Why I'm STAYING in nursing

Nurses General Nursing

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Variety of opportunities, growth potential, and availability.

It's exhausting, frustrating at times, and I love what I do.

Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.

It's so GOOD to see a positive thread about nursing!!

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Specializes in Critical care.

nothing but a JOB.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

Me too. I'm a babe in the woods compared to many of you (11 years). But I love what I do and my career is a huge part of what defines me as a person. It is way more than just a JOB to me.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, LTACH, LTC, Home Health.

Well, far be it for me to tell a lie. I'm only here for the paycheck.:smokin:

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Specializes in Private Duty Pediatrics.

Staying in nursing because it's a job, and it pays the bills is a valid point. Still, those of us who enjoy our jobs have it made. My Mom told me that I should pick a career doing that which I enjoyed, because I would spend so much time doing it.

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Specializes in Unit Nurse.

Because, at my age I don't want to go back to school to earn another degree, starting from ground zero at new line of work, and taking a pay cut to build up to where I am now. Or majoring in something that pays better but having to pay student loans again.

Don't get me wrong I still enjoy working with most patients, but family members are a totally different story, especially those with a MD from google.

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

I could drop my current job any moment, but after I found a unit where I am accepted and valued, I kind of feel that I would like to do something for these VERY special people who treated me as a human being. The staffing is frequently short, so, I do at least one good shift a week, even with 25 clinical hours in addition.

Plus, I just love to do certain things which, after I graduate from Masters', I probably won't be able to do any more. Wound vacs and "impossible" IVs, for example.

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

Don't get me wrong I still enjoy working with most patients, but family members are a totally different story, especially those with a MD from google.

We developed working stage classification for these family members:

Stage 1 ("I heard it somewhere... on TV... yeah... coroNAL artery they said. Or something"): Dr. Oz School of medicine student

Stage 2 ("here, look, it is over there... coroNARY artery... it is in the heart, isn't it?): Wikipedia MD

Stage 3 ("hey, doesn't alcohol keeps arteries wide? So, if I drink just a bit but often, doesn't it mean it will help my heart?"): Google School of medicine proud grad.

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We developed working stage classification for these family members:

Stage 1 ("I heard it somewhere... on TV... yeah... coroNAL artery they said. Or something"): Dr. Oz School of medicine student

Stage 2 ("here, look, it is over there... coroNARY artery... it is in the heart, isn't it?): Wikipedia MD

Stage 3 ("hey, doesn't alcohol keeps arteries wide? So, if I drink just a bit but often, doesn't it mean it will help my heart?"): Google School of medicine proud grad.

Nice. Love it! :) We're developing a satirical resume of all the things we do that aren't part of our job descriptions. Also a "menu" of things we don't feel we should have to do but do anyways (finding things that aren't actually lost, answering pagers / babysitting the pager farm, etc). For the more egregious offenses (losing things that are valuable to one person but have little institutional value, say, for example, a watch or fitbit) there will be a tiered payment system based on number of times the offense has been committed.

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Specializes in nursing education.

I am SO happy to see a positive thread like this, as opposed to the flouncing-out-of-the-room "I'm leaving nursing!" drama post. Sorry, but I'm here because I love it.

Sure, my relationship with nursing has had its ups and downs, but long-term: it's never, ever boring; it allows me to use my scientific side, my creative side, and my "people" side (like a triangular Frosted Mini-Wheats, lol); and it pays better than anything else.

Plus, second shift. Even as a nursing instructor, they let me do second shift clinical and afternoon lab and class. I don't know that I could live my authentic circadian rhythm anywhere else and make this much money. So many wins!

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I knew I could learn a dozen different jobs without changing professions.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

I finally found a pretty decent job that is fairly laid back and pays decent, AND it is

only about 15 minutes from where I live. Hallelujah!! :)

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