I've been a nurse for awhile and have always contemplated what makes nurses leave the profession (or bedside for that manner). As a matter of fact, I have thought about it from time to time in the 13 years I've been a nurse. From my experience I have found that aspects such as short-staffing, too many tasks, lack of upward mobility, poor management and underpayment contribute to a nurses' unhappiness in their career.
I just wanted to ask the general nursing population regardless of how long you've been a nurse what your thoughts were. Do you think leaving the profession comes from one of the aspects listed above? Or is it something else entirely?
Brekka, just an FYI, I've been on these boards for a decade and lindarn has been one of the most passionate promoters of action I have seen in this community (I know you've been here for years as well, but I'm not sure how often you frequent the boards). I've got a lot of respect for her, so don't feel her post was a personal attack! I think its great that you took the time to inform management with your data! I think we're all frustrated at the lack of change to give relief for bedside RNs.
OP, I LOVED working at the bedside but poor ratios and subsequent stress on my body made me leave for outpatient nursing, where things are far better balanced for me. Prior to leaving I went to management with my ideas for change and nothing happened.
In my view, basically all other issues would be manageable if you have staffing. I greatly miss inpatient work, but, don't ever plan to return until my state at minimum implements nurse-patient ratios. I support the National Nurses United (CNA/NNOC/NNU) given their reputation for getting things accomplished.
what makes nurses leave the profession (or bedside for that manner).
I left the bedside for a clinical specialist job, but stayed in the hospital and actually found myself bedside just about every day, plus booking myself in for a shift once a month or so as staff.
Then I left the hospital entirely for work comp case management, then several aspects of legal nursing. I have left the bedside but I have not left the profession. Not a bit.
I get deposed by attorneys for cases from time to time:
"Nurse GrnTea, when was the last time you worked as a nurse?"
"Atty. Jones, I am working as a nurse today."
"Um, er, ah, when was the last time you took care of a patient?"
"I am doing that today, having assessed, researched, and planned Mr. Smith's care and arranged for its implementation by a case manager."
"Um, OK, then, when was the last time you worked in a hospital?"
"I have practiced nursing in several settings for the last mumblemumble (of course, I don't say that in depo!) years and do so to this day."
I don't necessarily care about a lack of upward mobility, but I care deeply about the lack of reasonable compensation. It is not uncommon in my area to find 10 year nurses making only a few bucks an hour more than new grads. I feel like most professions give better raises. With the cost of living forever increasing, I feel like a bedside nurse who stays at the same job may have exactly the same quality of life after thirty years of nursing that she did as a one year nurse, or even less of a quality of life because cost of living probably increases faster than raises happen. That sucks.
I don't necessarily care about a lack of upward mobility, but I care deeply about the lack of reasonable compensation. It is not uncommon in my area to find 10 year nurses making only a few bucks an hour more than new grads. I feel like most professions give better raises. With the cost of living forever increasing, I feel like a bedside nurse who stays at the same job may have exactly the same quality of life after thirty years of nursing that she did as a one year nurse, or even less of a quality of life because cost of living probably increases faster than raises happen. That sucks.
In total agreement. Just accepted work for $2 less than previous job, which itself was paying me $5 less than acceptable rate for my qualifications. If I could afford it, I would leave for good instead of working for CNA wages without the CNA job title, for going on three decades. This got old a long time ago.
Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
Reason's I've considered leaving nursing:
1. Understaffed. Currently we have 12 people working with 3 surgeons. Previously, we had 15 working with 2 surgeons. It's not so bad during the actual scheduled shift, but working late every day when on call (and sometimes when not because too many cases are going late) plus getting called back at all hours of the night and during the weekend gets old and exhausting. With more people, it was more spaced out; now, I can be on call 2 days in a row, then one day off, then call for the weekend. Two teams on call each day, each team consisting of 3 people. 6 people on call per night / 12 people = call pretty much every other day (and then figuring in no call request days and vacations… oy). And we get paid a whopping $2/hour to be tied to the hospital (30 minutes from time of notification to in OR response time max- and the other local facilities are paying double to triple that).
2. Underpaid. Merit raises are a joke (most of mine have been $0.25 or less per year), and cost of living increases disappeared several years ago. What I make now with years of experience is just barely (as in, pennies) better than what I made as a new grad when adjusted for inflation. Yet, the CEO makes over 1.5M plus a bonus of another half million plus benefits a heck of a lot better than mine.
3. Management out of touch with the reality of bedside care. Sure, once upon a time they were bedside nurses, but that was 10, 20, 30 years ago- and a lot has changed since then. Patients are sicker, living longer with more comorbidities, and technology advances mean having to be familiar with a heck of a lot more types of procedures and equipment. Heck, it used to be that having heart surgery meant getting your chest cut open from top to bottom. Now, we can do a CABG through 3-4 tiny incisions using robotic technology.
4. Double and triple documentation. We can add computerized systems here as well. Documenting takes up so much more of my time than actual patient care, and the whole reason people come to the hospital is because they need us. Some (most) days, I feel like that box of electronic parts on wheels is my patient more than the person lying on the OR table.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I have been a nurse for over 2 years now. I have done school nursing and home health care for two very sick kids. I am now looking outside of nursing for a job. I like working with kids but that is not my LOVE. So as I have been looking for a new area of nursing I hit the same road block every time. I apply for a job. They call me and we sit down for am interview. At that point I hear "oh you have all of the skills we are looking for, but you have only worked home health care and schools. So we are sorry but you are not the right person for this job. But you have all the right skills just wish you had not worked home health care." I hear that every time. I need more hours then I have now at my job. I have applied for jobs at LTC, Doctors offices, staffing places. If I cannot find a new job but the end of the year I will be forced to look outside of nursing. When that happens I will never go back to nursing. I love nursing. I feel that its a calling. I feel that calling down to the core of my soul. But once more other nurses will not stop killing the younger nurses that want to move to a new area of nursing.
Excuse me? Other nurses are not your problem. Your problem is in Human Resources. You maybe are NOT the right person for the job, and other nurses have nothing to do with it.
So for the few that say they have moved on from the bedside, what do you do now? And how hard was it to transition out of a nursing position for you?
I moved to an outpatient position. Still "patient-facing" and very involved in patients' care. Just not lifting, boosting, pushing, pulling, and otherwise breaking myself physically.
Transitioning to a different position in nursing (which I love) is not the same as transitioning out of a nursing position, as GrnTea will attest.
I moved to an outpatient position. Still "patient-facing" and very involved in patients' care. Just not lifting, boosting, pushing, pulling, and otherwise breaking myself physically.
Transitioning to a different position in nursing (which I love) is not the same as transitioning out of a nursing position, as GrnTea will attest.
Some on this thread have mentioned transitioning out of nursing into other fields. The question was addressed to those who did.
However, referring to nurses that feel stuck as "a truckload of whining do-nothing burnout cases " is quite mean spirited. I am happy to offer my experiences to my fellow nurses, in hopes to guide and educate.
As far as running from my home screaming... not gonna happen. Have a Pit Bull and a Glock
I have a Pit Bull and a .357. I knew we were soul sisters!
4. Double and triple documentation. We can add computerized systems here as well. Documenting takes up so much more of my time than actual patient care, and the whole reason people come to the hospital is because they need us. Some (most) days, I feel like that box of electronic parts on wheels is my patient more than the person lying on the OR table.
My gripe exactly. I like what technology has to offer in theory, but with the advent of computerized, well...everything, I find that am increasingly treating a computer, not the patient.
The art behind the science of nursing (and medicine) is now dictated by a series of cues and prompts from a computer program that has no more intuition than the series of 1122211221111's that dictate its programming.
After job shadowing a couple of Hospitalist NP's/PA's, they actually have it just as bad as RN's in that regard.
This may be the new normal, but it is not "normal." What was intended to create a seamless flow of information, has in many ways become an enormous barrier to real time patient care.
It has its upsides, for sure, but more and more I watch bedside nurses putting patients through their paces like they were sorting cattle.
guest64485
722 Posts
Brekka, just an FYI, I've been on these boards for a decade and lindarn has been one of the most passionate promoters of action I have seen in this community (I know you've been here for years as well, but I'm not sure how often you frequent the boards). I've got a lot of respect for her, so don't feel her post was a personal attack! I think its great that you took the time to inform management with your data! I think we're all frustrated at the lack of change to give relief for bedside RNs.
OP, I LOVED working at the bedside but poor ratios and subsequent stress on my body made me leave for outpatient nursing, where things are far better balanced for me. Prior to leaving I went to management with my ideas for change and nothing happened.
In my view, basically all other issues would be manageable if you have staffing. I greatly miss inpatient work, but, don't ever plan to return until my state at minimum implements nurse-patient ratios. I support the National Nurses United (CNA/NNOC/NNU) given their reputation for getting things accomplished.