States.

-- Is the backbone of our healthcare system.

-- Promotes health.

-- Helps to prevent disease.

-- Helps patients and their families cope with illness, emergencies and

long-term disease.

-- Saves lives.

-- Makes healthier communities.

-- Has the opportunity to do "good" in the world everyday.

-- Makes a difference.

That is nursing.

And that is why peolple become nurses.

And, even though I may need to remind myself now and then, that is why I beame a nurse and am still a nurse. It is also why I teach future nurses.

Rick Maddess, RN

That's beautiful Rick, thank you for this inspirational reminder.

Just a few thoughts from an old "bedside nurse"...we're not complaining about cleaning poop and vomit..we're complaining b/c we CANT do it soon enough and patients have to wait too long!!....we're not complaining that its hard to turn and move people and get them to the chair when theyre 300 pounds and over...but that there's NOT ENOUGH OF US TO DO IT safely for the patients OR the staff....and many of us wanted to help people but at the end of the day, we go home only thinking of all the ones needs we COULNDT attend to b/c there wasnt time...showering, bathing, brushing teeth, take a back seat to people passing out, having chest pain, arrythmias, low bp's , SOB etc. But were complaining b/c we WANT to help people, we WANT to do it right, we KNOW what needs to be done, we would want it done for us and our families, BUT WE CANT help the people!!!..Ive cleaned up cdiff "poop" on several patients at a time many times a day..BUT I cant do it nearly as often as I like...and theres no pca's or whatevers...theres me..and if im cleaning cdiff "poop" and my wireless phone rings b/c someones in a flutter with an rvr or pat or whatever..i have to degown,deglove.leave the patient and who knows when I'll be back...and if theres no secretary, I'm answering ALL the phone calls and leaving the patients to do it...I dont think were complaining about the KIND of work we do...just that we cant do it how we think it should be done with the amount of staff we have no matter how super we are or how much time we "MAKE"...so please dont preach to me about finding a new career if we dont want to HELP people...and dont tell me its a calling from "GOD" , b/c I want to help people and I value people but it has nothing to do with GOD. Some of you act like if you dont have a "calling from GOD," you shouldnt be a nurse!!!....I dont want more pay...I want a decent amount of help so I CAN HELP people b/c that IS why I became a nurse...but most days i feel i could help people more in another profession...but you all say.."well then change professions"...this is ALL ive ever done..its all i know...so its not that easy..I DO NOT think this profession is any worse than sales, policing, fighting for our country in wars, being a lawyer, construction in high places!...waitressing, etc..i think some of us old bedside nurses are willing to work hard..i dont care so much about breaks...i do like a 30 minute lunchtime out of a 12 or 14 hour day...but were just complaining that theres not enough of us to do the job right...and WE HAVE tried to change...I was told 10 years ago, when I complained that the staffing situation was unsafe..and gave several examples of how patients almost died b/c of inadequate attention...i was told that " we all have to decide when to get out...when we cant do it anymore!)..that was the final straw..now ive tried to speak up and i dont even get to finish my sentence if my head nurse even senses its about staffing....so i gave up...i just do my best but its just not good enough.....................

Listen...please

I'm going to be a nurse. You can warn me until you're blue in the face. You can tell me all these things (which I can apply to my own job as a 20 year Master Sergeant in the Air Force, well, except for bodily fluid cleanup). You can complain about pay and benefits and hours and crappy bosses (aren't almost all bosses crappy anywhere?) and stress and violence and potentially dying at work and everything else until the end of time. But I'm going to be a nurse.

I remember the hospice nurse that helped my father end his life in dignity. She healed us all - every single member of our family. She was always a professional, but when it got too sad, she went out on the porch and cried a little. Then she would come back in and give us hugs and help us all get better.

I remember when she told my mom, "Now, I don't want to alarm you, but his skin is very thin, and I think it is going to break open. He could start bleeding from all the little tears. You should get some dark towels and put around him." Then she calmed us all down - helped us get our heads on straight. We did the right thing, and fortunately his paper thin skin held out.

I remember he was moaning real bad one day, and my mom had already given him the maximum amount of morphine she could. The hospice nurse sat and looked at my dad a bit, then went out to her car and got a tiny little patch that she put behind his ear. His pain went away almost immediately. He went to God a few days later, without pain, with dignity, surrounded by loved ones.

Where would my dad have been without that nurse? I realized then that I could spend the rest of my life in the entirely honorable military profession and never come within a mile of the HUMANITY that nurse carried with grace and dignity. I decided I wanted to be her when I grow up.

I could now tell you about the nurses who have worked for the past 4 months to HEAL my mother of throat cancer (which she entirely didn't deserve, because she never smoked a day in her life). I could tell you about how those nurses, again, healed my whole family by explaining to us what the doctor just said, by treating my mother with respect and professionalism. I could tell you about their impressive knowledge, skill, compassion, and friendliness.

But instead I want to tell you how they have hands that heal, and I don't. But I want hands that heal. I want 'em real bad. I'm going to be a nurse, or die trying. Your entirely legitimate complaints have strengthened my resolve. Thank you. :loveya:

Specializes in Emergency Department.

Pelsmith,

What a great and inspirational posting. May you obtain the healing hands you so desire and make the kind of lasting impressions on your patients that the nurses who have cared for your loved ones have done. I really appreciate your post. May God bless you and your family.

ETNGuy

Specializes in Onc/Hem, School/Community.
I'm not a nurse yet, but I've been an aid for 8 or so years, along with a few other jobs. I've gotta say I'd rather clean up poop than work in retail. I know a whole lot of nurses who wouldn't reccomend nursing as a career, but they are all still nurses, and that says something. Most of them also admit to loving their jobs, or at least to loving their patients.

:yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat:

Some people are so ungrateful. If you are that unhappy with your job maybe it is time to change into another nursing role. If you don't like cleaning up human waste sometimes move to Africa where your drinking water is full of it. There are slave children in South America who are required to work 24 hours and sleep while they are staning. If they refuse they are beat. Nursing is and probably alway will be a demanding field. If you don't get lunches or breaks you need to speak up. Just because employers treat you like crap does not make it right. Stand up for yourself or move into another nursing role!

Sure there are days when EVERYONE hates their job, but to flat out tell students to find something else is crazy! I am a student now and I have worked as an aide for five years. Yeah there are bad days, but you have to remember that it is your job to help people. You just have to look at the positive stuff and not the negative. There are so many people that I am sure you have helped and doesn't that make it all worth it. Just to go home and say to yourself "Gee I am really glad that I could make Mr. Jones smile today and do all that I could for him." Maybe I'm still too young then if I believe this but I hope not. I am so excited to become a nurse and be able to help people more than I can now. So if a person feels that this is what they want to do then encourage it because we need more nurses.:nurse:

Just a few thoughts from an old "bedside nurse"...we're not complaining about cleaning poop and vomit..we're complaining b/c we CANT do it soon enough and patients have to wait too long!!....we're not complaining that its hard to turn and move people and get them to the chair when theyre 300 pounds and over...but that there's NOT ENOUGH OF US TO DO IT safely for the patients OR the staff....and many of us wanted to help people but at the end of the day, we go home only thinking of all the ones needs we COULNDT attend to b/c there wasnt time...showering, bathing, brushing teeth, take a back seat to people passing out, having chest pain, arrythmias, low bp's , SOB etc. But were complaining b/c we WANT to help people, we WANT to do it right, we KNOW what needs to be done, we would want it done for us and our families, BUT WE CANT help the people!!!..Ive cleaned up cdiff "poop" on several patients at a time many times a day..BUT I cant do it nearly as often as I like...and theres no pca's or whatevers...theres me..and if im cleaning cdiff "poop" and my wireless phone rings b/c someones in a flutter with an rvr or pat or whatever..i have to degown,deglove.leave the patient and who knows when I'll be back...and if theres no secretary, I'm answering ALL the phone calls and leaving the patients to do it...I dont think were complaining about the KIND of work we do...just that we cant do it how we think it should be done with the amount of staff we have no matter how super we are or how much time we "MAKE"...so please dont preach to me about finding a new career if we dont want to HELP people...and dont tell me its a calling from "GOD" , b/c I want to help people and I value people but it has nothing to do with GOD. Some of you act like if you dont have a "calling from GOD," you shouldnt be a nurse!!!....I dont want more pay...I want a decent amount of help so I CAN HELP people b/c that IS why I became a nurse...but most days i feel i could help people more in another profession...but you all say.."well then change professions"...this is ALL ive ever done..its all i know...so its not that easy..I DO NOT think this profession is any worse than sales, policing, fighting for our country in wars, being a lawyer, construction in high places!...waitressing, etc..i think some of us old bedside nurses are willing to work hard..i dont care so much about breaks...i do like a 30 minute lunchtime out of a 12 or 14 hour day...but were just complaining that theres not enough of us to do the job right...and WE HAVE tried to change...I was told 10 years ago, when I complained that the staffing situation was unsafe..and gave several examples of how patients almost died b/c of inadequate attention...i was told that " we all have to decide when to get out...when we cant do it anymore!)..that was the final straw..now ive tried to speak up and i dont even get to finish my sentence if my head nurse even senses its about staffing....so i gave up...i just do my best but its just not good enough.....................

well stated. i want to hear from all these nursing students in 20 years to see if they are singing the same tune.

I am very surprised at the number of postings I have seen that are so negative about nursing. I wonder why these people have remained in a profession that they seem to dislike so much?

Granted, nursing can be hard physical work. It can also be very mentally taxing. I, myself, have participated in many "code browns" in my nursing practice. I, too, have spent many hours turning and bathing and feeding and ambulating patients. I, too, have spent many hours explaining to family members the care they will need to provide when their spouse or S.O. or child returns home after being hospitalized for whatever ailment or emergency they have been admitted for.

But if your focus is only on the physical work of the profession, I need to say that you seem to be missing the reason most people become nurses.

For those of you who have lost sight of what a nurse is, I'd like to refresh your memory. For those of you who don't know, I'd like to enlighten you.

A nurse:

-- Combines science and technology with people skills including

communication, problem solving, teaching, and compassion.

-- Touches people's lives at a time when they need help.

-- Is one of the most respected professions in the United States.

-- Is the backbone of our healthcare system.

-- Promotes health.

-- Helps to prevent disease.

-- Helps patients and their families cope with illness, emergencies and

long-term disease.

-- Saves lives.

-- Makes healthier communities.

-- Has the opportunity to do "good" in the world everyday.

-- Makes a difference.

That is nursing.

And that is why peolple become nurses.

And, even though I may need to remind myself now and then, that is why I beame a nurse and am still a nurse. It is also why I teach future nurses.

Rick Maddess, RN

so...are you still at the bedside..or are you teaching?

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