Whatever happened to going to school to be a nurse?

Soliloquy, MSN, APRN, NP · Dec 2, 2016

I initially wanted to be "just a nurse" because in theory it sounded like just what I needed to continue to focus on my own spiritual development.

The REALITY of nursing is what drove me to further my education and pursue options away from the bedside.

Soliloquy, MSN, APRN, NP · Dec 2, 2016

This all makes me wonder who will care for all of us 50+ year old nurses when we retire and start to need care ourselves. I don't see all these Masters and higher level education nurses doing bedside care. It seems the younger nurses will get out of bedside care ASAP so who will that leave? Maybe they will have a huge shortage and have to improve pay and conditions for the bedside nurses. Wouldn't that be nice.

When hospitals learn to treat nurses with the level of respect that they deserve, staff us accordingly, pay us fair wages, bring back the added work options, reduce their focus on patient satisfaction scores, etc, I think younger nurses will stay. But until they wake up...I don't foresee the issue resolving.

Asystole RN · Dec 2, 2016

What in the world does "just a nurse" mean? Is that some kind of job?

No one who is a nurse who works in the capacity of a nurse is "just a nurse." Whether you work the bedside in acute care or work in home health, teach nursing students, manage an infusion center, conduct research, or have your own family practice...all nurses doing nurse things.

KCMnurse, BSN, MSN, RN · Dec 2, 2016

It is sad. So many nurses stick their noses up at bedside nursing. Nursing almost feels like a business at times

It feels that way because it is.

WanderingWilder, ASN · Dec 2, 2016

I'm finishing my first semester of nursing school and I'm looking forward to bedside nursing. I am interested in possibly become a psych NP at some point in the future but I'm not in a hurry. One of the things that attracted me to nursing was that you can do so much with a nursing degree. There are a couple of students in my class who plan on getting to an NP as fast as possible, but most are looking to bedside nursing after school.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Dec 2, 2016

I once talked to a younger coworker, and she told me that a lot of this attitude starts in nursing school clinicals. Many of her nursing professors looked down on bedside nursing. Students were taught that they should be going on to get higher and higher degrees with the implication that nurses who worked bedside their whole careers were "lesser".
There is also a social class issue mixed in.

So the nurses going on to get higher and higher degrees makes the school more money in tuition for those higher and higher degrees. I can see why the school is pushing that. It's too bad that so many are drinking the kool-aide.

raecudzy1, BSN · Dec 2, 2016

I have my BSN and I am working towards my MSN with Public Health emphasis. I worked in a nursing home for a year and it was terrible, I'm talking cry before the shift and cry after the shift terrible. It made me rethink my career. The whole time I couldn't even get as much of an interview at a hospital for med/surg which I LOVED in nursing school. That really got me down and depressed and I started to become cold and hard and hated where my career was going. I got into a family practice clinic which I enjoyed but during this time I was getting my BSN and was in a public health clinical which I loved. It made me want to get into case management and public health. Fast forward about a year and I am doing employee health and wishing things were different for me. I wish I could have gotten into a hospital and wish I had better experiences than what I did. I can't turn back the clock now, and when you work M-F normal hours you don't want to go back to other hours or work schedule - I guess in that sense no, I don't want to go to the hospital. So now to do what I want I know I need to further my education.

la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN · Dec 2, 2016

It's funny because I find the inverse to be true: that is, when experienced nurses ask what my goals are and I say I'm looking forward to doing 30+ years of bedside and maybe teaching, they're surprised I don't aspire to an administration/leadership role. Maybe it's because they're used to new grads who have that crappy attitude of being unable to move into a management role after being on the unit for 5 minutes and can't understand why they are still doing "CNA work." What they don't know is that I already know what it's like to be a manager and I hated it and I would not wish to be in that position ever again. So, yeah, some of us still went to nursing school to be nurses without necessarily aspiring/conspiring to get out of bedside ASAP.

Sirester · Dec 2, 2016

Some people want to be bedside nurses, some people want to be nurses in different fields. Nothing wrong with that.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Dec 2, 2016

I have the suspicion that a lot of newer people in the nursing field entered just for the money. Obviously there's nothing wrong with looking out for your economic interests, but I know a lot of people who got into nursing because they wanted a steady paycheck and job security; it had little or nothing to do with wanting to work bedside or lay hands on people.

There is nothing wrong with choosing to be a nurse for the money. A steady paycheck and job security are good things. Interestingly, I've found that those who unabashedly went into nursing for the steady paycheck and job security are often those who STAY at the bedside for a few years at least. Those who go into nursing for the paycheck aren't the nurses who go straight from BSN to MSN and feed more tuition money into the school. They cannot afford to.

I find that it's those who went into nursing to be an NP or a CRNA who don't waste any time actually taking care of patients before going on for advanced degrees. I find that both sad and scary, because an NP who has never actually been a nurse is missing out on the "N" part of the "NP". I've met some really IN-competent specimens of that breed.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Dec 2, 2016

Crunch RN. Right, that's why I asked the question, so what happened to nursing that people don't want to do it? I often felt "just leave us alone and let us do what we know how to do without adding all this other crap". I think a lot of good points have been made about what is wrong with nursing, but I don't think it will change. I also think it's interesting that we have never been united as nurses as a former critical care nurse who went to a medsurg unit I expierenced critical care nurse egos that felt they were superior to us on the floor as well as ER and cath lab etc. why do we do this? Why don't we truly respect everyone's contribution to the care of patients?u

Some of us DO respect everyone's contribution to the care of patients. I'm a critical care nurse who is deeply appreciative of the nurses who are willing and able to work in LTC and (more specifically) in memory care units. I know that I myself do not have the patience for that kind of work. I have the utmost respect for nurses who work in the ED, because I LIKE my CTICU where I know that my next patient, like the last one, will be coming from cardiac surgery and will have as his primary diagnosis "CABG" or "Mitral valve replacement." I cannot imagine having to be ready for anything from a major trauma to a pimple on prom day. I'm glad that there are nurses who want to do that and do it so well. Nurses who work in psych mystify me, and I am thrilled that there are nurses who seek to look after people with mental health issues as their primary diagnosis. We all encounter people with mental health issues in our practice, and I don't find it fascinating; I find it draining. I'm glad that there are nurses who excel at working with the mentally ill. I've been a med/surg nurse and I have deep respect for those who can keep up the pace year after year. The patient load is heavy, time management is necessary and customer service skills are required. I don't want to work that hard at my age; I have the utmost respect for those who can do it, and even more respect for those who love that job.

The only nurses I find I cannot respect are those who refuse to put in any time at the bedside yet, with their advanced degrees, feel they know enough to tell the nurses AT the bedside how they should be doing their jobs. I've been in meetings with that type of nurse -- they don't know what they don't know but they seem to think they know it all. I'm all for evidence based practice, improving patient safety and better patient outcomes but please, show some respect for the nurses at the bedside while you're at it. If the bedside nurse complains that your brilliant theory for improving safety while inserting central lines creates too much work for them, sit down with them and find out exactly what the objection IS. Maybe there's a different way to achieve your goal without heaping more and more work and more and more charting upon those who are actually doing the work.

Sorry -- off on a tangent.

DowntheRiver · Dec 2, 2016

I was actually in school in a Direct Entry program to be a NP because that was where health care was heading, I was told (I was naive). I ended up getting a job in school nursing after passing my NCLEX and pulled myself out of the NP portion of the program, graduating with my BSN. And I don't regret the choice. I love my job. I love taking care of the kids and seeing them grow. I also teach health, so if I go back to school, it may be for my Masters in Public Health or Teaching, but it won't really change my job. May not be hospital bedside, but it is hands on care.
Of course, I entered nursing school with a goal to work in the community in preventive health care and chronic disease management. I thought I wanted to work with the aging population, but like I said, fell in with the kids and haven't looked bad. I can't imagine doing anything else.

I, too, have found my calling in Public Health. I don't know why it is so looked down upon. I'm a Community Health Nurse, and people always have so many questions when they find out what I do and always want to know why. Um, I don't know, at-risk populations, low income families, and refugees have a right to healthcare too, you know? They seem shocked that somebody would want to dedicate their life and career to civil service.

It does take a special person though. I can tell you I'm definitely not in Public Health for the money!

I also want to go back to school, but only to get my MPH and/or MSN in Nursing Education so I can teach part time, maybe even into retirement.