I notice some students or others seem to think that because they've heard about a nursing shortage, that means that they will get a day position in their dream unit, and be welcomed with open arms as if they are the reserve troops come to save the day.
I don't think that's really the case. You still have to take the less desirable shifts, prove yourself, be accepted by your co-workers, and earn respect. Yes, there are toxic units, and those ones are probably more in need of extra help, so you might be more likely to get a job there.
If you are a newbie, you still have to 'pay your dues' in some way, that's usually the way life works in many arenas.
I am glad i am a graduate nurse with Eastern heath in Australia.
We are appreciated; treated with respect and highly supported by fellow nurses on the ward. We are not there to "pay our dues" we are there to learn and gain confidence and support each other even the very experianced nurses.
As a soon to graduate nurse, I have learned that good shifts are nights with week days off.
Having retired from Law Enforcement and having a wife who is an ICU nurse I knew from the start what to expect when I graduate from nursing school, but it find it amusing what some of the graduating nurses are now saying while looking for those "Good" jobs and high pay.
As a soon to graduate nurse, I have learned that good shifts are nights with week days off.
Having retired from Law Enforcement and having a wife who is an ICU nurse I knew from the start what to expect when I graduate from nursing school, but it find it amusing what some of the graduating nurses are now saying while looking for those "Good" jobs and high pay.
OT, but when I saw your screen name, I pictured a happy little owl skipping through a forrest. Cute.
I have posted to this tread previously and i've read the new post each day. I do have another comment to add at this point. I was a new grad and am still a new nurse. I would like the better hours, shifts, days. I understand about the newbies acting like brats about this even though its what they signed up for HOWEVER.....When I graduated I was told I had a day shift position by the interim nurse manager. Then 2/3 of the way through orientation was told I was going to nights by the new manager coming in. I was very upset but went to nights. After seven months on nights a day shift position became available. I was next in line so very relieved by this. WELL....they gave the position to a PRN person who had worked as an RN a total of 7 days in my 10 month time of employment there because she had previously worked there as an LPN prior to graduating RN school(which we graduated at the same time). The next time I was passed by for day shift was when I transfered to Post Partum knowing days were available more often on that unit. I was again up for the next day shift position because I had been at the hospital longer than anyone else on PP. That position was given to someone else because they had worked on PP longer than I had! That made three times that I wasnt given days. I was so angry I quit. So it's not always unreasonable expectations on the nurses part.
Specializes in ICU of all kinds, CVICU, Cath Lab, ER..
I just HAD to jump in and join in this thread.
First of all, I didn't perceive the original thread as a threat in any way shape or form.
I agree with the author. As an example: the facility I work in offered retirement (including adding years to assist in the process) and a large number of experienced nurses took the opportunity.
This left the ICU bare of experienced RN's on all shifts. Inexperienced nurses were placed in "charge" positions - fights which required mediation broke out.
Experienced nurses found it necessary to step out of their patient rooms a number of times to chase down another coworker for assistance with turning/bathing/toileting patients.
On more than one occasion, I have stepped out to ask the newbie if she could come hold my patient over while I cleaned the patient. I hated to interrupt her conversation on cell phone with boyfriend; her playing on computer, her dancing and prancing to her IPOD, her attempt at breaking the record for nurse's butt glued to chair.
O and by the way, when I suggested that it might be practical to give the newbies in the unit the third patient since they need the experience, I was told "it might make them mad and they might leave".......
Not all the newbies are like this; just as not all experienced nurse's are members of the team.
I think the attitude in this post is part of the problem with nursing today. I think it is most of the reason that we can't stand together and fight for what we need (like low ratios, etc.). Nurses are always worried about what the next person is or isn't doing. They are worried about new grads coming in and not kissing their feet. They are worried about who got what days off and who did what to whom. Seriously, it is frustrating and disheartening. New grads taking advantage of the shortage shouldn't be frowned upon. They happened to get out of nursing school at a time when they could make demands that would be agreed upon, or were smart enough to go into nursing knowing that they may be able to make these demands. To the nurses worried about "paying dues" I say, if you don't like where you work or the conditions you ae working in then go someplace else. Another facility would be more than happy to hire an expirienced nurse over a new grad. This mentality keeps the nursing profession down. People won't leave unsatisfactory jobs and then just blame everything on the new people coming in. If nurses as a whole would stand up for themselves, they could force the changes we need. Instead we worry about the new grad who got a good deal because they were willing to not take less. Until we stop back biting and worrying about what is fair and not fair, and actually stand together nursing is not going to change at all. The companies can keep us focused on fighting amongst ourselves instead of fighting them.
When I am at work..I give 100%. That said, do I think my job is my life? No. There is nothing wrong with "putting in 9 to 5, and going home" (I'm paraphrasing). More nurses need to do this. Your employer doesn't care about you as a person, doesn't care about your work/life/family balance. This is why YOU need to.
i didn't mean to imply that it was a bad attitude, what i was attempting to say was that there are students & some new nurses who believe that is the way things work, and have entered the practice with less than a "team" player attitude. I could bore you with tales of how long some have lasted and the havoc they have caused, to then walk away and go to another facility only to repeat the pattern. ( i became aware of a classmate who in the first four years after graduation, had been hire attended orientation and the quit only to move on to do the same again, for a total of six times) and from what the rumor mill said, becuse she could have monday to friday day shift right off the bat.
See I believe that Nursing is more than a 9-5 job, and eventually one should be able to have the sweet assignments, but to expect it right out of the gate.... that would be like graduating and expecting to be the CEO of EnRON, (oh wait didn't that happen? :chuckle )
Specializes in Birth center, LDRP, L&D, PP, nursing education.
With all of two years' time under my belt, certainly the "dues nurses paid years ago" doesn't apply to me, either. But I'm also not 22, and the work ethic I was raised with does not include whining that I didn't get everything I want, that someone else "cheated" me out of a position, that "they" should be paying me more because I'm....well....ME. It's the Entitlement Generation, and it's definitely not limited to nursing. So, the "whiny melodrama" is a matter of perspective.
Veterans aren't insisting you do a year or two of hard time, LOL, just that you shouldn't expect your first interview to result in getting GOBS more money than anyone else, no scheduling concessions, no impediment on your social life whatsoever. There's a tendency among the newbies (YOUNG newbies, btw, NOT second or third career nurses) to think that because they have arrived, their lives take priority and their wants take precedence. They don't.
I'm a new grad, and I work with several other new grads that constantly complain about how much they hate bedside nursing, are already tired of doing it, ad can't wait until somewhere else will hire them. They hate having to get experience, they hate the patient load, they thought they'd be making more money.
Those grumpy old veterans I hear of, are the ones who get off their grumpy old booty in the middle of the night to help me with a patient whose having severe respiratory distress, or with the bariatric bath. They are the ones who teach me tips and tricks when the other new grads are reading their email or doing "baths" during dancing with the stars. They tell me that this team ethic I have is refreshing.
I'm a new grad, and I certainly don't want this post to leave a bad taste in ANYONES mouth. But I am truly turned off by those new grads that are saying "grumpy old veterans" or the defensive notion that "you must be jealous". In fact, I have noticed several new grads in this defensive mode when gently corrected or asked to get off the computer and help.
But PP, please don't generalize new grads as being "entitled" or "lazy". I am in one of those newfangled RN to MSN nurses from one of those programs that lots of people complain about (you shouldn't have an MSN with noooooo experience). The point is, I started at the lowest part of the payscale, on nights, on medsurg, wiping plenty of booty. It's not the job I love, but I love the women I work with and the skills they teach me. I don't think I'm entitled to anything. Yes, I have 6 years of schooling behind me. But until June, I had never put in an NG tube, even done a suppository. I had never had a patient start going downhill at 3AM and not be sure which physician I should be calling.... I had never had a monitor read asystole to find them brushing their teeth, or assuming a fast Resp Rate was the pt moving... to find out I was wrong.
The experience I'm gaining now, and the tips I'm using from my veteran nurses are invaluable. So while y'all sit here and bicker about whose better or whose jealous, I'll be searching for one of those positive thread by those POSITIVE newbies or POSITIVE seasoned vets about nursing advice and how we can better come together. This isn't a war between our genneration and I"m a bit sick of reading about it.
I know I eventually want L&D, and ultimately to be a midwife. No seasoned nurse is "jealous" of that. They laugh and call me "lady parts queen". When one of them is pregnant, I get the weird questions. We each have our niche, with no room for this "jealousy" I hear of.
I didn't read the whole thread yet, but I guess I don't understand the "paying your dues" theory. If that just means working the less desirable shifts etc then in my (limited) experience, its sort of a non issue as there is a holiday/weekend rotation that everyone has to be on. We all work the same amount of holidays and weekends regardless of tenure. As far as days vs nights.... I don't see where one shift is more desirable than another. I love nights, and those that I work with on nights love it too and don't want to go to days. I wouldn't want to go back to days either.
If we are speaking of paying dues in the sense of getting experience before getting a desk job, well... I think thats just job preparation. How could a nurse possibly jump into an administrative/management role effectively with out having been at the bedside?
As for the old school adage that everyone must work a year of med/surg before specializing... I think that depends on the specialty. There have been plenty of successful new grads in ICU, ER, Peds, OB etc. If its something like Hospice, Home Care nursing, School nursing etc.... I think in those roles where one is basically by themselves more experience is needed since the nurse wouldn't have staff right there to ask questions or advice.
Just my 2 cents... and because I haven't read the whole thread we are probably all on a different topic and/or my statement is redundant.
I'm a new grad, and I work with several other new grads that constantly complain about how much they hate bedside nursing, are already tired of doing it, ad can't wait until somewhere else will hire them. They hate having to get experience, they hate the patient load, they thought they'd be making more money.
Those grumpy old veterans I hear of, are the ones who get off their grumpy old booty in the middle of the night to help me with a patient whose having severe respiratory distress, or with the bariatric bath. They are the ones who teach me tips and tricks when the other new grads are reading their email or doing "baths" during dancing with the stars. They tell me that this team ethic I have is refreshing.
I'm a new grad, and I certainly don't want this post to leave a bad taste in ANYONES mouth. But I am truly turned off by those new grads that are saying "grumpy old veterans" or the defensive notion that "you must be jealous". In fact, I have noticed several new grads in this defensive mode when gently corrected or asked to get off the computer and help.
But PP, please don't generalize new grads as being "entitled" or "lazy". I am in one of those newfangled RN to MSN nurses from one of those programs that lots of people complain about (you shouldn't have an MSN with noooooo experience). The point is, I started at the lowest part of the payscale, on nights, on medsurg, wiping plenty of booty. It's not the job I love, but I love the women I work with and the skills they teach me. I don't think I'm entitled to anything. Yes, I have 6 years of schooling behind me. But until June, I had never put in an NG tube, even done a suppository. I had never had a patient start going downhill at 3AM and not be sure which physician I should be calling.... I had never had a monitor read asystole to find them brushing their teeth, or assuming a fast Resp Rate was the pt moving... to find out I was wrong.
The experience I'm gaining now, and the tips I'm using from my veteran nurses are invaluable. So while y'all sit here and bicker about whose better or whose jealous, I'll be searching for one of those positive thread by those POSITIVE newbies or POSITIVE seasoned vets about nursing advice and how we can better come together. This isn't a war between our genneration and I"m a bit sick of reading about it.
I know I eventually want L&D, and ultimately to be a midwife. No seasoned nurse is "jealous" of that. They laugh and call me "lady parts queen". When one of them is pregnant, I get the weird questions. We each have our niche, with no room for this "jealousy" I hear of.
I think it's sweet that you have such a positive attitude and I think it's great that you haven't been exposed to any negativity on the job(I do find this hard to believe). But, be aware that at some point in your career, you will be exposed to someone who is jealous and/or bitter.
We can all sit here and hold hands and bury our heads in the sand and say that everything in the nursing world is hunky dory, but many of us know that is not true. I love being a nurse..but I'm also aware that there are things that need to be fixed, that there are still nurses eating their young, and there are still people not willing to fight for better conditions. I guess by many people's definition, I'd be considered negative or not dedicated, because I'm done with continually "taking one for the team" in the interest of "paying my dues". I would argue that this makes me more of an asset to nursing, because I'm not interested in kissing managerial butt to get ahead, I could care less if the ol' grumpys like me or not. I'm there to take care of patients to the best of my ability, and to learn things and (oh horrors!) make some decent money in the process.
:twocents:
Valerie Salva, BSN, RN
1,793 Posts
I've had enough of the all texting, no working nurses and techs. I wish someone would slap whoever invented texting!
So many people are misundertanding this thread and getting defensive.
If you are a hard working, ethical nurse, then this thread is not about you- no matter what your age of how long you've been a nurse.