We tell the student nurses to run for their lives."

Sheri257 · Jan 6, 2004

Well, my plan is the following:

I'll probably work for the one unionized hospital in my area, where conditions are supposedly better. (I'm also lucky to be in California where the ratios are supposed to help.)

If that doesn't work out then, after I get my one year's experience, I'll probably go with a registry and hop around different places to see what I like. A friend of mine found her niche in dialysis this way.

In the meantime, I'll continue to work on my bachelor's and, with a lot of exposure to different employers, assess the marketplace for advanced positions like nurse practitioner and anesthetist. Depending on the employers I meet, working conditions, opportunities etc., I'll probably decide on which advanced degree I'll pursue from there.

I do have friends who's employers have paid for their advanced education and allowed them to take two years off with a guaranteed job once they finished. Maybe I'll do something like that, although I won't be stupid and sign my life away either.

mattsmom81 · Jan 6, 2004

Originally posted by lizz
The relentless mantra on the board is to get out of nursing all together. Well, that's does NOT give a complete picture of the different alternatives that are available in nursing.

Does this not speak volumes to you if the 'relentless mantra' shows such a level of frustration? It should.

I don't believe you are truly listening to what nurses here are saying. Most of us LOVE what we DO. It is the environment of practice that is the problem. The institution of healthcare and all that entails. The working conditions, etc etc.

It is not my job to tell you what you should do with your life. It is not my job to be a counselor to students, give alternatives, etc.

This IS a BB for nurses, after all. We vent, we talk, we share. We shouldn't have to 'shut up' on our BB because it offends students when we speak of our life careers.

Such entitlement! :rolleyes:

RNIAM, BSN, RN · Jan 6, 2004

An instructor once said to our class that there is no excuse for a unhappy dissatisfied nurse ever! There are too many choices out there for nurses today for that to ever happen. Just take a look at all the message boards here and you can easily see that the door is wide open for change. The study also says that 70% of nurses are happy. Is the cup half empty or half full? If it were me and I was unhappy I would seek out those 70% and ask them why they are happy? What makes every day worth it for them. I am a nursing student with a back ground in the health care field. The nurses I looked to for guidance weren't the nurses who were miserable, hateful and sad all the time. They were the nurses who went about there day with a pleasant demeanor. They organized their patients and then set about to care for them. They were the first nurses to jump up if anyone needed a hand. They were the first nurses to offer an explanation for everything that they were doing, if you expressed an interest. These in my opinion were the satisfied happy nurses who I will be one of when I graduate in May. If you allow "negativity to rent space in your brain," then that is where you will be and nothing will help it. I have worked in enough places to know that happiness and dissatisfaction are part of every profession and not exclusive to nursing. Will I have great days, absolutely. Will I have bad days I am sure they will happen. Will I take each day as it comes? You bet!

Sheri257 · Jan 6, 2004

Originally posted by mattsmom81
Does this not speak volumes to you if the 'relentless mantra' shows such a level of frustration? It should.

I don't believe you are truly listening to what nurses here are saying. Most of us LOVE what we DO. It is the environment of practice that is the problem. The institution of healthcare and all that entails. The working conditions, etc etc.

It is not my job to tell you what you should do with your life. It is not my job to be a counselor to students, give alternatives, etc.

This IS a BB for nurses, after all. We vent, we talk, we share. We shouldn't have to 'shut up' on our BB because it offends students when we speak of our life careers.

Such entitlement!

Of course it speaks volumes, and obviously I am, in fact, listening. Your collective arguments are so convincing that I'm now ready to go elsewhere. So tell me where to go.

It's not your job to be a counselor? Well, that's great. But you're more than happy to send all of us out into the job market where the alternatives may, in fact, be worse.

That's really lame. If you want students to take your complaints and advice seriously then, give us some serious alternatives. And if you can't do that, then I stand by my statement.

Do you guys have any clue what the job market is like out there? Perhaps you've heard of the recession? Thousands of layoffs? High unemployment rates?

Do you think hospitals are the only greedy corporations that screw their employees? Not by any means. And have you ever worked in any non-nursing jobs that are much better?

That's what I'm asking for. I'd love to hear about experiences other than mine, but if you can't offer that then you don't have a clue. And you certainly can't justify telling students to get out if you haven't been out there yourself.

I may not have a clue about nursing, but I do have a clue about the alternatives out there, and it ain't pretty.:angryfire

CCU NRS · Jan 6, 2004

I love this board~!!!!

I love to see everyone being so active and I especially love to see students that have never worked a real nursing job be so defensive aboout the profession they have chosen! To This I say...

Life and your profession and any endeavor worth the time it takes to pursue are chancey at best!!! You live and learn and make the best of what you have. Yes nursing is like any other job in that there will be good days and bad days, there will sunshine and there will be rain, there will feast and there will be famine!!!

One of the major differences being that in sales you may send your customer away with a product that you fully understand and are able to teach them to work and be compatible with, in marketing you may invent a wonderful slogan that will sell millions of your product, on an assembly line you may beat you quota and in any of these jobs you may do well daily or you may falter occassionally and either way it is no big deal.

Nursing is a full time responsibility with constant repercussions and endless outcomes that will directly effect the life, livelyhood, longevity, well-being, mental stability, emotional stability, and overall affect of nurses providing care.

I agree that people are all basically either glass is 1/2 empty or 1/2 full types and in nursing as any other profession we have our share of both, the factors that continue to cause the situations that nurses feel strongly about and the direct root of the dissatisfaction with healthcare in its current state of evolving are obvious to everyone involved and will with time and effort be changed (hopefully)but surveys such as the one HBSCOTT dropped a link to for us all to peruse will or may or could help all nurses with this endeavor!!!!

Because even though everyone does understand and is aware of the issues involved the numbers continue to grow and with more numbers you have a larger base to pool resources from to attempt to resolve things through proper channels and with a united front across nursing lines we may just be able to make some of the changes we would all like to see.

So IMO a lot of those of you who are claiming to be glass 1/2 full people are coming here and complaining about an article that openly discusses the dissatisfaction of nursing by nurses and want to rally and say we are just starting don't try to ruin it for us, the fact of the matter is that you are being glass 1/2 empty types and trying to bring experienced nurses down from a position that we have earned through hard work and diligence and an understanding of the actual working environment and the hope that through articles such as these we will eventually gain some recognition of the problems we face and in the end a base of knowledge on which to base future uprisings against the people that advocate 10:1 nurse to Pt ratios and Minimum number staffing over maximum number and working with outdated equipment and having non-medical managers run things without the understanding required to properly run them and insurance compamies that dictate length of stay and physicians that abuse staff D/T some unfounded God complex.

In short (too late) articles like these are helpful to all involved and can only shed light where onece there was darkness.

Thank You again for posting it hbscott

ps on a side note I really like to go with you are either an Elvis person or a Beatles person you may like both but in your heart you prefer one over the other and this is who you are.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Jan 6, 2004

Originally posted by CCU NRS
ps on a side note I really like to go with you are either an Elvis person or a Beatles person you may like both but in your heart you prefer one over the other and this is who you are.

What if you DO prefer both (but are still aware that Elvis, John, and George died, and are not working in 7-11's in various parts of the world)?

CCU NRS · Jan 6, 2004

Originally posted by LPN2Be2004
What if you like both (but are still aware that Elvis, John, and George died, and are not working in 7-11's in various parts of the world)?

Sorry I happen to know that Elvis is alive and well working as an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas I saw him!!

John well that thing with Yoko didn't work out exactly as he planned he so he faked his death and moved to Africa to live with Jim Morrison.

Unfortunately George is dead alas we mourn poor George!

hbscott · Jan 6, 2004

Originally posted by CCU NRS
...you are either an Elvis person or a Beatles...

Well, I do like Elvis and the Beatles but the truth be known I like Elvis just a little bit more. It doesn't hurt that my son was born on Elvis's birthday either (just a few days away).

-HBS

CCU NRS · Jan 6, 2004

I can never get anything to load when I try to add file or photo or whatever how did you do that?

Oh yeah I am an Elvis man! Nothing wrong with the Beatles I just am!

hbscott · Jan 6, 2004

Originally posted by lizz
I may not have a clue about nursing, but I do have a clue about the alternatives out there, and it ain't pretty.:angryfire

Lizz,

I believe that there is no profession more honorable or worth pursuing than nursing. What has been frustrating for me personally and so well documented on this board is the deteriorating working conditions that nurses are forced to deal with almost daily. I guess I need to be a little more careful about being realistic but at the same time not stifling the enthusiasm new students bring to the profession.

If you are smart and savvy you too can navigate the system to obtain the goals you seek. I certainly did. I just picked my battles carefully and did my best "one day at a time" in every job I had. I like your plan. Just remember to be flexible and adapt as market and job conditions change. They always do.

Good Luck!

-HBS

hbscott · Jan 6, 2004

Originally posted by CCU NRS
How did you do that?

No problem. Do an "image" search on Google. Find an image that you like, is of a reasonable size and then "right click" to invoke the properties of the image and copy the http:// address field of the image into the image insert tab above the comment field next to the vB Code menu.

Hopefully I explained that well enough for you to follow through.

-HBS

CCU NRS · Jan 6, 2004