What do you love about our job, what do you not love about your job?

zacarias, ASN, RN · Jul 31, 2004

I am a nursing student and was wanting to know about everyones RN, LPN etc...experiences. Do you LOVE what you do? Are you hands down glad you made the choice to be a nurse? Are some of you afraid it isn't for you after all? Are you being paid well and feel compensated? Also, what do you least like about your job. Please be honest, I'd really love to know.
Thanks
Christy

Love your siggy SoulShine.

I'm a 26 y/o male and I'm very glad I went to nursing school and became an RN. Being a nurse has helped satisfy my thurst for knowledge and learning. It also opened my mind even more to the world, what problems people face, and that I get to try to be their champion.

I've always been a supporter of advocacy for the disenfranchised and marginalized and nursing helps me do more in that regard.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Jul 31, 2004

I love my job and can't imagine doing anything else at this point in my life. I like the diversity within this field; I've worked in nursing homes (both as a charge nurse and an administrator), assisted living, and acute care. Right now I'm a med/surg nurse, and I'll probably stick with it until I'm too old and achy to run the floor any more (which won't be too many more years---I'm already getting up there :uhoh21: ). I enjoy the variety of diseases and surgeries I deal with.......I'm never bored! Plus, I'm also cross-trained in OB-GYN and pediatrics (although not labor and delivery---I don't want to deal with that end of it) so I float fairly often to the maternal/child floor.

What I don't like is the chronic short-staffing in the name of cost control; do CEOs really think an adequate number of RNs would be more expensive than just a couple of lawsuits? I also loathe office politics, and refuse to be a part of it. And if I were to be wholly truthful, I'd tell you how much I detest the 'customer service' approach hospital administrators seem to love so much; sometimes I think the only difference between me and the average waitress is about $20 an hour! (Although guess who got "exceeds standards" in the customer-service section of her annual performance review.....?)

But, we all know EVERY job has its downsides.....for me, nursing has far more pluses than minuses. Most of the time, I can't believe I actually get paid---and paid pretty well at that---for doing something that makes me feel as good as nursing does. And the rest of the time, I'm just grateful that I'm not slaving away in some factory or working at the 7-11 for minimum wage.

SoulShine75 · Jul 31, 2004

I love my job and can't imagine doing anything else at this point in my life. I like the diversity within this field; I've worked in nursing homes (both as a charge nurse and an administrator), assisted living, and acute care. Right now I'm a med/surg nurse, and I'll probably stick with it until I'm too old and achy to run the floor any more (which won't be too many more years---I'm already getting up there :uhoh21: ). I enjoy the variety of diseases and surgeries I deal with.......I'm never bored! Plus, I'm also cross-trained in OB-GYN and pediatrics (although not labor and delivery---I don't want to deal with that end of it) so I float fairly often to the maternal/child floor.
What I don't like is the chronic short-staffing in the name of cost control; do CEOs really think an adequate number of RNs would be more expensive than just a couple of lawsuits? I also loathe office politics, and refuse to be a part of it. And if I were to be wholly truthful, I'd tell you how much I detest the 'customer service' approach hospital administrators seem to love so much; sometimes I think the only difference between me and the average waitress is about $20 an hour! (Although guess who got "exceeds standards" in the customer-service section of her annual performance review.....?)
But, we all know EVERY job has its downsides.....for me, nursing has far more pluses than minuses. Most of the time, I can't believe I actually get paid---and paid pretty well at that---for doing something that makes me feel as good as nursing does. And the rest of the time, I'm just grateful that I'm not slaving away in some factory or working at the 7-11 for minimum wage.

THat's awesome that you love what you do. I understand there are office politics wherever you are. I think that when you work in a stressful situation such as nursing and being understaffed that the best thing you can do is to have a good attitude. It will eventually rub off on others. From what I hear a lot of people complain about not having teamwork. Isn't working as a team much more fullfilling and a lot less stresfull than feeling all alone? I never understood that. I guess people get caught up in the gossip and cliques etc.. I have been there and it can make you dread going to work and that is one of the worst feelings in the world! I have learned to never give too much info about yourself away in a work environment, it can cause too much trouble. I think it's good to have fun and be able to cut up at work, it makes working under hard conditions much more light. As long as you have fun within the profession limits, that is. My number one rule to myself once I graduate and Lord knows I'm determined, is to look out for me this time but still be respectful of others. Don't ever judge people right away and always remember what you've worked so hard for. :) Thanks for all of the replies so far guys!

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Jul 31, 2004

You're welcome.......you have the same philosophy about work that I do, and that, IMHO, is how to not only survive, but THRIVE in this field. If you ever want to come to Oregon after you graduate, look me up.....I know a hospital (and a co-worker) that would love to have you! :)

SoulShine75 · Jul 31, 2004

You're welcome.......you have the same philosophy about work that I do, and that, IMHO, is how to not only survive, but THRIVE in this field. If you ever want to come to Oregon after you graduate, look me up.....I know a hospital (and a co-worker) that would love to have you! :)

Will do! THanks :)

nurses4all · Jul 31, 2004

Do you LOVE what you do? Are you hands down glad you made the choice to be a nurse?

Yes, I am. Particularly when I'm walking down the hall and walking up the hall is the patient we successfully coded a week before. Call me vain, but I like to think we get a little credit for that. :)

RNforLongTime · Jul 31, 2004

I'm an RN and I LOVE MY JOB! I really do! I work at a facility that is pretty much totally computerized. In fact, we got an award for being one of the most Wired and Most Wireless hospitals in the Country for the 3rd year in a row. I love the technology available to me where I work. We have Bar code scanning medication administration, I can pull up that mornings Chest X-ray on another computer in my unit. I document all care/VS on a computer and have a computer available outside each patients bed in my ICU. All our hospital's policies and procedures are listed on our intranet.

I enjoy dealing with the machines/equipment to help guide patient treatment. And most of all, I love helping sick people get better or at least not as sick as they were and they can be moved out of ICU. The best thanks of all is when a patient comes back to the unit to thank us nurses for saving their live. Or even if they send a thank you note. That means just as much!

RN4NICU, LPN, LVN · Jul 31, 2004

love - the babies

don't love - docs who were not told in med school that they would be awakened in the middle of the night even after their residency years

don't love - customer service - i thought i was in health care, not pr

don't love - bickering and griping among the departments and shift wars

love - helping the babies grow and get better

don't love - stagnant wages

don't love - people who think nurses are there to serve them

don't love - mbas that don't have the first clue as to what a nurse knows or does, trying to tell nurses how to do their jobs

love - catching that most subtle first warning sign that a baby is not doing well and taking action before more serious problems develop

don't love - being forced to float to units i'm unfamiliar with and being expected to take on a full patient load

don't love - being assigned to so many patients that i can't give any of them the care that they deserve

don't love - charge nurses without assignments who will sit on their butts and watch me drown, but get "really busy" all of a sudden when i ask for help.

it really depends on the shift as to which side wins. on an average day, the things i love matter 100x more than the things i don't. on a bad day...i wonder what i was on when i declared my major (and where did i put it?) lol

RN2MBA04 · Jul 31, 2004

I'm an RN and I LOVE MY JOB! I really do! I work at a facility that is pretty much totally computerized. In fact, we got an award for being one of the most Wired and Most Wireless hospitals in the Country for the 3rd year in a row. I love the technology available to me where I work. We have Bar code scanning medication administration, I can pull up that mornings Chest X-ray on another computer in my unit. I document all care/VS on a computer and have a computer available outside each patients bed in my ICU. All our hospital's policies and procedures are listed on our intranet.
I enjoy dealing with the machines/equipment to help guide patient treatment. And most of all, I love helping sick people get better or at least not as sick as they were and they can be moved out of ICU. The best thanks of all is when a patient comes back to the unit to thank us nurses for saving their live. Or even if they send a thank you note. That means just as much!

Hey you sound like a buckeye fan....work for OSU???.....I use to work at the neuropsych center...loved it....loved the hospital......

kat911 · Aug 1, 2004

I love my job, I get to go to all the "good stuff", codes, fire calls, any inhouse emergency, trauma's, etc. When I do bedside nursing I love the me vs the disease process. I loved doing 1:1 nursing care of critically ill or injured patients. I always felt good after a shift with an ustable patient who either stablized or was at least still alive at the end of my shift. I always like being able to take the time to provide comfort to patients or the families of patients who dying. Trying to make that time comfortable and dignified for the patient and trying to help family get through an incredibly difficult situation. I do a different job now by supervising but I still get my hands in there, when I can. Now I care for the staff I supervize, I like to teach and I like to make my staff feel that they have someone they can look to for backup and support. I can't always solve their problems, but I can at least listen to what they need to say. By the nature of a nurses job it can not always be wonderful, there will always be " one of those shifts" when nothing goes right and I just don't have enough nurses in my magic closet. You know about magic closets don't you, that's where nursing supervisors keep all those extra nurses, so when you call 20 minutes into your shift and say "I have to have another nurse" I can reach in there and pull one out.

The closet, of course, is never empty! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: I really do like my job!

Paramedicated · Aug 1, 2004

I love the intoxicating effect of making a "good save". Someone who otherwise would not see tommarrow if we had not been there to help them.

I hate death, flat out no questions asked, I despise entrophy.