IS the hard truth for most nurses definitely new grads is that poop cleaning and urine collection RN jobs are all that is open?
Pretty much bedside care, running around like a chicken with your head cutoff.
I don't think ICU solves the issue either.
Definitely thinking about different degree, since experience is the only way to open up other nursing positions, but I am not about to work bedside for 10 years. I would rather go back to school.
I have a couple of months of bedside experience so is there anything else I can do besides bedside care? If not I have no choice to move on.
There is no way I can pursue marriage a family by bringing home income this way. Just not going to happen.
Gotta love the redundant charting on 14 different forms on a computer with an iffy mouse and a screen that is six inches too high. Come to think of it, I'd rather clean up poop, too.
can't stand that mouse that accidentally clears the admission form. Bring on the poop!!!
Specializes in Cath/EP lab, CCU, Cardiac stepdown.
As a nurse you will be doing some cna work not only cna work so really to say if one cannot do cna for a year do not belong in nursing is quite the over reaching statement.
And quite frankly in my program few were cna prior, including me. We have graduated and passed nclex so it's pretty clear it's not necessary. Our program right from the start had us do total care and informed us on no uncertain terms that a rn is not above doing cna work.
The people who claim they didn't know nursing required them to do cna work or deal with poop are either delusional/in denial or didn't have the foresight to research the profession. How does one go through nursing school and not know.
Those who don't research their own career field before investing time and money deserve to lie in whatever proverbial bed they made. And if one can get through nursing school and still not realize they have to do total care, they're not gonna get it from being a cna either.
you can research what a job/profession entails, and genuinely think (and/or convince yourself) you can handle it, and it's only after you actually start working for real and have a breakdown when you realize you can't handle it anymore.
yes, I knew working nights/weekends/holidays was a requirement. I knew wiping feces and gagging on the stench of urine was a requirement. I knew being on my feet for a whole shift without a chance to sit down was a requirement. I knew being disrespected on a regular basis and not being allowed to really do anything about it or stand up for myself was a requirement. I knew smiling like a freaking cheshire cat and being all like "customer service! i have the time, teehee!" was a requirement. And I knew what kind of salary I could expect to make, and I thought it was adequate.
I knew what was expected of a floor nurse. I thought I could deal with it. I desperately wanted to convince myself I could deal with all of these things, mostly because I wanted what I thought was "great money", and I wanted my parents' approval (which is like wanting a pet unicorn). I could successfully tell myself i could handle this and it's fine; it wasn't until I had been working for a year that i had to admit I can't handle it. And the salary hasn't changed, but with experience (the kind that only comes from actually graduating nursing school and working as a nurse) I now don't think it's anywhere near enough for what I have to do.
can we get off the bandwagon of mocking people who make life decisions and then find out through firsthand experience their choice isn't what they thought it would be? Job shadowing, volunteering, CNA work, even clinicals can give you some idea of what working as a nurse is like, but the only way to actually know what it's like to work as a nurse and whether or not you can really handle it, is to work as a nurse. Sometimes people know what's required, and yet underestimate how much various aspects of this job suck.
I'm particularly disgusted by this attitude on a forum where a lot of people are second-career RNs and/or started out in something else and then decided to change paths and go to nursing school. Do you think you deserve to be mocked because you chose your first career and then realized you didn't want to do it anymore for whatever reason? No? Then stop degrading people who realize nursing school was a mistake.
Specializes in Cath/EP lab, CCU, Cardiac stepdown.
you can research what a job/profession entails, and genuinely think (and/or convince yourself) you can handle it, and it's only after you actually start working for real and have a breakdown when you realize you can't handle it anymore.
yes, I knew working nights/weekends/holidays was a requirement. I knew wiping feces and gagging on the stench of urine was a requirement. I knew being on my feet for a whole shift without a chance to sit down was a requirement. I knew being disrespected on a regular basis and not being allowed to really do anything about it or stand up for myself was a requirement. I knew smiling like a freaking cheshire cat and being all like "customer service! i have the time, teehee!" was a requirement. And I knew what kind of salary I could expect to make, and I thought it was adequate.
I knew what was expected of a floor nurse. I thought I could deal with it. I desperately wanted to convince myself I could deal with all of these things, mostly because I wanted what I thought was "great money", and I wanted my parents' approval (which is like wanting a pet unicorn). I could successfully tell myself i could handle this and it's fine; it wasn't until I had been working for a year that i had to admit I can't handle it. And the salary hasn't changed, but with experience (the kind that only comes from actually graduating nursing school and working as a nurse) I now don't think it's anywhere near enough for what I have to do.
can we get off the bandwagon of mocking people who make life decisions and then find out through firsthand experience their choice isn't what they thought it would be? Job shadowing, volunteering, CNA work, even clinicals can give you some idea of what working as a nurse is like, but the only way to actually know what it's like to work as a nurse and whether or not you can really handle it, is to work as a nurse. Sometimes people know what's required, and yet underestimate how much various aspects of this job suck.
I'm particularly disgusted by this attitude on a forum where a lot of people are second-career RNs and/or started out in something else and then decided to change paths and go to nursing school. Do you think you deserve to be mocked because you chose your first career and then realized you didn't want to do it anymore for whatever reason? No? Then stop degrading people who realize nursing school was a mistake.
I don't understand why you're offended or find what I said degrading or disgusting. My post was directed at ppl who say they didn't know they had to do this or that because a simple research will show the job description. You said you researched so clearly I wasn't talking about you. Frankly I have no idea how you you're getting mockery on second career choices from my post.
And fyi I am a second career rn, I was doing accounting at first but then decided it wasn't for me. I do not expect sympathy from others (although it can feel good to have) and I fully understand that the time and money I wasted was no fault of anyone but my own, but I an proud of that. It is called accountability, be accountable for your own choices and decisions.
If you researched and you tried it and you didn't like it, there is no shame. Good for you, you're one step closer to knowing what you want to do. But if you're going to complain about not knowing nursing has cna aspects, then clearly you didn't do your due diligence and deserve no sympathy and thus you should be accountable for your negligence.
Specializes in Pediatrics, High-Risk L&D, Antepartum, L.
Wow your attitude really kind of stinks!
Yes, you start at the bottom and work your way up. That's how it is. That's how it is for a lot of professions. You don't always need 10 years experience to move up...but you need to work and educate yourself to move up.
But if you're going to complain about not knowing nursing has cna aspects, then clearly you didn't do your due diligence and deserve no sympathy and thus you should be accountable for your negligence.
a) keep your "sympathy", AND your judgment of others who you know very little if anything about. you have no idea what the OP did or did not do that led him/her to make a good faith decision to go to nursing school. b) the only person anyone ever needs to be accountable to regarding his/her life decisions is him/herself.
Specializes in Cath/EP lab, CCU, Cardiac stepdown.
a) keep your "sympathy", AND your judgment of others who you know very little if anything about. you have no idea what the OP did or did not do that led him/her to make a good faith decision to go to nursing school. b) the only person anyone ever needs to be accountable to regarding his/her life decisions is him/herself.
Ooh gee me and my sympathy are such bad people. Sorry, didn't realize you could make snap judgments and label my post as mockery and disgusting but I can't. But since you know me so well, it's alright for you to do right?
You call my attitude mocking and disgusting and say I don't know what they've been through and how hard it is. But when I'm sympathetic to their plight you find issue with that. Just can't win with you can I?
Also, you find issue with my statement that they should lie in the bed they made, but then you go and say that they should only be accountable for themselves. What do you think that saying means? It means be accountable for your own actions so no idea why you found it degrading but then you go and repeat my point.
What's next? You call me a bully just because I don't agree with you? Well guess what, this is a public forum that op posted on and I posted my thoughts on the general issue but strangely you took it as a personal attack.
..... Then stop degrading people who realize nursing school was a mistake.
I'm with you on your comments that people never really do know what it's like to do a job until they actually DO the job. Agreement. But then you went in a direction that I think tells me why you don't understand the overwhelming reaction to the OP's statement.
The OP came to a forum that is dedicated to nurses, students, all things nursing. The forum is dedicated to those who work in the profession and therefore can reasonably be assumed to be (for the most part) protective of it. Barring the exceptions, MOST people who work as nurses are relatively happy being nurses, or they wouldn't do it.
That said, the OP's rant (that's what I'll call that first post in the thread, it's how I see it) was about how nurses are 'nothing' but people who shovel poop and scoop up urine, that since there is 'nothing' more to this job, it's 'nothing' of a profession at all. Surely you can see how this raises the hackles of people for whom nursing is anything BUT that description? That they might just take offense to being told they are 'nothing but medical (menial?) laborers' in a manner that clearly speaks with derision of such labor?
As I've said before on another thread, I'm pretty confident if I went to a forum dedicated to teachers and the profession of teaching, and announced how awful teaching was, how it was nothing but scribbling on a blackboard and handing out bathroom passes, and how I had no idea throughout school that I would be doing nothing at all but proctoring tests.....might I not expect to get crucified? And how I'd likely deserve the response, as I'd have made stupid, sweeping, downright ignorant statements I should have known better than to make?
How is this OP any different from my hypothetical description, and therefore deserving of responses in agreement with said rant?
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
you can research what a job/profession entails, and genuinely think (and/or convince yourself) you can handle it, and it's only after you actually start working for real and have a breakdown when you realize you can't handle it anymore.
yes, I knew working nights/weekends/holidays was a requirement. I knew wiping feces and gagging on the stench of urine was a requirement. I knew being on my feet for a whole shift without a chance to sit down was a requirement. I knew being disrespected on a regular basis and not being allowed to really do anything about it or stand up for myself was a requirement. I knew smiling like a freaking cheshire cat and being all like "customer service! i have the time, teehee!" was a requirement. And I knew what kind of salary I could expect to make, and I thought it was adequate.
I knew what was expected of a floor nurse. I thought I could deal with it. I desperately wanted to convince myself I could deal with all of these things, mostly because I wanted what I thought was "great money", and I wanted my parents' approval (which is like wanting a pet unicorn). I could successfully tell myself i could handle this and it's fine; it wasn't until I had been working for a year that i had to admit I can't handle it. And the salary hasn't changed, but with experience (the kind that only comes from actually graduating nursing school and working as a nurse) I now don't think it's anywhere near enough for what I have to do.
can we get off the bandwagon of mocking people who make life decisions and then find out through firsthand experience their choice isn't what they thought it would be? Job shadowing, volunteering, CNA work, even clinicals can give you some idea of what working as a nurse is like, but the only way to actually know what it's like to work as a nurse and whether or not you can really handle it, is to work as a nurse. Sometimes people know what's required, and yet underestimate how much various aspects of this job suck.
I'm particularly disgusted by this attitude on a forum where a lot of people are second-career RNs and/or started out in something else and then decided to change paths and go to nursing school. Do you think you deserve to be mocked because you chose your first career and then realized you didn't want to do it anymore for whatever reason? No? Then stop degrading people who realize nursing school was a mistake.
Plenty of people who start out in something else and then go on to make second career choices manage to do so without going on the internet and denigrating their former profession while managing to trumpet that they've been doing it wrong all along by not engaging their brain . . . and then expect sympathy for their plight. Or support, or whatever it is that happens on the student forums.
I can totally agree that a person can work as a CNA, volunteer, go through nursing school, and still be surprised that nursing isn't what they thought it would be. In fact, I would say that no one knows what being a nurse is like until they have been one.
But being shocked that being a nurse sometimes entails intimate, direct care is ridiculous. "What did you think nursing is?" is the only rational response.
You are going to have to pay your dues. There are plenty of jobs out there that aren't bedside, but, I hope that you for one have at least a BSN. I understand wanting to get away from the bedside, but if you're interested in other areas such as administration, informatics, education, clinical documentation, don't you think its best to spend time at the bedside? In these non bedside roles, you'r be making decisions that impact the work flow of floor nurses as well as the care of patients. The best way to make these decisions is to have had experience in them first. The problem now, is that there are people in decision making roles at these hosptials that don't know what floor nurses go through. Allowing 1:10 ratios, packing on more and more work, expecting ridiculous stuff and the reason why, is that they have no clue what's going on. Be patient young grasshopper, you'll get there.
NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN
1,599 Posts