Why is nursing such a horrible job?

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Get to the crux of the matter in 50 words or less...

Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

It isn't such a horrible job.

What makes you ask?

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Hospital nursing in its purest form is great, but the working conditions are what make it a horrible job. Not enough staff, strong pressure to work without compensation (through lunch or clock out and keep working at the end), sometimes difficulty finding time to go to the bathroom, lack of support by management, lack of supplies, and worst of all, the times where patient safety is in jeopardy because of short staffing.

The majority of the working condition problems could be made better by adequate staffing.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Nursing is a dirty thankless job. Nurses get no respect at all.

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I wouldn't call it a horrible job. If it were horrible, I'd quit and do something else. What I will say is that it is a difficult, exhausting and often frustrating job.

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Specializes in Flight, ER, Transport, ICU/Critical Care.

* Patients and families (and others) with entitlement mentalities.

* Customer service model of healthcare delivery.

* No leadership, while management flourishes.

* Little to no respect. (Administration, staff, patients, families, and other nurses).

* Staff ratios that make a difficult job nearly impossible at times.

* Work driven by litigation threat as opposed to life threat.

50 words - I did it!

Practice SAFE!

;)

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The rewarding moments are tantalizingly few and far between. Also, the interruptions are themselves interrupted, sometimes to a laughable degree, but laughing is not encouraged.

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Why is nursing such a horrible job?

It's not, it's an *awesome* job.

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Although I love my job. I find it emotionally, physically & mentally draining sometimes. There are too many demands and/or expectations when your just one person. I feel like I am a jack of all trades sometimes. We should be given the resources (enough staff) to do our best for our patients and not become burnt out. And we need to be shown more respect and appreciation for the work we do.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

* Customer service model of healthcare delivery.

That.

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Specializes in Hospice Volunteer.
The rewarding moments are tantalizingly few and far between. Also, the interruptions are themselves interrupted, sometimes to a laughable degree, but laughing is not encouraged.

What? Laughing is not encouraged? :bugeyes:

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Specializes in med-surg tele.

its a horrible job because it is a JOB and everyother job is horrible if it's just a JOB, but if you put your passion into it the rewarding feeling of seeing a sick people smile at you and saying thank you for helping me, the feeling that you were used by god to extend or touch someones life, the knowledge that you gain, learned that you can use in caring for your own family and be like a family's doctor, though in so many ways maltreated, verbally abused by pts and drs yet still thinking of therapeutic communication and exercising the compassion that most nurses naturally has, then im thankful i have a horrible job.

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Many places the pay is so bad. Four years of college- we literally save your life and the trashman earns more.

They won't staff enough nurses so we can do a decent job.

Some nurses don't carry their workload (calls to home, always have time for meals/breaks, sit at desk, etc)

Some hospitals just plain don't care- nurses are a dime a dozen- you can easily be replaced.

Not all hospitals are like this but as I talk to other's the majority seem to be.

Just a small sampling....

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