Truly sad- please read and consider

prmenrs, RN · Jan 13, 2001

Shannon: I, too, was thrilled to get out of school--32 years ago!! And, I'm still thrilled to go to work and take care of my babies in a wonderful unit where most of us have known each other since before husbands, kids, etc.; but our unit is very carefully staffed, but we work hard and we can get VERY busy VERY fast (like the evening we got 5 critically ill babies within 2 hours!!), but we work together very well, and we support each other a LOT!!

I read some of the posts from the LTC's and the Med-Surg floors, and their experience is NOTHING like mine; Thank God they have this BB to help them!!

Parents KNOW what we do for their babies, and they thank us! We get Christmas cards with pictures of families, visits back to the unit with babies bigger and stronger, and that's fun. I don't think gratitude thing happens on Med-Surg and LTC.

There are sad times, too; babies die. Parents have to deal with not getting what they signed up for when they started their pregnancy; coping with long term disabilities, and other problems. The unit comes together to help them, too, and help our families through it.

Nursing will never BE easy! No matter how well staffed and managed you are, there will be times when you feel like a one-armed paper-hanger, when you'll go home crying all the way, when you'll do something wrong... BUT, you'll also laugh and cry with a pt/family, teach another nurse something cool, teach a family how to care for their baby, parent, spouse, tell a doc something that makes a BIG difference about their pt., talk a med student thru her 1st IV--HAVE FUN at work.

I love being a nurse, have no regrets, couldn't be anything else..but I sure hope some of you youngsters get on in here and help out--I'd like to retire some day!!

longforseaair · Jan 13, 2001

Yes, it is true I believe, that nursing is a mission. I'm a pretty new nurse, and often I wonder what my life would be like if I had studied anything else. What I put into nursing would probably make me a wealthy person in certain other fields. With my very high SAT scores and math ability, just think of the possibilities. I chose to become a nurse after working in LTC and loving the residents and caring for them. Unfortunately, I couldn't live on those wages. Comparatively, nursing wages are low as well and the raises miniscule. Most shifts there will be at least one pt/family who is a major problem. Some of your co-workers will hate you- just because. Doctors will make you feel like dirt. You will have a constant guilt complex for not pleasing everyone. It's impossible to do so. Hopefully, once a shift you will have tears in your eyes when you see how wonderfully someone is healing.

So, if you can imagine fighting trench warfare in WWII or Viet Nam and everything it entails. Long hours, poor sleep, back aches, bad legs, full aching bladder, missed meals, cold meals, gripey admin who would steamroll you and not blink once, backstabbing co-workers, some miserable doctors, patients who treat you like a worthless slave, families who abuse you, and evaporating paychecks, and lawyers pouring hot coals down your neck, and still think it's worth it to maybe save some of the world, then you could like nursing.

Veteran nurses all told us students the beans about real nursing. We wouldn't listen. I'm still excited and optimistic about my future. Just tired holding the world on my shoulder. I need someone to nurse me tonight.

lita1857 · Jan 13, 2001

well earle58 I can see by your retort that you can not take adversity...do you have the martyr syndrome also or just pollyanna? Nurse's should feel free to speak their minds on the BB and fellow readers can draw their own conclusions, We still have free speak right? agree disagree take a stand on an issue but for God's sake let's for once not candy coat it. Nursedude are you out there???? can you post something to get people to think/act anything just not spit out retoric.....

ceedee · Jan 13, 2001

Originally posted by soundsLikesirens:
I totally agree. I love nursing. And no one is going to make me feel guilty for venting...that's very little, for what we put up with. Everywhere we are bombarded with the "guilt" mentality - even here! See what I mean...this is our board to vent on, and someone comes here and has a fit because they don't like the way it sounds.....hey, news flash: you aren't going to like the way alot of things will be sounding soon, so get used to it.
Sorry, but if you don't like what is said here, then do whatever you need to...but don't try to make us feel bad because we are coming here and venting our VERY REAL frustrations...the first thing I heard last night when I went to work was that the other 2 RNs had called in. Between 2:30pm and 7:00pm, we got 9 admissions..and it didn't stop there.....then the House Supervisor comes down and just cannot figure out why some things aren't getting down soon enough!!!!!!.......HELLO........the beds don't even cool off after one's discharged before they send another one.....for some reason, they always fill our floor up before they send admissions anywhere else...the families are ALWAYS complaining; the patients are ALWAYS complaining that we don't get there fast enough to suit them with their pain med/sleep med......but we cannot physically get there...you cannot physically be in 5 or 6 places at once!!!! The families are worse than the patients..we had a patient admitted that was total care (she really should be in ICU), when she was admitted, her doctor TOLD THE FAMILY that we were short-staffed and they would have to stay with her and help, etc.....this family is a constant pain in the butt....the granddaughter stayed last night - came up to the desk this morning and demanded that someone come and "help" feed her grandmother, because she "didn't know how to feed her"....for once, I was speechless...this same girl told a nurse that she needed an arm sling, so tell the doctor or whoever that it was for her grandmother and that way, SHE could get it and it would be charged to granny...the family is constantly asking for scrubs. I mean, WHERE DO THESE STRANGE PEOPLE COME FROM???

ceedee · Jan 13, 2001

Originally posted by soundsLikesirens:
I totally agree. I love nursing. And no one is going to make me feel guilty for venting...that's very little, for what we put up with. Everywhere we are bombarded with the "guilt" mentality - even here! See what I mean...this is our board to vent on, and someone comes here and has a fit because they don't like the way it sounds.....hey, news flash: you aren't going to like the way alot of things will be sounding soon, so get used to it.
Sorry, but if you don't like what is said here, then do whatever you need to...but don't try to make us feel bad because we are coming here and venting our VERY REAL frustrations...the first thing I heard last night when I went to work was that the other 2 RNs had called in. Between 2:30pm and 7:00pm, we got 9 admissions..and it didn't stop there.....then the House Supervisor comes down and just cannot figure out why some things aren't getting down soon enough!!!!!!.......HELLO........the beds don't even cool off after one's discharged before they send another one.....for some reason, they always fill our floor up before they send admissions anywhere else...the families are ALWAYS complaining; the patients are ALWAYS complaining that we don't get there fast enough to suit them with their pain med/sleep med......but we cannot physically get there...you cannot physically be in 5 or 6 places at once!!!! The families are worse than the patients..we had a patient admitted that was total care (she really should be in ICU), when she was admitted, her doctor TOLD THE FAMILY that we were short-staffed and they would have to stay with her and help, etc.....this family is a constant pain in the butt....the granddaughter stayed last night - came up to the desk this morning and demanded that someone come and "help" feed her grandmother, because she "didn't know how to feed her"....for once, I was speechless...this same girl told a nurse that she needed an arm sling, so tell the doctor or whoever that it was for her grandmother and that way, SHE could get it and it would be charged to granny...the family is constantly asking for scrubs. I mean, WHERE DO THESE STRANGE PEOPLE COME FROM???

Mijourney · Jan 13, 2001

Hi ShannonB25. Nursing is a microcosym of society. For you and any other potential or actual nursing student or newly practicing nurse-learn to discern. Read between the lines (I'm still learning this and I've been around for awhile). Being on the world wide web is new and exciting. There are inherent dangers. Do not get totally caught up in mine or anyone else's rhetoric about something. If you find merit in our opinions, then so be it. This bb is open to registrants who have an opinion. This bb is only one opinion of many. I offer opinions that many do not agree with, but because I no longer define myself by what someone thinks, I can deal with it. Criticism is helpful to those who are open-minded enough to learn from it or or try to understand it. However, I will write that like earle58, I don't think it's constructive for nurses or anyone else to come onto this bb to willfully and/or maliciously antagonize nurses. I feel this way, no matter the occupation. As one poster pointed out, many nurses are already feeling victimized. Why add insult to injury?

Anyway, I agree with posters who write that you need to thoroughly research the profession or occupation you want to go into. I can write you that practicing as a physician is not a bed of roses either. They are facing tremendous hurdles in continuing to get the same level of profits they got accustomed to after getting in bed with Medicare, Medicaid, pharmaceuticals, and insurance companies in the 1960's. I also have recently read that the AMA is about $7 million in the hole. Shannon, don't be distressed at someone else's choice. You choose what you know to be within your belief and value system. In my mind, nursing is no less honorable than any other legal profession. At this time, nurses still rank high on consumer satisfaction surveys above engineering, computer analysts, physicians, teachers. I'm not angry or ashamed that I'm a nurse. Best wishes.

chrn · Jan 13, 2001

ShannonB25; Sorry your'e feeling so sad and scared before you have even begun your career as a nurse. I, along with virtually every nurse posting here, have experienced to pride of being a new graduate. I have known the excitement and exhaustion of working med/surg. The compassion of working with the elderly in LTC, the dying in hospice and the frightened in home care.

Unfortunately, I also have been "downsized"-lost a job I loved in med/surg because RN's with years of experience were expendable in the budget cuts. I have been treated like a piece of disposable medical equipment more times than I care to mention. I have ranted and raved like a maniac. Now I work in computers. I laugh at people who say to me "this job (office work) can get stressful". My only fear these days is that if I get sick, there won't be a nurse like soundslikesirens around to take care of me. We are all sad and scared in different ways, Cindy

soundsLikesirens · Jan 13, 2001

Originally posted by earle58:
Shannon,

Please! Don't let the likes of Lita discourage you even further. I stand behind what I said and if soundslike sirens and lita want to spew their venom, then look at source(s). God, every single one of us has justifiable reasons to vent but there is not ANY justifiable reason to treat your collegues (or anyone else) like shit. Lita, you stated that "you're out". Damn well you should be.

You don't know what you're talking about. I don't treat anyone like shit, but I notice you don't seem to have a problem doing it. This BB is for nurses and that's the way I hope it will stay.

JillR · Jan 14, 2001

Sounds Likes Sirens sounds like me a few months ago. If I am right, I do believe that SLS is new to nursing or at least has just returned to find that the realities of nursing is nothing like they teach us in school. Lets not be so hard on her, she seems to be reacting to tremendous amount of stress and an incredible work load by venting here. I would rather see her vent here than do it at work, or to a patient, which from reading her previous posts, I don't think she does.

SLS, hang in there. I have been reading your posts for a while now and can feel the frustration you are having. It does get easier, however the ratios you have where you are working are way too much for any human to handle. The things you are feeling exactly mirror how I felt when I forst started on the PM shift with only a two week orientation. How I made it this long, I still don't know. I am off the shift from hell now, but PM shift is absolutly the hardest shift there is to work, and I would suggest that any new grad avoid it like the plaugue.

Shannon, you cannot judge the whole nursing profession by listening to people vent here. How people are talking really depends on where they work, what their workload is and where they are at in their career at the moment. This is why you will hear both positive and negative comments here.

ShannonB25 · Jan 14, 2001

Wow, when I wrote this I had no idea that it would spawn 20 posts in a day's time. I,too, do have emotions and was expressing them here on our board. Thank you to those of you who have provided positive support here. It means more to me than you will ever know. I realize that Soundslikesirens is frustrated with her current work situation, but I do believe that anger was a bit misplaced when it was aimed at me. That was not my first post here, nor anywhere close to it. Furthermore, I never named anyone in particular with regard to venting. If that touched a cord with you, so be it. Moreover, I went out of my way to express in my initial post that I do realize that venting is good. In fact, lita1857 you may want to re-read it. I assure you that I can more than "take the heat". I am not some 19 year old with stars in her eyes. Indeed this will not be my first career. I spent 7 years at a large corporation and left as a member of senior management to pursue my upper division nursing courses. I researched nursing thoroughly before choosing to pursue it, including participating in a nurse shadowing program. If you unleash your contempt this easily on people who dare to post a positive message, then I feel sorry for your co-workers. It is not my intent to put anyone down here, nor has it ever been. Life is full of choices, and I am still glad that I am entering the nursing profession. My best to you all.

Shannon

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"The highest reward for man's toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it."-Johan Ruskin

mustangsheba · Jan 14, 2001

Good evening, my deers: Wouldn't it be great to be in the same room? Such passion! Shannon - your desire to hear good things about nursing is a testament to your commitment. SoundsLikeSirens - Honey, I don't know how you do it! You are so understaffed. If we didn't all care we wouldn't be here, would we? Even those of us who have chosen to move on still are drawn to this forum. I don't think it is with the intent to discourage, just to let us know why. Nursing has always cycled. The underlying quality of nursing is that if the need arises, there will always be those with the calling that will respond to the need. Even at our lowest moments, we can access each other any time of the day or night now at this forum. I find that so comforting. We need to prepare ourselves for the future. Right now, I am hiding and watching to see what direction the new administration is going to take. We need to stand together in our diversity. We need to appreciate each other. We need to utilize everyones unique strengths. We need to be tolerant of each other when we're having a bad time. We can do this!

lita1857 · Jan 14, 2001

Researched the profession, participated in shadowing program and your still sad and scared? Can take the heat huh? I get it you only write like a 19yr old...after one promising and sucessful career you Just now as your finishing your education realize this revelation? Right Right ...and you just want everyone to get along..Buck up little camper..functioning as a well organized team member, being the patient advocate, doing my job to it's highest standard is all I need-it is really trivial if "your liked by co-workers" nice fringe benefit.