What do you hate about nursing and why?

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

OMG, what do you do if you know that they are wrong, but absolutely insist on you doing what they say?

Make sure you are right. Once you are sure, tell the doc you can't do the order because...

If it's giving a med, for instance, tell him you will get the med for him to give, but that you will not be giving it. They usually back down at this point and go check with their Attending or higher-up.

If possible, run the situation by the Charge Nurse or Supervisor first to see if this person shares your evaluation of the matter.

If you have to stand your ground, try to suggest an alternative. But don't let yourself be forced into doing something you think is wrong.

What would you do?

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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.

Why do you let smokers break? Why do you let clerks watch Netflix? Why do you toilet your own patients? You need to get your back up, Girl. Put your foot down. STOP doing anyone else's work. The patients might suffer somewhat initially, but staff will begin to realize that you are not going to do all of their work anymore, esp if you don't get a break, a meal, a toilet break. Only you can change this.

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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.

Have you been coming up with suggestions of how to change things?

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
Why do you let smokers break? Why do you let clerks watch Netflix? Why do you toilet your own patients? You need to get your back up, Girl. Put your foot down. STOP doing anyone else's work. The patients might suffer somewhat initially, but staff will begin to realize that you are not going to do all of their work anymore, esp if you don't get a break, a meal, a toilet break. Only you can change this.

I work in an ambulatory setting. These folks are "with it" and know of the decisions they make. I counsel, but many just roll their eyes and tell me "I know already". So I shut up after that. They have the freedom to ruin their health at their peril. I can't change squat! This is ingrained in my specialty; my patients are extremely pedantic.

But their failure to adhere affects our quality scoring and raises cain with the State. It's really no-win.

This "girl" (as you put it), doesn't HAVE backup.

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Specializes in Dialysis.
Why do you let smokers break? Why do you let clerks watch Netflix? Why do you toilet your own patients? You need to get your back up, Girl. Put your foot down. STOP doing anyone else's work. The patients might suffer somewhat initially, but staff will begin to realize that you are not going to do all of their work anymore, esp if you don't get a break, a meal, a toilet break. Only you can change this.

Many times, management will back the offenders because they can't afford to lose warm bodies. Sad fact of life, but true in many facilities

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Specializes in NICU.

I hate working weekends and holidays and missing special times with my family. That's really the only thing I really hate about nursing.

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Specializes in oncology, MS/tele/stepdown.
Why do you let smokers break? Why do you let clerks watch Netflix? Why do you toilet your own patients? You need to get your back up, Girl. Put your foot down. STOP doing anyone else's work. The patients might suffer somewhat initially, but staff will begin to realize that you are not going to do all of their work anymore, esp if you don't get a break, a meal, a toilet break. Only you can change this.

I agree with you, but you know it's not just me. Everyone else has to care. If the person doesn't do the work on their own or when prompted by me, and then the charge nurses and the manager don't do anything, then nothing's changing. But you're right, it has to start somewhere.

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Click, click, click. Learn a new system. Mandatory prompts. Bean count, tidy the chart, click, click, click.

Yep, turn Q2 lest CMS comes down hard, pull that Foley within 48h lest the CDC rain fire upon you, don't scan that Norco and run risk of running afoul of DEA...

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Specializes in LTC.

Cleaning up the results of a suppository and realizing after the fact that you forgot to put extra chux down.

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