What do you like/dislike about being a nurse ?

RNKPCE · Aug 31, 2004

I like that every day is different. I meet wonderful patients that make a lasting impression on me. The job is flexible. I don't have to work 9 to 5. I can work very part time to full time plus. I can work part time opposite time as my husband and the kids don't need to be in day care much. Being that I work with people's lives, close bonds with my co-workers.

What I dislike about nursing is the weekends, if there is something I am missing and holidays. Nursing is 24/7 in hospital based jobs. I don't like it when I feel overworked due to a heavy patient load and I can't give the care they deserve. I don't like it when family members can't let their loved ones goes. The patients who have no quality of life, and we are just poking them with needles, testing them etc.

I think most nurses will say they don't want to be 90 years old, in restraints, with tube feedings, and IV's. There is no quality of life there.

If I had to pick a career again I would still choose nursing.

Dinith88 · Aug 31, 2004

I Like helping people. I enjoy the occaisional crisis/adrenalin rush. I enjoy the job security. I enjoy working with intelligent people.

I dislike puke, phlegm, poop, and snot.

leslie :-D · Aug 31, 2004

i love the personal satisfaction and fulfillment of my pt. interactions.

i detest the disrespect the nsg. profession receives.

Ortho_RN · Sep 1, 2004

I like knowing that I might have possibly helped someone live a better/healthier life..

I hate... Understaffing and Politics in the hospital... and the families who think they know more than you and are impossible...

CHATSDALE · Sep 1, 2004

i like the flexiblity...i can work over time if i need extra money for holidays...sometimes you have to work short staffed...sometimes the executives seem to have no idea of what it takes to give good care...i was choose nursing mostly because job market was tight but there is such a thing as serendipity....sometime you get drug kicking and screaming into something you were born for

missmercy · Sep 1, 2004

Nursing is one of those unique professions that has multiple options available -- all rewarding and interesting in their own way! I have wanted to be a nurse since I was 3 -- and as my niece would say -- "now I are one" and have been for 16 years. I have worked my way from candystriping ( volunteer work) at the hospital in the small town I grew up in to being the nursing staff development department in the facility here in a large city.

I think my favorite part of nursing ( and some days the part that drives me the most batty) is all the different people you can serve. there are so many ways to help people -- comfort measures, medication administration, teaching, listening, praying, therapeutic treatments, referrals.... the list could go on and on! Nurses have come so far (in some ways) from where we began! There are technological advances happening so rapidly that it can be quite a challenge to keep up with it all! Never a dull moment (well, maybe some, but those are balanced out bey the majority of moments that are busy, hectic, frantic -- down right exciting!!

Glad to hear of your interest in nursing!!! Check out opportunities to volunteer, to work as an aide ( get some certification if you can -- looks great on a resume' and test the field -- see how you like it! If nursing is your passion, if you can't imagine doing something else inspite of the weird hours, gross tasks and administrative garbage you have to deal with -- then by all means get the education and be the best nurse you can. Experience in the field is always a great asset as you move along.

Blackcat99 · Sep 1, 2004

:) I like having the opportunity in choosing which hours I want to work. I like working night shift. I also like to work on the week-ends. I like being off during the regular week days so I can schedule doctors appointments, dentist appointments etc. It's also nice to go to a movie matinee on a week day and not have to fight the weekend crowds.

talaxandra · Sep 1, 2004

I never thought about nursing when I was at school - I always wanted to be a psychologist. I would make the world's worst [sychologist, though - I have way too little patience for going over the same thing a hundred times. I'd be all "Right, I've heard enough. You need to leave your husband, tell your sister to treat you with some respect, accept that your mother will never give you the unconditional love you want, and move on"!

I found nursing by accident, and it is the best decision I've ever made. The best advice I received was when I was in my first year of training - I came back to the Nurses' Home after an awful shift and a friend asked me if I'd made a positive difference to anyone's life that day. I had, and she said "What more can you ask for from a good day?"

I've never had a bad day at work since! At the risk of being a cliche, I love being able to make a difference. I get to teach and to learn; I help people heal and I help them die; I meet people from backgrounds that I could never have imagined; I am priviledged enough to share in the most significant moments of peoples' lives. I have had patients and relatives confide things to me they've never told anyone else. Fianlly, it's exciting - there's always something around the corner: an emergency, a new disease, an opportunity to learn.

On the more prosaic side I have more flexibility with my hours that non-nurses; I'm well paid; I know that there's always someone who coming on after me who can follow up anything I haven't managed to do (at least in theory :)); I can work almost anywhere in the world; I know there'll never be a shortage of sick people, or a glut of nurses - I have amazing job security; and I can tailor my career in any of a hundred directions.

All the negatives posted by fellow members are also true - the politics can be exhausting, but I don't think nursing's alone in that. Lack of adequate staff is a never-ending issue but I believe the need will be recognised before I die. The lack of respect can be challenging, but turning someone's perceptions around is exhilarating! Every nurse has something s/he hates, usually a body fluid, but there are worse things. I must say, if I have one more layperson's initial response to "I'm a nurse" be "Gross! All those bed pans!" I'll find a full one and throw it at them! Such a small part of my day and such a large part of the public perception :rolleyes:

Congratulations on planning to join the nrusing fraternity :balloons:

ldkrn · Sep 1, 2004

i am going be a nurse when i am older (i am a junior in high school) and i am just curious what nurses have to say about their field of work. thanks a bunch ! :)

i like the multiple options nursing gives you, especially if you're a bsn graduate. you wouldn't have this flexibility even in medicine. in 17+ years, i've done icu, long term care, home health (probably my favorite position), disability case management, and now i am working in nursing education. your skills will always be welcome somewhere! what i don't like is the politics of healthcare, the inferiority complexes some nurses get which make them denigrate each other as well as other members from the healthcare team (just read some of the posts in other parts of this forum!) and the lack of respect that sometimes comes from nursing administration. but my guess is, overall, the bad things aren't much worse than they are in any other profession...

rollingstone · Sep 1, 2004

Dislike working holidays and weekends. Like the adventure of traveling.

ednursedee · Sep 1, 2004

i am going be a nurse when i am older (i am a junior in high school) and i am just curious what nurses have to say about their field of work. thanks a bunch ! :)

what i like most about nursing is the fact that you can make such a difference in people's lives. i really enjoy the satisfaction of seeing someone come in to the er in incredible pain and leave thanking me because i've helped them. i also like being there for the families of those patients who we couldn't help. i think that is a big part of being a nurse. i also enjoy the flexibility of my hours. what other job could i be sitting at my computer in shorts and a t-shirt at 9am on a weekday?! :chuckle

what i dislike about nursing is that some people don't understand the important part we play in their care. sometimes people don't want to listen to what we nurses have to say because "we're just a nurse." :angryfire i can't tell you how that infuriates me. i also hate people who come in fighting me when i'm trying to help them. most of the time these are the od's or drunk people...but still...that really tries my patience.

all in all, however, i think it's a great profession that offers something for everyone. good luck!