i am graduating in may after waiting years to become a nurse. i have always, since the tender age of about 9, wanted to be a nurse.
i simply cannot express how much it :angryfire burns my hide :angryfire that everyone and their mother wants to be a nurse now. what's with the sudden enthusiasm and interest in nursing??? particularly in ca, in seems that everyone is telling me that they are doing pre-req's for nursing. ***?? my friend (also graduating with me in may) pointed out that it seems more and more men are coming into nursing. now, maybe she and i will get raked over the coals for this one, but before the $$ spike for nursing pay, men would be laughed at (a la ben stiller in meet the parents) for being a nurse.
i just find it so frustrating that everyone wants to be a nurse now, especially since nursing has become quite the lucrative career. what happened to wanting to be a nurse because you (*gasp*) care about people and like (*gasp #2*) helping others???????
this is all boiling over with me because i see quite a few of my classmates that clearly are in this for the money. i, personally, would rather die than be their patients - that's how greedy, selfish, money-hungry some of my lovely classmates are.
sorry - i just have to vent.
**please note: i absolutely do not mean that men should not be in nursing - i think it's great. i am generally frustrated at seemingly everyone (both men and women) being interested in nursing, now that it pays so well (esp. in ca). please do not accuse me of being sexist**.
Usually people who go for engineering,medicine or teaching dont go for the paycheck,they are intelligent,have intellectual capabilities and have strong interest in above mentioned areas.Do you actually think people would do 8 if not more year of schooling with lacking interest in it,nope I dont think so.
Actually money, lifestyle and prestige are the first things on the minds of most aspiring doctors. As for teachers most are thinking about extra vacation time and state benefits - and teacher salaries these days are comparable to average nurse wages especially if you have a graduate degree.
I'm just trying to point out that it's no more or less than any other career. It's not a calling or a vocation, that's for nuns and priests. That kind of attitude kept salaries a joke for years, and I say more power to those than can make an awesome living at the job. Just because you didn't try to nurse your baby dolls doesn't mean you can't perform the job in a caring and professional manner.
Actually money, lifestyle and prestige are the first things on the minds of most aspiring doctors. As for teachers most are thinking about extra vacation time and state benefits - and teacher salaries these days are comparable to average nurse wages especially if you have a graduate degree.
Have you run a survey on doc to assume what is on their mind..?Anybody can have big inspirations and tremendous dreams,but is it within their intellectual capabilities to to full fill it?
Actually money, lifestyle and prestige are the first things on the minds of most aspiring doctors. As for teachers most are thinking about extra vacation time and state benefits - and teacher salaries these days are comparable to average nurse wages especially if you have a graduate degree.
And that's why there are some, not all, but quite a few doctor's that are not that great at what they do. Because they get into it for the prestige and the money. Proof? i have two good friends who are saying they're going to go to medical school, and both have openly admitted to the 3 reasons that you just listed as their motives for going.
To me, I can have all of those things in the couple years I can get through nursing school, but know I will LOVE what i do, and will be there because I care about my patients and want to save lives in my own right.
Nursing is a quick route to having a great lifestyle and whatnot, but, me being one of them, are doing it not for that, but for the right reasons. To help people get better, and to attempt to make a difference in people's lives.
I'm just trying to point out that it's no more or less than any other career. It's not a calling or a vocation, that's for nuns and priests. That kind of attitude kept salaries a joke for years, and I say more power to those than can make an awesome living at the job. Just because you didn't try to nurse your baby dolls doesn't mean you can't perform the job in a caring and professional manner.
Salaries a joke?It is certainly a well-compensated job for the 2-year degree program.
Ya know, I seriously sat in front of the computer for 15 minutes debating over whether or not to post this thread. At this moment, I am regretting it. I just knew I would get reemed....
I know that you need to make a living (I certainly wouldn't enjoy being homeless and lord knows I have enormous student loans to pay off somehow).
I was just venting (key word) -perhaps mistakenly - that several of my classmates are absolutely ruthless, selfish, unkind people that do not (in my humble opinion) belong in a field that is based on CARING for other people.
When a student is doing their Psych roation on a locked unit and calls to be buzzed in and then jokingly says "Let me into the zoo so I can see all the animals" (yes, one of my *lovely, caring* classmates ACTUALLY said this ) something IS. VERY. WRONG. What if it were your father, mother, husband, wife, sister, brother who was a BAD or schizophrenic patient in that unit and you heard the nurse call your loved one an animal?!?!?? I wouldn't too much appreciate it and I would CERTAINLY wonder why this nurse got into nursing in the first place.
(P.S. - This is just the TIP of the iceberg with this girl)....
I think the reason your post bugged be was because the entire first half of your post wasn't about uncaring people, it was much more broad and perhaps targeting some of us that decided when we were 18-19-35 or 50 that we wanted to be nurses. I can totally understand your need to vent though, I am from California and I am moving to Denver to go to nursing school because I am tired of waiting!
I agree they are nice NOW....For years they WERE a joke....and I for one am grateful, becuase as much as I do feel I was born to do this work, there is no way I would do it for a pitiful salary.
anxiously waiting, i just read your last comment on the issue, and it's so funny, the example you used about a student buzzing in and saying some smart remark like that, i hear all too much of that at my hospital on a daily basis. i hear nurses/therapists/dr's walk out of a demented patient's room saying rude snide remarks all the time, cracking jokes, and it's very upsetting. because like you said, and my dad drilled this into my head from day one when i decided to pursue nursing, 'what if it was your mom or dad or spouse (you get the idea) laying in that bed'.. would you want your nurse or anybody else taking care of you to be a total ahole, joke with their fellow co-workers about said person, whine and **** and moan for 12 hours about this and that? no. and each and everyday i try and remind myself of that, because if it was my family member laying there, i would want the best nurse to be taking care of them, and i would want to know that their heart is in it 150%, and that i don't have to be there 24/7 to make sure that they're 'faking' good care only because i'm there, as you said some classmates fake to the teachers. now with that being said, the perks that go along with the job of course are nice. the salaries are great, but damn, for the work all of you do, it's well deserved and hard earned (by the ones who work hard to earn it).
I'm just trying to point out that it's no more or less than any other career. It's not a calling or a vocation, that's for nuns and priests.
I respectfully disagree....
My brother was a near-drowning victim in our backyard pool at 3 years old. I was a baby and basically was raised to be his caretaker. I felt a calling to be a nurse, espcially after caring for my permanently physcially and mentally disabled brother. I know first hand what it means to CARE and I can care for my patients that much better having gone through a medical crisis firsthand (not that one needs a crisis to be a good nurse).
I **certainly** do not expect anyone to know fresh outta the womb that they are destined to be a [insert career title]. However, I seriously wonder how some of my classmates came to their decision.
Thank youlovehospital, for not making me feel like a complete dirtbag!! At least I know I am not alone in feeling this way about my classmates (and some RN's I work with now). Thank you!
i, personally, would rather die than be their patients - that's how greedy, selfish, money-hungry some of my lovely classmates are.
sunray12
637 Posts
Actually money, lifestyle and prestige are the first things on the minds of most aspiring doctors. As for teachers most are thinking about extra vacation time and state benefits - and teacher salaries these days are comparable to average nurse wages especially if you have a graduate degree.