I feel like everywhere I go people are expressing their hate for nursing rather than their love. I want to go into nursing, and I want to love it. WHY does everyone (almost) hate it so much? Is it really that bad? Can someone express their love for it? I would really enjoy hearing why you love your nursing job.
Personally I could never work in a nursing home, but my goal is to work in the OB/NICU or the ER.
I have been in nursing for 45 years. I felt professional, needed,and extremely satisfied for the first several years. It all began to change when insurance companies, with the blessings of the bureaucrats in Washington, began to manage the healthcare of patients by applying a formula for each disease or illness. Individuals do not meet formulas! Doctors can't prescribe the needed prescriptions or procedures, because that is not cost effective for the insurance companies, forget the patients. And then, the crazy Congress passed an extremely harmful bill without reading it, Obamacare. This ridiculous bill denies care to the most needy, the elderly. I have worked in hospitals, as an instructor for senior level nursing students, in the ER doctor's office, and home health. I have seen the decline in the care for patients for the sake of the almighty dollar. I know firsthand that nursing is no longer about the patient,but how much money can we get if we send the patient home early, or not treat the patient at all. I was the director of a home health agency, but couldn't stay in the position, because of corporate directives not to admit patients without Medicare, because reimbursement from Medicaid and private insurances were not enough. And because when the census grew to over 300 patients, corporate refused to allow hiring of additional nursing staff, because of some formula somebody came up with. Despicable. I am now a field nurse a home health agency, working just 2 days a week. I see my patients,take time with them, and don't have to deal with office politics and greedy corporate directives.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
singdawg, I know exactly what you mean and have experienced the same.
Like you, I prefer to be that old-fashioned nurse, treating PEOPLE and taking the time THEY need, rather than treating a being who, to the insurance industry, is a diagnostic number and a disease process that must follow their unyielding linear approach.
The insurance companies say we must follow a standard care-plan dictated by a non-medical person with a list in hand of who says we must proceed along the track they have come up with, whether it actually applies to the patient or not. They hamstring the docs and pile on the paperwork and think they are giving the 'best' care available. HA!
I always said I'd rather be a grunt in the workforce than have to be caught between the rock and the hard place in management where you have to yield to the powers-that-be. At least as a grunt you can be 'subversive' and actually give personal attention that the patient needs.
My mantra was "Give me my assignment, give me my paycheck, and leave me the hell alone, and I will be the best employee you have.
After nine years of doing that and loving it, my agency gave up Home Health completely because of the ridiculous reimbursement situation, and because they 'couldn't afford' the visits to medicaid patient's, who, as you noted, are the one's who need those visits the most!
Now, I do strictly private duty with my old folks, who, God bless them, had some wise financial advice and managed to be able to carry some of the $$ load privately. I'll never be able to afford any kind of care when I get to my 80's and 90's as I have zero savings and lost a ____-load of $$ when the economy tanked, and had to go bankrupt; never quite got back on our financial feet ever since. It is a constant struggle to keep up with the mortgage; we don't even have any credit cards or car payments to make. We go week-by-week and just when we get even, something always happens that requires the $$ we were going to use to pay for long-term insurance to set aside for our future years.
I told my husband that when the time comes, and I am relegated to medicaid's punitive, stingy care, ...don't stick me in a hellhole nursing home; Just set me out on an iceflow like the eskimo's used to do. Just dope me up and soak me with water, and set me outside on the coldest day of the year, because I'd rather freeze to death and be a Polar Bear's popsicle, than be subject to helping investor's coffers grow fat.
Health care is just a business that has NOTHING to do with patients. It is disgusting, and rather than be ashamed, as they SHOULD be, they pat themselves on the back for 'saving money'. Well, whoop-de-doo! Let THEM experience the kind of care they grant so 'generously' (sarcasm) to the populace in real need.
Should've become a congresswoman and live above the hoi-poloi; why should they worry about the poorer constituents when THEY get a lifetime of oodles of benefits not granted to the citizens who elected them.
I've done it for years and have had a few jobs I really liked. Overall, it wasn't the profession for me. I liked the school/studying aspect of it, but never the clinical hours. Should have been a red flag! It's been a part time living, but I would never have gone into it if I had to do it over. I feel like the work put out and responsibility has never aligned w/ the pay and work conditions, overall. Some exception of course.
Specializes in Medical Writer, Licensed Teacher & Nurse, BA Psych.
You are right - I think that the majority of nurses hate patient care for the following reasons:
1. It is still looked upon by the public and management as a subservient job. No matter how many times the nursing organizations say that nurses are "professionals", they are not treated like professionals. They are treated like paid slaves. They are blue-collar workers no matter what they call themselves. They rarely have any say in making changes/improvements in their places of work and direct care nurses simply have no power. Additionally, they see themselves as being at the bottom of the hierarchy (because they are) and therefore, the only other people they can take their frustrations and anger out on are other nurses. Hence, the incredible bullying and hostility that is prevalent in the profession. Nurses overall have a low self-esteem and it is no wonder. They are treated horribly by management, the State Boards (Gestapo), many patients, many patient families, some physicians, other nurses, etc. People think: Why be a nurse when you can be a doctor?
2. Floor nurses are often on their feet for 12 hours with barely time to eat or go to the bathroom. It is exhausting and nurses usually burn out after 5 years. They are given too many patients to care for (especially in nursing homes), rarely get enough sleep and often function at a deficit. Yet, they are expected to make life or death decisions with a smile on their face. The ridiculous amount of work is impossible to complete on time so either you leave without completing it, knowing you did a crappy job, or you try to finish it and get yelled at like a child for staying overtime.
4. Nursing home corporations lobby Congress (and win) to keep staffing levels in their facilities woefully inadequate. The staff who are in the trenches don't realize that this is what is taking place so instead of fighting the corporation they work for, they attack each other like packs of hyenas due to being overworked, overstressed, unappreciated, unsupported, and generally treated like a 'body.'
5. The majority of nurses are women. Most men would not tolerate being treated with such disdain. There are more reasons as to why nurses who provide direct patient care are so unhappy. Certainly too many to list in this format.
cynic8
6 Posts
PS I feel sorry for Jen