TuTonka wants to know--what keeps you in nursing?

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · May 13, 2009

What keeps me in nursing depends on what day it is.

Sometimes it is just the bribe of having that paycheck deposited in my account every 2 weeks. (And they say we shouldn't bribe our kids!!)

Sometimes it is my sense of obligation - "well, my name's on the schedule, gotta do what I said I'd do..."

Other times (and this got touched on in the other thread) it is knowing that I made a difference to someone. Whether it is the drug baby that has not had two hours' sleep in the last 24, finally asleep, and smiling while she dreams....or the new, tired, sore mom who thanks me for listening while she spills her guts about her fears of inadequacy....or the antepartum that we thought would never ever take her baby home alive sending us a picture of him on his first birthday.

whoknows56 · May 13, 2009

If I didn't need a consistent paycheck, I would work at developing a college football game to compete against EA Sports. But I'm not rich and nobody in my family is rich. So I need to make money to hopefully achieve my TRUE passions in life.

Medic/Nurse, BSN, RN · May 13, 2009

money!

fame!

cheering fans!

my own publicist!

state dinners!

designer clothes!

great shoes!

private hair/make-up stylist!

jewels!

private jet!

private chef!

servants!

did i mention money!!!

honestly, if the money sucked i'd find something else to do. i know that i am burning - even the helicopter is getting old!

RNperdiem, RN · May 13, 2009

I can support my family as a secondary income and bring in a respectable income without having to work full time.

The flexibility and good pay means I spend plenty of time with my family and home and work when my husband is able to take care of the children. We pay nothing for childcare.

The work itself is meaningful and mostly satisfying. It gives me a lift to help transition a patient from an intubated, and sick person post-op to someone alert and talking with pain under control.

Work gives me a community of people to spend time with. I work with a diverse and interesting group of people. Being in touch with the wider world is important to me and balances the at-home-mom part of my life.

Chewie_123 · May 13, 2009

At the moment... the bills.

What? Me burned out after a whole nine months?

Noooooo....

:scrm:

nursemike, ASN, RN · May 13, 2009

After many years as a carpenter, a reliable income is something I definitely appreciate. Being off four days a week--even though I usually sleep through one of them--is also pretty nice, since it allows some time for my hobbies. I sometimes see myself not so much as a nurse but as a carpenter with a really crappy retirement plan.

I dunno--those might be enough to keep me in nursing. But what keeps me happy in nursing is the time I spend with my patients. That's the food that makes the rest worthwhile. I also genuinely enjoy my coworkers. I feel lucky to be part of a pretty strong team, especially as I become more able to contribute my own particular strengths to the mix. I don't suppose I'll ever be the world's greatest nurse, but I work with some other good ones and a few great ones, and there are times when it seems like there isn't much we can't handle, together.

I've also started doing charge, occassionally, and while it wasn't something I was anxious to undertake, it has reminded me that one of the great things about this field is the opportunity to learn. One of the things I liked about carpentry was that you never stop learning. That's even more true in nursing, although you sometimes have to step back a moment to see it. Many of the problems we solve are rather urgent, so you don't really have time to appreciate the fun of working through them while it's happening. In fact, it can be a bit of a bummer, until the situation is resolved. And I don't just mean things like a patient starting to crash and getting them stable. That can be rewarding, but so are things like figuring out that instead of alternating percocets and IV dilaudid like everyone else has been doing, give both together and let the patient actually be comfortable for a few hours. Or figuring out just the right things to say and do to let a PITA family member feel able to lay off the call bell for a bit. (Not saying that happens all the time, or even a lot, but I've been trying to think in terms of expanding my definition of "patient" to include stressed-out loved ones, and when it works, it feels pretty good.)

I feel like I'm growing in this job. I can see my skills improving, and that's a relief, but I think I'm also become a wiser, kinder human being. I think I had a fair amount of empathy before I got into healthcare, but I'm more perceptive than I used to be. It isn't hard to care when you see someone frightened or in pain, but nursing is all about actively caring--seeing a problem and actually doing something about it, rather than just feeling sympathetic. And that can be pretty great.

Plus, I get to see people's butts.

Cobweb · May 13, 2009

Lol :) That reminds me of one of my son's slumber parties. One boy forgot his pajamas and had on only his underwear, and my son told him, "Don't be embarrassed, come on out. My mom's seen over three thousand naked people and she just doesn't care any more."

I told him later, "I hope you explained that I'm a nurse!"

mama_d, BSN, RN · May 13, 2009

So, what keeps you in nursing? What are your reasons for continuing to want to be a nurse--professional, personal, financial, spiritual...tell us your stories :)

You know, with all the reasons to get out of Dodge, this is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. Just what is it about nursing that keeps me going back over and over again? Thanks for giving me the opportunity to express it in writing. Sorry in advance, but this is probably gonna be a long one. :)

Financially speaking, there's nothing else I could do that earns me as much money. I could go and work LTC instead of in the hospital and probably make a little more, but I did enough LTC in clinicals to last me a lifetime. It's just not for me...thank goodness that there are nurses who enjoy it, b/c I sure don't!

I was one of those people who went into nursing without really thinking about it first. I think I'm a prime example of people who get into nursing for all the "wrong" reasons but then turn out to be a darn good nurse. One week before I gave birth to our oldest, I was fired from my job. I decided after he was born that I needed a career, not a job, to enable me to care best for this wonderful gift that we had been given. I went to a local tech school, after seeing an ad in the paper, with the intent of signing up for their RT program. Fortunately for me, although I didn't appreciate it at the time, the RT program was in the evenings and my mom could only watch the baby during the day. So, when they offered me a spot in their LPN program immediately, based on my transcripts and testing, I went ahead and signed up. The rest, as they say, is history.

I really think that I was meant to be a nurse, I can't even imagine doing anything else. I'm not a very religious or spiritual person, but I have come to truly believe that the circumstances which led to my enrolling in the LPN program had some kind of divine guidance to them. Which is one of the reasons why I'm in it and persevere...who am I to question a calling from God (or whoever's in charge up there)?

I love the fact that my children get to see me go to work in a field where I make a difference, every day. My ten year old may gripe about the fact that I come home late sometimes, and that makes him late for school, but I know he takes pride in what I do..."Mom, when my teacher asked me why I was late today, I got to tell her it was b/c you were late coming home from work b/c someone died at shift change and you were helping code him AND HE LIVED. You have the coolest job!" (And yes, I've been doing this since he was a year old, so he does talk that way.)

I take a great deal of pride in the fact that I think I deliver excellent patient care and have the opportunity to make a difference in people's lives, for the entirety of what lives they have left. Whether it's diabetes education, recognizing CVA symptoms and initiating interventions, or helping a family through the agonizing end of life decisions, I'm there on the front lines changing lives for the better just by being me.

I absolutely adore the majority of the people I work with, and those I don't adore I like a lot. I offer up thanks on a near daily basis for the opportunity to work with such wonderful people, and there's no group I'd rather have behind me in a crisis. Most of us have been working together on the same unit for at least three years now, several have been working with each other since before I came in over five years ago. We've been truly lucky that the newer people who have started with us, aside from just a couple of people who are no longer employeed there, have all meshed wonderfully with our team. We all think fairly highly of ourselves, but there's no ego competition; we're all pretty much open to suggestions from each other regardless of level of experience or education. Management can be another story entirely, but I've come to grudgingly appreciate that they have their own pressures to deal with and it must suck to be stuck in the middle between corporate expectataions and the floor nurses.

One more thing, and then I promise I'll stop. I treasure the fact that I'm in a profession where the learning never stops...just when you start to think that what you're doing is old hat, someone comes along with a diagnosis you've never heard of or the doc starts a patient on a med you've never given before. I'm a nerd, I'll admit it, and love learning about new things. I'm not in school at the moment, and it's making me crazy, but at least I can depend on my patients and docs to come up with things for me to research on a weekly basis.

Okay, that's it...sorry so long, I just feel passionately about what I do and what I am...that coupled with a natural propensity towards a love of writing essays guaranteed a long post!

zuzi · May 13, 2009

Well my dears after I read you... I am ashame to tell you that I am in nursing because nursing is part of me, I fell nursing I dream nursing, I wakeup in the night nursing, I am like that. If you have a good team you could make difference in your patients life. I worked with good teams and bad teams, with awesome managers,doctors, pharmacists, nurses, Cnas and very bad ones....a danger fro patients, danger for others...I am in nursing because is how I am and how I fell, how I was borned, rised, educated, always to think with my brain and to make a difference in people life. I am in nursing because my BP is going high to sky when I see a patient in not a good condition and it is not adressed yet, because we are there JUST for paycheck, damn it. I am in nursing because i saw good doctors and Cnas and good people generally NOT FOR MONEY, but always FOR PATIENTS. I know I am strange I am not like you guys, but is just me....I am an alien, lol

My exemple that always was in my face was a old doctor, very good and very smart, the best ever....one day he took my hand and goes with me in his locker room, I needed to buy a TV, and I was just nurse at the start of my carrier, a yellow chick, lool, crazy yellow chick nurse, without money. He open his locker, a lot of money was there... I looked scarred at him... what's up doc? He told me.... "I am the best doc from here, I don't care about all these money, money are made to help people with them, yesterday a young patient of mine was dead, I wished to give all these money to be able to save him....grub some money and go to buy yourself a tv!" Is not about about what he did is about what he opend in my soul, we are here for peole, not for money, and if you fell that one time in your life you fell that ever. Was amazing people in my life and they build me how I am now ... I wish to have the chance one day to build others nurses in the same way....nurses for patients!

travel50 · May 13, 2009

In reference to the posts on the previous page about bare butts. Must share an experience. I was visiting my daughter one time. Her friend was a nice young woman, but her husband was a assinine drunk. He got drunk at their backyard party (lots of soldiers and families there) and decided to embarrass me. So he dropped his drawers and showed me his bare bottom. I simply said, "Hmmm, I've seen better looking butts than that in the nursing home." Oh, he sobered right up, pulled up his pants, and went inside, not to be seen again all evening!

But back to the subject of this post...I am at the point where I could quit. I always thought I would quit as soon as I could. But I don't do so now. I dearly love my nursing home residents. My staff and I are a family also. It is stressful, but we hang in there together. We need to make a difference, and here we know we do.