Why do some nurses "hate their jobs"?

[iculvr]

The question being asked is:

Why do nurses say that they hate their job?

Let's reflect :)

I've been a R.N. for three years and I always end up meeting nurses who aren't happy with their role as a R.N. both younger and older.

• Not everyone aspires to purse a degree in nursing, "when they grow up" and are looking for a way to make quick money.
  

• How do bedside nurses with 20 years plus experience do what they do? Is it because they are content with how things are?
  

• I feel as though some nurses are emotionally, mentally and physically built to be a nurse. Do you think so?
  

• If nurses were paid significantly more, would pay increase lead to improved nurse satisfaction?
  

I want to hear your comments, thoughts, ideas

[lavenderskies, BSN]

I think some nurses hate nursing for the same reasons that some educators hate teaching, some pilots hate flying, some secretaries hate "secretarying", some engineer hate engineering.........

[Aliareza, BSN]

I hate my job because my hospital's administration finally drove the nurse manager who'd been running my unit for 15 years out. She'd gotten 95+% HCAHPS scores every year, carrying the hospital, but the other med-surg managers hated her because she didn't buy into the administrative BS and ran her floor in a practical way. Their way didn't work and hers did. She protected us.

My new manager straight up tells us at the bottom of every schedule that the floor is more important than our personal lives. We cannot have a weekend off at all no matter what. We must swap with someone else to make it happen if we want it. We can request other days off, but we will not know if we got them off until the new schedule is out, and they are not guaranteed.

My patient ratio went from 4-5 patients with 2 nurse aides for 20 patients, to 6 patients nearly all the time with 1 nurse aide split between my floor and the floor around the corner. That leaves 1 aide for 27-35 patients. It is not feasible whatsoever, especially with the acuity level of the patients being so high. Many nights we do not have an aide at all because they all quit due to poor treatment and overworking. The patients are brutally demanding and we are not allowed to stand up for ourselves even when mistreated.

In the month since my manager left, 3 nurses have followed, and 4 more are set to within the next month. I would as well were I not stuck there due to being a new grad. We are chronically understaffed and now we're being forced to work outside of our normal schedules, meaning we never know when we'll be off. My 1 year is coming up soon, and I'm tempted to start looking elsewhere.

Problem is, most other hospitals within a 1 hr commute area are run the exact same way. There is only 1 hospital that isn't, and it never hires new grads and rarely hires at all. Nurses don't leave because they know they're standing on the "other side" in the only place with grass left.

I picked this profession and even this hospital after careful research, and I still saw poor administration roll it right downhill into hell extremely quickly. It's demoralizing to know that this is what the majority of employers are like in this profession now. The job isn't bad; turning healthcare into a business is bad.

A pay raise wouldn't fix it. Appropriate staffing would fix it. Allowing us to tell patients the truth would fix it. Standing up for nurses instead of letting patients and their families walk all over us would fix it. A manager who saw us as people and not just bodies to fill time slots would fix it.

[streem26]

I will never stay at the position if it annoys me.

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

You asked if higher pay would lead to higher job satisfaction. I don't think I have to be a nurse to know that no, this is not true. Nurses make enough to live comfortably and to support families. More money would equate to more fun off the clock, but not to more satisfaction while working.

I don't think this is true. I would be much more satisfied if I made more money. I do well enough working just full time, but I'm not really able to save as much as I'd like. If I could stock up decent savings on just full time work, I would be a lot happier.

I more than break even every month as a nurse, but usually only by a few hundred dollars. What's a few hundred dollars a month when you're thinking about retiring one day? Unless you plan to work until Social Security kicks in, which I hope to avoid, a couple hundred dollars a month in savings is pennies. In one year, I probably only save enough to live off of for three months or so, and when I'm talking about wanting to live ten or more years off of my savings with zero income coming in, what I'm making is NOT cutting it.

To put away any sort of substantial money into savings, I have to work overtime. More fun off the clock, as you put it, is vital to maintaining your sanity - and you just can't have fun off the clock if you're working 60 or 72 hour work weeks. I have coworkers that have worked 9 12s in a row to try to save money, and you can't tell me than an 84 hour+ work week is going to give anyone any quality of life.

[Farawyn]

I don't think this is true. I would be much more satisfied if I made more money. I do well enough working just full time, but I'm not really able to save as much as I'd like. If I could stock up decent savings on just full time work, I would be a lot happier.

I more than break even every month as a nurse, but usually only by a few hundred dollars. What's a few hundred dollars a month when you're thinking about retiring one day? Unless you plan to work until Social Security kicks in, which I hope to avoid, a couple hundred dollars a month in savings is pennies. In one year, I probably only save enough to live off of for three months or so, and when I'm talking about wanting to live ten or more years off of my savings with zero income coming in, what I'm making is NOT cutting it.

To put away any sort of substantial money into savings, I have to work overtime. More fun off the clock, as you put it, is vital to maintaining your sanity - and you just can't have fun off the clock if you're working 60 or 72 hour work weeks. I have coworkers that have worked 9 12s in a row to try to save money, and you can't tell me than an 84 hour+ work week is going to give anyone any quality of life.

Agree with you both. I get what Purp is saying. In my last job I was making just under 6 figures and I left it cold because of the way it was being run into the ground. Loved my co-workers, docs and patients, hated the lack or resources we had to draw from. If anyone's head was going to roll in that place, it would have been mine. I like my head.

I took a job for so much less pay that I had to take a second job. Which brings me to your time trade off. Working 6 days in a row sucks.

Yea, I could use some money, as I'm kinda broke, but I would not go back to where I was.

[lavenderskies, BSN]

Why do some nurses "hate their jobs?" The same reasons why some teachers, some accountants, some pilots, some [insert any profession in the world] hate their jobs. Some jobs suck, some have poor working conditions, some have terrible bosses or poor benefits, etc.

Kel----I swear I didn't even read responses before I responded, it's spooky how similar ours are!

[kidzcare]

Some people will hate any job. Attitude is 95% of it.

[martymoose, BSN, RN]

more money would not help.

[Deepinthegame]

I can tell you why- Starts with College/University Professors not being honest with students. Not taking time out and taking the authority hat off and telling it like it is. As a guy that was former military (USMC ) our instructors told the truth - like sometimes help isn't coming and things may/will go BAD ( want to say more but may offend ) . For example , if I was an instructor I would love to explain that depending on where you work , forget most of what we taught you - "Just Survive the shift " and remember ABC's and complain later. Survive ,survive

[djh123]

Imagine the immortal Chris Farley's 'Matt Foley' character, when he was on Weekend Update doing 'air quote marks' with just about everything he said. Some nurses "hate their jobs" because they have "too much to do in the allotted time", or they're "being screwed on pay", or they have "too many patients", or "not enough help", or "the documentation requirements are insane", or ... truthfully, it could be any reason, but I'll make a guess that for many, it's not so much the actual patient care, but one or more of the above.

[Meek_ln]

It was always "let's make money" now it's more blatant and in your face. No more hiding and faking like that was not their sole purpose. But I agree!

[Meek_ln]

And there you have it folks! The truth!! Thank you!