? Why are people saying that nursing is tough? i dont understand whats so hard about

chevyv, BSN, RN · Sep 22, 2008

Now come on, don't be exaggerating to this poor guy:
OP - in general, nurses will tell you that they went through the hardest education, they know it all, and that they work THE #1 stressful job in the hospital. The truth is, they take a lot of flak from the people and families they treat, but that's the job. You are the face of the hospital to your patients when you're a nurse. You're a busy person that carries out orders and fills out paperwork. You do little more than that despite what nurses will tell you.
You'll be hearing a lot of "nursing school is incredibly hard", "nurses have to take all the sciences", and that their school's are difficult to get into.
Fail.
Contrary to opinions you'll find here, the education is not that difficult if you're not a complete idiot (a B average in high school, like you, could easily pull it off). Try working in a hospital and watch first hand what they do. And don't fall into the volunteer trap - volunteers do remarkably little in most hospitals and you won't get a real feel of what it's like. Work as a transporter or CNA.

I just know your not a nurse. A 'B' average in high school doesn't mean you'll do fine as a ns. What a load of crap! I'm a ns now and I can tell you that even being the 2nd from top in ACT's in high school didn't land me on easy street. I'm in my last major theory and am barely hanging on and I mean I'm still 1 point away from passing. Don't listen for a second to this poor uninformed person. You will work your butt off, but if you check out a hospital as a cna or transport, you'll figure that out on the very first day.

Lets not forget to mention being short staffed the majority of the time. You become a nurse because its a calling (kind of like priesthood). Most of us do anyway. There are some that do it for the $$ and then really enjoy their day off, but not most of us.

Babarnurse · Sep 22, 2008

i smelled troll from his first post. i can't believe this person got 9 pages of responses.

mamason · Sep 22, 2008

What is so tough about being a nurse?
i am thinking about being a registered nurse and it seems like a great career. but alot of people complain that its hard and such.. whats hard bout it?

Why is it so hard you ask? Well, in my opinion, not only are you dealing with a person's physiological problems, but, personalities as well. I have more problems dealing with manipulative people than I do taking care of them medically. There are days that you bend over backwards to try to please the pt and nothing, nothing is ever good enough. Regardless of what you do, they will always complain. That to me is the biggest downer. But, I still love what I do. You have to take the good with the bad and the job is always challenging. You have to be able to multi- task a variety of things. Sometimes there are never enough hours in a day to get everything done. Especially if you have a very sick pt on your hands. It's stressful and that may be the exact reason why there is a nursing shortage. Some days it can be a thankless job. Other days, pt's and family let you know how much they appreciate how hard you are working for them. Pt loads are increasing as well as the pt's acuity. More pt that are more sick. It's not easy by far. If it was, everyone could do it. And that's just not the case. :smokin:

mama_d, BSN, RN · Sep 22, 2008

Since it seems like OP is actually trying to learn, reading our posts, and revising his opinion/asking more questions to try to understand, I'm going to assume he's not a troll and give the benefit of the doubt.

To digress for a moment, however:

"You're a busy person that carries out orders and fills out paperwork. You do little more than that despite what nurses will tell you."

I'm sure that the patient that we coded and saved last night would have a different view, since it was the culmination of hours worth of stat labs, stat radiology, EKG interpretations, doctor and family calls, stat meds, etc. as he began to go bad. With us there to interpret and report and act upon the results and changing patient status the entire time and no doc on the floor until after we already had the code cart in the room and were coding him. Paperwork and carrying out explicit doctors orders does not earn you the critical thinking skills to deal with those kinds of situations.

Back to the OP:

I'd also recommend that you work as a CNA or tech; it lets you see what kind of environment nurses have to deal with (the body excretions, the family, the docs, etc.). As a PP said, it won't really prepare you for what being a nurse is, since even new grads who think they know what to expect are often overwhelmed, but it will give you a better idea than what you have now.

Nursing is hard, stressful work...sometimes I threaten to get a job flipping burgers instead, so that I'm dealing with a different kind of stress! The worst, IMO, is when you have a patient go bad and you wrack your brain trying to figure out whether you did anything or missed anything that could have caused the poor outcome. You have to be able to multi-task, have a good memory, good organizational skills (on the job at least...I try to not let people into my house, it's so bad!), good people skills, and superb critical thinking skills (which nursing school will teach you the fundamentals of, and you'll hone on the job).

I love being a nurse, and am so glad that I found it as a career. I know that most people would say (and rightly so) to investigate it before you start (which you are obviously doing), but I just fell into it without even knowing what I was getting myself into! I love the constant learning, the fast pace, the constant thinking on my feet, being able to educate people and hopefully have a life long impact on them, even though they may never remember who it was who instructed them. It has changed me from a quiet, shy person who was very insecure inside to a confident loudmouth (I think in a good way though) who is not afraid to speak up or stand up for what I feel is right.

I also don't have the best of grades (currently have about a 3.10 GPA doing prereqs for the LPN-RN bridge program), but am working my tail off to try and get it up there before nursing classes begin. Check on your school's requirement for science classes ahead of time; I'm having to repeat all of mine b/c the credits were more than five years old.

mamason · Sep 22, 2008

Hmmm, so nurses do little more than fill out paperwork and follow orders?
As licensed professionals, we nurses must not only follow orders, but know when new ones are needed. Quite often we define the proper course of action to the Dr that isn't physically there, and then they simply agree.
Also as professionals we need to understand the reason for the order and the ramifications of it, it is our duty question an order with the Dr if it is incorrect. Many of us nurses have saved a Dr or ten from an awful mistake by questioning an inappropriate order. We have to know what the correct coorifice of action is to be able to spot when the incorrect one has been ordered. We are held to that standard not only personally, but by our BON. We also assess patients continuouly. The Dr isn't there most of the time and we need to understand each disease process and know what is abnormal and prioritize it, such as should this be discussed in the morning, or is this urgent and needs dealt with now.
Nursing is a dynamic, constantly changing field. If we didn't sleep the night before or don't feel well we still have to be completely on. Nursing is not a job that you can go to and just have an off day. When a nurse is working she must be 100% focused.

YESSSSS............. :bow:

All4Seasons · Sep 22, 2008

"and i didnt think rn's can be responsible for peoples lives. i thought they just treat little injuries. like broken fingers/burns/take ur pulse and such.."

hmmm....are you having us on? you're kidding,right? Thought so.:icon_roll

luvmy3kids · Sep 22, 2008

I just wanted to say... I really don't think the OP is a troll. He's 17, and really just trying to get an idea of what nursing has to offer. I don't think he meant any harm as far as some of his comments go... at least I didn't take it that way.

However, "that's absurd", hmmm, yes, I smell a troll. Very rude and just asking for us to get all worked up. Don't feed that one.

But give the OP a chance. I know that I had no idea what a nurse did when I was that age, and my mom, sister, cousin and aunt are/were all nurses. (I still don't think I really know actually... :eek: )

Tweety, BSN, RN · Sep 23, 2008

Agree, it would be nice to give the guy the benefit of the doubt.

I think from a lay person's 17 year old perspective you're experiences of what nurses do is limited. You see them perform a few tasks and it's reasonable to ask "is that so hard? why are people complaining? why are earth would you need a nearly 4.0 average to get into nursing school? "

These are reasonable and brutally honest questions for a lay person to ask with a limited view. Perhaps the phrasing of the questions might appear to be a bit trollish, but while we're asking the op to take a closer look, perhaps we should do the same.

As far as the treating minor injuries and stuff, again most people don't realize that nurses are right there in the thick of things in treating trauma. Most of the reality shows on Discovery about trauma focus on the doctor, as do shows like ER, House, and Grey's Anatomy - yeah there's a nurse in there somewhere, but she's just rattling off a pulse and blood pressure and the doctor is all the real work in treating the patient. So again, that question isn't even trollish in my opinion.

However, if you think he's a troll then don't feed him by responding "he's a troll" and fussing with each other. Just ignore this thread and move on.

DreamingTree · Sep 23, 2008

jelet -- i remember when i was your age -- it was hard to figure out what career to choose. my screw up year was in college, and it had an impact on what graduate school i went to for my first career choice. low & behold, here i am, 20 years later, starting a new career as a nurse.

i used to teach at a community college. if you want some advice, send me a pm, and i'd be happy to share my experience with you. a community college may be a good place for you to start because you aren't 100% sure about your career choice & grades. but, talk this over with your guidance counselor -- someone who is used to dealing wtih these issues.

i agree with those who suggested that you either become a nurse aide or an emt. both careers will give you valuable experience and some money to get started. our community college provides training for both. your hs guidance counselor should be able to hook you up with the right people in your area.

shadowing an rn is also a good option, and i would think that your guidance counselor can help you with that, too. i actually had two hs students shadow me at work during the day. our hospital gave them the opportunity to shadow in different departments.

so -- you probably noticed the common theme in my response -- talk to your guidance counselor. he or she is in the best position to give you advice.

on a side note, i found it a bit sad that many jumped on this kid rather than nicely correcting his misperceptions. we were all clueless at one point or another -- have some patience & compassion. of course we know how difficult the job is. don't be so thin-skinned as to take offense to those who haven't experienced it themselves.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Sep 23, 2008

What does
P.s. Dam.. i really dont think i can get like a 90 and above in all of my pre requist classes on my first year of college... Grrr.

I think it's probably been mentioned enough, but as I don't see any improvement, I just have to ask, point blank and honestly: are you typing like this because you simply don't know how to do it any other way( you feel this is the best showing of yourself you can put forth in text) or are you just taking the quick and lazy approach? If it's the former, please PLEASE plan on some extra English tutoring; you can't expect to get INTO a school if this is how your application/resume will look. If it's the latter, it's much more respectful to the forum to....not.

i really want to help people and make a good living. but this is bs. that its so hard to get into a nursing program.

No, it's not "bs". If your mother were all smacked up in a nasty auto accident, would you want the person working on her in the ED, OR, PACU, and surgical floor to be some kid who had iffy grades and chose nursing because it was such an easy degree and easy paycheck? Do you really believe that the way to ensuring quality control would be to admit anyone with a pulse to nursing school? Or would you prefer your family member be in the care of someone who worked his BUTT off in a competitive educational program, competitive clinical placements, and met a certain standard for licensure? If you think about it that way, you'd likely agree that having admission to nursing school be the equivalent of entering a McDonald's After School Training Program might not be in society's best interest.

I really dont know what to be now/study in college. Are their any other similar careers that make a decent living that arent so hard to get into?

And i serously want to help.. Im not one of those people that just want the money.. I volunteered at my animal shelter over the summer last year . I am a caring person... And i will do the work.. As long as its explained to me correctly.

I'm sorry, but you really sound like someone who is looking for the easiest possible route to fortune and satisfaction. And, while it's true we ALL look for that to some degree, you REALLY have to step back and re-read what you've written here. WHY should something that pays you well be easy to get into? What makes you think ANYTHING that offers a good paycheck, benefits and job security should be available to anyone with a C school average and little idea of what it is that's expected? If it's not about the money....volunteer as an aide. Become a CNA. Then you'll find out if it's about the money or not.

I'm glad you're a caring person, that is a big plus in ANY career. Whether or not you are willing to do the work almost becomes irrrelevant: if you're not, and got into a program, you'd fail out nearly immediately anyway. You have to be able to take the instruction as it comes, "correctly" or not, and learn at a fast pace in often less than ideal settings. Volunteering at an animal shelter is nice, it really is! It just has no bearing on what you're looking into.

And ok sure the nurses deal with peoples lives.. But if you studyed and know about the pills that you give them/iv's and all that. Then you should be fine when you are well educated..

Well, that's the thing: well-educated doesn't mean you can think appropriately, applying the knowledge you have to the situation and making it come out the best it can. To suggest that all we have to do is memorize stuff about a bunch of pills and all will be ok is, well, ignorant of the realities of nursing. But that's ok, I KNOW you're ignorant of them, which is why you're here!

There is a significant level of maturity that must be reached to get through school and survive in the nursing fields. I think part of the problem on this thread is that your posts don't come across as having much maturity (sorry, what I'm seeing written is all that I have to go on). They come across as fairly flip, "what's the big deal" and "why shouldn't my marginal grades, etc get me into this great opportunity for money?"

It's just how it all looks, I guess.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Sep 23, 2008

Now come on, don't be exaggerating to this poor guy:
----edited for brevity----Contrary to opinions you'll find here, the education is not that difficult if you're not a complete idiot (a B average in high school, like you, could easily pull it off). Try working in a hospital and watch first hand what they do. And don't fall into the volunteer trap - volunteers do remarkably little in most hospitals and you won't get a real feel of what it's like. Work as a transporter or CNA.

ROFLMAO!!!! OH my gosh, OOHHH my sides hurt !!

MAN you're a riot!! Thanks for that! :jester: :clown: hooooEYY!

chevyv, BSN, RN · Sep 23, 2008

All of these opinions for this poor guy. I really feel for the opinions regarding grammer. I've read many posts from college degreed professionals on this site and many of us have many grammatical errors. Who cares, really? This is not a college course and my typing often comes after studying for hours. I'm sure that if this was a college course, we would all be using spell check and apa format. Give the guy a break.