Nursing is pathetic... - page 20

1. 
   Oct 30, '01

   Oy! Good grief! Negativity is really a downer for the student! I am going to apply to the nursing program at my college and I don't care how negative or snotty co-workers or staff are- that is their problem and people that act like a pack of wolves toward new students or others HAVE NO BUSINESS in a health care field!!! I have been a homemaker for 10 years, my kids are in school now and I am getting out of the house and doing something meaningful with my life. We are in the military and pay isn't that great but we have always been fine SO anything I make in my new career field will be like hitting the jackpot because I have NEVER gotten my own paycheck! I live in ND so I am prepared not to get much pay but hey, it's better than nothing! I'm sure the job is thankless on alot of days but if a person is not willing to try to make changes then quit complaining and get out. I have no sympathy for negative one-uppers who try to intimidate people! They have major issues and they need to take that up with GOD. People like that don't seem to accept help from anyone else. There are a lot more people that have it worse than you like the people laying in that bed dying of cancer! There are always bigger problems that will make yours seem smaller if you just look around. When I think I am feeling negative or start complaining I just think of someone who has it way worse than me and has NO control over their situation. You can change your attitude and be happier, but that alzheimers patient is afflicted for life! Come on! Bad attitudes are the reason we have all these problems today. Maybe when we go to nursing school they should do a mental health/personality assessment as well so we can sift out the back-bitin' downers! I would NEVER treat people that way, I am very enthusiastic and LOVE people but I tell ya, I have pity on those co-workers we hear nurses and students complaining about! In the long run, the rotten wolf pack will get their's threefold! It is a shame they have to ruin it for everyone else!
2. 
   Oct 30, '01

   What does nursedude want people to reply? When a person replies sincerely they get a sarcastic negative response. What is your REAL problem? It doesn't seem to be nursing.....
3. 
   Oct 30, '01

   WHIP--HOW CAN YOU EVEN BEGIN TO COMMENT ABOUT NURSEDUDE IF YOU HAVE NEVER WORKED FOR A PAYCHECK IN NURSING? YOU'LL SEE WHERE THE NEGATIVITY COMES FROM WHEN YOU BEGIN TO WORK IN NURSING. IN MY OPINION IT COMES FROM NOT BEING ALLOWED BY ADMIN. THE TIME OR STAFF TO GIVE THE PTS. EXCELLENT CARE. NURSE DUDE NEVER SAID HE WAS NOT GOOD TO HIS PTS. HE IS VENTING HIS FRUSTRATIONS FROM THE JOB. ARE YOU ANOTHER ONE WHO FEELS NURSING IS A "NOBLE PROFESSION". YOUR POST WANTS TO BLAME THE NURSES FOR THE PROBLEMS WE HAVE AND THAT IS NOT THE CASE. AGAIN IMHO. BY THE WAY--I ALSO AGREE100% WITH NURSE DUDE AND MUST SAY--------I LOVE HIM TOO!!!!!!!!!!

   Last edit by tiger on Oct 30, '01
4. 
   Nov 1, '01

   Look, sorry if it sounds like I am blaming nurses for their behavior. No, Admin stinks. The situation with quality time with patients stinks. My sister and mother are both in the medical field so I know first hand. It is not all the nurses it is other existing factors as well that make it miserable. That nurse dude is RUDE. If you think he seems NICE and LOVE him fine, but if you scroll to some of the sarcastic replies he gave back to sincere people trying to help or get to the bottom of his problem, you will see that a person like that will be rubbed the wrong way no matter what you say to them! Hope he's not sarcastic to his own family and friends all the time! Venting is allright and no one is perfect but we aren't his personal boxing ring either!
5. 
   Nov 1, '01

   sorry whip, but you can only know first hand if you work or have worked in nursing. which you have not. you, and several others are assuming he has some problem because his opinion is different than yours. he sounds well "together" to me.
6. 
   Nov 1, '01

   Okay, I know I have no experience (being a student) and I am definitely sure I will get my fair share of what is negative in the nursing field. I'm sure it can make a person bitter when the working circumstances are rough. I'll see when I get there... Hopefully I won't get to that point. Students DO want to investigate what we are going to have to go through, the positive AND the negative! True- a person never knows until they get there. Hearing a lot of negative feedback doesn't help students who want to come in and try to change the current problems with the system. TRY I SAY, but not let it embitter us. Someone has to keep a positive outlook! A person can vent without being nasty. I don't want to get to that point. It is okay to be firm without being NASTY! Nasty attitude is NOT nursing, the system, or whatever else. Being smart, sarcastic, and nasty rude is a personal problem. NOT nursing, admin., or anything else the person wants to blame it on. A person can be in a rough situation and endure without being a smart mouth and a sarcastic arse! It is all in discerning how to handle the situation.
7. 
   Nov 1, '01

   come on whip. were you really that offended by a couple of sarcastic remarks that were not even directed at you? i have been at my current job for 11 yrs and am just now (since we are changing bosses) realizing how bad admin. can screw you. they do not care about loyalty or how good you treat your pts. i hope that you will find a good job that appreciates you. but then again you will be a nurse so that is not too likely. sorry that i am negative too but have been in health field since 1983 and really wish i had done something else. janet
8. 
   Nov 2, '01

   Thanks Janet. No I guess not offended, just surprised at HIS replies! I know I have alot to learn! Kristy
9. 
   Nov 2, '01

   This is my first time posting but I feel very strongly about this topic. I've been a nurse for 14 years, 11 as an LPN and 3 as an RN. My entire career has been working in Med/Surg. My answer to your question, ABSOLUTELY NOT!! Nursing is a physically and mentally exhausting job. I don't know about anyone else, but the powers that be just keep adding more "paperwork" and there is no time to actually spend with the patients. That is the reason that I originally chose to become a nurse, to care for patients and families in need. Hospital management does not have a clue as to what goes on out on the floors on a daily basis. They should have to shadow a nurse for a day and then maybe they would realize how hard our job really is!! Not to mention the low pay, considering all the responsibility we have and all the time we must spend away from our families. Thank you all for letting me vent a little. I would really like to hear from other nurses on this subject.
10. 
    Nov 3, '01

    Thewhip,
    
    Ok, confess. you are one the ones who see nursing as a calling, right?
    
    You believe that in order to be a good nurse, you should make personal sacrifices and allow your self to suffer, right?
    
    In some way, you see nursing as a religious and/or spiritual order, right?
    
    You really do not want to hear the facts about nursing. You want to hear a fairy tale of ministering to the sick, lame, and dying. You look at nursing as a religion and do not want to hear anyone bad mouth it.
    
    Sorry, but nurse dude speaks the truth. He does not soft soap it or try use tactics which would deemed as putting a nicer spin on it. He gives the cold hard facts. He faces reality. He is not politically correct and that is the best thing about him. He calls a lemon a lemon and a terd a terd. There is very little room to mistake what he says.
    
    We need more people like him in this world and if nursing had more people like him then it would not be as bad today.
    
    You say that you will wait until you actually become a nurse to find out what it is like. That is ok. Keep your blinders on your eyes and keep living in the fairy tale world you have envisioned in your mind, disregard what nurse dude and a thousand other people are saying and find out for your self.
    
    Let me just give you one clue here myself, nursing clinicals are nothing like the real world.
    
    When you finally become a nurse and are in thousands of dollars in debt and have put in all the time and effort it took to get there, I hope you will be happy living the reality. It will be hard to escape from if you do not.
    
    If I could turn back the clock, I would have taken a different path in life. That is a shame too. I am a damn good nurse, but it is not worth all the aggravation. The pay, aggravation, and treatment you get are not enough for the amount of responsibilities and personal rewards you receive.
    
    If it were like this in a marriage, many would have been divorced a long time ago. In actuality, thousands have already divorced nursing with many more to follow.
    
    
    Nursedude, keep spreading the truth in the way that you do best.
11. 
    Nov 3, '01

    Nightingale, I agree with what you say about the paperwork. I enjoy making my rounds and treating my patients. In a typical shift, you always get at least one patient with some special needs that takes a little more time than the other patients. But has this ever happened to you? You're standing there listening, trying to take that extra time, then you glance at the clock knowing that you have to get back to the desk and finish that damn paperwork. Why? Because if you don't you'll be staying over after your shift trying to explain why you needed that extra 30 minutes or hour of additional pay. This aggravates me to no end. So you choose to ignore the paperwork for now and help your patients. Get on the phone to doctors, whatever it takes. Then you get an admit, which depending on where you work, involves filling out from 5 to 10 additional papers. So, it's now the end of your shift and you're left with this big stack of papers which must be filled out and charted on before you go. Does ANYONE appreciate the fact that you took good care of your patients during your shift? Of course not. All they care about is the fact that you're going to be costing them extra money because you have to stay over to finish your work. And when you try to explain the things that you had to do during your shift, somehow it never comes out sounding quite as bad as it actually was.
    
    Do they actually believe that the more papers that are filled out, the better care the patient will receive? It's kind hard to care for your patient when the stack of papers in front of your face is blocking your view of him.
12. 
    Nov 4, '01

    Whip,
    
    Sorry if some of my posts offended you in some fashion. All else, thanks very much for the votes of confidence.
    
    11/3/01 - I work in a busy suburban ER... See about 35-40 thousand patients/year. Anyhow, yesterday 11/3/01 worked a little short staffed. 2 nurses - no aides, no LPN's, no volunteers... My co-worker(RN) and I worked from 7:00 am until 1:30 pm... 2 (two) freaking nurses and 1(one) doctor... I work for a supposedly "catholic" hospital(praise the Lord). We saw about 25 patients in that time period. How much "care" can 2 nurses provide? No this isn't the med-surg unit or the recovery room or even the psych unit - the freaking ER - the acuity and the numbers are completely unpredictable- there is no telling what could walk in the door next... Cardiac arrests, MVA's, CVA's, UTI's, DVT's, URI's, MRSA, BOM, TIA's, Vag bleeders, Spontaneous Abortions, earaches, overdoses, suicide attempts, multiple trauma, hemorrhoids, Diarrhea, flu, anthrax testing, sore thoats, dizziness, anxiety attacks, Amputations, Chest Tubes, Respitory Distress, Pneumonia, DKA, Corneal Abrasions, Constipation, Psychosis, Lethargy, Rape Exams, Child Abuse, Sore Throats, Gunshots...etc
    
    It's simply bullshi*... The two of us were scheduled that way - normally there are 3 nurses by 9am, 4 by 11 am and sometimes a CRNP in at noon...
    
    Tell me whip, what would you have done?
    
    Embittermint -A.K.A-. Reality
    
    OH yeah, no AMA's, or LBTC - not one complaint from 7am-1:30pm
13. 
    Nov 5, '01

    Okay, I know I am just a disillusioned fairy tale world student. I'm sure I'll feel the same way eventually. I believe what you people are saying! But there are others who feel the way I do about becoming a nurse and if they aren't posted on THIS subject, they are definitely on the student posts. Question, do you people interact with other students that are new in your area positively or do you say the same things to them about being disillusioned, fairy tale world, etc..? Do you rag on your new nurses who see it (nursing) as a calling? I never NOT believed anything anyone had on this post. It is just the nasty replies that are unnecessary to get your point across EXAMPLE: When nurse dude replied to someone's SINCERE post with YOU ALL MAKE ME LAUGH!! I just don't talk to people that way but maybe when I become a nurse I will pick up some pointers about how to be rude, demeaning, and sarcastic. Maybe those are the exact ways a nurse will make the workplace better. Who knows? I'll find out I suppose.

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