The worst job you had before becoming a Nurse?

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What was the worst job you had before becoming a Nurse? How has Nursing changed your life?

Specializes in NICU, Trauma, Oncology.

Hazardous waste collections

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Specializes in Dialysis.

Waitress in a gentlemen's club. Cannot stand to be grabbed on. But the tips were excellent...

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After high school I worked for an artistic fruit designs shop. Worst. Idea. Ever. Customers on the phone would fly into a rage because there was 2 silver balloons instead of 3. Seriously world, I have close friends who have survived cancer and never had a cross word to their caregivers! That and 1 out of the five employees besides myself had any concept of work ethic. Made me so mad I quit after 2-3 months and got a job as unit clerk going on CNA, never looked back.

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I began nursing when I was 26. After 18 years of feeling burned out I briefly left nursing. The WORST job(S) I had after this were at a bib box pet store. I did not mind bagging the crickets every morning for someone to buy as lunch for their reptile, but I could not handle the rude people in the check out ! Never did "master" the cash register. THEN I took a job at UPS and sprained my ankle on the FIRST day getting off the UPS van with parcels on an icy day! Anyway, I eventually returned to nursing because it is my calling. What an experience!

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none.

Nursing has have its ups and downs.

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Assembly line at a bread factory on night shift. Lasted there maybe a week. You stood in one spot all night as metal trays came down and you had to quickly shape bread dough into whatever pattern was on the metal mold. And those trays just kept coming. I would get nauseated with the quick and continual repetition. But there was no sitting down or taking a break cause you felt sick. And the only other woman at the plant hated my guts and would express out loud what she thought about me every night.

I had quite a few retail jobs and they were all horrible. Customers treated you like you were a second class citizen, the holidays were the worst...people were so nasty and rude. I was yelled at and belittled on a regular basis, just because. I had people throw things at me, threaten me with spitting on me or otherwise causing bodily harm, and threaten to sue me. I never got death threats, though I did have to be escorted to my car after work more than once. One time because a woman got mad at me over something trivial after she returned a product and then stood outside the window next to my registered and stared at me. A manager had to go out and ask her to leave and she said it was within her rights to stand on public property and intimidate me. She wouldn't leave until the manager threatened to call the police in which she replied that she would be back.

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Specializes in hospice.

I became so depressed that I couldn't summon the energy to even brush my teeth. It was weird but I went for weeks without brushing my teeth - despite how nasty it was... I just... couldn't find the motivation. Very weird.

How has nursing changed my life? It provides great wages and benefits with a clearly defined work schedule and duties which I find not particularly taxing. I excel at my nursing role and receive accolades from my patients and my bosses. I am routinely validated by my colleagues in the various clinical roles.

Oh, so been there.

Having a corporate job does not mean you will be immune from professional misery. I was the CFO of a television production company. NOT glamorous. Media= an industry full of miserable people whose sole goal in life is to see how miserable they can make you, and how much money they can screw you out of. I, too, was depressed, and struggled to get out of bed. Showering and brushing my teeth was my "self care." Then, I woke up one morning, said, "I effing quit!" And then thought, oh, crap. What will I do now?

I went to the local Community College and took an A&P class, thinking I might study PT. I met a lot of people who were LPNs, CNAs, mid-life career changers all going into something medical; nursing, radiology, PT, etc. I thought, "if I was a nurse, I could get a job anywhere in the universe!" Being a nurse was the LAST thing I would EVER have imagined myself doing. So I did some tire-kicking. I took a CNA class at the local Red Cross.

The first day of clinicals, at a not so nice nursing home, I walked in and THE smell hit me. I wanted to spin on my heel and wave, "bye bye!" All day my mantra was, "Please, God. Help me to not run away from this." At the end of the shift I wanted to shower in Clorox and burn my scrubs. I went back the next day, and felt the same way at the end of the shift. But, something magical had happened. I had connected with those people. I realized that a little bit of kindness went a very long way, and I was hooked. Caring for patients gave me such satisfaction and sense of worth. I worked as a CNA for $8/hour through LPN school. It was humbling, enlightening, and rewarding beyond measure. I have since become RN, BSN, and travel nurse.

Best. Decision. Ever.

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Just a student but my worst was Dollar General. NEVER wish that job on my worst enemy. I swore after Wal-Mart I would not work retail again but left my old job and needed something til I found better. I quit after 3 weeks @_@

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Some sort of pyramid scheme selling of beauty products (not Avon but something like that) - I was 15 and didn't know any better.

Washing dishes in a restaurant - my hands were all burned from handling the dishes from the dishwashing machine and skin messed up from being in the water a lot (even with gloves).

Nurses aid at night in a senior home : 80 patients, no nurse !!, two nurses aids. Half of the patients were senile, several were combative, most were incontinent. Horrible, horrible, both for the patients and us !

Nursing helped by bringing me financial security and independance. And my hospital is paying for my education in anesthesia after 7 years with them :)

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Specializes in General.

Mine? before entering nursing college. Uh, two full years at cleaning service agency. Cleaning toilets, stores, dumping garbage from mall every other day. :yuck:

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Specializes in Psych.

I worked for the county animal shelter. When people were bitten by mammals without a known vaccination history or wild mammals, I had to euthanize them, remove their heads, and prepare the head for transportation and examination by the Health Dept, since rabies virus is carried in nervous tissue. That was the law, not a choice. Yea- I really needed a job. That wasn't my only duty, though. The upside was being involved in rescuing animals.

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Probably the very worst job I had before I became a nurse and I have had some crappy jobs was being a Dog Warden in Oregon. That's fancy talk for dog catcher. The catching wasn't so bad and I got to carry a gun as I was a sworn peace officer, but when we had to kill dogs -sometimes 10 or 15 a day (by lethal injection) it was the pits.

Hppy

After reading this, and now I see the post just above this one, I cannot possibly list my worst job.

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