So what is the deal with nursing.....

Nurses General Nursing

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I have been around these boards off and on the past couple years. I am not a nurse yet but am seriously thinking of changing my career to be a nurse. But when I read the majority of the posts on this board I am discouraged with all the negativity and horror stories I read about. Is there a nursing shortage or not? Is the nursing shortage only in certain areas of the country and in only certain fields? Whats the real story? What is it really like? Why are seasoned nurses so mean to new grads? Are they that miserable that they feel they can take it out on others less than them? It seems like such a harsh field.I am sick of my engineering job where I go home at the end of the day and feel like I havent contributed to anything good in society. I want to help people and make a difference in the world. But if nursing is so horrible as it sounds on this board then maybe I should stick with my boring engineering job. Please someone enlighten me and help me see how it really is. Thanks.

Specializes in being a Credible Source.
Nursing is a great career...Just remember...12 shifts a month is all you work...what other job can you say that with?
You're right... many firefighters and most airline pilots only work 8-10 shifts per month.

Many nurses are working straight-8 shifts and, if only 12/month, then not earning full-time money.

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Well I haven't been a nurse for long, but I feel like the grass may always be greener on the other side of the fence. I think being an engineer...or a teacher...or a dentist or doctor...sounds kind of awesome. I haven't been a nurse long enough to say whether or not it was the best career choice for me, but I know I can *make* it a good choice for me. I will say I haven't felt like I've contributed much to society at all, just gotten on parents nerves for making their kids cry when I give them shots or whatever.

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.

I was an engineer who's become a nurse... they're very different work environments. While I'm not displeased with the decision to change careers, I never would've done so had I been able to stay employed without having to relocate.

The most stark contrast between nursing and engineering is the dearth of autonomy and authority in the former. As an engineer, I was accustomed to analyzing data and making decision of enormous import and impact upon my company and my customer. As a nurse, I analyze data... and then ask the doctor for permission. On occasion, it gets a little frustrating to have to ask permission to do anything - especially when patients generally target their frustration at the nurses, not at the docs.

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I've only been a nurse a little bit over a year, but this is a second career for me. I spent 14 years in the corporate world before becoming an RN.

To be honest, I love what I do most days. After spending years working M-F 8-4:30, I now have M-F off and work every Saturday and Sunday night and get paid for 36 hours with full benefits. Can't beat it.

And when I get bored during the week while the kid is at school, I pick up a couple of 8 hours day shifts in outpatient. It's a win-win situation for me.

But.....

If someone would have told me when I became a nurse, I am also a babysitter/drug dealer/messenger/maid/therapist/waitress, I would have thought twice.

Nursing by far has been the most stressful job I have ever encountered, harder than nursing school and I thought that was as bad as it got. You are responsible for people's lives, while trying to carry out doctor orders and double and triple checking orders/meds/diet restrictions before carrying them out. Not to mention, the staffing ratios (mostly short staffed), dealing with pharmacy, family members, doctors, social work, housekeeping, security, administration and anybody else you may want to throw in the mix. And when the ish hits the fan, the NURSE is the one blamed for everything, because after all we should have prevented Granny with a blood sugar of 400 from eating cake and sweets her family members brought in to her.

If you are considering a career change, I will STRONGLY suggest you shadow a nurse for 12 hours just to see what nursing school don't teach you.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.
Nursing is a great career...Just remember...12 shifts a month is all you work...what other job can you say that with?

Yikes! if I only worked 12 a month I'd be in big trouble. I work at least 20.:)

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Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.

I would be a lot less worried about the horror stories than about the lack of jobs. A lot of the horror stories are people sharing with the one group of people they know will understand. Friends and family who are not familiar with the medical profession simply don't get it. I believe that is why my mother was so pleased when I went to work as an orderly (there is an ancient term) in the hospital where she worked, because I gained some understanding of the situations, places and people she talked about. My father had very little medical knowledge, so if she discussed work with him at all it was usually in only the most general terms.

There are those who claim that at some point there will be a lot of openings because of a lot of nurses retiring. I'm not sure I would count on that. With many people losing their retirement savings due to problems with the stock market and the economy and things getting generally tighter, I believe that many nurses will hang onto their jobs for much longer than they would have liked to (I may be one of them).

The cold hard reality is this: Because of widespread reports of a nursing shortage and easily obtainable student loan and grant money, a lot of schools popped up to crank out nurses. Now that the economy is crashing, the graduates of these schools are finding out that the limitless career they were promised was a mirage. Nursing was - and still is, to some extent - pitched as a profession in which you will always have a job and you can readily change from one specialty to another. Things change, and not always for the better.

I currently have a reasonably secure job that I enjoy, and I will likely hang onto it until they forcefully push me out the door.

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.
I would be a lot less worried about the horror stories than about the lack of jobs.

There are those who claim that at some point there will be a lot of openings because of a lot of nurses retiring. I'm not sure I would count on that. With many people losing their retirement savings due to problems with the stock market and the economy and things getting generally tighter, I believe that many nurses will hang onto their jobs for much longer than they would have liked to.

The cold hard reality is this: Because of widespread reports of a nursing shortage and easily obtainable student loan and grant money, a lot of schools popped up to crank out nurses. Now that the economy is crashing, the graduates of these schools are finding out that the limitless career they were promised was a mirage. Things change, and not always for the better.

This is what I have been thinking and saying, as well. I continue to hear people saying, "well, when the economy gets better..." What I think a lot of people haven't yet come to terms with is that the economy may be about as good as it's going to get for quite a long time and the stock market (recent bull run notwithstanding) may return to historical norms (which means those many years of 15-20% growth will be offset by... flat... take a look at the historical numbers of the DJIA and decide what is typical and what was atypical).

You also didn't mention the economic law of supply and demand as it pertains to cost (or salary, from our perspective). Presuming a continued glut of nurses, wages and benefits will go nowhere but horizontally or down.

If you (OP) have a stable engineering job (or at least in a stable field of engineering), I'd stay put and fulfill your desire to help humanity by working with Habitat for Humanity or doing wastewater projects in 3rd-world countries or myriad other things. At this point, engineering graduate school would probably have been a better choice for me than nursing school has proven to be.

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you all have such great comments and insight! I am definitely going to look at shadowing a nurse at least a couple times in a few different areas to see what I like. I am most interested in obgyn so will look into labor and delivery and maybe postpartum and then pediatrics. I did volunteer at one of the hospitals for awhile in the nursery and I loved it. I just felt very comfortable there and the nurses were very nice and helpful. I was happy as a lark even sterilizing the infant cribs. I have thought about some form of work in the medical setting for so long and I am not getting any younger. There are some great schools where I live and I think there would be opportunities when I would graduate. I just have to take the leap. I am 36 and have two boys ages 2 and 5 and a husband so not sure how I would do it financially. I guess where there is a will there is a way. Keep the posts coming!

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Specializes in ED/trauma.
Seasoned nurses and new grads often get along fine. What is different in nursing is that we are forced to depend on each other. There is no hiding out in cubicles or offices; we are in each others' presence all day long. That is more opportunity for interpersonal trouble.

That gives good perspective. I'm not sure of any other career field where people have to rely on each other so intimately as we do in nursing - esp in critical care areas. I may get frustrated with my co-workers, but there is NO WAY that I could make it through a single shift without each and every one of them.

Nursing school was grueling. Being a NG was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. But it's all been worth it 100 times over.

Good luck to the OP :yeah:

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If you have a job now where you are paid well, respected for your work, not overworked to death, and actually get to take a lunch break and vacations -- STICK WITH IT. I honestly would not advise you to leave THAT to go into nursing just so you think you will be able to "help people."

The truth about nursing is that you are so inundated with paperwork and administrative requirements that your chances of actually helping someone is very slim. You do deliver their care, but it's in a very abbreviated way. Most of the time you are also held to the fire over "customer service" type ratings, and to me, that's not truly helping anyone except hospital bean counters.

Stick with your career. Learn how to be the best engineer you can be. Get more ecuation, or maybe go into teaching, or volunteering in the hospital if you are drawn to it. But don't leave that great job for nursing. I wouldn't advise it myself. I'm sorry to say it. I don't believe it is a very good career for women in general. I've just never been so disrespected by so many people on any given day at so many levels. I will say this: I'm in a masters program now after 2 years of grueling baptism by fire work -- and i'm happy about it. But honestly, I feel these past 2 years have aged me 10 years.

I mean, don't get me wrong -- there ARE days when you are rewarded -- here and there. Hugs from sweet patients, a fun day w/ a co-worker, etc., But shadow me about two hours before the end of the shift when the new admit comes in screaming in four pt restraints and you're still not caught up on your other 4-5 patients, everyone is pooping, crying, falling, what have you -- and your manager is standing over you, writing you up for not "clocking out" on time all the while your'e fearing/wondering if you're going to lose your license for some inane reason and a tech is nowhere to be FOUND. The stress can sometimes be inhumane -- honestly ask yourself if that is what you want. :confused: Just please, please, shadow a long while before you decide. I do work on a very heavy med surg floor, though, and I might be a bit jaded. Maybe another type of nursing would be easier, I don't know. OR would be great, but it's tougher to get into nowadays as a new grad.

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If you have a job now where you are paid well, respected for your work, not overworked to death, and actually get to take a lunch break and vacations -- STICK WITH IT. I honestly would not advise you to leave THAT to go into nursing just so you think you will be able to "help people."

The truth about nursing is that you are so inundated with paperwork and administrative requirements that your chances of actually helping someone is very slim. You do deliver their care, but it's in a very abbreviated way. Most of the time you are also held to the fire over "customer service" type ratings, and to me, that's not truly helping anyone except hospital bean counters.

Stick with your career. Learn how to be the best engineer you can be. Get more ecuation, or maybe go into teaching, or volunteering in the hospital if you are drawn to it. But don't leave that great job for nursing. I wouldn't advise it myself. I'm sorry to say it. I don't believe it is a very good career for women in general. I've just never been so disrespected by so many people on any given day at so many levels. I will say this: I'm in a masters program now after 2 years of grueling baptism by fire work -- and i'm happy about it. But honestly, I feel these past 2 years have aged me 10 years.

I mean, don't get me wrong -- there ARE days when you are rewarded -- here and there. Hugs from sweet patients, a fun day w/ a co-worker, etc., But shadow me about two hours before the end of the shift when the new admit comes in screaming in four pt restraints and you're still not caught up on your other 4-5 patients, everyone is pooping, crying, falling, what have you -- and your manager is standing over you, writing you up for not "clocking out" on time all the while your'e fearing/wondering if you're going to lose your license for some inane reason and a tech is nowhere to be FOUND. The stress can sometimes be inhumane -- honestly ask yourself if that is what you want. :confused: Just please, please, shadow a long while before you decide. I do work on a very heavy med surg floor, though, and I might be a bit jaded. Maybe another type of nursing would be easier, I don't know. OR would be great, but it's tougher to get into nowadays as a new grad.

Please take sound of MUsic's reply very seriously. I left a good paying job with sick leave,

vacation days, a job where coworkesr respected each other to be a nurse. The healthcare system sucks nurses are overworked and pt's have more rights then you ever will. And they know this. I love being a nurse but I don't know how long I can stay at the bedside it is not what I thought it would be. They never told me in school that your cooowrkers could be your worse enemy, pts can verbally abuse you and there's not much you can do and that you must give all yourself all the time. Gawd forbid you call in sick--or can't come in on a snowday. Disgraceful.

Good luck in whatever you choose. If you go the nursing route hope you get into a specialty with a good nurse to pt ratio an d a great staff.

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I left a career in the communications field because I thought I was "too old" to start again in my mid 40's. But if I had just put the energy into it that I've put into nursing school, into nursing itself, I'd be the head of a firm by now!!

Will is right. Patients can be HORRID to you, and there is no recourse for you over it. They can basically be any old way they want to be to you -- and you are FORBIDDEN to ever say anything back to them. You just have to take it and be nothing but nice back to them. Now, of course, they are sick, and sick people behave badly a lot of the time -- but ask yourself if you can take that emotionally every other time you work? I mean, some of these patients are downright dangerous and on drugs, in detox, etc. There are times when, a nurse, you are ENDANGERED.

Can you take a peer chewing you out in the nursing station, in front of God, all your peers and anyone who happens to be hanging out there?

Can you take bodily fluids and substances spewing/squirting/oozing out of every orifice of person's body AFTER you've changed their sheets, their gown, and fluffed and cleaned them up for the third time? Can you watch a person die and zip them up in a body bag thereafter? Can you deal with their distraught family?

Can you take constant ringing of bells, alarms, phones, and buzzers every second of the day? Can you be tied to a phone which you HAVE to answer every time? Can you fill out forms, check boxes, write reports -- and do it all fast?

Can you work around 5 family members standing in your way in a tight little room that is shared with yet another patient and their family members? Can you take dirty looks, dirty jokes, families "taking notes" on you while you work?? :rolleyes:

Can you take the gruffness and nastiness of doctors? Believe me, some, though not all, are seriously NASTY. Can you delegate to techs, some of whom find various ways to hide from you all day long?

Can you remember 10 things at once? Do them all at the same time? LOL :lol2:

More importantly, can you go 12 hours perhaps with only one or two food and bathroom breaks? Can you do it after waking up at 5 a.m?

Are you good at science? Anatomy? Can you analyze, tie things together? Think critically? Do you really LIKE people? Because your'e going to get really up close and personal with them. You're going to see EVERYTHING. You're going to smell it also. :)

I don't want to scare anyone about nursing. I'm just being honest.

I suppose the best and good things are the pay, the many days off to enjoy your life, and the camraderie between the GOOD staff members on your unit. You really grow to love many of your co-workers, and working with them is like working with family all day long. You will have a lot of great opportunities to do a lot of things in nursing -- move to management, get a grad degree, or just work in different clincal areas. No nurse ever gets bored. If she/he does, there is something wrong with them.

It's not all bad, but you've got to be strong, tough, smart, and not much of a creme puff, not much of a princess type. Nurses are the ones who are the first to be present as a patient codes. I hope you can think clearly under that sort of pressure and continue to be able to locate and work the equipment.

I'm sad I left my former career. Then again, I don't feel it really fit me like nursing does. Can you say love/hate??

:bugeyes:

P.S. One of the patients I took care of during my last shift told me how beautiful I was about 100 times that day. ;). Another told me that it looked like "I knew what I was doing." :)

I often think that my route to heaven will be lined with the 100's of patients I've cared for during my lifetime, welcoming me as I arrive. :redbeathe

Honestly, it's a career like no other. Just be cautious before going into it.

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