I have been a nurse for 4 years. I went back to school to do this at the age of 30. I sure wish I'd given it more thought. I hate it so much I am leaving. I only work 7/10ths. but that's still too much. I start university in the fall for a career I really want and can't wait. I'd rather take a job with a big pay cut than do this any more. I only wish I haden't borrowed 10's of thousands of dollars to do it. Man what a mistake. I sympathize with anyone who feels as I do. It's never too late to late to start over.

I've been nursing for almost 20 years now. I can't believe I have put that much of my life into a job that makes me miserable and now sick. I'm off on medical leave now and hate the idea of going back. <br />
I finally became a supervisor but found that unless you kiss the butt of the one above you, forget it. <br />
My goal was to make the staff feel more recognized for the work they do. I was verbally reprimanded in a meeting for my work on the social committee! I did this work on my own free time! After years of effort, I decided to quit the committee. It lost it's gleam for me and I am sorry that the staff will no longer get their annual "holiday party",or any other type of recognition. I can't take the criticism anymore and the nastiness of coworkers has worn me down. <br />
I may have the fate of the last senior supervisor who went on med leave. She was canned two weeks after she returned.<br />
The only comment I've received from superiors is "get your running shoes out, we're very busy and you'll have a lot of work to come back to"<br />
Dreading the first day back,<br />

Louise -- try home health sometime. It's a big difference.

Back in the day I worked on an electronic assembly line. I was the only guy on the line. All those chicks did was wait for someone to go to the bathroom so that they could talk shit. It was so bad that I got paranoid about going to take a leak. God only knows what they said about me when I was gone. <br />
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What's worse is whenever I looked up to rest my tired eyes, right directly in front of me sat this elephant of a woman whose butt was so freaking big that each ass cheak needed it's own seat. It was sheer torture. <br />
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One day my girlfriend left me. I never even called in to tell them that I quit. I just quit going. About two weeks later they called me to inform me that I had been fired. I asked them; "Which part of me not showing up, for two weeks, did you not understand?"<br />
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I remember, a few years earlier, interviewing for an assembly position and the lady interviewing me insisted that this field was not for guys. She is absolutely correct! Live and learn. NEVER AGAIN!

Money money money!!!! give me money!!!

I have been an RN for more than 20 years. The stress, misery and abuse I suffered at the hands of administration, physcians and fellow nurses are a crime against humanity.<br />
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Nursing is the only profession that I can think of where the more education, experience and responsibility that you take on actually results in your being paid less than the simple staff nurse makes for putting in his/her normal shift.<br />
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I used to be so depressed and emotionally exhausted that I would actually fantize that some car would run a red light and smash into my car so that I could go to the hospital as a patient and NOT have to work and expose myself to the stress of the unit that night. Is this not the most pathetic thing that you have ever heard?<br />
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Ah, yes. As a nurse, you are told by administration that you are a "professional" and as such, they expect you to complete professional levels of education, hold pofessional licences, complete professional continuing education each year, adhere to professional standards, assume professional responsibilities and represent your facility/employer as a professional. <br />
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Fine and dandy; how about recieving some of the pay and perks of being a "professional"?? No, that is a different story. When you try to stand up for yourself and for your future as a professional, you have no power and no voice. Administration immediately slaps you down and informs you that you are an hourly employee and if you do not like what is handed to you, your job is threatened and you are told that you can "hit the road". <br />
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Does this sound like being a true professional? Hell no!! A nurse is only a "professional" as long as it fits the agenda of the doctors and the administrators.<br />
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I used to become so depressed about being a nurse. Like many other nurses, I hated it beyond the meaning of the word. I remember thumbing through the yellow pages trying desperately to identify some job, ANY job wherein I could use my nursing education, skills and knowledge in some profession OTHER than actual nursing.<br />
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I searched for more than 10 years to find that niche and finally, I am not even really sure how, I actually DID find something that I thought would get me out of the hospital and into a normal, healthy life.<br />
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At first, I tried to calculate how little I could get by on. Like all other nurses, I had been trained and brainwashed into believing that I had to be an employee to find work. I intially had to get past that mentality and, I admit, it was a tough process for me.<br />
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I figured that if I could only make $500 per week, I could eke out a life for myself. I began my new business and used my nursing skills and knowledge every day and with every client.<br />
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I started out with virtually NO recognition and nobody knew me or my service. I found out immediately that there really WAS a demand for what I had to offer. The really wierd thing was that NO other nurse was offering my service!! The telephone calls began to flood in. <br />
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My first year, I was shocked that I actually matched what I had made as a nurse working in a hospital with more than 20 years of experience. My secound year, I made $75,000. I am now headed into the beginning of my forth year and believe it or not, I am actually making what the US Dept of Labor lists as the average income of a Internal Medicine and OB/GYN doctor!!<br />
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For the first time in my miserable career as a nurse, I actually FEEL like a professional and EARN professional pay. You have no idea how strange a feeling it is when I meet up with many of the docs that I once worked with and secrtly know that I make as much, if not more, money per year than they do.<br />
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I am in the process of writing a book on my experiences. My book will give other nurses a step by step guide on how to start their own business and begin a wonderful new life for themselves and their families. A life rich with opportunity that will allow them to still work as a nurse but without all the emotional and physical pathology than comes with the traditional "pigeon hole" positions designed for nurses by doctors and hospital administrators to line their own pockets and finance their own rich lifestyles.<br />
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My book will not be finished for a few months but anybody interested in hearing about it when it is completed may email me.<br />
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I wish each of my fellow nurses the opportunity to have a quality of life and not have to start over with years of education and retraining to find it. Please do not dispair, the answers truly are out there, if you just know where to look.

I hate being a nurse. if i didnt have to pay bills i would quit. i never stay at a job more than 3-6 months. it is so stressful! i think that in order for there not to be a nursing shortage that when a nurse has been in her career for over 6 months they should not have to work weekends unless they want to. i am so tired of working weekends. i have gone thru 2 marriages in my short career because of the hours. it sucks.

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I am right there with all of you. I hate nursing with a passion! All of your comments make me feel so much better about my decision to leave nursing only 6 months after graduation. I will print out your comments for my parents to read and they can see I'm not crazy.

Why is it so awful to be a nurse? I think its the powerlessness. You are always the one who is in the middle. Shit flows downhill and all the shit flows to nursing. We hear all the complaining, we see all the suffering. We do a highly technical job and don't get paid for it. Nursing is bad because of nurses. We don't promote ourselves or educate the public about what we do, so they still think we wear hats and carry bedpans. We don't demand the respect we deserve. Medicine would collapse without us. Is nursing in such a miserable state because of the people it attracts? Does it attract people who whine but keep shovelling the shit anyhow? Nursing will eventually die out because nurses refuse to stand up for themselves.