Why should I be a nurse if it's so awful?

Nurses General Nursing

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I've been reading allnurses.com for about six months. Started posting today. I've read over and over and over about nurses in tears--not due to patients, but due to other nurses. This is disheartening, and as one who is starting school full of the enthusiasm and idealism that is the norm for student nurses, I'm truly beginning to question whether or not I will have wasted a LOT of money and my time, only to find the work environment so horrible.

A sincere question: if this profession has a work environment that is extremely hostile more often than not, why should I become a nurse then? If patients are hardly ever the "problem," then they aren't the solution, i.e. "You're helping people!"

I have been a nurse for over 27 years and have worked in many different fields from critical care to education to flight nursing. Nursing is awesome. I feel truly privileged to be a nurse every day and have no regrets what so ever related to my career choice. Have I met some unfriendly, negative, toxic nurses along the way? You bet I have. I have also worked with nurses who have become life long friends. You will meet negative, self-important people no matter what field you choose to work in. Try not to take it personally. It's probably not about you at all. It's about their insecurities or unhappiness and their need to spread their pain. If you want to be a nurse girl, you go for it and don't let any bad stories or negative attitudes change your mind. Get that diploma or degree and the world is your oyster my friend. Nursing Rocks and so do the majority of nurses. Good luck.

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Something like this came up for me last week. I'm a new grad who's in another (pricey) nursing internship to gain extra experience. I've been reflecting on the sometimes emotionally damaging experience of school-- I'm doing my best to detox myself. I sat and talked w/ a friend of mine who's taking care of 10 patients per day in a SNF: the best job she could find. It's the same story you've heard: can't do proper, even safe nursing, she spent the first 2 months crying at work and crying when she got home. All this coincided w/ some PMS-ish emotional vulnerability and my question was, "Why would anyone want to be an RN when it's so awful? We're in a position to be abused by each other and docs and sometimes patients! This is horrible! I can't recommend it to anyone!"

Then the next day I got to take care of the most adorable dementia patient, who had survived the holocaust [at Auswitch.] A complete honor. Then I got to take excellent care of a dying woman and made her family's last days with her a beautiful as possible. I got over my PMS and my negativity [and I trust those feelings to come back and go away again]

As people have said: it's like any industry, and the worst part of the job can be getting along w/ peers. I know I am better in a smaller, relaxed hospital. I know I probably won't stay at the bedside or even in a hospital: again, there are lots of places to be a nurse and I know that with my RN, I will be able to find what works for me.

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I would suggest working at a hospital as a nursing assistant or extern. That will give you an indication of whether it's for you. The problem is getting stuck in the classroom and not really understanding what the clinical life is like. It will make you less fearful and see whether or not you can work in it.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Long term care, Public Healt,.

Dear Dudette10,

While your fears about the nursing professional are for the most part genuine and valid, as a new nurse myself and having been through at least two horrible job experiences in the last one year, I would still say "follow your dreams and passion". As you might know the nursing profession is ripe with bullying, negative attitudes, and lack of support for new/student nures, nonetheless there are still many places and nurses who carry on the good work while also supporting and nurturing their younger sister/brother nurses on a daily basis.

It might make you a little happier and hopeful to know that in the last decade or so increasing interest has been focused on the issue of nurse on nurse violence also known as "lateral violence" in the healthcare community. More and more healthcare organizations, hospitals and agencies are realizing the full scope of lateral violence and how that is impacting their overall nurse turn over rates, patient care, and employee health problems. In some of the major hospitals there are now whole departments assigned to address this issue. So, I would say there is hope for the younger nurses. Bottom line is if we all got scared and afraid and did not accomplish our dreams because of a few bad/horrible people the world would be a very different place.

So, keep your dreams and hope alive and dont be intimidated by these unhappy, nasty, negative bullies.

Your work as a new nurse should be to always be aware of whats happening around you (be safe), to be honest, caring and ethical in your work practices (patient focused) and to confront any bullies who come out to attack you or dishearten you (create positive change by talking about the issue).

There are many jobs where the actual work is not as difficult as dealing with the nasty, arrogant, and bullying colleagues/coworkers, so nursing is not alone in that respect. But you will see that nursing is one of the professions where your work can make a huge difference in the lives of people on a daily basis and these people need you.

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Specializes in LTC, Neurology, Rehab, Pain Management,.

You will have challenging times anywhere under any circumstances. Nurses tend to "eat their young." With time and experience you will eventually grow a thick skin. When you have many women at many phases of life trying to work together, each individual will have their own way of doing things, thinking things and just being.

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Specializes in psychiatric, UR analyst, fraud, DME,MedB.
Dear Dudette10,

While your fears about the nursing professional are for the most part genuine and valid, as a new nurse myself and having been through at least two horrible job experiences in the last one year, I would still say "follow your dreams and passion". As you might know the nursing profession is ripe with bullying, negative attitudes, and lack of support for new/student nures, nonetheless there are still many places and nurses who carry on the good work while also supporting and nurturing their younger sister/brother nurses on a daily basis.

It might make you a little happier and hopeful to know that in the last decade or so increasing interest has been focused on the issue of nurse on nurse violence also known as "lateral violence" in the healthcare community. More and more healthcare organizations, hospitals and agencies are realizing the full scope of lateral violence and how that is impacting their overall nurse turn over rates, patient care, and employee health problems. In some of the major hospitals there are now whole departments assigned to address this issue. So, I would say there is hope for the younger nurses. Bottom line is if we all got scared and afraid and did not accomplish our dreams because of a few bad/horrible people the world would be a very different place.

So, keep your dreams and hope alive and dont be intimidated by these unhappy, nasty, negative bullies.

Your work as a new nurse should be to always be aware of whats happening around you (be safe), to be honest, caring and ethical in your work practices (patient focused) and to confront any bullies who come out to attack you or dishearten you (create positive change by talking about the issue).

There are many jobs where the actual work is not as difficult as dealing with the nasty, arrogant, and bullying colleagues/coworkers, so nursing is not alone in that respect. But you will see that nursing is one of the professions where your work can make a huge difference in the lives of people on a daily basis and these people need you.

And ...also the beauty of you knowing this now , is that you do not want to be the nasty , unhappy , negative nurse.....you want to be the one that takes new nurses under your wings and mentor them the best that you know how and teach them all that you know. You will benefit from this , because now you have nurses in your floor that will make your life less stressful since you have nurses that knows what to do and efficient...after all you taught and showed them the ropes ! :nurse:

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I absolutely love when I have students! They got my back!

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.
why should I become a nurse then?
You shouldn't. There are already far too many people in nursing school and recently graduated. You should definitely pick a different career field.

See how easy that was?

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Dude...

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If your not really into nursing then why should you be in this kind of job. If ever you will be in this kind of job you must expect bad environment well, as you know, in working environment their is always bad and good on it. Just go to a job where you are really interested.ok my dear?

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I think you just need to listen to your heart when you are with the patients.

I'm block 1 in nursing school and just starting clinicals. In long term care we basically spent our time changing briefs and doing peri care, and if we were lucky we got to pass some meds and take vitals. But I was assigned to two wonderful people. One was going to get better and go home eventually. The other was probably not going to live much longer. It wasn't about the peri care and poop, it was about the human beings I was serving. It made me feel good to make them clean and comfortable and restore some dignity to them since they had lost so much freedom and dignity in their lives being in their situations.

Today in the hospital clinicals I was right off the bat asked to clean the feet of a patient who had managed to step in his own stool several times and then get back into bed in the night, so by the time they discovered it in the morning it was seriously caked on. It was gross, but I could tell he was enjoying the foot soak and massage (he was a bit cognitively impaired by very sweet). I helped shower another pt who had a stool accident in her bed. They were short on CNA's that day so the RN's were doing a lot of the "grunge" work. I did a lot of nursing related things, too, like pass meds, take vitals. Towards the end of the day I helped move an immobile, very very large person from one bed to another. She was in such pain, and I held her hand and she looked at me and squeezed back and looked into my eyes and I knew I was meant to be an RN. It's not glamorous. I have met some very mean nurses, but more nice ones who are patient with me as I learn my skills. I am looking forward to going back tomorrow and giving that pt with the messy feet another foot bath so I can see him kick and splash in the water like a child in the bath and more relaxed than usual. :)

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Hey don't turn your back on this field just b/c of what seems to be a huge # of bad posts; I passed Nclex last April and started f/t right away and was lucky enough to get a great paying job- But I work 7p-7a which I hate and am not learning much, but since we're mired right now in a miserable depression w/ few new jobs, I'm happy to be paying off bills. I've worked in several other professions and nursing is ultimately no different- you have workers who invest their hearts and bodies and believe that they're making a difference, and you have gigantic corporations whose only goal is to reduce costs and maximize worker output. They all speak of "valueing" their workers. Right.

In the middle are the rest of us, earning salaries and doing daily grunt work. I work in a non-traditional nursing field and probably could not tolerate medical surgical nursing, altho every field practically demands experience in it, and the hospitals refuse to hire new grads to give them that mandatory exposure and experience. ( this is what nursing has in common with every other field- laser focus on hiring only workers w/ great "experience" and skills while abjectly refusing to hire newer grads to provide them that mandatory experience. It's infuriating but that's the new American reality.

What you need to do is research the many branches of nursing and find something suitable- MILLIONS of old people that will be flooding the healthcare system very shortly, demanding services, and somehow this country will pay for that, but that creates a huge demand for us healthcare workers. So in a country mired in a loooong recession, nursing is still a great career choice ( on top of caring for others).

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