shmoofins

Don't be such a jerk all the time. You don't know everything and you don't know all the things I have to do as part of my job while you just sit there surfing the internet or talking. Hey, I know, maybe you could get up and actually help me. Stop being so judgmental and stop talking about people behind their back. Also, there are many things that are none of your business so butt out. Similarly, no one cares about every minute detail of your life, so shut up!

I have cried more times than I can count both at work and at home after work. I've always been a bit of a crier, though. The stress of it all gets to me.

Yes, I regret it. I didn't like it when I was in school and I still don't like it. Not that I hate every aspect of it, and I hate it less now than when I was doing floor nursing but I still wish I'd changed my major when I was in school. I want to go back to school for something different. I'd even be okay with a non-clinical position, but those are very hard to find, especially without much experience.

I would like to know how many call-in days nurses at other facilities get. At my facility we get 1 call-in per 6 months. This seems outrageous to me and it's unsafe. We work in a place where people are already sick and when the nurses are sick too it makes for a very dangerous situation. Besides that, you're not going to be able to do your job very well if you feel like crap. Now, you can call in for multiple days on one call-in but past 2 you need a doctor's excuse. Also, if you have a weekend or a scheduled day off and you called in the day before and the day after it counts as 2 separate occurrences. How is it at other facilities?

Yes! That's one of the things I'm interested in :nuke:

I am actually thinking very seriously about quitting nursing and going back to school. I want to work with computers. I wouldn't mind doing something that incorporated my nursing degree/knowledge but I don't want to be a nurse.

I should have asked "Why is this interview so easy?" When your interviewer doesn't ask you hardly any questions and you feel like you're practically hired already, this could be a BAD SIGN. (Especially if you don't have much experience and most jobs of this type usually want lots of experience!) I also should have asked more about the nature of the work and the hours and whatnot.

We have several at work who are bad but one in particular. He yells and gets upset over nothing. He treats the staff horribly and of course nothing is ever done about it. He's gotten irritated with me before but never yelled. I'm sure it's coming though since he's yelled at just about everybody at least once. I'm just worried because I cry way too easily over stupid stuff, and I know if he yells at me or even gets snippy I'll tear up. And I've heard from others you NEVER want to cry in front of him or show that he's gotten to you because then he'll be worse. What a lovely person to work with. It's unavoidable too because it's an operating room type situation and I can't just avoid him, I'm stuck in a room with him. Aaah!

What did you do to pay for school and for money in general while you took your pre-reqs? If you don't mind me asking...

I would like to work with computers. I'm sick of nursing and I don't really like it. I have much more of an affinity for learning computers than nursing, which I still feel like I don't really get. Also I think I would like it better, working with computers in an office environment. Just my two cents though. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean there aren't tons of people who feel like it's their calling or whatever. I've also thought somewhat about pharmacy because one thing I really enjoy about nursing is learning about all the meds and mixing them and such. That's a lot of extra schooling though.

Stress that if they smoke, they should definitely quit! Also like others said reinforce Plavix big time if they've gotten stents.

A lot of our doctors are rude and just expect to get their way all the time. Of course the management just encourages that because they're too scared of losing them to a competing hospital. We have one doc that's really awful to the staff but nothing's ever done about it.

My boyfriend and I are actually pretty similar. We like a lot of the same things and we're both fairly nerdy. We both like videogames and nerdy movies and such. We have similar tastes in music (although we both like some stuff that the other doesn't). One difference is that he's still in school and I'm (recently) out. We both hate cleaning. We both like learning useless facts. I can't think of any huge differences.

Loans out the wazoo, about $23,000...although I'm told as long as I work as a nurse I can have about $3,000 of that forgiven. I also got some scholarships and worked various jobs. I still never had very much money though, so it was nice once I finally started getting the RN pay :) Question...If I ever go back to school full time do my loans defer even after I've started paying them?

I felt the same way in school. It wasn't because school was too hard but because I felt that I didn't like nursing. I was really jealous of other people who changed their majors. I wish now that I'd done that too, but I went ahead and finished the program. Now I have my license and all that but I still feel like maybe it's not for me, although I haven't been out of school very long so maybe that will change (I hope). I'd like to go back to school one day to do something different, but I wish I'd changed majors back when I first knew I didn't want to do nursing. I stayed because my family kind of pressured me and told me how I'd have a great job when I got out and whatnot. Yeah right. I'm not saying you should quit, but make sure you think long and hard about whether you want to stay or leave. You can do a lot with a nursing degree but you may have to work in a hospital for a few years first.

I feel conflicted on the issue. I've worked at a hospital that used different colored uniforms for different jobs, like RNs and LPNs wore the same color, aids and unit clerks wore a different color, etc. It's a nice idea but a lot of patients still didn't know what the different colors meant. I think name tags should be clearer about who's who, I think that would solve some of the problems. Also clearly identifying yourself to the patients does wonders. I personally prefer being allowed to wear different colors, and I definitely think they should use fun printed tops for peds to try to make the nurses less scary (if possible). I do think there should at least be rules about the neatness of uniforms, like no wrinkled clothes, no large or dangly jewelry, no artificial nails, etc.

I hope this nurse found a job outside of patient care or customer service. I hope she's not still doing this to other patients.

I'm an only child but neither of my parents are/were alcoholics. They are crazy though. :)

Even though I don't particularly like nursing or feel that it suits me, I always cared about my patients and tried to meet their needs. I didn't treat my patients badly because I didn't like the job. I realize I need to get out of it (or at least out of floor/hospital nursing), because I don't want to become like those uncaring nurses and I don't want to keep doing something that makes me unhappy, but at the same time you shouldn't assume that because we complain about the job that we are bad nurses.

I wouldn't recommend it. It's awful (to me, anyway). I don't feel like it's a good fit for me. Even in school I felt this way but I stayed with it partly because my family pressured me to ("you'll have such a good job when you get out!") and partly because I wasn't sure what else I wanted to do. Now that I'm out of school I really wish I would have just changed my major to something I liked. I've only been out of school and working for a few months (although I externed in school so I knew I didn't like floor nursing, but decided to do it anyway...thought the floor I got hired on wouldn't be as bad...wrong!) and already I want to go back to college and do something else! I know there are lots of different options in nursing but without the experience it's harder to get those nice office jobs and things like that. I really want out, I'm just sick of this whole profession already. Now I'm looking for a new job and I hope I can find something that, if I don't like it, at least maybe I won't hate it. I would love to go back to school for something different where I don't have to deal with sick people/confused people/bodily fluids/huge liability/crazy stressful shifts where I hardly get to sit down at all, etc. I'm not totally ruling out the possibility that I can still find something I like within nursing, but I'd still like to get out of it asap. I just feel like it's not me, like it doesn't fit my personality or something.

I hear you, I didn't really like nursing in school either. I was never all that into it like some other people in my class were. I wanted to change my major (although I didn't really know what else I'd do and I was already halfway through the program) but my family convinced me to stay because I'd have such a "great job" after I graduated. Now I really wish I had just switched. I even worked at a hospital while I was in school, so I had some idea of what hospital work would be like once I got out. I didn't like that job either. I should've just listened to my gut and switched. I graduated in May and I really don't like it. At least not floor nursing, anyway. I quit my job on the floor and now I'm looking for non-floor stuff even though I don't have enough experience for all the things I'd like to try. I just couldn't cut it on the floor though and I didn't like it at all. I dreaded going to work and was so stressed and nauseas all the time. I never felt like I got it, even compared with other new grads. I'm considering leaving the field altogether and looking for other jobs that just want a degree of some sort. I hear they're kind of weary of people with nursing degrees because they're afraid they'll leave for better pay and whatnot. I know my resume looks kind of weird for some of the stuff I'm applying for. I really want to go back to school for something else. I've also put in applications with different kinds of nursing jobs so I guess I'll see how that goes too. I don't really know what to do. I really wish I'd just changed my major, then I wouldn't be in this mess. I'd still have a job I liked too (even if it was low paying).

I'm considering going to grad school for nurse informatics. If I get a masters in it, how much actual nursing experience do places expect you to have before they'll hire you? By the time I can go back to school, I'll have a year of nursing experience. Would that be enough for companies to hire me or would I have a tough time getting a job?

No, it's not my passion. I don't like it very much at the moment, and I didn't really like it when I was in school but felt pressured by my family to finish. I really need to find my niche, and whether that's in nursing or not, I don't know but I'd really like to find it. Like others have said, though, the money and stability make it very hard to just up and quit especially without really knowing what else I'd like to do.

No, I'm not happy, and one of the reasons is that I'm new at it and it's really scary right now but also I don't like floor nursing. I really wish I'd picked a different career and I'd really like to get out of floor nursing asap although I don't know how people find all these great office jobs especially with very little experience in nursing. I'd also like to go back to school at some point but I don't know what I'd like to pursue. I just really don't like floor nursing.

This happened with me too and I'm glad. I needed the extra time and while I still don't feel great about nursing (I've only been doing it 2 months...and I've only been off orientation for like a month) but I think it made me feel better about the whole thing. Go with it, it's not a bad thing. I wish I'd had more orientation, like those hospitals that give you 6 months of orientation. I'd love that, it'd be great to really have a feel for the whole thing before being on your own. 8 weeks or whatever isn't really that much.