Will Nursing be stressful?

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Hello,

I plan on hopefully becoming a RN one day and I understand that nursing school won't be the easiest thing, however, after that will nursing be stressful? Would I be able to have time for family and friends? Would I have to take my work home with me? I would hate to do that because I want time for my home and family and also time for work SEPARATELY.

ALSO**

If you choose to work the 3-12 hour shifts you get 4 days off completely? And to those who did have the 3-12 hour shifts, did they like it?

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I am not a nurse, yet, but my roommate has been one for years. Your question, no offense, sounds very naive. Of course, it can be stressful, more to some, less to others. However, I know there are nurses who will say their work is not stressful. But even then, I am sure it is not a walk in the park either. Just don't have high expectations walking into the field hoping that it is all unicorns and rainbows.

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Sorry if it sounded naive I know there obviously will be stress I just meant will it be extremely stressful or a healthy kind where I can still spend time with family and friends and have time home without thinking about work 24/7? And I do want to do nursing because it is the only thing I'm passionate and interested in about in the career field.

**I'm only concerned about this because my brother is telling me that nursing is extremely stressful to the point where it messes with your mind and you don't think normal**

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Specializes in mental health / psychiatic nursing.

All jobs have stress involved and nursing is no different. Will it be a stress you take home with you? I think that depends on how you personally handle stress and how the specificity you work in jives with your ability to handle stress. It is not typically a job in which you take work home with you in terms of paperwork or things like that, but sometimes it can be hard to let go of the emotions of the day and leave them at work.

If you work 3-12s you get 4 days off a week, (unless you choose to pick up extra), those 4 days may be stacked together or they may be scattered through out the week depending on your specific schedule.

Personally I find I have a healthier work-life balance in nursing (former CNA, now RN) than I did working a regular day desk job and am less stressed out in general, but I know others who want to leave nursing because of the stress, so it does depend on the person.

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Specializes in SICU,CTICU,PACU.

probably one of the most stressful careers but that depends on what unit you work in and how easily you get stressed out. the good part is that you do not take it home with you. typically its not 3 days on, 4 days off, they stagger them. you will also have some type of weekend requirement, so if weekends are big to you then that might be a problem but as i said it really depends what unit you work in, some do not require weekends.

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I'll preface this with the fact that I'm not a nurse yet.

ANY job can be stressful to the point where it messes with your mind. I worked in IT QA for 10 years and there was a certain period where I would drop my husband off at the train station and he'd tell me to not kill anyone - obviously metaphorically killing since it was IT - but it was so stressful (we're talking 60 - 70 hour weeks) that I would snark unintentionally.

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Specializes in 15 years in ICU, 22 years in PACU.
Sorry if it sounded naive I know there obviously will be stress I just meant will it be extremely stressful or a healthy kind where I can still spend time with family and friends and have time home without thinking about work 24/7? And I do want to do nursing because it is the only thing I'm passionate and interested in about in the career field.

**I'm only concerned about this because my brother is telling me that nursing is extremely stressful to the point where it messes with your mind and you don't think normal**

And where does your brother get this information?

I agree with previous posters that the stress of nursing is more dependent on your response to stress in general rather than nursing being particularly stressful.

There are so many different areas of nursing that most reasonable people can find a place that works for them. You have to be willing to give some areas a chance and not prejudge that you must have your "dream job" in order to be happy.

Nurses are (for the most part) normal people who have families, like to have time off, have fun, want to feel they do good work and get paid for doing that work.

"Old school" nurses set the bar high for personal integrity and trust. A generalization on my part (and strictly anecdotal) is I have discovered that younger and many second career nurses are more concerned with financial reward and personal satisfaction than providing a valuable service to a community.

I don't believe nursing is a "calling" but it requires a little bit more than your average time-clock-punching 9-5er. Even if it weren't a violation of the Nurse Practice Act of my state it would never occur to me to leave my job without a competent replacement no matter what time of day or how late dinner is going to be.

One great advantage of nursing is you CAN leave your responsibilities at work and not worry about them until you return for another shift. Unlike folks who have 24/7 businesses or office work that will still be there on Monday.

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Nursing is stressful. You are responsible for lives, for meds, for well being of other people while they are under your care. You are stressed because you are new, because you dont know what kind of patient assignment you will get, because you know what is going to go good or bad for that shift. It's all very hard in the beginning! But eventually I hear it gets better. I know nurses who have a blast with their lives outside of work. I am new myself so i am going through the very stressful phase and cant wait to have some experience so that I can enjoy life as well. I hope this does not scare you but just gives you a realistic perspective. Most of the times new nurses get hired for nights and that alone takes it toll if you are not a night person. With nights you dont feel you have as much time off and you may be feel as refreshed returning to work. Starting on days has its own demons - where you must learn to time manage but until you do its stressful to the max. Again, this is not to scare you but put into perspective that you are not walking into something easy. It will be doable and healthy but after some time when you are experienced in nursing. This is based on my experience so far as a hospital nurse.

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Nursing is a very stressful profession.

Once you gain experience it becomes easier.

It just takes a long time for you to feel comfortable working alone, and finally getting adjusted to all of the tasks your job encompasses.

There are thousands of nurses across the U.S., so the job is definitely doable.

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