The worst job you had before becoming a Nurse?

Nurses General Nursing

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

OMG!! Roy Rogers was my first job. We had a lunatic manager who would ring that dang bell every time somebody ordered a Double R Bar Burger. Good times! lol

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My worst job should have been my easiest job. It was data entry. We were taking actual cards from library card catalogs and transferring them to computers. The job itself was fine, but my supervisor was CRAZY. She was absolutely nuts and treated her team like abused stepchildren. I actually witnessed her throwing two handfuls of cards at a team member while calling them "retarded" and then demanding they pick up that mess and put the cards back in order.

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No tell motel maid.

Oh wow. The horrible stories you could tell, I'm sure.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatrics, Wound Care.

Door-to-door "sales" for a company that did stuff like windows and siding. (Not sure how many sales I actually got, and wow, was I terrible).

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WoW !! No way would I even allow one of my children to work an overnight shift at a 7-11 near Gary, Indiana.. !! The off duty cop/owner should have spent the night in the back room. You're very lucky to be alive. God bless you, and I'm proud of your accomplishments.

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WoW, I would've hated being the nurse you dumped on, berryhappyrn.

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Telemarketer selling handmade greeting cards made by the handicapped. It was a sucky job and right after I quit they were closed down for fraud. Turns out the perfectly healthy owners were making those crap cards.

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Junior year of high school. I was hired to help clean out horse stalls. It was a one day job for 4 guys and was set up by one of our high school teachers. The "stall" was actually a barn 40'x70'. It hadn't been cleaned in years. The manure had hardened into into something slightly softer than concrete. Our job was to break up the manure, which was over a foot deep, with a pick axe. Then shovel it into a wheel barrow, dump it about 40 feet away, and spread it out because that's where a rose garden was to be planted. This was in August, in South Texas, the temperature was well over 100 degrees. It took the 4 of us a little over 12 hours to finish. Our "boss" never offerred us a drink, never told us to take a break. He did point out everything he thought we were doing wrong. We were each paid $70 for the day.

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1st: summer job as a food service worker at a total dive nursing home. 2nd: Deli worker at a grocery store (especially on a Sunday). After 2 weeks of work my paycheck was $50! No thanks!

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I don't know if they were terrible jobs.

I mean started work as a Janitor for a week

Then worked at an amusement park running the games, paddle boats, and rock climbing wall.

Then Dunkin Donuts.

Then a produce clerk where I had to make Orange Juice. The acidity would crack your hands and one time I wired was exposed that was a jolt ha.

Then worked as a wine store salesperson got to drink wine that was cool.

Then three years volunteering as an EMR.

Then a year working as an Anesthesia Technician. That was cool saw some crazy things love watching the heart beat. Also set up some crazy equipment like a 12 bag IV pump, Y Pumps, Triple A pumps, fluid warmers, and IVs. Omg the IVs. It was daunting literally I have to spend weeks on mastering prepping 50 IVs in 2 minutes ha! Set up Bronchoscopes and Echocardiogram scopes. Then stocking pharmacology was a pain especially cardiac medication. Fun job I am always tempted to take a pay cut and do it again.

From there worked on a mixed inpatient psych unit. Love working with adolescents.

From there went to work at a residential for young adult males getting a second chance with the law. Never had to bring food always in the morning food was there ha!

From there worked as a Sterile Processing Tech. Now that was a rough job. Chemicals burned my hands. You walked out drenched in sweat or liquids. You have bone mass on you and body tissue it was intense.

From there and currently now working as a Tech am an adult dual diagnosis inpatient psych unit. It's only part time so looking at other jobs can work on the side. Debating getting my CNA or EMT cert to pick up some side cash.

Hopefully by 2020 will be a nurse maybe sooner keeping fingers crossed.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

Burger King when I was 15! Montgomery Wards @ 18 comes a close second.

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My worst pre-nursing job really wasn't that bad all things considered. I worked credit card customer service. Sit in a comfy chair at an office all day and talk to people. Sure, some were trying...but you really only dealt with people for 2-5 minutes at a time, and then moved on. Some of the stories are far too entertaining to be real but they are. I learned a lot about credit, the finance world, etc while working there. It wasn't a bad way to make a "good enough" wage as a high school and college student (I made more than minimum wage but less than I made as a nursing assistant during the second half of nursing school). The pitfalls were the erratic schedules - 7a-2p one day, 1p-10p the next and 7a-3p following - stuff like that. Worked every other weekend, and they were incredibly flexible around my school schedule (even in college). They kept offering me full time offers with benefits (to go into management) - and while those wouldn't have been bad, I wouldn't have had the same opportunities I have had because of nursing. I probably wouldn't have left where I grew up. Could go either way really because I wouldn't have had the student loans I had from nursing school (they offered to give me more education benefits under a special program to retain talent - and I could have done it but would have had to switch to business, HR, something like that for my focus).

I grew up living in a middle class neighborhood, but my parents lived beyond their means to allow my brother and I the best options possible. I had amazing friends, and my parents really did do almost everything they could for us. We went to some of the best (public) schools in our state, and I had plenty of amazing opportunities in high school.

My nursing job, nearly 5 years after graduation, has allowed me to make as much as (or more as it is now) than my dad makes after 40 years in a specific type of job. I work in a highly paid specialty, and have sought growth and development opportunities for myself. I have a much greater financial stability as a nurse (particularly in my current role) than I would have ever had in the management world of a call center. The things I have learned beyond school are amazing. My coworkers are amazing. The things they've taught me, the things I know now, the things I've accomplished - I never dreamed my career would look like this already. I can easily find employment in other places if I need to based on my skill set - I didn't have this option working in the call center. I've literally been taken from where I lived before and moved 500 miles away into an adventure I couldn't imagine as a student.

I miss seeing my friends from childhood and college. But I have friends I never imagined possible - people I wouldn't know who are amazing people - without things having happened just the way they did. I keep in touch with most of the people I was close to anyways - technology is great. I go through periods of time where I really feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be right now. No it wasn't easy and I dealt with some not fun stuff in my first and second nursing jobs, but most days, in most situations, my third job has been awesome.

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