Should I go onto become a nurse practitioner? Nurse bullying, life stress, and chronic health issues

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Hi all,

I need some advice on whether I should continuing my schooling to become a nurse practitioner or not.

Since nursing school, continuing through working as a nurse, I have had to deal with frequent bullies. It causes me stress, wears me down, and makes me not want to go to work. I have so many responsibilities too. This all makes me not even be interested in being a nurse anymore.

I already have chronic autoimmune and pain issues, and the stress of nursing and the toxic environment is becoming too much for me.

I am unsure if I should become a nurse practitioner in the hopes that the environments will be less toxic and less stressful, or go into another field. I think about medical illustration. 

I just can't do this anymore.

I'd appreciate your two cents.

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Specializes in ER.

If you want to stay in the healthcare business, at least you would have more status and pay. But I'm sure you would be ground into the dirt just like being a bedside nurse. If I were younger I would just get into a whole different line of work. Healthcare sucks.

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2 hours ago, Emergent said:

If you want to stay in the healthcare business, at least you would have more status and pay. But I'm sure you would be ground into the dirt just like being a bedside nurse. If I were younger I would just get into a whole different line of work. Healthcare sucks.

^^^This, 100%^^^  It's all about the $$

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12 hours ago, daisychains11 said:

I am unsure if I should become a nurse practitioner in the hopes that the environments will be less toxic and less stressful, or go into another field.

This is a great question. I agree with a previous poster that if you're going to be worked to death anyway you might as well make more money at it. That's the rationale for some people choosing to travel right now, too.

My decision-making was based in my belief that corporate functioning and senior administrative decisions are what is primarily driving the misery of clinicians. Nursing is not the problem, medicine is not the problem. I love what nursing is supposed to be. I do not love what it has been contorted into, nor the way that nurses have come to be increasingly disregarded by a system that cannot function without us.

My goal was to find a way to be able to continue to care for patients without working in conditions controlled solely by those same entities. Approaching the half-way career point, I'm not sure that I would have pursued a clinician role if my only realistic option was to work for them, since I personally do not have any more tolerance for them in any capacity.  I did obtain an ARNP certification and the only reason I did so is because of resources and circumstances that allowed me to lock down other employment plans before I even started grad school. There are a lot of things you could do with an advanced practice certification, but in my opinion you should have a significant belief in your specific plan to achieve the actual personal well-being goals you want to achieve in the process. For me the goals were pursuing something I knew I would enjoy and being able to leave behind what I considered it imperative to leave behind.

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Specializes in Cardiology.

If you want to be a NP I would suggest FNP or a NP at one of those minute clinics. You will be just as tired and abused if you become an inpatient NP. I wish I could get out of healthcare, I really do. Im just lucky I got out of bedside and into a procedural position. 

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.

Do you want to be a NP? Do you want to do the job you will be qualified for with that degree? Getting a degree to get away from a job situation doesn't sound like the best approach to me. You are likely to encounter similar situations no matter where you are working, and not just in healthcare. I worked with bullies and mean people in my previous career as well. You have to decide what your career goals are, and then work to find an acceptable work environment within that field. 

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Depending on where you're working, becoming a nurse practitioner may or may not improve your quality of life or your pay.  Around here, bedside nurses can make as much as NPs, but NPs have more opportunities for different settings. Some people remain RNs because they just want to work a shift and go home. But I also know people who got their NPs so they could pursue specialty work in hospitals, like working as a cardiac NP. Others work in small private practices and see patients the same as the doctors do.  Obviously, the working conditions will vary greatly based on the personalities and viewpoints of the providers already in the practice. My kids go to a pediatric practice that is 1 MD, 1 PA, and 1 NP.  The three practitioners seem to share appointments pretty equally, and the office always seems very friendly. 

It's also going to depend on where you work. There are states in which NPs have autonomous practice, and states in which they will always have to be working under the "supervision" of a physician. If you're able to see and bill patients completely independently, you're better positioned to avoid toxic personalities. And, of course, having the right experience (which you won't have right away, but will eventually) makes you more desirable. We are friends with an APRN who is moving across country after being recruited by several practices that made it worth her while to move because she has experience in a very niche specialty.

I will say that if you have an autoimmune issue that manifests itself in pain, you are probably going to want to get away from the bedside nursing. It's just too much physical strain to work as an RN in a hospital or nursing home if you're not in good shape. That doesn't mean you have to become an APRN, though. Working in a procedural area (like same day surgery) or a doctor's office can be a really different environment from bedside.  My stepmother worked in a urology office for years, and only recently retired in her mid-70s. Did she make as much as I do in a hospital? No, but she liked her colleagues and patients, and it was a job she could do physically and mentally well after typical retirement age.  Even now, she is able to work per diem there if she wants to.  Sure, there are some toxic private practices, so they key is to find one that's not.  Or if you work in home care, you cut way down on the potential for bullying. That's not to say there isn't stress (the paperwork is endless, and you're on your own without colleagues to easily consult if you question something with a patient), but it definitely cuts down on interactions with toxic colleagues.

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