WHY do so many people hate nursing? Sigh.

NurseDiane · Feb 14, 2016

I work on a mixed peds/adult med surg unit. I like the variety of patients we get. I am thinking seriously about specializing in med-surg.

I think a lot about the whole "specialization" thing in nursing. When did it start? How did it start?

Back when people thought the earth was flat, as a new nurse, I worked in a community hospital. While I was oriented on a med surg floor, they floated me EVERYWHERE. I worked in OB, I worked in the ER, and after I had time on the med surg floor I was floated to CCU. Guess what folks? Working in OB is not so "specialty" when you're working post partum---you do rounds, check the pads between the legs of the new mothers, bring their babies to them for feedings. Sometimes I worked in the nursery---one night I was the only nurse in the nursery with 22 babies----TWENTY TWO BABIES!! I had a nurse's aide with me, and at the beginning of the shift we said "How are we going to do this?" You know what? We figured it out & we did it. Every baby got fed & bathed, and by 7am, all of the babies were sleeping without a peep from any of them!!! Now, granted, the babies didn't a "proper" bath with a basin & a washcloth (we kind of held them under the scrub faucet with the water running, LOL), but they did get washed. And we had to figure out how to feed more than one (or two, or three) babies at a time to get them all fed, BUT WE DID IT. And we laughed about it at 7am. Are those babies permanently damaged because of it? (I hope not, LOL!!) I doubt they are.

I guess the "specialization" came with the push toward higher education. A couple of months ago I saw a posting for a school nurse that said "Epi Pen certified". ***** I didn't even know there was a certification for that!! Then there's IV certification and all these other certifications that, in my humble opinion, are just part of the job of nursing. If part of your job is to start IV's, like in the ED, what do you need a certification for? You can either do it or you can't.

Many of those certifications were started by organizations that figured out they could make a whole lot of money from certification exams. And that's pretty much all it is. I'm not taking about CCRN or CEN. I'm talking about certifications like IV, Epi Pen, etc. When something is part of your job, you don't need to be certified.

NurseDiane · Feb 14, 2016

I'm a pre-nursing student who just wants a stimulating job with pleasant co-workers and relatively healthy working conditions. Specialty is a tertiary consideration at best.
To the OP, I agree there could be more positive threads, but the negative ones are useful in that they give me a better idea of what nursing is really like. The good days are all over the TV shows and movies. The REAL days are on here.

Having a realistic expectation is the best way to be happier in you job. Too many people go into nursing because they're looking to have a "dream job". They have pipe dreams of living a life like in the Johnson & Johnson commercials. Would every person in the world love a "dream job"? Definitely!! Do the vast majority of people have job that they tolerate so they can pay their bills? Definitely!! And nurses fall into that category. Just because nursing isn't your "dream job" doesn't mean you can't have a decent job at a decent place with decent co-workers. You don't have to "love it".

I know many lawyers, physicians, accountants, hair dressers, plumbers, electricians, and auto mechanics who have really well paying jobs. Do they "love" their jobs? No. They tolerate them because it pays the bills.

Maybe when the whole day-dreamy vision of being a nurse in pretty scrubs that gets tremendous daily satisfaction because they saved a person's life goes away, people will have more realistic expectations of nursing. The reality is that it is tolerable at best, and if you are happy, you're lucky.

brandy1017, ASN, RN · Feb 14, 2016

My counter question to the OP is why do so many people feel nurses must love their job and have a passion for it to deserve to work as a nurse! I don't see people voicing these expectations for other jobs like secretaries, accountants, or even doctors. Instead there is the outright indignation of how dare you not love your job! Followed by, only nurses like me who love their job deserve to be nurses and I want your job! The newbies and wannabe's and their self righteous opinion is tiring. And the wannabe's who are alarmed at all the negative posts and feel it is our duty to reassure them that nursing is all that and a slice of bread too. Why aren't you all loving it when its my dream so why isn't it yours!

The reality of nursing, especially bedside nursing, is it can be very stressful and a drudgery at the same time with all the nitpicking, micromanagement, lack of adequate equipment, short staffing, long hours, etc, etc. I just got written up for a minor thing that was the CNA's job but of course the nurse is always to blame, not even a med error and I'm not feeling charitable to the person who did this. I will remember this petty ******** especially when I find serious med errors and the like from other nurses and it was probably a perfectionistic newbie that wrote me up over the I & O and the nurse is lectured instead of the CNA. This is just ridiculous!

I'm sorry I don't have the energy to claim I love it. I don't enjoy being forced to take ICU patients on the floor, punching a time clock where one minute late counts as a sick day, etc etc etc! I love flowers, gardening, decorating, nature and wildlife. If I were a rich and well connected person like a Clinton or a Bush I would be an interior decorator and travel the world relishing in all the colors and beautiful objects to decorate a home. Sadly there are not of lot of job openings for this position especially for ordinary Americans! But of course there are plenty of job openings for an experienced bedside nurse. Gee I wonder why! Because it is such a wonderful and glamorous job no doubt where you are exposed to body fluids, and forced to break your back! To me nursing is like an educated blue collar job and I feel in many ways like a factory worker except without the strong union to provide decent pay, benefits and working conditions! Oh well I guess I should be glad they can't outsource my job to Mexico or China! lol Sorry I just can't tell you I love nursing or that nursing is all flowers and rainbows. But I'm sure others out there will jump to tell you how they love nursing inspite of the realities because so many of us feel we must love nursing or else we are less than. How dare we not love it! I just can't give you the answer you are looking for.

I wish you luck and hope you can maintain your passion for nursing when the reality hits. Maybe you are built of stronger stuff and stress will roll off your back! I hope you have a strong back because you will need it!

dcwang · Feb 14, 2016

My preceptor the other day said she hated almost everything in nursing school, until she found her calling in her desired specialty. she loves how stable it is. well, I hate many things about nursing school too, I disliked med surg, OB, and geriatrics. But I 'm told there's a place for everyone in nursing. I love the OR and enjoy my rotation in peds

Farawyn · Feb 15, 2016

I think it's a joke, an exaggeration. I don't think there are any princesses in nursing!

I've worked with some. Both male and female.

RogerP · Feb 15, 2016

Each individual nurse must maintain their own morale. Find a way to blow off stress, ignore the negative and proceed independently to be a positive force for health. The most trusted and good of all professions needs your positivity and success.

ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP · Feb 15, 2016

And so here is a perfect example of hospitals spending money to orient & train new nurses, only to see them walk out there door shortly thereafter. Why?
To be perfectly honest, after you graduate from nursing school, the only place you're really qualified to work in is med surg. You don't have enough knowledge to work in critical care, peds or NICU. The only difference is with the OR, because no matter where you've worked or how much experience you have, you need a rather extensive orientation period because the OR is unlike anything else.
In nursing, as in many other professions, "from the frying pan into the fire" is how it sometimes works. As a CRNA, when I went to school it was "See one, do one, teach one". We didn't get our hands held for a long time before we HAD TO do things. That's the only way you learn, by doing. There is only so much time that can be granted for someone to "feel comfortable"----sometimes you get thrown into a situation & you have to find a way to make it work. I'm not sure if new nurses have a need for these extended orientations because that's how their schooling was(as far as I'm concerned, a 6 week orientation for a med surg unit is WAAAYYYYY more than necessary) and why they feel they need such long orientations. When you're a new nurse, sometimes you're uncomfortable with things, but you have to get over it. I think my orientation on med surg was about 2 weeks----that's it. Then I was on my own, and I made it work. You can only have somebody walk you around while holding your hand for so long, and then it's time to do it on your own.

I take it you don't have any NICU experience. Just about any nurse coming from adult care units to the NICU feels they are a new grad because absolute nothing applies to the newborn ICU. It is its own different world.

I learned a lot from adult med/surg but almost none of the information I learned is particularly useful in caring for neonates. Until you have actually worked in the NICU, you won't get it. And that's okay.

As far as a six-week orientation in med/surg being way more than necessary... :roflmao:

nurseqt77, ASN, RN · Feb 15, 2016

Are people expressing a hate for nursing, or are other nurses expressing a hate for nursing? If nurses are expressing the hate, do not be discouraged...those are people who obviously should have chosen another profession, and they are bitter about it. If a Doctor is expressing distaste, he probably has had an unfortunate experience or two with either an inexperienced nurse (at which time he should have taken the time to explain things, just as so, so many wonderful doctors did when I was a newbie), or one of the aforementioned nurses who should not be nurses. I have been a nurse for 17 years, and 4 years before that I was a nursing assistant. The secret to being happy in your career, relationship, life, etc., is quite simple- "It's not about getting what you want, its about wanting (being happy with) what you get." I have worked in nursing homes, rehabs, ALFs, hospitals (not my fave), and the last 12 years have been in home health, which is my calling. BUT, I didn't know it was my calling when I was in school. I thought I wanted to do OB. As it turned out, when I would float down there, I found those nurses eat their young more than any other specialty I have ever seen, so I got the heck out of there. I don't like being treated like crap. ER nurses and doctors were awesome, but the gruesome cases were not my fave. ICU nurses were helpful when they had the time, but I mostly felt lost (another emotion that doesn't suit me). So long story short, keep an open mind, remember that nurses "call the shots", and we keep our patients happy and healthy. If you do your job right, you will go home 95 nights (or days), out of 100 feeling like you made a real positive difference! I promise! I LOVE BEING A NURSE!!!

NCLEXAid · Feb 15, 2016

I love my nursing job!! I help nursing students pass the NCLEX! In addition, I am in graduate school for nursing informatics!! I have worked in the ER for years, so I've been there and done that and seen that as far as patient care goes! I think it is necessary you have background knowledge of what bedside nursing is all about, and the only way you get that knowledge is through experience. I think it is a wise career choice to start out on med surg and, while you figure out the pros and cons, you can also be working toward your BSN or MSN in order to fix those problems you learned first hand! Get down and dirty with the rest of us nurses while learning the most you can about our very twisted health care industry! That way you can find ways to make it better, not only for nurses, but also for patients, and other providers! Good luck to you!

melissamabd, DNP, RN · Feb 15, 2016

As a nursing instructor and 35-year veteran in this profession, I have thought about this a great deal. I, too, am baffled by the disconnect between what people expect of nursing and what they find. Where do people get their ideas about the profession? This is my first question, as I spend a lot of time disabusing lay people of their notions of the nurse's role. Much of what nurses do is invisible, and it's not sexy... despite Hollywood's depiction of nurses. It's about prevention, eating a good diet, getting enough exercise, etc. Not the dramatic, tertiary interventions so loved by writers of fiction. Also, nursing is NOT about tasks. Tasks are very little of what nurses do; and if you don't believe that, consider this... I can teach a family member to give an injection or hang an IV within 30-60 minutes. You want to ask yourself, "Hmmm... if that' so, what's the 4 year degree about?" It's about assessing the whole person, psychosocially as well as physically, and offering care in the holistic manner only supplied by the nursing profession. So be sure you know what nursing is before you spend your time, effort, and tears on getting that degree.

Having said that, I do still love to take care of people, who are endlessly fascinating and inspiring in their journeys through life. It's been 35 years for me.

dread_pirate_roberts · Feb 15, 2016

OP, I am currently a new grad just starting orientation for my Surgical ICU job. Throughout school, I was involved in state and local student organizations, went to multiple conventions and conferences, and I also busted my orifice to get the best grades I could and took every opportunity I could get (internships, CNA position, etc...). What I will tell you is that if you're willing to work for it, you have the opportunity to start in a job you want depending on where you live.

As far as "Why do people hate nursing"? Well, you're just not talking to the right nurses. In any profession and in any group, negative emotions and words spread so much faster than the positive. It's easy to complain and hard to be grateful, especially when so many areas have shortages leading to nurses with a much higher workload than should be placed on their shoulders. However...culture can be changed with a spark that ignites the fire. The passion and gratitude you can bring with you is yours to keep and share if you wish, and you can help to create an atmosphere that other nurses want to be in.

Nursing is a hard job. My coworkers can attest to that, and to some degree I can too. The hours are long, the charting is endless, you never get to spend as much time as you want caring for the human aspect of your patients, and your feet hurt like a mother by the end of the day. I recognize that I do not have as much experience as many of the posters, but even in my time as a student, CNA, and intern, I have had experiences that shook me to the core and made me question why I was doing this, but I realized that I have a choice. I can choose to complain or I can choose to keep my spirits high and come in with the right attitude every single day. Don't listen to those who complain, be in your bubble of quiet positivity and remember that in even a 20 year bedside nursing career, you have the opportunity to touch even as few as 9,000 lives (3 patients a shift/ 3 shifts/week) and that doesn't even include the comfort you can bring to their families. You got this, just keep your head up and know that in a world with clouds, the sunshine still comes through (Unless of course you're from Seattle, then I can't help you :)).

Farawyn · Feb 15, 2016

Why do you think a 6 week orientation in Med Surg is waaaaay more than necessary, NurseDiane?

Med Surg only encompasses everything, with higher ratios to boot.