Whatever happened to going to school to be a nurse?

db2xs · Dec 3, 2016

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

"At times"? It is always a business to the administrators.

8130 · Dec 3, 2016

It would be interesting to find out exactly why so many young nurses don't aspire to be a long term bedside nurse. Years ago nurses often "opted in and out" during times of childbearing and so forth. So many families are dual income with small children today and I think it's forced a lot of young women to make different kinds of career choices. Hard bedside work, weekends and holidays with young kids and a husband who works just isn't sustainable long term for some families. I think there is also a push for girls to choose careers that don't line up with the "pink collar" reputation.

db2xs · Dec 3, 2016

The other day as I sat at work listening to coworkers talking about career paths and what degrees they should pursue I couldn't help but think back to when I was a new nurse 32 years ago. I went to school to be a nurse, as everyone in my class did. The discussions were where do you want to work, not what is your career goal. It seems no one wants to just be a nurse anymore. This is all pushed with the magnet statuses, national push for more and more education and I wonder what is so bad about being a nurse caring for patients year after year. Most young nurses I hear talking are appalled at the thought of your entire nursing career caring for people. I am sure there are some new nurses who just want to take care of patients, but I haven't talked to many. I find this sad.

A couple of things: I don't see anything wrong with wanting something more and having a career path. Thirty years ago, women in general did not have as much opportunity to rise up to something more than taking orders from some older white man. Yes, I know 30 years ago was the 1980s, which is not that long ago, but women still had a huge hill to climb in terms of workplace/career equality at that time. Unfortunately, we still do. But at least we're seeing progress: We almost had a female president!

I had a previous career and was doing fine in it but I wanted to take care of people and make a difference in people's lives--hence, the career change. But I did not want to do it as a bedside nurse, I wanted to do it as an advanced practice nurse.

I don't think there is anything wrong with someone wanting to be a bedside nurse. Getting more education is not everyone's cup of tea. But things are not the same as 30 years ago, so it shouldn't be a surprise that people do not want to stay with bedside nursing. Bedside nursing is rough. I have older nurses tell me all the time how it was so much easier back in the day and how it's so much harder now and how they can't wait to retire, how they're exhausted all the time.

We have nurses on our unit in their 20s, 30s, 40s, who are exhausted all the time. We're burnt out. We're not just supposed to be nurses, but we're also secretaries, lackeys, housekeepers, customer service representatives, service providers, punching bags, etc. And then who's the first one to be blamed for something that goes wrong? Us, the nurses. It is stressful, for sure.

autumn_forever · Dec 3, 2016

I want to be a neonatal nurse because my niece and nephew were both premature and I want to help those who have no voice. More hands on than charts.

LadysSolo · Dec 3, 2016

I am an NP who is planning to go back to the bedside in a few more years to end my career. When I started my advanced degree, my manager at the time tried to push me into management, no way! I wanted to stay "hands on." And why back to the bedside? I want to work 4 8-hour shifts per week, pick up extra if I want, and go home and NOT have 4 to 6 hours more paperwork to do per night after an 8 hour day. I want my home time to be free time. NP is NOT all "roses." I am not sorry I did it (did it after 23 years at the bedside,) I love being an NP but the paperwork is killing me.

KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN · Dec 3, 2016

I think the demographics of the folks entering nursing have changed dramatically, not in small part to the state of nursing education at all levels nowadays. With the dawn of the day of "midlevel provider", everyone with an eye toward everything from anesthesia to internal medicine have seen the BSN as the portal to a "rewarding" life long career that has little if anything to do with "nursing".
Universities have become aware of this and capitalize on it for maximal return. Moreover, because of the increased demand for BSN's, academic requirements for admissions have become ridiculous, some well known schools not considering less than 4.0 GPA's for admission to a bachelor's degree program.
This means that folks with enough academic horsepower to go into engineering, law or even medicine do the math and discover that advanced practice nursing is a very favorable path to take.
So, as the OP implies, the type of folk that went into nursing even 25 years ago are not the types that enter today by a long shot.

THIS, too.

I honestly like bedside - at the particular place I work now, because of wide clinical authonomy it gives to nurses. But, even with this, I feel stalling sometimes. The clinical realities of so many settings - the wast educational and science background many new grads carry, vs. very limited opportunities to apply all this knowledge, - create controversy which is, IMHO, the core of many problems experienced by modern American nursing as a profession. It doesn't pay for itself to create an ambitious, creative, highly educated professional with solid hard science background to be used basically as a cross between a tech and a waitress and make him or her to ask for an order every time some absolutely basic intervention has to be performed. Many of these people won't settle for all that silly limitations, even if problems of brutal physical work, NETY (yes, it does exist), low pay, forever increasibg expectations, etc. wouldn't exist. Add to that the fact that in too many places these bright and smart people are literally eaten alive simply for beign bright and smart, and you'll get clear enough picture. These people will look for an exit, and since they are shown where it lies even before they actually enter the profession, they happily go directly there.

seraphimid · Dec 3, 2016

Maybe they don't feel like they can provide the best care working at a hospital under a very dogmatic and broken system of medicine.

KathyBSN · Dec 3, 2016

I went from high school to college, and obtained my BSN in 1977. I was the first BSN hired at my hometowns hospital. Within months of starting there, management began asking me when I was going to move on into management. I had no desire to do that, I became a nurse to take care of sick people. It was my fathers decision I go away to college, because he thought it was good to get the whole college experience and get out of town even though we had an ADN program in our local community college two blocks from my home, and also, because he was paying for it!

I have worked my entire career (you do the math!) hands on. I did dabble in middle management for a short time, but still chose to take care of patients too. I am so lucky to have worked with the teams I did, as we all became nurses for the same reason, and cared for each other as well.

It does sadden me now, as many my age are retiring or already changed careers, after dealing with the changes that have taken place through the years, that so many nurses now choose nursing because it's a quick way to get a decent paying job, or a stair step to management. You can tell by their attitude and the look on their face and their actions they are watching the time clock. I have heard "just a nurse" so many times I don't even react anymore. God help our profession.

Quickbeam, BSN, RN · Dec 3, 2016

I've been an RN for 30 years and was an NA for 10 before that, working my way through my first degree working in nursing homes. What I hear now from nursing students and young nurses is: "get a year of experience and then get your MSN, become an APNP". The ironic thing is that so many other of my peers who paid so much money for expensive MSNs ended up back at the bedside when the promised flood of job opportunities did not materialize.

I have been well well served by my BSN and had no interest in graduate school. Many APNPs are getting pushed out of the market here by PAs. I loved my bedside years and could not have moved on to case management without that experience. I always credit my nursing assistant experience for my successful nursing career. That's where I learned the heart of nursing.

tcRN2015 · Dec 3, 2016

I feel somewhat jaded by nursing, in general. I received an associate's in nursing last December, and I am currently working on my BSN. I have been unable to land a position in a hospital at all. I have had to work in SNF to gain experience while finishing my BSN. I did picture myself working at the bedside, maybe not for my entire career, but for a good 20 years or so. My bad days as a bedside nurse have far outweighed the good days, and I have considered leaving the profession multiple times. This isn't due to a lack of skill or knowledge, this is due to the public's general misunderstanding of exactly how overworked nurse's really are. I am frustrated by people who interrupt me with trivial things when I am focusing on something that is important, and demand that I respond to their situation immediately. My experience working in TCU/LTC is that nurse "leaders" are really those with the most experience who, instead of leaving SNF for an acute care job, take a management job to leave the floor. These people tend to be jaded, and very disrespectful. They don't stand up for their staff, and mentorship thus far in my career has been minimal. I find no help when dealing with horizontal violence, either. I agree with db2xs who says that nurses are basically responsible for everything under the sun in health care. It is draining to not be able to just come in and take care of your patients. You are basically working for the social worker, the janitor, the CNA, HUC, staffing, and the kitchen. I have recently left bedside nursing for a position as a case manager, and will likely remain put until finishing my BSN, then beginning a DNP program for my NP.

Honestly, I can see the frustration that some nurses have with new nurses leaving bedside nursing, but there has been research completed on how to hire and retain high quality new graduates. The issue is that people are treating new graduates as if they are incompetent to work at the bedside. It's as if hospital administration has forgotten that nursing education is leaning more and more toward theory and research, even in Associates programs, as time goes on. We no longer have clinical 40+ hours/week like the diploma nurses did in the old days. New nurses need more structure, guidance, and mentorship.

Not everyone is for bedside nursing. Honestly, if it were a requirement that you can ONLY enter nursing if you commit to working at the bedside for your entire career, there would likely be an even bigger nursing shortage than there is now. I don't know about you all, but I'm glad for any help that I can get when I'm short staffed..

seraphimid · Dec 3, 2016

I'm experiencing this very same thing doing my BSN. I would take more clinical hours over "professional nursing" any day.

SuhreRN · Dec 3, 2016

Yes, I've been in the Nursing Bed Side environment, since 1991. As well as the Prehospital EMS setting 9 years prior to RN-BSN career. Letting ALL nurses know that, every hospital/Healthcare System [AKA = Corporations], focus is on ROI/Profits over People for decades now. If you aren't inclined to think so. Look at the 2006 filed Federal Antitrust litigation case. See Detroit Nurse Wages - Keller Rohrback-Complex Litigation Law Firm. There was another similar case settled out of court in 2009 in Albany, NY. Along with another Antitrust case currently in the Federal District Court system, down in San Antonio, TX.