Trying to Find a Reason to Stay in Nursing

Nurses General Nursing

Updated:   Published

Specializes in Critical Care.

There's been a lot of talk about people wanting to leave bedside and/or leaving nursing altogether. 

I've considered it myself. I'm nearly a decade in, but I have nearly had enough. Many have said "it is tough work, it always has been - the pandemic has made it tougher." I have always worked hard, but holy crap, it's gotten really tough. And I am having a tough time wanting to stay in it. And why should I? If the seasoned nurses do not care, why should I care? 

My hang ups are around the seasoned nurses who have or are already super focused on retirement and no longer have interest in investing in the next generation. This is beyond "nurses eating their young." I've been burned by seasoned nurses for just asking too many questions. I've been tricked and thrown under the bus mostly by seasoned nurses just so they do not have to deal with me. Same has been going on with other nurses coming in, experienced or brand new, who are doing their best to practice safely and learn.

I cannot get passed the level of apathy from the seasoned nurses. That really that cannot go ignored because at the end of the day, it is those seasoned nurses focused entirely on retirement + all of the other aging humans in our country that will suffer in the end. I don't understand how our seasoned nurses do not see this coming. 

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I don't know why you are so focused on "seasoned" nurses.  You are one.  Other nurses do not owe other nurses.. anything. Except to work together on any given shift. You should look outside of the hospital setting. You are fried and have many opportunities available to you after 10 years.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Been there,done that said:

I don't know why you are so focused on "seasoned" nurses.  You are one.  Other nurses do not owe other nurses.. anything. Except to work together on any given shift. You should look outside of the hospital setting. You are fried and have many opportunities available to you after 10 years.

I am focused on the seasoned nurses b/c in my experience, I've seen that they are the least likely to help anyone and will run anyone over - techs, RTs, PTs, OTs, Dietitians, other staff members AND their fellow nurses on shift - if it means that those seasoned nurses' shift will be easier. it is terrible. I've experienced this and then also watched my colleagues floundering but the seasoned nurses don't blink an eye. it is like they clock in and out and just spend their time talking on and on about how much they're looking forward to their next vacation and complaining about their husbands. It is pathetic.

I am nearly a decade into my career. Worked in mult environments. Yes, I am an experienced nurse. I am passionate about helping newbies and new grads and setting them up for success. Most seasoned nurses don't care. It doesn't matter if a patient is nearly coding - even that is not enough motivation for them to help a fellow nurse out. 

Have you worked bedside lately? It's bad these days. You have to see it to know how bad it is. 

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Specializes in Dialysis.
BeatsPerMinute said:

I am focused on the seasoned nurses b/c in my experience, I've seen that they are the least likely to help anyone and will run anyone over - techs, RTs, PTs, OTs, Dietitians, other staff members AND their fellow nurses on shift - if it means that those seasoned nurses' shift will be easier. it is terrible. I've experienced this and then also watched my colleagues floundering but the seasoned nurses don't blink an eye. it is like they clock in and out and just spend their time talking on and on about how much they're looking forward to their next vacation and complaining about their husbands. It is pathetic.

I am nearly a decade into my career. Worked in mult environments. Yes, I am an experienced nurse. I am passionate about helping newbies and new grads and setting them up for success. Most seasoned nurses don't care. It doesn't matter if a patient is nearly coding - even that is not enough motivation for them to help a fellow nurse out. 

Have you worked bedside lately? It's bad these days. You have to see it to know how bad it is. 

I don't know about seasoned nurses not helping, but the 1-5 year seem to be the ones that I see parked on phones often watching tik tok, playing one FB, etc. The response when asked to assist is often "I wasn't hired to be an aide/tech, I was hired to be a nurse", so disrepect and laziness occurs on both ends of the spectrum. I'm sure that you work with someone that considers you lazy, this that or the other, just as you feel about others. It's just the mix of personalities and its all relative

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You are not alone in being frustrated with how things are and resenting coworkers.  However, I think the real problems are foolish and short-sighted decision makers, For the general population a lack of knowledge of the realities of healthcare work. 

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Specializes in oncology.
BeatsPerMinute said:

Have you worked bedside lately? It's bad these days. You have to see it to know how bad it is. 

You haven't described anything different than was happening in the 1970s. 

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Specializes in Med Surg, PCU, Travel.

Totally agree, but who cares...I also met a lot of seasoned nurses willing to train others....When I hit 2 year's experience I was doing a lot of training of new nurses....the nurse eat nurse world is yet another reason why I jumped on the travel nurse bandwagon after 7years of putting up with staff politics and 50 cents annual raises....I hear the squabbles and complaints of the inner politics on the units, they complain about unit budget and travel nurse pay being higher but I just don't care, if it sucks do something about it. Travel is the last straw and I am going to use it to invest in something I can call my own. 
I took 2 months off for Summer and about to take all Christmas off...enjoy the staff nursing world...Cheerios!

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Specializes in Psychiatric and Mental Health NP (PMHNP).
BeatsPerMinute said:

There's been a lot of talk about people wanting to leave bedside and/or leaving nursing altogether. 

I've considered it myself. I'm nearly a decade in, but I have nearly had enough. Many have said "it is tough work, it always has been - the pandemic has made it tougher." I have always worked hard, but holy crap, it's gotten really tough. And I am having a tough time wanting to stay in it. And why should I? If the seasoned nurses do not care, why should I care? 

My hang ups are around the seasoned nurses who have or are already super focused on retirement and no longer have interest in investing in the next generation. This is beyond "nurses eating their young." I've been burned by seasoned nurses for just asking too many questions. I've been tricked and thrown under the bus mostly by seasoned nurses just so they do not have to deal with me. Same has been going on with other nurses coming in, experienced or brand new, who are doing their best to practice safely and learn.

I cannot get passed the level of apathy from the seasoned nurses. That really that cannot go ignored because at the end of the day, it is those seasoned nurses focused entirely on retirement + all of the other aging humans in our country that will suffer in the end. I don't understand how our seasoned nurses do not see this coming. 

You sound burned out.  Try something else besides bedside nursing, at least for awhile.  You need a break.  Nurses have a lot of other options besides bedside nursing

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Specializes in Level 1 Trauma SICU, Organ Transplant, Nurse Educa.

After 13 years, I left nursing and never looked back. Sure, if I had to do things all over again, I definitely would. But bottom line up front, you have to do what works for you. I wish you all the best and want you to know you're not alone. My DM is open if you want to chat. 

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Hi there. 

I'm 35 years in, and thankfully was working remotely for an insurance company doing inpatient authorization reviews when Covid hit. I wasn't at the bedside, but I read all the horror stories in the clinicals every day in order to provide authorization for everything you guys were doing. Safe in my home. God bless you for everything you have had to deal with in the midst of that. I left it in the middle of '21 (covid changed every aspect of everything, micromanagement was insane) and sold my house and cut back to part time work in an outpatient wound clinic, which for me has been utterly life-giving. Sometimes what is needed is a change of pace. It's hard to know what's out there for you until you look around with a hopeful heart, doing something positive with all that experience.

With 35 years under my belt, I think I count as "seasoned." I will tell you that I love those who want to learn, and the nursing students on clinical rotation gravitate to my "wing" which I am very happy to have them do. Precepting is my favorite thing to do, as long as the one being precepted is teachable and willing to follow instructions.  High stress/high stakes spots like critical care, often understaffed and covered by overworked and exhausted nurses, as you know, just doesn't always have room for the kind of support that is needed by everyone, so folks running on empty aren't able to go that extra distance. It's sad that this is the healthcare world we live and work in, but it is the reality we have. 

You worked hard and sacrificed to become a nurse, this much I know. That RN-BSN behind your name didn't come easily. Why did you want to be a nurse? I will tell you that the reasons behind that for me have been ever-present in my mind when I was working remotely, and conscience conflicts nagged at me. I want to advocate for people, not check boxes and jump through hoops for a company that only wants to serve the financial bottom line. Now for the past 2 years I have been working with a doc who fights for his patients, prays for and with them, and I get to be a part of real healing and to see the effects of what we do week-to-week, getting to know these patients and enjoying them, working with a good team comprised of seasoned nurses who work together. I never would have imagined such a privilege just 3 years ago.  So, I know the opportunities are out there even when you can't imagine that they are. I'm even paid better than I was with a big-name insurance company (which was always better than hospitals).  

Burnout is hard, but sometimes it's exactly what is needed to get us to identify that change is needed, to sort out exactly what change is needed, and to spur us on to make those changes. One thing I have learned over the years is that things on the other side of any given fence hit differently than you think they will before you jump it. Many blessings to you.

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Specializes in oncology.
Joyful68 said:

left it in the middle of '21 (covid changed every aspect of everything, micromanagement was insane) and sold my house and cut back to part time work in an outpatient wound clinic, which for me has been utterly life-giving.

You sold your house? That is incomprehensible! To work part time???? Where are you going to live now? and in your senior years?

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Specializes in oncology.
Quote

There's been a lot of talk about people wanting to leave bedside and/or leaving nursing altogether. 

I've considered it myself. I'm nearly a decade in, but I have nearly had enough. 

I was 3 decades in when I considered it. But I talked with others who were ready to leave...we supported each other. We still loved healthcare ...  we all entered it for the right reasons in the 70s -- before the money was there. We were altruistic in our intentions. Now I see so many wanting to be nurses because of a good salary....Soon they will want to leave as they never had an intention to join the profession besides $$MONEY$$$.

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