<p>We often hear about the great aspects of being a RN. I'd like to hear some thoughts about what are the worst things about being a nurse? Shift work? Uncooperative patients? Nasty doctors???</p>
<p>As a parent of a nurse I think the bad things include:
- schedule - my d has a combination of night and day shifts and it’s physically exhausting - while she has had great flexibility with time off to take vacations, her day-to-day schedule is so erratic that it’s hard to have a normal life. Most hospitals require a certain number of night shifts and as a newer nurse she seems to get a big share of them. I don’t know how she switches back and forth from day to night. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>patient load - she has a fairly high patient load and never has a moment of rest during her 12 hour + shift - many times she feels that she is blowing off patient requests just to get the requirements accomplished</p></li>
<li><p>patients and family members who think hospitals are 5 star hotels meant to serve them and feel they bear no responsibility for their own care.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I an older nurse. Rotating shifts is pretty common. Where I worked they did not allow anyone to work straight days. You could work straight PMs or Nites but the feeling was that nurses who only work one shift get too narrow in their view of their load and how patients are different at different times of the day.</p>
<p>I think the worst thing is how physically demanding nursing is. A nurse lifts and moves tons of people pounds a day and injuries often result. I have a bad back partially due to all those years. It is also exhausting to run your fanny for a whole shift while being expected to make serious decisions constantly. It really makes many other jobs seem like a piece of cake.</p>
<p>Yes, patients are getting larger and larger - hospitals have needed to install stronger beds. Many staff-persons have injured their backs lifting them. I understand many hospitals have installed patient lift systems to reduce the workman’s comp claims.</p>
<p>A person can get adjusted to a midnight shift if they stick with it. However, it can be very demanding to change back and forth between different shifts.</p>
<p>I liked the 5 star hotel line.</p>
<p>OP, if you are still reading, I can list plenty of cons. I am not sure if you are in hs, college, nursing school or what or how much about nursing you know. This might be a pretty blunt post but here goes:
I work as a nurse and have been one for give or take 2-3 years.
Some of the negatives I have experienced are
1.
DIFFICULTY finding a job. This is often ignored by those not in nursing or in an area that doesn’t have a alot of nursing schools. In the east and west coast big cities you will have difficulty finding a job. Since 2008 this is has been a big issue on the east coast and MANY of those grads relocated for nursing jobs. Mostly to Texas and very rural areas. I relocated to a very rural area for a job and there are a lot of people at my hospital who did also from 100-400miles away. Shortage in my experience is facility chosen or shortage of those willing to work.
2. It is physically exhausting. We have hoyer lifts but those do not help you turn and reposition patients. Some of these 300lb+ pts are complete cares and can not do anything for themselves. Even boosting a 150lb person in bed isn’t a walk in the park when many of my coworkers are 90lbs.
3. It is mentally and emotionally draining. After your comfort care pt dies, the bed is filled, there isn’t much time to dwell or think about anything. This is one aspect you will get used to fast to survive in the field. I distance myself from things and that carries onto personal life as well, but I tend to view that as a positive (some do not). I work in med surg but those in ER and ICU have higher burn out rates due to this. Our icu hemorrhages staff and most report that this was an issue. It is liiterally life and death and the patients are not always old either. Sometimes it will be someone your age, with young children or younger than you. You are still excpected to carry on and do your job as if nothing happened.
4. The schedule can be insane in some places. Where I work NO ONE is strict days, no matter how many years he/she has been there. Most are 2 eight hour shifts and 2 twelves. some are 3 twelves. You can be strict nights but that has a waiting list as well. You get rotated through the schedule wherever there is a hole. Example I would work M 7pm-730am. Off tuesday(a joke of a day off). w 7am-330pm, thursday off. friday 7a-730pm and sat 11pm-730am. Oh and we do EVERY other weekend and holiday ( 6 major ones , mother’s day, halloween, and anything else is not considered a holiday where i work). if you do not work the holiday day/night you are excpected to work the day/night before and after. so all of us who relocated do not see family for holidays unless you family is willing to drive a lot to see you for a few hours. I personally do not care about holidays much but this gets to many people after YEARS of it.
ILLEGAL mandatory overtime is common where I work. When I mentioned how it is illegal to mandate nurses for chronic staffing issues, I was told, I was lucky to have a job. So those shifts where I am so exhausted I can barely think straight, I know have to stay until 11:30 am after showing up to work at 6:30pm. How much functioning is at a 100%?
That comes to issue number 5. disrespect from administration/managment. It is more tolerable from patients than your own administration and managment. “So what if we do something illegal, you can quit or lose your license if you leave and do not stay.”
6. Some patients do not understand your workload and that other patients have high acuity. i WAS screamed at for not getting chairs for visitiors fast enough when my other pt needed STAT trach suctioning. Chairs are not a priority. You know how to prioritize nursing care but people think it is a first come/ask first serve type of deal.
7 Being responsible and accountable for the poor work of others such as aides , dietary etc. Dietary brings up the wrong tray, I have to deal with it. Aide goes out to smoke, I have to do the vitals and everything else, even if he/she is getting paid to specifically do that. After all it is the nurses’s responsibility.
The doctors are the least of my concerns in my job when I think of negatives. Some are rude or condescending but most are not. I deal mostly with residents and have found most of them pleasent enough to deal with. If someone at work is rude, I am likely to respond in a snarky way and make him/her think twice. With a patient/visitor you can’t do that. In fact, thanks to customer service, you will probably get a poor “score” in surveys for not giving a diabetic more non sugar free soda and graham crackers. All the teaching in the world can’t help some. lol.
Another big major one is lack of breaks inclusing a lunch break in some places. The staffis short to begin with and there is a ton of work and no one to cover for you. Something always happens and you can’t leave a pt having chest pain for your lunch. This happens often enough. A pt having chest pain, a low blood sugar, difficulty breathing etc. Vitals, assess, page dr, wait for dr, carry out orders, stay and monitor the pt, time for the next round of meds and vitals on your other patients! Now someone else is going to break. Finally at 5pm you want to go and your other pt needs pain meds. then at 5:15 the nurse you asked to watch your patients well one of her patient’s has a blood pressure of 75/45! .lol. It is humerous looking back but not when you are in the situation and all you want is to go sit down and eat for 30mins. ( eating and drinking at the desk is NOT allowed and in many places you will be written up for this)
There are probably a lot more but this is a nice beginning. Now some positives are the pay.</p>
<p>pageagain, you definitely hit on a bunch of cons but you really have painted the worst. I know nurses who have worked in the ER for over 20 years. They can’t be too burnt out. Nursing offers a variety of opportunities from homecare, to informatics to case management. Not all nursing roles are shift work in a busy hospital though I do believe new nurses need to start there to get experience.</p>
<p>I have been a nurse for over 30 years. Not doing hands on now but my last couple of clinical jobs were working in an urgent care clinic and doing home IV therapy. No lifting with either of these jobs.</p>
<p>More positives are that I am mentally challenged. I love pathophyisology and anatomy. I love to apply it or in my current role, I write about it. I have saved people’s lives. I have helped diminish people’s fears. I am an expert at titrating pain meds to get people physically moving and on their road to recovery or managed their wounds so they heal. I am an excellent patient advocate. I am strong enough to look those doctors in eye or run down the hall and make them come back to a patient’s room when I feel they havn’t done their job. I know I make a difference in people’s lives. </p>
<p>Nursing is a very difficult job but there is so much variety if a person goes on to get their BSN they do not have to stay doing floor nursing forever–unless they want to.</p>
<p>It sounds like you need to look for a new place to work where you get more support. I imagine you have seniority there so you are less motivated to leave, but perhaps you should consider it.</p>
<p>Lakemom, I know I mentioned the worst of the worst and did that intentially although I debated even posting. . Not all places are like the one I work at, and this place is better than many. Also a bad day will stick with me more than 50 good ones. There are many positives in a career as a nurse and you mentioned some of them. I enjoy the pay the most. I like that I can only work three 12.5 hour shifts a week. I like that I can work night shift. I like that there is a big supply of overtime or per diem work in many areas. I like working with some of my coworkers. I like the flexibility or potential for such. Being a nurse in a Surgical ICU is different than being a prision nurse, post partum nurse, dialysis, NICU, hospice etc. There is a lot of variety. Not many careers are as easy to transition in. Although your last sentence really stuck with me. I almost feel stuck in my current position and unwilling to move or try anything new in nursing. I always wanted to work in med surg and can see myself staying for many years. Is that a bad thing, should I decide to later on change? Is there a time limit on stagnation should I ever want to work in an ICU or ER? I tend to think not but most of the people I have met who do this, do their 1-2 years in med surg than head out the door into the ICU/ER.</p>
<p>pageagain, I am/was a med-surg nurse. I worked in med-surg 5 years. Tried an acting management role but decided that I needed a change and went to the ER. But inside, I was still a med-surg nurse and while my coworkers loved doing the trauma cases and being in the cardiac room, I preferred the med-surg room. I worked in most of the hospitals in S.F. through the registry in ER. Great experience, everyone is happy to have you come because it meant they wouldn’t work short. You got the best assignments. </p>
<p>I see nothing wrong with staying in Surg-ICU as long as you don’t overstay and cross that line. That is why I moved on. I was working night shift and had one particularly difficult patient night after night and thought to myself, it is time to leave.</p>
<p>So watch for that and without moving think about where you would go in 2-5 years if you wanted to. Case-management is a natural non clinical step. Urgent care centers are also an option. Home Care is another. I liked being in ER but it was more stressful than med-surg with the feast or famine activity.</p>
<p>Spend some time investigating these areas. Maybe ask someone if you could shadow them for a day to see what it is like. If you don’t have a BSN consider getting one, you can do this online.</p>
<p>Currently, I am a nurse writer/editor. I had to reinvent myself after developing back issues that didn’t resolve. Never would I have thought this would be my path but I did make the change because I had to. And I love being a nurse no matter how I find a way to be one. </p>
<p>You sound like you love nursing too but just are feeling stretched. The way to not feel caged in is to look at your options and plan one that suits you and move on when you are ready.</p>
<p>PageAgain, and Lakemom, thank you for this dialogue.
LM, please tell us where we can get our mitts on your written work!</p>
<p>I have such respect for nurses. I wish I had the diligence to pursue it</p>