Would you become an RN again if you had the choice?

[eminthesr]

I'll be applying to ABSN (or ELMSN) programs this upcoming year.

I have been getting increasingly frustrated over becoming a nurse which is starting to worry me. The main thing I keep hearing is that nurses are mean and not nice to each other. I've heard this from many different people and I'm getting worried. I don't want to either 1. become one of those people or 2. be treated poorly by my co-workers

My question is, would you still become an RN if you had the choice to do it again? Why or why not?

Would you recommend getting your MSN and NP license? Why or why not?

Thank you! I really hope that the people I am hearing these things from are wrong!

[chevyv, BSN, RN]

After having worked in a hot factory for a few years, I would say definately I would go into nursing again if I had the chance to do it all over. Matter of fact, I would have gone right after high school instead of waiting until having my children and seeing them in school.

Women in general tend to not always be very kind to each other. My coworkers can be catty and some downright mean, but I work with people from so many different cultures and backgrounds that there are bound to be some battles. If you let that be the only reason you shy away from nursing, that would be a shame. There are many other more profound reasons to question nursing.

[lockheart678]

Absolutely not. Most of my coworkers have been great in every job I've ever had before I became a nurse. Now, if I hear one more stupid girl badmouth the other girl who just walked away one more time, I'm going to flip. It's so irritating and I don't get it. I've had people be mean to me because I was the new girl and they figured I must not know what I'm doing, but then they're also mean to me because I do know what I'm doing. Then the doctors think we're nothing but secretaries, and they expect us to bend over backward just because they received a text (you know, the personal ones where people are just saying good morning or something).

Over the past few years, I've had so many problems related to stress, I don't know how I still function. Before I finally realized what was causing my problems, I racked up quite a few bills. I've also suffered through some pretty severe shoulder problems due to my job as well. Every time I feel a shoulder ache or every time I have to lift another patient, I wonder why I put myself through this. If there were another job I could find where I could make ends meet, I'd take it in a heartbeat. At this point, I'd love to be one of those people who have an 8-5 customer service job where they do their thing, and at the end of the day, they can go home and forget all about it.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

Yes, I would, without hesitation.

[tewdles, RN]

Yes I would choose nursing again!

Yes, I would recommend continuing your education as it is impossible for you to know what type of nursing you might find rewarding and higher degrees will open more options for you.

I wouldn't worry about an APN degree until you have gotten your feet wet in the clinical arena so that you can make an informed choice.

There is more lateral violence in nursing areas where the staff are underappreciated and over worked. Powerless professionals lash out in unprofessional ways.

[clarkheart]

I've been a nurse for over 17 years now and I don't regret for a moment my choice to enter nursing. I understand and appreciate some of the comments regarding our profession such as the long hours, disrespect, and feeling that we don't make a difference. But we do make a difference. Just when I get discouraged I will meet a person I took care of in a store and they say thanks for all the hard work I had done for them. I don't remember their name but they remembered mine. Even though I was only involved in their lives for a short while I made enough of an impression that they wanted to thank me months after they left the hospital. There are many fields to encounter in nursing if you so desire but all of them require you have the desire to want to help people and if you have lost that desire than perhaps you should be out of nursing.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

Yes without a doubt. I have a great job, make very good money, have good benifits, and work with a great bunch of people. Plus my job is interesting, challenging and rewarding. In my 18 years of nursing in 4 different states and a number of hospital I have observed dysfunctional units unofficaly run by mean B****** who chewed up new grads. But only a couple times. They were unusual and by far the minority. Of course back then an RN could get a different job the next day if they weren't treated well. Nowdays that's not so easy.

I have spend my whole career in critical care and emergency. That has made the difference for me. I wouldn't have lasted long n med-surg or LTC.

I personaly would not get an MSN to be an NP. First such programs are getting hard to find (due to the emergence of the silly DNP). Second I wouldn't make more money, maybe even less. Most of my many friends who have gone on to NP did it for lifestyle reasons, not to make more money. They didn't like working nights or hoilidays or weekends and becomeing an NP allowed them to make the same, or close to the same as a staff RN but with a more normal schedual. Too much BS and not enough reward for me. If I was going to go the a clinical grad program I would do CRNA not NP.

[DutchRN09]

I would do it again, I work 0.6 with FT pay and good benefits, day shift hrs. Most of my co workers are nice, and so are the doctors. The work is interesting and challenging and I have a lot of free time when I am not working. I would not become a NP as I am not interested in working a lot more hrs and covering call, for less pay per hr. I work in SICU and would feel differently if I worked a general floor.

[Bella'sMyBaby]

NO, absolutely NOT....

And for you newer Nurses....I feel sorry for you.

For starters, too many Nurses, not enough jobs, pay has decreased & hotel customer service B.S.

[JZ_RN]

No. I love my patients. I love what I do. I hate management and rude co-workers, the nasty patients, the overwork for little pay, lousy benefits, and disrespect. If I worked with only certain co-workers and with only certain patients, it would be better, but I never realized how nasty some other people can be until I worked with them and cared for them daily.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

No. I love my patients. I love what I do. I hate management and rude co-workers, the nasty patients, the overwork for little pay, lousy benefits, and disrespect. If I worked with only certain co-workers and with only certain patients, it would be better, but I never realized how nasty some other people can be until I worked with them and cared for them daily.

*** Exactly why I work in critical care. I like my patients intubated and sedated. I work night to avoid the bulk of their families.

[HippyDippyLPN]

6 months ago I would say do not be a nurse, but then again I was in LTC forever. Being a nurse is the only profession I have known so I cant really relate it to anything else. But I will say my mother and father work in the technical field and it's as miserable as nursing lol. its the same things for everyone, not enough pay, too many hours, not enough appreciation. A lot of it is the economy, they know there are 5 people lined up behind every nurse to take your job so there is no point in companies satisfying their employees. I am in a family clinic now and while it has its down falls it really is a lot better than crazy shifts, working weekends and holidays, and having way too many patients. Its still stressfull, but its a different more tolerable stress to where I think this could be my path in nursing.

[tntrn, ASN, RN]

Nurses being mean to nurses should be the least of your worries.

I just retired after 35 years. I will answer your question in two ways: if I were to need to start raising my family NOW, the answer would be a definite NO...I hate the computer part of nursing. The computer, IMHO, gives us less time for actual nursing care and has become the number one priority when you are on duty. Guess I would have to say if I know what I know now, the answer is no.

But when I started, we really learned bedside nursing skills and got to use them. No such thing as relying on one's ipad or iphone; we had to know it. And we were far less hassled by the PTB.....some of them actually knew how to do bedside nursing also.

My nursing "career" was simply a way for me to raise my two children. Fortunately, I enjoyed it (until about 10 years ago) and I was good at my specialty (Labor and Delivery).

So if it were 35 years ago, yes, I would do it again. If it were now, no way. There are way too many liabilities connected with it now.