Who actually likes nursing??

VICEDRN, BSN, RN · Dec 22, 2012

3 out of 4 times, it's not bedside nursing. Nurses can take on countless roles that extend beyond direct patient care in a hospital setting (teaching, research, public health, etc.). That's what is meant by that statistic, not nurses leaving the profession of nursing altogther.

I believe that nurses move into other roles to mitigate their damages. The logic goes something like, "I hate this role but maybe this other role won't be so bad. Anything is better than this. Anything." Or it goes, "Basically, I only did this so I could be a nurse practitioner or CRNA."

I can sympathize. I have student loans to pay. Pursuing another career path, even PA means losing the money I invested in this career path.

The only people I have ever met who liked nursing are people who have been in it for 20-30 years and are reflecting on the sum total of many years of experience beginning back before many of the workplace changes took place that make nursing unpalatable. It seems most people who graduated since 2000 or so hate this career and again, studies have shown that this is NOT a profession of HAPPY PEOPLE for the large part! (People who are happy with their jobs.) Most nurses do not like their current position and most of us are thinking about leaving our job within the year.

All I am trying to do is prevent the OP from going down this path and becoming another nurse who moves in to pharm sales in 3 years because she is sick of the garbage of nursing. Or underpaid clinic work where she doesn't utilize her skills. Or graduate school even though it doesn't fit her lifestyle right now.

Princearies26 · Dec 22, 2012

I love nursing one because like Ms.Nightengale made it for it is to care and heal the sick or injured and whatever the case. In these days doc's, nurse etc have really forgotten the reason we became nurses and medical professionals. Money took over and I promised id always be a patient care nurse and human first. I love what I do and I honestly am a Proud Male Nurse who leads with his heart and not eyes, no matter what people are people. So, treat them like it :)

M/B-RN · Dec 22, 2012

I do not love my job. But I don't dread it, and I just do what I have to to get through the day. Honestly, unless you are a movie star or whatever, who really LOVES or even likes their job? Very few people. Work is not meant to be fun, it's mean to be a service you provide for exchange of money. If you can at least stand it, while being in a decent mood, work hard at it, and not make the situation worse by sitting around complaining and wasting time, you will be just fine. The majority of people in this world have very unrealistic, high, expectations for everything.

I do my best every shift and avoid the complainers (take breaks separately from them, chart standing up in the corner, etc) and go home feeling fine most everyday. That's my advice to enjoying your role as a nurse.

olddragger · Dec 22, 2012

One thing I have noticed. Doctors today in the acute care facility are more willing to accept the RN as a college but the RN within the facility has roadblocks in their way that impends this relationship. Things like computerized charting that is so user unfriendly that Dr,s no longer even bother to read it ( Yes I can remember a time in which Dr's DID read nursing notes!), Rn's not available to round on their patients with them, Rn's that are not prepared to discuss a problem with the Dr offering possible solutions, RN's that are not confident, RN's that do not demand respect, RN's that will not ask honest intelligent questions--it all adds up to the nurse not receiving the respect they deserve. If a person feels disrespected then dissatisfaction follows. Fresh graduates need good mentors to teach them how to gain respect from everyone!

Sure, the administration side of an acute care facility is sometimes the worst. For those times the only bargaining tool we have is the choice to work there or not.

DaniannaRN, ASN, BSN · Dec 22, 2012

I've been an RN for almost 8 years, and I hated being one for about 5 years. When I worked in the hospital and LTC, I was miserable and was actually looking to change professions. I looked into special ed teaching. Don't get me wrong, I love taking care of patients, educating them, watching them get better, supporting the family. I hated the schedules, working weekends/holidays, putting up with management BS.

Now that I work for an insurance company, I'm so happy and would not want to be anywhere else.

Just remember, you don't have to work in a hospital when you graduate. It's good for experience, but not necessary. It's also ok to go to another place or floor if you are not happy. Good luck in your schooling and in your future career.

Florence N · Dec 22, 2012

Here is my question to new and experienced nurses....
I am just starting my nursing program and 99% of the topics on this forum are nurses venting how much they hate their job
So i just want to see the flip side, make me not regret doing two years of pre reqs and a 3 year masters program for nursing if it is going to be hell like most topics say it will be.
I would just like some insight on people who like their job, or just some stories that make the job worth it. What area of nursing do you like, which floor, or type of nursing etc and any advice you have to a nursing student.
Thanks and happy holidays!

I have retrained as a nurse and am really enjoying helping the residents in a long-term care facility. It's such a vast field and can open up many doors for you. - Hospitals, doctors offices, rehab., coding, etc. You will find your niche! Nursing school was great, but where I am now I don't care for many of my co-workers. (They call the Board of Health on each other). I try to stay out of the politics and do the very best job I can for the residents. I have had a couple of residents say that I am the best one they have. - This part is very rewarding, and makes me believe that I have made the right career choice!

playgames1 · Dec 22, 2012

Amen!

paradiseboundRN · Dec 22, 2012

I love being a nurse but a job in nursing is not always great. I love the respect that nurses get from the community. I love saying "I'm a nurse, and people usually listen. But, I think that nurses are underpaid, subservient and often abused so being a nurse and working as a nurse are two different things for me!

umcRN, BSN, RN · Dec 22, 2012

I love my job! I have worked two years in a NICU and now two years in a pedi cardiac icu. I just love it. I love the families and the kids, the babies. I love that *most* of the physicians I work with value my opinion as part of the team. I love being with my patients for the entire 12 hours and being able to pick up subtle cues that they are going downhill before they crash. I love the kiddos that have moved into our unit, whether for chronic issues or because they are waiting for transplant but too sick to be at home or on the floor. The two year old who even though he feels like cr*p and was near intubation that morning because he was doing so poorly but with a little dobutamine perked up and still managed to smile and blow kisses to anyone who came by his room. I love the "simple" heart surgeries, the kiddos who extubate that night, have no complications and who we rarely even remember because they get out of ICU so quickly. I love the wall of photos and cards from grateful families and healthy warriors. I even love the cards and return visits from those parents who lost their children but valued our care of their child that they come back to thank us for doing everything we could.

It seems that it is becoming the time that most of my aged peers are returning to school, for NP, a masters or nurse anesthetist. Not me. I have no desire to leave my bedside. My next plans involved travel nursing for a year and then moving back to my home state and hopefully getting a job in the Children's hospital there. Maybe I will be a transport nurse someday but I'm definitely not leaving my tiny patients any time soon!

Mijourney · Dec 23, 2012

I enjoy the status of being an RN, but I do not enjoy the attitudes of many of the nurses I encounter. The trick is not to take your co-workers to heart. If you do, you will be frustrated by your environment. Working at the bedside, in particular, will frustrate you because you not only deal with the attitudes of your co-workers, you have to deal with attitudes of patients, families, physicians, administration, and other staff. One of my mantras is to come to work with an attitude of caring, compassion, and gratitude. If you truly understand the purpose that causes you to show up for work, you will be able to overcome the negativity regularly found in what turns out to be toxic environments. BTW, I do enjoy my job at this time and feel that nursing was the right choice for me.

OnceMorewithFeeling · Dec 23, 2012

I like nursing. I don't like the business model of healthcare delivery, where patient safety takes a back seat to profit.
I do not simply follow doctors' orders or perform tasks. I practice the profession of nursing.
I love nursing. I hate the "job" that is "nurse". Do you see the distinction?

This is the best summation of how I feel about my profession that I have ever read. You really articulated it for me.

OP, there are things that I love about nursing and moments every day that are rewarding. Working hard with a patient and taking them from being intubated and sedated at the start of shift to sitting in a chair and taking clear liquids at the end of shift. Trusting in your knowledge and your assessments, and sticking to your guns by having serious discussions with the MDs on your patient's case--seeing the plan of care altered for the better based on these discussions. Talking to a family who is really, really scared and explaining and normalizing the situation for them so that they understand what is going on. I leave work many days feeling both proud of how awesome I am, and incredibly privileged and lucky that I am allowed to work with people at such vulnerable points in their lives. Very heady.

But there are also so, so, so many days that I leave work demoralized by the job. Edicts handed down every day from committees full of people who you have never heard of, and who have no idea what your job entails. Your organization pays big money for an "efficiency" consultation group to walk around with clipboards for the week to observe nursing staff, and when their results show that what is really needed is more staff, the entire expensive enterprise is abandoned. You bring up a real concern at a staff meeting ("We are starting to see so many bariatric patients, and we really want to be sure that we help them to be as active as possible, but we don't have the staffing.") You hear nothing for weeks. Six months later, a new double-charting initiative is announced, aimed at making sure bariatric patient activity is charted.

I could go on and on, as I'm sure most posters here could.

It's not nursing that gets you down. When you have been a Nurse on your shift, you are uplifted and flying high as a kite.

It's the job that gets us down.

I still haven't found a solution to that conflict.

FLmed · Dec 23, 2012

The things I love: my patients, educating them, my coworkers on my floor, seeing how my care plan helps in the healing process, labs and pharmacology.

I don't like: management trying to put more patients on you (our ratio is 6, but they often give us 7 on the day shift), management expecting the impossible, management expecting customer satisfaction to be perfect when a nurse just can't be in 10 places at one time, being written up for not taking report in a timely manner from the ED (but you were gowned up taking care of a C-Diff Code Brown with no help from a CNA), being interrupted 12 times while you're just trying to finish one task for your current patient.

There really is a huge difference in what you expect nursing to be when you get out of nursing school. I really do try to make a difference and I'm a very kind person. With that said, I just wish the ratios were lower. I would really love to have the time to holistically treat my patients. I work on a Medical/Surgical/telemetry floor. We also deal with a lot of stroke victims. I like the fast pace! It makes the day fly by. I've already told you how much I love my patients, but I hate having to tell them, "If I can get some time later, I'd love to sit and chat with you more. Right now I have a man who (insert Emergency here -- and it's not a lie)." There's always something that goes wrong. It could be that the pharmacy didn't send up your drugs, a blood glucose is 400, you get a critical lab, somebody wants to leave AMA, somebody falls on you, you get an admit and a discharge at the same time, somebody codes on you, somebody pulls their IV out, a patient who has altered mental status and they are scared (but you can't sit with them-- there's not enough time), a man has a distended bladder and isn't peeing, somebody yells at you because you didn't bring their pain meds on the exact minute that they were due, oh this list could go on and on. I just want more time with the patients!!

Management wants patient satisfaction to go up, well doesn't it make sense to give the nurses less patients? Outcomes for excellent patient satisfaction might actually be attainable. I know job satisfaction could potentially be impacted positively too if we just had more time with each patient.

I'm a very loyal person with a strong work ethic. I've always had glowing reports from prior employers. Since management makes our jobs so hard, it makes meeting their objectives impossible. It really has affected my self esteem. I'm a good nurse, but on paper, I don't always meet their expectations. : (

Nursing is extremely stressful in the acute hospital setting. I heard a fellow nurse say, "I don't know many nurses around here who aren't on an antidepressant or a benzo." Of course there are exceptions to this. I'm not on anything... yet. I don't want to generalize either. I do know plenty of nurses who use other methods for stress reduction. I run and it has worked well for me so far.

Oh, one more thing, I'm going to be working Christmas this year. I have a young son. He's only going to be little once. I went into nursing knowing that I'd have to work holidays, but it still makes me sad.