The positive side of nursing...PLEASE!!!

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Specializes in PICU/NICU/ER.

Hi everybody. This is my first day on this site and I've read a lot of interesting threads. I'm sad to say that I am SO discouraged right now! I've worked in a healthcare setting for 11 years and I know a lot of nurses. I know that nursing is a grueling job and that there are a lot of negative things about it, especially with the healthcare industry being affected so negatively by the economy. I've always wanted to be a nurse. Two children, one divorce and one remarriage later...I've been accepted into an ADN program, due to start this Fall. It took me over TEN years to get all of my prerequisite and supportive classes done and I'm finally in with a 3.6 GPA. I'm old enough to not have that wide-eyed, naive outlook on nursing, but would LOVE to hear some of the positive aspects of nursing from some of the RN's on this side. I implore you to share some of the "up" sides of your jobs...please! :lol2:

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Job flexibility. A lot of us are able to choose the days and the hours we work.

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Specializes in PICU/NICU/ER.
:D Thanks!
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Specializes in Oncolgy, Neuro, Med/Surg.

A couple of weeks ago I was going off shift after a very long 12hrs, while walking down the hall one of my 5 Pt's saw me with my bag and asked if I would be back the next day. When I said I was off for the next few days she promptly grabbed me and gave me a hug while telling me how great I was to her and how I had made a very scary day much easier to deal with. Days like that don't happen very often, but when they do..... it's all worth it

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Specializes in PICU/NICU/ER.

Thank you for sharing your story :o

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I had a patient that was extremely sick the night I cared for her, I spent 8 hours of my 12 hour shift on my med/surg floor with her when I had 4 other patients. It was a bad night for me, fathers day 2 months after my dad died of lung cancer, and they had given me 3 end-stage cancer patients (we RARELY get any cancer patients on the floor). Neither the doctor nor I could figure out what was wrong with her. I felt that I was going to lose her throughout the night, but she pulled through and actually seemed better by the time I left in the morning. I worried about her til I got back and was told she had gotten better and was going to be going home. A few weeks ago she returned, her disease was progressing and causing additional complications, when I knew she was back I volunteered to help with her repositioning, etc. As soon as I walked in her room her face lit up. The next night she asked for me as her nurse, it may not seem like much but when a person that sick remembers you I almost cried it meant so much to me. :redbeathe

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Well, on the plus side, you get paid. If you get hired.

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Well, the pay has gotten better over the years.

I picked nursing for purely pragmatic reason. Guarenteed job upon graducation (no longer applicable), flexible hours (no longer as applicable with the trend towards 12 hour shifts) and the ability to take off a few years then jump right back in. I wanted a job where I could work around my husband's hours so my kids wouldn't be in daycare. Well, life didn't work out the way I planned. If I had to do it over again I would have been a teacher.

It's just that bedside is a hard, hard job. That's why you hear so many people venting about it. But I think that a big part of that is that our profession tends to attract idealistic, save the world types. And it's a bitter pill to swallow when we find it is, really, just a job. And not a very satisfying job a lot of the time.

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Specializes in PICU/NICU/ER.

Thank you for the positive replies :o

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, Hospice.

Getting a pts pain under control and they thank you.

Having a pt or family member hug you and thank you for taking care of the pt.

The satisfaction of knowing I'm doing the best I can for each and every pt (even the mean ones!)

Somewhat flexable schedule

Opportunities to continue my education

Continuous opportunities for learning new and better ways of handling situations

The joy I feel when a pt and family are comfortable knowing death in close and they are no longer scared (teaching)

Teaching pts and family members about their disease process and pain mgmt.

The money.

Hope this short list gets you started.

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This is a great thread. Something positive, and that is hard to find nowadays!! Thanks, OP, for starting this thread. Keep the positive stories coming. :up::nurse::)

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Sarah, I'm new to this board and just beginning to get my prerequisites and planning to take the PN 2 year diploma in Ontario, Canada. I'm likely the same age as you and this is my second career plan. I have to admit, I am disheartened and a bit frightened reading these threads. So it's good to hear positive things. I hope more people will step forward with some positive stories.

I'm contrasting the negative vents to my own experience - 10 years as a legal secretary. And entirely different field but I've seen just as much bitterness, frustration and depression in that field. I left my last legal job loathing the position and my health barely intact. Yes, the field is not set in a hospital and we're not dealing with life and death (although one would have thought it, judging by lawyers' stress levels) ... but that field is filled with a lot of unhappy people.

I wonder if many jobs are in general, just tough to do?

Nursing and medicine is in my blood - most of the family are nurses and docs. I've worked in hospitals in the past and studied occupational therapy as well. I admit though - these war stories are scaring me. :uhoh3:

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