Nursing is Just a Job - Common Myths in Nursing

Nurses General Nursing

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Nursing is just a job

For some it may be a calling,all well and good but for most, it is simply just a job.

When you learn to look at it scientifically without having too much expectation of suddenly becoming all altruistic or Nightingalish”, you would truly have a better time and go at it.

Common Myths (& facts) in Nursing

Myth: Becoming a nurse means becoming angelic overnight

Fact: Nope! If you were Dracula before nursing school, you will still be Dracula after nursing school (and if you weren't, you'd become one!:)

Myth: Everyone is pleasant in nursing

Fact: Nope! Nursing is a job and like all jobs you get the good mixed in with the bad

Myth: You suddenly feel called to a purpose

Fact: Nope! Nursing is a job , a darn good job that pays the bills and keeps up whatever lifestyle you have is all it is.

Myth: You become a martyr

Fact: Nope! You still have choices and it is up to you to decide whether you want to be stepped on or not.

So understand that nursing is just a job. When you put things in perspective, you find that you have a clearer sense of what it is that you do or don't want. Peace;)

I came across this article not too long ago. It's written by an ED physician who believes "it's just a job" and credits maintaining that attitude for avoiding burn out.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/those-four-words-may-offend-you-also-just-save-louis-m-profeta-md

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I came across this article not too long ago. It's written by an ED physician who believes "it's just a job" and credits maintaining that attitude for avoiding burn out.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/those-four-words-may-offend-you-also-just-save-louis-m-profeta-md

He's right, you know. And if he tried to lecture a roomful of nurses with the same speech, he'd probably get just as much push back. We don't like to be told we're just ordinary people doing a tough job or that our job is no more important than the job of the man serving our drinks. We don't like the idea that compassion not only doesn't make us special, we can do out work without it. Perhaps it might be better for Us if we did

Food for thought.

I came across this article not too long ago. It's written by an ED physician who believes "it's just a job" and credits maintaining that attitude for avoiding burn out.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/those-four-words-may-offend-you-also-just-save-louis-m-profeta-md

and I agree with it. I agree with prior posters who say it's not anyone else's job to say whether someone came into nursing for the right/wrong reasons and there are people are do refer to it as a calling, which doesn't make them wrong. But from my anecdotal experience, they tend to get frustrated a lot by the system because it's simply not as altruistic (at all) as they'd like it to be.

Specializes in GENERAL.

OP:

You are right.

Many of the characteristics you site are indicative of a personslity disorder.

Our dear president elect very much comes to mind in his insistence that he alone can make America great again.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
and I agree with it. I agree with prior posters who say it's not anyone else's job to say whether someone came into nursing for the right/wrong reasons and there are people are do refer to it as a calling, which doesn't make them wrong. But from my anecdotal experience, they tend to get frustrated a lot by the system because it's simply not as altruistic (at all) as they'd like it to be.

And "the calling" folks seem to spend a lot of time worrying about whether someone else's motives for entering the nursing profession are "good enough," put down nurses who are in it "for the money" and bemoan every nursing school slot that is taken up by someone who is in it "for the wrong reasons" because that slot should have been available to someone who was "much more compassionate and in it for the right reasons."

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
OP:

You are right.

Many of the characteristics you site are indicative of a personslity disorder.

Our dear president elect very much comes to mind in his insistence that he alone can make America great again.

I liked you quote just because of your reference to The Donald.

I came across this article not too long ago. It's written by an ED physician who believes "it's just a job" and credits maintaining that attitude for avoiding burn out.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/those-four-words-may-offend-you-also-just-save-louis-m-profeta-md

I think it must be semantics because in this context I agree with the separation of your work as a job. I especially agree with his assertion that none of us, MD or Nurse, provide something more essential than others. Well okay, more essential than a latte but not more essential than the blue collar job my Dad performed 60 hrs a week for 29 yrs, in which he was devastated when he was forced into early retirement at 64. His work was a contribution to society, and he was not counting the days until he could walk away from it as he loved his work, both what he did as well as his pride in it.

There's nothing I respect more than a great work ethic and watching someone good at what they do. I would bet that others feel the same way and aren't star struck by specific trades and professions.

That said I still believe my work is more than just a job because it includes ownership and a commitment to continually grow. I showed up to Baskin Robbins on time and I performed the duties as assigned with an acceptable attitude, my attitude towards my nursing practice however goes beyond those basics and therefore I consider my relationship to it as different.

I sure don't consider it special or a calling but I also don't do it just for the money and I wouldn't just walk away from it if I had a financial windfall. That others feel different is fine of course but to OP, don't lump me in.

I have been a teacher for 7 long grueling years. At the beginning of my career I felt it was my "calling" to educate and nurture the minds of the young, especially those that are underserved. However, three years later and having gone through multiple, countless sleepless nights, restless weekends, and vomit inducing illnesses, I realized, I have indeed become a martyr and I should do something about it. I began looking at it as just a job. I still cared for the kids but I no longer waisted that little precious time I had in the evenings and weekends to think about "what ifs.." and "buts". The last four years went in a blur, but I have treated teaching as just a job. I would report to work at 7 am and leave right by the last bell. I would not spend my evenings lesson planning and doing all other paper work. I would only contact parents when I absolutely had to. I do admit, sometimes I had to cut corners, and I never felt ashamed of it. Now, 7 years later, I am doing much better, but I am trying to transition out of the teaching profession because, even though I almost got my life back, I still feel teaching will not let me completely go.

As I am at the beginning stages of becoming a nurse (taking pre-reqs and such), I will treat nursing as just a job. However, just like I still cared for the kids while treating teaching as just a job, I will, as well, treat my patients with compassion and respect. I will report to work, do my job to the best of my ability, and leave right on the clock. I will spend my nights, days off and weekends (if any) thinking of my life, all the places I will travel to, all the things I will get to do rather than thinking about the patients and their "problems".

Specializes in ICU.
I came across this article not too long ago. It's written by an ED physician who believes "it's just a job" and credits maintaining that attitude for avoiding burn out.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/those-four-words-may-offend-you-also-just-save-louis-m-profeta-md

That article is awesome. Thank you for sharing!

I'd like to chime in from the perspective of a new nurse, who never felt "called" to nursing (I'll tell anyone who asks that I actually wanted to go to med school... I just didn't want to take calculus). We got drilled on psychosocial stuff and got a lot of the pedestal building rhetoric. I really had trouble with those lectures. Nurses are angels, with fluffy little wings on their all white Alegrias, and all that. It was disheartening to say the least--I wanted to learn about respiratory distress, not spiritual distress. I remember feeling like the classes weren't geared toward the practice of nursing so much as the idea of nursing, and that was frustrating; and I think that the tendency to see nursing as a sacred calling contributed to that.

I now work psych and I use that psychosocial stuff frequently, but the winged clogs? Not so much. It's still just a very good job, one I enjoy and one I'm passionate about, but a job, not my life's purpose. And thank goodness--if it was that important to me I'd never get any sleep, worrying about my patients and their various problems.

I think that it should be okay if nursing is "just a job" to you, the same way it should be okay for you to have a preferred specialty. If you got into nursing because you felt called and you would do it for minimum wage because you love your profession, that's wonderful! If you love the specialities with a great deal of care and investment in the patients' lives, hey, more power to you. But if you wanted a job, promising a nice paycheck with good job security where you were unlikely to ever get bored, and you come to work to enjoy practicing medicine, that should be okay too. We don't all need sneaker wings.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I'd like to chime in from the perspective of a new nurse, who never felt "called" to nursing (I'll tell anyone who asks that I actually wanted to go to med school... I just didn't want to take calculus). We got drilled on psychosocial stuff and got a lot of the pedestal building rhetoric. I really had trouble with those lectures. Nurses are angels, with fluffy little wings on their all white Alegrias, and all that. It was disheartening to say the least--I wanted to learn about respiratory distress, not spiritual distress. I remember feeling like the classes weren't geared toward the practice of nursing so much as the idea of nursing, and that was frustrating; and I think that the tendency to see nursing as a sacred calling contributed to that.

I now work psych and I use that psychosocial stuff frequently, but the winged clogs? Not so much. It's still just a very good job, one I enjoy and one I'm passionate about, but a job, not my life's purpose. And thank goodness--if it was that important to me I'd never get any sleep, worrying about my patients and their various problems.

I think that it should be okay if nursing is "just a job" to you, the same way it should be okay for you to have a preferred specialty. If you got into nursing because you felt called and you would do it for minimum wage because you love your profession, that's wonderful! If you love the specialities with a great deal of care and investment in the patients' lives, hey, more power to you. But if you wanted a job, promising a nice paycheck with good job security where you were unlikely to ever get bored, and you come to work to enjoy practicing medicine, that should be okay too. We don't all need sneaker wings.

Spiritual distress is real, especially in some of the specialty areas that deal with death, dying and that which is worse than death. Perhaps it could be more correctly called emotional distress or crisis of conscience. I'm glad to know that the nursing school is paying at least some attention to the idea, but perhaps could be more useful to students and new nurses if they covered the emotional distress of watching Grandma kept alive on machines and with feeding tubes when you, the nurse know she's suffering and would not choose to be kept alive this way.

Specializes in LTC, Rehab.

I disagree. One of my residents, whom I'd worked with for about 3 years, whispered 'I love you' into my ear when I kissed her on the cheek when she'd gotten into a van to move to another facility. That kind of thing never happened when I was a programmer/analyst, I can tell you that.

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