Who actually likes nursing??

RNperdiem, RN · Dec 21, 2012

I love nursing. But then again, I work once a week.

Compared to lots of other jobs, nursing means something. I feel my work is important and gives back to society even in a small way.

I once had a temp job where I spent 2 full-time weeks running menus through a laminating machine. It about fried my brain, almost as much as the 2 weeks I spent photocopying files for a mortgage company all for $6/hr.

I guess what you get out of nursing has a lot to do with what your expectations are going in. The "do what you love" school of thinking has its downside in that people get some unrealistic expectations about work. There are people looking for jobs that do not exist.

mmcnabb3 · Dec 21, 2012

Thank you everyone for responding!

Based on the first response, yes i totally agree, a forum is usually to vent, it was just hard because two posts that you see on the right was about quitting and never looking back (right after finishing nursing school and on her second degree...exactly like me). I just wanted to see other point of views, since this is my second degree, id like to finally finish with a job, and not hate it and start on my third bachelors degree lol. If anything i think i have a realistic perspective going in.

I currently work at a high end restaurant in Newport Beach CA and man do you kiss ass and treat people like they are the queens and kings they think they are. I would love to get out of that but it sounds like its no different in nursing. maybe its good practice for me since i am so good at holding my tongue now haha.

I wouldn't base my future on a forum but at the same time i needed to hear something positive since i have a long road ahead of me. Again thanks for responding!

Jenni811, RN · Dec 21, 2012

If i could get people off my back and be allowed to do my job i would like Nursing. However; i don't think that will ever happen. Im thinking of doing something else with my life due to this. It's sad but the truth. It was a wasted 5 years of my life and 90,000$$ (private school).

VioletKaliLPN, LPN · Dec 21, 2012

I like Nursing, I love my job, but I do not tend to like some of the family members so much. I believe a lot of problems come from the outside fodder and peanut gallery getting in our way.

VICEDRN, BSN, RN · Dec 21, 2012

I don't like nursing and its not because I had a bad day last time I worked or really the last year I worked. I love helping people but I don't like the role. I understand you want to hear encouraging messages but I have been there and done that. I ignored a lot of information that I recieved here (have been a member since I was taking pre reqs) and I regret it all the time. Please reconsider your position. You will be spending a lot of money and will feel pretty foolish if you ignore not only internet forums but statistics.

Statistics will tell you that roughly 75% of nurses will not be bedside nursing in 10 years....so the question is...what's next for you? Because 3 out of 4 times, its not nursing.

tewdles, RN · Dec 21, 2012

I have been practicing nursing for more than 30 years and I enjoy it thoroughly.

I have not always enjoyed every nursing position I have held, nor have I cared for every employer.

But nursing has been a wonderful career for me that has allowed me to develop expertise in several different specialties and practice environments.

Good luck.

DianeXC · Dec 21, 2012

I Love nursing. I am third generation and my mother loved nursing...There is always crap in any job or profession... I worked very close to physicians and NP's in an academic atmosphere...they have alot of the same pressures. You won't hear the complaints in most settings unless you have a good teamwork design. Yes your job has stresses. If you can't handle stress then this is not the profession for you. Nursing school is the filter. If you can get through the rigors of a stressful education, if you can tolerate the exercises in futility, if you can deal with seeing incompetence or averice (and deal with it as it calls on you to do so) and if you can openly discuss in a professional manner, with your instructors, your rationale or your disagreement with one thing or the other, then you just might become a nurse. I obtained my Associate degree, moved to another state and had to take many more {regents required} prerequisites for my Bachelor's program. That completed, I am seeking my Masters. Yes, there are times that I feel like we are stretched too thin in providing good patient care. Just imagine, though, if you could bring back back-rubs to the floor. Evidence is supporting back-rubs for customer satisfaction. That is precious time, that you can assess your patient, discover symptoms or signs that support interventions. If you can elicit nursing based changes, with collaboration with physicians and perhaps even be involved in M&M meetings, you can bring nursing forward. I did so in our group on the matter of catheter associated infections.

nurseywifeymommy1 · Dec 21, 2012

This is the best, most satisfying job I have ever had next to being a mom. I wish I would have gone to nursing school in my 20's. sure there are something's I don't like, but that's in anything you do. For me the good outweighs the bad.

SionainnRN · Dec 22, 2012

I love nursing!! I graduated in 2009 and there are ups and downs but I can't imagine doing anything else. Luckily I was 27 when I started college so I already knew what I didn't want to do in life.

olddragger · Dec 22, 2012

I really like nursing--did it for 35 years. However it does seem that more and more acute care facilities do NOT like nurses.

If nurses could somehow unite and let truths be known...... sorry for the thread jack.

Once a nurse ALWAYS a nurse. It could be the best profession in the world.

Wynettern · Dec 22, 2012

I use to like nursing, the job is not bad but the perception that others have is. Those nurses that hate their jobs I'm sure it is because people have showed them little or no respcect.. When I was going to nursing school I was excited and everyone in my family was like, " Wow, she's a RN" as if it meant something... I thought it did as I wore it proudly until I started working and found out that there is little respect for nurses regardless if you are a RN with 10 years experience or just a new nurse. The preception of nursing is that we are unintelligent, most doctors in the hospital straight ignore us and don't take anything we say about the patient into consideration. I keep getting my feeling hurt when I tried to understand the hostility between the nurses and doctors and even the pharmacist. It's really simple, they don't see us as professionals but more like technicians, easily replacable. When the DNP program came to light all claws came out and it has been real ugly even with patients posting ugly things. Doesn't matter if you are a LVN or RN, or even A CNA they see us all the same. It saddens me that I feel so lowly. Was going to be a NP but I now read that this is laughable.. so I'm leaving nursing for a more respected field, don't know what yet, maybe psychology or I may even try to med school. I'm sorry, but other nurses too have made it this way.. I wanted to a professional and valued as such not just good enough to empty bed pans as many people still see us as only being good at. You know they are training techs to do our jobs, starting IVs and everything,and in skilled nursing facilities we have med aides that pass our meds so what is our future??

joanna73, BSN, RN · Dec 22, 2012

This is a safe place for nurses to have support, and health care is very disorganized to say the least. OP, until you are working on your own for at least 6 months, you can't begin to understand why. Students idealize the world of nursing. Then you get out on your own and experience how nursing really is.