I have been considering a career in nursing for a very long time and now I finally got the courage to go back to school. I'm currently taking some credits at NYU and hoping to transfer into the nursing program next spring.
Nursing has always been a passion of mine I hoped to pursue one day. Since I was a teenager I did a lot of volunteering in my home country and loved every minute of it. It was tough at times working with disabled, critically ill and handicapped children and many times I found myself crying, but somehow I always found the courage to support them and do the best I could for them.
Then I got sidetracked by different career paths and now, at 37 with 2 young children and a very supportive husband, I found the courage to start over again. I know nursing school will be extremely challenging and intense, but I think I'm ready for it.
My question to you, wonderful nurses, is if there is any side of your profession you don't like or that is extremely challenging for you?
As a volunteer I got to experience the easy part of it and I know it doesn't even compare slightly to the responsibilities of an RN, but if you could shed I bit of light my way, I will greatly appreciate it. I want to be sure to make the right choice and I take extremely seriously the importance of this profession.
I do not like the gossip, backstabbing and tattling involved in nursing. I just think it is annoying. I do not want people to do it to me and I don't want to be around it. I have learned to just stay away from it. When someone talks about someone else, I do not add anything, try to change the subject or just walk away. I know this happens in every profession, but before I became a nurse, I had the idealistic theory that all nurses should be caring and kind people (but I guess there are nasty people wherever you go).
I also hate being short staffed and I absolutely hate charting (but it has to be done)
I hate to float: I get frustrated looking for supplies and equipment (each unit has a different layout) and each unit has a different way of charting. I am always behind leaving me less time for patients.
Poor staffing to the point where it is dangerous for the patient at times. I've gone home once trembling, thanking my lucky stars that my patient didn't die on me because he was ICU level and I couldn't safely monitor and manage him as one of my 6 patients on med surg. Management did nothing when I went to them about my serious concerns. That was the day I vowed to get out of the hospital for good. Poor staffing precipitates the majority of problems with nursing. Here's a good thread to peruse if you want to see the issues that poor staffing creates:
A perfect day can completely fall apart in an instant.
If I knew ahead of time how my day would go, work would be easier. I need to be prepared for anything in nursing.
All the posts I've read so far pretty much sum it up. I really like the quote tha RNperdiem made. It is true...it would be so easy if you knew what your day would be like...but things happen that we can't predict, even in long term care settings where you mostly have the same patients. One minute you can be passing meds, and the next be running a crash cart down the hall.
Another thing that is #1 on my list is low staffing! Everyone works much harder and it's so much easier to make a med error. Ultimately, the patients suffer.
#2 on my list would have to be CHARTING. I knew in LPN school we would have to chart but I didn't expect to spend more time charting than tending to my patients! Yes, about 70-80% of your time is spent charting. The small 20-30% of your time you can actually spend with your patients (and that is usually assessing and passing medications).
I am a new RN and started working in a small nursing home in January. I HATE THE PAPERWORK! We are absolutely BOMBARDED with paperwork, 80% of which I don't even know how to fill out properly! I also hate the number of patients I have. I am new and very inexperienced, and I'm responsible for 25 people on day shift. If I work 11p-7a, I have to care for 46 people (ALONE, with 2 CNAs)! I often feel completely overwhelmed, have panic attacks, have to stay after my shift to finish paperwork, and leave completely exhausted and bawling my eyes out!
All the nurses I work with are TERRIFIC, AMAZING people who always give me pep talks and help in any way they can. That's what I love. I just hate being a novice. I feel like I don't really know what I'm doing and I have a hard time giving meds to 20 people in a timely manner. Everyone tells me that they went through the same thing and it gets better over time, so I'm trying to stick it out. I'm actually considering going to a therapist to try to do something about this immense anxiety I feel whenever I have to work. It actually makes me feel like I can't function.
I know I will love nursing once I actually feel comfortable and know what I'm doing...the question is, when??!?!?!?!
((((HUGS))) I think that with time and experience you will feel more comfortable in your shoes.
I actually went through the same emotions when starting my first job. I went from mild anxiety to severe anxiety and major depression. Now I'm on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds that are helping. I didn't have this problem before nursing, lol. Nursing is definitely stressful!
Specializes in MED/SURG STROKE UNIT, LTC SUPER., IMU.
I agree with several of the above posts. I just graduated with my RN in Aug of last year and got a job at a LTC facility in November with 3, count them 3, days of following a nurse around and then thrown out there with 20-30 patients. I didn't feel like a nurse at all, because I had no time to assess patients!! All I did was pass pills, wound changes, and treatments. Not to mention all of the paperwork and follow up with doctors orders, labs, and what not. I lost 25 lbs during the first couple of weeks of work due to the stress of it all. I couldn't eat and what I did eat came back up. It is a lot better now, but the stress of having that many patients that you are responsible for and no time to truely assess them was ready to break me at first. Short staffing is defiatley another problem, whether you are short on nurses or CNAs. If you are short on CNAs then you spend 1/2 your time on CNA work and the other 1/2 on the nursing work. Guess who stays after because all the paperwork is not done by the end of your shift???? It is a lot better now that I have a groove, but 20-30 patients with all of their care is still quite a bit in my opinon.
I am now out of direct patient care (over 3 years) but have been an RN for over 18 years. What I dislike most about my job is that I travel a bit with it. I am an educator with a large clinic system so I travel to most of our 50 sites throughout the state for training purposes. Sometimes I am driving 1-4 hours a day PLUS my regular hours -not really a 9-5 job then is it? I don't get overtime for the driving time (salaried)but I do get 48c per mile-woohoo!
That being said, I do love my job and get to listen to many books on tape !
Administrators don't respect us enough to give us the proper staffing and tools to work with to take care of patients properly. And make stupid policies without asking for nursing input to check and see if the policy will even work in the first place.
Managers who don't respect us enough (and don't have a lot of power) to fight for proper staffing and tools to provide care.
Doctors don't repect us enough to recognize nurses as colleagues and not subordinates.
Patients and families who don't respect us enough to recognize that we are well educated professionals and not glorified waitresses or go-fers.
WOW guys, thank you so much for all these insights. It's definitely and eye-opener!
So my question is: If you're short staffed and running around trying to take care of ALL your patients, God forbidden a mistake does happen....what's next? Do you scream your heart out to management and let them know that is humanly impossible to be wonder woman/superman every single day or you just suck it up and take the beat? At what point do they fire you?
Sorry for this, but I'm honestly curios on how they deal with problems that they know exists, but still don't do anything about it and continue risking patients lives?
I personally would die if I'm ever put in a situation where one of my patient risks his/her life or even loses it, because we are short staffed and I can't take care of him/her. I know I'm probably exaggerating, but this is a constant fear of mine :-(
questionsforall
114 Posts
I do not like the gossip, backstabbing and tattling involved in nursing. I just think it is annoying. I do not want people to do it to me and I don't want to be around it. I have learned to just stay away from it. When someone talks about someone else, I do not add anything, try to change the subject or just walk away. I know this happens in every profession, but before I became a nurse, I had the idealistic theory that all nurses should be caring and kind people (but I guess there are nasty people wherever you go).
I also hate being short staffed and I absolutely hate charting (but it has to be done)