Think Twice Before Becoming a "NURSE"

Nurses Activism

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No offense to the old-timers

Face reality- Nurses are change resistors, not game changers. Working in the worst conditions surrounded by medical money. Making ends meet and supporting their significant others. Thinking they help others. Sorry Johnson & Johnson, we don't make the difference you think we do.

New Graduates struggling to gain experience and settle a career- they might as well give up before they even start. Because every nurse who has been around awhile knows that only they know it all. And these new rookies, they can eat it.

I am far from alone on this one. I'm not an LPN making 15 bucks an hour either. I just see through this nursing crap.

After interacting with enough nurses, its become pretty clear. RUN away before you think you may want to enter the nursing world. It only gets worse.

Honestly, I think that it is a shame that nursing has moved into such a position to be everyone's 'you know what'! What was ol' Flo thinking when she started down her path?? That she would develop a career that millions would flock to in hopes of making a difference in another's life or that out of her work would grow a profession that is tucked tightly under the thumb of the almighty dollar and physicians who fear that nursing is becoming too independent?

Being a nurse is no joke :cool: It's hard work.

This is my first post also and I agree with the OP in part and with several other comments. One on one, taking care of patients, nurses do of course provide patients with care that saves their lives. Of course it is very fulfilling to help people who are ill, and to know you made a difference. I am an RN, ADN, BSN (GPA 3.65)(sorry to those of you who think GPA is irrelevant). I am merely stating my personal opinion in this post. Nursing has been an excellent choice in that it has provided me with the knowledge to take care of and advocate for my family members. My family have suffered strokes, cancer, and a myriad of other serious illnesses, as I'm sure have many other posters families. But actually working as a nurse (for me) is another story. If you can master all the clinical skills, excellent assessment skills, are well informed about the majority of medical conditions that require medical care/hospitalization and know the appropriate nursing interventions, thoroughly understand the medications you are giving and how to give them safely, and can co-operate with others, you will (in my opinion) have reached the beginning. Then you need to be able to (in my experience) be happy working in a well defined hierarchy and patriarchy where you are expected to be forever deferential, to dumb yourself down so you do not threaten anyone in a more powerful position than yours with your intelligence, in an environment where you have often more patients than you can take care of safely, not enough support staff and equipment. Then you are required to be always flexible; that means floating to units you are not always familiar with or where you do not feel confident in your ability to provide competent, safe care. Then scheduling, shift work. As a nurse you have a high risk of injury, and a high risk of being a target of lateral violence. Read some other posts about how nurses who got injured on the job have fared, or about nurses who are being bullied. Oh, and please remember peoples' political and religious views color their practice. Some practitioners really do show prejudice to women who don't (in their opinion) practice old fashioned religious values (my observation/experience). Misogyny is rife (my observation/experience). So good luck to all newcomers. Some nurses are not bothered by these things, or are unaware of them, and I take my hat off to you if you are one of those people. Nursing school is expensive, mentally and physically demanding, time consuming, makes big demands on family members, and there are no guarantees of jobs, job security or good working conditions.

I would like to add some further comments on thinking twice before you become a nurse, and this is just my opinion. First, our viewpoints generally change as we get older. When I was in nursing school in my early to mid-thirties I didn't properly understand the complexities of the situation the nurse is placed in. Second, nursing school does not fully prepare you for being on what I would call the "razor's edge", where your every action or failure to act has potential legal consequences. To practice safely and to protect oneself from accusations of negligence, a nurse has to be extremely competent and knowledgeable, and always aware of potential situations that could give rise to lawsuits. One must know the Nurse Practice Act for one's State, Standards of Practice for your specialty and for each unit you float to, HIPAA, hospital/agency policies and procedures, and more. That is a lot of reading. Nursing demands that you practice as a mature person (which comes with age and life experience), and disregards the fact that you may be young, immature, or lack life experience.

I have thought a lot about the reasons I am not practicing as a nurse, and it has not been easy to get to the bottom of them. I am fortunate in not having to work currently, and that gives me the luxury of being able to look at things in ways I would not probably care to otherwise. I think the two things that put me off practicing as a nurse the most are not having enough control in the workplace environment to be able to ensure safe practice, and also the lack of an employer/employee relationship based on trust (which skews everything that follows). I had hoped that I would find that feelings of lack of confidence in my practice owing to not working as a nurse would be at the bottom, but I addressed these partially by taking an online refresher course, studying for and passing the CEN exam on my second attempt without having worked as an emergency nurse, studying ACLS, and reviewing all my clinical skills and common medications.

I do not regret having trained as a nurse, as I mentioned in my post above. In fact I would do it again. The training is invaluable in looking after your family, and you are in a position to earn a reasonable living by helping other people.

OP, it sounds like you need a change in venue. Yes, conditions in some places are hellish, and many nurses burn out quickly (or learn to adapt, but still aren't happy or even content).

But there are better settings and employers out there - I finally found my niche after all these years, and so can you!

Best of luck,

DeLana

Specializes in ICU/PACU.

I've grown to hate nursing too, welcome to the club. Never thought I'd be here.

Specializes in none.
I've grown to hate nursing too, welcome to the club. Never thought I'd be here.

Can I join too. love people hate nursing club. They took away the best way in the would to deal with idiots in charge when I left the service it was called M-16. (just a joke. I don't want idiots to post that I want to kill people.)

Specializes in Neurosciences, cardiac, critical care.
Nurses are not "change agents"? I respectfully disagree with those who have this opinion of nurses.

Remember the parable of the little girl frantically racing up and down the beach picking up starfish and throwing them back into the ocean? A man walks up and tells her not to bother - it won't make a difference in the long run because there are too many to save. She picks up another one and says "it will make a difference to this one" and tosses it iinto the ocean.

Well, our work is like that. We impact one life at a time - for better or worse -- with our expertise and attitude. Holding a hand and "being present" when needed may not seem noteworthy from our perspective, but it frequently means everything to our patients. We can change anxiety to calm, fear to acceptance, ignorance to understanding, helplessness to empowerment. .

We are superheros and call lights are our bat signals.

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this

Every industry has a flip side. It just depends on what you make of the situation. As someone who has worked in the horse industry for over 10 years and 5 of those years being on the racetrack; lemme tell you, you're going to face ungrateful jerks, difficult people,the most shocking, the most scandalous, and of course rough times in ANY job you're in. Reality is only an individual's perspective after all. I hope the OP finds his/her calling soon...and as someone who has lost her temper in the middle of a great rant; maybe stop and take a breath before you post without thinking ;)

My father thought he found his calling as a IT Tech years ago and 10 years later he clocks in and clocks out. The best part about an education is you're never too old to have a change of heart, in my opinion.

Specializes in Geriatric/Sub Acute, Home Care.

I GOT frustrated, tired, burned out with LTC/sub acute nursing after 4 years....It wasnt so much the patients(, the poor people who just are in chronically ill /depressed/or post surgical) It was the system never ending paperwork, the legalities behind the scenes paranoia you develope, the chronic anxiety over losing your license. I went into this profession to try to make someones ailing health feel better. I WANTED TO FEEL like someone needed ME really, as a caring human being, doing something good in their lives. But, the system ruined it all as it continues to flatten out the new graduate who is full of **** and vinegar so to speak and ready to cure the world and stampedes on the seasoned nurses who still try to forge onward with an ever changing system who just looks to ADD MORE PAPER WORK to your workload. Why doesnt ANYONE DECREASE THE WORKLOAD, they always ADD TO IT. it just goes to show you.....computers have truley made the world much worse.

Specializes in none.
I GOT frustrated, tired, burned out with LTC/sub acute nursing after 4 years....It wasnt so much the patients(, the poor people who just are in chronically ill /depressed/or post surgical) It was the system never ending paperwork, the legalities behind the scenes paranoia you develope, the chronic anxiety over losing your license. I went into this profession to try to make someones ailing health feel better. I WANTED TO FEEL like someone needed ME really, as a caring human being, doing something good in their lives. But, the system ruined it all as it continues to flatten out the new graduate who is full of **** and vinegar so to speak and ready to cure the world and stampedes on the seasoned nurses who still try to forge onward with an ever changing system who just looks to ADD MORE PAPER WORK to your workload. Why doesnt ANYONE DECREASE THE WORKLOAD, they always ADD TO IT. it just goes to show you.....computers have truley made the world much worse.

I know, we are underneath it all angels of mercy with wilted wings and broken hearts. We are the fools that put human life above money. Today the hospitals want to turn an nice profit. So they increase the work load so they can firer nurses thereby make more money. They get millions,while the nurses get used up, drug habits, bad backs, go insane, and some take the Final exit. But they don't worry if they loose a nurse there are plenty of young ones to take her place. I'm sorry for this post but near Memorial Day and the ghosts of my buddies come back to say, "Hello". Peace.

So true... maybe that's why I'm burning out. Because I try to do things right.

:bugeyes:

Every job has its downsides, all one needs is a better mindset of his career.

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