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[Unregistered]

Hi everyone!
I have read many of the stories on this site especially the ones about nursing.
At first I was thinking that maybe this isn't for me and the horror stories had scared me a little, but then I thought about it.
I love being a nursing student and as a student I have been able to work as a student nurse technician and so far I LOVE IT.
I have worked administrative asst. jobs in the past and I loved that too. I also have worked food service and liked that also. Now it's not because I was just lucky enough to get great jobs. There were and ARE plenty of people I work with that HATE it. I've learned it is all about attitude and if you hate the politics... then DON'T get involved.
All I'm saying is don't let stories of people who hate their job get you down and stop you from pursuing a nursing career.
I know many students who hate their clinical rotations and say that they think it will get better later. I tell them if they hate it now then they need to find a new career to pursue.
Nursing isn't a career you should just fall into. It is easy to tell in school if it is for you or not.

[Unregistered]

After ten years of nursing, I am finally getting out. I retire next month. I have no plans to go back, and the new job I am going to has very little to do with medicine.

For several years I worked as a traveling nurse. That was fun in that I could visit different places and have someone else pay for everything. I went to places that I never would have been able to visit otherwise. I got to see parts of America that few see, and my travel journals are packed so full of notes and photos that it would take weeks for someone to read them.

Then I made the mistake of "settling down" at a permanent job. What a big mistake. I quickly remembered why I became a traveler years before. As a traveling nurse, I was only in a place a few months, not long enough to get involved in all the usual crap that goes on in a job.

Here are the factys. Most nurses are bitches, even the males. Nurses are anal-retentive, backstabbing bitches who have a great level of hate and resentment for others. I have witnessed physical, sexual and mental haraasment by nurses, all of whom seem to feel that they themselves are above the law. I have grown to hate nurses and nursing as I have ben unable to find any "agnels" to work with and focus on.

Retiring from nursing to a higher paying job with better hours and people who act like professionals for a change took a little doing, but it will not be my final blow to nursing: I have a big surprise for the hospital and the managers I am leaving. My attorney and I have a big harrassment suit that we are going to file theweek after I leave, which will not only publically ruin the reputation of the hospital, but can expose the horrors of nursing nationally as well. Not to mention that the monetary settlement will drain the bank account of the hospital, taking the money away from the patients doctors and yes, the nurses, and putting it in my pocket instead.

In closing I want to tell anyone who has a bad experience in nursing or with nurses: Don't get mad, get even ! Call your attorney today, they will handle it from there.

[Understood]

I concur with the above and hope you are suing MY hospital.

Along with rude patients, co-workers, MD's, and managers, don't forget the stupid, stupid visitors! These people can make your life miserable and they are backed up by female managers looking to kiss ass.

Giving CPR and a scum-bag visitors yells, "Stop it! You're hurting him!" and they WANT visitors there, per our policy.

[Unregistered]

I totally agree with you....nursing sucks!! I just graduated last May as well and I feel like I made the biggest mistake of my life by getting into nursing. It is not at all what I expected. I have never experienced depresssion and now I know what it feels like. I just quit my job, and I have no idea what I am going to do next. All I know is that I could not take another day of it. It was making me metally, and physically ill. I hope no one ever has to feel the way I do right now.

[Unregistered]

i worked at a small rural hospital in the willamette valley in oregon and have to concur that nursing can indeed suck. i am a younger male nurse and experienced such sexist remarks as whipping boy, typical lazy male, etc. i have never experienced such blatant sexism and unprofessionalism in my life. i am currently pursuing a lawsuit. message to people going into nursing: there is a reason the burnout is so high and a shortage is pending, it isnt the job as much as it is the attitudes of the losers that have made a career out of nursing. my suggestion go into something that is more respectfull, let these idiots drive themselves into the ground.

[Unregistered]

If I didn't know any better, I'd say that I had written this "I hate nursing post". The only way I knew I hadn't is because I've quit all forms of nursing, nor do I have a current job as the economy is down (other fields just aren't hiring), consequently, I cannot afford therapy. LMAO. Ahh... anyhow, I haven't worked since August 2004, it's now September 2004. I really wanted to be nurse midwife, but after seeing how bad things are in the hospital on the scheduling and staffing front. I said forget it, but not so nicely. I have been lied on and barred from working for a specific company because I asked for help with a heavy assignment and when I was given the ultimatum by my supervisor to either take the assignment as is or resign, I resigned. However, she told HR that I abandoned my patients. Never mind the fact that I gave her report before I left. After seeing what the medical field is actually like, I would like to line up all hospital administration, nasty doctors and co workers, lazy staff members and throw fistfuls of rocks at them. Nothing to kill or hurt anyone, but the little pelting kind that cause pain, not injury but stinging pain. Then when the police get ready to haul me off to jail or the nuthouse, I'll tell them that the rocks are my pets and that they attack anyone who poses a threat to my well being. And in the perfect world, the police will then leave me alone because that's an acceptable story. Umm... know of any therapists that take charity cases?

[Unregistered]

When I was in college, I studied old videos of Skinner's rats. B.F. Skinner was the "father" of behavioral psychology. He dedicated his life to studying how far rats (and people) were willing to go in order to receive a reward or avoid a punishment.

As a culmination of his research, he randomly assigned either a yummy rat food pellet or an electric shock to be delivered to rats who navigated a maze. These rats had been conditioned to expect that they would receive a food pellet when they reached the end of the maze. However, in this experiment, their speed or accuracy had no bearing on the outcome. Sometimes they received a pellet; sometimes they received an electric shock. In all other respects, the rats received all of their basic needs. They received adequate sleep, adequate food, adequate socialization, etc. The only uncertainty was what they received when they navigated the mazes each day.

The effects of this experiment were remarkable. Some rats curled up at the start of the maze, refusing to complete the task for which they had trained for years. Other rats became overtly aggressive, attacking any other rats attempting to run the maze. Still other rats became blinded to their surroundings, oblivious to anything but the goal of completing the maze. When they finished, regardless of whether they received a reward or a punishment, they would return to the starting area and run the maze again and again. All of the rats experienced some sort of ill effect, such as sleep disturbances, appetite changes, increased aggression, self-mutilation, etc.

Nursing reminds me a lot of being one of Skinner's rats. Sometimes I get a manageable patient load--and sometimes I'm in WAY over my head. Sometimes I speak with a physician who is courteous and professional--and sometimes I get verbal abuse, condescension, or worse, despite my best efforts to be prepared and professional. Sometimes I get patients who appreciate my efforts--and sometimes I get spit on or battered. For me, that's what makes nursing so difficult. I am the person who has ultimate responsibility for the patient, but no matter how hard I try, no matter how fast I work, no matter how balls-on accurate I am in my craft, I have no effect on the outcome. Worse still, I am as powerless as Skinner's rats. Because of our hospital culture, I am powerless to speak out against managers, physicians and patients who present unfair expectations.

As a result of this powerlessness and random nature of rewards/punishments, I see the same effects in my co-workers as Skinner saw in his rats. Resignation, horizontal violence, insomnia, "nursemares", obesity, ulcers, anxiety, ETOH and drug abuse, "eating their young" and so on...

I want no part of that. The IDEAL of nursing may be noble, but the REALITY is far less inspiring. God help the patients. I can't imagine anyone in their right mind going into nursing.

[Unregistered]

I came across your website out of desperation one day. I am not a nurse, but a Physician assistant at a local inner city hospital. I am absolutely at my wits end with the confrontational nature and aggressive and rude behavior of the nurses where I work. From the day I walked inthe door and the Nurse manager on the floor took me aside and said" I control this ER,don't try to bring patients back without my approval, Or I will make your life miserable.(not to mention that a diabetic with a blood sugar of 600 has been waiting 2 hours).", It has been an uphill struggle to do do my job. At every turn I am bucked. If I order a catapress for a guy with a BP of 190/110, I get"why are you doing that,its unecessary, he doesn't need that,Im not giving it." Or refusing to draw very basic labs on a diabetic with a blood sugar of 341 and urinary retention up to 1200ml. So while I not only bring the patients in on my own, change the bedding and clean the room, and do the H&P and discharge them because the nurse doesn't fell like my course of treatment is appropriate,I also now draw all my own, and get my own meds. Why do I need the nurse at all if Im going to do everything. These women are bitches and they get away with it, when I confronted a nurse about her behavior and the told the charge nurse. "I was told, there is nothing you can do,nothing will happen" I am good at what I do, and its a shame, but because of these Pitbulls in heat, sophmorish, backstabbing, back bitting, immature little girls, I am almost sure I am on my way to greener pastures, away from nurses. And you know what, the charge nurse is right. Nothing will ever be done.

[Unregistered]

you are friggin crazy.

[Unregistered]

As a new RN working in Ontario Canada, I can tell you that they eat their own here as well. I've been slapped on the butt, cussed at, yelled at, gossiped and ratted on, etc. Nothing is ever good enough for them. If you are new get ready for a turf war on your hands. They are suffering anal retentive narcissistic obsessive compulsive personality disorders. Its not easy at all, being a male nurse. I've had no problems with the doctors, the aides, etc. But as for the nurses, its often been the threshold of hell. And by the way, some of them are as sweet as pie to their patients, but when it comes to you the new nurse, prepare for the beast to open its mouth and show its teeth! Its a Jekyll and Hyde penomenon.

The union is impotent, and the hospital is always overbudget and cutting back. Yes there is a shortage, yes nurses are doing non-nursing tasks, etc. etc. etc. BUT, there's one important factor of all: nurses have become their own worst enemy.

If there are any Americans reading this I'll tell you what few Canadians will admit to you: if you paid the taxes we pay you'd be aphalled. And yes, the government always finds new taxes and ways to misappropriate our money. Waiting times in ERs can last for hours, MRIs are on 3 month waiting lists, hospitals have quotas on how many patients with certain illnessess they'll treat because they can't afford to treat more, ambulances were turned away at ERs because they couldn't/wouldn't take more patients until a 17 year old patient with acute asthma died in the ambulance, and eventually after incidents like that the paramedics got fed up and said, "we're dropping them off at your ER whether you like it or not!" The further north you go there are communities with no access to a family practitioner, (never mind that we have doctors from other countries driving taxis and mopping floors because Canada in its wisdom feels they are not qualified), the list goes on and on!

So the question is: what are we going to do about it? Leave the job, hire an attorney, and tell anyone who will listen the crap that goes on because in the end not only do we get screwed, so do the patients and the next patient nedding the system could be your own dear mother. SCARY THOUGHT!

[Unregistered]

I am an RN and I am beginning to hate my job. I am sick and tired of being treated like a second hand citizen by patients. I work at a university teaching hospital, one of only two Trauma I's in the valley. Do they (patients and moron families) realize that for 25 bucks an hour I clean up butts and puke?!?! Patient satisfactions rate fell drastically in a week at my place...probably because nursing satisfaction sucks, also......

[Unregistered]

i too,am a nurse. lpn to be exact. i work in long term care. i waited along time to go to school to be a nurse and iam sorry i did. i am good at it..but what a shame to have to admit i wasted my time going to school for something that at times i see a sham. most if not all nurses lie through their teeth. im tired of following up and doing something that should have been done 48hrs ago. and the nurse or nurses or should have done that work..well,nothing is said to them..oh no..they work double shifts,they always come in. their excuse is "oh i didnt know".."no one told Me"..our don states"tell us whats going on"..they dont care when it was done..as long as it was done. the ones who do work get no cerdit...the ones who brown nose do. im tired of medicated residents for the sake of the staff or rn supervisor because they dont want to put up the residents behavior..so they are awake..its night time...their quiet..not trying to get up out of bed..that doesnt warrant an ativan. i work nights. i work with rn''s that aare always tired or hurt..so who has to pick up their load..me. then its ..you're not getting your work done..duh...i wonder why. on and on it goes. im so tired of it. i have read all these postings. i agree and can relate to everything that has been written here. nurses are the biggest gossipers i know. professionalism not existant. they eat their own as the saying goes.

[Unregistered]

I like to call nurses "angels." Just come to the reality that there is no perfect job or career.

[Unregistered]

THE ISSUE IS NOTTHE FACT THAT THERE IS NO PERFECT JOB OR CAREER.

THE ISSUE IS WANTING RESPECT, PROFESSIONALISM, DECENCY, AND ACCOUNTABILITY. IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK?

[Unregistered]

i am sorry you are going through this. i also feel i should never became a nurse. its such a thankless job, especially from your head nurse. you are not appreciated, and made to feel like a terrible nurse. Put down's all the time, and harressment.now and then a patient will thank you, but the only ones head nurses thank are their buddies.

[Unregistered]

If nursing is not for you, get out. I'ts the people who are miserable in their profession that don't give decent patient care. You are a burden on us who respect our careers.

[Unregistered]

nursing is hard hard work. even the best and most committed nurses complain about their jobs. the difference between a good nurse and a crappy one is not necessarily the complaining, but what kind of job are you doing. are you doing the best that you can? or are you playing lazy with someones life? I am a nurse that quit the "proffession" i am basically a new grad, worked for only a few months and figured out very quickley that this job and responsibility is not for me. i don't want the stress, and frankly i think the job is damn boring. that is my opinion, others feel very fullfilled with it. I do beleive that if you are going to be a nurse, you better be a good one. all of us at one point will be taken care of and it is hard to be taken care of by people who resent and hate the` fact that you even exist. if you can't handle nursing then get out, it is only the right thing to do considering you are taking care of human beings with feelings and families and problems and pain and hurt and fear. don't be a mean and cold nurse, even if you hate the job, fake it as` much as you can for the sake of the the human you are taking care of. if you can not be a good actor or actress, get out all together. don't abuse people because you chose the wrong career, it is not their fault you where suckered in like most of us into the promise of respect and money. get out for your sake and theirs. be true to yourself

[Unregistered]

what do you do about a head nurse who plays favorites. only talks to you when your in some kind of trouble. tells her friends that work under her what ever you tell her, andharresses people all the time who are not her friends, and management looks the other way. She is a backstabber, and sneaky, and prejudice in my opinion.

[Unregistered]

i sure hope your sueing my place as they need it for them to wake up and get rid of nasty head nurses and staff nurses, who don't care nothing for the patients, etc. just there for the pay check, so sad.

[Unregistered]

what do you do when you have a head nurse who in my opinion is prejudice. plays favorites and constantly harresses you for no good reason, other then she doesn't like you. Shouldn't she at least recognize you as a good nurse. This nurse doesn't. she gives awards to her day shift only, and to her friends, which is so unfair to other good nurses.she is running nurses away and then denying she is the problem.She claims she is a christian. what kind of christian would do this? She has no management skills at all. she should never have gotten this position.What ever you talk to her she tells other people, including showing them papers you hand in to her. other people like her co workers.How do you get rid of a bad nurse like her? I love the job, but not working under her.

[Unregistered]

i think it is great that all the nurses who hate their job can express that. but complaining about it does not help. quit. quit as fast as you can. i don't want any of you people taking care of my family. believe it or not we all have or will need hospital care some day. and believe me, when you are sick it makes such a difference if your nurse is nice and caring. i agree with another poster. fake it. even on my worse days, a patient will never know it because i don't believe in taking out my frustrations on the patients. they are someones child, mother, father, aunt, sibling. remember that. bedside nursing is not some fluff job. you people should have known that getting into it. did you not think you would have to deal with body fluids? people are sick for God's sake, that is why they are in the hopital. Quit and get a grip.

[Unregistered]

It is very frustrating when you are not treated fair and right as nurse. I am also the kind of person that no matter how bad or depressed i feel i cover it up in front tof the patients, as they are sick and dealing with their own problems and going in there room and feeling like heck doesn't help them.But sometimes nurses get so overwhelmed. doesn't mean they dont want to care for the patient though.You said you wouldnt want some of these nurses to care for your love one. I take it your not a nurse, and don't inderstand what is happening to make a statement like that. Just cause a nurse is not smiling 24 hrs a day doesn't mean she doesn;t give excellant care to her patients.Sure we all try and hide our feelings but we are human.

[Unregistered]

It is very frustrating when you are not treated fair and right as nurse. I am also the kind of person that no matter how bad or depressed i feel i cover it up in front tof the patients, as they are sick and dealing with their own problems and going in there room and feeling like heck doesn't help them.But sometimes nurses get so overwhelmed. doesn't mean they dont want to care for the patient though.You said you wouldnt want some of these nurses to care for your love one. I take it your not a nurse, and don't inderstand what is happening to make a statement like that. Just cause a nurse is not smiling 24 hrs a day doesn't mean she doesn;t give excellant care to her patients.Sure we all try and hide our feelings but we are human.

[Unregistered]

Nursing Bites, blows, sucks, etc. I realize that nurses (myself included) must be somewhat crazy to do such a brutal and mentally, emotionally, and physically abusive job day in and day out. The rationale that I've used to validate my "career of choice" is that I'm able to eek out a living, pay rent, etc. I'm sick of crazy, delusional managers; co-workers that do jack and want every little detail in report; pompous, jackass, condescending doctors; insuboordinate nursing assistants who spend more time on their smoke breaks than they do working; crazy, irrational, nitpicking visitors; and finally crazy patients with two working hands that want their butt wiped by a perfect stranger. I don't like crazy people and healthcare is full of them start to finish. I'm sick of running my butt off and getting nothing done. For all you know-it-all nurses who are shaking your head saying "she's just not organized," you know I'm right and I know you're the one giving everyone line infections, not changing your tube feeding tubing or infiltrated ivs and leaving your patients in a pile of stool for me to clean up. Yeah, nursing's tolerable if you're a lazy wad who let's evryone else pick up your slack. Am I complaining? Looking forward to my next job that has nothing to do with healthcare. Anyone considering nursing as a job....I wouldn't know whether to laugh at you or cry for you. Try retail or keeping some rich person's pool. You'll be much happier.

[Unregistered]

I have been spending so much time hateing my head nurse, cause she is a backstabbing, evil person, then realized i should not let her get to me, no matter what she does. God is over her, and what goes around comes around. Takes too much energy hateing someone. People like her like to dominate others and make their life miserable.She isn't happy , and wants no one else to be happy.even at Christmas time she didn't want certain people to decorate, but if her friends had asked, would be no problem.I always say God doesn't make bad people, some how along the way they change for the worseI. I have decided to pray for this head nurse, as she is so hateful, only God can change her, despite how awlful she has been to me.

[Unregistered]

I got suckered into nursing by my mom who's been an RN for 30 years and have hated every second of the 4 years I spent in college getting this god-awful degree (BSN). Nursing is all that's been said on this board. I have consulted a career counselor and am willing to pay whatever he asks--anywhere from $500-2,500 for individual counseling to get the heck out of this career. What a waste! I have suffered for 14 long years. I too consider myself as actress--faking the smiles when being cussed out, direspected, when hungry from no lunch break, full bladder from no bathroom break. I've had anywhere from 10-12 jobs -almost 1/yr trying to fight leaving. Well in 2005, I'm not going to keep doing the same thing expecting a different result. I am getting out, if it means seeing all of you at Walmart with my blue vest on handing out shopping carts. I've never mistreated a patient/family, nor would I because of my beliefs. That still does not negate the fact that nurses are mistreated on almost every end from our peers to the ancillary staff to rude, demanding and ungrateful patients and families. Something needs to change and I hope all of the nurses who do love what they do hang around to make the change things. As for me, See ya!

[Unregistered01]

Loved the classes and the subjects.

Loved most of the instructors.

Really enjoyed working with patients,
even dificult ones.

I enjoyed my student nurse job at a
local hospital. Nurses treated each
other with respect and dignity.

The school administration treated all
students as if they were 16 years old.
It was sad and disheartening.

I took a second job at a different local
hospital. Saw first example of head
nurses playing favorites and horizontal
violence.

After that I decided to take a break
from nursing school and re-evaluate
the whole nursing school/BSN career
idea.

Does anyone know anything about
transferring mid-program to another school?

[Unregistered]

i work in a v.a. hosp in richmond, and the care these vets get are not good, cause we are so short handed of nurses. They have served the c ountry and yet can't get all the care they need and deserve. also this hosp has been in the news many times for discrimination, which is still going on.Management and head nurses harress people, and try to make your life miserable so you will quit.some nurses have left because of the way they have been treated.In my opinion they have no respect for nursing assist's and lpn's, and they let you know it by their actions.
they are unprofessional, and underhanded, etc. Does anyone have any suggestions? When you go to other places to get a job, you don;t even want to tell them you work in this place. I am very fed up with them and looking for another job. This is the worse place i have ever worked in, and its really sad as i have 10 yrs in here . At one time they werent too bad, but management has changed and all for the worse, for nurses and patients.

[Unregistered]

i work at a v.a. hosp in richmond, va and the backstabbing that goes on is terrible. management cares nothing about you and constantly trying to make your life a living hell.They were in the news for prejudice years back and its still there, but they try and cover it up.I have been here over 9 years and it is a terrible place to work. You do your work but you are harressed by your head nurse and chief. Something needs to be done about this place. who is over the v.a's? Many people are afraid to speak out, as they know there will be recrimminations and revenge, which they do well.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
what do you do about a head nurse who plays favorites. only talks to you when your in some kind of trouble. tells her friends that work under her what ever you tell her, andharresses people all the time who are not her friends, and management looks the other way. She is a backstabber, and sneaky, and prejudice in my opinion.

You must work in my unit! I've found that people in health care management aren't in management because they're good at it but because the people who would be good at it aren't stupid enough to take the job.

I HATE NURSING, I should say I HATE HEALTHCARE. The whole system sucks. I have a BS Computer Science but when the market went to shit there went my out. I've been toying with the idea of writing a game called, "Going Critical." Where you run around a hospital and get to shoot doctors, nurses (especially the ones who say,"you should get out if you don't like your job" - they die slow, peice by peice, and then you get to code them and kill them again and again and again), management and patients, family members - especially the ones who bring in 200 y/o corpses and want them to be full codes, visitors, oh and JAHCO inspectors.

I HATE HEALTHCARE!

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
It is very frustrating when you are not treated fair and right as nurse. I am also the kind of person that no matter how bad or depressed i feel i cover it up in front tof the patients, as they are sick and dealing with their own problems and going in there room and feeling like heck doesn't help them.But sometimes nurses get so overwhelmed. doesn't mean they dont want to care for the patient though.You said you wouldnt want some of these nurses to care for your love one. I take it your not a nurse, and don't inderstand what is happening to make a statement like that. Just cause a nurse is not smiling 24 hrs a day doesn't mean she doesn;t give excellant care to her patients.Sure we all try and hide our feelings but we are human.

yes, i am a nurse and have been for 10 years. i understand everything that the people on this board are saying..i just don't agree with all of it. i am speaking from the patients persepective. if you knew that the nurse taking care of your child could care less about their job, would you want him/her standing over your child. i think not. nursing is hard work. i don't dispute that, but if you are miserable and hate it there is only one solution. Get Out.

[Unregistered]

As a nurse, I would just like to enjoy all the civil privileges that all other humans do. Like getting to urinate at least once in a 14 hour period and maybe getting a break to eat something lest I pass out in that same timeframe. Voicing my opinion when a Dr. has been rude and not getting written up for insuboordination. I could go on and on. I really have gotten used to being spit and pissed on, I'm just fed up that once I walk into that hospital my privileges as a human are suspended and I become some lower life form.......a nurse!

[Unregistered]

how do you stop harressment at work. management is harressing me, and even sending things to my house about the job and write up's. Is eeo the only way to go? they will not listen to anything.

[Unregistered]

I feel i am being so badly treated and harressed at work. I work at a federal hosp. Everything you tell them they harress you. want you to keep going to your dr, where he gets disgusted with them and drops you as a patient. I lost one dr, due to them harressing him. how do you stop the va hosp? Lawyers usually dont want to touch them.I feel the closer i come to retirement, they are on me constantly for missing time, being ill. They try to ignore my dr slips, and recommendations. I have never worked in such a horrible va.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
You must work in my unit! I've found that people in health care management aren't in management because they're good at it but because the people who would be good at it aren't stupid enough to take the job.

I HATE NURSING, I should say I HATE HEALTHCARE. The whole system sucks. I have a BS Computer Science but when the market went to shit there went my out. I've been toying with the idea of writing a game called, "Going Critical." Where you run around a hospital and get to shoot doctors, nurses (especially the ones who say,"you should get out if you don't like your job" - they die slow, peice by peice, and then you get to code them and kill them again and again and again), management and patients, family members - especially the ones who bring in 200 y/o corpses and want them to be full codes, visitors, oh and JAHCO inspectors.

I HATE HEALTHCARE!

[Unregistered]

wow dude, chill, you should take an ativan or some kind of sedating cocktail. I am sure your computer job sucks almost as much as nursing. But why kill the nurses who say get out while you can. Thank goodness we have free wills and lots of options in this country to do other things besides what we hate and what makes us miserable. listen to tony robbins a little, go work out, life is too short to be miserable. you might just end up looking up at the nurses you want to kill over and over again as they zap you back into rythm. chill. life is too good to be so miserable.

[Unregistered]

I'm having a hard time even admitting it, but I'm completely burned out. Instead of my coworkers acting as if they understand what that is, they'd rather talk about me behind my back. I just don't understand the nursing mentality. I am a damn good nurse, and I am very good at what I do. But it's seriously getting to the point that when my alarm goes off in the morning, I feel like crying. My patients love me, and that's about all that keeps me going. But God forbid, you get a complement about being a good nurse from a patient or a doctor, and that will absolutely be a declaration of war from your co-workers. I have tried soooo hard to ignore the negativity and hostility that surrounds me, but it is wearing on me physically and mentally way too much. I have just had my first child, and feel that I have truly found what life is all about. I want to stay home, but seriously can't afford to. So for now, I go to work, deal with the bitches and come home and have a good cry once in a while. If that sounds like a good life for you, be a nurse.

[Unregistered]

Boy are you guys working in the wrong places!

[Unregistered]

nursing eats...am in it for max 2 more years...if i can even take that...and that's only if i don't murder a low IQ visitor!!

13 hours of nonstop spinning of my wheels, 7 minutes of gulping down water and a dry sandwich for a 'break'. listening to the woes of every sadsack human i come accross...shit..i'd be lucky if i got a 'how are you' if i were dying on the damn floor...

sorry...did i say i LOATHE nursing?

[Unregistered]

why are so many people in nursing frustrated and disgusted. maybe its cause management don't care and load work on you.many of the patients mistreat you and down you as a anurse. their families also want to criticize nurses. never grateful.you try and do your best but that is never enough for all of them. places run good nurses away, cause of the way they are treated, and over worked. what is the solution? does anyone know?

[Unregistered]

Are you new to this forum? We all hate nursing!!! Read all the posts. There are no solutions to the problems unless you are able to enter into something else and get out!

[Unregistered]

I quit nursing school and feel so down. I have wasted so much time going into a career that I now feel is wrong for me. I don't know what to do now. Nursing school has made me hate any type of medical field, and now I have all of these college credits without a degree! I feel that I have let my family down, giving up all of the money I could be making. No one understands. They think I'm crazy for not wanting to continue on. I only have 2 semesters left to complete the ADN program. My husband is thinking of starting his own business, and he wants me to run the office for him, he is so supportive. I just wish I could shake this guilt I feel for not finishing what I had started. I know that I would be happier working with my husband in our own business, being able to dress nice, wear polish on my nails, take vacations when I wanted. I just feel depressed because I have to face so many people that think I'm crazy for quitting! Not to mention my own self doubt of whether I'm doing the right thing or not.

[Unregistered]

Please don't feel down. You said noone understands. Those people that think your crazy for quitting are most likely not nurses and don't understand what it entails.

The general public don't see what happens as a nurse because we're not suppose to talk about it. They only see the empowerment as a patient but not as a nurse!

I chose nursing as a single parent without a partner. I struggled throughout nursing school, repeated several courses over again and was so happy upon graduation. Just so you know, some people don't ever see the hardships in nursing as a student. But, they do see it when they are on their own!

You're saying your depressed now...do you know how many nurses are on anti-depressants?

Thank God you have a supportive husband and that he might be opening up his own business. This might be your calling!

If you still want to do something with the courses, choose something else! Even the basic nursing courses, general arts and sciences can go towards a lot of other courses that are not necessarily in the medical field. See a school counsellor. Ask about taking a Life Careers test or course and this might guide you into something you really want to do.

Many of us have already used our time and money to go into nursing. When I was done it took me years to pay off my student loan. Now, for me to do something else it would require me to start all over again. It's not that easy, especially when I have bills to pay!

Gain support and confidence by reading the threads throughout this forum. Anyway, you got mine...congratulations on getting out while you could!

[Unregistered]

correction - I meant disempowerment

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
i think it is great that all the nurses who hate their job can express that. but complaining about it does not help. quit. quit as fast as you can. i don't want any of you people taking care of my family. believe it or not we all have or will need hospital care some day. and believe me, when you are sick it makes such a difference if your nurse is nice and caring. i agree with another poster. fake it. even on my worse days, a patient will never know it because i don't believe in taking out my frustrations on the patients. they are someones child, mother, father, aunt, sibling. remember that. bedside nursing is not some fluff job. you people should have known that getting into it. did you not think you would have to deal with body fluids? people are sick for God's sake, that is why they are in the hopital. Quit and get a grip.

YOU get a grip! Complaining about the job doesn't make one a bad nurse. Venting anger is healthy! The concept YOU don't seem to grasp is this: How does one continue to be 'caring' and 'kind' to others when those around her/him (especially management), treat him/her like SHIT! Some things you can't rise above, sweetie - No matter how hard you try!

[Unregistered]

For those of you who do not agree with what we are posting...leave..dont read what everyone is saying...if you dont agree...go find something else to read...or if you want facts...the facts are....Nursing is the most thankless job in the world...and it is making the nurses who do the job..physically...mentally...emotionally and overall drained and tired.
You people say..to quit..just quit and quit now....ok well then what...I have a house that I have to pay for on my salary...I did not ask to hate this job....I would LOVE TO QUIT MY JOB...but I cant....I have bills to pay...my own family to take care of
Believe me...I have learned how to act...but that only goes so far....I havent been true to myself and my body is fighting back at me.
Nurses run short of help continually...we are treated like second grade citizens by not only the patients...but by our superiors...and by our patients families who the other day I had a man shove his fingers in my face and scream at me with everything he had in front of his family and in front of other staff and residents...Did anyone come to help me?
No...not at all....Did anyone come talk to me about it? No not at all...It was like I was supposed to just put up with that kind of treatment from another human being because Im a nurse.
pfffffftttt on that!!!! I am a human being....not a backboard for abuse.
This is just one of hundreds of situations I have found myself in that literally over time have made me physically sick myself.
I am ready for another job....I am past ready...but I dont know how to do anything else...Not sure where to go or what to do but u can belive I am going to start looking
and this dissatisfied nurse who has grown to despise nursing will never be a nurse again in her lifetime...
Doctors treat us like crap....patients treat us like crap....the staff treats us like crap.
I have worked sick for the past two weeks...I got a day off yesterday and the damn place called me three times to come in and work....I had to finally turn my phone off...Then today I go back to work and I got saddled into working a double shift...I have to go back in tonite and work..its the same ole story day after day....
We work like dogs...we barely get our breaks...we run our as*** off...and never get thanked. And outsiders think that nurses are terrible people????
pffffttttt on that too...
I work on a medicare unit taking care of 35 people plus by myself and my charge nurses sit at the desk downstairs and call up more things for me to do....while they are sitting on their butts talking about the parties that they went to last weeked etc.
I start work at six and sometimes do not get out of there until 5 or six at night ....never thanked...always criticised.... and always asked to do more then what I can do.
I leave work crying sometimes...I hate my job...I hate being a nurse...and its a damn shame because when I went into this profession....I loved and was proud of what I had accomplished and was so eager in what I was about to set out and do...
What a joke....If I knew then what I know now...I would have never ever ever considered such a thankless mentally challenging and demeaning job.
I am 40 years old now.....I absolutely cannot do this for another 20 or so years....I just cant...I will be dead by then if I keep this up....
And as far as the pay??? Its not that great...not for what we do...I would take a less paying job at this point in my life to do something that is satisfying and a little more meaningful.
Flipping burgers would be more satisfying I think.

[Unregistered]

i can see where your coming from. you get so abused by your bosses, co workers patients and there families, that you come home crying from all the stress. people go into nursing to make a difference in someone's life and to help people, but instead they get all the abuse. No one expects this when they decide to be a nurse. You go into it really wanting to help people and do a good job, and then find out this isn't what it should be. This is why nurses get so ill and burned out. Its not just the work involved, but everything else you have to deal with. Shorthanded, and still being treated like heck. I also have felt if I knew all of this, I would never have gotten into this. Nurses try so hard, and yet what do they get out of all of this. just burned out and sick.

[Unregistered]

Hey this is pretty scary I was thinking of getting into nursing but am being scred off by all the horror stories. Anyhow, not sure what to do now.........

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Hey this is pretty scary I was thinking of getting into nursing but am being scred off by all the horror stories. Anyhow, not sure what to do now.........

I'm another nurse who is has had enough. There is absolutely no help, workshops nothing for nurses when they are burnt out. Yet, everyone knows it's the number one job for burnout. I suggest you choose another profession.

[tranquil_realm]

i'd prefer to put yokes on them & force them to do the nurses' job for 6 months. then they'd be the ones in the nuthouse.

[Unregistered]

Our hospital starting an Employee Work-Related Stress Group. It lasted all of two sessions. Why? It was run 2 nurse department heads in our hospital! Now who is the world can talk candidly (and without retribution) about the frustrations of your work day? Many of those frustrations are BECAUSE of our nurse managers who sit motionless in their offices and attend meetings nearly every day and leave us twisting in the wind? Pullleeeez!

I have little hope of nursing improving. I think it will continue to decline because nurse managers are only there for THEMSELVES. How high can they climb the ladder? The nurse managers belong to the DON's who in turn belong to the CEO's. Everyone scratches everyone else's back. It is so obvious the managers are not there to help us with impossible workloads or to help improve our working conditions. They only care what upper management wants. It is interesting to observe at my hospital that the nurse managers no longer have nursing skills. Too much time behind a desk or logged onto a computer. So, essentially, they couldn't help us anyway.

What we need is a respected nurse liason. In lieu of a union, that seems like a reasonable alternative. This nurse (or non-nurse) would advocate for nurses at the hospital and act as a go-between between directors, physicians, other departments, etc. There is no one to speak for the floor nurse. No one at all. Your co-workers will abandon you, the managers will feed you to the wolves. But this person would have to have some kind of INFLUENCE and POWER. Otherwise, he or she would be blown off just like a typical nurse.

I do not hate nursing. I hate the way hospital are run and the way we are "managed."

[tranquil_realm]

i agree that it would be excellent to have a nurse laison if it would work. however, i have seen all kinds of things be tried and all failed. why? because everybody can be bought for the right price. those people also wind up only in it for themselves. suddenly they get all kinds of time off without accruing occurences. they get their workloak cut down to nothing. they get first choice for vacations. they can fill in their own schedule. they can come in late and get signed in by the nurse manager for being on time. they can make major transcription errors and serious med errors that get coverd up. the other nurses have to take up the slack for them or get written up for insubordination. you name it they can have it. they end up being nothing but big suckasses too. and believe me i have seen anyone in a position similar to that turn-- and fast. as soon as they catch the feeling of being on the top of the heap things wind up worse than ever.

[tranquil_realm]

there is one thing and only one thing i've ever been able to think of that would really and absolutely work and work damn fast. unfortunately we are not allowed to do it. that would be a strike. a real strike. the stupid things we're allowed accomplish nothing. so what 4 or 5 people stand outside with signs and the rest of them go into work. then enter the per diems or whatever you call them. and everybody walks by the 4 or 5 idiots standing outside holding signs. we get ignored cause we cant get in the way. we just basically stand there like stupid beggars. a true strike is the only thing that would ever really change the unfair treatment, unfair workloads, crappy expensive insurance, unfair and unsafe patient loads, etc.. in other words our union sucks, nursing sucks, the whole damn thing sucks.

[Unregistered]

As a nurse manager she will only be there to judge you and say that you can't handle stress nor this job.

What I would like to see is instead of meetings being held by hospital managers let it be people higher up to hold meetings similar to that. I would like to see organizations like the Registered Nursing Associations hold workshops called "Nursing burnout", "Stress within Nursing", "Backstabbing Nurses", etc. In that way instead of collaborating as a nursing unit you are collaborating all nurses.

The problem is that Registered Nursing Associations do not want to admit there is a problem to be recognized. Once they admit there is a problem they know they have to fix it and they don't want to do that.

We need somewhere to learn how to deal with the problems in order to fix them. Instead, if you have stress, they'd rather just offer you a free service to the "Employee Assistance Program", to get a counsellor because "it's only you that has the problem of stress...not everybody else!"

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
I quit nursing school and feel so down. I have wasted so much time going into a career that I now feel is wrong for me. I don't know what to do now. Nursing school has made me hate any type of medical field, and now I have all of these college credits without a degree! I feel that I have let my family down, giving up all of the money I could be making. No one understands. They think I'm crazy for not wanting to continue on. I only have 2 semesters left to complete the ADN program. My husband is thinking of starting his own business, and he wants me to run the office for him, he is so supportive. I just wish I could shake this guilt I feel for not finishing what I had started. I know that I would be happier working with my husband in our own business, being able to dress nice, wear polish on my nails, take vacations when I wanted. I just feel depressed because I have to face so many people that think I'm crazy for quitting! Not to mention my own self doubt of whether I'm doing the right thing or not.
GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN........BEING MISERABLE FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR FAMILY IS NOT THE RIGHT THING TO DO. IF NOTHING ELSE PRINT OFF THESE PAGES AND SEND THEM TO WHOEVER HAS A BEEF WITH QUITTING NURSING. I AGREE WITH ALL THE POSTS AND IT WILL GET WORSE........JUMP WHILE YOU STILL HAVE A PARACHUTE.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
wow dude, chill, you should take an ativan or some kind of sedating cocktail. I am sure your computer job sucks almost as much as nursing. But why kill the nurses who say get out while you can. Thank goodness we have free wills and lots of options in this country to do other things besides what we hate and what makes us miserable. listen to tony robbins a little, go work out, life is too short to be miserable. you might just end up looking up at the nurses you want to kill over and over again as they zap you back into rythm. chill. life is too good to be so miserable. HEY DUDE, YOU MUST OF BEEN ONE OF THE PATIENTS I ADMITTED TO A CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY UNIT. WE NURSES SPENT ALOT OF TIME INTO A PROFESSION THAT WAS BASED ON TRUST, SAFETY, AND CARE OF HUMANS. FLORENCE NIGHTENGALE IS PROBABLY TURNING OVER IN HER GRAVE DUE TO THE POOR QUAILTY OF JOB SATISFACTION NURSING BRINGS. MY ADVICE TO YOU LAY OFF THE LIQUOR.........THE STATE WILL ONLY PAY FOR 25 INPATIENT DAYS......I THINK YOURS ARE USED UP.

[tranquil_realm]

Originally posted by Unregistered
how do you stop harressment at work. management is harressing me, and even sending things to my house about the job and write up's. Is eeo the only way to go? they will not listen to anything. that is the problem with being a nurse. management can do anything they want to nurses. the people in management are in there in the first place because they appear to really get off on being assholes and treating people like crap. they thoroughly enjoy inflicting torment on human beings. and they are greedy as hell. and lazy. there is nothing you or anyone can do about what they are doing to you. sure, you can try, but they can and will and are totally into it so they can continue in various ways to make your life hell. they do it to all of us nurses that are any good at what we do. they hate us for trying to do a good job. they want their fat asses kissed because it enables their delusions of self-importance. nursing is a losing situation for any of us that have any degree of work ethics, morals, or conscience. from all i have experienced you can succeed and enjoy nursing if you are a selfish, cruel, amoral, backstabbing, undermining, sado-masocistic psychopathic bitch. or if you are truly stupid and everything just flies right over your head and so brainless you cant feel the nauseating pain that normal brained people feel. any time i've seen management latch on to somebody like that it seems you cant shake them off. they act like they think they are some sort of gods or something. just guard your license. thats all you can do if you have to keep nursing. good luck.

[Unregistered]

ditto

[Unregistered]

lets just say the world isnt perfect n the moon isnt made out of cheese.
i worked hard to get into university to do my nursing, but i done it and my friends n family are proud of me in the world nothing is totally 100 percent good n ups n downs can occur well id like to relate to the post on which the nurse is suing the hospital fair enough like if you had a bad time but i didnt like your attitude about takin the money away from the patients i mea thats ur job to care for them fair enough ur moving on but think should you acturally really be there???? i dnt fink so
anyways i doing well in my training its hard work i know but money isnt an issue to me its the qwuality of care like the bursary is buttons we get to train but i work weekends as a hca n i have experience. i suppose i will come accross some backlash on my placement but ill look at them n think i wont every be like you n thats how ill make a difference. just think nhs needs nurses andd theres u mouthing off giving it bad publicity. i know some issues need to be addressed n improvememts will be make but im looking to the future and when i qualify ill make every one proud but most of all i will have acheived what i have always wanted in life

[Unregistered]

I love this site!!!! I love reading about all the nurses and how they hate there jobs. I'm a paramedic that is a nursing student. Let me ask all of you a question. What the f..k is the point of a care plan. What a complete waste of time writing care plans and learning about care plans. I don't need a care plan to take care of a patient!!! NO ONE DOES!! If you need a care plan to take care of a patient, you shouldnt be a nurse!!! FOLLOW DOCTORS ORDERS, that is your job. And nursing does SUCK, but there are a million places I can work no matter where I live and you''ll always have a job. A big part of the fact that nursing sucks is that it is a female dominated profession. As you all probably have read on this site about all the bitches and backstabbing A..holes in nursing. They whine, complain, gossip and plain just cant shut the F..k up. There is no way in hell I'm going to stay working as a nurse for any longer then I have to. Going to Grad school and becoming family nurse practitioner and get a job with a small practice, where the doctors aren't A..holes. Yes, it will take a bit of searching but I'm sure I'll be able to find one.

[tranquil_realm]

Originally posted by Unregistered
I love this site!!!! I love reading about all the nurses and how they hate there jobs. I'm a paramedic that is a nursing student. Let me ask all of you a question. What the f..k is the point of a care plan. What a complete waste of time writing care plans and learning about care plans. I don't need a care plan to take care of a patient!!! NO ONE DOES!! If you need a care plan to take care of a patient, you shouldnt be a nurse!!! FOLLOW DOCTORS ORDERS, that is your job. And nursing does SUCK, but there are a million places I can work no matter where I live and you''ll always have a job. A big part of the fact that nursing sucks is that it is a female dominated profession. As you all probably have read on this site about all the bitches and backstabbing A..holes in nursing. They whine, complain, gossip and plain just cant shut the F..k up. There is no way in hell I'm going to stay working as a nurse for any longer then I have to. Going to Grad school and becoming family nurse practitioner and get a job with a small practice, where the doctors aren't A..holes. Yes, it will take a bit of searching but I'm sure I'll be able to find one. i think maybe care plans put things in order for people who lack knowledge and common sense. also, i'm sure you can find an MD that's not going to be an assho-- all the time. the most successful ones are though it seems. i think they trade off a good share of human decency in exchange for credits and incentives from pharmaceutical companies. i think if they push the medications for them they probably get some nice rewards. since you will be in a type of partnership with the MD's they may be decent to you. i have actually heard some NP's say they really like their jobs. good luck to you.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
what do you do about a head nurse who plays favorites. only talks to you when your in some kind of trouble. tells her friends that work under her what ever you tell her, andharresses people all the time who are not her friends, and management looks the other way. She is a backstabber, and sneaky, and prejudice in my opinion.
What can you do? The boss you just described works everywhere I've ever been at

[Unregistered]

I'm in my mid-twenties and have a BSN; I've been an RN for 5 years. My mother and father both have incredible work ethics and NEVER miss work; I've been depressed for sometime now because I feel I'm worthless, mainly because I can't stand to go to work and often call out. When I really think about it and am true to how I feel, I realize that Mom and Dad like their jobs because they are not f***ing nurses!!!!!

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I have to take verbal abuse from patients/visitors/doctors because the hospital would fire me in a minute for giving "bad" customer service. And besides, nurses have always been treated badly by MDs. Why should things change now? LOL.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I have to care for people who are completely ungrateful of the services I provide and the fact that I often go 12 hours without eating and peeing so they can have the care they need.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I get physically abused by confused patients who the doctor refuses to medicate or restrain, and whose family refuses to sit with them.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I am the one who is ultimately responsible for every order entered (or missed) by the clerk, what the PCTs do (or fail to do), and for crazy med orders that MDs write and pharmacists put on the MAR.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I have to clean up shit, vomit, and fetch family visitors blankets and pillows when there are TEN other things that I could be doing for my patients.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I have waived my rights to an off day with no one calling to harass me to come to work. I have also waived my rights to get sick or ask for help at work with a heavy patient load without giving the appearance that I'm a lazy whiner.

And, lastly, I resent the fact that for only $22/hr, I can be sued by anyone at anytime and have my license revoked or my finances ruined because a patient just isn't happy with his nursing care in general. People win lawsuits all the time for no real reason.

I'm pregnant and need money for my family, but I'll be damned if I go back to work as a nurse on Monday.

[tranquil_realm]

Originally posted by Unregistered
I'm in my mid-twenties and have a BSN; I've been an RN for 5 years. My mother and father both have incredible work ethics and NEVER miss work; I've been depressed for sometime now because I feel I'm worthless, mainly because I can't stand to go to work and often call out. When I really think about it and am true to how I feel, I realize that Mom and Dad like their jobs because they are not f***ing nurses!!!!!

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I have to take verbal abuse from patients/visitors/doctors because the hospital would fire me in a minute for giving "bad" customer service. And besides, nurses have always been treated badly by MDs. Why should things change now? LOL.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I have to care for people who are completely ungrateful of the services I provide and the fact that I often go 12 hours without eating and peeing so they can have the care they need.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I get physically abused by confused patients who the doctor refuses to medicate or restrain, and whose family refuses to sit with them.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I am the one who is ultimately responsible for every order entered (or missed) by the clerk, what the PCTs do (or fail to do), and for crazy med orders that MDs write and pharmacists put on the MAR.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I have to clean up shit, vomit, and fetch family visitors blankets and pillows when there are TEN other things that I could be doing for my patients.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I have waived my rights to an off day with no one calling to harass me to come to work. I have also waived my rights to get sick or ask for help at work with a heavy patient load without giving the appearance that I'm a lazy whiner.

And, lastly, I resent the fact that for only $22/hr, I can be sued by anyone at anytime and have my license revoked or my finances ruined because a patient just isn't happy with his nursing care in general. People win lawsuits all the time for no real reason.

I'm pregnant and need money for my family, but I'll be damned if I go back to work as a nurse on Monday. good for you. i'm glad to hear you are getting out now while you are still young enough to develop any type of career you choose. there's no sense in wasting the wonderfulness of your youth on something that will only drag you down. there are many of us who started in nursing before it reached the point of being intolerable. and it's much more difficult to change careers when you are older, for many reasons. i wish you the very best.

[Unregistered]

To Tranquil_Realm,

I wrote the "Why I Resent Nursing for $22/hr" speech, and I wanted to thank you for your support! I was pleasantly surprised that someone replied to what I had to say :)

My parents have given me hell for leaving the profession (which I did--I quit my job on Monday!), but my husband has been supportive. I know tough financial times are ahead, but I feel sooooooooo relieved. Thanks again for the kind words.

Carmen Jackson
Tucson, AZ

[Unregistered]

What I learned in nursing school

1. I hate nursing

[Unregistered]

Let me add to the "Things I Learned in Nursing School" post above.

2. Care plans will NEVER, EVER be used in real life.

3. Most professors are way too hard on students; after all, nurses tend to "eat their young."

4. White shoes are the ugliest creation EVER.

5. Schools teach that nursing is part of a "multi-disciplinary" approach in caring for patients. Yeah, my ass. The way it goes it this: Doctors say jump, and you ask how high. And, don't forget to sign off on the order. :)

6. No nurse I've ever met has ever given a backrub to a patient.

7. Therapeutic communication is bullshit. Pass the restraints!!!

8. You can smell a GI bleed from the next unit over.

9. Poop/vomit/blood generally doesn't wash out of white clinical uniforms.

10. It is harder to put a foley catheter in a REAL woman than the female dummy in the lab with a urethra the size of a nickel.

[tranquil_realm]

i cant let you forget to mention the added fun of cathing a man with a penis thats so retracted it looks like he has 2 belly buttons. which brings this to mind-- recently i had a newly licensed nurse on her break from a different unit come to me and say. you know what? my crazyass nurse manager just told me i have to cath so and so. but i'm telling you what-- that man aint got no dick. i asked her -- does he have 2 belly buttons and she said -yes. i told her the one on the bottom was probably his penis and the easiest way to get it out. the look on her face was hysterical to see. she thought i was kidding around and left to go back down to her floor laughing her head off. i knew she'd be okay cause she knows the nurse that was precepting her.

[Unregistered]

It's All About Public Health
Word up fellow nurses!

I've just finished nursing school, and I've secured myself a job as a public health nurse. For $68,000/year I get to oversee the planning, implementation and evaluation of regional sexual health campaigns. So basically, I will be attending a lot of bullshit meetings, reading and writing reports, and sitting comfortably in my very own office. But more importantly, I don't have to:

1) Clean asses
2) Take bullshit from doctors/residents/PGYs who think they have really big...uh...brains
3) Get stabbed in the back multiple times by other nurses
4) Clean asses
5) Be on my feet for 12 friggin hours
6) Do shift work
7) Make $24/hour
8) Risk my life in an environment with such high rates of needlestick injuries, bodily fluid splashes, and verbal abuse
9) Constantly smell shit & vomit
10) Work in hospitals

Seriously...enough with this bullshit "omg I need to be a saint" crap. It's not worth it. So for all you saints out there...you can look forward to an accelerated aging process, varicose veins, dry skin in your hands, and much much more.

I'm telling you...it's all about the public health.

[Unregistered]

Good for you Public Health Nurse! And, go ahead and buy yourself an inflatable donut for your ass since I'm sure you're going to develop decubiti back there from all those meetings!! Floor nursing definitely sucks, and you're much better off in Public Health. :)

I posted above about the things I hated in nursing school. Let's continue about the things I hate about hospital nursing, which, I might add, I don't do anymore!!!! But, here goes......

1. Family, family, family!!!!!! I'd rather deal with a critical patient in a coma than a walkie-talkie with a family! They don't realize that this is not the friggin Marriott; I'm not going to fetch them blankets, pillows, and coffee. And because of HIPAA, I'm not going to tell you more than the patient's condition. And, if they get mad, I have to kiss their butts because I'll get written up if I tell them what I really think.

2. Talking to doctors in the middle of the night. RNs should be allowed to write their own orders between midnight and 0600.

3. New doctors (interns, residents). They don't know their ass from a hole in the ground, but they act like they are winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine. True story: I had a first year intern smack out of med school in Atlanta come out into the hall and ask me, "My patient is in SVT. Do you think Adenosine is appropriate? You do? Well, how much? 6mg? Are you sure? Thanks." I could have lied and told him that Levoquin would be a good choice, but I actually think he would've given it.

4. Lazy ass PCTs. I've seen patients who haven't had baths or oral care in 3 or 4 days. I had one patient who I assessed right after I came out of report who was complaining of terrible back pain. Lo and behold, the PCT from the previous shift left the bedpan underneath her for who knows how long and never cleaned her. The shit was dried and stuck to her skin. I've also had problems with PCTs making up vital signs and not feeding patients who need assistance to eat. Nurses have enough to deal with without having to do the PCT's job too.

5. Nurse managers and clinical educators who introduce all kinds of new policies and paperwork that are bullshit and time-consuming. Get your ass out on the floor and see how hard it is to work without having to do all the crap you've just added to the RNs responsibilities.

6. Personal neglect. There's no way around it if you work in a hospital. You're lucky to pee once in 12 hours, you rarely eat or drink, you get dry skin, you don't sleep well, and the stress will eat you alive! Then, you go home, and you can't relax. You can't leave the job at work; it comes home with you. You worry about things you did, things you may have missed, horrible patients/families. When you finally have a day off, your unit calls and begs you to come to work. It doesn't matter if you're using a week of PTO time that you requested 6 months in advance; the hospital will find you.

7. Non-compliant patients. I know it's judgemental, but I can't stand non-compliant patients. They are a drain on the healthcare system. They don't take care of themselves and have to be admitted. This means the hospital has to find staff to care for them, and the insurance companies have to shell out more $$$$, which in turn makes healthcare more expensive. These bastards who are in renal failure or are diabetic who eat and drink whatever they want, or the heart patient who doesn't take his meds because they don't feel sick piss me off. And, let's not forget to mention people who don't complete a course of antibiotics as ordered or who continue to smoke when they have COPD. It drives me crazy.

8. All the redundant paperwork. At my hospital in Arizona, we actually had a form to sign-off stating that we had filled out all of the required forms for the shift. When will it stop?

9. Cleaning people. Some people think that because they are in the hospital, we give out free bed baths to everyone. One man in his 40s pooped in the toilet but asked us to come in and clean him because he didn't feel well. As far as I'm concerned, if you can move your arms, you can clean your own butt.I understand that there are patients who can't clean themselves or need assistance. That's fine. I'm talking about the regular joes who think because they are in the hospital they can have everything done for them.

10. The lack of gratitude. No one says "Thank You" or "Good Job" or "I appreciate your help." You give an inch and everyone else takes a mile.

I worked as a travel nurse for almost 3 years, and have worked at 10 hospitals altogether as an RN. It's the same shit everywhere. I hope I never get really sick.

[Unregistered]

I work at this hosp and yea i have missed time being ill. but the head nurse is harressing me. i get things and letters sent to my house, which i am putting a stop to. Now she has decided to send me for fit for duty, I believe trying to get me fired. what can i do? Should I get a lawyer and go after her? thanks for any advice anyone can give me. Im a lpn

[Unregistered]

harressment at hosp
I work at this hosp and yea i have missed time being ill. but the head nurse is harressing me. i get things and letters sent to my house, which i am putting a stop to. Now she has decided to send me for fit for duty, I believe trying to get me fired. what can i do? Should I get a lawyer and go after her? thanks for any advice anyone can give me. Im a lpn

************************************************** **

What do the letters she sends to your house say? What is "fit for duty?" Do you know the hospitals policy on absenteeism?

[Unregistered]

fit for duty is when you have missed alot of time due to being ill. ji did when i was full time, but changed to part time and have improved , but my head nurse is trying to get rid of me i believe. why didn't she send me when i was full time. she waited till i went part time.Management is backing her up. The whole thing is crooked and sneaky. what are my rights?

[Unregistered]

yea i fink their can b a bitchy environment but we all need to support one another for thsi to be sorted

[Unregistered]

one thing i hate is some of the doctors i was lookin after a patient who was about to arrest so i dialled 2222 team came down n i was told to bk off while they took over needless to say i heard the docotr then sayin all im good for is wiping shitty arses n when i approached them n said i might have been wearing a hca uniform working weekends on the nurse bank n i was a student nurse the smug smile on the face dropped n the sister made him apologise to me still got until 2007 until i qualify backlash is everywhere i deal with it nothing is perfect im sorry to hear so much negativity on this site buit i beleive in the future things can only get better

[Unregistered]

... backlash is everywhere i deal with it nothing is perfect im sorry to hear so much negativity on this site buit i beleive in the future things can only get better

************************************************** **
That's right sweetie. Keep telling yourself that. It's the only way you'll survive as a nurse.

[tranquil_realm]

i dont see it getting any better at all. you see, the RN's are now into where the LPN's have always been at. the LPN's are getting phased out. there isnt too much of anyplace left to push all the work. i dont see it getting put onto the CNA's, NP's,MD's or anything. i have heard some of the RN's where i work say "it'll never happen because the RN's won't do it. they just won't do it." well, in truth, they are doing it everywhere but here. and even here it is starting to change over to the hospitals only hiring LPN's for the slots they cant yet fill with RN's. anybody that tries to think it's getting better is only living in a fantasy. due to the fact that RN's spend more time and money on schooling i only see the competition, backstabbing , setups, etc. getting worse. it's kind of like if they got rid of all the regular fighting soldiers and now only the generals are left to fight the battles. cause many of those generals will do whatever it takes to obtain the higher position, and the rest will be left on the front lines. not a pretty sight.

[Unregistered]

I worked a mcdonald for three years and I became a manager after I worked there for one year. I always stayed late and worked harder than the rest of the managers did. They always stuck me with the job of managing a hold crew by myself for six or more hours. I was in school to presue a business degree in management. I have four kids and they are all big enough to take care of themself. But my husband was more demanding then ever because i didn't have a lot of time for him anymore. I have always belive in working hard and taking my work serious. I am fourty years old and decided to go back to mcdonalds after I married because i love to meet new people and learn new things. I decide to quit my job because it became to demanding, and i was falling back on my work at school and need more time to study. I need to made better grades at school and so I decided to quit my job and be a stay home mom and a student. My daughter is going to school a ICA in conway university.

[tranquil_realm]

that's wonderful that you have found a way to balance out your life and continue to better yourself. you must be very proud of your daughter starting off to college too.

[Unregistered]

Well as a paramedic I can say I have delt with more nurses that were unprofessional bitches than nice ones (those are few and far between). Maybe they are jelous because we do not have to call a dr. to ask if the patient can take one more breath a minute. Sorry for this low blow, but I have been putting up with all your piss poor attitudes for seven years, you all deserve to be misserable!

[tranquil_realm]

what the hell?!! we all know most nurses are a-holes, but not all of us are like that. i have seen some pretty nasty paramedics too. do i group them all together and say they all deserve to be miserable? no. i let them do their job the best they can figure how-- and i do the same. nurses, paramedics, MD's NP's all have a scope of practice by which they are legally bound. so you do what you have to do -- but hope you dont try to treat me like shit one day cause i'll ignore your ass, and if that doesnt work i'll give your shit right back to you.

[Unregistered]

To the paramedic who posted above:

I'd like to personally invite you to come over here and kiss my RN ass!!! Where do you get off thinking you are so much better than we are? Yes, granted, most nurses are bitches (myself at times included), but, we have a different standard of practice than paramedics that we are obligated by law to follow. You guys have some leeway in what you can do for a patient (intubate, give IV fluids, etc.). We nurses in the hospital (or anywhere else) have to call an MD for ALL orders or ANY change in a patient's condition. You have the luxury of dropping of a patient in the hospital, and your relationship with him ends there. We have to care for that person the entire remainder of our shift, to include toileting, giving meds, charting, hygiene, talking with family, monitoring labs and vitals, and making sure all MD orders are implemented (FSBS, I&O, weights, VS frequency, diet, etc). You either have alot of balls or are the stupidest, most hateful SOB I've ever listened to. Grow up.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Hey this is pretty scary I was thinking of getting into nursing but am being scred off by all the horror stories. Anyhow, not sure what to do now.........

Don't be scared. If you want to be a nurse then be one. Just don't go into it with unrealistic expectations that you're going to 'make a difference' or thinking that its anything more than it is. The posts on this forum are very accurate, nursing is NOT a job for people who have a low tolerance for bullsh*t. Nursing is just something that one does for a paycheck and to believe otherwise would be naive.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Well as a paramedic I can say I have delt with more nurses that were unprofessional bitches than nice ones (those are few and far between). Maybe they are jelous because we do not have to call a dr. to ask if the patient can take one more breath a minute. Sorry for this low blow, but I have been putting up with all your piss poor attitudes for seven years, you all deserve to be misserable!


I had a few choice words for you. However, I know that not every paramedic is an idiot like yourself so I'll just offer some nice advice instead:

Blow it up your ass! Nurses collaborate with physicians to provide safe and effective care for the patient. I wouldn't expect you to know much about that because your job is transporting people to an ER as fast as possible and dumping them there. Of course you don't have to call a doctor for orders to drive an ambulance or to operate a defibrillator. But if you spent just one day shadowing a critical care nurse in an ICU like the one I work in, then you'd understand just some of the BIG differences between being a paramedic and being a nurse.

[Unregistered]

I heard these jokes the other day, and they were dead on!!!!

How long does it take a nurse manager to change a lightbulb? No one knows. The policy has to be written, the task delegated, the inservice scheduled, and it has to be included in next year's budget.

How many RNs does it take to change a lightbulb? 12. One to change the bulb, one to chart it, and 10 to write the policy and procedure for it.

How many MDs does it take to change a lightbulb? 18. One general practioner to change the bulb and 17 specialists to consult on the event.

How does a surgeon change a lightbulb? He holds the new bulb up to the socket and lets the world rotate around him.

[tranquil_realm]

lol they sure are.

[Unregistered]

I don't know where you all come from, but i'm a 5 year cna who works in long term care, and most of my nurses are great and don't complain. Management is what sucks where I work not the nurses. Nurses where I work dont do much, we cna's do everything and without thanks, so I dont know what your complaint is, but its not legitimate.

[tranquil_realm]

well i cant figure out where you work either, but i'd sure like to know. so are you saying that there is a place where there are no nurses in management positions? are you saying that the cna's do dr's rounds, physician updates, charting, pour and pass and count meds. including narcotics, flush and change catheters, dressing changes, wound measurement, order drug refills, do tube feedings, order supplies, pri 's ,i&o's, do lab and xray requisitions, measure amounts of vomit shit, pus, blood, and anything else that comes out of the patients? make sure the ppe and crash carts are stocked each shift, order things like O2 tanks, O2concentrators, nebulizers, etc.? are you saying that you get all the VS, toilet people, serve people at meals , change their diapers when there isnt a cna to be found? are you saying that you do this for 34 people each shift, and for ones you dont even know when you get floated to another unit. are you saying you call around and run floor to floor or to another building to try to find meds, etc for the pts. when they are not in your cart and you fill out the paperwork involved in borrowing meds. each time? do you do all the fingersticks and insulins for a bunch of noncompliant people? oh dear, poor you. all that and give one person a shower, pass trays, help people get dressed, help toilet them, and help feed them, and get some of them in or out of bed each shift.my GOd you poor thing. i think you should save yourself and become a nurse. it's so much easier. go for it . you can do it after all you do everything now. at least you'll get paid more for doing less work----- right?

[Unregistered]

I'm not the CNA that posted that you replied too, but I am one. You must work in a nursing home, do you? I work at a hospital and our nurses carry 5 to 6 patients. They have respiratory for the things you quoted. I've heard in the old times where nurses would have to do drs rounds with them, but that hasn't been happening in a long while. We have a secretary that orders supplies, plus a lady comes around that checks our supply closet and restocks it. Our secretary does the lab and x-ray requistions.
We do dressing changes, wound measurement, they call pharmacy for drugs if they are not in the cart, we do tube feedings, we measure anything that comes out of the patient, we have a 32 bed unit and yes if I'm the only CNA on duty I get all the vital signs, if I'm not the only one, there is only two of us so we divide the floor. We do feeds, don't serve trays, cause dietary does, but after 7 P.M. we make up a tray to serve them. And the old dear part of your reply, I wish there was only one person or a few I had to do something for. I'd be in heaven. I do float to other floors and have to do it all again. I do fingersticks, don't give them insulin, but also think it's a waste on noncomplaint patients, when you see a candy bar on their bedside. I tell the nurse and she says I know, but it's a doctors order, so you do it. I insert foley catheters. Yes there are things you do that we can't, but I have also seen simple things that we do all the time, like putting a patient on a bedpan, that some, not all nurses don't know how to do. We have patients on 15 minutes vitals, where I think we should do every other one, so the nurse can be in there checking, but expected to do them all. When you're by yourself and have incontinents, pt that need to go to the bathroom and are slow, discharges, admissions, either open heart or cath preps to do, snacks, making up trays, doing vitals on all patients, diabetic testing to do, which the nurses expect us to do, even if there is only one, cause were the CNA. Not all nurses mind you, I have some that assess the situation were in and help, others that don't care. Plus I've seen the same out of other nursing assistants. You could be sinking and they are reading the paper or just standing there. It's a very stressful job for the both of us RN's and CNA'S. I read alot of things here and identify. Anyway after 14 years of this I'm ready to retire, the stress is getting to me and my back is finally giving out.

[tranquil_realm]

i dont know where you live that nurses' aides do all that. you're right i do work in a nursing home. when i worked in a hospital the aides handed out some of the bag baths, served bedpans, and sometimes got the vitals. there is a major difference where you work and anyplace i've ever worked. around here the cna's have very little responsibility and next to no accountability. i have never worked anywhere that they catheterized , did tube feedings, fingersticks or anything like that. here it's the law that a nurse do VS while running blood. and usually the nurses have to get them for anything serious. in the hospital most of the time there was no aide working with me. i'm out of nursing in a couple of weeks anyway. it's a rotten job and i won't miss it one bit.

[Unregistered]

When I first started working 14 years ago we just did the basics.
Then they instituted where you could go to what they call a NA11 that gives you more responsibility, that's where the foley insertions, tube feeds, diabetic testing, plus secretarial, which I don't have time to do and we got a secretary. I do the VS on blood running too, plus go to the blood bank to get it. They rely on us to let them know if anything is wrong, I comply. I work on a cardiac unit and if something rings out on the monitor, unless it's v-tach I check the patient and get vitals.

I envy you for getting out of nursing in a couple of weeks. I'm working on it. I'm getting off the 12 hours shifts and going down to two 8 hour 11P to 7A shifts. 7 to 11 P is the roughest where I work, I've felt like crying cause it was too much. I thought it was cause of my age 51, but another male aide in his early 20's, said he worked by himself 7P to 7A and was getting slammed with everything and one admission after another, he said he was ready at 3:30 A to grab his bag and leave. So it's not just age, it's stress. We're only human, expecting to be super people. NOT! LOL! Again congratulations.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by tranquil_realm
well i cant figure out where you work either, but i'd sure like to know. so are you saying that there is a place where there are no nurses in management positions? are you saying that the cna's do dr's rounds, physician updates, charting, pour and pass and count meds. including narcotics, flush and change catheters, dressing changes, wound measurement, order drug refills, do tube feedings, order supplies, pri 's ,i&o's, do lab and xray requisitions, measure amounts of vomit shit, pus, blood, and anything else that comes out of the patients? make sure the ppe and crash carts are stocked each shift, order things like O2 tanks, O2concentrators, nebulizers, etc.? are you saying that you get all the VS, toilet people, serve people at meals , change their diapers when there isnt a cna to be found? are you saying that you do this for 34 people each shift, and for ones you dont even know when you get floated to another unit. are you saying you call around and run floor to floor or to another building to try to find meds, etc for the pts. when they are not in your cart and you fill out the paperwork involved in borrowing meds. each time? do you do all the fingersticks and insulins for a bunch of noncompliant people? oh dear, poor you. all that and give one person a shower, pass trays, help people get dressed, help toilet them, and help feed them, and get some of them in or out of bed each shift.my GOd you poor thing. i think you should save yourself and become a nurse. it's so much easier. go for it . you can do it after all you do everything now. at least you'll get paid more for doing less work----- right?

Isn't that what your trained to do???????
No I dont pass meds I'm not a nurse yet, and If I was I wouldn't be a backstabber like you. As A 5 year cna I think I do more than any nurse, Sometimes I have 18 residents to get up and 6 of those are lifts, I feed ,dress , change and answer call light which no nurse would ever bother doing, take vitals help with dressing s and catheters and bathing up to 8 patients a day, and having nurses like you that won't bother even looking at a skin condition on a patient, or bother to come when one is falling over with sugar level of 37. What does it take to get a nurse to do anything these days. ANd yes our DON was a nurse,, but she now sits on her but in an office and never hits the floor except to complain, she has never checked out a patient. Quite disgusting if you ask me.

[Unregistered]

Im not trying to cut nursing, or nurses, I'm going to school for RN program and the schooling is ridiculous. But i'm working on it. I'm 46. These posts of mine about being a cna in long term care were not to cut nurses, my original post was that most of the nurses I work with are great, kind to patients and fun to work with. We have had one nurse fired twice for being too knid to the residents? WOW. Never thought that could happen, being fired for being too nice and spending time with patients.

Sorry Tranquil Realm, was't trying to stir up trouble. I work in a facility of about 75 patients and the nurses work 3 on 4 off twelve hr shifts. We were charting at least 7 pages per patient each day, just like the nurses do, some one else does all the orders and the supplies and rna's for rehab, we have ten in a subacute ward which I have worked.

there is a nursing shortage everywhere and if they would change the schooling for this, I dont think there would be, I dont understand why you just cant move up the line into lvn from cna with on the job training like they use to. Good Luck whatever you do.

[tranquil_realm]

it's a lot different wherever you work at than from here. i am an lpn. the place i'm in has over 500 beds. in this place the lpn's do everything but the MDS's and they dont let us take TO's. the cna's paperwork consists of checking off the ADL, amb, and toileting sheets. i was a cna before changing to lpn. and have yet to see cna's around here do any part of the nurses job. i dont want to become an RN. i am sick to death of being completely subserviant to everyone around me. i'll do what i must to keep my license up just in case, but want no more to do with healthcare. on my next scheduled day on my employer will receive my notice of intent to leave. giving up the money is hard ,but nothing compared to my losses from being in that crappy profession for so long. i dont do slavery well at all. as for the nursing shortage-- the employers keep it that way cause it works for them. they schedule minimum staff knowing they will have call in's. the places are working at minimum most of the time unless the state is coming or they are up against a lawsuit they are worried about. as far as a nurse getting fired for being too kind-- maybe there are other details involved that you havent been told. you will learn many new things once you are licensed.

[Unregistered]

tranquil_realm

Sorry for my crappy posts. I just couldn't understand why so many of you don't like nursing. But I see why, you all put up with the same crap we do. I've had my second thoughts. All the classes i'm taking at my age. anatomy physiology then micro, plus others. THen get put on a waiting list just to get in the program. And why. I'm in california, and they are strict here on cna's. And we bust our butts when state comes in.
I know about the staffing also. I've worked days the past 6 months and on sundays we only have 4 aides for 75 patients in Long term care. We wait for the new classes to come on with new cna students to help out. I go home in pain. Thats why I'm going to school now. My back can't take much more.

And yes, that is what the nurse was fired for, spending too much time with patient in chit chat after meds were passed, Really ridiculous. Very nice woman. Just dont understand why?
My facility seems to like those who are loud and obnoxious, over the quiet ones, cna or nurses. I've been told to be more verbal. I guess the squeeky wheel gets the grease.

[Unregistered]

I am a state tested nurses aide in the state of Ohio. I work agency so I go to many different nursing homes and hospitals and they all do things differently and my job is different in everyone of them. I don't understand the hatred between nurses and nurses aides. We all have the job of taking care of the elderly and the sick, I know that some parts of it are more medical and others more emotional and it is all very stressful but isn't one part just as important as the next. People need love attention to get better not just medicine and tests. CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG MOST OF THE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tranquil_realm]

you are right. each job is equal in importance. the total of fulfillment of each job category is supposed to equal continuity and quality care given to each patient. unfortunately, for all of us, the big profit makers do not allow this to happen. everyone is overworked and overstressed. in the place i've been working you never even see a job description so your job resultantly, is everything. it is planned to work "short" all the time. that is no accident. i've never seen any place working short staffed when the state is in. that seems to be the only time places arent shortstaffed. as for people getting along, i think the system in general is designed to prevent that from happening. just for one thing, it is to the benefit of the facility to keep everyone divided. as long as the workers are kept overly busy and at each others throats the facility maintains total control over the employees. if all the employees did stick together and could count on each others support, then the employees would have the overwhelming advantage. that would mean that if the facility wasnt being fair to the employees that they would all band together and demand things like better health ins. cov. and safe humane staffing and no more mandation every 2 or 3 days, etc.. so, you see , the facilities count on the ones they employ that are in general, psychos, brownnoses, control freaks, martyrs, and dumbasses. it goes along with the plan. thats why those people and those conditions are favored. think about it. the corporations that own the facilities have a win/win plan going for them. there is no way to overcome it unless at least 75% of the employees in each facility will STRIKE and DEMAND fairness. as for me-- i have given fair notice to my employer, told them why, and am going to see my last day of that shit as of 6/20/05. and i feel some of my old self starting to awaken already. GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF YOU STILL IN THE PROFESSION. AND I REALLY DO HOPE IT WILL CHANGE FOR THE BETTER FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT ARE IN A SITUATION RIGHT NOW WHERE YOU CANT ESCAPE IT ----YET. love and peace, marybeth

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
After ten years of nursing, I am finally getting out. I retire next month. I have no plans to go back, and the new job I am going to has very little to do with medicine.

For several years I worked as a traveling nurse. That was fun in that I could visit different places and have someone else pay for everything. I went to places that I never would have been able to visit otherwise. I got to see parts of America that few see, and my travel journals are packed so full of notes and photos that it would take weeks for someone to read them.

Then I made the mistake of "settling down" at a permanent job. What a big mistake. I quickly remembered why I became a traveler years before. As a traveling nurse, I was only in a place a few months, not long enough to get involved in all the usual crap that goes on in a job.

Here are the factys. Most nurses are bitches, even the males. Nurses are anal-retentive, backstabbing bitches who have a great level of hate and resentment for others. I have witnessed physical, sexual and mental haraasment by nurses, all of whom seem to feel that they themselves are above the law. I have grown to hate nurses and nursing as I have ben unable to find any "agnels" to work with and focus on.

Retiring from nursing to a higher paying job with better hours and people who act like professionals for a change took a little doing, but it will not be my final blow to nursing: I have a big surprise for the hospital and the managers I am leaving. My attorney and I have a big harrassment suit that we are going to file theweek after I leave, which will not only publically ruin the reputation of the hospital, but can expose the horrors of nursing nationally as well. Not to mention that the monetary settlement will drain the bank account of the hospital, taking the money away from the patients doctors and yes, the nurses, and putting it in my pocket instead.

In closing I want to tell anyone who has a bad experience in nursing or with nurses: Don't get mad, get even ! Call your attorney today, they will handle it from there.

[tranquil_realm]

good luck to you with the lawsuit and exposing nursing for what it really is. if you can succeed in doing that then you will have done more than i could have ever dreamed possible to expose all of it, and to possibly even make things better for the nurses and patients. i can only wish i had been able to acquire the necessary physical proof of what goes on at the place i've been working. at least i'll be out of it. i've got 5 more shifts to pull between now and my last day there. i truly wish you success in what i feel is a very brave ,smart, and worthwhile thing to do.

[blackbuc]

I have been a PA for the past five years. Everyone in healthcare from a custodian to a physician, and everyone in between, has a difficult and stressful job. All healthcare jobs require a delicate interplay between subjective and objective skills. Healthcare in general tends to burn otherwise well-intentioned people out. While it is true that nursing is a thankless profession, the same can be said of most jobs in healthcare because we as a society are becoming more egocentric and disrespectful. I know many very unhappy nurses, PAs, NPs, MDs, etc. that feel trapped in their profession. Unhappy people tend to put forth their worst foot. That is why so many nurses appear "bitchy." It is also why so many providers jerk nurses around. We all feel a little betrayed by the schools in which we are trained. Our chosen professions are painted as something very different than what they truly are because our educators know that unless they continue to recruit smart and dedicated people, they might have to go back to being a nurse/midlevel/doctor. If you like the idea of being a nurse/midlevel/doctor but aren't sure what the day to day is like, I would strongly encourage you to educate yourself before you are committed personally and financially. The schools aren't going to be anymore up front with you than a military recruiter will.

[tranquil_realm]

i agree 100% with what you said. it's all true. every word of it.

[Unregistered]

well now im about to bernach on my next module goin into gyno next placemet so i cant wait so why did most of yout ake up the professions? i did it so i could help people

[Unregistered]

I loved what the PA said above. If my nursing professors had been upfront about what being an RN is really like, I would have chosen a different position. While I like helping people, my reasons for choosing nursing were a little different. I originally wanted to be an MD, but when I sat down and thought about it, I realized that I didn't want to make the commitment being an MD requires. I didn't want to be in school until I was almost 30; I also didn't want the years of internships/residency, the long hours, the rotating call, and the liability. Nursing was just a better personal fit, allowing me to be involved in medicine without going through the hassle of medical school. Plus, RNs can generally get a job anywhere and make decent money. But, after having been an RN for five years, I no longer think the money is decent; rather, it's just not enough for all the things we have to do and are responsible for.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by tranquil_realm
[see my last day of that shit as of 6/20/05. and i feel some of my old self starting to awaken already. GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF YOU STILL IN THE PROFESSION. AND I REALLY DO HOPE IT WILL CHANGE FOR THE BETTER FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT ARE IN A SITUATION RIGHT NOW WHERE YOU CANT ESCAPE IT ----YET. love and peace, marybeth [/B]

I am so jealous. I am going down to two 8 hour night shifts instead of my twelve and by next year I will be quitting, I will have had 15 years than as a nursing assistant, but I can't take inadequate staffing anymore and the stress of trying to give good care. I was the only aide working again, they floated the other aide to a different floor. When I got off my break the first room I went into the patient in the next bed said I want to talk to you when you're done with her. Seems when I was on break she called for assistance to the BSC and no one came. She was irate and justly so. She stretched her IV to the limit to reach her BSC, she said she wished it had pulled out. She said she was going to report it to her doctor the next day. She said that wasn't right. I told her I'm sorry that happened and you are right that wasn't right. I told her I was on break and she said my nurse should of came. I told her I don't know where the line of communication broke down, but I would be on the floor the rest of the night and I answered the majority of the call lights and if I didn't come right away I would be tied up in a room, but always respond as soon as possible. I thought her nurse might have been told and didn't respond, but that morning I called to the secretary for help in pulling a patient up in bed, that was having breathing difficulties and no one was responding so I went to the doorway where I could see into the nurses station and asked her wasn't there anyone that could help me. Here comes a nurse that was standing at the counter and said I've been standing here all along and she didn't tell anyone you called. The last hour of my shift was terrible. I have to get the whole floors vitals, still had 4 to go, as I had to do a total bed change for that patient I needed help with. Still had an enema to give. The charge nurse said what you don't get done, pass on to the next shift. As much as that's done to me all the time, I don't pass anything on to the next shift. If I'm working till the minute I walk out the door. I finish all my work. I'm just burnt out, but I don't show that to my patients or co-workers. The day I'm short with my patients, especially my patients, I'm out the door. I smile and joke with them and try to take their mind off their problems. I feel I'm not there to add to their problems. I see alot of aides and nurses go in rooms and not crack a smile. I hear about it when I come on. I know why they do that so they won't be called back in the room. If I come to that point I don't want to be there.

[BigRobRN]

I'm on my way out too!

Hooray!!

[Unregistered]

Good for you for getting out as i am. To me nursing means:
"N" narcissistic
"U" unforgiving
"R" rude
"S" snobs
"I" idiots
"N" nut case
"G" gobblins
That do not know their head from their a$$. Once that OLD
650 pound nurse eats all her young she will be able to tell her patients to shut up and wipe your own ass while consuming 25 BIG MACS. No body will care because she will be the only on left in the profession. In my opinion i think the only one who truely loved nursing is Florence Nightengale---but again back in those days women/nurses were considered servants so she was probably faking it too.

Definitely nursing pays well but the mental and physical torture are not worth it. Dig deep all you loyal nurses- you hate it too but are not big enough to admit it in fear of social rejection. if you cannot empathise with nurses that vent of this forum you are one of those that just sign in the little box for the sake of saying you completed your work in reality a task that you probably do not even know how to do. Cudos to those who vent. Nursing is a brutal profession no matter how you look at it and i would bet the ones bitching (venting) are the ones who "do" their jobs to total completion.

If nursing is so fun and fulfilling then they should drop the pay scale to minimum wage.

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE!

[tranquil_realm]

exactly. nursing is horrible. and i too have taken notice of the fact that it is the good nurses that work their fingers to the bone that are the ones that get burnt out. as for the others, they are the ones that manage to get out of doing their jobs like they are supposed to so they think life is grand. let's see how their "dedicated" asses handle it when all of us good nurses are finally gone. then we'll see who the whiners actually are. the only ones left will be the ones that wont even know where to begin cause they've never really done the job. i've got 3 shifts left to do now before i'm out. my nurse manager has had to start doing part of her job already cause i stopped doing it. she's been practically in tears every day. yesterday the DON tried to talk me out of leaving. FAT CHANCE ON THAT!! i told her" nope. i'm sick to death of trying to do the work of three people. and i'm sick to death of being treated like i'm not even human just because i'm a nurse. "

[Unregistered]

Well, Tranquil Realm, I'm so glad you're leaving!!! Don't let that DON con you into staying. They're all afraid they may actually have to EARN their money after you leave. LOL.

I agree with the above posting as well, about the burnt out nurses are the ones who work their asses off. Until I left my hospital job in early May, I was one of those good few. I ran my ass off all shift making sure everything was done. If I promised a patient I would look into something (lab results, getting more soap or TP, seeing what time their test was scheduled), I ALWAYS kept my word. I helped with the PCT duties if they were tied up. My charting was appropriate. I can't tell you how many nurses I've encountered who sit around, or go on numerous smoke breaks, who barely chart, talk-back to their patients, and rely on their PCTs for every little thing. I even encountered one RN in Atlanta at a county hospital who hardly EVER gave his meds; his rationale was that most of the patients were non-compliant and couldn't afford their meds anyway. It's just sad how many sorry people have the letters RN after their name. They are the ones who are in it for the money.

I'm over 5 months pregnant and am working now per-diem for a home infusion company. I do home IV therapy (teaching people how to give their own IV antibiotics, fluids, TPN; PICC/CVC dressing changes, lab draws, and enteral feedings), working about 10-25 hours a week. The pace is wonderful, the patients are sooooooooo grateful for my services, and my interaction with physicians is minimal. Best of all, I get paid well, set my own hours, the charting is ONE PAGE (except for an admission), and I don't have to wipe my patient's asses before I leave their house. This is the first time as a nurse I've ever been able to say this: I LIKE MY JOB!!! I will never work in a hospital again. EVER.

[tranquil_realm]

yes. and that poster of "and then there were none" is right on about that. that's about when all the convicts out on parole will suddenly be able to get jobs without a problem. they'd be getting their nursing licenses in the bighouse and the regular people would be getting trained how to make license plates or whatever----- and seeing how it feels to get breaks, and holidays and weekends off, and to spend time with their families, and getting to punch out on time, and not get mandated to work doubles every 3 or 4 days, and have better health insurance coverage or be eligible for low cost/no cost coverage, and not be hounded constantly at work and by phone to work every minute you arent already scheduled for, and to be treated at least like human beings by bosses and coworkers. as a matter of fact, any of us could be working with a nurse wearing a house arrest bracelet and we wouldnt even know it. it does happen. dont drop one narcotic pill or you'll catch hell for it. but let a nurse steal and eat a few cards of narcs and that one will be back from rehab in a couple weeks working right beside you again. i think excons would make out alright in nursing. none of the awful stuff that goes on would bother them and without a doubt they'd get treated a whole lot better than nurses do now.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
I came across your website out of desperation one day. I am not a nurse, but a Physician assistant at a local inner city hospital. I am absolutely at my wits end with the confrontational nature and aggressive and rude behavior of the nurses where I work. From the day I walked inthe door and the Nurse manager on the floor took me aside and said" I control this ER,don't try to bring patients back without my approval, Or I will make your life miserable.(not to mention that a diabetic with a blood sugar of 600 has been waiting 2 hours).", It has been an uphill struggle to do do my job. At every turn I am bucked. If I order a catapress for a guy with a BP of 190/110, I get"why are you doing that,its unecessary, he doesn't need that,Im not giving it." Or refusing to draw very basic labs on a diabetic with a blood sugar of 341 and urinary retention up to 1200ml. So while I not only bring the patients in on my own, change the bedding and clean the room, and do the H&P and discharge them because the nurse doesn't fell like my course of treatment is appropriate,I also now draw all my own, and get my own meds. Why do I need the nurse at all if Im going to do everything. These women are bitches and they get away with it, when I confronted a nurse about her behavior and the told the charge nurse. "I was told, there is nothing you can do,nothing will happen" I am good at what I do, and its a shame, but because of these Pitbulls in heat, sophmorish, backstabbing, back bitting, immature little girls, I am almost sure I am on my way to greener pastures, away from nurses. And you know what, the charge nurse is right. Nothing will ever be done.

You to kick ass if you are a PA. Where are the docs? Do they take any crap off the nurses? I doubt it. Demand respect. Call their bluff and treat your patients as you know you should. Get administration involved. You sound young or timid. I'm a nurse, so I know what the hell I'm talking about. I would never talk to a PA that way unless he or she was really dangerous to patients.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
I came across your website out of desperation one day. I am not a nurse, but a Physician assistant at a local inner city hospital. I am absolutely at my wits end with the confrontational nature and aggressive and rude behavior of the nurses where I work. From the day I walked inthe door and the Nurse manager on the floor took me aside and said" I control this ER,don't try to bring patients back without my approval, Or I will make your life miserable.(not to mention that a diabetic with a blood sugar of 600 has been waiting 2 hours).", It has been an uphill struggle to do do my job. At every turn I am bucked. If I order a catapress for a guy with a BP of 190/110, I get"why are you doing that,its unecessary, he doesn't need that,Im not giving it." Or refusing to draw very basic labs on a diabetic with a blood sugar of 341 and urinary retention up to 1200ml. So while I not only bring the patients in on my own, change the bedding and clean the room, and do the H&P and discharge them because the nurse doesn't fell like my course of treatment is appropriate,I also now draw all my own, and get my own meds. Why do I need the nurse at all if Im going to do everything. These women are bitches and they get away with it, when I confronted a nurse about her behavior and the told the charge nurse. "I was told, there is nothing you can do,nothing will happen" I am good at what I do, and its a shame, but because of these Pitbulls in heat, sophmorish, backstabbing, back bitting, immature little girls, I am almost sure I am on my way to greener pastures, away from nurses. And you know what, the charge nurse is right. Nothing will ever be done.

You need to kick ass if you are a PA. Where are the docs? Do they take any crap off the nurses? I doubt it. Demand respect. Call their bluff and treat your patients as you know you should. Get administration involved. You sound young or timid. I'm a nurse, so I know what the hell I'm talking about. I would never talk to a PA that way unless he or she was really dangerous to patients.

[Unregistered]

I've just discovered your site today. I am so glad that others feel like me. I am in my Third Year as a Student Nurse and I the whole training process is a complete shambles. Guess what if I get to the end of this awful course I no longer want to be a nurse anymore. I have worked my fingers to the bone and have already become burnt out. Stressed and depressed as we say in England!

Good luck to the NHS it is going to need it when all of the Nursing profession finally wakes up and leave! God help the poor patients who need a genuine and kind caring Nurse to look after them.

[tranquil_realm]

the poor patients don't have kind and caring nurses to look after them now. there are still a few kind nurses out there, but they aren't allowed the time to care for anybody. they just run you ragged. and God help you if you are good at what you do cause the bosses and other nurses will just dump more work on you. when i worked med-surg in a major hosp. here i actually had a charge nurse say to me " oh. you can handle all that can you? well let's see how you handle this." she gave me sometimes 8, 11, even 14 pts.. all the sickest ones, isolation rooms, CBI's, transfusions, sometimes ones that were waiting for an empty bed in ICU. it was awful. i quit after 7 mos.. it was my good days when she wasn't there. there was a charge nurse there from germany, and when she was on it felt like heaven. she divided up the pt. loads like she was supposed to. that german nurse told me she had been treated the same way for years and not to let it discourage me or make me quit. if all nurses were like her nursing would be much better. the pt. load limit was supposed to be 5, sometimes 6, with not more than 1 of them being total care. when the other charge nurse was there i didnt even have an cna working with me. well, one time i did. he did nothing. i mean nothing. when they finally fired him he had to be escorted out because he told the nurse manager he was going to kill her for firing him because he refused to do any work. all in all, my nursing career was a living hell. save yourself!

[Unregistered]

I have been thinking about going into nursing and have heard all of the same stories from people ie. it is a thankless, dirty, sad, sometimes hazardous, and people can be disrespectful. I am making sure to be realistic before I dive in.
Doesn't anybody have anything to say positively about nursing? I have always admired nurses for their hard work my mom is a nurse of almost 40 years, and isn't it important to help people when they are most down, even if you may not be successful? Maybe this is too idealistic.
From the outside perspective for those nurses who are posting these most discouraging words, I am a person who very much admires nurses, and I know that it would make me sad to see a loved one in your care because you seem to hate your job and it must show.

[tranquil_realm]

there are reasons why people dont like nursing anymore. you can't possibly understand what they are talking about because you haven't worked as a nurse yet. i hated nursing. and no it didnt show. nurses learn to be good ,convincing actresses real fast. you can think you are as realistic as you please. once you get your license you will start to get a good dose of what reality is. i do not wish bad things to happen to anyone, but if any of your loved ones do require nursing care i do hope you have the wonderful experience of having them as your patient. you cant understand that statement yet but you will understand it if you do get your nursing license. having any relative for a patient is one of the worst experiences a nurse can have. do you know why? it's because they think just like you do right now. your aptients and their families will be thinking like you do now----- and you'll more than likely be thinking like us. when i quit working as a nurse a couple weeks ago --- up until then everybody bitched and moaned but swore up and down they love nursing. as soon as they found out yes this was my last day of torture and they knew it was safe to say how they really feel-- that's when every single nurse and most of the cna's i worked with came to me and told me how much they really hate their jobs. every one of them. and every one said of they didnt have to work or if they could get another job and make enough money to support their families they would quit. maybe you should ask your mother how she feels about you getting into the profession. just keep in mind that 40 years is a long time ago and nurses didnt do anywhere near what they do now. they sure didnt have as heavy of a patient load. my mother was also a nurse. and i have an aunt that's a nurse and my blood father is a bone surgeon. that does not change the facts that it sucks. so you can post on this forum all you want with your attitude that you are better than the rest of us. you're not better at all. you are just ignorant of the facts and the reality of it all at this point. you will learn. we all do.

[Unregistered]

hey well im the nursing student yes me agaion and i can see where you are all coming from. but if their aint people like us what wud the nhs do without us we work hard n need tobe repsected it wud work better i the MDT worked together more but its hard sometimes im takin each day as it comes

[Unregistered]

I have never been so abused!The old hag nurses are the worst and will lie on anybody!So damn many cliques,it's like walking in a minefeild.Management does not care about a nursing shortage or the patients.Hospitals are run like ENRONN!Stay out of nursing.We need a union!

[Unregistered]

Well I have read all of your depressing messages on here. I just wanted to say I am a paramedic and love it (except for the pay) I work closely with a partner on a day to day basis, no calling the doctor to ask if I can give a medication or do a procedure, I can just give it or do if it is appropriate obviously, and BEST OF ALL if the patient or family are jerks I only have to put up with it for a breif period. Like nursing and every other career being a paramedic has its downsides like the very low pay (not enough to even live off of), going into very dirty, cold, and dangerous places (although that can be fun somtimes, beleive it or not), but anyway my point is you try and get over the crappy parts of your job and look forward to the good parts, like when you really help someone!

[tranquil_realm]

the only upside of nursing i ever found was the money. but all the crap even took the fun out of that. i have no interest whatsoever helping anybody in that setting anymore. they will just stick it up your ass in the end and they all do in one way or another. the only ones that arent assholes in the whole picture are the little tiny kids and babies. thats it. and i could never do that work because i feel too much for those poor little things. i cant take seeing babies or little kids suffer in any degree.

[Unregistered]

I just began nursing and have been busting my butt to keep my head above water. I've been so nice to everyone and really have been keeping a positive attitude. Today stunk though. Everyone knows I'm new, but does that matter?? I feel like everyone is complaining about me if I ask anything. The CNAs don't want to be asked to do anything, even if it is their job. Everytime they are asked anything, they cop an attitude as if to say "you do it, you're not doing anything!" I hate that. My preceptor came over to me after I asked a CNA to take two sets of vitals (part of their job) and mentioned it to me. How did she know I asked for two sets of vitals? I'm sure the CNA complained to her. I'm on my own next week. It scares me to see how unsupportive others are. I have no problem doing anything, but it's been tough just getting the paperwork, meds out, etc. done on time. Now I have to do the CNA's work too??!! I don't feel this is worth it.

[Unregistered]

I've been a nurse for 10 years and it's been my experience that a lot of CNA's feel the only good nurses are nurses who never ask them to do anything and do their work for them. Of course you and I know this couldn't be further from the truth. I've seen some of them try to "train" new nurses to this belief during their orientation. I myself was told "do it yourself bitch" at my first job as a nurse. Don't let yourself be taken advantage of...remember anything they don't do or don't do right is your responsibility...you'll never see a CNA have to testify in court when someone decides to sue...so don't worry if you're not making friends with them by telling them to to their jobs! Make it clear to them at the beging of the shift what is expected of them...write it down for them so you have it it writing if they want to argue later. Go to the CNA first if things aren't getting done and ask nicely, "why". If you have to ask then to do something else later in the shift and they refuse ask them "are you refusing to (whatever)" If they say yes, write them up for insubordination or go to your nurse manager. If it happens again, ask your nurse manager or charge nurse's support to tell them to clock out and go home. You'll hear about how you're a "snich", but word will get around that you're serious and you won't have to ask twice to get things done.

[Unregistered]

Here in the UK it is exactly the same. Only here nurses too are blamed for the spread of MRSA, and Clostridium. When about one third of our population are thought to be contaminated with it anyway. I was working one day on the Intensive Care Unit of my local hospital. One of the permanent members of staff said that the ward was reprimanded, because they spent too much money cleaning linen. I totally hate with such a passion nursing. All I seem to do is wipe other peoples bottoms. And the doctors are sooo condescending. I have a law degree. However, I cannot find a job relating to that in this area. And there is a shortage of nurses. Nurses here are leaving the profession, or going across the Atlantic. Patients too can be soo demanding. I often wish we could gagg the most demanding patients and shut down the network of buzzers. Some nurses in this country work fourteen hour days for three days in a row. Patients hit you, and I swear the health service in this ncountry is becoming more consumerised. The NHS here is about billions of pounds in debt, and it is starting to show itself, and people here abuse free or cheap healthcare.

[Unregistered]

Yes people want to help people. But long working hours, having patients attack you, annoying visitors, exceptionally demanding patients, and cleaning up human s*** and pee take their toll.

[Unregistered]

I too am a new graduate and hate my job. Why did I ever think that wiping ass and getting pissed on was going to be worth the pennies I make?

Now for the responsibility I carry on my shoulders as an RN....Is everyone safe, is all of the work done, labs checked, weights obtained before breakfast, baths given, charting completed, meds given on time, the man in restraints..is he trying to hang himself again? Are all of the VS WNL? and the BG's? Does that LPN know what she is doing? Sure she thinks she is a big help because Lpn's "run the hospital" but she cant even push a dose of Zofran to the pt who is puking all over his freshly changed linens and during the last code she wouldn't come into the room to do chest compressions.... change an IV?...forget about it, answer a call light? forget about it.... so really...what help is she in the end? Why isn't that damn doctor calling back..I paged him 3 times. Mrs. Lee's foot is hurting and turning blue...oh no it's cold too. Where is the secretary...Oh great across the hall chatting with the others like this is a fraternity house. And the tech...where is the tech. I need somebody to change Mr Ruby's diaper. I guess I will have to do it when I finish giving my 10 o'clock meds even though it's 12:20. I have a dressing change in room 1, the IV is out in 2, but first I have critical lab values in 3, 4 has only put out 20 cc's of urine in the last 2 hours, 5 is SOB and needs pain meds, 6's wife has come out 3 times in the past 5 minutes to tell me her husband needs pain medicine "NOW", 6's pump is beeping "air in line", 7 is asleep...thank God for small favors. I wonder if I will get a lunch today...I haven't had one in over 2 weeks...all I ask is for a 30 minute break per 12 hours shift. I asked for more help but the nurse manager was busy and told me she would get back with me later. That was 3 weeks ago. My back is hurting. I have to pee...when will I go pee. I can't leave the floor...I am the only RN. Atleast I only have 9 more hours to go..............

[Unregistered]

Anonymous poster above, that was a PERFECT description of a typical day on my floor!

[Unregistered]

I am an x-ray tech and all I have to say is that 99% of nurses are complete cunts. Flat-out, bitchy, horrid, mouthy cunts. When I first began working a few years ago I thought it was the doctors that I hated the most. But after talking to about three nurses on my first day I realized that the nurses are the hospital's worst enemy. Its amazing to me(at least where I work)at the amount of nurses that show up and do not want to do their job. Its ridiculous. I got to do a portable chest on some vegetable patient that weighs 400 pounds and there's 5 nurses standing around doing shit all. What do I do? Do I ask for help? Hell no. I'd rather destroy my back lifting some massive load of dead weight than talk to a nurse. I avoid them like I avoid gas station restrooms.

[Unregistered]

lots of nurses are bitches who just whine. YOu have to do soemthing for the money. doesn't mean u have to fuck people around im glad nurse get treated bad lots of them are bitches. they abuse patients ive seen it firsthand.whatever they should go fuck themselves stop whining if u don"t liek it do something else.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
lots of nurses are bitches who just whine. YOu have to do soemthing for the money. doesn't mean u have to fuck people around im glad nurse get treated bad lots of them are bitches. they abuse patients ive seen it firsthand.whatever they should go fuck themselves stop whining if u don"t liek it do something else.

[Unregistered]

I've been a registered nurse for five years now in Australia and things are no better here than what I have read about from all of you in the United States. Conditions are poor and we run on a crisis management system. Nurses bully and gossip about each other, visitors give you a hard time, terrible work loads, and the union may as well work for the management. Sometimes I go home and cry in despair, for myself and my innocent ignorance of how hard this career would ultimately be when I studied for hours and invested my money saved from my job as a virtual slave as an Assistant nurse in a nursing home.

From all this I have become very street wise in the hospital system. I feel sorry for student nurses, who with hope in their eyes and fresh ideas, remind me of myself years ago. No matter how hard they try they wont change things. I believe there are people in the system who don't what things to change and don't care.

Then there are the patients who come in droves through the hospitals, expecting educated quality nursing and professional caring decisions from friendly nurses. I start my day with a new hope but end with old despairs.

[Unregistered]

Nursing SUCKS. I rue the day I decided to dedicate my life to this career. Don't get me wrong, I treat "my" patients nicely because I "know they are someone's mother, father," etc. etc. ad nauseum, but the abuse we suffer is unbelievable. I've been punched, kicked, scratched, shit on, peed on, vomited on, bled on, I've had patients fall on me and break my feet, go crazy and threaten me, and sexually harass me. My managers have (every single one) been blinded to the mistakes of other staff to the point of criminal negligence, and have punished me for complaints by visitors that have been repeatedly thrown out of the hospital by security for threatening staff. I have been verbally abused by doctors on numerous occasions, have been told I am not "allowed" to take my accrued benefit time, and have been verbally abused and harassed the few days I have called in due to an illness. I have been subjected to destructive political games, verbally abused by other nurses, had my license put at risk repeatedly for unsafe case loads and the failure of other staff to inform me of critical patient issues. Let me tell these other know nothings that say "that is life", THIS IS NOT NORMAL - I am repeatedly exposed to every infectious disease you can imagine and am not provided with the proper equipment to handle chemotherapy because "we are out". IT IS NOT SO SIMPLE TO JUST "QUIT" when you have 40 thousand dollars of school loans to repay, and have no experience in any other field. To top it off, we get ABSOLUTELY NO RESPECT from our peers, supervisors, doctors and ESPECIALLY nursing "assistants". This is the worst career I can imagine, and to think I was going to change my major in college and decided not to....I could cry. The other people who are nursing students, and who "love it" are CLUELESS! Give it a couple months of reality and you will have a bleeding ulcer and panic attacks nightly, believe me. I feel the same as everyone else here, what a tragedy.

[Skye]

I agree. I hate nursing so much now. I have been a hospital nurse for six years now. It helps me to know that there are others who feel the same way. Joke: Did you hear about the nurse who died and went to Hell? It was two weeks before she/he realized she wasn't at work.....lol. Thank you for your prayers.....Blessings to all....Skye

[Unregistered]

You all have the right to feel the way that you do about nursing and about your life. You also have the right to post your opinions about the way that you feel. However, just as you have the right to post and express your opinions and feelings, everyone else does as well. If I don't like what I'm reading, I have the right to post a response, I don't have to "stop reading and leave." I came to this forum to read your stories, I wanted to see both sides of nursing.

Nursing, like most things in life is what you make it. I keep seeing the words "Thankless, disrespected, degrading" etc...I think it's beyond sad that you've all let it get to the point where you say you hate what you do. Hating what you do respresents what is wrong with the world. It baffles me when I keep reading that you all hate your job, you hate your co-workers, your bosses, the visitors and the patients are rude etc...
but yet you CHOOSE to continue nursing. Everything in life is a choice and you have to accept the consequences for your actions. You may feel that you have no choice in the matter, you CANNOT quit your job, but you CAN. You're CHOOSING to be unhappy, and to go on to say that you never let it affect your work with the patients..HA. If you truly hate something, it shows. You're not being fair to the patients who rely on you to provide QUALITY, COMPASSIONATE care. How can you provide compassionate care when you're seething with rage?

I read one post that had an interesting opinion by one nurse

"They only see the empowerment as a patient but not as a nurse!" They being the general public. I've recently been a patient in my local hospital and I'm wondering if who posted that has ever been a patient in the hospital. I'm curious about what is empowering about being sick? Presumably if you're in the hospital it's because you're sick and not because you want to harass the local nurses. Laying in a hospital bed perhaps in a room by yourself for 24 hours a day, only to be checked on when you have your treatments or vital signs is monotonous. Being hospitalized is not my idea of a good time, and I certainly wouldn't have said it was empowering.

Those who have posted about how much they hate their jobs and nursing in general are a bad example of what nursing is. Nursing is about care and compassion and quality. If you've gone into nursing because you want continual praise and pats on the back then you're definitely in the wrong profession. There are people in this world who are miserable and who live only to make other people miserable. There is always going to be gossips, backstabbers and in-fighting. Yes it's hard to deal with, negativity has a way of rubbing off on others, nursing is stressful, emotionally and physically draining. Nursing is HARD there is no argument about that. It's what you CHOOSE to do with what you're given that makes the difference in this world. You can choose to be miserable, or you can choose to deal with the negativity and find ways to continue to make a positive contribution to the world. It is my sincere hope that you all find happiness and fulfillment in this world, God bless you. :)

[Unregistered]

Hi, my name is Dantrell willis and i am 17 years old. I been workin at Kroger fo bout 4 years and every last minute of it has been mortifying. I wanted to quit but my boss told me that if my ugly big lipped self quits, hes gonna take me back out to the oak tree and string me up. One time when he went on break, I poured bleach in his coffee. I thought it would work but he found out by someone who ratted on me. What he did to punish me was to tie me up by my ankles from the ceiling and heat up this lead pipe and beat me with it. I bled all over the pipe and he said if i didnt stop bleeding, hed lay into me with the hickory switch once the wound dried up. Well, thats how it usually is on daily basis. I have a giant calous now. Also, he tries to hang me everyday because he thinks its funny to watch me plead and beg to let me down. thanks for listening

[Unregistered]

The society that expects nurses to play martyr are in my opinion not recognizing the cry for help. Help, us nurses, help you. We know what is going on with your healthcare, it is everyday reality for nurses, if we our saying that something is wrong with the picture...it most likely is. The opinions of ppl that feel that experienced nurses who complain about the current horrendous, yes horrendous, conditions should just leave are ignornant. We are human too, have witnessed ourselves and family as patients, and see the overwhelmed staff. It is quite frightening, so I would guess, nurses, as educated patient advocates will continue to voice harsh dismay over current healthcare.

[Unregistered]

omg i sit here and read this and think why the hell am i a nurse. not for the dr's, not for the other nurses, not for the tech's therapists or familys. for the patients. I love my job (most of the time) I do the best i can for them. I do complain sometimes and maybe someone has called me a bitch before. but get over it. nursing is a very high stressed job that most people could never do including lots of doctors!!!!! we lose nurses everyday and some damn good ones. yes some stay just for the money. but i hope that many stay because they like it. Making a difference even if the doctor thinks your dumb and the techs think your a bitch. i've been an RN for 13 years and i'm not going to stop anytime soon!!!!!

[Unregistered]

I WAS planning on applying for nursing school, but these posts are VERY discouraging. All of you who hate nursing, is there anything that you like about your job? I will probably still go through with nursing, but do you have any advice for me? I would appreciate it! Thanks =)

[Unregistered]

I really would not go into nursing again if given the opportunity to start over. I do, however, know many ER and ICU nurses who really enjoy their jobs. I have tried both these avenues and have found that nursing is still not for me, I just don't fit into the culture. I am an artist and plan to pursue something in that direction. My suggestion to any pre-nursing students out there is to work as a CNA for a bit first to see if the culture is something you can tolerate. I for one wish that I had done that prior to starting nursing school.

[Unregistered]

hi like nursing.....you all suck

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
hi like nursing.....you all suck

Ya we don't all suck....we made it through nursing school didn't we? C'mon be truthful you do not like nursing.............and if it is so exciting you are one of the ones who expects all the others to do your job and make all the other nurses lives miserable. You are the back stabbing, inconsiderate one we are all bitching about.

DAH!!

[Unregistered]

My God...you have written my story. All of us that feel this way, can't we find a new beginning? A new place to be at peace and still make a good living. WE will find it outside of nursing!

[Unregistered]

hey peoples, u guys are scaring me. i'm a nursing student and i thought nursing was a fulfulling job. dammit!! so all this stress to earn a job that's even more stressing. and i'm gonna be doing this for the rest of my life? why do nurses backstab each other? is there a theory for this? how come i didn't learn about this in school?

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
If nursing is not for you, get out. I'ts the people who are miserable in their profession that don't give decent patient care. You are a burden on us who respect our careers.


What?

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
You all have the right to feel the way that you do about nursing and about your life. You also have the right to post your opinions about the way that you feel. However, just as you have the right to post and express your opinions and feelings, everyone else does as well. If I don't like what I'm reading, I have the right to post a response, I don't have to "stop reading and leave." I came to this forum to read your stories, I wanted to see both sides of nursing.

Nursing, like most things in life is what you make it. I keep seeing the words "Thankless, disrespected, degrading" etc...I think it's beyond sad that you've all let it get to the point where you say you hate what you do. Hating what you do respresents what is wrong with the world. It baffles me when I keep reading that you all hate your job, you hate your co-workers, your bosses, the visitors and the patients are rude etc...
but yet you CHOOSE to continue nursing. Everything in life is a choice and you have to accept the consequences for your actions. You may feel that you have no choice in the matter, you CANNOT quit your job, but you CAN. You're CHOOSING to be unhappy, and to go on to say that you never let it affect your work with the patients..HA. If you truly hate something, it shows. You're not being fair to the patients who rely on you to provide QUALITY, COMPASSIONATE care. How can you provide compassionate care when you're seething with rage?

I read one post that had an interesting opinion by one nurse

"They only see the empowerment as a patient but not as a nurse!" They being the general public. I've recently been a patient in my local hospital and I'm wondering if who posted that has ever been a patient in the hospital. I'm curious about what is empowering about being sick? Presumably if you're in the hospital it's because you're sick and not because you want to harass the local nurses. Laying in a hospital bed perhaps in a room by yourself for 24 hours a day, only to be checked on when you have your treatments or vital signs is monotonous. Being hospitalized is not my idea of a good time, and I certainly wouldn't have said it was empowering.

Those who have posted about how much they hate their jobs and nursing in general are a bad example of what nursing is. Nursing is about care and compassion and quality. If you've gone into nursing because you want continual praise and pats on the back then you're definitely in the wrong profession. There are people in this world who are miserable and who live only to make other people miserable. There is always going to be gossips, backstabbers and in-fighting. Yes it's hard to deal with, negativity has a way of rubbing off on others, nursing is stressful, emotionally and physically draining. Nursing is HARD there is no argument about that. It's what you CHOOSE to do with what you're given that makes the difference in this world. You can choose to be miserable, or you can choose to deal with the negativity and find ways to continue to make a positive contribution to the world. It is my sincere hope that you all find happiness and fulfillment in this world, God bless you. :)

Right, that is why there is a nursing shortage.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
If nursing is not for you, get out. I'ts the people who are miserable in their profession that don't give decent patient care. You are a burden on us who respect our careers.

If all the nurses quit that are sick of the profession, you and a couple other nurses will be there alone. Most of us put one foot in front of the other and make it to work each shift, in spite of the fact we are treated like crap.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
I don't know where you all come from, but i'm a 5 year cna who works in long term care, and most of my nurses are great and don't complain. Management is what sucks where I work not the nurses. Nurses where I work dont do much, we cna's do everything and without thanks, so I dont know what your complaint is, but its not legitimate.


You are full of it. Nurses work hard. They do the stuff that requires education and critical thinking skills. CNAs do the grunt work with very little training behind them. If it is so damned easy, get off your butt and try to get into nursing school. Most of the long-term CNAs that worked for me barely could take accurate vital signs or I and Os. I had to go behind them or chase them off smoke breaks to get them to do their jobs. How dare you say nurses don't do much. You really have no idea because after you CNAs clock out on time, your nurse is stuck there for hours charting on everything that happened during the shift, including your "care."

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
You are full of it. Nurses work hard. They do the stuff that requires education and critical thinking skills. CNAs do the grunt work with very little training behind them. If it is so damned easy, get off your butt and try to get into nursing school. Most of the long-term CNAs that worked for me barely could take accurate vital signs or I and Os. I had to go behind them or chase them off smoke breaks to get them to do their jobs. How dare you say nurses don't do much. You really have no idea because after you CNAs clock out on time, your nurse is stuck there for hours charting on everything that happened during the shift, including your "care."

hell yes i agree with you. yes the cna's have a "shitty" job, but your so correct. i spend time cleaning up the paper work mess all the time. vitals are off the wall and I and O's are always missing. My cna's do great work with the patients but when it comes to documentation, ugh. I think that they see us sitting at the dest and assume that were doing nothing. they don't realize that documentation is much of the work to keep us out of court.

[Unregistered]

i hate the process of becoming a nurse.......want to talk about that?

[Unregistered]

Hey its peculiar see everyone is anonymous. Im from California. we get paid well (new grads get six month on the job training starting from 35-45 hr.) After ten years its easy to be making 100/hr it's state mandated the patient to nurse ratio be 5:1. where are you guys all located? Get some law action going on and change your work environment. All you need to start with is signatures of fellow R.N.'s and some money. Have fun.

[Unregistered]

Are you in nursing school too? I will graduate in May 2006, and I am terrified. My clinical experience has shown me the reasons why there is such a shortage. I am thirty yers old, and moved in with my parents to pursue my nursing education. I know I have no choice except to complete my schooling and get back out on my own again. I am really worried I will be miserable for the rest of my life. Any comments? Suggestions?

[Unregistered]

DO NOT WORK IN A HOSPITAL!!!

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
DO NOT WORK IN A HOSPITAL!!!

The patient load is unbearable, AND, your reward for discharging a patient is to get a new one before the mopped floor is even dry.

The family members are all insane (sorry, only 99% of them are insane).

You're lucky to get a "thank you" once in an 8 hour shift.

You are guaranteed to get some form of mental/verbal and/or physical abuse in an 8 hour shift.

Administration talks to you only if they have a complaint about you (sorry, that's true only 99% of the time).

AND LAST (but certainly the most important)--there is not enough staff to properly take care of valuable human lives.

The whole hospital situation is just plain scary!!

[mattsonj1]

Originally posted by Unregistered
i too,am a nurse. lpn to be exact. i work in long term care. i waited along time to go to school to be a nurse and iam sorry i did. i am good at it..but what a shame to have to admit i wasted my time going to school for something that at times i see a sham. most if not all nurses lie through their teeth. im tired of following up and doing something that should have been done 48hrs ago. and the nurse or nurses or should have done that work..well,nothing is said to them..oh no..they work double shifts,they always come in. their excuse is "oh i didnt know".."no one told Me"..our don states"tell us whats going on"..they dont care when it was done..as long as it was done. the ones who do work get no cerdit...the ones who brown nose do. im tired of medicated residents for the sake of the staff or rn supervisor because they dont want to put up the residents behavior..so they are awake..its night time...their quiet..not trying to get up out of bed..that doesnt warrant an ativan. i work nights. i work with rn''s that aare always tired or hurt..so who has to pick up their load..me. then its ..you're not getting your work done..duh...i wonder why. on and on it goes. im so tired of it. i have read all these postings. i agree and can relate to everything that has been written here. nurses are the biggest gossipers i know. professionalism not existant. they eat their own as the saying goes.

[Unregistered]

umm....just a quick question for everyone...does anyone here own a roomba robot...u kno that round robot that vacuums your floor automatically cuz i want to know how its like....i know its out of the blue to be asking this question while you guys are complaining about nursing but...you know.....it doesn't hurt to ask...

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Hi, my name is Dantrell willis and i am 17 years old. I been workin at Kroger fo bout 4 years and every last minute of it has been mortifying. I wanted to quit but my boss told me that if my ugly big lipped self quits, hes gonna take me back out to the oak tree and string me up. One time when he went on break, I poured bleach in his coffee. I thought it would work but he found out by someone who ratted on me. What he did to punish me was to tie me up by my ankles from the ceiling and heat up this lead pipe and beat me with it. I bled all over the pipe and he said if i didnt stop bleeding, hed lay into me with the hickory switch once the wound dried up. Well, thats how it usually is on daily basis. I have a giant calous now. Also, he tries to hang me everyday because he thinks its funny to watch me plead and beg to let me down. thanks for listening

[Rachel]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Dantrell, just br happy that you are not a nurse!

[Unregistered]

I was a Nursing Student...the key word is 'WAS.' I only had a semester left, however, I just could NOT take it anymore. So, last Tuesday...I decided no more. Everything in my gut was saying to get out while I could and to find something else to do. Before I got out of Nursing school, I found this website and everything that people were saying was EXACTLY how I was feeling. Before I started Nursing school I really thought it was what I wanted to do in life. However, the further along I got the more I realized I wanted no part of that life. Nothing about the profession appealed to me any longer and my heart was DEAD. I knew this was no way to live and I could not work as a Nurse. I am now looking at becoming a professional nanny and my husband and parent's have been supporting me the whole way. Thanks to everyone on this website (whether they know it or not)...because you all provided me with some comfort. Always remember....FOLLOW YOUR HEART.

[Unregistered]

I work in hightech, which has had a downturn, especially with offshoring. Watch Lou Dobbs on CNN if you think it's not going to affect the country.
Anyway, changing careers is very hard once you get debt and/or big bills, family, pets, etc. It's not like you can just get rid of your kids, pets, car, house, and run out and re-qualify for student loans for another degree.
It is easier to re-massage what you have into an alternate career, IF that's possible. I know big insurance companies and hightech are very interested in people with healthcare backgrounds for work in the future.


Originally posted by Unregistered
You all have the right to feel the way that you do about nursing and about your life. You also have the right to post your opinions about the way that you feel. However, just as you have the right to post and express your opinions and feelings, everyone else does as well. If I don't like what I'm reading, I have the right to post a response, I don't have to "stop reading and leave." I came to this forum to read your stories, I wanted to see both sides of nursing.

Nursing, like most things in life is what you make it. I keep seeing the words "Thankless, disrespected, degrading" etc...I think it's beyond sad that you've all let it get to the point where you say you hate what you do. Hating what you do respresents what is wrong with the world. It baffles me when I keep reading that you all hate your job, you hate your co-workers, your bosses, the visitors and the patients are rude etc...
but yet you CHOOSE to continue nursing. Everything in life is a choice and you have to accept the consequences for your actions. You may feel that you have no choice in the matter, you CANNOT quit your job, but you CAN. You're CHOOSING to be unhappy, and to go on to say that you never let it affect your work with the patients..HA. If you truly hate something, it shows. You're not being fair to the patients who rely on you to provide QUALITY, COMPASSIONATE care. How can you provide compassionate care when you're seething with rage?

I read one post that had an interesting opinion by one nurse

"They only see the empowerment as a patient but not as a nurse!" They being the general public. I've recently been a patient in my local hospital and I'm wondering if who posted that has ever been a patient in the hospital. I'm curious about what is empowering about being sick? Presumably if you're in the hospital it's because you're sick and not because you want to harass the local nurses. Laying in a hospital bed perhaps in a room by yourself for 24 hours a day, only to be checked on when you have your treatments or vital signs is monotonous. Being hospitalized is not my idea of a good time, and I certainly wouldn't have said it was empowering.

Those who have posted about how much they hate their jobs and nursing in general are a bad example of what nursing is. Nursing is about care and compassion and quality. If you've gone into nursing because you want continual praise and pats on the back then you're definitely in the wrong profession. There are people in this world who are miserable and who live only to make other people miserable. There is always going to be gossips, backstabbers and in-fighting. Yes it's hard to deal with, negativity has a way of rubbing off on others, nursing is stressful, emotionally and physically draining. Nursing is HARD there is no argument about that. It's what you CHOOSE to do with what you're given that makes the difference in this world. You can choose to be miserable, or you can choose to deal with the negativity and find ways to continue to make a positive contribution to the world. It is my sincere hope that you all find happiness and fulfillment in this world, God bless you. :)

[Unregistered]

I agree. I worked very hard to get my BSN. I graduated with a 3.9 GPA. After learning very detailed information about medicine and protecting the health of human beings, I now am nothing more than a factory worker in the hospital. I work on an Intermediate Care unit, but the nurse to patient ratio is identical to that on a General Med/Surg Unit. I cannot adequately assess patients, and heaven forbid their status changes b/c there is no time allotment to address it. Other nurses treat me horribly, and never lend a helping hand if they have a spare moment. My charge nurses all seem to be pregnant, and they claim that that is an excuse for not working. Repeatedly, I am put in situations where I have 20 things going on at once, patients can be verbally abusive b/c they are dysfunctional, and doctors treat nurses like nobodys. So now I either go back to grad school to get out of this mysery or try something else. For all the heartache it took to get here, the heartache of being here is horrific. I cry everyday. I dread work. My family life is suffering b/c of constant stress. I hate nursing!

[burchets]

I also hate nursing. I have worked in dialysis, in the ICU, and now in a psychiatric hospital. When I started in the psych hospital they decided with all my experience to put me on the geri-psych ward. Wow! That was so trying! I'm going to school to be an elementary teacher, so I had to transfer to working on the regular adult units. What a difference! It is so nice to not get shit on and peed on and bit. When I worked in the ICU, I worked with some of the bitchiest meanest people I have ever met. I worked with some really lazy ass people that were real cliquey and only did some real work when management came around and knew how to make themselves look good. The hard-working people were never thanked and always received more patients then they could handle. I've watched several nurses leave the unit in tears and after my third time of balling and hiding in the bathroom I decided to go look for another job, which is how I ended up at the psych hospital. The psych hospital has been nice, except for the repetitive questions and the screaming of the demented patients. I no longer have to deal with that now that I'm on a "normal" unit. I discourage anyone from going into the medical field. No one can quite understand how hard and trying it can be till they have experienced it themselves. It is hard, sweaty, mentally trying, thankless work. The medical field is in serious danger in this country. When will our government wake up and realize that changes need to be made in the way our country's hospitals are run?

[Unregistered]

Am I ever glad to hear that it's not just me. I am a very skilled nurse. I have worked ICU, been Tele Charge, worked Med/Surg and have even floated to an acute rehab. I have been in nursing for 11 years now. When I first started I was a CNA and thought, "It will get better once I am an nurse". I have been an RN for almost 4 years and have regreted my decision to enter nursing school with each passing year. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed nursing school. You can pretty much take your worst day during nursing school or as a CNA and times it times 100, then you might get close to how bad it will be when you have a little "skill" under your belt. When I first graduated they were still making those of us with a brain the charge nurse or supervisor. Now it seems as if those who can are made to do even more and those who can't are put into management positions! We have a charge nurse on our floor who has been out of school for a little over a year, I cannot believe that the lives of many patients are in her hands. Each day my workload gets larger and I am told,"You can handle it". I run around like a rabid dog and can't seem to catch my breath and god forbid you forget to do something, like empty a urinal, because they will write you up so that your employee file looks like a mine field. I am currently paying off all bills so that I can get a minimum wage job if I have to so that I no longer need to work as a nurse!

[Unregistered]

I am currently a nursing student. I have always wanted to be a nurse, but have tried many many other things before I finally decided to just do it. Nursing school is very difficult and the instructors are extremely hard on us. To tell you the truth, I hate it. I have extreme anxiety day in and day out. On the first day of class, my instructor told us that there are going to be many days where we hate being a nurse, but we will never regret it and I think he's right. I worked as a CNA for a while and I saw what the nurses went through and the politics and bull****. I was treated poorly many times by my coworkers and the patients. But I don't regret my experience. I developed many bonds with the patients and they needed me even if they were trying to punch me in the face or called me a bad name. I still felt good about myself at the end of the day. We are all going to need a nurse at some point in our lives and it's also important to have this knowledge to be an advocate for our family members and loved ones. I have worked many other jobs where I was treated just as poorly by customers, management, or other coworkers. It's just that people are rude no matter where you find them. I'm still going to pursue nursing. I've wiped many an ass and am used to that (or as used to it as you can be.) Besides, there are many things you can do as a nurse---work for an insurance company, be a school nurse, do home health, psychiatric nursing, public health nursing, nursing instructor, strive to be the boss, work in a clinic...the list goes on. If it's not for you, it's not for you, but if you have a passion for it then don't give up. And about the anxiety thing--I just tell myself that humans are fallible. I'm going to do the best job I can and that's all I can do. Everybody makes mistakes, yes in this case a life is at stake, but if you do your best, you've done all that you can do.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
I have been spending so much time hateing my head nurse, cause she is a backstabbing, evil person, then realized i should not let her get to me, no matter what she does. God is over her, and what goes around comes around. Takes too much energy hateing someone. People like her like to dominate others and make their life miserable.She isn't happy , and wants no one else to be happy.even at Christmas time she didn't want certain people to decorate, but if her friends had asked, would be no problem.I always say God doesn't make bad people, some how along the way they change for the worseI. I have decided to pray for this head nurse, as she is so hateful, only God can change her, despite how awlful she has been to me.

[Unregistered]

Some people can only win if other people lose. Some people advance their careers by demeaning other people. This bitch will get hers someday.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by tranquil_realm
the poor patients don't have kind and caring nurses to look after them now. there are still a few kind nurses out there, but they aren't allowed the time to care for anybody. they just run you ragged. and God help you if you are good at what you do cause the bosses and other nurses will just dump more work on you. when i worked med-surg in a major hosp. here i actually had a charge nurse say to me " oh. you can handle all that can you? well let's see how you handle this." she gave me sometimes 8, 11, even 14 pts.. all the sickest ones, isolation rooms, CBI's, transfusions, sometimes ones that were waiting for an empty bed in ICU. it was awful. i quit after 7 mos.. it was my good days when she wasn't there. there was a charge nurse there from germany, and when she was on it felt like heaven. she divided up the pt. loads like she was supposed to. that german nurse told me she had been treated the same way for years and not to let it discourage me or make me quit. if all nurses were like her nursing would be much better. the pt. load limit was supposed to be 5, sometimes 6, with not more than 1 of them being total care. when the other charge nurse was there i didnt even have an cna working with me. well, one time i did. he did nothing. i mean nothing. when they finally fired him he had to be escorted out because he told the nurse manager he was going to kill her for firing him because he refused to do any work. all in all, my nursing career was a living hell. save yourself!

[Unregistered]

Right, you are. Psychos and fuck-ups are coddled because it is too much trouble for the bosses to deal with them. The authorities only spring into action if family members complain. And sometimes, patients and families complain about the wrong people. At my workplace, a wife recently complained to the Chief Nursing Officer (her friend) about an excellent nurse who tried to mobilize her husband post-operatively. The burden of her complaint was that the nurse was not obsequious enough, not deferential enough to her and her beloved. Never mind that the patient had been, heretofore, left lying in bed with a PaO2 of 66, and not sat up or encouraged to deep breathe cough, etc. The CNO did not only NOT defend this nurse; she directed her subordinate to"deal" with this nurse by "writing her up." This excellent nurse is, not surprisingly, ready to chuck it all.

[Unregistered]

Well, I love nursing. Everyone around me in my unit is so supportive. The aids are very helpful and do listen when we need something. The doctors are another thing. However, since the nurses stick together, it's all good. I think perhaps checking out a different hospital/unit may help. I know a lot of miserable nurses out there who love nursing, but are just working in the wrong unit. I'm sure there's some area where you would love to work, you just haven't found it yet.

[Unregistered]

Ugh!!! I have to say something. You call yourself nurses, yet you hate the title. So, I'm not going to call you nurses. Real nurses are angels, professional, caring, highly respected, the most honest profession... we have standards to uphold. It's our duty. I will always be there when my loved ones are in the hospital because I will never let one of you uncaring nurses give them a bedsore. I will vidit my grandma in the nursing home more, because... you know why. I'm graduating as a nurse in May...I have a good job almost lined up and the patient ratio will be 1:4

Wht don't you try being admitting officers. I heard that if you get the right shift, you could make up to $25 / hour in the ER.

Do you see the military complaining like this??

[Unregistered]

Oh my naive one, I have met you before. I know you very well. You have existed in the realm of nursing since Nightingale first put her philosophy to paper.
You first appeared in nursing school. You were the one who smiled at the instructor especially when she humiliated a classmate. You were the one who brought to the attention of your superiors the suggestion of error on the part of others.
When you finished nursing school and started your first job, you knew everything and clicked with the first bully or manager's pet you could find. From then on, you checked behind your co-workers to find their mistakes and report them to your manager…without their knowledge. You criticized them behind their backs and insinuated neglect to their patients.
Yes, naïve one, I know you very well. There is no doubt I will come across you again. But...just remember one thing, there are plenty of you out there, so watch your back.

[Unregistered]

I have been a nurse for over 13 years,and have always had two jobs in the field.I have experienced "Burn Out" in my early years.However,what I have learned is first :Don't judge the field until you have been in it for over 3 years.So Student experiences do not count.Example:Boot Camp is one thing,but war is another.Take it from a Former Marine.Second:One day I was enlighten- Healthcare is one "BIG BUSINESS" ,and for a nurse to make it you just have to "Laugh".I mean really-Just shake your head and laugh.I presently work at the "WALMART" of healthcare.We can get your a@# in ,and get your a#$ out.If it were left up to them they wish they could sedate ,cut,and bill the pt. and the bill would beat the pt home.In the end it pays pretty good and we are not finding a cure for nothing anytime soon.So keep on walking for a cure-what a joke.Only,in the ER will you see someone maybe get stable in front of you.But EMS took their wallet on the way in.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Ugh!!! I have to say something. You call yourself nurses, yet you hate the title. So, I'm not going to call you nurses. Real nurses are angels, professional, caring, highly respected, the most honest profession... we have standards to uphold. It's our duty. I will always be there when my loved ones are in the hospital because I will never let one of you uncaring nurses give them a bedsore. I will vidit my grandma in the nursing home more, because... you know why. I'm graduating as a nurse in May...I have a good job almost lined up and the patient ratio will be 1:4

Wht don't you try being admitting officers. I heard that if you get the right shift, you could make up to $25 / hour in the ER.

Do you see the military complaining like this??



World look out here comes another one,she'll be crying soon.Ratio 1:4 you may not even get an orientation.Just like a child that can't wait to leave home.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Oh my naive one, I have met you before. I know you very well. You have existed in the realm of nursing since Nightingale first put her philosophy to paper.
You first appeared in nursing school. You were the one who smiled at the instructor especially when she humiliated a classmate. You were the one who brought to the attention of your superiors the suggestion of error on the part of others.
When you finished nursing school and started your first job, you knew everything and clicked with the first bully or manager's pet you could find. From then on, you checked behind your co-workers to find their mistakes and report them to your manager…without their knowledge. You criticized them behind their backs and insinuated neglect to their patients.
Yes, naïve one, I know you very well. There is no doubt I will come across you again. But...just remember one thing, there are plenty of you out there, so watch your back.


AMEN! KEEP TELLING THE TRUTH!

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
I agree. I worked very hard to get my BSN. I graduated with a 3.9 GPA. After learning very detailed information about medicine and protecting the health of human beings, I now am nothing more than a factory worker in the hospital. I work on an Intermediate Care unit, but the nurse to patient ratio is identical to that on a General Med/Surg Unit. I cannot adequately assess patients, and heaven forbid their status changes b/c there is no time allotment to address it. Other nurses treat me horribly, and never lend a helping hand if they have a spare moment. My charge nurses all seem to be pregnant, and they claim that that is an excuse for not working. Repeatedly, I am put in situations where I have 20 things going on at once, patients can be verbally abusive b/c they are dysfunctional, and doctors treat nurses like nobodys. So now I either go back to grad school to get out of this mysery or try something else. For all the heartache it took to get here, the heartache of being here is horrific. I cry everyday. I dread work. My family life is suffering b/c of constant stress. I hate nursing!



YOU ARE NOT ALONE!YES,IT CAN REALLY SUCK

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
I'm in my mid-twenties and have a BSN; I've been an RN for 5 years. My mother and father both have incredible work ethics and NEVER miss work; I've been depressed for sometime now because I feel I'm worthless, mainly because I can't stand to go to work and often call out. When I really think about it and am true to how I feel, I realize that Mom and Dad like their jobs because they are not f***ing nurses!!!!!

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I have to take verbal abuse from patients/visitors/doctors because the hospital would fire me in a minute for giving "bad" customer service. And besides, nurses have always been treated badly by MDs. Why should things change now? LOL.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I have to care for people who are completely ungrateful of the services I provide and the fact that I often go 12 hours without eating and peeing so they can have the care they need.




This is coming from a RN for 13 years,do agency at least it should pay more.So you get in and get out-no emails,no politics,no memos etc. just don't become a regular however.If you become a regular -expectations go up ,and in the end you will be back in the frying pan.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I get physically abused by confused patients who the doctor refuses to medicate or restrain, and whose family refuses to sit with them.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I am the one who is ultimately responsible for every order entered (or missed) by the clerk, what the PCTs do (or fail to do), and for crazy med orders that MDs write and pharmacists put on the MAR.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I have to clean up shit, vomit, and fetch family visitors blankets and pillows when there are TEN other things that I could be doing for my patients.

I resent the fact that for $22/hr, I have waived my rights to an off day with no one calling to harass me to come to work. I have also waived my rights to get sick or ask for help at work with a heavy patient load without giving the appearance that I'm a lazy whiner.

And, lastly, I resent the fact that for only $22/hr, I can be sued by anyone at anytime and have my license revoked or my finances ruined because a patient just isn't happy with his nursing care in general. People win lawsuits all the time for no real reason.

I'm pregnant and need money for my family, but I'll be damned if I go back to work as a nurse on Monday.

[Unregistered]

I have been a nurse for less than six months now, and I have to say that I truly despise nursing. For the people who say,"if you don't like nursing, quit", I have to say that is easier said than done. I have been so confused recently. It basically comes down to money. If I quit my job, what am I going to do? I'm not qualified to do anything else. I will literally have to go work at another job that pays me three times less than what I am making. I won't even hardly be able to pay rent. If I go back to school, I'll have to take out a loan that I'll be paying off for the next 20 years. I remember when I first decided to be a nurse. I was so idealistic. I thought I was going to change the world. I remember coming home many times hurt by the disgruntled nurses who told me I was making a huge mistake. I just thought they were old and bitter. I was determined to never be like that. Now, even though I do not like nursing, I do say that I provide great nursing care. I am always cheerful and would do anything within my means for my patients. It's not the patients that I despise. I work in LTC. I truly love the residents that I care for, but when I'm working alone on a unit of 50 patients, I don't have time to have any connection with my patients at all. I walk in their room, give their meds, and walk out. I have no other choice if I want to get my work done. I don't think that is fair for the people I am taking care of, because short staffing prevents me from being able to provide what I would call adequate care. So many times I literally have to pick which treatments I think are the most important to get done, because I won't be able to finish them all. The Dr's yell at you and berate you like you are the lowest scum in the world. I have to get a Dr.'s order to send someone out to the hospital. I had a patient fall who was complaining of severe right shoulder pain. When I called the Dr. he acted like I was an idiot for calling him. He thought it was ridiculous that I would think this woman should be sent out to the hospital. He finally gave me the order, and when she went out she was found to have broken her shoulder. These types of things happen all the time. What am I supposed to do if I get out? Work at the gas station? All these years of school for nothing?

[Unregistered]

Here's another vote for NURSING SUCKS!

Yes, I also wish I could quit nursing, but then I couldn't afford my house, etc. I wish all the time that my husband would get some high paying job...then I would quit in a second! I have been a nurse for 1 year and have had 3 jobs so far. The hospital was the worst of course...I left after a month.....all I did was cry when I had that job. Actually, one night during my shift one of the nurses burst out crying right in the hallway because she was so overwhelmed! I go for an interview next week in my quest to find a non-sucky nursing job. If that is possible, which I doubt. I am really sorry I went to school for nursing. And of course I always here the "you're lucky you went to college, how could you waste it blah blah blah" when I mention I don't like it. I don't mention it much, because people do think you are crazy if you don't like nursing....of course those people are not nurses. I'm glad that there are others who hate it too. Now I don't feel so alone.

[Unregistered]

And yes, this seems to be a universal problem. I also hate nursing, but I think Ive hated it for so long I cant remeber why. Total ambivilance. I like the patients-90% good, 10% bad, I can deal with those odds. The rest absolutely sucks, I cant stand the hieracial authoritarian culture of the place, its sickening. I hate being told im good.......fuck off, I know how to do my job. Burnt out power trippers dont need to tell me how good im going.........self governing profession and all that. Anyhoo, have a slight feeling im totally burnt out. Luckily for me I have saved cash for a good break (I know this is not a realistic solution for everyone). After a few months of being a bum ill give it another go, if it still sucks, Id rather pull beers at the local pub.

Good luck to all of you, hope it works out. If only there was a decent welfare cheque in every country!

[Unregistered]

the most quoted statement in our house is that....... WE HATE NURSING!!!

we are only students and dread the day when we qualify and have to be on the ward 5 days a week...we can barly handle 3!!!!
we feel we are being punished now for something we did in a past life.
Being a student nurse is awful, the course is rubbish and we are totally taken for granted, and when on the ward get treated like a skivey from all the other 'up-their-own-arse' nurses....and don't even get us started about doctors - we hate them too!!¬

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by tranquil_realm
there is one thing and only one thing i've ever been able to think of that would really and absolutely work and work damn fast. unfortunately we are not allowed to do it. that would be a strike. a real strike. the stupid things we're allowed accomplish nothing. so what 4 or 5 people stand outside with signs and the rest of them go into work. then enter the per diems or whatever you call them. and everybody walks by the 4 or 5 idiots standing outside holding signs. we get ignored cause we cant get in the way. we just basically stand there like stupid beggars. a true strike is the only thing that would ever really change the unfair treatment, unfair workloads, crappy expensive insurance, unfair and unsafe patient loads, etc.. in other words our union sucks, nursing sucks, the whole damn thing sucks.

[Unregistered]

This has occurred to me recently, in connection with abusive media portrayals of nurses, e.g., "You're the pig who called Meredith a nurse. I hate you on principle."
Instead of nurses writing indignant letters to the purveyors of abusive, anti-nurse hate-crimes, which only serve to provide free publicity to the criminals, why not just have a website or an e-mail notification system? This would notify nurses, and their families, friends, and associates, whose products exactly should be boycotted. The next time nurses are slagged on "Grey's Anatomy" or "ER", a mass e-mail goes out, and the very next day, the sponsors of these programs see a vast drop in the value of their stocks. Eventually, they see that nurses have power. This power is eventually recognized by hospital administrators, by consumers of health-care, then by the God-almighty physicians. And failing that, a massive sick-in. That might be a little more problematic, of course, because, the hospitals would require a "doctor's note" to legitimize the sick time, and most of them have no interest in backing up nurses, although they would lie to God's face to protect another asshole physician.

[Unregistered]

I've been in nursing for 10 years and thought I needed to reinvent my feeling on why I became a nurse. I was in a slump and had no enthusiasm for what I did everyday and my caring was not important. My supervisor encouraged me to take the CCRN and would pay for expenses. After passing the exam do you think that made me feel better? In fact, I became more depressed! The way the world has changed and the hostile mindset of the families coping with crisis has driven me further away from nursing. You are left to defend yourself in situations that erupt in verbal abuse and threats from families. I have to say it all comes down to is MD's not being open and honest with families on the outcomes. MD's avoid talking to families at all cost so the nurse is the whipping boy for the families. I feel so automated every time the family ask the same questions over and over again because the MD's won't discuss the situation. If only MD's would talk more to the families, the resentment toward nurses would be lessened. Another trend becoming popular in our unit is aggressive treatment on the elderly. They admit these 80,90,100+year olds (yes!) with dead bowel, cardiac arrest, metastatic cancer, put them on a ventilator, call in all the specialists and order all the vasopressors and procedures because the family wants "everything done"-yes, we do alot of bedside trachs b/o the poor souls can't come off the vents only to linger in agony til death . When I come home at night, I grab my wine and check out......

[Unregistered]

I also found this site because I typed "I hate nursing" because that is exactly how I feel and this site popped up.

Where I work, nurses cry daily from the stress level. I'm talking experienced nurses (11+ years) and then there are the newbies like myself (< than 1 year)

I feel like it's a death sentence, this job. I can't believe how much I hate it and how scared I am everyday about what's going to happen.

We are short staffed constantly and the acuity level of the patients is unreal. It's not uncommon for me to start my day with someone in respiratory distress, someone with acute chest pain and someone in the next room bottoming out with b/p of 74/40.

Even the nursing supervisors seem at the verge of tears with what's going on and the mismanagement of the staff and patients.

Many of the doctors are abusive to the point that you dread calling them because as you tell them their patient is basically dying and you need some interventions/medications they say "what do you want now???" because we dared to care about their patient.

I also resent the "suits" walking around with their PR crap about the hospital when the reality is we are all hanging on by a thread.

I plan to leave this job as soon as I can and that's the problem, that is the way so many nurses feel. I regret the day I became a nurse because I really can't be the nurse I wanted to be.

And the joke is, my manager tells me how good I'm doing and inside I feel like I'm just dying from this job and the stress.

[Unregistered]

I agree!! I have been an RN for 6 years and I have grown to hate nursing. I could be here all day telling you why...it is sad to say, the world needs more nurses and I don't see an end to the shortage in sight because nothing ever changes. People don't want to look at the truth about nursing. And no I don't think you fully get the picture in nursing school. I remember being excited about nursing after graduating and feeling down when older nurses would say, "I would never let one of my daughters go into nursing...it is the worst job there is". Now I understand. I would never tell anyone to go into nursing...unless they like to be stressed, depressed, deal with emotional abuse from patients and coworkers, be mentality and physically drained on a daily basis. I have worked in many different areas too. I am getting out, which to the one who says I don't want someone burnt out looking after me, the reality is with the way things are going in nursing, it will be either a burnt out nurse or no one...take your pick!

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
I am an x-ray tech and all I have to say is that 99% of nurses are complete cunts. Flat-out, bitchy, horrid, mouthy cunts. When I first began working a few years ago I thought it was the doctors that I hated the most. But after talking to about three nurses on my first day I realized that the nurses are the hospital's worst enemy. Its amazing to me(at least where I work)at the amount of nurses that show up and do not want to do their job. Its ridiculous. I got to do a portable chest on some vegetable patient that weighs 400 pounds and there's 5 nurses standing around doing shit all. What do I do? Do I ask for help? Hell no. I'd rather destroy my back lifting some massive load of dead weight than talk to a nurse. I avoid them like I avoid gas station restrooms.

I am a nurse and I work with many nurses like you describe, but I am not like that. Mind you I hate my job, when a x-ray tech comes to do an x-ray in my unit I always help and say thank you when they are done. But you probably would never remember the positive, negative experiences always stand out more. Your choice of words shows you shows your own level of professionalism and I am about 99% sure you are a male. Needless to say, if 5 nurses were standing around doing 'shit all', I'd like to know where this hospital is because all of the places I've worked nurses don't have time use the bathroom let alone stand around. Maybe if you had a job where you didn't get to pee or eat in the course of a 12 hour shift and took mental and phyical abuse on a daily basis you wouldn't be a very nice person either!

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Ugh!!! I have to say something. You call yourself nurses, yet you hate the title. So, I'm not going to call you nurses. Real nurses are angels, professional, caring, highly respected, the most honest profession... we have standards to uphold. It's our duty. I will always be there when my loved ones are in the hospital because I will never let one of you uncaring nurses give them a bedsore. I will vidit my grandma in the nursing home more, because... you know why. I'm graduating as a nurse in May...I have a good job almost lined up and the patient ratio will be 1:4

Wht don't you try being admitting officers. I heard that if you get the right shift, you could make up to $25 / hour in the ER.

Do you see the military complaining like this??

As a nurse who has been nursing for 6 years, all I can say to you is good luck...with your naive attitude you are going to need it!! How do you relate the military to nursing?? That's a joke.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
You all have the right to feel the way that you do about nursing and about your life. You also have the right to post your opinions about the way that you feel. However, just as you have the right to post and express your opinions and feelings, everyone else does as well. If I don't like what I'm reading, I have the right to post a response, I don't have to "stop reading and leave." I came to this forum to read your stories, I wanted to see both sides of nursing.

Nursing, like most things in life is what you make it. I keep seeing the words "Thankless, disrespected, degrading" etc...I think it's beyond sad that you've all let it get to the point where you say you hate what you do. Hating what you do respresents what is wrong with the world. It baffles me when I keep reading that you all hate your job, you hate your co-workers, your bosses, the visitors and the patients are rude etc...
but yet you CHOOSE to continue nursing. Everything in life is a choice and you have to accept the consequences for your actions. You may feel that you have no choice in the matter, you CANNOT quit your job, but you CAN. You're CHOOSING to be unhappy, and to go on to say that you never let it affect your work with the patients..HA. If you truly hate something, it shows. You're not being fair to the patients who rely on you to provide QUALITY, COMPASSIONATE care. How can you provide compassionate care when you're seething with rage?

I read one post that had an interesting opinion by one nurse

"They only see the empowerment as a patient but not as a nurse!" They being the general public. I've recently been a patient in my local hospital and I'm wondering if who posted that has ever been a patient in the hospital. I'm curious about what is empowering about being sick? Presumably if you're in the hospital it's because you're sick and not because you want to harass the local nurses. Laying in a hospital bed perhaps in a room by yourself for 24 hours a day, only to be checked on when you have your treatments or vital signs is monotonous. Being hospitalized is not my idea of a good time, and I certainly wouldn't have said it was empowering.

Those who have posted about how much they hate their jobs and nursing in general are a bad example of what nursing is. Nursing is about care and compassion and quality. If you've gone into nursing because you want continual praise and pats on the back then you're definitely in the wrong profession. There are people in this world who are miserable and who live only to make other people miserable. There is always going to be gossips, backstabbers and in-fighting. Yes it's hard to deal with, negativity has a way of rubbing off on others, nursing is stressful, emotionally and physically draining. Nursing is HARD there is no argument about that. It's what you CHOOSE to do with what you're given that makes the difference in this world. You can choose to be miserable, or you can choose to deal with the negativity and find ways to continue to make a positive contribution to the world. It is my sincere hope that you all find happiness and fulfillment in this world, God bless you. :)

So you are going to pay my bills and the student loan I got to become a nurse when I quit!! I wish life could be so simple...who said they want continual praise and pats on the back...it would be nice to be able to use the bathroom and eat and to be treated like a human being!! A lot of us do leave nursing...that's why there are shortages. Only someone who is not a nurse could write something so simplitic about nursing. If all the nurses that hate nursing take your advice and CHOOSE leave, good luck on your next hospital visit..God bless!!

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
I have been thinking about going into nursing and have heard all of the same stories from people ie. it is a thankless, dirty, sad, sometimes hazardous, and people can be disrespectful. I am making sure to be realistic before I dive in.
Doesn't anybody have anything to say positively about nursing? I have always admired nurses for their hard work my mom is a nurse of almost 40 years, and isn't it important to help people when they are most down, even if you may not be successful? Maybe this is too idealistic.
From the outside perspective for those nurses who are posting these most discouraging words, I am a person who very much admires nurses, and I know that it would make me sad to see a loved one in your care because you seem to hate your job and it must show.

I agree it is sad and I am sure it does show...but we are human and can only take so much abuse...what more do you need to see this is not a good profession...all of the nurses who have been doing it and hating it!! Of course it is important to help people when they are down, that's why most of us got into nursing in the first place, but the health care system is not set up to support us and we end up being the ones who need help (and there is no support for nurses)! We are just expected to function like robots!

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Well as a paramedic I can say I have delt with more nurses that were unprofessional bitches than nice ones (those are few and far between). Maybe they are jelous because we do not have to call a dr. to ask if the patient can take one more breath a minute. Sorry for this low blow, but I have been putting up with all your piss poor attitudes for seven years, you all deserve to be misserable!

I don't think a nurse has anything to be jealous of a paramedic for except maybe that they have so much less responsibility than a nurse does. They do have to know emergency drugs and care, but I would love to see them manage a really sick ICU pt with 10 drippings going, ventilated, several drains, monitoring all their lines and waveforms...plus guess what we also have to know emergency drugs and care...you'd be miserable to if you had any idea of what it requires to be a nurse!!

[Unregistered]

Ugh!!! I have to say something. You call yourself nurses, yet you hate the title. So, I'm not going to call you nurses. Real nurses are angels, professional, caring, highly respected, the most honest profession... we have standards to uphold. It's our duty. I will always be there when my loved ones are in the hospital because I will never let one of you uncaring nurses give them a bedsore. I will vidit my grandma in the nursing home more, because... you know why. I'm graduating as a nurse in May...I have a good job almost lined up and the patient ratio will be 1:4

Wht don't you try being admitting officers. I heard that if you get the right shift, you could make up to $25 / hour in the ER.

Do you see the military complaining like this??
************************************************** **@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
If you are so great, why aren't YOU or FAMILY taking care of your Grandma instead of the nursing home...too lazy and busy with collecting her SS benefit? You go on and keep with your [sic] vidit checks. LOSER

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
I also found this site because I typed "I hate nursing" because that is exactly how I feel and this site popped up.

Where I work, nurses cry daily from the stress level. I'm talking experienced nurses (11+ years) and then there are the newbies like myself (< than 1 year)

I feel like it's a death sentence, this job. I can't believe how much I hate it and how scared I am everyday about what's going to happen.

We are short staffed constantly and the acuity level of the patients is unreal. It's not uncommon for me to start my day with someone in respiratory distress, someone with acute chest pain and someone in the next room bottoming out with b/p of 74/40.

Even the nursing supervisors seem at the verge of tears with what's going on and the mismanagement of the staff and patients.

Many of the doctors are abusive to the point that you dread calling them because as you tell them their patient is basically dying and you need some interventions/medications they say "what do you want now???" because we dared to care about their patient.

I also resent the "suits" walking around with their PR crap about the hospital when the reality is we are all hanging on by a thread.

I plan to leave this job as soon as I can and that's the problem, that is the way so many nurses feel. I regret the day I became a nurse because I really can't be the nurse I wanted to be.

And the joke is, my manager tells me how good I'm doing and inside I feel like I'm just dying from this job and the stress.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered




It's sad and I feel for you. If you are just entering nursing you should feel differently than what you described! You are around alot of depressed nurses who may also have personal crisis at home and nursing(along with family) has sucked every ounce of stamina out of them. DON'T quit!!! WE NEED YOU!! I've worked in ICU for 10 years and I hate the environment but I work with nurses who crack jokes-mostly dirty ones-cry alot over our patients situations-and at the same time find a "gallows humor" in order to get through the shift. You need to find that environment. We keep dead people alive 24/7 but we all share in the macabre and sadness but yet we can joke and laugh about it ,too. And YES the suites suck, but they are the ones that loose their jobs first! (LOL)

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
I am a nurse and I work with many nurses like you describe, but I am not like that. Mind you I hate my job, when a x-ray tech comes to do an x-ray in my unit I always help and say thank you when they are done. But you probably would never remember the positive, negative experiences always stand out more. Your choice of words shows you shows your own level of professionalism and I am about 99% sure you are a male. Needless to say, if 5 nurses were standing around doing 'shit all', I'd like to know where this hospital is because all of the places I've worked nurses don't have time use the bathroom let alone stand around. Maybe if you had a job where you didn't get to pee or eat in the course of a 12 hour shift and took mental and phyical abuse on a daily basis you wouldn't be a very nice person either!

[Unregistered]

Radiology techs are so busy everywhere. But their main beef is they see what a task oriented dead end job they went to school for 2 yrs. and they have to take orders not only from doctors but from those C... NURSES! (#$@?#). I'm sorry those fat asses don't help you but you need to go further into radiology options like my bother did-like nuclear med or radiation therapy. Until then, you'll always be on the bottom of the totem pole. From your feelings voiced, that's where you ARE.

[Unregistered]

The worst nurses are those backstabbing bitches who for whatever reason run to the higherups about every tedious detail that is not to their liking. I work with one nurse who I would like to see her ass kicked because she is always stirring up trouble. Her name is Nafeesa but I call her Ms Bitch and she thinks she is the worlds gift to nursing. She is not all that...she does not even have custody of her kid yet she thinks she can run a floor. SHe has control issues yet she has no position with which to assert control so she undermines her coworkers and makes their lives miserable. She is going to get hers though because nobody likes her.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Hi everyone!
I have read many of the stories on this site especially the ones about nursing.
At first I was thinking that maybe this isn't for me and the horror stories had scared me a little, but then I thought about it.
I love being a nursing student and as a student I have been able to work as a student nurse technician and so far I LOVE IT.
I have worked administrative asst. jobs in the past and I loved that too. I also have worked food service and liked that also. Now it's not because I was just lucky enough to get great jobs. There were and ARE plenty of people I work with that HATE it. I've learned it is all about attitude and if you hate the politics... then DON'T get involved.
All I'm saying is don't let stories of people who hate their job get you down and stop you from pursuing a nursing career.
I know many students who hate their clinical rotations and say that they think it will get better later. I tell them if they hate it now then they need to find a new career to pursue.
Nursing isn't a career you should just fall into. It is easy to tell in school if it is for you or not.

Dear Anonymous,

Please, do come back in ten years and tell us how much you LOVE nursing. The fact is, you are still a student and have not had enough experience in the actual job to say anything at all about it. You will soon come to learn that it is not all smiley faces and chirping birdies.

Tell me how much you love your job when you have the contents of a colostomy bag tossed on you by a patient. Tell me how much you love it when you have to deal with insane family members. Tell me how much you love it when you are unknowingly exposed to TB. Tell me how much you love it when you have allegations of abuse/neglect thrown onto you.

You are deluding yourself, and you are they typical nursing student: totally unaware.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
hell yes i agree with you. yes the cna's have a "shitty" job, but your so correct. i spend time cleaning up the paper work mess all the time. vitals are off the wall and I and O's are always missing. My cna's do great work with the patients but when it comes to documentation, ugh. I think that they see us sitting at the dest and assume that were doing nothing. they don't realize that documentation is much of the work to keep us out of court.

An ANGEL came to our unit after many years of doing EVERYTHING by ourselves(no PCA's/ACT's-whatever) She works day shift and is AWESOME...never being told what she needed to to do and so respectful. However they have allowed some so called PCA's/ACT's (whatever-mostly yawners in pre-nursing classes) to come in and assume that job title and THEY SUCK BIG FOLEY's !Their mindset is they r in in nursing school & roll their eyeballs if u ask them to ready a room or do accuchecks

[Unregistered]

Yes, I agree with anyone that has worked in healthcare and has had bad experiences.. I worked as an asswiper for three years and I REGRET ever doing it! The abuse that the workers have to take from patients and visitors.. And god forbid we make a mistake and we do something wrong, how it all falls on the aide.. It's horrible to go home and night and be up all night shaking in bed and throwing up almost every two hours of the night wondering if a certain resident or family member will report you for PBS { petty bullshit I call it} The funny part was that I wanted to go back for my LPN and you know what? Since I have seen what nursing is all about, to hell with it! It's all about getting people fired from their job and making people that are sick even worse than they are! I was terminated from my last job because of a resident that said something about me that was not true. "Supposedly" he stated that I wish he was never there and that his room was so cluttered it was an accident waiting to happen." This was addressed to me 2 weeks later when I got a call saying i was fired. The day before this happened, I asked to leave because I had such a bad anxiety attack I felt it was best that I was not there at all. The next day I get a call about all this. Why would she wait all this time to let me know of the problem? I'll tell you, it was all a cover up! me and my wife came to that conclusion.. I also took notice that the place I worked in was sexist. They did not like males working on the floor.. I can see why there is such a shortage in nursing, because of this nonsense!! Its pretty much the damn patients are the top of the food chain. They can say whatever the hell they want and they are listened to!! I'm trying to get my life on track again and its very hard.. I agree with anyone that is against nursing and if you want to go back to school for your lpn, to hell with it! Its no better cause you have some asshole RN that will be up your ass or hope you make a mistake. Yes, this job IS penance or a death sentence, however you look at it. I look at it as FAILURE, yea its just a job but its not worth being commited to a mental institute. This job has done so much damage to me its caused me to do things I would never do.. I've actually became suicidal and I tried slashing my wrists because I just couldnt take anymore.. I'm not writing this article as a pity trip but anyone else that worked this horrible job understands the mental, emotional and physical torture it does to us. If there are any nurses or aides that i worked with reading this, i want to thank you for ruining my life, you know who you are..

[Unregistered]

i can't stand nursing. im so glad to see this site. i thought i was crazy. i have been suffering from anaxiety attacks and depression since nursing school. i hate it. having horrible dreams that i hurt some one or could potentially kill some one from a mistatke or drug error. i graduated school and went right on to hospice care. i skipped the whole med-surg experence. im horrified to set foot on a med surg floor. i think i would rather have my eyes ripped out or maybe set on fire. i ve been having these thoughts that i should just get over it and try med-surg, but now im convienced----it's just not for me. thanks maybe ill study art or something.

[Nurse Anon]

Originally posted by Unregistered
My God...you have written my story. All of us that feel this way, can't we find a new beginning? A new place to be at peace and still make a good living. WE will find it outside of nursing!



I remember half way through nursing school I realized I absolutely hated nursing (this was a 2nd career,degree for me) but since I was 1/2 through and actually in the top of my class (can you believe it) I decided I must finish.

Now several years later and working as a nurse off and on I still hate it, the pressure and anxiety isn't worth the money.

Of course there are days that I feel I did so much for my patients and their families but I would say that's not typical.

I hate nursing, and I think we all know why there is a nursing shortage!

[max99]

Originally posted by Unregistered
You must work in my unit! I've found that people in health care management aren't in management because they're good at it but because the people who would be good at it aren't stupid enough to take the job.

I HATE NURSING, I should say I HATE HEALTHCARE. The whole system sucks. I have a BS Computer Science but when the market went to shit there went my out. I've been toying with the idea of writing a game called, "Going Critical." Where you run around a hospital and get to shoot doctors, nurses (especially the ones who say,"you should get out if you don't like your job" - they die slow, peice by peice, and then you get to code them and kill them again and again and again), management and patients, family members - especially the ones who bring in 200 y/o corpses and want them to be full codes, visitors, oh and JAHCO inspectors.

I HATE HEALTHCARE!

Yes!Yes! Yes! I'll buy that game!

[Elle]

Wow! Thank God I found this thread! Yay, I'm not crazy. I'm not alone. (what's that old saying....misery loves company, hahaha.)

I have worked in perianaesthetics, both in theatre and recovery (PACU) - Australia, since 1990 and have come to the daunting conclusion over the last year, that I just can't take it anymore.

So what can't I take? Well, here's a list;

*horizontal aggression (nurse2nurse) - mostly sniping passive aggression, ranging from completely unsubtle smart-mouthing to....so cleverly subtle, it could never be substantiated/proven if you were to raise it as an issue. Infact, if you did complain about it, you would be accused of "assuming" or "being overly sensitive" or "taking it the wrong way".

* nurses who are verbally aggressive, big-noting themselves and their ideas/ways of delivering patient interventions. ie; "this is the way you do it." The I'm right and your wrong attitude.

*Nurses who hover around you, in an over-bearing manner whilst you are delivering patient care, interfering or meddling with what you are doing in a condescending way.

*Sniping, or sarcastic tone of voice with eye-rolling.

*Talking over the top of you, not letting you finish what you have to say. Assuming they know what you have to say. Clearly not listening or minimalizing the importance of the opinion you are trying to communicate.

*Nurses who are all "sweetness and light", flirtatious with medical staff then swing around and be cold or obnoxious to other nurses seconds later. (Real Jekyl and Hyde stuff going on there!)

*Nurses who seem to enjoy scaring or humiliating student nurses in the clinical setting. (Must make them feel oh so superior)

*Nurses who are un-relentingly judgemental about just about everything but most particularly other collegues performance. ie; "she's lazy" "He's slow" etc etc

*Nurses who are uptight and anal over trivial matters such as how things are done, where things should be put. I'm talking....where pens and pencils are kept or how someone stacked some papers etc.

God! I could go on and on but I know you all do or have dealt with this crap. Sometimes it feels like psychological warfare and that's just stupid and sad. The job is intense enough without all that background angst and one-upmanship.

So yep, I'm getting out. Life's to short.

[Danny_CRNA]

You're just a bunch of weak freaks. I am a male nurse and I don't see the problem with the job. I'm on call, yes. I am busy & stressed sometimes, yes. I deal with bitchy physicians, RNs, etc. yes. But, is there a job out there where you don't have to deal with people? Maybe that is what you need.
I love what I do, I am good at it, it keeps me busy, and it's good money. I am not so stupid to spend 6 years of my life stuying something to then bitch about it, or continue doing it if it made me miserable.
Any health care proffession is hard boys and girls! Find out if you are strong enough to go through the stress. If not, try find one of those jobs were you just sit there and test videogames....jaja I even think that would be cool :). Maybe I'll do that as a part time....
Post your comments male nurses!! Let people know what real nurses are like!

[dupontcircle]

"i think it is great that all the nurses who hate their job can express that. but complaining about it does not help. quit. quit as fast as you can. i don't want any of you people taking care of my family. believe it or not we all have or will need hospital care some day. and believe me, when you are sick it makes such a difference if your nurse is nice and caring. i agree with another poster. fake it. even on my worse days, a patient will never know it because i don't believe in taking out my frustrations on the patients. they are someones child, mother, father, aunt, sibling. remember that. bedside nursing is not some fluff job. you people should have known that getting into it. did you not think you would have to deal with body fluids? people are sick for God's sake, that is why they are in the hopital. Quit and get a grip."

What?!!! Excuse me, but the ones complaining are the ones who are smart enough to care about themselves, their own well being in order to be able to provide care for their patients, i also can tell you these are the nurses that care about the patients, that havn't been in the system for 20+ years, who aren't hardened but are struggling with the ethics of the job, just as you are. You had better rephrase your post to express concern over those who have been nursing for years and who have had endured enough repect to bend their own morals in effect of coping.

[dupontcircle]

Danny ----- you are a CRNA. Why did you leave the title of RN??
Also, CRNA's have the highest job satisfaction ratings among nurses, for all the reasons you cited. Oh, pray tell, would you have such high reviews if you were still at the bedside, say 5, 10 years later? if yes, then great, if no, please spare the speech of anyone can become a CRNA if they want, that avoids the question, as we desperately need talented, smart, capable nurses who are satisfied with providing bedside care. There is no reason they should have such low job satisfaction. The masses speak, and job satisfaction is at a pitiful low.

[troubled]

My mother was a nurse and now my long term girlfriend is a nurse. I will probably be accussed by many as being shallow...but I am having great difficulty in staying with my girlfriend. I find it difficult to deal with the fact that she is touching other mens penis's, their asses etc during the day and then comes home to me. On asking my father he said it is something you have to learn to deal with or leave her. Advice?? No flames please :P

[DAN_CRNA]

"she is touching other mens penis's, their asses"
I think you have some other kind of problem my friend, why don't you mention women too? Maybe you have an unrecognized delutional disorder........
Anyway, nurses do more than touching other mens penis's & their asses, you should find out more about the profession before saying something like that, or maybe whe lied to you and she really is a PTC.....

[troubled]

Its obvious that it is not everything the job entails, it's just what bothers me personally about it. Anyway I was probably rather naive and senseless asking nurses about this issue.

Anyway enjoy cleaning up shit for 30k :) see ya

[troubled]

Its obvious that it is not everything the job entails, it's just what bothers me personally about it. Anyway I was probably rather naive and senseless asking nurses about this issue.

[DAN_CRNA]

Ok, It bothers you. Try asking your girl if she uses gloves when handdling men's asses, penis's and their fluids. With today's education on standard precautions I doubt any nurse would do such a job without using some kind of protection.
So, if she is doing her job correctly by using standard precautions, there is nothing to worry about you being touched afterall.
If it is only the fact that she sees other men naked and their private parts, then you might have some other kind of problem psychologically that you have to deal with. Maybe you come from a culture or environment in which that is not seen as acceptable.
Hope this helped you better.

[Quicksand]

my wife is going back to school and wants to do nursing

but ive found the same thing you guys say from working in hospitals and now being in medical school, that many nurses are bitches

my wife has anxiety and is medication for it. She can not handle being talked down to or feeling stupid or someones bitch.

Do you think I should try to talk her into something else? (aka sonographer, radiology tech, etc)

I could just see her college experience blowing up and me having to take the brunt of her terrible experience.

[WornOut Nurse]

definitely have her do something else besides nursing, it's not worth the stress or the money.

It's a horrible job, that no one wants to do - that's why there is a shortage.

Save her!

[Sal]

Yeah, I would try to talk her out of it if she really is like you said. If you can't, then you'll probably have to deal with it. Maybe that is what she really wants to do. If she does it, then you should support her.

I really think that people should take a look at what the job is like before going to school for it. Have her go and look at what nurses do and the amount of stress they handdle. Health care in general is not for anyone, it could be hell for some people, or it could be very rewarding for others.

I personally like it. It's usually the old burned out nurses who are just sick of it. They need to go and do some office work :)...

[Krazyrn]

This is to the two nurses who 1)has an all-consuming loathing of Med/Surg nursing and 2) the nurse who figured out in 2nd year nursing school that he/she hated nursing but decided to finish anyway... I AM BOTH OF YOU! In my second year of school, working on my BScn, I realized the horrible error I had made in choosing nursing as a second career. I was on the verge of dropping out but was rendered so apathetic by life as a student nurse, I simply decided it was better to finish the degree and I've regretted my decision ever since. I work in the area of mental health nursing, have worked for Homecare companies and hospitals and am now (three years out of school) thoroughly depressed, disillusioned and crazed with a constant fear of slipping up and inadvertantly causing harm to my patients, simply because there is NO SUPPORT for me either in the community or in the hospital from other nurses. I want out of the profession, because I too would rather swallow nails than work in Med/Surg, ICU or ED ect etc. I feel completely trapped because i am no Spring chicken and feel I have no alternatives to consider. However, I won't give up...I want to be happy again, do something meaningful with what's left of my working years. Just wanted to send this as an indication the two nuses who posted earlier are not alone!

[cabkrun]

To all the nurses who hate their jobs. I am so sorry to see such misery. However, welcome to LIFE. I don't know of too many people who love to work. Work sucks. People in general are lazy, competitive, back stabbing, etc. Yep, more often than not women are worse than men. I don't know why, but it's pretty childish and pathetic. It makes the world of nursing miserable for many. But, I am sorry to tell you all, it isn't just nursing. I was in a different career, and it's the same old shit. In fact, I was in the glamorous world of database engineering/administration. Guess what, people are lazy, gossipy and back stabbing in the wonderful world of computer work as well! I would be up for 3 days straight working on a database problem that was critical to the company functioning, and guess what... not one of my co-workers stepped up to the plate to help (It was over the 4th of July weekend, so of course they didn't want to work over the holiday).
Of course there is the constant threat of oursourcing (altho less in what I was doing). Tech people are VERY competitive, trust me. Also require lots of babysitting.
So, you may dream of a life of work so wonderful outside of nursing, but the grass ain't greener... doesn't exist.
Work is over-rated. We would all probably retire and volunteer if we won the lottery. Everybody I know in various professions hate their jobs. I know nurses who both hate and like what they do. Never ever perfect either way. So, flame away, but the fantasy of that perfect job you love to go to does not exist.
:). I do not understand why nurses treat each other so shitty....makes the environment so toxic, and the profession seem infantile. So, next time you are about to rip a hole in that new nurses ass, just remember your first year as a nurse, and hopefully you can find the courage to bring about some change in the field, one nurse at a time.

[DAN_24]

I do not understand why nurses treat each other so shitty....makes the environment so toxic, and the profession seem infantile. So, next time you are about to rip a hole in that new nurses ass, just remember your first year as a nurse, and hopefully you can find the courage to bring about some change in the field, one nurse at a time.


You are so right, they treat each other so shitty, but I think maybe because they are so freakin' stressed and miserable. Some of them need to lose weight, and the stress of their own weight standing all day wears the off. Nursing is very very stressing and you'll always have busy days, it is quite different from other proffessions in that it is very critical (life), extremelly demanding, and you deal with sick people. Wouldn't that stress you after years in the field?
Not for everyone. You have to be kind of "especial" to go through all those years w/o getting so miserable. So back to the point IT IS NOT ABOUT THE JOB, IT IS ABOUT YOU PEOPLE!!! Why do you think there is people who like it?

[cabkrun]

Hi Dan,
yes, I do understand and agree with your points. I remember reading an article on nursing entitled: "Nursing, it's not for everyone, and not for most people".
Yes, it is a stressful profession. Yes, I am sure the stress is the reason so many nurses are so miserable and cranky (but they don't have to make it more stressful by creating hostile and toxic work environments). I guess what I am trying to say is that work in general is full of politics, nastiness and stress. Sure, you can say that different work, in particular health care, is a different kind of stress...and maybe more stressful. What about police and fire? They deal with life threatening situations daily, yet you don't hear about them "eating their young". And yes, I hear it a lot, and yes it happens way more frequently than it should.
I am not trying to rant on nurses, not my point. Maybe it's a job that just can't be done for a lifetime... anymore, seems to be the case for a lot of professions...
:)

[cabkrun]

Dan,
one thing I also forgot to mention...outsourcing. Happening in many professions (altho I wasn't affected, it's happening big time at my previous company). Not saying it won't or isn't in nursing (even if it's more subtle... as "insourcing").
So, altho health care, taking care of sick people is extremely extremely stressful, imagine always wondering who in India / China is going to be taking your job soon... as you watch co-workers being laid off like crazy. That's very stressful too. Age discrimination too. An older friend of mine in computers can't get a job after 2.5 years. He's too old (at 43).

Again, not slamming nurses for venting. More power to them. But, I hope we can all stop attacking eachother, and yes... idelogically as it all sounds, change begins within, and hopefully will spread. We have to stick together in all this shit.

[DAN_24]

Hi, Are you a nurse? You just do not seem to mention it clearly.
Anyway, It is true what you mention about pp from other countries taking up jobs here. We were talking about it with some of my pals in the hospital. Many are bringing up nurses from places like india, thailand, because of the shortage. Some countries are even making it available for them to take the NCLEX in their countries before they even come here.
What this brings to my mind is the this over the years is goint to create a lot of competition between the nurses here especially the older ones as you said. It kind of sucks, but I cannot complain because I was born in another country myself. The difference (if you could call this a difference) for me though, is that when I came here I was not nurse. I was educated here.
On the othere hand, nursing is very stressful, you would not know what it is like until you are a nurse and have all those 6 or more patients in the floor that need your critical care. I held a few jobs before nursing, and I was never as busy (that is what I like about nursing, I dont like to be sitting or doing nothing). I bet there is other jobs that could be as stressful, but again nothing like nursing!!
:)

[Annonymous]

First off, I'm glad I was able to find this forum so easily by googling "I hate nursing". It's a relief to know there are others out there that feel the same way.
I am a brand new grad working on a gen. surg floor in Toronto, Canada and let me say that it SUCKS. It sucks for the following reasons:

1-Approx 20-25% of my patients (meaning 1/5 or 1/4 on a day shift) are unable to speak English, as they never bothered to learn it (even though there are SEVERAL FREE classes available to learn it). You can easily survive in Toronto with NEVER learning the English or French language, which poses a HUGE problem for people when they get sick and require hospitalization. All I have to say is "LEARN THE LANGUAGE!!!" If I was living in a country with a national language different from my own, I would at least learn it. You decided to come to Canada. You should learn one of the official languages.

2-As a new graduate still in orientation mode, I have been paired with 5 different nurses, to learn the ropes, in the span of 2 months. Changing preceptors CONSTANTLY is so irritating. Trying to accomadate to their ever-changing schedules is also a hassle (people on our unit are ALWAYS changing shifts last minute).

3-Nurses are bitches. Nurses are backstabbing, manipulative, and intolerant to one another. They are blatently rude to patients and are passive aggressive in every way. I saw this type of behaviour in nursing school and thought it would stop once I entered the real world. It hasn't.

4-Shift work SUCKS. Rotating between nights, evenings, and days sucks and the 12-hr shifts make me want to throw myself out of a window. This job is NOT conductive to having children, or any kind of family life outside of work. The shift work, mental exhaustion, physical exhaustion and randomness of your shifts make the job hell. Oh, and also, if you are hired as a part time or casual worker, your shifts get cancelled at the last minute if they don't want you to come in (when I mean last minute, I mean 2 hours before you are suppose to start work).

5-Patient's family members have NO concept of what a hospital is really like. They come in and demand a lot from the nursing staff and rely on us for so many things that they could help with (like taking their elderly parent to the washroom). Family members consistently stay past visiting hours and refuse to leave.

I could go on and on.

Why did I do my degree in this??? Only insane/stupid people that think with their hearts stay in this pathetic job. I want the type of job everyone else has, a job that has some degree of autonomy, respect, and no shift work. A Christmas bonus would also be nice for a change. Even when I worked shitty part-time jobs to put myself through school, they still gave out some sort of Christmas bonus.

[Sean]

I too Hate it...

I'm a Nurse in the UK. I live in East Yorkshire. I'm a Staff Nurse, your equivalent of an RN. We're not called 'RN' here 'cos the initials RN after my name would lead to confusion as it refers to 'Royal Navy' over here. Anyway, I'm deviating from the subject! You hit the nail right on the head as it seems you have the same problems in the USA as we have over here in nursing. The job's crap, the pay is dire but what's most demeaning is the utter lack of appreciation and general abuse we put up with from patients and in most cases, their relatives. Money is tight, as our idiot Prime minister Blair is throwing away our tax money in his illegal war in Iraq, instead of spending it on our health service, education and social care. Our local hospital where I work (York), is overspent on it's budget so they're sacking nurses while sharp-suited bean-counters sit in head office on fat-cat bonuses, getting paid £40K per year and working a four-day week. Morale here is rock bottom.
Anyway, one foot in front of the other... Hang in there for now.
Sean

[beenthere_dunit]

Having been a nurse for 15 years, I have witnessed the rapid decline and complete destruction of the nursing profession first hand. As the intelligent posts have clearly explained, nursing can and ultimately does, suck the will to live right out of even the most dedicated among us. Try as many of us have to rise above and overcome the daily stress and strain, we are only human in the end. Since I would only presume to speak for myself, I have, over the years, tried a variety of methods to 'get a grip, suck it up, grin and bear it, hang in there, and press on' toward my continuing quest of being a productive nurse, and retain some shred of my dignity and self respect. I've been to stress management, anger management & time management...I have a cd collection of mediations, relaxations and visualizations to rival a tibetan monk's...I've tried tao, zen, the bible, popped Xanax like M&M's and at the end of the quest ..I can report that I have failed miserably and still want to rip somebody's lips off. Nursing sucks, and I would not recommend it to anybody unless I was certain hell wouldn't have them.

[shapeshifter]

Nursing sucks..I have been a nurse for 14 years. I should of got out of the proffesion a long time ago when I was younger. We get abuse from families, patients, management, doctors and most of all other nurses. We have alot of nurses who roll over you and stab you in the back in a second just to make themselves look good in front of their DNS and management. I am 50 now and wonder if I am to old to start over. Lately the harassment has got out of hand. In my state you can't sue the facility for harassment. But you can go after them for deframation of character. Has anyone out there sued their facility and won? I would really like the feed back if you have this information. The more I do for them the worse I get treated. The benefits are a joke. The pay for what we know and do, is an insult. If I stay in nursing, I will never landbase myself in a facility. I would rather do traveling nursing or work for a staffing agency. That way I don't have to get caught up in the politics and the cheesy little clicks.

[MonkeyInYRSoul]

I have found that the field of nursing seems to attract an unusually high number of people with"Issues" lots of emotional, personal and mental baggage, highly insecure people, passive aggressive people and a mind-set of "Battered woman syndrome"...staying and putting up with abuse and bullshit because nurses are brainwashed into believing that they do not deserve better. Nurses just don't get it. We are in high demand. There is a critical shortage of nurses we could bring the entire health care industry to it's knees and get paid what we deserve and get the RESPECT we deserve as professionals if we all just stood together and said; "Enough" and yet we allow ourselves to be taken for granted, treated like the scum of the earth by everyone ..and why? Because we don't stick together. Nursng is a very hostile field. There is a great deal of hostility among nurses aimed toward OTHER nurses. Administrators know this for a fact. They have no worries. They are secure in the knowledge that as long as nurses are kept busy stabbing each other in the back and undermining each other they will not come together as a united front and demand a change. It's easy to keep any group of people down as long as you keep them fighting each other and not focusing on what the REAL problem is. And nurses play right into their hands like a bunch of dumb sheep to the slaughter. This is a female-dominated field and, unfortunately, all the culturally-reinforced negative female stereotypes in society apply here and they are our undoing as a profession. It doesn't have to be this way yet no one really challenges it. The field sucks because of the general attitude.

Anyone that comes on here and gets this defensive attitude that nursing is such a wonderful profession and love it or leave it and all that horse crap is either so tanked-up on their patient's narcotics that they don't have a clue what's going on or they are one of THOSE nurses who never get off their worhless asses to do anything except sneak around eavesdropping on other nurses conversations, spying, stirring shit, and running and telling the DON a bunch of lies to make other nurses look bad so they can look good. That's the bottom line in nursing. The ones who actually DO their jobs are constantly trying to defend themselves against the constant backstabbing of other nurses, corrupt management, poor administration, pscyho family members and no support whatsoever from anywhere. The ones who have it made being snitches and trouble-makers for the administration...of course they LOVE nursing they never do any of their own work because they are too busy trying to check behind their co-workers and lie on them and get them in trouble.

As long as nurses continue this sort of behavior, berate and shame other nurses who are struggling and fail to have each other's backs then it's a lost cause.

Honestly I don't see much hope.

[Sue Bee RN BSN]

Vent, vent, vent---- I hope you are feeling better about all of this now. Are you changing careers? I sure am, and I'm not looking back. Boy, what peace.

[Bumbed out RN]

To Sue Bee and MonkeyinYRsoul -- You both hit the nail on the head!! I have only been a nurse for 3 months and I see everything you mentioned on my unit. Sue, you are absolutely right about these nurses not being bright, but know it alls. I often wonder how some of these women made it through nursing school. The hostile environment is sick -- yes these women are passive/aggressive. I have 2 preceptors, depending on which one is there -- who are that way. As I mentioned in another post, I find it sick that these women can watch a person (me), running my ass off, working hard, knowing full well that I'm behind, but continuing to talk on the phone or get back rubs from their other bipolar cohorts. Do they have no heart or conscience? Also, I have noticed that most of these women have major issues/baggage. I feel like a fish out of water when I walk in that nurses station in the morning. There is no comradery, I have nothing in common with most of the other nurses, and when I have hinted at how bad the job sucks to other nurses -- I get this blank stare as if I am the one who is luney tunes. They honestly don't get it-- sure sign that something is loose upstairs. I think, "Am I the only one around here that sees the craziness and dysfunction in this place?" Our manager usually strolls in about 11 and I really don't know what she does all day, but she is pleasant enough. You can't tell me she doesn't see what is happening -- as I run around like a chicken with my head cut off, being behind, my preceptor talks on the phone, looks at magazines, gets back rubs, or whispers to other nurses about who knows what. I may get an occasional lecture about "time management" -- that's ususally after I (God forbid) spend more than 5 minutes in a patients room -- you know, practicing my therapeutic communication skills I learned in nursing school.

I believe that it's the introspective, compassionate, caring, empathetic, and truly intelligent nurses that see the insanity in this profession -- and it's a very small number. In retrospect, I saw the red flags of nursing while in school -- I had several bipolar instructors -- I should have run the other way -- but thought it would be better once I was a nurse. Now it's actually worse. Think about how sick it all is -- these nurses love to see their coworkers struggle. I have such a hard time comprehending this behavior in adults.

Anyway, for now I just pray a lot to make it through my days at work. I will stay temporarily just to have the experience under my belt, and start to look into other alternatives. I will check out the link Sue sent. I honestly don't take anything personally that these dysfunctional women say or do. I just do my job and in my head I just say a prayer for them and know that I won't be there forever.

[Sue Bee RN BSN]

Set yourself up in a way so you can go back to school, or find a sane work place. Don't damage yourself by trying to stick it out.
Good luck!!

[rnurse]

I have been working on a telemetry floor for just shy of a year now. I am so burnt out and stressed out. I am so glad i'm not the only one who feels that way. Lately i have been so depressed woundering what it is i want to do. I enjoy nursing but i feel that my job requires too much of me that i can't give my patients 100% and that just about kills me. The floor i work on is just too demanding and requires too much. I am so busy at work that i never take a break either which is my own fault but i feel that if i take 30 minutes worth of a break i'll be that much more behind. I am thinking about going into maternity. I have always been interested in maternity and i think now is the best time to make a move so we'll see what happens...

[Old Engineer]

Hello, I have been an Electrical Engineer for 20 years. It has been ok and you get payed well. In todays economy the Corporate Client has become very lean and mean due to foreign companies having a staff of slaves as well as Corporate greed and no protection from the prostitutes we call our government. Military spending is down and so there goes my job. Companies have a ton of resumes to pick from just like nurses. Companies like to hire that cheap new grad, burn them at 60 hrs week and after they decide they would like to make a living lay them off and hire another one. The contract ends ? Layed off. Restructure ? Layed off. Old ? Layed off. Expensive ? Hurry up and finish then layed off. Want to buy a house ? Hope you find a job before being layed off. Oh I can hear it.. Maybe you are no good .. I know plenty of PHds, multiple degree, PEs..and they are all treated the same. There are a lot of bad companies out there. My last one was a great company .. but lost a few contracts and out the door our section goes. The company which won is a real sweatshop. I would choose a profession which has a human being as a client rather than a Corporation if I could do it again. Hey.. somebody moved the cheese. Look for scraps or search again.

[opps]

I am a new nurse, just graduated in May and I am still on orientation. I don't think I can say I like it at all. I think I made a mistake, the pay is not bad, but it is not worth the crap I have to put up with. The work is tough and the Doc's are ASSholes. My hospital is a Magnet Hospital what BULL. The doc's treat the nurses like shit. I am saving money so far I've saved 4000$, and getting the hell out end of next year. I am going back to Uni to finish up what I started a Bsc. Chemistry. I am foreign, but now a green card holder. when I give report the other bitchie nurse taking it look at me like I am speaking a different language. I am speaking fucking english.

[sulynn1425]

This is a good place for nurses to vent safely. If you want to call it complaining, whining, belly-aching then fine. Did you stop to think that we vent here to blow off stress so that when we do go back to work we don't have to carry all that stress along with us? I treat my patients with respect no matter the situation and the nights can get very stressful. I work night shift 7p to 7a and we are constantly short staffed. Our managers seem to think all our rehab patients (strokes, hip & knee replacements, amputations, major multiple trauma) sleep soundly thru the night, so we should have less staff. Unfortunately, this isn't the case! We are expected to continue rehab thru the night, so we assist everyone to the bathroom with walker, wheelchair etc. None of our patients are to get up alone. We have a high number of strokes who are impulsive and cannot be left along in the bathroom. Another RN and I had 10 patients and no aides to assist and 5 out of the 10 could not be left alone in the bathroom due to impulsive behaviors or impaired judgement. We ran ourselves ragged all night long, and are still expected to pass meds on-time, chart fabulously, file (yes file), handle staffing problems that arise, family problems, etc. We didn't get a break or a meal in the 12 1/2 hours we were there. By the end you are worn out, mentally and physically. Our managers pretend to care but don't. We have tried to change things thru meeting and speaking to management and nurse counsel, but things haven't improved. Most nurses I know have the same complaints. I've been an RN for 13 years and I have days too where I wish I'd stayed a school secretary, which is what I was before!!

[washrn]

Hi all,

Thanks for these great posts. I have been an RN since 1991 and initially worked in medical and telemetry. Since 1994, however, I have worked in the ER. The actual duties as an RN, are not bad at all for me. What is horrible are the following;

1. The poor way that nurses treat each other

2. The lack of personal responsibility and lack of professional development (i.e; this is the way we've always done it mentality...even if it has no basis is evidence based practice!!!)

3. The lazy ER Techs

4. The lazy ER nurses with whom I work

5. The bar of expectation and practice that is sooo low in my department that you trip over it every time that you take a step

6. The bullshit way that my hospital states that its core values
are respect, justice, excellence, compassion, and stewardship but does nothing when staff blatantly disregard the core values


I recently quit my job as the ER clinical educator after a year and a half because I got tired of the abuse from staff members. RNs think that being busy is an excuse to provide substandard care. I have been accused of not knowing what is going on in the Emergency department....hmmmm...I worked 1-2 shift in the department on a weekly basis along with working as the ER educator...I think that I understand the business, the understaffing, and other challenges. All of those factors do not preclude the RN from giving decent, effectice, compassionate care.

I am so glad that I quit my job as educator becaues it was obviously a dead end job. There is nothing worse than working with a bunch of snivelling RNs who think that their responsibility for developing professionally and keeping abreast of changes ends the minute that they receive their licenses...GROW UP!!! These are peoples' lives that you have in your hand.

Management, at my hospital's ER, also sucked!!! They are so busy ass kissing and being disorganized that they are completely ineffective.

I am moving on to working as a CNS and will be attending graduate school. I have enjoyed my career as a staff nurse in the ER but...working with some of the people has been a total nightmare and they are pure ASSHOLES.

You know what else gets me? The same people who were total assholes, nightmarish, ineffective , and unsupportive while I worked as an ER educator now get a 'whiff' that I've decided to do something else and suddenly they are so interested and curious about what I am going to be doing. To this I say...FUCK YOU and it's none of your FUCKING business you backwoods, racist, intolerant ASSHOLES:(

[Nice RN]

I agree with a lot of the postings here!!! There are a lot of RN bitches out there. I currently got a job as an L&D nurse and I have not been made welcome or helped out at all. I'm new to L&D but not new to nursing. I don't know what these RN's have to be the way they are. A lot of them look at you as if you are beneath them. So I'm putting in my two weeks notice today after 4 months of being unhappy to go back to the other place where I used to work. Now there are also bitches there I'm dealing with but at least I know all the people there and the other bitches I will just try to deal with them. There are a lot of nice ones too but the ones that make it bad are the ones that are rude, does not want to help, or just plain bitches.

The hospital I'm coming back to some bitches are complaining it's not fair that I'm coming back to do L&D (I did nursery and post partum before) because I quit the other place after training. What the fuck do they care? I can't stand Nurse bitches like these!!!!

A few of many examples that I come across were...

- I smile they look at you like you are a leoper

- I'm just learning and I was trying to fix the labor monitor because I noticed that the contractions were not registering on the monigor. So I'm asking a simple question since I might come across the problem one day and would like to know how to fix it. the RN bitch basically sent me out the room and told me "will you stop playing with that get out the room and I'll call you in when we are ready for the exam" Bitch I'm not a 10 year old child anymore and she could have treated me with more respect. I have been a nurse longer than she had been just new to the unit.

the charge nurse who I told what happened basically just said "well" and that was that. no defense or anything

- a pt scheduled for a c section comes in 10 minutes before shift change... I was only able to start an IV the oncoming nurse complains that was all that was done? What the hell do they want me to do? Do all the work for them??? All she had to do was shave and foley and admitting paper... that was her only pt.

these are just a few...

I like helping people out, like doing my job but these bitches are the ones that make it hard for people like me to do their job.

Why can't they be helpful with one another and understand we are all there to help patients out.

[Sue Bee RN BSN]

I'm finding that most nurses who leave the profession, if nursing can be called a profession, are very smart. These former nurses are the best nurses, and they are leaving nursing for greener pastures. If you don't like nursing, go back to school. If you stay in nursing you may being doing psychological harm to yourself. I got out, went back to school, and would never look back.

[LindaC781]

ALthough I have encountered or at least witnessed catty clique-ish behaviour in my fellow nursing students, I just have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying nursing school. Why? You may ask? Because I got my answer today - a lady I cared for 2 weeks ago in my clinical rotation beamed when she saw me. She was ambulating with her walker, and was going home today. And THAT is what it is all about - having someone actually remember you and give you a big hug telling you "Good luck in Nursing School!" and being enthusiastic for your career...and that is your patient!! And GOD do I LOVE NURSING SCHOOL!! Cause I love my patients!! EVERY SINGLE LAST ONE!!

[Sue Bee RN BSN]

Originally posted by LindaC781
ALthough I have encountered or at least witnessed catty clique-ish behaviour in my fellow nursing students, I just have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying nursing school. Why? You may ask? Because I got my answer today - a lady I cared for 2 weeks ago in my clinical rotation beamed when she saw me. She was ambulating with her walker, and was going home today. And THAT is what it is all about - having someone actually remember you and give you a big hug telling you "Good luck in Nursing School!" and being enthusiastic for your career...and that is your patient!! And GOD do I LOVE NURSING SCHOOL!! Cause I love my patients!! EVERY SINGLE LAST ONE!!

We were all like you once upon a time. When the doctors start to abuse you, and you truly see that other nurses are unhelpful, and down right nasty, you will also feel the way we do.

You ask yourself why do I bother. Nurses stay in nursing because there is something wrong with them, and they feel they are worthless. To build up their self-esteem you, the new one, will pay the price.

Good Luck!!

[walkeme]

Of all the professions, nursing ranks at the top. I started out in direct patient care in the mid 60s and enjoyed every minute. I still dream about it. I went on into hospital administration thinking I could impart my patient care formula to others. I think I did under the label of customer. It's just about taking care of people. If you can't handle that, go into financial management where you take their money away. Nursing is noble and all who enter are blessed.

[LindaC781]

Originally posted by walkeme
Of all the professions, nursing ranks at the top. I started out in direct patient care in the mid 60s and enjoyed every minute. I still dream about it. I went on into hospital administration thinking I could impart my patient care formula to others. I think I did under the label of customer. It's just about taking care of people. If you can't handle that, go into financial management where you take their money away. Nursing is noble and all who enter are blessed.

Thank you. I do feel blessed. I think that if I have a problem with a family member, it is only because they care a lot for that relative in the hospital, and want to be assured that that family member is getting the best care possible. I know this - because I was on the other side once, dealing with my aunt who had suffered a stroke. Yeah, I may have been a pain in the ass, but if I didn't bring up the fact that they gave her a regular diet when she was a diabetic, she could have had some serious problems!! You see, family members are NOT pains in the asses for no reason, they just want to make sure that their precious relative is going to be able to recuperate and be cared for properly. Same thing with doctors - THEIR licenses are also on the line when nurses make mistakes....so I am going to try to not make them. Hopefully I will be able to not make mistakes - I am learning about potentially fatal ones in my labs right now...thank God they are happening during lab time, and not when I am with a patient!

[Sue Bee RN BSN]

Originally posted by walkeme
Of all the professions, nursing ranks at the top. I started out in direct patient care in the mid 60s and enjoyed every minute. I still dream about it. I went on into hospital administration thinking I could impart my patient care formula to others. I think I did under the label of customer. It's just about taking care of people. If you can't handle that, go into financial management where you take their money away. Nursing is noble and all who enter are blessed.

If nursing is so noble, and all who enter are blessed then why are most nurses leaving? Hospitals can't keep their nurses. Nurses don't even come close to getting the respect they deserve. I continue to help people, but I will never do it a high cost to myself, you didn't-
Your not a nurse, so how can you speek to the profession? You have not walked one mile in a nurses shoes-

Unless you know something about what your saying stay out of the fire.

[walkeme]

There's an old but very true expression chalked up to alanon as I recall. "You have no right to expect anything from anyone - not even consideration." I suggest you put aside your ego need for "respect" and just get on with taking care of the suffering. Or would that be too much like Mother Theresa?

[cherie]

I got a career that could work for ya, if your so unhappy. most girls who do it were nurses before so it might just be what your looking for. Check out my website www.marykay.com/cherie5 & feel free to e-mail me any ?? threw there. We have a VERY positive working attitude & you can do it anywhere. you can also e-mail me at mkladie5@aol.com

[Former nurse]

Well, I'm a male nurse, and I'm here to disagree with you. Nursing SUCKS big ones!!!! I just got out of it and am back in school working on a degree in another discipline. Sure you can say whatever you want. You are a CRNA so you have only one patient at a time, and 99% of the time they are unconscious while you are working with them so your job is a VERY, VERY different type of nursing from bedside care. You are very fortunate that you don't have to deal with the hogshit that gets thrown at bedside nurses all day long from every angle.

Now that I'm out of the cesspool of nursing, it feels so good to not have to be totally stressed out about going to a job that I so totally loathe and abhor. I used to get headaches and palpitations before every shift.

I would NEVER, NEVER recommend nursing as a career to any young ambitious person. It is the most thankless, soul-draining job ever! As a nurse, you are less than nothing as far as management is concerned, and lets not forget those evil assholes (bitchy nurses, doctors, patients, family members) that you have to put up with all day long.

Nursing is a job that does a lot of damage to you both mentally and physically. And, you can easily hurt your back trying to turn some of these massively overweight patients who are too fat or too friggin' lazy to wipe their own tub-of-lard ASS! Even if you were the nicest person when you first go into nursing you eventually become resentful towards others and even towards yourself (for not having the balls to walk away from such a shitty career sooner).

NURSING IS A SHIT JOB!!!! You'll be taking shit, listening to shit, and cleaning shit all day long, every day.


Originally posted by Danny_CRNA
You're just a bunch of weak freaks. I am a male nurse and I don't see the problem with the job. I'm on call, yes. I am busy & stressed sometimes, yes. I deal with bitchy physicians, RNs, etc. yes. But, is there a job out there where you don't have to deal with people? Maybe that is what you need.
I love what I do, I am good at it, it keeps me busy, and it's good money. I am not so stupid to spend 6 years of my life stuying something to then bitch about it, or continue doing it if it made me miserable.
Any health care proffession is hard boys and girls! Find out if you are strong enough to go through the stress. If not, try find one of those jobs were you just sit there and test videogames....jaja I even think that would be cool :). Maybe I'll do that as a part time....
Post your comments male nurses!! Let people know what real nurses are like!

[1UnfortunateRN]

This is my first chance to vent...surprised (not really)to find so many other disgusted, burned out nurses like me. I wouldn't recommend this so called "Profession" to anyone..any nursing shortage out there is in the hospital setting only, where there is a constant need for "young fresh meat" as I call it...the new grads who are willing to work like slaves, do shift work, etc.
When the supply of nurses for hospitals is low the standards are simply just "relaxed" or lowered in my opinion, to attract nurse candidates from India, Phillipines, etc.
Outside of the hospital I see nurses being replaced by uneducated, unlicensed folks known as "Medical Assistants"....
I have yet to see any major effort on the part of state boards of nursing to intervene on our behalf..in Texas the Board is in the pocket of the big insurance and hospital companies I'm convinced.
In the future I see nursing activities being accomplished by trained technicians willing to work for less.
Nursing is definitely not the lucrative profession it once was...

[Former nurse]

Originally posted by 1UnfortunateRN
This is my first chance to vent...surprised (not really)to find so many other disgusted, burned out nurses like me. I wouldn't recommend this so called "Profession" to anyone..any nursing shortage out there is in the hospital setting only, where there is a constant need for "young fresh meat" as I call it...the new grads who are willing to work like slaves, do shift work, etc.
When the supply of nurses for hospitals is low the standards are simply just "relaxed" or lowered in my opinion, to attract nurse candidates from India, Phillipines, etc.
Outside of the hospital I see nurses being replaced by uneducated, unlicensed folks known as "Medical Assistants"....
I have yet to see any major effort on the part of state boards of nursing to intervene on our behalf..in Texas the Board is in the pocket of the big insurance and hospital companies I'm convinced.
In the future I see nursing activities being accomplished by trained technicians willing to work for less.
Nursing is definitely not the lucrative profession it once was...

I agree with all that you said; however, it is important to know that no state board of nursing will ever intervene to protect the rights of nurses. In fact, they purposefully ignore these issues. If you pay close enough attention, you will see that state BONs exist for two reasons only: to protect the public from nurses, and to collect fees for nursing licenses.

I feel sad for most people who get sick and have to go into the health care system in America today because it is truly in a disgraceful state. The people who have the power to change it are interested only in one thing--- making more money! Yet, if we dare to ask for a raise of pay, for working like slaves and taking non-stop abuse, these same people will look down on us and tell us that we came into the 'profession' for the wrong reason.

Its going to get worse if they continue to bring in all these nurse from overseas because then the hospitals will push the pay down even lower, and nurses will eventually find themselves working much harder for much less pay. I don't have anything against foreign nurses who come here to work because without them the health care system would certainly have collapsed already. What sickens me is the way the hospitals and the recruiting agencies abuse these nurses, ripping them off with outrageous fees, tricking them into signing one-sided employment contracts, and paying them lower salaries than what they are paying Americans who are doing the same job. There is actually an immigration law against this practice, but the hospitals have found a pretty clever way to get around it and the politicians ignore it because they are all being paid off very well.

[Unregistered111]

Hi,

I'm a real sorry ass mid 30's minority male who never made it with some marketing BS degree and had very spotty job references.

One good thing about my dumbness is the fact I took unnecessarily harder general eds such as anatomy, physiology, micro, or basically the pre-req for community programs, but that was over 10 years ago.

I found a private RN trade college program that doesn't really care for pre-req recency so I'm thinking about apply and make it.

Money and a real job are my only motivations.

I think it's going to be hell for me to just learn and get through the program.

How bad can it be, if one is paid that much to wipe ass.

I thought the only things I'd find on, "what's bad about nursing," would be stigmas and jokes about male nurses, etc., but I guess the reality is different.

[Former nurse]

Originally posted by Unregistered111
Hi,

I'm a real sorry ass mid 30's minority male who never made it with some marketing BS degree and had very spotty job references.

One good thing about my dumbness is the fact I took unnecessarily harder general eds such as anatomy, physiology, micro, or basically the pre-req for community programs, but that was over 10 years ago.

I found a private RN trade college program that doesn't really care for pre-req recency so I'm thinking about apply and make it.

Money and a real job are my only motivations.

I think it's going to be hell for me to just learn and get through the program.

How bad can it be, if one is paid that much to wipe ass.

I thought the only things I'd find on, "what's bad about nursing," would be stigmas and jokes about male nurses, etc., but I guess the reality is different.

If you're the type of person who's in it for the money and ONLY for the money, then you'll probably be ok as a nurse because no matter what shit is going down and how much abuse comes your way, you'll just ignore it, keep your mind on the money, and do whatever it takes to get through your shift. Nothing wrong with that because you'll be doing exactly what you're being paid to do---no more and no less.

The problems you're going to run into will have very little to do with nursing itself. Its the politics and all the other bullshit that comes with the territory that most people here are talking about. The reason it becomes a problem for so many nurses is because they DO care about safety and good patient care---and the hospital administrators DO NOT.

You're wondering how bad it can be! Just wait until you get your first nursing job, and you'll see that we're not making any of this stuff up. There were many days when I used to work as a nurse that I thought of taking a huge pay cut to quit and go do anything else at all. That's how bad it can be! And byt the way, if you think that nurses really make all that much money for teh amount of work and responsibility they have you'll find out more about that , too, when you get your first nursing job.

[Batsheba]

Old Engineer, I completely agree with you. I currently work in Financial Services and have done so for the past 12 years. Everything regarding office politics, unprofessionalism, back-stabbing that the nurses on this board are complaining about exists tenfold in corporate America. And forget about bringing foreigners in to perform jobs, corporate America is constantly outsourcing jobs. Another dept in my company was just laid off b/c they moved it to India. Management treats you like crap, they work you like dogs and there is no one for you to turn to either. In a previous job I tried going to HR and you know what? Who signs their paychecks? The company! They are no use at all. I am currently taking my prerequisites to enter an accellerated BSN program. Like Old Engineer said, at least if I hate my job and am getting treated like crap I can say that I made a difference in someone's life today. I didn't perform a bunch of meaningless tasks in the grand scheme of things for a nameless, faceless monolith.

[Theundaunted]

These people aren't "complaining" though they may not even realize it themselves.After years of taking undeserved crap from stupid people even after demonstating nearly superhuman abilities to save peoples lives or at least make them more comfortable they have finally found a place where they can attempt to DEFEND THEMSELVES!Thats right-years of unresolved attacks on nurses(and some support workers)characters despite their best and effective efforts coming from all sides may sound like complaining-but it isnt.The right to defend themselves has been taken away from them tens(hundreds?)of times.And by posting these "complaints" they still won't get be vindicated-they're merely trying to vent with other nurses to seem not so alone and realize, after all that they are decent people and not monsters.Would you take this away from them too?Good for the people who havn't had bad experience working in this feild-you can consider yourselves lucky.Thats right-just...LUCKY!

[Capercaille]

Tongue in cheek - if all the disgruntled nurses left the profession - who would be left? </end Tongue in Cheek>

If I had it to do all over again, I would have chosen another profession. LOL - have to laugh to keep from crying - this is my second career. I have been doing this for a year and a half and I am utterly wrung out and burned out. So much so that I am going to see what I can do to take some time off - and that isn't like me at all...

I am a strong woman. I single handedly left an abusive husband - stayed at a local women's shelter, put myself through school, lived in poverty following that episode while raising my two kids - got on welfare (viewing it as the government's investment in me) - got off welfare for good - pursued a career in IT and was very successful in that (I was a Microsoft Certified Trainer) until the market went bust... Put myself BACK in school for nursing and am here now - seeing that even my difficult past - as strong and as independent as it made me - wasn't close to being enough to have prepared me for what I've seen in nursing. It's dysfunctional, it's not healthy - and for the sake of the patients - it's not always safe. And that doesn't even begin to touch on the stupid mistakes I've made in the name of naivete and inexperience...

I've read the comments that nursing should be "a calling" and that if it isn't, one should "get out". Well, nursing was a calling for me - and could be still - but what I experience at work - the aides yanking patients around and yelling at them (with nothing being done by upper mgmt), the ultimatums about getting charting done on time while taking on more patients, having suggestions made on how to "cut corners" on my work... well - let's just say that I am reconsidering what nursing is and the very likely possibility that I'm made for better things than what I've been seeing.

These comments and emotions from nurses do not exist in a vacuum and people don't wake up in the morning and say, "Hm... let's see how disgruntled I can be about my career and nursing..." Something (or several somethings) makes a person turn, to get burned out... Where does that trauma, that pain that mind numbing distress originate?I certainly didn't start my first day as a nurse with any of those emotions or pain...

I can speak for myself when I say that I wasn't burned out when I started nursing school. I can say that I was happier then. I can say that I fell for the idealistic version of what nursing was purported to be. I can also say that - there is no way I fully chose this career as nursing school did not present the extremely harsh realities of nursing. Instead, what was taught to me were the ideals of nursing, along with and appropriately enough, nursing theory. So, no - I cannot say that I knew what I was getting into. The reality is, for as much as I researched the profession before getting into school, I didn't know what I was getting into. I don't feel, in that regard, that I got my money's worth...

I can say that after a year and a half of being knee deep in vomit, stage four sacral wounds over and over... having things flung at me by patients, yelled at by doctors when trying to take care of 'our' patients, being given ultimatums to cut corners or else... and having to deny decent patient care to instead do charting - has sucked the life out of me. It certainly did Mother Theresa... she began to question her very faith... as I question my faith in nursing.

Oh, I will continue on in the profession. I am currently talking to someone about this as well... But - after all I've read - all the negative experiences surrounding nursing - doesn't anyone else see that something has got to change? It's not supposed to be this way. This isn't caring and ultimately, it's the patient's that suffer - and it's not *all* due to disgruntled, burned out nurses.

As far as getting a grip - I have one. It's just much more grim than I'd hoped it would be.

As far as taking care of your family - you sound like you are adequately prepared to do the job once all of us disgruntled nurses are out of the picture.


Capercaille

Originally posted by Unregistered

i think it is great that all the nurses who hate their job can express that. but complaining about it does not help. quit. quit as fast as you can. i don't want any of you people taking care of my family. believe it or not we all have or will need hospital care some day. and believe me, when you are sick it makes such a difference if your nurse is nice and caring. i agree with another poster. fake it. even on my worse days, a patient will never know it because i don't believe in taking out my frustrations on the patients. they are someones child, mother, father, aunt, sibling. remember that. bedside nursing is not some fluff job. you people should have known that getting into it. did you not think you would have to deal with body fluids? people are sick for God's sake, that is why they are in the hopital. Quit and get a grip.

[DoHaless]

Do you have any story or reason behind your username?

For me, JANI is my real pet name. Everyone in my family and in our relatives call me by this name. JANI means someone LOVING

Thats why I choose JANI as my online identity.

Why did you choose your username? anything special behind it?

[DypeTurry]

Post who you are in your Division so others can get to know you and so you can find each other.


If you dont see your division located in here. Post up anyways and tell us where you are so we can add you area.



You can even add the group name to your signature tags so others can see where you are. Its a good way to located friends/members in your local area.