indish

When doctors wrote orders on paper we would copy the ones we couldn't read and post it as "mystery order of the day" and make guesses. It was fun till the docs made us quit. Put a DNR order on an ice machine that broke.

Oh hey I've used live leeches, and not that long ago!

We placed patients according to smoking or non smoking besides sex Light therapy for decubes to dry them out I guess, just remember placing patients on their sides taping their crack open and shining a light on it pre op prepping the night before day shift preop shaving the top half of the open heart, pm shift shaving the bottom half two visitors per patient and no one under 12 Gold standard five day stay post op total knee! lidocaine drips on all the MIs

And if you had called 911 they would say you were insubordinate and call you in the office for that. I would think if you are practicing within your scope of practice and followed all policies you have nothing to worry about. It doesn't seem your facility stands behind their staff though

I posted the original question and it's interesting to see where this topic has gone. Firstly "just a nurse" refers to any staff nurse in any specialty unit, including not limited to med surg. ive never had aspirations of management, always preferred to continue learning by moving around to different hospitals and different units within the hospitals. One poster supposed I was somehow jealous that I didn't go on myself. Heck no! I'm at the top of the pay scale and live quite comfortably, I've got a great job in PACU, no weekend or holidays, one day a month on call. For me that's heaven in staff nursing. My point was with all the going on advancing careers etc, what will happen to nursing? There are so many MSNs where I work at the bedside. Why? Because there aren't enough advance practice RN jobs to go around. I think this has been a great discussion on what is wrong with nursing and as I reflect back in my opinion it's the culture. Big business, patient satifaction (did you know the most satisfied patients are also the most dead? Google it) an addicted to narcotics patient population and google. Everyone googles everything and then tells you what you are doing wrong. 30 years ago patients trusted their providers and nurses, now they question everything. Just like pain control, we went from no information patient to too much information patient. Just a few more thoughts

You are right, in just a nurse I meant not going on for a masters NP or management. I meant staff nurse. And I didn't even mean med surg, I meant every bedside nurse in every specialty area, I have worked in many different areas besides med surg, but always in the role of staff nurse, sometimes charge nurse. I guess the point of the question is what happened to nursing and there has been a lot of very good points made in this discussion about what is wrong.

I always said one year to get comfortable and five years to be an asset to the hospital, where you are pretty confident and proficient at what you are doing. One day at a time, you live through it and have one more day of experience and then go on to the next day.

I started on medsurg, moved on to ICU, then to cardiac intervention, then back to medsurg, now in PACU. That is the beauty of nursing, many jobs within the job. I would say though that it took me a good year to get used to ICU then worked about ten years at it before moving and changing to cardiac. You might want to give it more time and see how you feel. Med surg made me a great ICU nurse and ICU made me a great med surg nurse. Ultimately you know where your heart is leading

Having worked several years on nights with young kids I'd never do it again if given a choice. Always sleep deprived, always tired which made me short on patience and tolerance for things that didn't bother me on normal shifts. And its not easy to jump back In to a day shift. I have a memory of trying to sleep after a twelve hour shift and my youngest playing with my face, moving my mouth and eyebrows around saying "happy momma,sad momma, mad momma". Funny story now, but not so much then. I didn't have the energy to tell him to quit. I'd work a second part time job first or pick up overtime before nights

Crunch RN. Right, that's why I asked the question, so what happened to nursing that people don't want to do it? I often felt "just leave us alone and let us do what we know how to do without adding all this other crap". I think a lot of good points have been made about what is wrong with nursing, but I don't think it will change. I also think it's interesting that we have never been united as nurses as a former critical care nurse who went to a medsurg unit I expierenced critical care nurse egos that felt they were superior to us on the floor as well as ER and cath lab etc. why do we do this? Why don't we truly respect everyone's contribution to the care of patients?u

Emmy 27. I would argue patient ratios have gone down over thirty years, where on medsurg I had six on evening shift and ten on nights, the last med sure unit I was on was four on days/evenings and max six nights. Acuity also has gone up in that you can't be admitted for "general mailais anymore, or admitted the night before surgery for prepping and teaching or stay as long. But nursing has always been physically hard, emotionally draining and plain old hard work. I change up where I work about every ten years, specialty wise. PACU was always on my want to do list and after just working a ten hour shift with one twenty minute break because of all the emergent add ons I would disagree that it is easier than the floor. It's different, but just as stressful and I've been there about a year and a half so not long enough to get a un realistic view. I agree that longevity is not something appreciated by the big business of healthcare, if anything it's almost a liability. I don't believe I blamed it on generational caliber. I just asked the question, why are people not satisfied to be nurses? Expierence at the bedside can be the difference in life or death in some situations, but it seems to just be a launch pad to something else. My point was thirty years ago going to nursing school was to be a nurse and take care of sick people. Now it's a career path

I don't meet too many that like it. All they do is complain about the pay. Very sad (truly nurse)

Not to mention every yearly review "what are your career goals" question or professional contributions. (RNperdiem)

You make a good point that I had not considered. I spent 29 years at the bedside from med surg to ICU and now have been in the PACU the past year and a half and plan to retire from there. In line with your thoughts is also the fact that all the small community hospitals are bought up and closed down which adds to the loss of community caring. I guess I'm at the end of nursing at a good time.

I don't think there are too many nurses if honest didn't feel the same way the first few years out of school on their own. I know I did and after five years thought I'd go to business school, but got married and had kids along the way and 32 years later I love nursing and have for a long time. You never know how you will feel after many shifts under your belt, or a different unit etc.