Nursing is pathetic...

Nurses Career Support

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It's to bad you feel this way I work in the E.R.and am constantly exposed to hiv, hepatitis,and a host of other diseases you can protect yourself. Why did you really go into nursing ws it for the money? If it was for that then you missed the whole point of what a nurse is. It was never meant to be anything more than the giving care to those in needof your services if you allow yourself to feel all these negative feeling it's time for a vacation from nursing and try something else for a while or have you considered trying a new area that may have sparked some interest. It might be something to think about?

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No. I wouldn't recommend nursing as a career. Don't take this wrong out there. what we do is great and wonderful. frankly, it is one of the most cut throat places to be. I am not a cut throat person and will not get to the top by stepping on others, but so many times i have came across those nurses who do. i have been RN for 10 years now. I think that in order to be a nurse, you must be a really mature person. Can anybody out there give me some advice on how to deal with backstabbers in the workplace?

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No. I wouldn't recommend nursing as a career. Don't take this wrong out there. what we do is great and wonderful. frankly, it is one of the most cut throat places to be. I am not a cut throat person and will not get to the top by stepping on others, but so many times i have came across those nurses who do. i have been RN for 10 years now. I think that in order to be a nurse, you must be a really mature person. Can anybody out there give me some advice on how to deal with backstabbers in the workplace?

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NurseDude, I agree with most of you thoughts. I have been a nurse for 5 years, Med-Surg, StepDown, Onc, Tele, Home Health, Peds, and also in a prision. I was just offered a postion in the ER. I started out at 18$/hr and am now at 21$/hr. I don't think I would recomend nursing as a caree to someone for the money, nor the prestige of the tital. It bad hours and hard work and no respect and of course the shortage. But, there are many other avenues to take in this field. As I said I was going to the ER thinking it would be different and just yeasterday I was also offered a UR position----no w/e no holidays and dayshift. I took the job and turned the ER down. I am still looking for my nitch. I don't know when I will find it but I will because there are so many places to look in nursing. I don't think I can recomend floor nursing at this time, but I believe NURSES are ANGELES sent from ABOVE. Most of them any way......

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Yes I would! Despite all the reasons everyone has given to the contrary, because I truly believe nursing is a vocation. Yes it feels good to be paid and to be recognized but there is something quite extraordinary about it. It's a spiritual thing. I have received much heartache in this field but I have also experienced great joy in service. To my student colleagues and wannabees, I say "go get em baby!" It's a great profession because of you all.

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as a brand new nurse i agree with the last post. No i haven't experienced alot of the problems with nursing that many of you have pointed out and i think as a new nurse that my pay is reasonable ( I make 19.50 /hr fresh out of school) but we all need to remember why we went into nursing in the first place. If any of you went into this profession for the money, your problems are your own fault, you should have known what you were getting into. If you went into nursing to help people i hope that is what you are doing. I know nursedude has said that we as a profession should demand more, and i agree with that. We do deserve more $$ and respect. I don't know if we will ever get it but look where we have come from in the time of Florence Nightengale.

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Hey nurse dude,

why didn't you become a plumber ?

instead of complaining get out and do something to change your situation. i have been an RN for 20yrs, it's not about the money maybee that's your problem. i currently make $26./hr + shift diff etc. and am looking forward to a raise. i am also looking forward to going into a crna program. get out of pt care ! increase your education and climb the ladder you have to make the effort to change.

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Hey Nursedude- You'll be happy to know that I agree with you 100%. Nursing has pretty much ruined my life. The first couple of years out of nursing school I still had the bright idea that I was going to save the world. Yeh right! I got slapped in the face with reality. I am an ER nurse which means I spend most of my days taking care of welfare system abusers, drug seekers, drunks and dirty snot nosed kids who don't have a chance in hell because their parents don't have the sense that God gave them. On top of all this these menaces to society treat me like I'm there to be their personal servant. Sound harsh? Well it's reality. I'd give anything to go back to the naive days of thinking that I could save people from this cruel world. I have no sympathy for these people that don't help themselves. Then you add to that the already discussed topics of getting paid squat to be a verbal(and sometimes physical) punching bag for ungrateful patients, administration and other disgruntled staff, the daily exposure to deadly diseases and the crappy hours. I don't even make enough money to pay back all of the student loans that I racked up to be a nurse. Probably the reason you ruffled so many feathers with your letters is because the majority of nurses who sit at home and access nursing web sites are the ones who are still in fantasy land and enjoy being taken advantage of. Like you said, it's a female thing to think it's a normal part of life to get walked on. I just happened to stumble on to this as I was using the web to search for ways to put my medical knowledge to work without being in the patient care rat race. I know all of this sounds harsh but I'm fed up. We are all being taken advantage of and disrespected whether you martyrs want to admit it or not.

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I think nursedude should find an area of nursing that is appropriate for his needs. There are so many areas of nursing and if you find the right one, you can be totally happy. Yes, plumbers and electricians make a lot of money, but they also own their own businesses and the money they make is directly related to the time they spend working. If they are sick they do not get paid, they have alot of expensive overhead, they have insurance to pay out of their own pockets, if they have employees, then they have to pay workman's comp and social security, etc... there are pros and cons of have freedom to work on your own. If Nurse dude wants to work alone, then he could go to Nurse Practioner school and and open a clinic. or something with a little more feedom. Nursing pay varies from state to state and personally , I happy with my current job and its rate of pay.

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Nursedude take a break from nursing!

Yes I would recommend nursing as a career but I would be sure to mention the positive and negative sides to this career.

I deal with the stress and frustrations of a busy Trauma ICU every day and find my relief from it all is to make the most of my days off. When it becomes overwhelming I take a travel assigment somewhere else for a while. Right now I am working at the same hospital but as a agency nurse so I have a little more freedom over my schedule.

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Originally posted by jaded:

Hey Nursedude- You'll be happy to know that I agree with you 100%. Nursing has pretty much ruined my life. The first couple of years out of nursing school I still had the bright idea that I was going to save the world. Yeh right! I got slapped in the face with reality. I am an ER nurse which means I spend most of my days taking care of welfare system abusers, drug seekers, drunks and dirty snot nosed kids who don't have a chance in hell because their parents don't have the sense that God gave them. On top of all this these menaces to society treat me like I'm there to be their personal servant. Sound harsh? Well it's reality. I'd give anything to go back to the naive days of thinking that I could save people from this cruel world. I have no sympathy for these people that don't help themselves. Then you add to that the already discussed topics of getting paid squat to be a verbal(and sometimes physical) punching bag for ungrateful patients, administration and other disgruntled staff, the daily exposure to deadly diseases and the crappy hours. I don't even make enough money to pay back all of the student loans that I racked up to be a nurse. Probably the reason you ruffled so many feathers with your letters is because the majority of nurses who sit at home and access nursing web sites are the ones who are still in fantasy land and enjoy being taken advantage of. Like you said, it's a female thing to think it's a normal part of life to get walked on. I just happened to stumble on to this as I was using the web to search for ways to put my medical knowledge to work without being in the patient care rat race. I know all of this sounds harsh but I'm fed up. We are all being taken advantage of and disrespected whether you martyrs want to admit it or not.

I am sorry you did not list a email address to which I could reply to so I am going to post my reply here. All this negativity does not make me feel bad, it makes me feel relieved. I was literally driven out of nursing three months ago by all the things you so aptly describe. At first I felt a failure for leaving nursing, I also felt very isolated. Now I know I am not alone.

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I have felt the way nurse dude has and i have felt the way that mirn has. Its all part of nursing. I am one of 6 children--I have always found it interesting that my parents produced so many college educated children one has his doctorate and one her master's and all but one of us are in service professions. My siblings include 3 teachers and a professional girl scout--yes there are professional boyscouts too. I am proud to be a nurse and i say it with pride but there are pathetic things about our profession and i tell people who are thinking about it the advantages and the disadvantages--it's hard work physically, emotionally and mentally. I have been harassed sexually, physically and verbally by patients physcians and other nurses.

But it affords me a lot of satisfaction most of the time.

But one thing I want to address is the misconception that this is a second or lesser income for most of us--it is not in my case and in the case of a lot of my coworkers. I make almost double what my husband does, have excellent benefits compared to his and have never had trouble finding a job. He was out of work for 2 years after his MI cause he couldn't go back to his construction job, and the job market was terrible--the only jobs he was offered were for minimum wage and he was offered them because the Bureau of Vocational Rehab

would pay part of his salarty for hiring him.

We had 2 preschoolers at the time and would have realized less than a dollar and hr after day care. He babysat a couple neighbor's children and i worked a lot of overtime. I ave worked with a lot of single moms who have no support from ex spouses. I have worked with a lot of nurses who were male with stay at home wives. This is not a second income this is frequently the major income or the only income. Also I have worked with a lot of nurses who worked for the benefits because their spouses employers offered no or poor health insurance. I am always apalled that people think this is a second income.

I would not encourage any one to go into nursing without a lot of thought and condsideration of all the ramifications of the profession--the hours can be atrocious, the weekend and holday issues can be deveastating in terms of family things. I have had to miss many impromptu fmily gatherings over the years and it does cause some resntment of both the job and my family

Al those teachers have holidays and weekends off.

I would not switch professions for alll the money in the world I am proud to be a nurse. But i get frustrated by the amount we get paid for being some many things all the time to so many people--Think about what we do in the course of the day we are really the CEO of our patients life and well being.

We are responsible for coordinating so many differnt people and procedures and all their care. And i didn't encourage any of my daughters to go into nursing but like my brothers and sisters my children are more interseted in service professions than money professions one wants to be an elementaty teacher, one wants to work with pre schoolers or handicapped children and the other wants to teach she just isn't sure what yet.

There are a lot of ways to be a success in this world and not all of them are meassured in money....I consider myself lucky that i decided on this but like some other respondents here i don't like my job very much a lot of the time--It is very difficult and it has to be accomplished despite a lot of obstacles.

this is fille dwith a lot of ambivvalent feelings something that i think all nurses feel. there is something wrong when we have so much trouble keeping nurses at the bedside. but that is another bulletin board entirely.

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NurseDude....

Thanks for your posts. You are only verbalizing what others whisper. I'm an RN who absolutely loves being a nurse. My pay is $17.50/hr.; paperwork eats me alive. Bedside nursing suffers-as others have written- because we're expected to get everything done or else explain why we had so much overtime. I'm awake many nights thinking about a dying patient that I wish I could have spent more time with, or wondering if I said the right thing to a family member. My kids complain that I never want to do anything fun with them because I come home with my butt dragging 10 feet behind me. I often think of getting out of this profession for awhile, but I really can't think of anything I'd rather do, besides be independantly wealthy.

As far as other posts about the back biting between nurses, one of my professors told us that Nursing is the only profession where we eat our young. Personally, I'm one to say something to someone's face, rather than behind their backs. It all depends on how you put it.

Again, I take no offense from your opinions. They're very refreshing to read, and sure got this board hopping!

Thanks again!

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