Student nurse dismayed by bedside nursing attitude

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Hello all, I am a student nurse currently in my first year. Before this I was a paramedic for a about a year and then decided to go the nursing route and get my feet wet by working as a CNA. I am the type of person who likes to research all aspects of what my next adventure will be. So as I am researching different aspects of nursing, I was a bit floored by the amount of people that hated bedside nursing, in particular on the Med/Surge floor. I get that the work load is high and that can bring stress as well as all the intricate details about day to day nursing, but is that any reason to hate bedside nursing? I thought that is what the nursing profession was all about. Getting right in there, getting your hands dirty and providing the best patient care possible. What exactly are some students thinking nursing entails when they get into school?!

Specializes in PCCN.
I believe it is doable, largely because of our increased level of responsibility and the advent of social media. Social media creates the possibility of uniting, without unionizing, and mounting a credible threat. I'm still hammering out the details and open to any ideas. Reading through this thread should serve as a blatant reminder that the profession's anger is growing against a healthcare system that burns everyone--patients and providers alike--except the 1% raking in the money at the top.

and as long as we have an abundance of nursing schools spitting out RNS 2x a year , there will be no power. To the shirts ,a warm body is a warm body. No shortage. So if you( or I ) dont like things, we can make sure the door doesnt hit us where the Good Lord split us....

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Being a student is very different from being an actual nurse. You have no idea.

She knows she has no idea. That's why she's asking. To get the opinion of bedside nurses before venturing into it. We need to be more open to queries from students.

To OP, while I admittedly have not worked Med-Surg, I have worked bedside in a rehab center, the next step that many Med-Surg patients take. Many times they just had surgery within that very week when coming to us. For me personally, I absolutely love the work. But it's the nurse/CNA to patient ratio. I cannot provide the quality care my patients need, because I have too many patients. Meanwhile management is breathing down your neck, chasing you down the hall when you are trying to work, to tell you something you missed, ex..things like documentation.

Ex of the unmanageable work load: it was common to not get to everyone's blood glucose checks. TOO MANY PATIENTS. I had a patient not too long ago who came to us after having DKA, still recovering. Her BG was often in the 500's. But a couple times, I couldn't get to her. So dangerous. She was at high risk of going into DKA again, (she had already been in our facility 3 times from DKA) but my other patients had serious issues too that I had to attend to.

That being said, there is nothing wrong with not wanting to work bedside, and it doesn't mean they don't care about the patients, or that they think they are above that kind of work. It simply isn't for them. Its not their niche. We need to get away from this idea that when one thinks about a nurse, one automatically thinks hospital, bedside. There are so very many avenues of nursing. I recently switched to Pediatric Private Duty. I love it. For now, this is my niche, and that's ok.

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Specializes in Transitional Nursing.

What I don't like about it is the demanding family members who think I got my license from a Cracker Jack box. I also don't like when the patients won't help themselves because they don't have to, it hinders them yet customer service is what it's about now a days.

I work skilled nursing and what I really don't like is having 30 patients on second shift. I simply can't pass all their meds, assess, manage chronic conditions and catch acute issues in all 30 of them.

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Specializes in ER.
and as long as we have an abundance of nursing schools spitting out RNS 2x a year , there will be no power. To the shirts ,a warm body is a warm body. No shortage. So if you( or I ) dont like things, we can make sure the door doesnt hit us where the Good Lord split us....

The stakes are higher than us "not liking things." Ironically, the plethora of mandated garbage that gets in the way of essential patient care is a major cause of the unsafe conditions repeatedly referred to in this thread. Nurses continue to affirm that we like caring for patients and resent the overload of distractions and conditions that cripple our ability to do it well.

You are right that the shirts are tightening the power grip, and the schools churning out new nurses are ensuring that the new core starts off deeply in debt, further reducing any power to protest. The power we have right now is grossly underestimated--IF we are motivated enough to use it. Maybe we will just whine in the break room, and, like a battered wife, hang in there hoping the abuser will stop.

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Specializes in Emergency.
You've got the scent...now google HCAHPS and Studer Group and Magnet requirements and...and...and...

Oh jeeze, I didn't know the Studer Group. That is pure effing evil. Anything that puts down "time management" as a teachable goal in the floor nursing world is completely idiotic. I work rehab/SNF and as is common I fell behind in my tasks for the day last shift. Should I have better managed my time? Okay, if I skipped lunch time CBGs and insulins I could have better tended to the chronic wounds, but then that family of a resident showed up unexpected and had a ton of questions, and then another resident had pulled all of her bandaging off a surgical wound that needs to be kept sterile...and that was my day. By 4 hours into the shift I was two hours behind. I guess I'm a crappy time manager.

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OK, here is the wonderful thing about nursing....there are multitudes of different areas/specialties. True, nothing is for everyone and there are some nurses, including myself, for whom Med-Surg holds little interest. My area of specialty for over 30 years has been surgery. Of course, there are those who hate surgery as well. And it may take several tries before you determine the area that best suits you. Remember, there are some haters for every working field known to man. If you have a passion for nursing, bless you and stay on that path. Nursing has bad days, days from hell, good days and great days. But guess what? The same can be said for everything!!!

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Specializes in Critical Care, ER, Cath lab.

I was a medic for 4 years before nursing school. The bedside isn't bad. Med-surg sucks. It's boring, monotonous, patients and families whine all the time, etc. I much prefer my ICU. It's far more interesting. I've actually found nursing to be far less stressful than EMS.

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"and as long as we have an abundance of nursing schools spitting out RNS 2x a year , there will be no power. To the shirts ,a warm body is a warm body. No shortage. So if you( or I ) dont like things, we can make sure the door doesnt hit us where the Good Lord split us..."

Which is exactly what the shirts want. That way they can hire a bunch of FNG's for a fraction of what they pay us old heads.

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Med/Surg is the most rewarding Nsg..... (if you went into Nsg with pt care in mind) ..... and the most stressful.... and I love it!

It's a rat race every day.

You put one foot in front of the other and do your best to make your pts comfortable and cared for as possible.

It is what it is!

Money, money, money is the bottom line...then comes the constant mandatory meetings, not to praise... but to criticize and elaborate on your sins ...but not to admit they always short-staff you...and that's why the utility room was a disaster at 10:30 AM..... priorities....pts vs trivia.....!!!!

Then there are the many primadonna doctors who need a "handmaiden" and want what they want, yesterday, are too important to pull their own charts, take down dsgs you just changed and leave it open etc etc and run to complain to Admin. if their egos are threatened...because they had to wait...because you were busy with a pt's infiltrated IV, pain med. etc.

Oh dear, another meeting to explain why.... he/she was an a$$.

Then there is all the paper work/charting that consumes a good part of your day....

Admin weighs your worth by the paperwork produced, not patient care...fact!

The Employee of the Month prime parking space goes to the most efficient paper pushers....not the nurses giving excellent patient care.

Then there is the 'critical shadow' taking critical notes, wasting your time asking inapproriate questions in front of pts, but never lifting a finger. Take notes, ask your questions later....my mind is focused on what I am doing and processing what comes next.

BTW. You learn by doing..never by watching! Do something! I am giving you the time that I really don't have... that I need for my patients.

I prefer Med/Surg despite all its many, many drawbacks, because that's what I want to do...and where I feel most useful.

A pts grateful smile and thank you, for making them comfortable..is my only reward.

It's not for everyone!

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Specializes in New Grad 2020.

Student nurse and an ex med surg CNA here.

I was very blessed to work with awesome people. So my expirence may vary with others but I think some of the issues are were you end up working.

I worked at a hospital in the middle of a city that has extreme poor and rich. I say this because we would get educated, well off people and then drug seekers off the streets.

Typically the more well to do we're

There because they had to (because cancer, or accident ect) were great had some manners etc. the drug seekers they typically were aweful. They would be medical overflow or would be so backed up from the opioids keeping them from pooping they would need surgery.

Typically the expirences with them were worse because of hygiene issues, mental health and one lady had surgery but she had such a tolerance for pain killers the PCA really didn't do much. (She was fun for a week)

I'm rambling nutshell is it will end up with what kind of people you serve that's my take.

I think you are doing good being a CNA first. I don't like the idea of people going into it without have some exp under their belts. Learning you faint at the sight of poo poo should not be discovered on your first day of work. :)

Thats my limited take take on it. I obviously was not involed with meds (other than watching for fun) or politics of keeping a magnet hospital a magnet hospital but it was fun and a learning exp. it will keep you busy

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This is some fantastic stuff guys! Thank you for being brutally honest. This is why I started the thread, because I knew I was missing the background information that all you professionals deal with on a daily basis. This is the first time I have ever been given the details.

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I hear that! Been a nurse 33 years, nearly all in critical care, and my brother was shocked at my 'top end pay'. He's an IT security department head and pays new grad hires, with no "real world experience, significantly more than I do at my topped out pay. You don't get into nursing to get rich, that's for sure.

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