This probably will come across to most of you as a typical vent, but its not

[HeartRN13]

Feeling conflicted about anything in life is stressful enough. Feeling conflicted about choosing nursing as my career is one of the most frustrating things I've had to face in life thus far.

I love being a nurse. It's fulfilling and I truly love everything it encompasses related to the patient and care. I do not love the crap that comes along with being a nurse. The politics, the cliques, the gossip, being crucified for everything you say no matter what it is by your coworkers. I strongly dislike the fact that no matter where you go, nurses can't seem to stop themselves from acting like mean girls and just constantly pick one another apart behind each other's backs and sometimes harshly to their faces. No one is trustworthy. No one is a team anymore and if someone helps you in the work setting it comes with a price. If you can't help at that moment you become shunned.

I am not a catty or malicious person by nature, so these things make me second guess my career choice every day. Feeling conflicted is not how I imagined I would feel today if you asked me years ago when I chose nursing.

[Gooselady, BSN, RN]

There's a lot of overstatement in your post, is it really no one, everyone, everything, constantly, no matter..?

They call this 'cognitive distortions', cuz 'always', 'everything' etc aren't. Absolutes are very, very rare. The main reason to point it out is that it comes back to bite the NURSE in the hiney, in her very own hiney. It's self care and preservation to avoid getting worked up about overstatements, and probably just getting older and more experienced. We only hurt ourselves with these 'distortions'. Our environments are bad enough! Ask me how I know about this lol, personal experience here. My days as a nurse have been much more enjoyable and satisfying when I stay 'real' and avoid provoking my good old emotional hot spots.

[Libby1987]

They call this 'cognitive distortions', cuz 'always', 'everything' etc aren't. Absolutes are very, very rare. The main reason to point it out is that it comes back to bite the NURSE in the hiney, in her very own hiney. It's self care and preservation to avoid getting worked up about overstatements, and probably just getting older and more experienced. We only hurt ourselves with these 'distortions'. Our environments are bad enough! Ask me how I know about this lol, personal experience here. My days as a nurse have been much more enjoyable and satisfying when I stay 'real' and avoid provoking my good old emotional hot spots.

So true.

We've been going through a rough transition at work and I've had to check myself daily to keep perspective. Negativity and emotional response seem to grow exponentially if I let it and serves no purpose.