What do you hate about nursing and why?

Published

I'm curious to see why other nurses may hate nursing or what they hate about it? AND GO!

Specializes in oncology, MS/tele/stepdown.

I hate being held accountable for when other people don't do their job. I know that's not unique to nursing and I like being a nurse. I just don't want to hear about how I need to be doing x, y, and z when I have to call all my consults while the clerk is watching netflix, toilet all my patients while my CNAs are on smoke breaks, and go to corporate seminars and get told that I need to be "empowered" to call doctors to correct orders they should write correctly in the first place. Unless you want to pay me the hourly from all these roles, in which case, I'll shut my mouth.

Specializes in oncology, MS/tele/stepdown.
And dont you just love double & triple charting the same things in different spots??? and sometimes management doesnt even audit the extra charting..

OMG I ended up on a list because I couldn't get my blood transfusion to scan that it was finished in our blood transfusion program. So I wrote a comment on the end transfusion VS, manually entered the volume of the PRBC, and wrote my usual transfusion note, including a comment about how I was unable to scan the bag at the end. And I get an email and have to sign something because they "have no way of knowing" that the PRBC is done. Sure, you have no way of knowing the transfusion is complete unless you LOOK AT MY CHARTING. But sure, I'll sign your form, whatevs.

Specializes in PICU, Pediatrics, Trauma.
I hate being held accountable for when other people don't do their job. I know that's not unique to nursing and I like being a nurse. I just don't want to hear about how I need to be doing x, y, and z when I have to call all my consults while the clerk is watching netflix, toilet all my patients while my CNAs are on smoke breaks, and go to corporate seminars and get told that I need to be "empowered" to call doctors to correct orders they should write correctly in the first place. Unless you want to pay me the hourly from all these roles, in which case, I'll shut my mouth.

And don't forget when pharmacy makes a mistake or omits something important, or when the lab screws up and we have to follow through on getting the corrections done. Seems everything fall on us....We are the last line of defense for the patient...this is what we are constantly told. BUT...if we don't catch others mistakes, we are held accountable. I haven't seen a doctor or a pharmacist held accountable to the same defeee but certainly not punished the way we are when a mistake is made. Goes to the comments already made about our state boards. SO WRONG!

If anyone can dispute what I just said, please let me know because I've never seen other departments held accountable to the same degree.

Specializes in ICU.

Having no staff is one of the main reasons why I hate nursing

Where do I start??? I hate the unrealistic, untenable, and unsafe Patient Nurse Ratios. I hate the fact that a humanitarian vocation has been perverted into a money pit for greedy employers. I hate the fact that nurses have no rights what so ever and without legal counsel are fair game for the slightest infraction. I hate that this profession has allowed itself to literally be bullied into a corner AND THE FURTHER FACT THAT 3 MILLION OF US ARE TO BLAME FOR ALLOWING IT TO HAPPEN!!

Specializes in Travel, Home Health, Med-Surg.
And don't forget when pharmacy makes a mistake or omits something important, or when the lab screws up and we have to follow through on getting the corrections done. Seems everything fall on us....We are the last line of defense for the patient...this is what we are constantly told. BUT...if we don't catch others mistakes, we are held accountable. I haven't seen a doctor or a pharmacist held accountable to the same defeee but certainly not punished the way we are when a mistake is made. Goes to the comments already made about our state boards. SO WRONG!

If anyone can dispute what I just said, please let me know because I've never seen other departments held accountable to the same degree.

Nope, cannot dispute that, Nurses are held accountable for every other dept. Its the nurses fault that there is no TP in the BR, that PT/OT/SP didn't show up, that the meal wasnt the right one, the MD didn't show up, the DC papers didn't show up, the med didn't show up, the med was wrong so now we wait again, housekeeping didn't bring the curtain yet, the family didn't get ice yet....you know I could go on forever....Nope you are 100% correct!!

Specializes in Travel, Home Health, Med-Surg.
OMG I ended up on a list because I couldn't get my blood transfusion to scan that it was finished in our blood transfusion program. So I wrote a comment on the end transfusion VS, manually entered the volume of the PRBC, and wrote my usual transfusion note, including a comment about how I was unable to scan the bag at the end. And I get an email and have to sign something because they "have no way of knowing" that the PRBC is done. Sure, you have no way of knowing the transfusion is complete unless you LOOK AT MY CHARTING. But sure, I'll sign your form, whatevs.

Same thing happened to me once too. HELLOO people, life did actually exist before computers, its called pen and paper!

Stress that is directly caused by workplace behavior of others. Never expected to find such varying degrees of work ethic (or lack thereof) or the zealousness of expressing vindictive motives toward others as I have experienced since working in healthcare.

Specializes in PICU, Pediatrics, Trauma.
Where do I start??? I hate the unrealistic, untenable, and unsafe Patient Nurse Ratios. I hate the fact that a humanitarian vocation has been perverted into a money pit for greedy employers. I hate the fact that nurses have no rights what so ever and without legal counsel are fair game for the slightest infraction. I hate that this profession has allowed itself to literally be bullied into a corner AND THE FURTHER FACT THAT 3 MILLION OF US ARE TO BLAME FOR ALLOWING IT TO HAPPEN!!

Yes yes yes yes and yes!!!!!

I hate the constant hounding about service scores and how our floor should do better when everyone feels like we're already working so hard to please not only the patients, but the management as well.

And for the constant blame put on the nurse for every single thing.

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Also: being held accountable for bad behavior and non-adherence by patients. Our quality ratings stack against us. Patients who are repeatedly non-compliant and doing the opposite of what we advise are killing our scores, making life miserable for staff. It's no-win for us.

Specializes in Case Manager/Administrator.

The biggest irritant of nursing is that we have really no solidarity to make significant changes to our profession. If we had this we would have a greater sense of direction, greater professional pathways of what we choose, and a greater humane sense of fellowship with one another.

+ Join the Discussion