Why does everyone in healthcare not like their jobs?

ebear, BSN, RN · Nov 19, 2007

Medicine used to be a great field years ago and included all of the things you listed. Politics,money, and corporate mentality took over in more recent years. These issues have been successful in souring the attitudes of those in healthcare.

ebear

AU-RN · Nov 19, 2007

haha, a true reply to this would be 2 pages long. Just read and browse through the hundreds of threads and responses on this website and you will see why Nursing is so frustrating and the numbers of nurses are dwindling.

If I had to sum it up....the fact that patients and patients families expect us to treat them as if they are in hotel and demand the right to "customer service" and that the management backs them up. Thats the number one thing I hate about being a nurse especially since nurses are overworked, underpaid and treated like crap from the patients/families. It will NEVER change and will only continue to get worse as our society in general continues to become more and more selfish.

But....you can always find a job and you make decent money if you do it the right way....so for those reasons I would mention it to people trying to figure out a career but in general nursing isnt the fairy-tale Florence Nightengale crap you thought of before you started working the real world. Its not about actually helping people b/c half of the patients could care less about you and if you dont kiss their ass then they report you to the managers who "take care of it"...instead of growing a backbone and telling the "clients" that we are NOT the Hilton Hotel and that we are not Burger King and you cant "have it your way!"...haha

ebear, BSN, RN · Nov 19, 2007

double posted

rainfallrx · Nov 19, 2007

haha, a true reply to this would be 2 pages long. Just read and browse through the hundreds of threads and responses on this website and you will see why Nursing is so frustrating and the numbers of nurses are dwindling.
If I had to sum it up....the fact that patients and patients families expect us to treat them as if they are in hotel and demand the right to "customer service" and that the management backs them up. Thats the number one thing I hate about being a nurse especially since nurses are overworked, underpaid and treated like crap from the patients/families. It will NEVER change and will only continue to get worse as our society in general continues to become more and more selfish.
But....you can always find a job and you make decent money if you do it the right way....so for those reasons I would mention it to people trying to figure out a career but in general nursing isnt the fairy-tale Florence Nightengale crap you thought of before you started working the real world. Its not about actually helping people b/c half of the patients could care less about you and if you dont kiss their ass then they report you to the managers who "take care of it"...instead of growing a backbone and telling the "clients" that we are NOT the Hilton Hotel and that we are not Burger King and you cant "have it your way!"...haha

I couldn't have said it better myself!!!

TazziRN, RN · Nov 19, 2007

"NOBODY" is the wrong word to use. There have been many posts on this and similar subjects here, and there are quite a few of us who would recommend nursing. I love my job. My daughter is following in my footsteps and I am proud of her.

ktwlpn, LPN · Nov 19, 2007

So the thread "if you could do it over again, would you?" has really got me thinking, i went and researched some other medical forums, and pretty much NOBODY in healthcare recommends it to students/younger people, this includes :
nursing
optometry
MD/DO
Dentists
Pharmacy
why does everyone not like their jobs? i understand that nobody really likes their jobs, but almost every doctor, nurse, etc. told me if they could do it over again, they wouldnt, why is this? I have worked in business, retail, sales, and those fields suck and are unpredictable and i couldnt see myself doing that forever, but i always thought healthcare was different, you have a guranteed job, good pay, good benefits, good knowledge, room for advancement, helping others, so whats up with this?

I like mine.....I recommend it to others with the following proviso-You can't just screw up and not care-You are dealing with people's lives......

wooh, BSN, RN · Nov 19, 2007

I love what I do. I really do. I'd love it more if I was actually nursing instead of a customer service agent/maid with meds and needles. But going back knowing then what I know now? I don't think I would do it again. It's just too frustrating and stressful.

MIA-RN · Nov 19, 2007

I love being a nurse. I am always trying to talk my neices into becoming nurses too. And my nephews. And my son and daughter too lol.

I think that because this is a place where people come to vent, it might seem skewed, and it might seem like people don't like nurisng. In reality, probably more people like it than you think.

nursemary9, BSN, RN · Nov 19, 2007

I love being a nurse!! I have done it for 40 yrs & wouldn't do anything else.

Yes. there are days when I hate certain aspects of the job--like the politics & paper work--but the actual nursing---------you can't ask for better!!

lvlissl2ebecca · Nov 19, 2007

I love my carreer path, but I don't like my job. There is a huge difference. I love nursing. I love the fact that I can help people with my knowledge and care for them when others don't. What I hate is the constant overcast of doubt. This doubt comes from a number of things.. it comes from doctors who question your decision making and knowledge. It comes from co - workers, etc. What I hate is worrying about what you might have done wrong, because you know that one simple mistake can cost you your license and what you love to do. Basically, regulations have intruded way too much on nursing to make it an enjoyable thing anymore. You are constantly worried about what you did or didn't do right according to "the man"... even though you know you tried your best. It's like taking a test every single day. Most times when you take a test you can say "well, i tried my best".. which is almost like admitting defeat.. until you find out if you have passed or not. Well every day you admit defeat in nursing.. whether it be true or not. Nursing has gone downhill from what it used to be viewed as when I was a kid, and always wanting to be a nurse. Nurses used to be held in high regard.. some say that they are and some do hold them in high regard.. but thanks to "the man" and their constant whip... nurses have become fed up, tired, stressed, depressed, and just plain beaten down.. effecting their ability to truly focus on whats important. Its so sad.. so I do love nursing.. but i do not like my job.

AU-RN · Nov 19, 2007

Ive noticed most of the younger nurses know nursing is a good career if you want job security and money....just ask nursing students or new grads what their goals are and they will most of the time say "travel nursing". Why is that? B/c of the freedoms and money you have with it. B/c as much as the public and some few fairy Godmother-type nurses want to believe that every nurse does it b/c they want to make a difference in the world....to be honest ALOT of nurses do it frankly to make ALOT of money.......period!

When you:

1) get talked down to all the time by patients

2) get yelled at by the family members who are "so" caring that they dont show up to "check" on their beloved mother until the last 30 min of your shift and then want to try and degrade you as a person and a nurse by talking about stuff they know nothing about and did NOT observe first hand, have family members that push the call light and ask for the nurse who stops what they are doing to come in the room and find out that ALL they needed was for the oh so capable RN to help their sweet mother/grandmother/father/grandfather up to the BSC or to the bathroom b/c even though the family member is young, alert, coherent, physically able and breathing they for some reason cant seem to get off their ass and do it themselves while they sit there staring at you-criticing you

3) have doctors that dont tell patients everything thats actually going on with them but leave it up to the nurse to get bombarded by the pt/family, doctors that think ALL nurses are idiots with no common sense, doctors who care so little about their career that they continue to order narcs to a known DRUG ADDICT!!!!!!

4) have management who smiles and asks you about your family and makes you think they care and tell you "oh, your such a great nurse, you really are an asset to our floor" but then the first time a pain in the ass pt/family member wants to talk some smack about you, the manager just "reassigns" the nurses that take care of that particular pt by telling them "dont worry, you will not have that nurse again"....when the nurse DIDNT do anything wrong and never bothers to ask the nurse what the real story is

5) have smartass comments thrown at you all the time by pts/family about how their sisters husbands 3rd cousin is a lawyer or doctor...blah blah blah and tries to intimidate you which I find abusive....even to the point of one pt's family memner who placed a video camera in the pts room to secretly record the nursing staff!

6) show up to work and step off the elevator to find out that not only do you have 5 patients with 1 coming at shift change from the ER and then get told you are getting a 7th pt when your fat charge nurse sits at the station eating and searching the internet and you try to tell them that you are stressed and cant take another pt and the response is "deal with it"

7) get paid in the low-mid $20's/hr

8) have nursing assistants/CNA's/PCA's, etc who give you total attitude and dont care about how important vital signs, weights, blood sugars are b/c they honestly think that you are for some odd reason "picking" on them

9) dont get a chance to pee, eat, check in with your family via cell phone/voicemail, or sit down for 5 minutes with NO one offering to take your pts for a little while to let you go breathe

10) are crying or about to b/c your insanely stressed and again....the charge nurse could care less even though you feel like your drowning

11) have to handle the drug addicts who know exactly how to manipulate, take advantage of and lie so I can legally help them get their "fix" (even though I have a huge ethical issue with facilitating an addicts habit)

12) have non english speaking patients who expect you to learn their language to accomodate them

13) I could go on and on.........

You know what all this brings America at the end of the day?????

TAKING CARE OF YOUR OWN ASS AND YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS ASS B/C YOU HAVE PUSHED OUT ALL THE GREAT NURSES IN AMERICA TO FIND ANOTHER PROFESSION!!!!!!!