maginoir

Blackcat99~I hear you! 30 yrs ago when I started it was like a sisterhood & even if co-workers weren't people you would socialize with, we were all there for the same purpose & it was about the patients & everyone did their part professionally & even managed to have a little fun sometimes, laughing @ things others wouldn't understand. Unfortunately now, it is sometimes more of a job staying pleasant, professional & remembering to put principles ahead of personalities, than anything the medical work could throw at us. We can each take comfort that we're not alone in feeling this way. HANG IN THERE!

Well written. I think you have a real handle on the triggers for things that create resentments for you. It is always imperative that we leave our internal turmoils behind us when putting on our nursing faces & focus entirely on what's best for our patients. I have a strong psychological background (academically & professionally) & discovered long ago that we have control over how we allow people to make us feel. Anger, resentment, bitterness, they are all choices we make with patients, co-workers, bosses ect. Unfortunately it is much more complex when it involves family & you are showing that you are on your way to finding peace simply by realizing that a large part of your resentment begins with family. When I was about your age I also had some very real issues with resentments centered around my parents & I found a counselor that I was comfortable with, & spent some time working through them. I found it to be very cathartic & I believe it even gave me a better insight into some of my patients & co-workers. I tried to turn what I discovered about myself & my reluctance to "let it go" into tools to utilize with the situations we have all dealt with & will continue to encounter as long as we are in the "business of caring for others." I wish you the best in your journey & from what I've read, am confident that you are on your way to not only resolving your resentments, but also in finding a way to learn from them. Thank you for a very thought provoking topic, & I would like to share one of my favorite internal monologues I use with difficult patients, Physicians, family members, ect. "We are doing the best we can, with what we have, where we are." NAMASTE'

I think that as an LPN with 23 years experience that the most important thing in nursing is that you like and believe in what you are doing. I was fired from my last nursing job in December of 2006 because I did the right thing and turned in some nurses to managment who were abusing their powers as nurses. I worked with troubled adolescents and the nurses I worked with abused their medication administration responsibilities. I knew to much and would not "Shut my mouth" so they got rid of me. Then they black-balled me in the nursing community close to my home and my son and I have been struggling since. My point being, if anyone has cause to hate nursing, it would be me. However I loved being a nurse and I believe that the circumstances do not fairly represent the profession. There are a lot of nurses out there who hate their job, but like the financial security it provides. The last thing it needs is someone else who is just going to put in the hours and not give the compassion and ethics to it that it deserves. It is a very BIG responsibility and one that I took seriously and that is why I am unemployed and the place I worked and the job I loved goes on. I am currently back in school, and would dearly love to get into forensic nursing, but would have to pursue my RN to enter that field and am not sure that I want to do the nursing thing again to get there. LPN positions are dwindling in the state of Ohio and I at this time have no option to re-locate. Do not go into a profession like nursing unless you are sure that you can face the worst of days with a smile and a gentle hand, as there are already enough of those nurses out there and they create chaos for the ones like me. Those of us who truly take it seriously and do the right thing. While reporting those who don't, caused me to lose what was once very important to me and the enthusiasm to get it back. Pursue another career. Please.