youknowhowwedoit77

Sorry that link didn't work here it is http://www.phc4.org/reports/fyi/fyi16.htm Did I say something wrong so many people looking and no one with any thoughts?

For those of you who have read and responded to my other posts I want to say "Thank you." I have been on a journey trying to find a "Happy Nurse" not the ones who are happy except for... I have been hearing the drums of dissatisfaction as an RN for a long time now but I never correlated it with the Rn shortage. I always thought the reason for the shortage was the increase in the aging population leading to higher demand for Rn's. Today while I am trying to make my decision I came across multiple government research studies indicating that burn out and job dissatisfaction is shrinking the pool of registered nurses. Here is one of them, notice the date and how little has been done since then to change the situation. http://http://www.phc4.org/reports/fyi/fyi16.htm I always thought myself to be pretty intelligent but I had not put together the nursing shortage picture. It seems that the career itself, and more importantly the employers of RNs, is unable to retain qualified candidates to fill the needs. So the last strand I am holding on to is that it truly is different for males in the profession. In my interviews with male rns each has been pretty happy with their situation the females on the other hand are mostly miserable (dont get upset with me each and every one of them has been unhappy with their chosen profession). My question then is this. Is the difference between the quality of life for the male Rns vs. female Rns so vast as to make it a good career choice for one sex more than the other?

Wow what a great coincidence. I am at a crossroads deciding between becoming a lawyer or an RN. Can I ask why are you walking away from being an attorney? As far as will people think differently of you because you are an attorney, people only know what you tell them. I would love to hear why you are chosing to change professions and why you think becoming an RN is a good solution for you? Are you planning on continuing your career as an attorney with your RN as a asset to your practice? lay it on me I really want to hear whats what?

Elk, I posed the same idea only to be told that most of the nurses are to scared to share their honest thoughts for fear of retribution by the Nurse managers. It seems there is a predominating fear of sharing the knowledge one has of a particular institution. If it worked in the real world the way you depict it then I dont believe there would be the underlying fear of nurses to share their exp. at different facilities. That is not to say I don't agree with you. I most certainly do agree with you and think that interviewing a few of the staff is a great idea. Just an observation here but it seems to me its not the work enviornment that I fear, nor the docs. It's middle management, the DON's, the nurse managers, who always seem to be trying to save their own jobs by throwing subordinates under the bus.

I have been around the medical field and married to a RN for near 20 years. The one thing that we always discuss before moving is where to work. I always ask isn't there a way you can talk to someone who already works at the hospital you are considering. (because up til now every DON we have dealt with just tries to make their workplace sound like utopia, this is rarely the case). So my question is why isn't there a database where people can anonymously discuss working at different facilities within specific departments? I think this one piece of information could save many, many heartaches and bad experiences. I can't tell you how many times my wife has been told one thing and as soon as she showed up to work it was completely diffferent. When you move and change your life to take a chance on a different job they kind of have you by the "insert what you want." It seems the only ones who benefit from keeping RN's in the dark are the institutions themselves.

Quote from RN1989 "No matter the lack of tools, we are expected to carry on as if we had all the time and supplies in the world, with the threat of termination or losing your license if you mess up constantly looming over us. " If there is anything that bothers me about being an RN it is this quote. It seems that I have heard this many times. People are constatnly scared of losing thier livelihoods. Being humans we are fallible. I will post this here to see if I get any responses if not I will make a new thread. It seems to me from the research I have been doing that the differences between 2 departments in the same hospital can be dramatic. Even the same departments in different hospitals can be like night and day. My wife has been in the business for almost 2 decades and worked at least 10 different places and has only really enjoyed 2 or 3.

rndave when i speak of autonomy it is very much related to self delegation. i will compare it to what i know. when i was a programmer i would be given a task. write program x for this project. they would tell me it needs to be done on a certain date. it was completely up to me when, how, where and at what pace i completed the project. middle of the night on a tuesday or while i have a beer on the beach. from the information i have gathered from my friends that are attorneys it seems very comparable to that. here is an excerpt from a friend i work about 6 days a week however this job gives me the flexibility to take long lunches or go home early when i want to or even come in late if i don't feel like getting up. one thing that you will get used to quickly, which they don't teach in law school, is calendar deadlines. everything has a date certain when it is due it is your job to get it finished correctly and filed. the partners don't really care how or when its done so long as it is done right and on time. when i speak of autonomy this is what i am talking about. being given a task and being able to use my own expertise and knowledge to complete the task. in the basic sense not having someone monitoring my every move. i hope this makes more sense now.

To answer your question: I have been many things from real estate investor to computer programmer. I have been really lucky in the way I have always landed in different positions that were interesting and very flexible. The Lord has blessed me with many opportunities. We lost our child to cancer 2 years ago and my life has spun out of control so as of now I would consider myself a suffering professional student. Hopefully this helps you to ascertain my position and reasoning. Look forward to your insights.

Again thanks for the insights and thoughts. I have accepted that if I do decide to pursue being an RN that it comes with its own set of circumstances. I think the only way to thrive in that enviornment for me is to be like teflon. I would not be able to think about the way Rn's are treated. Just in my experience Rns are treated like 2nd class citizens in the world of medical care and it seems male rn's are a subset of that class. Bottom line honestly working in Pajama like clothes---perfect working in air conditioning----perfect helping people in their times of need---perfect multiple shift choices-----perfect working with women------ push When a Lawyers wife/husband or children come through the OR everyone knows that they are doing surgery on a Lawyers family member. There is never a mention of occupation of the patient unless it is an attorney. Now you make of that what you will but it makes me think hmmmm....

Thank you everyone for your responses they are all very interesting. I am always glad to hear peoples thoughts on issues such as this. I don't know if anyone will check this thread again but from my research the one issue which continues to be a concern for me is not "respect" its something else. Do you feel that you (a nurse) are treated as a professional or do you feel like you are?? Do you feel that you frequently have to look busy to keep the powers that be happy? I only ask because personally I need some autonomy and am more than able to take care of the tasks set before me without constant monitoring.

Thank You for your responses they are appreciated. Yorkie You sound like a man whose lived a good life. I am very impressed that after all of these years you seem to still be a compassionate person. In my research it seems, and again this is only my small sample, the longer one has been in the nursing profession the more jaded they are about it. It seems you have avoided this phenom and are still happy with the profession you have chosen, bravo. Cindy, I have to belive that there is some truth to what you say about men having a different experience as a nurse. I have been with my wife long enough that I have come into contact over the years with the male nurses she has worked with even while at her place of work. It seemed to me that while the female nurses were in an uproar about this or that the male nurses who I watched were kind of goofing around and joking with one another. Of course being the husband of a nurse I hear all of the negative stuff that happens at her career and most of it continues to be part of her thought process for much longer than it should. I do believe every DON has lied to her when she has taken a new job and forgive and forget is not something that comes easy to the fairer sex. Again this is just my observation. Thank you for your time. djc1981, Yes, I am well aware of the reality of practicing law versus the perception of practicing law. An aside the respect people give just when I mention I am going to law school is amazing. No matter what I think of the profession it seems to still be held in high regard, as well it should, seeing as it is 4 years of college and 3 more years of LS. I appreciate all of your input but have one more question. You shared with me that the legal profession was not a good fit for you but you did not say whether the nursing profession was? That is an answer I would most like to hear. Again, thank you everyone for your responses and I hope to hear from more of you. I have asked my wife to put me in contact with some of the male nurses she works with to ask these things of them also.

Quick Background: 35 yo male. My wife is an OR nurse and has been her whole career. I have been reading the posts on this forum for a while and wanted to see if anyone would share their views. I have been accepted to Law School and am not sure the 60-hour weeks away from my family are acceptable but I would love the autonomy the work provides. The person I was before I started the journey of becoming a Lawyer is much different today. Money was the end all, to be all. Now I am leaning more towards what I can give, than what I can get. Because of this shift in thought and my wonderful wife I have been considering becoming an RN. The first thing people usually say is that being an attorney or being an RN are so different how can I even consider the two. I contend that both professions exist to help people in their time of need. They both demand that you give of yourself and your compassion. But I think that you have to have a killer instinct in one of them. I will let you decide which. Let me get to the issue at hand. I seem to hear everywhere that there is a nursing shortage and that hospitals are clamoring for nurses. Just this morning my wife calls me upset that yet again the hospital in a moment of genius has decided to take something else away from the nurses in the OR. The nurses have always had a morning break of about 15 minutes in the morning usually around 9 to take care of bathroom breaks and maybe a cup of coffee. The Docs complained to the hospital and the powers that be have decided, "No more morning breaks." Now I only share this story because to me it has been the same story I have heard from her and the other RN's I have known. It seems the hospitals value the RN's so very little and yet the RN's are the backbone of the institution. In other words I have never received a call or been told by another nurse, "Hey guess what the hospital gave us." But I have had many, many phone calls and conversations about what the hospital has decided to take away. Even in the information sessions given by the local nursing colleges that I have attended there is an undercurrent of disdain for the prospective students. When I consider this together with the knowledge I have gleamed from current RN's it seems that the valuation of nurses is far below what it should be. My concern is that we all know s*** rolls down hill but it seems an unseemly amount lands on the nurses. Is my perspective skewed? Am I seeing something that is not there? Am I not seeing something that is there? All of this information is from the females in my life, could that be coloring my perception? I just want to do something that at the end of the day I am proud of. I have went on long enough I really look forward to your responses.