10 NURSES! Whats Going On In Nursing!!!!

[Tiredofthesystem]

Nurse #1
" Enough Is enough! "

I am just another nurse frustrated by the insensitivity of CEO's sticking it to nurses so they can have enough money left over at the end of the year for their new yacht, summer house, private island, whatever. You get the point. The reason I think there is a nursing shortage is because nobody wants to be worked like a dog. I could go on about this for hours but I'm presenting a new angle here. I have my BSN but don't like nursing. I'm slow, careful, safety conscientious and methodical and I double check everything because I couldn't live with myself if I caused serious injury or death to a patient. This is apparently everything a nurse should not be in order to be an effective nurse with good multi-tasking and excellent time management skills. The things I was praised for in school are now a serious hinderance to me and in my jobs. I'm looking for ideas out there for other jobs that would use this education we worked so hard for but allows for lunch breaks, bathroom breaks, and 15 minute breaks like Wal-mart associates get. I also worked at Wal-mart before becoming a nurse and have actually thought about going back, but the money isn't very good. I've been a nurse for almost 2 years now and worked 3 months in Psych, 8 months in rehab, 8 months in long term care, and about 2 months now in med surg. It's the same everywhere. Worked like a dog and no time to think, much less go to the bathroom. So my question to fellow nurses in the same predicament is what else can we do that uses this education? I don't want to have to go for another bachelors but at this point that is what I'm willing to try if there seems to be no hope with my BSN. I would appreciate any ideas out there that might help us get into a better job that will pay the bills and allow us to be happy.

Nurse #2

" I hate Nursing! "

I came from a very abusive family situation including raging, verbal abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, abandonment, and chaos. My mother put me in foster care when I was about 16 for experimenting with drugs just once - she said I was "incorrigible" but I was really inconvenient. She wanted to work in the evenings to avoid the family situation, come home, sit on the couch, fix a "highball", smoke, and read fiction. My low self-esteem during those formative years led to a situation where I felt I must be a caretaker of others and ultimately into the nursing profession. During the past 20 years I have been verbally abused, belittled, insulted, and disrespected. Throughout those years I thought there was something wrong with me - I wasn't fast enough, smart enough, good enough, etc. I was constantly being judged and found lacking. Mean managers and nurses do not ostracize those like themselves. They concentrate on new grads or people with an actual conscience who try and do a good job. I believe that I tolerated nursing because of my low self-esteem. It has been very interesting to find that in reading these posts many people have had similar experiences. Anyone attacking others here for complaining about the nursing profession clearly illustrate the problem. Let's not fix the system - let's remove anyone who is complaining about it or wants to be treated humanely. My advice? Do not be a patient if you can possibly avoid it in the filthy and understaffed hospitals of today. Even the best ones leave their trash overflowing to cut costs and provide housekeeping only during certain hours. Lest we forget the frequently fatal hospital acquired infections. Above all, be sure to have a psych eval if you think of entering the profession. Also, take with you a very thick skin and plan your exit strategy in advance. Hospitals do not like older nurses and find ways of disposing of them - or working them to death or disability.

Nurse #3


"I never thought I'd leave nursing !!!"


I'll start from the beginning; I was a CNA 19 years ago and loved it. It took me 10 yrs to finish an ADN program. Nursing was my dream job; I thought I would be in it until I retired. Sure, there were the usual things to put up with...lots of body fluids; asshole physicians,detached management, unruly patients, rude families..etc etc etc. I STILL loved nursing. Then, I sustained a work injury. Being off work for a few months gave me time to think about my life. Up until then I was too busy working and paying bills to see the truth. Not only did my work injury return as soon as I went back to work, but I realized I hated my job. Work comp just grabs you by the tits and twists you around, and I didn't want to have surgery that may not work. The facility I have toiled for had "no other positions" to offer me. The last straw was being put back on nights...After 11 years, I would rather have hot splinters driven into my eyes than ever work another night shift. So I resigned. I cant find a non-patient care job!!!! Shortage my ass. They all want a BSN. Then, when I asked about returning to school, I was told I'd have to repeat the science courses! This not only applied to nursing, but PA, dental hygiene, and other allied health fields as well. I'm being treated as if the 11 years of experience I have count for NOTHING. It pissed me off so much, that I'm going back to college and into a non-medical major. If I have to take the same courses as someone just out of high school, why not get into a profession that is clean, safe, is open only during banking hours, and lets me wear real clothes instead of PJ's to work? Believe me, if it can happen to me, it can happen to you. In my mid 40's and starting over AGAIN.
Nursing turned it's back on me; I'm just returning the favor.





Hmmmmmmmmmmm... now what does this all mean? ..."Collectively?" :confused:

[Tiredofthesystem]

Nurse #4

"Nursing is Beyond Hell"


I am a Nurse. Before I had this job, I must have had a life. I don't now. I actually went to school and studied hard to do this demeaning, humiliating work. I've done it for 30 years, and I have hated every second of every minute of every hour that I've spent in this brutal, soul-sucking job. I have continued to do it up to now, because I have no choice. I am my own sole support, I have to work full time,I have no time or money to get a degree in something else as a way to escape this hell. To all of you Pollyanna nurses who are either new grads or have a desk job, who will say, 'If that's the way you feel, please do the nursing profession and your patients a favor and quit' I say Kiss My Ass.In the first place, despite the fact that I hate my job, I never give my patients anything less than the best care I can provide.They would never guess how miserable I am.In the second place, Try, just TRY ever getting any other kind of work after you've degraded yourself by being a nurse. You can't do it. I don't know whether other employers actually believe that you're overqualified, which is what they always say, or that they just think you must be a real loser to have chosen such a ****-suck existence as being a nurse. And let's be honest--if you are a nurse and you don't hate your job, then you probably haven't started orientation yet, or you have lucked into a position that doesn't require you to do any actual nursing.
Here's an example of how working as a nurse makes a person feel: I was on my way to work one day, when a car spun into my lane, narrowly missing a head on collision with my car. My only thought was: "If I'm going to die, THANK GOD it's on the way TO work and not after I've put in another 12 hours of hell."
If you stick with it, nursing will reward you by destroying you. It will destroy your happiness. Then it will destroy your family life, then it will destroy your health. Finally, it destroys your very humanity. It will take whatever spark is in you that makes you laugh, love, care, feel; suck it right out of you and take your soul along with it.
Want to make a difference, and help people? Forget it. You won't have time to make a difference,and you won't have time to care.You won't possibly have time to do all the things that you are assigned to do for all your patients, so you will prioritize, do only the most important ones, and lie about the rest. And after a while, you won't even feel guilty.
Want to have a family? Well, plan on spending every holiday and most weekends away from them. YOUR holiday memories will be of playing step and fetch it for some thankless moron who thinks nothing of farting in your face while you bend over his reeking bedpan to wipe his fat ass. You'll only get to see your son's first homerun on videotape, cause you had to work on your weekend off, like you will 99% of the time. Daughter's first Prom? Too bad. You'll be working late and missing it. People aren't just sick in the daytime, you know. But don't think your Supervisor, the one who made you stay over, will ever be there on a weekend, holiday, or one minute past 4PM. Only you.
Think your patient's appreciation for your care will 'make it all worthwhile'? Think again--no one appreciates what you do. They believe you owe it to them to perform any degrading personal duty that they can think to ask for with a smile on your face, 'cause YOU'RE A NURSE! And far from wondering how to express their appreciation, they're only thinking of the next disgusting thing they can get you to do before you leave the room.And trust me, there's nothing they won't ask, because, they're gonna get their money's worth! And that includes you carrying coffee to all their psycho visitors,when you're too busy to even see your own patients, and pretending not to hear their rude comments and suggestions.
Think that as a nurse, you'll be in a career that commands respect? Get that notion out of your head. To management and administration, you're nothing but a nameless drudge. Nursing Staff is just an annoying expense, as far as they're concerned, and the fewer they can run the place with, the better. After all, money squeezed from the nursing budget can go for more worthwhile things, like THEIR salaries, bonuses and new offices. No, there's never any money in the budget for hiring and retaining nurses, but they'll spend millions of dollars on PR to promote services they can't provide when the patient gets there.
But don't EVER tell a patient that the reason they had to wait an hour for the bedpan or a pain shot is because you're understaffed! That kind of talk will get you fired. You see, it's a secret!Even though you'll be working dangerously,or even criminally understaffed, you can never say so. Apparently you're supposed to smile and say 'Sorry, I'm guess I'm just incompetent.'

Retirement? What a joke. No nursing job has a pension plan.Even assuming that you somehow survive this job long enough to retire they'll always fire you first. It's the 'unwritten policy' for anyone who looks like they might make it. And woe to the nurse who has stuck with it long enough to be at the top of the pay scale. You might as well paint a target on your back, because you're days are numbered.
There's just too many naive 'I'm gonna make a difference, even if I do have to start out with lousy hours and be on call' new grads out there to make your experience worth anything.

The giant dysfunctional conglomerate that calls itself a health care system in this town has an annual event called 'So You Wanna Be a Nurse?'. They go to local schools, signing up little 4th through 6th graders for 'a fun day of learning'. Smiling nurses in sparkling uniforms spend the day showing these poor innocents how to take temperatures and blood pressures, and tell them how wonderful it is when you grow up, to have a career where you can help others. These nurse pimps should be shot.Someone needs to tell these kids the truth. I've been hit, kicked, spit on, puked on, **** on. I'm sick half the time from people coughing in my face. Nurses wipe everyone's asses but their own, because there's no time for them to have a bathroom break. They gain weight from wolfing down junk food on the run, or lose weight and get sick, because 'lunch break' is a fantasy. They spend long periods of the day grinding up pills and mashing them in applesauce,and cajoling people with brown stumps of teeth to 'just take a bite' only to have it all spit back in their faces. I've had urinals emptied on me, I've been nearly strangled with my own stethoscope. Nurses work with people so confused they eat their own ****, but who can't be restrained from beating you to a pulp, because their dignity has to be maintained. Dignity? What do you think that brown stuff is under their fingernails when they scratch the hell out of you because you tried to keep them from falling?
Should anyone have to do this to earn a living?

Nurse #5




"Thank God I'm not alone, I hate nursing too....nursing student"


I am a third year student nurse and I hate it more than words can describe. I left school with no qualifications, so a few years later when I got my head together and decided to become a nurse my family were so proud.

A few weeks into my training I discovered I was pregnant. As everyone was convinced I would give up with my training I decided to prove them all wrong and stick with it. I'm still training with 1 year to go and I hate everything about it.

Most of all I hate having to leave my daughter for 12 hours a day just to be treated like a slave. I will finish my training but I know for sure I won't be breaking my back for the next 30 years of my life.

I'm 25 years old now so I have to realise that nursing is not for me and think of other ways to make me and my family happy as I am miserable every day. Thanks for this website I'm so relieved.

[Tiredofthesystem]

Nurse #6

"Gain some sense: run away from nursing"


I've been an RN for 5 years in critical care. I passed the CCRN and the CEN and work like a Hebrew slave for less than nothing. All this knowledge and education and I can't make $50,000 a year. The high moment thus far has been when a patient accused me of "inappropriate behavior." Certified wackos can beat you up, accuse you, sexually grab you and no one will care. I have never felt so low or worthless despite all my knowledge. I'm a BLS and ACLS instructor, I can start an IV in a septic heroin user. The physical demands are killing me and I feel trapped. Every day i am reminded that I passed up an opportunity to go to pharmacy school. It is not your responsibility to save all the suffering people in the hospital, you can't do it: Get away from nursing, the enrollment is down for a reason, the shortage is there for a reason. Still want to be a nurse? Then get ready to love cleaning up **** and get ready to act excited and even grateful when you get that 10 cent raise.

Nurse #7


"nursing sucks....RN"


I have just left the nursing profession after 18 awful, frustrating years of being overworked, used and abused, and I am happier than I've been in years!

I would not tell my worst enemy to become an RN. After years of 12 hour shifts with no breaks (even if it were possible, only 30 minutes are allowed),
understaffing, and basically running damage control, I couldn't take it any more.

I went into home health for the past few years and worked for several different companies; none provided a cell phone or even paid for mileage; we had to pay for our own CPR, fingerprinting, background checks, physicals, etc. even though there is a critical nursing shortage because NURSES DON'T COMOPLAIN ABOUT IT!

Fools. What other jobs require cell phones and driving upwards of 100 miles a day with no reimbursement???
There is a sociological concept known as "horizontal violence" that happens when a group of people feels opressed and powerless and they take it out on eachother (think gnags and drive-by shootings as an example)...this is what happens with nurses every day!

Nurses are notoriously cruel to each other. As if the working conditions were not bad enough, we have to deal with nurses "eating their own". Nurses do not realize their power that comes from need and demand, and put up with abysmal conditions.

I'm gone and I will never look back.

Nurse #8

"General Medical Unit Nurse....driven to dislike people"


I have been an RN for two years now. I officially hate it.

I'm working on a general medical unit. The pay is good, but the job is driving me to DISLIKE PEOPLE IN GENERAL. I am a kind, helpful, nice person, but I don't like what this profession is turning me into. I'm irritable and jaded towards mankind...

I'm tired of being treated like a maid, I'm tired of the revolving door that hospitals are (seeing the same patients come back week after week and never get better), I'm tired of people with self-inflicted injuries ***** and whine and take it out on me, I'm tired of patients who are drama queens and refuse to do things for themselves even though they are capable, I'm tired of the abuse of the system (this is Canada -- no one is denied access to health care), I'm tired of babysitting demented elderly people while they wait for months and months to get into nursing homes, I'm tired of call bell abusers (ie. people who ring every ten minutes all night long to know what time it is or to ask me to adjust their blankets), I'm tired of working in a system that is falling apart and barely functioning at all, I'm tired of not feeling valued by my employer, I'm tired of chasing after the other disciplines (physio, pharmacy) to make sure they do their jobs (another form of babysitting, I guess), I'm tired of having to do things that violate my conscience (ethically) to pacify my patient's unrealistic family members, and I'm tired of the constant stress of the job.

Don't get me wrong, some of my coworkers love nursing in spite of the things that I just mentioned, but it's clearly not for me. I feel bad that I put in the time and effort and money to get here and now I'm unhappy. I should have listened to my gut feeling that nursing was all wrong for me when I was in school. At the same time, through this experience I have been challenged greatly and grown as a person in ways that I never would of if I had picked an easier job. So I think in the end I'm going to stick it out for a couple more years until the student loans are paid back, try to find a job in nursing that I like a little bit more, and then eventually make a career change.

[Tiredofthesystem]

Nurse #9


"Future of nursing!!!"


I am a RN and I am burned out like a lot of nurses my age. We go into this field as good people and expect good treatment. But HELL NO, we get treated like morons in school that every test will get us kicked out of the nursing class.This lasts the entire time you are in school. The teachers have MSN degrees but have they ever worked as nurses HELL NO.
Patients have broken my bones, spit on me, pissed and crapped on me and 'dorky dorky dorky" I kept going back. Until I was hurt so badly I couldn't lift anylonger and a nurse that can't lift is not wanted.
So, my proposal for the future is to take prison inmates that volunteer and LOBOTOMIZE THEM and train them to be nurses for the rest of their lives. and they can be available 24/7 in case of mandated overtime.
This idea came to me because there will eventually be no one who will become nurses except those who have no choice like life term prisoners

Nurse #10


"Worst mistake of my life..becoming an RN."


I thought the biggest mistake of my life was when I broke up with this gorgeous 5'9 reddish-brown haired,sky-blue eyed ,perfect bodied(Breast,Ass & legs) Israeli girl. I was so freaking wrong. I am a male nurse that graduated about 14mths ago. Got my license, passed the first shot..thought that was a good sign(Bull****). I started my first job in a childrens hospital. I thought why not kids I love them just as much as the next person. I personally don't have any, but I figured some day I will. What a ****ing mistake. The unit I am in is considered by other nurses & floats the worst & most dreadfully hated unit in the hospital. When I started most people were friendly & curtious. Well after about a month or two that all became a thing of the past. I have been there for about a year now, & I hate it more than anything in the whole enitre world. I am made fun of, smirked & giggled at when I go by some nurses. I mean I work with some real low down *****es. It hurts working there...it hurts so much. Man I hate that place. The orientations they provide are a ****ing joke. They basically tell you this is here. & that is there & BOOM you are on your own. Then they have the balls to say use your resources, but when you ask another nurse hey can you help me with this is or how do I do this..it's ****sville for you. You have just voluntered yourself to be the idiot of the unit. I mean seriously they expect you to know everything about the dept. in a matter of a few weeks. Man I hate it so much, I literally cry when I have to go to work or when I know I have only one day before I go back to that ****ing hole.(That's what I call it...The ****ing Hole) I tell you I am nurse in unit with only one other nurse I really trust...and I tell yah. GOD bless this nurse. If it was'nt for this other nurse I would basically go ****ing postal in that Dept. I fight everyday when I work there to keep my sanity & try not to fall on my knee in tears. I pray everyday to God to give me strength to survive one more day..one more day. Again I have been a nurse for only one year...& hate it already. I am hoping that something comes up soon & I can find something else in nursing that would help revitalize my life in this profession, I so dreadfully despise right now.

WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON IN NURSING? DOES ANYONE SEE THE ELEPHANT ON THE COUCH?!!!! - TIREDOFTHESYSTEM

[Tiredofthesystem]

WANT MORE????


Nurse #11


"Nursing Has Drained Me...nurse"


I typed "i hate nursing" in a search page and came upon this site. Wow, I am not alone. Let me not say that I hate nursing, because it's a needed job that somebody has to do, I've just absolutly hated my experiences in nursing.

I'm a pretty laid back person and I try not to let things stress me out too much. When I was in nursing school, I did my thing and didn't stress out too, much becaues when I started to work I would get a great internship and have preceptors that would just teach me so much. Yeah Right! My first hospital job out of school(I'm on my second now) was on a small intermediate care unit, not much of an internship, and my preceptor was burnt out to the max. The unit was very understaffed and poorly managed, I remember a few nights being one of only two nurses on the unit and having to be charge, I was a new nurse without an ACLS certificate. It was so scary working there. I literally SURVIVED working there for 7 months.

I dicided to move 2000 miles away to the west coast to a reputable hospital, where I knew I would get my great internship and wonderful preceptor and I would grow to love nursing. WRONG! First of all, I moved from so far away and I didn't get a bit of help to move. We were promised a 5-month preceptorship which was only 6 weeks, and then we were on our own, in the ICU, all this combined with multiple issues in the unit.

I've had some good experiences where i've touched people's lives, but overall I don't like the job, I'm so drained, emotionally, mentally, physically and everything else. I'm so disappointed with my experiences that I feel my spirit is broken. I have only three months to complete my year here, and then I'm out, but sometimes I just don't think I could make another day. I think i'm a good person, and I love to help people but this is not for me, this is not at all what I expected, I want to get out so badly, I could hardly hold back the tears.

I don't want to discourage anyone going into but, I just want to let you know, what you might be getting into. I hope we all can find what makes us happy, until then Take care!

Nurse #12


"recruitment agency nurse.......nursing is for idiots"


I have been a nurse for 23 years, and I have worked in hospitals-medsurg. psych, longterm care, jails,and clinics and I have come to the conclusion that nursing is for idiots.

I am ashamed to tell you how many jobs that I have had. Most of the the time I have worked at a recruitment agency because i can't stand the politics of being on staff. I have found no field of nursing that I like, and at 52, it is kind of hard to think about a new career, especially since years of nursing have ruined my back, knees, and hips.

I get so angry when i read the various nursing journals pushing the bsn. I see bsn's working the floor just like the rest of us. And the nusing magazines telling us that we should be recruiting young people to the field.

I warned my goddaughter not to go into nursing . she has only been a nurse for a year and she is going back to school to bercome a teacher. she asked me how i managed to survive the politics, and the backstabbing for so long. my answer-work for the agency.

I have honestly thought about taking a job in walmart, but i can't take the long hours of standing. So I just p/u a shift here and there in nursing homes at night, so that i won't have to be on my feet so much. And then i hate working in nursing homes, because the staffing is bad, the care is bad, a good many of the aids are lazy and the food for the patients is terrible.

Nursing homes are making money at the expense of the patients and staff. I used to be a good nurse, but now i do just enough to provide safe care. my friends taught me this. I was coming home upset about what wasn't done,what i couldn't get done, and how much i had to p/u behind other people who had worked 10 doubles a week. my friends said that i cared too much, so i just stopped caring so much. I am truly trying to find another line of work any suggestion?

[Tiredofthesystem]

YET EVEN MORE!!!!


Nurse #13


"Nurse Clicks making me hate my professions....MBA/MSN program"


1. Management do not care about the staff. All they care about their loaded pockets.I have gotten to the point of dreading to go to work because of the dysfunctional nurses,including RN'S,LPN'S AND TECH'S.

If you don't get into their clicks you are an outcast. I have never in my life worked at a facility where so many problems.I am from the midwest and moved to the south and I am in shock to see so many lazy people.They keep up so much mess it makes you sick and wonder how management made the decision to hire some of them.I witnessed how a group of them got together and lied on a nurse and she got fired because of the lies they told.I am in the MBA/MSN program at this time and when I get to the end of my MBA program I will be changing the MSN to something else.

When I first went into nursing there were some nurses saying " They wish they had not gone into this field and I can see where they were coming from as I experienced nursing myself.I am a RN working on a telemetry unit 12 hr shifts.I can not stand the nurses. Some of them are very,very nonprofessional.They do poor nursing care and management does not try to improve these conditions.I enjoy taking care of the patients, but we have been getting very demanding patients and family members and this can be very stressful.Several nurses have been abused and injured by family members and patients.

Mangement does not give praise to the staff.I hear them coming in every morning complaining.I plan to start my own business.I have never in my life seen so many dysfunction people in a facility before. You would think of the south is where people are hard working people and there may be some, but I have not seen this before coming here.

Nurse #14


"Another Nurse, another story"


Over a decade in nursing, almost 2 in medical field. I've worked in ICU, home health, medsurg, neuro, cardiology, burn unit, bone marrow transplant, renal dialysis, and even a few days in a nursing home. I've tried and done it all. Employers love to hire me because I have such extensive knowledge. I can handle just about any situation. I have been ACLS certified since I graduated and worked in critical care in both acute care settings and through agencies.

It seems just yesterday, I was young with enthusiastic eyes. I'm now 36 and absolutely hate nursing. The only time I love nursing is when it's me in a patient's room with the door closed using my skills to help someone. Even that scenario can be rare enjoyment nowadays. Patients and families are more "educated" with the internet at their disposal. Many times I find myself correcting their beliefs and research than agreeing with patient and family members declarations of their new found knowledge. Many times I find them using this knowledge as ammunition against me, the beginning scenario being patient's and families don't believe I have the knowledge to properly care for them or their loved ones. I know it's a defense mechanism, but sometimes a little bit of information can be extremely dangerous. So, every new patient or family member I encounter, many times it seems I'm having to prove to them my knowledge all over again. I'm tired of it really.

The only reason I keep doing my job is for the paycheck. I've contemplated many times going to work at walmart just to escape the horror that the nursing job gives. However, I have bills to pay and cannot afford a lower paying job.

It has gotten to such a sad state of affairs, it makes me very depressed. I get a heavy feeling in my chest every time I have to go to work. I don't know what kind of situation I'm going to walk into. Are we going to have enough nurses for my shifts? Are we going to have any CNA's? What kind of patients am I going to have in my large group of patients? Who is going to be the supervisor? Who am I going to be working with? Are we going to have a charge nurse? These questions are just a few I wonder about because they directly relate to the kind of shift I'm going to have. I'm a very strong person and can handle situations that many avoid, but over time it really starts to whittle away at your soul, in a way.

More than not, we don't have enough nurses, sometimes only 1 CNA if any at all for dozens of patients. The patients expect things to happen the second they hit the call light. Management expects it too. It is an impossible situation and in the end, the nurse is to blame.

Management's solution to understaffing and heavy workloads are time management skills and employee attitude programs and philosophies. It's a bunch of BS because they are only out to make as much money they can for the hospital so they can get the maximum bonuses for themselves at each fiscal quarter or year. It is really really sad. Acuity tools are used but are manipulated to a hospitals advantage to attain fiscal goals. Nurses demand staffing according to acuity, so they implement a acuity tool for the nurses to complete each shift. If management doesn't like how the numbers come out at the end of a shift, they will change it so they can save money. So a nurse will fill out a acuity ranking tool on each of their patients each shift only for management to change it again leaving the patients without the required number of nurses needed due to all patients level of care required based on illness and needs. It's an acuity tool that isn't an acuity tool. When a hospital says "we staff on acuity", it's a sales pitch. In reality they don't. Hospital management will never admit it, but it happens everyday. If the acuity does not match their financial goals, they WILL fix it to their advantage, not the nurse's or patient's advantage. In the end, money is the bottom line above all other considerations. Sick.

Luckily for me, I have been working hard over the past few years to get out of nursing. It will happen soon here in the next few months.

I urge anyone who is considering nursing, don't do it. You will regret it later. Unless you want to get into management, go for it. If you want to care for patient's directly, good luck. You will eventually kill your self both physically and mentally over time.

It could be so much better with the right actions taken by people in power. However, business rules and dictates what is appropriate in nursing. They know what is safe patient-nurse ratios. They know how much costs should be put forth to properly care for patients. Pfffttt!! The only thing they know is how to make themselves rich while the patients and the nurses suffer. If you want to be a nurse in management, go for it, you will probably do quite well financially. However, years later, you may feel much guilt that you could have done so much more for the nursing profession as a whole. As you sit in a hospital bed as an elderly person waiting for someone to come clean up your BM, then and only then will you realize that your efforts were null.

I must apologize myself. I've spoken up and been rediculed for trying to make the right things happen for patients. I've been told "If you don't like it, hit the street". This coming from a nurse in management. So, I apologize for eventually leaving the field, but I cannot help in a situation where the kings want to keep the pawns in the mud with their snouts dirty.

Good luck to any and all entering the field. For a career that deals directly with human lives, it's absolutely corrupt. I dread when I have to go into the hospital, because I've seen what happens behind the scenes. At least if I'm concious, I'll know how to treat myself. I feel sorry for the many that will not.

I've even had a doctor tell me that he would not recommend anyone going into medicine unless they were born for it. He recommended going into business! LOL! Nursing is in sad state of affairs. There is a nursing shortage that is project to get worse thorugh 2020. The way nurses are treated, there won't be anyone interested in entering the field to fill these vacant positions. There are not enough nurses to teach in schools to graduate the number nurses required to meet the demand. But who in the end is going to care for our sick? The attitude and attention given to the nursing field is already of such low priority it will be at an epidemic point before action is taken. This field is dealt with in a reactive manner, not proactive.

Anyway, I've said enough. You get the idea. Enter nursing, find out for yourself. I really do hope it get's better. I've read articles about nurses in Mexico having 40 patients when the norm is 14. It's bad here in the US and even worse in other countries. Something has to happen.

SHALL I KEEP GOING? :confused:

[cassioo]

looks like you've found the forum to get the nurses that don't like it to join the group you are forming to change the way things are. Have you gone there to try and unit them on your front? Because me being as stupid as I am you won't convince me to dislike something I do like. Make it easier and start with those already on your side.

[Tiredofthesystem]

I think this is representative of many things that are going on. BOTTOM LINE

[hsieh]

first of all i think you're a brilliant writer.
if you're an accountant and you get fired you prob won't find another accounting job - the market is saturated.
if your'e in uppermanagement in a factory and the factory closes to go to mexico - you prob won't get another uppermanagement postion in a factory - the market is saturated.
if you grad from college with a degree in (?) human resources - you prob won't get a job - the market is saturated.
if you're a factory worker you prob won't get one of those nice paying union jobs - they are the least amount of factory job positions.
if you are a semi - truck driver you have to drive on icey roads.
if you are a teacher you prob have to teach kids who aren't disciplined and are mean to each other (would you like to go to work and see some poor kid picked on everyday?).
if you have a minimum wage job life is going to be difficult financially.
my point - if not a nurse then what?

[hppygr8ful]

I went to work today - just a little disgruntled to be working a holiday - we all have attitude sometimes( smile if it's true). I went to work and greeted my 16 high acuity psych patients - that's right I have 16 (18 sometimes) patients that I take care of with one med nurse a two aids. First thing I do is take everybody out on the patio to smoke a cigarette and have coffee. Just time spent chatting with the patients. Then when we go back on the unit for breakfast, and get ready for group. The patients were low-key today. I had two schizophrenics that came in off the streets and looked like they hadn't had a bath in about a year. About 10 am I asked them if they'd like a shave and a haircut. One declined but the other asked of I could cut his hair and "Just trim the beard a little" I got out my shears and clippers and spruced him up. The I gave him soap, towels and instructed him to wash all over three times. When he came out of the shower he was a new man. He'll always be a schizophrenic and will most likely end up back on the street but my day was great because I had given another human being the dignity he deserved as a human. Then I finished up my charting (a beastly chore) ate lunch (with the patients) Counseled one drug addict and another alcoholic going through detox. Then I took another patient for a walk on the grounds. What a wonderful day! How did I get it done? Good teamwork with my support staff, good time management and loving what I do. I get to make a difference for people every day.

I worked long a hard to get here - endured horrible night shifts - "eat your young" preceptors and big conglomerate hospitals where money is always the bottom line and the joke called managed care dictates when patients leavethe hospital. Then I said enough! I started looking around for what I really wanted to do. Then I went out and interviewed hospitals to see if I WANTED TO WORK FOR THEM. When I intervied this facility and was asked what kind of environment I wanted - I asked for what I wanted - a work environment that respected the experience and skills of long time nurses while fostering and encouraging the less experienced, I wanted to works days (8 hour shifts if possible), and please no weekends as that was my family time - and that my family was more important than any job! the DON looked at me over her glasses appeared to ponder for a moment and then said "When can you start?" I said as soon as I had a offer in writing we were good to go! I've never had a problem getting time off for emergancies they kept their promise and I only work a very rare weekend and I never work overtime. I am respected by co-workers and management. They also pay for my continuing education.

The rest is happy destiny.

Peace and Namaste

Hppygr8ful


PS we're hiring!!!!!!