"I don't want to do bed side nursing"...SAY WHAT!

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had a couple different nursing students say: "well, i'm going to school so i don't have to do bed side nursing". one even told me she want to work in plastic surg. office, not at the bed side. o.k. , i'm an "old nurse...47 yrs old", but when i went to nursing school in the 80's , we knew we knew we would most likley have to work our way into other areas of nursing after some experience in an acute care facility or some other such place. i hate to sound like i want to eat my young but, a part of me wants to see these new nurses go through the ranks like many of us did. not because i want to see them go through he double thooth picks, but because i feel , taking care of pateints, hands on , learning orginizational skills, pt. asses. , are the best way to learn nursing skills. as a critical care nurse of 27 years, i continue to be amazed at how much i can find out about a pt. during a bath and bed change. we have beds that turn, vents that suction, monitors that alert a critical care team half way across the city, bells, beeps and whistles,,,,what ever happened to good old hands on. i think it is funny that a nursing student thinks if she goes to a plastic surg. office she will only see tummy tucks, face lifts and boob jobs. she's forgetting the big ugly draining wounds , burns, and amputations etc..these office settings see. would love to be a fly on the wall when she takes care of her first pt. with these things and says......"oh my gosh, a plastic surg. takes care of these people too...!" guess i'll go into dermatology.... ha , if you've been around the block you know what awaits her there too. hee heee....but i swear i don't like to eat my young !:lol2: :rotfl: :clown: :lol2: :lol2: :uhoh3:

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I work with a nurse that said (as a then new grad) "I want the NM's job now". Before you can walk you gotta crawl. I've worked with her for about 4 years now and you see nurses run when she walks in the door. She makes their lives and the pt's lives miserable. If it's a weekend or evening (NM only works 7-3 weekdays) and she's not charging she throws a fit and will get in the charge nurses face. The charge nurse is always the one with the most seniority and the one that works weekends was actually a NM at another place. She actually told the charge nurse (call her B) that "you don't belong in nursing. You are the worst nurse I've ever seen." B responded "well, that may be true, but all I've seen you do is try to get other people's job, so that's not much nursing."

She despises pt care, and pleaded with me after working 16 hours as an aide to work another 4 until an aide came in. Uh, no can do. When I told her no, she acted like she had the authority to make me stay. She didn't and I only worked 16 hrs to cover another aides shift. And I believe there's a law in nursing about working too many hours. She does not (or cannot) answer pts questions about meds, care plans, etc. I went to high school with this nurse and she graduated first in her class and rec'd a full scholarship to college so I know she has brains..........but apparently no common sense.

She took care of my grandpa and my mom was in the room when she inserted a NG tube. Mom said that this nurse "M" didn't tell my grandpa what she was going to do, what the dr said, what this tube is, and that she just handed him a cup of water and told him to swallow. When she didn't get it the first two times she looked at her watch and said "I always draw the bad patients." Huh? Grandpa may not be pleasant, but mom says he was so sick and not speaking. Told my mom this was typical of this nurse.

Oh, and trying working as an aide when you went to hs with the overachiever who is now a RN-BSN. She treats me like an idiot. Thank God she's only PRN. And she had the nerve to diss my school that I will be attending. It's a tough private school and I'm proud that they accepted me. That hurt my feelings. In her eyes I'll always be the stupid one who doesn't know anything and will spend her life wiping others behinds.

Wow, I ended up venting. Sorry, but I do feel better.

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Specializes in Neuro/Med-Surg/Oncology.

Did she say that's why she wants to work at a plastic surgeons office? Maybe tht's an area that she really likes. It often takes people many years and many transfers to find their respective niches. If she's found hers off the bat, more power to her. "The ranks" are not what they once were. People these days seem to have a little more insight about themselves and don't feel they have to do things "the way we always did it". It's not necessarily a bad thing. Dh has had the same conversation with his father about switching jobs/companies. FIL has been with the same company and gone "up the ranks" for the past forty-five years. He doesn't realize that is not how it works today. Now, if a person is passed over for a promotion, treated poorly, etc., someone newer doesn't hesitate to vote with his feet and go to something more suitable.

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I am a nursing student - only in my 1st semester - I have gone to clinicals, not to sound shallow or non-caring, but for some reason I feel the same way, I am not looking to skip throught the ranks, but plastic surgery just speaks to me. . . I just find it so fascinating, it's not that I think less than bedside nursing or any kind of nursing, it just piques my interest . . . what is wrong w/ that?

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I am a nursing student - only in my 1st semester - I have gone to clinicals, not to sound shallow or non-caring, but for some reason I feel the same way, I am not looking to skip throught the ranks, but plastic surgery just speaks to me. . . I just find it so fascinating, it's not that I think less than bedside nursing or any kind of nursing, it just piques my interest . . . what is wrong w/ that?

Sound like your making good decisions. The two student I'm speaking of just simpley think it is below them to do such deeds.

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Specializes in psych, geriatric, foot care.

I don't think there is anything wrong with having a field of interest in nursing but I think, and could be wrong, the issue is with people who take up nursing that really don't want to do any hands on care. Why would you go into the nursing field and not want to care for someone entirely. I'm not saying I enjoy all aspects of my job but I certainly take pride in being able to care for someone in whatever area they need be it washing their behind, giving their meds or client teaching. Frankly the one aspect I hate that u cant avoid is charting...no way around that.

I too have encountered new grads who felt that washing someones behind was offensive to them and would do anything and everything to avoid it. Hopefully this is some freaky minority and not a new trend.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Pediatrics, Geriatrics.

If they don't want to do bedside nursing, then don't do it. Let a nurse who really cares do the bedside nursing. That's who I would want to be at my bedside if I was ill.

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Specializes in Neuro/Med-Surg/Oncology.
Sound like your making good decisions. The two student I'm speaking of just simpley think it is below them to do such deeds.

There will always be people like that. The one you're speaking of is definitely going to be surprised. My first day of nursing school orientation there were several drop-outs. Two verbatim quotes that I remember were "That's not what the nurses in soap operas do." and "Ewww, I didn't know I actually have to touch people.":lol2: People like that usually wind up weeding themselves out. I had one student on my floor due to graduate this semester that only wanted to be a drug rep when she graduated. She wanted nothing to do with patient care whatsoever. She about died when I made her do a simple dressing change on a small, clean surgical wound. I also think a lot of people are pushed through programs without getting as much hands on experience. (This girl certainly was.) I know I wish I had gotten more hands-on experience myself. She was in an accelerated BSN program that was still fairly new. There doesn't seem to be much time for reenforcement of skills taught and a lot of people are left to flounder. Many of them don't seem sure of themselves in a hospital setting and think alternatives won't be so bad.

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Specializes in CCU,ICU,ER retired.

I had a women lke that that I went to NS with. I was helping her clean aher patient once and she looked at me and said she wan't going to care of old people or sick people. All I could do was look at her and say so whats left to take care of since that what was in hospitals. She isn't around any more she guit nursing after 3 years.

I think that those kind of folks aren't there to do hands on they just want a paycheck that will support them. I have no doubt in my mind she will quit within 5 yrs of getting her license.

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Ooh, good thread! I was just talking about this the other day with a coworker!

There is this girl who went to hs with me. We graduated in 2000, and she is still in nursing school. She is very opinionated and thinks "icky" things are beneath her. Well, right after I found out that she was going to start nursing, I saw her at a party, and she was asking about it, seeing as how we went to the same large university and would be in the same program. I recommended that she get a job in a hospital to get her feet wet. OOOHHHH no! I believe that her exact words were "being a tech is the most demeaning job in the world and I would never do it". First of all, I was working on year #4 at the hospital when she said that, so it didn't go over troo well with me. But my response was "HEL-LO! Nursing assistant?? They help NURSES! Who do you think is on the other side of that bed??" So she basically went on to say that direct pt care is for the birds. She continued to say that she was going to be a NICU nurse. Her reason? "Babies haven't sinned yet." Okay, so she's clearly not Catholic. I said, "Babies might not have done anything bad, but what about the fifteen year old parents?" Oh I should mention, that while I am a religious person, I don't think that anybody is going to go to H*** if they dont' go to church every Sunday. This girl told me in hs that I am going to H*** because I don't go THREE TIMES A WEEK like she does. So religion is very important to her, and she doesn't get along too well with people who don't believe the same things that she does. See a problem yet? Anyway I tried to explain to her that not all preemies are born to loving married couples. She told me that the baby is the patient, not the family. So yeah, she just doesn't get it. Now she is taking some time off because the stress of one class at a time is just too much. She is a hostess at a restaurant in the meantime. I'm sorry, I know that classes can be very difficult, and sometimes you have to back down and go a little slower, or maybe repeat one that you had a little trouble with, and there is nothing wrong with that. But she has been taking one class at a time since 2000 and she's still not there yet. If she can't handle that, how in the world is she going to handle being an RN?

As for the plastic surgery thing, fine, do what you want to do, but you are going to be much more beneficial if you get some experience first. If you wanna do plastic surgery, then go work on a surgical floor for awhile. Sad thing about that is, though, that some offices, and I'm not saying all, but some will take RNs based on their appearance. I know because it happened to a friend of mine. She was offered a job by a surgeon just because she was a hot young RN. She didn't take the job, but it does happen.

I don't think enough people start int he proverbial mail room and work their way up anymore. There's a lot to be learned from school, but there is SO MUCH to be said for experience!!!!! As a patient, I would want an RN who had been around for awhile. And a year goes by so quickly, I doubt it's going to ruin anyone's life to get a year under their belt before they jump into a specialty. :twocents:

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

i'm afraid this is becoming the norm. a nursing career does not hold the same status that it did 20+ years ago. alot of people that go into nursing now feel that they have options and they don't want to wait forever to take advantage of those opportunities. i work with nurses now that have jobs that only nurses with plenty of bedside experience probably should have. some of these nurses are in administrative/education roles after only a few months of bedside. i know its a turn off to all the nurses that worked their way through the trenches, but like someone else said....i only want nurses who want to do bedside take care of me and my family. the rest can stay where they are.

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Specializes in Developmental Disabilities, LTC.

My school requires that you be certified as a nursing assistant before you're even allowed to apply for the RN program...I am SO GREATFUL for that! It works out wonderfully, too, because while they don't require you to actually work in the field, most people end up doing it because they have that 2 year wait list to sit on. At least that's why I ended up being a CNA. And, like I said, I'm so greatful for that...as much as I detest the people I go to school with (yeah, that's a whole separate issue), not one of them can say they've never changed someone's pants, or helped feed someone, etc. Not only that, but the nurses (& the CNAs, which you rely on SO MUCH as a student nurse) at clinical have so much more confidence in you once they've found out you've already gotten your hands dirty. And it gives me more confidence as a jittery, timid student nurse at clinical when I find out that the big, bad, intimidating nurse I have to work with has only been in healthcare half the time I've been.

The fact that I've worked as a CNA will enable me to have better working relationships (I hope) with CNAs in the future (I hope they'll respect me a little more) as I become a nurse and appreciate their hard work.

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