Why should I remain in nursing?

[Ronin]

The other day, a patient at the dialysis unit I work at asked me, "Are you looking for a new job yet?", this struck me as odd because I have been looking for a career change, I hadn't told anyone about it.

She asked, because she knows I have been an RN for about 3.5 years, and she saw the results of a study that showed most male nurses look to get out of the field after about 4 years.

I have been considering prospects elswhere for about the last 6 months. I don't see the healthcare situation in the US getting any better with Howdy-Doody sitting in the Oval Office. And, quite honestly, I am tired of putting up with the B.S. we are expected to put up woth as nurses. I love the work, but the jobs stink. I'll live on the streets and beg for food before I'll work in a nursing home again, and I'll burn my license before I work in a hospital again.

The patients and staff all trust, respect, and like me where I work. But with the cuts coming in state medicaid and federal medicare re-embursments looming, staff is being cut, and we are getting higher and higher acuity in hwat is supposed to be an ambulatory unit...HELP!

[Ronin]

...I became a nurse because I want to leave the world a little better place than when I came in. But that's getting more and more difficult with the changes sweeping the healthcare system, and I don't see those difficulties being resolved without a fundamental paradigm shift.

THe system has collapsed under its own weight, and needs to be replaced, not repaires or overhauled. We need to first start by removing the profit motive for health care. Next we need to examine priorities, i.e. distribution of a finite resource. How do we ethically determine who recieves what services? Finally, the healthcare consumer needs to be educated thoroughly so that they have realistic expectations as to what the healthcare system can provide.

But do our politicians and healthcare industry leaders have the will to undertake this fundamental change? I don't think so.