Why did you if you hate it ?

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I keep reading over and over how everybody (not really everybody) hates their job as a nurse and are soooo miserable. My question to you guys is why did you decide to become a nurse in the first place ? Also, what is it that you really hate in nursing? :coollook:

Specializes in Medical.

I suspect that there are two reasons nurses don't like their jobs. The first applies more to newer nurses - it's not what they went in to nursing expecting. The reality of nursing is very different from clinicals, in almost every way - shift work, public holidays, long hours, and often nothing like the autonomy and decision-making tutors talk about feel quite different in reality than they do when you know about them as abstract concepts.

Along with this are all the interpersonal dramas that you're shielded from as a student - difficult patients, painful relatives, demanding doctors, irritating allied health staff, rude support staff, and ward politics.

Added to that are the details you have no idea about as a student - documentation, bed pressure, mountains of paperwork, finessing bed moves to get in an isolation patient, form after form, flack from admin, ongoing learning, documentation, chasing up every other associated discipline to review or document or prescribe, safety checks, meetings and inservices by no-longer-ckinicians who've forgotten that you have the same amount of work to do but now an hour less to do it in, and prioritising.

I trained through a hospital system, which eased my transition, so that I gradually had more responsibility and more exposure to these aspects of nursing, rather than being hit with them straight out of the gate. And things were significantly less acute back then.

Which brings me to the issues that affect more experienced nurses - greater acuity, more technology, fewer resources, higher patient and family expectations, never-ending "improvements" made by non-clinicians and that usually mean more pointless work, insufficient consultation, increased responsibility and accountability, and (as for the grads) an ever-growing pile of paper work.

And, now into my third decade of nursing, I still enjoy it far more than I don't. But, knowing burn out happens, I'm studying for an alternative career so I have options, and that also gives me breathing space away from work.

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I found this once, dont know where anymore, but I kept it , interesting comparrison.

Miners and nurses

I always tell folk that it ( Nursing) is the equivalent of coal mining in a way. We work in the dark, too. And at any time our world can cave in just like in a mine. And like mine owners, our hospital managers care about profits more than worker safety or well being. Nursing is a job made and structured in the US to be very destructive to our health. Just like mining is often designed into for the mainly men that do that work.

What is missing with this comparison, is the solidarity that sometimes exists in mines. Miners do have a bunch of 'superiors' constantly on hand screwing the work up, but at least not directly in the mine shaft as a rule. But this constant interference is what keeps nurses from supporting each other. Nurses lack the solidarity that miners often have with each other.

For example... Miners have an occasional foreman who is also considered a miner giving orders. But floor nurses have a whole zoo of low level adminstrators that have RN attached to their names. These folk won't do, so they adminster and 'teach' others what is to be done. Miners have nothing quite like that to keep their solidarity from coalescing- Like in Nursing.

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Specializes in Flight RN, Trauma1 CVICU STICU MICU CCU.
I keep reading over and over how everybody (not really everybody) hates their job as a nurse and are soooo miserable. My question to you guys is why did you decide to become a nurse in the first place ? Also, what is it that you really hate in nursing? :coollook:

Because staffing grids favor the dotted line over patient safety / reasonable workloads. Because there's no replacement for CA's who call in and we must work unassisted. Because patient's that NEED pca's don't have them. Because Doctors write orders at shift change and don't flag the charts. Because the house supervisor sends you patients immediately before, during and immediately after shift changes / during medpass rounds. Because you get a 4 admissions and there's only 3 nurses on the floor. Because you get paid 21.50 an hour and deserve 40.

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Specializes in PACU, OR.
I suspect that there are two reasons nurses don't like their jobs. The first applies more to newer nurses - it's not what they went in to nursing expecting. The reality of nursing is very different from clinicals, in almost every way - shift work, public holidays, long hours, and often nothing like the autonomy and decision-making tutors talk about feel quite different in reality than they do when you know about them as abstract concepts.

Along with this are all the interpersonal dramas that you're shielded from as a student - difficult patients, painful relatives, demanding doctors, irritating allied health staff, rude support staff, and ward politics.

Added to that are the details you have no idea about as a student - documentation, bed pressure, mountains of paperwork, finessing bed moves to get in an isolation patient, form after form, flack from admin, ongoing learning, documentation, chasing up every other associated discipline to review or document or prescribe, safety checks, meetings and inservices by no-longer-ckinicians who've forgotten that you have the same amount of work to do but now an hour less to do it in, and prioritising.

I trained through a hospital system, which eased my transition, so that I gradually had more responsibility and more exposure to these aspects of nursing, rather than being hit with them straight out of the gate. And things were significantly less acute back then.

Which brings me to the issues that affect more experienced nurses - greater acuity, more technology, fewer resources, higher patient and family expectations, never-ending "improvements" made by non-clinicians and that usually mean more pointless work, insufficient consultation, increased responsibility and accountability, and (as for the grads) an ever-growing pile of paper work.

And, now into my third decade of nursing, I still enjoy it far more than I don't. But, knowing burn out happens, I'm studying for an alternative career so I have options, and that also gives me breathing space away from work.

Yes, these are the harpoon jabs-as opposed to pin pricks-that harry many youngsters of real potential out of the profession. TV shows, recruitment drives, medical-theme novels, none of them really tell the "down and dirty" facts about nursing. Contrary to the image of the caring Nightingale placing a cool hand on the heated brow, or looking all professional and sexy at the bedside of the critically ill patient, the bulk of nursing care is basic care, with all the attendant gunge, grunge and smells!

Oh no, nursing is not a glamour profession. What it is, however, is physically, emotionally and mentally challenging; heartbreaking, hilariously funny and tooth-grindingly infuriating; it is the making of some and the breaking of others.

To all those new nurses who have made it through their first year and are in for the long haul-congratulations, you are amazingly strong people;

To those who are halfway there and are thinking of giving up-hang in there, we're all rooting for you!

To those who are still in college, don't be afraid-if you have what it takes to get through the training, you will have what it takes to carry on learning for the rest of your lives.

To those who have given up, I have only this warning to give you, and I'm speaking from experience here; once a nurse, always a nurse. This ruddy profession doesn't let you go that easily, and even though you think you're out of it now, don't be surprised if it sneaks up behind you shanghais you back in.

Johnny Depp (or Edward Scissorhands, or Willy Wonka, or the Mad Hatter), most nurses who say they hate nursing only think they hate nursing, or perhaps they only hate it for that moment. It is a love/hate relationship anyway.

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Yes, nursing care is basic care, with all the attendant gunge, grunge and smells!

I call it,... "The sweet smell of job security!"

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Specializes in Vascular Access Nurse.
i hate the version of nursing going on in hospitals and other facilities right now, not nursing. 10:1 pt. rations and we are somehow expected to make these people feel like they are the number one priority.

wow. my hospital does it's best to keep the rn/pt ration at 1:5 or 6 on regular med/surg floors during days and evenings and 1:8 at the most at night. plus there is usually one cna for every 8-10 pts during all shifts.:nurse: i'm counting my blessings!

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Specializes in Vascular Access Nurse.
it's just sad that this has to be mentioned. the visible underwear, ugh. i'll never understand it.

i'll be the first to admit that i don't iron my uniform. it may not have crisp, starched seams, but it is clean and relatively free of wrinkles. as single mom of four working full time while continuing my education towards my bsn, ironing is the last thing on my mind! (i haven't had a pt or supervisor complain yet!)

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Specializes in M/S, Travel Nursing, Pulmonary.
i'll be the first to admit that i don't iron my uniform. it may not have crisp, starched seams, but it is clean and relatively free of wrinkles. as single mom of four working full time while continuing my education towards my bsn, ironing is the last thing on my mind! (i haven't had a pt or supervisor complain yet!)

i wouldn't even know how to iron mine. lol

ironed scrubs won't do me a bit of good when my pt. starts going downhill on me.

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