What exactly ARE the wrong reasons?

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I've seen a lot of people around here state that if you get into nursing for the wrong reasons, then you are going to hate it. Well, what exactly are the wrong reasons? What are the right ones?

Great post. It's so nice to see some of the "positives" listed for nursing! I'm going into nursing at the age of 31 after being a social worker and elementary school teacher. Guess I'm just cut out for service professions and helping out people.

Anyway, I've got some friends who are nurses and the primary reason they wanted to go into nursing was to help people out and they were interested in health care. Now that they have some years of experience these are some of the reasons why they say they love their work:

1. Helping others in need

2. Great money (regional I know, Seattle area average starting for nurses is 45k/yr though my friends make much more now with experience)

3. Ability to find part time and full time work as needed

4. Physically active for those who do not like to sit

5. Meet lots of interesting (and sometimes entertaining) people

6. Never a dull moment

7. Variety of work settings and shifts

8. Upward mobility and choices, like management, specialties, NP, education and research

9. Job security (we have a lot of available jobs out here)

10. Love the comfy scrubs (yes, one of them actually loves her work uniform and could never imagine wearing a suit)

I know that nursing has it's negatives too but so does every job. Take the good with the bad I suppose! I'd say people who cannot handle bodily fluids, seeing people in pain, dealing with irritated patients/family and who don't like unexpected surprises should not become nurses.

I love hearing the good stuff, it keeps me motivated as I work toward becoming a nurse.

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Specializes in Burn/Trauma PCU.

Great thread and great responses!

I'll concur with a lot of previous posters: the "wrong" reasons would include doing it solely for the money and doing it because it was someone else's decision and not yours (e.g. my family expects it of me). I don't think it's horrible to go into it for the money, but priorities seem skewed to me for people who go into it ONLY for the money. Personally, I'm elated to be making $45K/yr to start! But it's not my primary motivation. Like Tweety mentioned, I would have probably been weeded out in school (disclaimer: I am not a toad. Promise.) if that were the case.

I think compassion is a prerequisite - you have to care. It's okay if you're more of an "adult" person than a "kid" person or vice versa, it's okay that the smell of poop makes you want to vomit (though you'll probably get over that REAL fast), it's okay if you only want to work with babies ;) , it's okay if you want a career where you get to wear scrubs, and it's okay if you would rather have less patient contact and more research. But you have to have that heart, because you need it in EVERY area of nursing. If that's not there, there isn't any "good" reason that can trump that. Ribbit.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I had a friend who was considering nursing and told me "I couldn't make it through nursing school. I look terrible in white."

Me: "Um...yeah, best pick another career. How about fashion model?"

LOL Angie!

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I would agree with the people who said that "for the money" is a bad reason. When I was doing my pre-reqs and I met people who were also trying to get into the nursing program, I got really annoyed when people were like "i'm just doing it because I can't find any other job," not even hinting that they are looking forward to caring about people, and doing a job that they can go home at night and say "I did something good for someone today." Those are the things I am looking forward to!

Also, when I was doing my CNA clinicals, I couldn't believe all the CNA's who just complained all the time about how awful their job is and how they talked so badly about the residents behind their backs! I know being a CNA isn't a glamorous job by far, but that is no way to act in a professional setting. Doesn't it make these people feel good that what they are doing is helping to make these residents more comfortable and keeping them safe? If helping other people doesn't make you feel good, I don't know what will.

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Even though I'm 'justavolunteer', I have seen enough to know that nurses have to be doggone smart just to get through school! That need for smarts definitely continues on the job. Someone who thinks they can coast through nursing if they couldn't do anything else will be in for a VERY rude awakening.

Also, someone who would rather hide somewhere at a computer all day will definitely have trouble with the 'people' part of nursing.

The pay may be good and the chance to find a job is there, but all the nurses I know earn every penny & then some.

As far as peds, I have seen more then one nurse in the float pool who had to orient on peds. The usual reaction is something like "I had to start an IV on a baby & I couldn't even SEE a vein".

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.
Here are a few more WRONG reasons:

1. I want to be a nurse because working with the other nurses would be great -- because all nurses are such nice people. (... and would be nice to me ... and understand all my problems ... etc. etc.)

2. I want to be a nurse because I need eveyone to tell me how wonderful I am. I'm shy and insecure and need the "ego stroking" that being a nurse will give me.

3. I'm going to nursing school because I'm not a good enough student to succeed in a real college major -- or in most other career fields.

4. I'm going into nursing becuase my mother, father, etc. (fill in the blank) think it will be a good choice for me.

5. I'm majoring in nursing in school because it will be good preparation for being a wife and mother someday. I really don't plan to work much, if at all, after I graduate.

6. I never really wanted to be a nurse, but when my Dad was sick 2 years ago, I promised God I would be a nurse if he helped my Dad get better.

7. I want to be a nurse specializing in psychiatry because I am comfortable in that environment -- having spent so much time in such environments as a patient, myself.

Those are just a few off the top of my head.

llg

Oh llg, really! I was going to post something along these same lines myself, lol!

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I agree about the $$$ reason for becoming a nurse. I have a friend who was a CNA and said she needed to go into nursing to "get more money for doing less work" (Less work, I said, are you paying attention to what the nurses are doing around us!!!!) She went into nursing and worked as a floor nurse for a few years, became a supervisior and got fired, became a supervisior somewhere else and got fired!!!! Had a friend who got her an asst.don position and she got walked off that job, became a don and got fired...etc. etc... get the pic???? She burned so many bridges (because many facilities are sister facilities to others) that she couldn't get another job. She finally landed a job with a nursing agency and she hates that job too!!!!!

To make a long story short...... $$$$$ is Not the reason to get into nursing!!!

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

"I can write my own ticket!" Maybe you can...but not as a new grad and only in select markets. I have a cousin who was/is a CMA. She called herself a nurse repeatedly and I got tired of correcting her. She and I kind of drifted apart... We reconnected sometime earlier this year and told me that she was applying to the community college for her RN. She said that even though she is already a nurse, she needs to get her RN so she can "write her own ticket" and make the money she wants working the hours that is convenient to her and her kids. LOL! Ok...if you say so...

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Specializes in Government.
she needs to get her RN so she can "write her own ticket" and make the money she wants working the hours that is convenient to her and her kids.

It's that type of magical thinking I worry about. I'm not saying the central intent is wrong but I get concerned when people come to me with that type of approach. The one hospital I worked the longest primarily took new grads right out of school. I was always alarmed at the other worldly ideas people got about nursing from their school. Over the years, I saw hundreds of nurses weeping over the realization they'd have to work Christmas or nights. Or that they'd have to arrange for sleepover "day" care for their kids. I'm not saying any of these things are easy but the expectations of flexibility and convenience? Whew, not in my universe of nursing.

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Couple of questions. What is "writing your own ticket"? And when you say that you don't get holidays and weekends off do you mean you NEVER get weekends or holidays off? Or do you mean that you should expect to be called into work on weekends and holidays even if you're supposed to be off?

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I agree about the $$$ reason for becoming a nurse. I have a friend who was a CNA and said she needed to go into nursing to "get more money for doing less work"

There have been a few nights when I wished that I could be a CNA! I know how hard some of them work, but when the shift is over - they go home. Their 'break' isn't sitting DOWN to chart.

I worked in specialty areas for years, and had no CNA's, so I know how to do the dirty work.

Now that I'm in LTC, I'm often finishing my charting AFTER my shift is over - the other day one of the day aide's told me that she wished she could be a nurse, so that she could sit down to do her work!!:uhoh3:

Fortunately the aide I have at noc is an angel!!

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
Couple of questions. What is "writing your own ticket"? And when you say that you don't get holidays and weekends off do you mean you NEVER get weekends or holidays off? Or do you mean that you should expect to be called into work on weekends and holidays even if you're supposed to be off?

To answer your questions to the best of my ability: Some people have the misconception that d/t the nursing shortage nurses are able to negotiate contracts to their parameters. I.E., chose to only work certain days per week, only the hours they choose (such as straight days), and get paid premium pay. Whether there really is a nursing shortage is to be debated...:deadhorse........but in most instances new grads (and some veterans for that matter) are not able to "write their own ticket" or negotiate a contract that is 100% to their specifications. I used that terminology because that was the terminology my cousin used, but basically she believes that nurses can, as they say, have their cake and eat it too.

As for getting called in...there are quite a few threads on this. But in short, yes, you will be called on your days off. Heck, you will get called on your days ON, often the phone will be ringing before you get your scrubs off...:uhoh3:

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