Nursing Is No Longer Worth It

[AnonymousSuper]

I'd Like To Tell You A Story

I've been a member of Allnurses for nearly a decade. It's a little surreal to contemplate that amount of time but I vividly recall writing posts in the pre-nursing students section pleading for help in Anatomy and Physiology.

A decade! Time really flies.

Given my involvement in this forum over the years, I created this new username to remain anonymous and to speak freely about my opinions and feelings about nursing.

In the beginning, nursing was an exciting, interesting, and thrilling career. As a student, I would spend extra hours delving into extra readings about A&P and care plans. I would tutor students and help anyone that I could. I even volunteered in a local hospital to get more exposure.

I was addicted to the idea of becoming a nurse!

As a newly minted nurse, I loved connecting the pathophysiological dots at the bedside and helping the providers make well-informed decisions by providing them with valuable assessments and up-to-date patient data.

I've worked in many specialties over the past 7 years but my primary focus has been pulmonary step down. I've traveled all over the country and worked in a variety of hospital systems big and small.

I've helped save lives through rapid responses, code blues, administered vital medications and important treatments. I've teamed up with fellow nurses to help them catch up on meds or other tasks, then find ourselves at a local diner for an early morning post-shift breakfast.

Those are the best!

I've also experienced a significant amount of pain and agony. I've seen more patients die than a I care to count. I've listened to hearts stop. I've seen heart die on monitors. I've watched people take their last breath completely and utterly alone in this world.

I've laughed, cried, and been stunned. A host of emotions over the years.

When I was done working acute care, I transitioned to ambulatory nursing and started triaging patients in a variety of specialty clinics. This was a weird shift because I thought ambulatory nursing where were lazy nurses go or older nurses go to finish out their career. I found that outpatient nurses were just as hard but simply in a different way.

I even found myself in a nursing supervisor position where I currently reside. Something I never would have thought I would have found myself in. I even tried to talk my boss out of it when she first approached me about it because I thought to myself, "You must be crazy! Why would you consider me?" I am grateful for the opportunity ultimately.

Something Has Changed

There was a time where I absolutely loved the nursing profession and my place in it. But, something changed along the way. Burn out? I have my doubts it's that simple. This feels more definitive than the insidiousness of Burn out. This feels more permanent than burn out.

Over the past couple years, I've really questioned my place in nursing. Is this profession for me? Was it ever? Is it worth it anymore? I think Covid 19 really pushed me over the edge and was the straw that finally broke the camel's back.

Here's The Bottom Line To Me

• If I had to do it over again, I would not choose nursing as a profession.
• Nursing is no longer a profession that is worth pursuing and if a person would ask, I would recommend they choose something else.
• While there was a time when the love of the patient was what did it for me, ultimately, at this time in my life, nursing is no longer worth it because we are completely undervalued, underpaid, underappreciated, and understaffed.
• We are forced into dangerous scenarios with massive liability with compensation that doesn't match the risk we take as professionals and individuals.

Hospitals Just Do Not Care

While they give the facade of caring, healthcare organizations and hospitals ultimately don't care about you and your well being as a professional nurse.

Hospitals don't want quality. They want the appearance of quality but in actuality they want quantity. They want more with less in even lesser time. More patients. More calls. More responsibilities. More liability for you. More destruction on your physical and emotional well being. You are treated like a disposable piece of equipment with a short shelf life.

And, when it comes down to it, your professional and personal butt is totally on the line and if you screw up, there will be every effort to blame you, avoid organizational liability, and throw you under the bus.

Don't ever believe your hospital is there to back you. Consider yourself fortunate if you happen to find a manager that will stick their neck out for you and back you when the **** really hits the fan.

The PPE Crisis We're Facing Is Unbelievable

It's shocking to me that our hospital "leaders" didn't have the wisdom or foresight to have massive stockpiles in place. Now, nurses and providers are force to buy PPE on-line (impossible currently), wear the same PPE over and over, or not have any at all. This is a clear example of the failure of leadership all over the country and the clear lack of consideration for the front line worker's safety. Of course, nurses aren't the only one feeling this pain.

Nurses Are Severely Undervalued And Underpaid

We take massive liability when we're administering medications and implementing the plan of care. Yet, where's the pay? When you try to negotiate your pay with HR, you're going to get a giant middle finger. Organizations have standardized pay scales and there is zero room for negotiation. Nurses have zero pull when it comes to pay negotiation.

My theory about pay is that nurses are a cost to the healthcare system. You are not a financial asset like a provider who has billable treatments and procedures. We don't bring in revenue to the organization. Therefore, nurses don't have negotiation power. Yet, we're somehow sooo "valuable?"

Don't buy us pizza, baked goods, and crappy nurse's day prizes. Give us better pay and better benefits. That is the way to create loyalty. Yes, nursing is also about providing a service to the patient but if you're a valuable, highly trained, highly skilled, and highly knowledgeable professional, you should be paid adequately. Period.

Here's a current representation of the pay issue. I'm seeing travel nursing contracts for $4,000-$8000 per week in some parts of the country. That's crazy money! The organization I presently work for is "volun-telling" ambulatory staff to either "go acute care or use PTO/unpaid leave." However, when these staff to go in-patient, they don't receive temporary differentials or hazard pay.

Furthermore, the acute care nurses taking care of Covid patients aren't receiving hazard pay either even though they are reusing PPE and taking care of dangerous patient populations. So we're going to pay travel nurses six figures? But, when you force nurses back into acute care or not adequately pay acute care nurses, that's supposed to be okay? Think again.

Nursing Isn't Worth It Because Of The Liability

I've traveled in certain locations where nurses were taking care of 10 patients at night on an acute cardiac unit.

Unbelievable. Talk about liability.

I'm not going to go into it now but if you practice nursing without professional Liability Insurance, you're basically having unprotected sex but expecting not to get pregnant.

Why do you think providers have professional malpractice insurance? Yes, nurses get sued to and remember what I said above about hospitals throwing nurses under the bus? It's literally pennies a day for peace of mind. If you have any valuables or assets in your life you wouldn't want to be taken away, you need professional liability insurance.

Nurses Are Part Of The Problem As Well

The nursing culture is full of malignant toxicity, backstabbing, and bullying people. It's vial and toxic and incredibly hard thrive in.

I have rarely seen a unit or clinic act in a cohesive, team-based manner. My professional career has only been in nursing so I'm not sure how other professions are. However, most places I have been to, have been the same.

There are many nurses that bring their contagious negativity to the bedside and to the clinics. It's distracting and disturbing to be around and it has taken a toll on myself and I know it has on others around me. I'm speaking in generalities of course because not ALL nurses are like this but it's fairly common. Just spend a half a day on a nursing unit and you'll quickly notice who those problematic people are.

I once had hope for the nursing profession that someday they would come together and help change it for the better. There's what, about 3 million nurses in the country? That's a lot of voices. We're too busy bickering amongst ourselves to ever truly come together and create meaningful change.

Bickering, backstabbing, and bullying is easy. Coming together with a cohesive voice to promote real change in the nursing profession is hard and it will never happen in my opinion.

I guess I could go on and on about the failings of the nursing profession but I'll leave you with this:

Quote

Nurses are treated as expendable pieces of meat that are readily replaced like a disposable dead battery. You are severely under paid for the skills and knowledge you bring to the table. Hospitals don't give a crap about your well being even though they say the do.

Nursing Is No Longer About The Art Of Nursing

• It's about the numbers.
• The output.
• Doing more with less in less time.
• The satisfaction scores.

You only live once in this life. If you happen to discover this article and you're considering nursing, I would urge you to turn around and look elsewhere.

Nursing isn't worth the risk and the personal effects it has on your life.

[nottheproblem]

Agreed but only the industries where you have patients lives in your hands, hard earned expensive education to get a license to do the work on the line every shift can you compare. If the complaints were all about the money or basic treatment of the average worker then that’s pretty much vast majority of people.

Feel particularly sorry right now for the meat packing plant workers.

Just my thoughts now.

[CCRNCHPN]

51 minutes ago, InTheLongRun said:

Not to be unsympathetic but here's the thing. You just described the experience of many, many , many people across any number of industries.

You're exactly right. How many physicians, veterinarians, pharmacists, attorneys, pilots, teachers have said that their profession is "not what it used to be" and that they wouldn't recommend it to their children? Nursing has its perks and perils. In the perfect world where commitment matches ability, if my children have an interest in life sciences, I would encourage them to become scientists, science college instructors or professors, orthodontists, etc. My personal #1 issue with bedside nursing is the physical toll it takes on the body over the years.

[Nurselexii]

9 hours ago, CCRNCHPN said:

You're exactly right. How many physicians, veterinarians, pharmacists, attorneys, pilots, teachers have said that their profession is "not what it used to be" and that they wouldn't recommend it to their children? Nursing has its perks and perils. In the perfect world where commitment matches ability, if my children have an interest in life sciences, I would encourage them to become scientists, science college instructors or professors, orthodontists, etc. My personal #1 issue with bedside nursing is the physical toll it takes on the body over the years.

Great point, I think if like previous posts have mentioned that if other industries are the same, pick the one with the least emotional and physical stress. Tech industry is booming and many of the specialists work from home, I’m sure they complain about aspects of their job (I.e computer illiterate people) but it doesnt give them the same physical and emotional damage like bedside nursing has done for many nurses. It may take some courage but there are other ways to make a very good living in this present time in this country.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

On 4/18/2020 at 12:39 PM, Jml1986 said:

I work for a large, urban, academic and research institution. They are transparent, my direct nurse manager gets a yearly bonus. Data is collected regarding overtime, staff meal cancelations and staff scheduling along with budget, utilization, and stewardship. This year has been challenging and we were “asked” to do something that was truly outside of our bounds and all of our concerns regarding protecting our licenses were dismissed. Our manager kept having meeting after meeting with us and her absolute panic was clear based on the pressure she was getting from above her; it finally resulted in a stand off of sorts because none of us agreed to do what we were being asked to do. The manger had a meeting with us, told us “someone” needed to step up, or else it would be mandated for all of us. One of my coworkers asked if we would be terminated if we didn’t do as our manager requested of us, she replied that she didn’t know, but stated more likely it would be her being terminated since she couldn’t get us to do what we were being asked; it was a nice dump on us. Then, she got very angry, told us her bonus was in jeopardy, and told us she was leaving the meeting but we were not to leave the meeting room until one person was identified to be the person designated to do the additional job.

I would've told her sorry about her bonus. She's a jerk for even making it about that

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

I regret becoming a nurse too. While it may be one of the few jobs out there that pays a living wage and can't be outsourced, it has left my mind and body in shambles. The physical and emotional stress has left me with nightmares and PTSD. I spend several thousand yearly on medical bills.

I would quit in a heartbeat if we had national healthcare! But the way things stand now I would end up penniless and bankrupt burning thru my retirement savings because of the lack of healthcare.

Sadly I wonder if I will survive till retirement or if I will die or end up having a stroke due to the stress, short staffing and crappy working conditions.

To the new nurses and wannabe's all I can say is run, run as fast as you can!

[nottheproblem]

Brandy1017, I agree and I have had two of the only people that I truly enjoyed working with die in their 50’s. They had 20+ years on the job.

Its hard when you put so much time, energy and money to get your license to walk away. My decision to leave was not necessarily my own. Long story short it was a parking issue that caused my departure. It was just stupid and 10 years of nursing experience and a perfect employment file did not matter.

It was the money and retirement that kept me in it. I think I wanted out for probably the vast majority of that time I was there and relieved in a way of getting out. I never thought I could bring myself to quit.

I have considered trying to figure a way to get back into it out of fear of not being able to make my own way. I was independent women but I think I really need to get out of the mentality of needing to get back into nursing when the time comes. I don’t want to feel stuck and miserable again.

I would say the same thing to people considering this career path. Run as fast as you can. The OP of this topic is exactly right and it’s not what a lot of people want to hear from nurses. It’s the reality though.

[TheDudeWithTheBigDog, ADN, RN]

On 4/14/2020 at 8:27 AM, AnonymousSuper said:

Hospitals just do not care

While they give the facade of caring, healthcare organizations and hospitals ultimately don't care about you and your well being as a professional nurse.

Hospitals don't want quality. They want the appearance of quality but in actuality they want quantity. They want more with less in even lesser time. More patients. More calls. More responsibilities. More liability for you. More destruction on your physical and emotional well being. You are treated like a disposable piece of equipment with a short shelf life.

And, when it comes down to it, your professional and personal butt is totally on the line and if you screw up, there will be every effort to blame you, avoid organizational liability, and throw you under the bus.

Don't ever believe your hospital is there to back you. Consider yourself fortunate if you happen to find a manager that will stick their neck out for you and back you when the **** really hits the fan.

The PPE crisis we're facing is unbelievable

It's shocking to me that our hospital "leaders" didn't have the wisdom or foresight to have massive stockpiles in place. Now, nurses and providers are force to buy PPE on-line (impossible currently), wear the same PPE over and over, or not have any at all. This is a clear example of the failure of leadership all over the country and the clear lack of consideration for the front line worker's safety. Of course, nurses aren't the only one feeling this pain.

Nurses are severely undervalued and underpaid

We take massive liability when we're administering medications and implementing the plan of care. Yet, where's the pay? When you try to negotiate your pay with HR, you're going to get a giant middle finger. Organizations have standardized pay scales and there is zero room for negotiation. Nurses have zero pull when it comes to pay negotiation.

My theory about pay is that nurses are a cost to the healthcare system. You are not a financial asset like a provider who has billable treatments and procedures. We don't bring in revenue to the organization. Therefore, nurses don't have negotiation power. Yet, we're somehow sooo "valuable?"

Don't buy us pizza, baked goods, and crappy nurse's day prizes. Give us better pay and better benefits. That is the way to create loyalty. Yes, nursing is also about providing a service to the patient but if you're a valuable, highly trained, highly skilled, and highly knowledgeable professional, you should be paid adequately. Period.

Here's a current representation of the pay issue. I'm seeing travel nursing contracts for $4,000-$8000 per week in some parts of the country. That's crazy money! The organization I presently work for is "volun-telling" ambulatory staff to either "go acute care or use PTO/unpaid leave." However, when these staff to go in-patient, they don't receive temporary differentials or hazard pay.

Furthermore, the acute care nurses taking care of Covid patients aren't receiving hazard pay either even though they are reusing PPE and taking care of dangerous patient populations. So we're going to pay travel nurses six figures? But, when you force nurses back into acute care or not adequately pay acute care nurses, that's supposed to be okay? Think again.

These aren't fair. Hospitals are run by people who have families and who actually want to do the right thing. Some only care about money, but it's not fair to assume that all the administration of hospitals don't care and don't want quality. At the end of the day, though, a hospital is a business. It has to make money or it goes away. Hard choices have to be made, like where quality can take back seat to bringing in the money so that all these sick people have a hospital to go to.

And yeah, there's managers who are awful and don't belong in the profession at all. So what does everyone do? They quit. If it's really a management problem, don't you think an entire unit going to that managers boss might be a little more productive? And if the whole unit isn't complaining, then maybe the problem is just you.

On the PPE, nobody could have predicted the public stupidity that came with that. It's dumb to stockpile an excessive amount and just never use it "just in case." Why weren't you educating the public on preventing infections for years before this happened? What were you doing to prevent this?

And no, you're nothing special. You're a nurse, just like every other nurse. Don't like how the pay works, well, you never had to work there. Want to negotiate a raise? I'd personally never give someone a raise just because they want one. What are you doing to warrant more pay? They can pay any experienced nurse to pass meds at their starting pay. In a lot of states, they can actually put people through a $1,000 class, and hire them for about 1/2 the pay of an RN and have them pass meds. So where do you stand out that you deserve more money? Have you been leading your coworkers in cutting costs on your unit? Then maybe you're worth more money. If you're just punching the clock and giving meds, you're just another nurse.

And travelers... Have you ever traveled for work? It's horrible. Most of these people are paying rent at their home, but then have to rent a room when they're on their travel assignments. Most of them don't stay on the road 12 months out of the year. Most travelers spend a decent amount of time in their own home dealing with an hour drive to get to work. But typically, they have to leave for a certain amount of time every year. During that, their rent doubles. If they have a family at home, so do all their utilities. So yeah, they get negotiated into making a lot more money, but that's because they have higher expenses than the average person. Those thousands per week are usually gone pretty fast just from paying bills on 2 homes. And ambulatory staff being expected to reassign to acute care, well that's part of the job. You work for the company, not just that one office.

Nursing isn't going to be this extremely glamorous job where hospitals are tripping over themselves to please you, but at the same time, your complaints seem to come from a perspective that I'm assuming had very little working experience before you got into nursing. Have you ever bothered to talk to these people and get a perspective from their side? Have you ever thought to email your hospital's CFO and ask to meet one day because you're curious why certain decisions were made? Or to discuss why you think a change that was made is going to cause patient care to decline? Remember, he's an accountant, not a doctor. He doesn't know what it's like on the floor. If he did, he wouldn't be qualified to be a CFO because he wouldn't have the accounting background, instead he'd be in a clinical position. Or did you just see a rule you didn't like and just yell that the hospital doesn't care about their nurses or patients.

If there's a problem, be a part of the solution. Your executives at your hospital WILL listen to their staff. But when you're quiet and nobody wants to step forward and get their unit's issues and move up the chain possibly all the way to the executives, all they know is what they're told. And what they're told is usually from management teams who ultimately hear from their unit managers who only see a staff that deals with everything and makes everything work because they don't want to get in trouble. You can deal with it and be vocal about it at the same time. But it also takes being constructive. Not liking a rule isn't a reason to get rid of it, but explaining how the rule hurts patient care is.

It's a little far to tell people not to get into the profession because of your experience. The industry isn't perfect, but it was never meant to be. You're not there to cure people or "save lives." The surgeon is there to save lives, you're there to nurse them back to health after the surgery. It's literally why your job is called "nurse." I think you might have got into the field for the wrong reasons and just got burned out when you realized it's supposed to be a selfless job with very little recognition.

[InTheLongRun]

15 minutes ago, TheDudeWithTheBigDog said:

These aren't fair. Hospitals are run by people who have families and who actually want to do the right thing. Some only care about money, but it's not fair to assume that all the administration of hospitals don't care and don't want quality. At the end of the day, though, a hospital is a business. It has to make money or it goes away. Hard choices have to be made, like where quality can take back seat to bringing in the money so that all these sick people have a hospital to go to.

And yeah, there's managers who are awful and don't belong in the profession at all. So what does everyone do? They quit. If it's really a management problem, don't you think an entire unit going to that managers boss might be a little more productive? And if the whole unit isn't complaining, then maybe the problem is just you.

On the PPE, nobody could have predicted the public stupidity that came with that. It's dumb to stockpile an excessive amount and just never use it "just in case." Why weren't you educating the public on preventing infections for years before this happened? What were you doing to prevent this?

And no, you're nothing special. You're a nurse, just like every other nurse. Don't like how the pay works, well, you never had to work there. Want to negotiate a raise? I'd personally never give someone a raise just because they want one. What are you doing to warrant more pay? They can pay any experienced nurse to pass meds at their starting pay. In a lot of states, they can actually put people through a $1,000 class, and hire them for about 1/2 the pay of an RN and have them pass meds. So where do you stand out that you deserve more money? Have you been leading your coworkers in cutting costs on your unit? Then maybe you're worth more money. If you're just punching the clock and giving meds, you're just another nurse.

And travelers... Have you ever traveled for work? It's horrible. Most of these people are paying rent at their home, but then have to rent a room when they're on their travel assignments. Most of them don't stay on the road 12 months out of the year. Most travelers spend a decent amount of time in their own home dealing with an hour drive to get to work. But typically, they have to leave for a certain amount of time every year. During that, their rent doubles. If they have a family at home, so do all their utilities. So yeah, they get negotiated into making a lot more money, but that's because they have higher expenses than the average person. Those thousands per week are usually gone pretty fast just from paying bills on 2 homes. And ambulatory staff being expected to reassign to acute care, well that's part of the job. You work for the company, not just that one office.

Nursing isn't going to be this extremely glamorous job where hospitals are tripping over themselves to please you, but at the same time, your complaints seem to come from a perspective that I'm assuming had very little working experience before you got into nursing. Have you ever bothered to talk to these people and get a perspective from their side? Have you ever thought to email your hospital's CFO and ask to meet one day because you're curious why certain decisions were made? Or to discuss why you think a change that was made is going to cause patient care to decline? Remember, he's an accountant, not a doctor. He doesn't know what it's like on the floor. If he did, he wouldn't be qualified to be a CFO because he wouldn't have the accounting background, instead he'd be in a clinical position. Or did you just see a rule you didn't like and just yell that the hospital doesn't care about their nurses or patients.

If there's a problem, be a part of the solution. Your executives at your hospital WILL listen to their staff. But when you're quiet and nobody wants to step forward and get their unit's issues and move up the chain possibly all the way to the executives, all they know is what they're told. And what they're told is usually from management teams who ultimately hear from their unit managers who only see a staff that deals with everything and makes everything work because they don't want to get in trouble. You can deal with it and be vocal about it at the same time. But it also takes being constructive. Not liking a rule isn't a reason to get rid of it, but explaining how the rule hurts patient care is.

It's a little far to tell people not to get into the profession because of your experience. The industry isn't perfect, but it was never meant to be. You're not there to cure people or "save lives." The surgeon is there to save lives, you're there to nurse them back to health after the surgery. It's literally why your job is called "nurse." I think you might have got into the field for the wrong reasons and just got burned out when you realized it's supposed to be a selfless job with very little recognition.

Agree with several of your points though some is equally unrealistic. I don't think non-union, non-magnet hospitals "speaking up" even as a group is realistic. I've seen an entire unit of highly skilled nursing professionals meet with management to discuss their concerns that the unit was a major incident waiting to happen given staffing ratios and patient acuity and the only thing that changed was management lined up agency nurses to replace them.

Believe it or not, there's not a whole lot of industries that experienced nurses can transition into. Nursing is about what they know how to do. I've known some to want to enter my field (computer science) to get off the floor becuase the floor is the pits. but the truth is they are really never that good at it because they just don't have the technical foundation.

Regardless if you were not there for the longshoreman, or the flight attendants and pilots, or the GM union tradesmen, or an entire generation of mfg offshored to China, Vietnam and Guatemala... If you had nothing to say when two generations of American white collar workers got Bangalored, then don't expect anyone to be there for you. you have to protect your interests and not be tuning into cable news to get your opinion on the latest culture war. In my grandparents day they understood that.

[OUxPhys, BSN, RN]

58 minutes ago, TheDudeWithTheBigDog said:

These aren't fair. Hospitals are run by people who have families and who actually want to do the right thing. Some only care about money, but it's not fair to assume that all the administration of hospitals don't care and don't want quality. At the end of the day, though, a hospital is a business. It has to make money or it goes away. Hard choices have to be made, like where quality can take back seat to bringing in the money so that all these sick people have a hospital to go to.

And yeah, there's managers who are awful and don't belong in the profession at all. So what does everyone do? They quit. If it's really a management problem, don't you think an entire unit going to that managers boss might be a little more productive? And if the whole unit isn't complaining, then maybe the problem is just you.

On the PPE, nobody could have predicted the public stupidity that came with that. It's dumb to stockpile an excessive amount and just never use it "just in case." Why weren't you educating the public on preventing infections for years before this happened? What were you doing to prevent this?

And no, you're nothing special. You're a nurse, just like every other nurse. Don't like how the pay works, well, you never had to work there. Want to negotiate a raise? I'd personally never give someone a raise just because they want one. What are you doing to warrant more pay? They can pay any experienced nurse to pass meds at their starting pay. In a lot of states, they can actually put people through a $1,000 class, and hire them for about 1/2 the pay of an RN and have them pass meds. So where do you stand out that you deserve more money? Have you been leading your coworkers in cutting costs on your unit? Then maybe you're worth more money. If you're just punching the clock and giving meds, you're just another nurse.

And travelers... Have you ever traveled for work? It's horrible. Most of these people are paying rent at their home, but then have to rent a room when they're on their travel assignments. Most of them don't stay on the road 12 months out of the year. Most travelers spend a decent amount of time in their own home dealing with an hour drive to get to work. But typically, they have to leave for a certain amount of time every year. During that, their rent doubles. If they have a family at home, so do all their utilities. So yeah, they get negotiated into making a lot more money, but that's because they have higher expenses than the average person. Those thousands per week are usually gone pretty fast just from paying bills on 2 homes. And ambulatory staff being expected to reassign to acute care, well that's part of the job. You work for the company, not just that one office.

Nursing isn't going to be this extremely glamorous job where hospitals are tripping over themselves to please you, but at the same time, your complaints seem to come from a perspective that I'm assuming had very little working experience before you got into nursing. Have you ever bothered to talk to these people and get a perspective from their side? Have you ever thought to email your hospital's CFO and ask to meet one day because you're curious why certain decisions were made? Or to discuss why you think a change that was made is going to cause patient care to decline? Remember, he's an accountant, not a doctor. He doesn't know what it's like on the floor. If he did, he wouldn't be qualified to be a CFO because he wouldn't have the accounting background, instead he'd be in a clinical position. Or did you just see a rule you didn't like and just yell that the hospital doesn't care about their nurses or patients.

If there's a problem, be a part of the solution. Your executives at your hospital WILL listen to their staff. But when you're quiet and nobody wants to step forward and get their unit's issues and move up the chain possibly all the way to the executives, all they know is what they're told. And what they're told is usually from management teams who ultimately hear from their unit managers who only see a staff that deals with everything and makes everything work because they don't want to get in trouble. You can deal with it and be vocal about it at the same time. But it also takes being constructive. Not liking a rule isn't a reason to get rid of it, but explaining how the rule hurts patient care is.

It's a little far to tell people not to get into the profession because of your experience. The industry isn't perfect, but it was never meant to be. You're not there to cure people or "save lives." The surgeon is there to save lives, you're there to nurse them back to health after the surgery. It's literally why your job is called "nurse." I think you might have got into the field for the wrong reasons and just got burned out when you realized it's supposed to be a selfless job with very little recognition.

Actually, in some instances you are there to save lives. Identifying a lethal rhythm and knowing how to respond. Catching a doctor or pharmacist mistake. Identifying cardiac tamponade after an open heart. "The surgeon is there to save lives. You're there to nurse them back to recovery". What an incredibly demeaning thing to say about nurses. Most of these surgeries are not an emergent procedure. While you are there to take care of them you are also there to educate, advocate, etc.

I'm not sure what hospital you work at but most of the time management does not listen to their nurses nor do they seek their input in situations when in actuality they should. You are right though, not all administrators are bad and hospitals are a business that have to make tough decisions but at the same time dont tell me you dont have money to hire an additional aide or nurse but then turn around and hire another administrator. There is an incredible amount of waste in healthcare and alot of it is at the top.

Also, nurses do much more than scan meds. I hate that. You have to be able to assess and critically think. Each pt is different. Sure, you can hire someone to just pass meds but you'll have a lot more accidents and sentinel events.

[Susie2310]

On 5/3/2020 at 7:51 PM, TheDudeWithTheBigDog said:

On the PPE, nobody could have predicted the public stupidity that came with that. It's dumb to stockpile an excessive amount and just never use it "just in case." Why weren't you educating the public on preventing infections for years before this happened? What were you doing to prevent this?

Are you suggesting that the general public are responsible for the world wide PPE shortages?

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

2 minutes ago, OUxPhys said:

You are right though, not all administrators are bad and hospitals are a business that have to make tough decisions but at the same time dont tell me you dont have money to hire an additional aide or nurse but then turn around and hire another administrator. There is an incredible amount of waste in healthcare and alot of it is at the top

Yes...as I was reading the post you were responding to, I know that many upper management personnel are very worried about their bonuses and other perks, and really don't care about floor staff, housekeeping, dietary, etc. Believe me, I sat in a meeting (years ago), where I listened to the "screw the staff" attitude by the "beloved" CEO. Of course, we had all signed confidentiality statements (typical for the position) so couldn't discuss. I left that job pretty quick

[InTheLongRun]

On 5/2/2020 at 4:08 PM, nottheproblem said:

Brandy1017, I agree and I have had two of the only people that I truly enjoyed working with die in their 50’s. They had 20+ years on the job.

Its hard when you put so much time, energy and money to get your license to walk away. My decision to leave was not necessarily my own. Long story short it was a parking issue that caused my departure. It was just stupid and 10 years of nursing experience and a perfect employment file did not matter.

It was the money and retirement that kept me in it. I think I wanted out for probably the vast majority of that time I was there and relieved in a way of getting out. I never thought I could bring myself to quit.

I have considered trying to figure a way to get back into it out of fear of not being able to make my own way. I was independent women but I think I really need to get out of the mentality of needing to get back into nursing when the time comes. I don’t want to feel stuck and miserable again.

I would say the same thing to people considering this career path. Run as fast as you can. The OP of this topic is exactly right and it’s not what a lot of people want to hear from nurses. It’s the reality though.

I can't blame you. In most cases the more risk you take the higher you're paid. That's not true in nursing even with your license and health on the risk all the time. I don't know why but I've discussed it with other nurses and we all suspect it is because it is predominantly a female profession.