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.

[amoLucia]

2 hours ago, InTheLongRun said:

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.

Long Run - I've brought this up before elsewhere, and sadly, I am of the school that believes that this is the TRUE reason that nursing is as it is. The ONLY OTHER profession I can similarly equate this to is women religious (nuns).

[Forest2]

9 hours ago, OUxPhys said:

selfless job with very little recognition.

This is why it isn't worth it. I'm not a saint.

[benharold1, BSN]

Unfortunately, I feel that nursing has changed so much since I began 35 years ago. In the past I felt that nurses were well treated and respected. However, now everything revolves around money. Nurse managers play into the hands of greedy administrators and do not respect or help their staff anymore. I quit my job due to such a manager who completely disrespected me. She did not like for anyone to question her even if it pertained to patient-safety issues and wrote me up. ( The first time in 35 years as a nurse)

Nurses truly need Unions to have a voice to represent what is best for the profession and patients! The current environment of cooperate-run nursing is very unpleasant with nonsense such as AIDET and putting on a happy face to the public that all is okay when it is not. The pandemic shows just how hospitals should have been focusing on more important things instead of superficially pretending to the public that they will get great care.

Now we have a situation that nurses are in jeopardy of their health and lives because hospitals and government seem to think they are dispensable.

The profession was touted as a place to have job security but now I question how many citizens in the future will choose to enter the profession if their lives can be in jeopardy.

[nottheproblem]

I agree. There needs to something in place that puts uppers on notice to do the right thing. Nurses can mobilize in some form but when they do even in a pandemic they get fired to be made example of to scare the rest.

[snevah99]

I agree with the female dominated workforce being a huge part of the reason that nurses, teachers, etc. don't have an equitable pay/benefit/severance history. Women generally don't advocate for themselves like males do. We are different and play by the male rule. We expect people to notice and appreciate the sacrifices we are making , trying to not come off as greedy. We are told to be a part of a team with very little imput that is even considered. Pizza parties and travel mugs are the bonus and reusing PPE if available are the cost containment measures.

[butterflyxoxo]

Isn’t this a subjectable question really? Any job/ career is worth it, if you feel value in it. Just as it is worthless is you don’t! A liberal arts degree is worthless in many regards but for those utilizing it and are happy with the end result than it is very valuable. I know a lady that couldn’t get landed in a residency for her MD degree and works at Starbucks. She is one of the most chipper people I’ve ever met serving coffee to people. She didn’t seem to let not being a doctor get her down as she found joy making people happy in a company that treats employees very well she said. I have no idea still how she is paying her student loans off at Starbucks. I’d personally be depressed but that’s just me. Life is all about perspective, some people find the bright side and others the negative.

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

I have been in this profession for over 25 years. It was a mid-life career change, much more rewarding than the miserable dead-end desk job that I had prior to this. That said, I hear, and have experienced, much of what the OP talks about. It is one big reason that I got out of hospital nursing years ago, and I have no intention of ever going back.

The first hospital that I worked for fresh out of school was owned by the community where I lived. It was sold to a corporation, because the city decided that they could no longer afford the investment that it would take to keep the hospital competitive from a technology and equipment standpoint. The new company immediately dismissed everyone in management except for the head of human resources, and all of us had to reapply for the jobs that we already had. Some were not rehired.

After relocating, I worked for a stand-alone mental health facility that was part of a large national chain. After flying someone in from corporate to lie to us and tell us that we weren't closing, two weeks later I discharged the last patient from the facility and I was unemployed. I found out near the end that we could have remained open because we were for sale and we had a buyer, but corporate killed the deal by insisting that the buyer assume liability for any pending lawsuits as part of the sale.

I worked for a branch of a major rehabilitation hospital chain. The CEO apparently did everything but walk on water because his photo, and quotes from him, were plastered all over the building - until he was convicted in federal court of multiple counts of fraud, then they magically disappeared.

The last hospital that I worked in, geriatric psychiatry unit. I worked night shift going into the day when the facility changed ownership, so I was on duty when the change occurred. They had an employee whose sole duty it was to find every employee on duty, and to stick a small strip of paper onto our ID cards that covered up the name of the old owner and bore the name of the new. Great set of priorities.

Over the years, I have found that hospital managers love to throw around the phrase "quality care" when making a sales pitch to the public, while behind the scenes they do everything that they can to make it impossible for us to deliver it. They understaff, underpay and undertrain. When you gain experience, rather than seeing the value in that and locking you up long term, they dump you because you are costing them too much money. You are then replaced by someone with far less experience who will work for less money. As the OP says, when something goes wrong, blame the nurse. To them, we are disposable and interchangeable, and we don't generate revenue. Physicians, on the other hand, can make mistakes all over the place, but they bring in cash. Got to protect them.

I don't regret going into the profession, because it has given me a good living, and my current job is secure. I am glad that I left hospital nursing, however. I still can, and frequently do, get sued (when you work around inmates it's an occupational hazard), but the Attorney General represents me.

[Tenacious Me]

The OP and similar posts really nailed it!

When I started in nursing over twenty years ago, I never thought there would be backstabbing, sabotage, under training and all of the other bad nursing behavior described here in this thread. I never thought administrators would put money over quality patient care. Silly, silly me - I had no idea! Not a clue!

A recent job made it no secret that they were 150% interested in saving money vs. safe patient care and relied heavily on skilled nursing or home health to fill in the gaps where they were unwilling to pay hospital rates. The most disgusting thing about it was being blamed because your patient was in the hospital too long and somehow this was solely your fault. The lies you tell in order to get patients to agree to the discharge plan. This experience made me take a step back to evaluate why I became a nurse at all. Has it come to this? Lying to patients to save money for a billion dollar corporation?

My answer to that is....I still love nursing. I still love making that connection to patients and families in their most trying times. I still love educating patients on their health conditions and seeing them make changes for the better.

[Tenacious Me]

Just want to clarify that I don’t work for that greedy corporation anymore!

[speedynurse, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

On 5/1/2020 at 11:11 PM, 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.

The nation for 40 years has been dismantling labor rights, workplace protection and the social safety net. All things many a person outright died for < 100 years ago. What you're witnessing is just the net result and it's not a whole lot better in many industries.

I think the difference is that we deal with human lives.....life and death.....sentinel events that could be prevented.....etc. From someone who has grown up in a family of engineers and teachers - nursing is not on the same wavelength.

[Steristripqueen]

Your writing is spot on. However, in any job, management may see employees as expendable. Nurses need to take their own path of contentment. There are so many fields of nursing that should be looked into. My path was to leave med/surg hospital nursing and spend 22 yrs in Correctional nursing. All male medium/maximum security. I wouldn’t change a thing! I learned so much and experienced many situations that I would never experienced in the hospital setting.

The thing to remember is that ‘we’ know how valuable nurses are and will be needed for our communities,our families, and for ourselves. If we don’t stay in the field and support/encourage our peers there will be no one to care for us in our time of need.

I THANK EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU!

[Section8UpX68WM6, CNA, LVN, EMT-B]

On 4/19/2020 at 5:36 AM, HiddenAngels said:

uuuuuh HELLO! Amen to this!

?? I've got a tote bag that has my former company logo all over it.