The Effects of Nursing on Nurses
Hi, welcome to my blog post. I have never had a blog post get more than 50 comments, so I am a bit overwhelmed. After responding to many comments, here is a note:
Note: I wrote this blog entry at the end of my 3rd 12 hour shift in three days. I was tired and I was emotional. It is a blog post, not an “article.” It is not researched or sourced, it is purely opinion.
The point of this post is that nurses (and many other professions) need to take the time to practice self care and to encourage one another to practice self care.
My biggest mistake in this post (and there are many) was to use “her” or “she” when I should have used “they” or them.” I ignored my male coworkers, and I should not have. You have my apologies, and I have corrected the post. I have left “she” and “her” in place in the portion where I talk about my coworker.
I have read every comment posted and deleted some very nasty comments that were not helpful to conversation. If you feel this is the place to spew your vitriol, it is not.
August 11, 2013
This morning, while I was giving report to the day shift nurse taking over my patients, she burst into tears.
She’s going to miss her children’s hockey play offs due to our strictly enforced every other weekend schedules. You work every other weekend, no more, no less, unless you are going to college (I work every weekend because I’m in college). She’s their hockey coach, and inevitably, each year, their last game falls on a day their mother has to work. I’ve come in early for her before.
So I offered to come in on my night off for an hour and a half so she could get to the game. I’m coming in that early because I know she won’t be done charting.
She turned me down until another day RN got involved. I reminded my coworker I only live a mile from the hospital, and it really wasn’t a big sacrifice for me. She finally agreed, and calmed down. We got permission from the charge nurse.
Nursing is one of the largest professions in the world. If you don’t know a nurse, I’m really surprised. Nurses talk a lot about the rewards of nursing. Catching that vital sign, saving lives, providing comfort, but nurses, by nature, are taught to martyr themselves on the altar of nursing.
When I was a new grad, I hated coming to work so much that I would wish I’d get hit by a car on my way to work just to get out of work. One night, while checking medication sheets, I confessed this to some experienced nurses and found out some of them still felt the same way.
In nursing, it is NORMAL to have days where you wake up and just can’t mentally and emotionally face the day at work. I swear, the only other people who can understand this are nurses.
Nursing is emotionally, physically and mentally taxing, and some days you run too low on what you can give emotionally, physically and mentally. That minor back injury you don’t want to report to HR because you don’t want it on your record. Having a patient with constant diarrhea who can’t get out of bed and needs to be physically rolled and cleaned several times an hour. The cold you got from the two-year old someone brought in. The sorrow that comes from supporting someone who has just found out they were dying, holding in your own tears so you could wipe theirs. In one day, all of those patients could be yours.
I don’t know a nurse who hasn’t taken a mental health day. Some do it by requesting more vacation than others. Some do it by calling in sick, but it’s all time off because we are too drained to give anymore.
So if you know a nurse, and that nurse mentions to you that they feel like calling in because they just can’t take it another day, don’t give them a hard time. Especially if you have an 8-5 job with weekends off or some other really great schedule. The 12 hour shifts nurses work mean we miss the entire holiday we work with our families. Night shift nurses have to choose between holiday dinners or sleep. Often, if a nurse chooses to sleep rather than go to the holiday dinner, guilt ensues. Even though I’ve told my mother-in-law repeatedly that every nurse has to work holidays, she makes a point to say how horrible it is my husband has to be alone for a few hours. What about me? Working my ass off while everyone else celebrates?
We work hard. We are intentionally understaffed by our hospitals to improve profit, even if the hospital is a non-profit. We help people at the worst times of their lives, and often have no way to debrief, to get it off our chests. We don’t just bring warm blankets and pills. We are college educated, degreed professionals who are often treated like uneducated, lazy servants. We get sexually harassed by our patients. We get groped, punched, cut, I even know of a nurse on my floor being strangled (she survived).
Nursing can be rewarding. But nursing is a fucking hard job. If you are afraid of healthcare rationing, you should know it is already happening. Nurses are unable to give everyone the care they need, so patients with smaller problems may not get the same level of care. A nurse may be pressed to only give the minimum amount of care to a patient if they have 5 or more very sick patients. If you don’t want healthcare rationing, talk to your local hospitals about their nurse to patient ratios. Talk to your doctors. If you hear of legislation to support nurse to patient ratios, vote for it. Support it.
So if a nurse needs a day off, you support them. If you’re in a position to help like I was this morning, do so. If you are a nurse, go easier on yourself when you think about the things you didn’t finish, or the things you should have said. It’s a 24-hour a day job and you don’t have to do it alone.
As of January 27, 2014, this post is no longer accepting comments. I am doing this as a practice of self care. Tending to this blog post, several times a day, has become a burden. It has had over 2 million hits, and I am tired. The post has become a platform for people who want to propel their own agendas and are using my space to do so. Thanks to all who said such nice things, and to everyone else, go write your own blog.
Posted on August 11, 2013, in Nursing and tagged Health care, Nursing, registered nurse. Bookmark the permalink. 2,612 Comments.
ofcourseitsaboutyou 
I’m thankful for nurses. But how does this article have the balls to say that only other nurses would understand? As doctors, we work 14+ hour shifts for six days each week. We don’t get to have holidays or see our kids’ games either. We don’t have the option of sick days. How can you possibly say only other nurses would understand?
respectfully sir, I don’t think the long hours was the issue, she was pressing on…if you don’t like working holidays, or shit shifts, you shouldnt be anywhere near health care, esp a physician…but, as a doctor, you should know, that you are far beyond getting groped, swore at, feces flung at you, hit, scratched, bit,punched, last breaths.., and all with the patience of Jobe….i think she was trying to rid herself of guilt and other nurses of the ‘me day’…when 110 % isnt in the cards today….we all give up our familes to look after others, you included….but untill you do bedside, 24/7..that my love, is for nurses only
I work as a housekeeper in our hospital. I work EVERY weekend, I have 4 children. If I take a weekend off, I lose those days pay.
I do see how overworked our nurses are as I work along side them. Many are wonderful caring people who do a very good job but there are some who unfortunately could care less.
I do not just clean the patient rooms, there are many lonely patients who just need someone to talk to for a few minutes, people who have been taken from their homes or communities due to illness and are pretty much alone. There are also others who have family visiting all day every day. I have held the hand of a stroke patient who was scared and could not talk but needed comfort, I have brought warm blankets to patients because their nurse is so overworked. We are all a part of the healing for these patients and when told it is not my job to do these things, I say “Yes, I know. If it brings comfort to a patient I will do what I can.”
People do not understand that there is so much more to the health care field than giving meds.
I myself have watched patients pass away after building a relationship with them or their families. It is tough even on us housekeepers.
It takes a special type of person to work in a health care setting.
Kudos to all of the people who care and take the time to help.
My best friend is an LPN and knows more than a lot of doctors and R Ns. She gets the shaft from everybody. She doesn’t complain, except to me, because she knows that I understand. I respect her just as I would an RN or doctor. I also respect what all nurses go through. Every time I am admitted to the hospital, and I have an accident, I find myself apologizing, because they have to clean me up. I am only 60, but I am a very, very large woman and need help with bathing and wiping myself. The nurses and assistants keep telling me not to apologize, because it is a part of their job, but I do it anyway. Nurses are overworked and way underpayed. My daughter is a CNA and I respect that also.
Quite a fascinating read. I am a registered nurse, I have worked in trauma and Med/surgery. I have moved onto being a Case Manager due to the back injury scenario you mentioned. Being a male nurse I seem to be the go to pack mule for the heavy lifting. However, I was also in the military before, and I wasn’t a nurse. I will say nursing is hell, but it isn’t the only job out there that is the main holder of the prize bag of shit. One nurse on here commented how great her 3-11 shifts have been for her single motherhood. I am sure she had other support, but regardless, not everyone’s experience is the same.
In short, I have had worked in a few fields feeling wiped out, over spent, and used up. The causes are multifaceted. Nurses, more appropriately, people lack the ability of setting healthy boundaries. I still do. No book can tell you exactly how to do it either. We give to much. It’s ok to say No. Sometimes caring is allowing someone to struggle, hurt, or fail. Learning how and when to do it in our profession with all the lawyers, that’s what keeps many nurses stressed out in fear.
Now, this is just a simple observation from nurses eating nurses.
I am not a nurse, I am a teacher who also is a cancer survivor. I want to tell you how much I appreciate each and every one of you. I had many, many, many hospital stays during my treatment and the nurses were my savior. I was going through the worst of my treatment when Katrina hit and I was evacuated to Montgomery, Alabama. I walked in off the street very ill with nothing to my name. Not a medical record, clothes, nothing except for a very frightened family. In the midst of my fog and at the most vulnerable moment in my life I was handed over to a nurse who treated me like absolute gold. She cried with me as I watched my beloved city fill with water. I will never ever forget her kindness and compassion. There is no way to repay someone for making that kind of difference. The best I can do is pay it forward. There are many similarities between our professions and there are many days when I feel as though I can’t possibly give another ounce of myself but I have to because it is a child who needs me. So this is my love letter to nurses, you have enabled me to raise my children and to continue to have an impact on the future via my students.
I must say that is well said. Everything you said is so true. And no one really understands especially our family. Working 12 hour nights I missed a lot of my children growing up. Now I feel like I sleep too much so I try to stay awake and then I am basically evil. and now that I am over my body hurts and I cannot physically take it much longer. But I will because I love what I do.
Great debrief for you my ‘sister’. I think we are a little bit hard on ourselves professionally.
First off I’m not a Nurse! But I have family members that are. And they are over worked. I really noticed this while my sister in law was just in the hospital for 3 1/2 months.. Although on the whole they were all very good at what they did, but sometimes you could see how wore down they were. So shame onYou if You are mean to either a Male or Female Nurse. They Do Deserve RESPECT!!!!
I understand completely! I have worked all floors, all departments, nursing homes, rehab, etc. I do have to say however…I worked my way into management in assisted living facility and the “cushy” day position with no weekends, takes a toll. I am expected to be on call 24 hours, 7 days a week. I cone in and work as a nurse, an aide, housekeeping, maintenance, referee, all shifts, no matter what. It is not as easy as many people think with those “cushy” hours.
Forgot to say however….I love being a nurse!
I must say you are SPOT on. After an injury took away my ability to do any floor nursing I gravitated back to assisted living. I do love my job, my community and my residents. But the 9-5 Monday thru Friday with paid holidays off is just a pipe dream. My true hours are 24-7-365, but hey…I get a 40 hr a week salary. The ones who suffer are my family as I get off late and field work calls at all hours of the night and day. And then the guilt I feel for not spending enough time with my family. I am learning tho. I have developed an in company network of nurses to cover our communities and call days so we can each have our time away. And now that I have my first grand child I am trying to make sure my “cushy” job doesn’t run my life so I can have some life! Even old nurses can learn new tricks!
I totally disagree with joining a Union. They take your money & use it to support political candidates who you may – or may not support. They also cause the cost of healthcare to go up by mandating things that may not be necessary. The so called “Affordable” Care Act is one example of that, I am already seeing cutbacks in benefits to nurses and to patient’s because of all the extra fees & taxes that have been mandated through it. I do think that our healthcare system needed to be revamped – but not this way. The worst is yet to come …
I enjoyed reading your blog & found it to be educational. However, I was very disgusted to read about how you wished you’d get hit by a car to avoid having to go to work.
As a new grad that has had to face prejudice and has had about 500 doors slammed in her face, and still not given an opportunity to be the phenomenal nurse I know I can be, I will happily trade places with you and/or any nurse that would rather face disability or death rather than go to work another day as a nurse.
Happy New Year! 🙂
When you have your first job as a nurse then you can reply. I just quit my job……..you can have it! Everything this blogger has posted is true! Please let us know how you feel after you have started on a busy acute care setting! So for now, you have no idea how we nurses feel until you ACTUALLY walk in our shoes!!!!
Amen!
Amen!
Exactly what I needed to read at the end of my 3 12 hour night shift. Perfect representation of nursing. And you are amazing for volunteering to work for your co worker. Thank you for this.
Kerri, congrats on making the grade. Like the nurses described in this blog, you’ve already achieved something significant. However your comment of ‘disgust’ at the way the writer feels serves only to describe you as in inexperienced (and rather heartless) young person. Have you ever heard the saying about not judging someone till you’ve walked a mile in their shoes? When you’ve got the job and shown the world what a phenomenal nurse you are, then, and only then, you might be qualified to judge. I’m sorry to hear about the 500 doors you’ve had shut in your face; I’m sure it hurts. But when things like that happen it can be helpful to look at what you’re projecting, ask ‘how am I playing a part in creating this situation?’ Good luck with launching your career, and may you find compassion and understanding on the days it gets you down.
If you as a graduate nurse have not gotten to work as a full time nurse on 12 hour shifts, you don’t get it yet. I hope you NEVER feel this way. I was burnt out 3 times during my first year of nursing. Working as a nurse is nothing like nursing school. In 28 years, I’ve cried MANY times going in and coming home from work. Depression and despair will take your mind places you’ve never thought you’d go. If you can learn to take care of yourself, you’ll be in a good place. If you can help take care of you’re peers, you’ll be blessed and appreciated.
I would love to retire. I’ll be dead before I’ll be able to retire at 68, especially with the rising cost of living not reciprocated in our salaries. When I figure out what else I can do well, I’ll quit being a nurse. But for now, despite feeling like I’m in prison at work, I praise God and appreciate my glorious days off. And, when I leave work drained and often abused by no break, no lunch, and no respect, I thank God for a good day, because even if I felt I didn’t get everything done and live up to my perfectionistic expectations, I know by their comforted faces and sometimes heartfelt expressions of thanks, my patient’s appreciate me an I probably did a job better than I know.
Unfortunately you may just not understand until you do get in the work field.. This lady nailed it.. When I was a new grad I thought the same thing but trust us you don’t think it now but there will be times where you do wish something would happen bc you dread coming in… It isn’t saying anybody is a bad nurse but clinicals and actual nursing practice are 2 completely different things.. Just be prepared that yes you will have days where you wonder why you chose this profession.. Keep your head up you will find a job when the time comes. Be prepared for heartache and joy. Again working in a hospital and taking a team is a lot harder than coming in as a nursing student and passing meds with your instructor. I wish nursing schools would prepare new nurses to be ready for the real world. The perfect nursing opportunity for you will come along just keep your head up and keep the right attitude.. Take some advice from her blog it really gives a tiny look into the nursing world.. I use to think the same thing as you so I am not being rude by any means but I wish I would’ve read this when I first started my new job because it would’ve at least let me know I wasn’t the only one wanting to “jump” out of a window at the end of a shift. Good luck in the future with nursing.
I don’t think she meant it literally. She was trying to convey how stressful it is to be a new grad nurse. I’ve been there and some days it takes everything you got to not lock yourself into the bathroom at work and cry.
Someday, you will regret being so judgemental. Many shifts turn out to be the hardest 12 hours, bad things happen no matter what you do. All she is expressing us that some days it is hard to get back on that horse. Nurses are infamous for “eating their young,” your attitude towards your sister, (or brother,) amazes me. Hopefully the nurses you end up working with have more compassion for your inexperience, than you have for their bad days.
(This post is in response to Kerri’s)
As you say you have yet to have the chance to prove yourself as a nurse, you do NOT understand. I have been a nurse for fourteen years and this is more a figure of speech. Once you do get a job, endure everything that was mentioned , which is all true, you may then understand. Until then don’t judge! Good luck to you.
I really enjoyed your blog I’m a nurse and can relate to every word. Thank God you still have empathy left for your fellow nurses enough to help them out when you can. I see so many who have lost every ounce of empathy for anyone especially their fellow nurses. I think anywhere nurses are employed should offer support group sessions, mental health days, and free PTSD treatment for those especially hard work places, (I’m sure each of us would say ours is the worst.) what we need MOST is support from each other rather than the nurses eating their young status quo that seems to be the expected and accepted scene rio in nursing today. If more nurses were like you it would make nursing more bearable, less stressful and a better work environment for all and maybe we wouldn’t need the things I listed as much after all. Oh, if only……
It’s a figure of speech…when you finally fond a position you’ll understand. .
Oh wow! I can’t believe you just posted that to this blog! Don’t you think we all felt the same way right out of nursing school? We all entered the field bright eyed and bushy tailed anticipating saving the world and being super nurse! This person was expressing how they felt after experiencing the reality of nursing…it’s not like what they teach us in school, nothing like it! We would all love to do things the proper way, spend endless hours teaching and caring for our patients, the reality is that the facilities that hire us are businesses who are in it for the money, and most don’t care about anything but that bottom line. THIS is what causes nurses to feel like the author of this blog! The feeling of frustration and guilt knowing we could be the nurses we dreamed in school but without the time or resources to be those nurses! You will see how it is after you actually have experienced it, I hope you never do, but the odds are that you will, and it’s devastating! I hope you are more empathetic as a working nurse than you are as a new grad because if not you will just contribute to the problem. Praying for us all and the patients we long to nurse correctly but seldom have time to do.
Just wait until you start working. Being a nurse is so wonderful in so many ways, but there are days when you wake up in a panic because you just don’t know how to face another day. I hope for your sake you have a better experience, but as a new grad you go to work every day feeling like a complete idiot and like no matter how hard you work you will never catch up and you will continually make your coworkers life harder because you’re not on their level. The worst is when you have a patient you have grown very close to actively dying in one room, a confused patient whose safety is a constant concern and requires full attention in another room, a patient who need around the clock pain medication because they are in agony in a third room, and an “easy” patient in another room who is upset with you because you weren’t available to them the way you normally would have been. It will happen, and when you deal with that for days or weeks on end you will reach a breaking point. You’re not there yet, so always always always support your fellow nurses. They give 150% every shift and deserve a little understanding.
If you have never worked as a nurse you have little understanding of what you will endure that first year esp if you end up in an acute care setting, it will go down as one of the toughest years of your life. Bright-eyed and bushy tailed new grads soon learn they have chosen a tough path filled with immeasurable self sacrifice
I am not a nurse, but have many in my immediate family. I also work for a hospital system and take care of a chronically ill spouse. I don’t think it’s just the nurses who are over worked, under staffed and not allowed to do their jobs to their fullest, best abilities in hospitals – for the most part it is most of the employees who have this problem due to upper management needing to make the profit margin bigger – which also boosts their bonuses. My husband, due to his illnesses, will have times he spends days/weeks at a time in the hospital. I used to always admit him in the hospital I work for. I no longer do this because I have found I step in for the under staffed nurses and do things for him that I would never be expected to do another hospital – bath him, change his linens, keep his water pitcher filled, etc. I do this while still working my job in another part of the hospital. I do it to help the nurses and to make sure he is getting the care he deserves to have. You would think that working at a healthcare facility that management would take better care of their employees – everyone. My daughter in-law has had to work the last three Thanksgivings and Christmases. We understand this is a part of her job. We always make her a plate and some of us take it to her (she works nights). We generally celebrate our holidays on days when she is available. My mother was an ER nurse for 25 years – I grew up knowing the draw backs of having a nurse in the family. But, I also grew up knowing the rewards. My mother touched many lives and so do the nurses who care for my husband. When it is all said and done – when we work in a right to work state – Work in a State where employers can fire you for any reason – work is usually never wonderful – but we need to remember that employers do not hold the keys to our destiny – we all came in to where we are working looking for a job – and we can all leave looking for one. It is up to each of us to write our own destiny and to live a life that makes us happy – Because frankly our employers don’t care if we are happy. Thank you to all of the nurses who do give of their family time to care for the patients who need them – and to all of the other healthcare employees who do the work behind the scenes – don’t wait for the VIP’s to thank you with appreciation or raises – it’s not going to happen – make decisions that are going to make YOU HAPPY!
Thank you. Most rewarding besides being a parent I have ever had.
Excellent blog. As a teacher, I have felt some of the same things, and I have taken “mental health days.” We are in the same boat. Has anyone, besides me, noticed that these fields that have historically been predominately filled by women get the shaft time and time again? I wonder if it’s me being paranoid, or if there is something to this…..
I agree, my mom was a teacher for 30 years and she experienced all of the same ‘lows.’ She had an almost 9-5 and summers off but that definitely didn’t make it any easier on her. I think those jobs are predominantly filled by women because we are usually wired to be more compassionate(or raised to be that way by society) and choose careers that involve helping, nurturing etc. Great read!
Yes, I agree with most of what everyone has said … I “retired” from nursing after just a few years as a psych RN with the last two being in management (salaried for about $1 more per hour but double the work!). Burnout is NOT pretty — the physical toll is horrendous and I’m still struggling to heal the effects of that stress 20 years later. I’ve known since then that I didn’t want to renew my license but couldn’t quite say why, until now. My big AHA came while living with my MiL and watching her mental / physical decline — I appreciate what I know and will continue to advocate for her, but the real reason I don’t want to be a licensed nurse is that I am personally tired of having to be accountable and responsible for people who don’t have a commitment to their own healing and/or are abusive to self and staff (like MiL). It’s not that everyone is a “victim” of their body/lifestyle (or the system), just that the system gives me no right to choose who I serve and how I serve them when I am beholden to a license in the current system. I’ve been slapped on the wrist too many times for telling patients and their families something that they could do independently to empower their ill family member (like acupressure points, 12-step or other support sources, recommended books) even when the family specifically asked for such information. I never felt empowered by the allopathic system, just used and used up. Sure, some patients, both in and out of structured care settings, really did appreciate what I provided and I feel good about that. But the chronic overhead stress of whatever I do and don’t do I can be sanctioned for is not for me. I’m taking what I know to a whole new holistic level and concentrating on teaching people who want to live into their optimal wellness — much more fulfilling!
Lynn, what are you now doing instead of nursing? What kind of holistic job?
CNA’s are a great help to us as nurses and I have a lot of respect for what they do. I always taught my students to be kind to and help the CNAs. They can make or break a shift… And they do have quite a patient load. However, I do have to say, that where I worked, they topically got their breaks and left right at shift change. Nurses are the ones missing lunch, there late hours, or picking up the slack and bathroom calls at shift change.
Jessica I was a CNA for many years and for the most part you are right. we did get our breaks and mostly could leave at shift change. I have SO much respect for the nurse’s as I have a sister, a niece and a daughter-in-law all in the nursing profession. They work hard and long hours. It was always good to work with nurse’s that respected the CNA’s rather than treating them like they were “below” them. But you will find that in any profession. If I had any regrets in life, it is that I never went on to get my nursing degree. Kudo’s to the Nurse’s !!!! <3. .
Holy crap Lainey, had no idea they’re that hard on the nurses. But like the woman said, unless you’re a nurse, you wouldn’t know. I knew you were determined in your incredible field of NICU work, and I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of you! I love you honey, and you and Kevin take care of each other until we meet up again. XXOO
I can completely understand every detail of this message. The really sad thing is that I called in 8 times during my new grad program because I DREADED IT! Unfortunately, it was some of the other nurses that made my life a living hell! They were rude, they talked behind everyone else’s back, or they would just give the cold shoulder. Even as a new graduate, I had a nurse write me up because I was late giving a med that another nurse said respiratory gives. It was unbelievable. One thing I learned during this whole nightmare of an experience is that I would treat nursing students and new graduates with compassion and respect, patience and understanding.
Yes Tina, unfortunately nurses eat their young!! So sad been a nurse for 32 yrs. always promised myself I would not be one of those nurses!! I stuck to my guns, I’m now an RNFA and treat all nurses in the OR with respect and help them!!
I have a hard time understanding why you would even stay in nursing if you are so unhappy. Every job has its ups and downs. My grandma said that’s why they call it “work”…otherwise they would call it “fun.” My husband plows snow and spreads salt five months out of the year. Every time it snows or there’s freezing rain, he’s out there 12 to 14 hours at a time. Then, he gets six hours off and he’s back at it again. He’s on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the snow season. Since it doesn’t snow on schedule, we can’t make ANY plans during winter. Even vacations have been canceled when we’ve had snow emergencies. My father was a firefighter who worked 24 hours at a time; my friend is an emergency trauma surgeon and the list goes on and on. Very few people have a dream job. If you really hate it, find a new career, but from my experience, contentment comes from inside YOU, not from what’s going on around you.
I think if your not a nurse, you don’t get it. This person doesn’t hate their job at all – they are describing nursing to a T. I don’t know one nurse who hasn’t felt this way at some point in their career. Kudos for this post! It’s brave and true!
i realize she was just venting, and everyone is allowed that. Especially in a personal blog. But she wasn’t “describing nursing”, she was writing to an audience that she presumes aren’t nurses and telling them about how “****ing hard” nursing is. The general tone is suggesting that nursing is so much harder than other careers. If anyone was to take offense at her writing, I think that would be the reason why. Work is hard period. It’s why they call it work. It seems incredibly presumptuous to talk down to people of other career paths. And, while we’re on the subject, “if you’re not xxx you don’t get it” is the dumbest non-statement anyone can make. It’s basically saying “if you don’t agree with me, you just don’t understand”. It’s like me saying “Being a man is the hardest thing anyone could ever do in life. If you’re not a man, you just don’t understand.”
I work as a veterinarian, not a nurse, but as a medical professional, I completely understand this nurse’s frustration. You have no clue what-so-ever. Each profession has it’s own sets of difficulties, I’ll admit, but medical care is a beast of it’s own colors. You have no idea what it’s like for your life not to be your own – 9 to 5 is a joke, there is no free time – any moment you *could* be called in to treat a sick horse, even at 3 in the morning. Weekends and holidays are a joke – even when you’re not on call, your phone is chained to your side, and you always have to answer, there is no take a break, you answer, period. While everyone else is out barbequing on memorial day, your putting in 50 hours, in four days. I have no life, I live my job, my plans are all tentatively based on chance and aren’t plans at all, I can’t make commitments because I don’t know what will happen.
I love my job, I love saving lives, I love experiencing an owners joy and relief when their sick horse is better. And, I also die a little bit inside right along with them every time I have to put down a horse someone owned for 30 years, when I have to tell a little girl her first pony is dying and can’t be saved. You have know idea. You have no idea how much it crushes your soul, and then then to have it fester when you can’t even count on a good night’s sleep to shake it off, or spend Christmas with your family and heal a little bit. I admire the strength many of these people have to carrying on those long cold shifts – I understand their frustration and their sacrifice. G-d Bless them. Shame on you for judging someone without taking a moment to step in their shoes.
I agree totally! Nursing is rewarding, but it is emotionally, physically,& mentally draining.
Andrea, I’m going to say the same thing to you that I (and others) have been saying to other posters: walk a few miles in our shoes before you judge a nurse for venting.
And, no, it’s NOT always true that happiness comes from within. It helps to have a sunny disposition and a positive outlook on life, but I don’t think there’s a nurse on this board who hasn’t hated his or her job at one time or another. The fact is, it’s an emotionally and physically draining job, and it’s very hard for someone who’s never done it to understand just HOW draining it can be.
That doesn’t mean that many of us don’t love what we do. There are many times when I feel as if there’s nothing in the world I’d rather be doing, but there are also those difficult moments when I wish I were 5000 miles away from my job.
Not sure why you’re dragging other occupations into the discussion. I’m sure everyone here knows that people in other jobs also experience stress. But that has nothing at all to do with the unique stressors that people in direct patient care experience , nor does it make their expressed frustrations any less valid.
She is the one who brings other occupations into her statement by saying things like “the only other people who can understand are nurses” and “So if you know a nurse, and that nurse mentions to you that they feel like calling in because they just can’t take it another day, don’t give them a hard time. Especially if you have an 8-5 job with weekends off or some other really great schedule.” And one could say “well, this was written by a nurse to other nurses!” but she keeps addressing her audience as being people who specifically aren’t nurses. In the end, I get her point and I suppose that’s all that matters. It does indeed sound like nursing is can be difficult.
But she’s right, Brandon—no one but another nurse can fully understand what nurses go through each day at work.
I’m a nurse. I’m not a police officer or a fire fighter or a truck driver, so I don’t have a full picture of the frustrations people go through with those jobs. Does that mean I don’t think they work hard, or have good reason to gripe sometimes? Absolutely not. Does it mean that fire fighters who say I couldn’t be expected to understand their frustrations are patronizing me? No, of course not.
She is most definitely right as all of the other nurses are on here Brandon.
You honestly have no idea what it’s like being a nurse, or a CNA, without walking in their shoes. I mean heck I’m still in school for nursing and it’s quiet an eye opener. Granted I love every minute of it but having to learn a totally new language basically, moving parts on your body you never knew you moved, being licked, kicked, bit, and feces wiped on you its something *most normal people couldn’t handle and it is mentally physically and emotionally exhausting. But there’s parts of it that are quiet rewarding.
Working in retail, working in accounting, working in fast food has nothing on being a nurse. Yes granted other jobs are difficult too, like being in the military, or a police officer is hard too, but those I know whom are both tell me “they would rather do what they do then be a nurse because you’ve gotta have guts to deal with the stuff we’ve got to.”
Like everyone said, and I am too. Try walking in there shoes, but to me it seems like you couldn’t handle it..
I agree with you. If she’s so unhappy, leave the damn job.
Nursing is the 3rd most stressful job in the US. Policemen and soldiers are 1 and 2. We stay in this profession because we have invested $50,000 plus in our education, and because there are occasionally patients who do know how to say “please” and “thank you”. This has become a me first society and those people who have worked in a service environment know that there are more rude and demanding people than there are grateful ones. There are givers and takers in this world. Nurses are in the profession because they are givers. It would be nice, just once a day, to be appreciated. Ironically, the most severely ill patients are the ones who do appreciate the little extras we try to provide. It’s the least ill patient who is more demanding and thankless. When you can send a person home with knowledge to care for themselves, hear a patient tell a family member, that’s my nurse, isn’t she nice?, or hear a child say Mommy, there’s the nurse who made me well, that’s the best feeling in the world! That is why we stay in this profession.
Andrea, you missed the whole point of the blog…. That’s why she said that only a nurse would understand. You have absolutely no idea!
Andrea-
While plowing snow and spreading salt is very HARD physically, the amount of emotional, physical, and spiritual pressure nurses face on a daily basis is very taxing. I would NEVER trade being a nurse for anything, except I had a freaking awful day today that consisted of working 13 hours without a break or lunch. Nurses need to vent and explain their hardships with others (I try to explain being a nurse to my family and friends and often times fall short.) Many people don’t understand what we go through to advocate and protect our patients. Life or death in the ICU is an everyday thing- that is a taxing but beautiful thing.
Snow plowing that sounds like really hard and stressful work. Please don’t reply to something you have absolutely no clue about. Comparing snow plowing to nursing is preposterous. Shame on you.
Well Said Andrea. i couldn’t agree more.
Vinnie said: “Well Said Andrea. i couldn’t agree more.”
You’re not a nurse, are you, Vinnie?
Mate, nail on the head! Im an RN who used to work in a large public hospital in Australia for 15 years. I reflect on that and wonder how I did it for so long. I realised that I had to leave; I found myself living for my job and not the other way around; my marriage was shaky and even worse my kids knew not to rely on
me for anything because I was always working. It was time to leave. Im one of the lucky ones who managed to get a job in community and I love it. Things at home are better than ever. I agree with another poster who stated she both loved and hated her job in equal parts. Its sad how the bottom line is decided by the dollar and not the needs of the patients and their staff. Healthcare is also stifled by red tape/bureaucracy. We are drowning in paperwork! Every move made requires a piece of paper to be signed; its ridiculous! Nursing is not for everyone; and when my daughter told me that she wanted to be a nurse like her mother; I gently steered her in another direction. I dont think I want her to do what I do.
BTW…I actually love nursing despite my rant!! lol; ive had so many positive moments over my career and worked with some truly amazing and supportive people. Thats what I miss about working in a large organisation, the friendships I made. Only nurses can find humour in what would probably gross so many people out. Its what we do! what I did find distressing was that I felt my job was being slowly
eroded; that my clinical judgement wasnt “sound” because a piece of paper told me so; and like everyone else has been saying that its all about the $$. So dangerous because high acuity + poor staffing/skillmix = mistakes. And there wouldnt be a nurse here who hasnt made some.
Ive been working community for a few years now and am happy to say that I have rediscovered my passion for nursing. And to me, thats awesome!
I have been an RN since 1975, I strongly agree with what you have said. But please stop wishing you’d get into a car accident so you don’t have to go to work. On 12/13/13 I was coming home early because I felt I had to pick up the day shift when someone called out. Normally I would have been in my paper pushing hat that day ( I wear many hats at work) . I left at 3:12, at 3:55 I was in a head on crash when someone put his car in my lane from the opposite direction. I was in the hospital 3 days & now I’m in a wheelchair for a few more weeks before I can use crutches. Broken heel & sternum. My car is totaled, I am out of work. Disability pending and it’s a tenth of my pay. Be careful what you wish for – I am my own patient now.
I UNDERSTAND HOW YOU FEEL I STUPUDLY took on another shift and at 5pm i was violent attacked by my pt i reported it told them i was hurt i had to go to the hosp they were more worried about him and his family i was forced to work til 11:45pm that night i was dx with whip lash and lunbar strain well here iam seven surguries later my back was broke and my neck was bad so here i sit at 44 so i feel your pain as i know mine is great and they refuse to pay me say not related figure that out but i will say this this doesnt discourage me about nursing just have to take a different turn in life for now,
;
Well said. Nursing is more than pill and food tray passing… though these tasks alone keep a nurse busy… I can relate to the feeling “dread” at the start of shift…. as nurses we must support each other and watch out for each other… thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Amazing! You hit the nail on the head. Thank you for writing this! I couldn’t agree more!
All nursing staff that includes RN ,LPN, and CNA s are defiantly crucial to taking care of all residents or patients. They have to work as a team or all will fail! CNA
I DID get hit by a car on my way to work. “My first uttered statement was, “I’m going to be late for work!” My first phone call was to my floor. My car was totaled and towed. The policeman who investigated the accident drove me to the hospital ( to work, not to be examined ). I was only 1 hour late. Thank God no one gave me a hard time for being late, because I’d be in jail right now.
I have been a nurse for 34 years. You so nailed the emotions/dedication of this profession. Being a mom myself and raising 3 kids…I struggled with this also. I have been fortunate to work with some pretty awesome people.
I sympathize with the opinions expressed by the writer, but she loses a lot of credibility by suggesting that nursing is so much harder than other careers. Firstly, if she’s been a nurse since college, she simply doesn’t KNOW what other professions go through. Secondly, I’m sure there are many professionals, from COPS, to Soldiers to Firefighters to Teachers who could regale her with stories about how their professions are much worse and they don’t appreciate being talked down to. Thirdly, she PICKED to be a nurse. If she doesn’t like it she can do something else. But again, my mother was a nurse and I sympathize with how difficult it is and how much they are needed.
Why is it that so many posters here are reading things into the original entry that Grimalkin never said?
Where, for example, did she say, “Nursing is so much harder than being a cop or a soldier or a firefighter or a teacher”?
Where did she say, “I hate this job and I can’t handle it, and I don’t know what to do about it”?
Answer: she didn’t. She never made any comment about other people’s professions, or compared hers to theirs. Nor did she ever state or imply that she “doesn’t like it,” or wants to get out of nursing.
Can you understand that some things in life are neither all black nor all white? That people can be ambivalent about their jobs? That it’s possible to love what one does for a living, but hate some of the things that get in the way of doing it well? That a person can vent about his/her job, but not necessarily be looking for someone else to come up with a snap solution?
How about just taking her words at face value? Recognizing that sometimes she’s tired and frustrated and bewildered, but that that doesn’t necessarily translate into being burned out? Recognizing that she’s not putting YOUR job down in any way, or suggesting that you don’t work as hard as she does?
As I said earlier, there seems to be an awful lot of resentment here toward nurses who make negative remarks about their work. Why is that? Would there be this many negative reactions if it were a police officer or a paramedic doing the venting?
You ask where she says “nursing is harder than other professions”. She essentially says it when she says
“In nursing, it is NORMAL to have days where you wake up and just can’t mentally and emotionally face the day at work. I swear, the only other people who can understand this are nurses.”
That is saying that it’s somehow NOT normal for other professions to feel that way. If she was just writing exclusively about nursing, it wouldn’t be notable in any way, but she keeps bringing an audience of non-nurses into her writing. The tone of the blog isn’t “nursing is hard”, it’s “You don’t understand how hard nursing is and you can’t possibly unless you’re a nurse.”
Brandon, you seem to be looking for reasons to get offended by Grimalkin’s commentary.
Okay, so what you’re saying is that you know other people, who aren’t nurses, who ALSO regularly have days where they wake up and just can’t mentally and emotionall face the day at work.
Fine. I’ll agree that that’s probably true. Now, did you happen to notice that she reminded the reader, very clearly, that she wrote this entry when she was very stressed out after a difficult stint at work, and feels that she should probably have made a few changes before posting it?
Instead of looking for things to refute in her remarks, how about just taking them at face value? How about just focusing on the fact that this is a nurse who wrote down some frustrations about the job she loves one day when she was at a very low point? You admitted yourself that you believe nursing must be a hard job, so it doesn’t sound as if you disagree with the spirit of what she was communicating, even if you’re disputing the “letter” of it.
Olivia, well said!! I cannot fathom why people are taking HER blog and making it all about them.
Cindy, just hit the Unsubscribe button in your email. You can unsubscribe yourself. This thread sure has sparked the emotions for many. I think the blogger should cut off further comments as she has already accomplished well more than the purpose of her post and the thread has taken on a life of its own–a mark of a good post!
Brandon, STFU!!! She is not talking down to anyone, or implying that nursing is better than any other profession, or that any other profession is beneath nursing!! She is expressing HER OWN thoughts, feelings and frusterations on HER OWN blog, to fellow nurses. Why are you even reading it? I’m sorry your little feelings are hurt because she didn’t specifically include you in the dodge ball game, or are you just that insecure?? Why don’t you go somewhere else and do your whining and complaining; I don’t think your grown up enough for this blog!!
you are right. I would argue that at multiple points in her writing she addresses an audience of non-nurses, but you are right that it is still intended to be venting to other nurses. I wasn’t trying to be combative to what she wrote. I was just writing my reaction to how it comes off to someone who isn’t a nurse. Regardless, nurses do an important job and are very much needed and appreciated.
Brandon, you are looking for things to argue about simply for the sake of arguing, when you have no clue what you’re talking about. The only person she is addressing is herself, with the added benefit of reaching out to other nurses for a little comradarie after a particularly trying shift.
Just stop!!!!
I really think you are reading into her statements. You can’t possibly understand what it’s like to be a nurse anymore than we can understand your job. Hearing stories about a nurses day doesn’t do it justice. This profession is unbelievably hard, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love it. The hands on, one on one time spent with patients is why most of us get into nursing and it’s also the reason we stay. But the parts that make this job so challenging are often enough to make you want to crawl in a corner and never come out… like watching people you have grown to care about die right before your eyes and having to break the news to their families. The fact that other nurses feel the same way makes me feel like I can keep going after horrible days. I applaud this blog post and if you can only read the bad in it, then please stop posting so those of us who benefit from it can support each other.
First of all I have been reading a lot of your responses. You are entitled to your opinion. She is also entitled to her opinion. Let it be known that I am currently working as an icu nurse. I have also worked many different jobs in my life. (Ex army went to a few war zones) I think I can comment on this reasonably well. I have also felt this way. I never felt as stressed in the military as I do as a nurse. I don’t many people that have had a more varied career path than mine. I have to say you aren’t a nurse if you don’t get it.
Very good article . I have worked 12 hr shifts for 24 yrs 8 hrs shifts prior to that . My nursing career was just cut short by botched surgery . But I feel like I wrote that article . All of the above sounds like me except I was never strangled ! I only hope many nurses read this article & pay herd because it is all right on the mark ! One thing nurses do have to do is have each other backs . At my place of employment staffing was cut & it was not abnormal for me to work part if my shift by myself with 12 ventilator PTs !!!!! Somehow I usually managed but it was nothing beyond guy wrenching . And yes missed many holidays with my family , many of my children’s sports events etc . I did enjoy nursing & wish I could still work but now I can’t but hope as I said before that nurses who read this pay attention . The most important thing I agree with this article is consideration for your fellow nurse . .
As a nurse all I have to say is Thank you.
The original post brought tears to my eyes and made me laugh. Hoping to be in an accident on the way to work really hit home. That feeling of nausea as you drive up to the place. I worked on a unit where at one point we (me, (the nurse) and the CNA’s) had a monthly parking lot party in the grocery store lot across the street after our shift. It had to be on a night that I actually left the job when I clocked out (which were few and far between). That included piling into a smoked filled car and shots of alcohol, before we all went our seperate ways. I worked in the nursing profession for 14 yrs. I am very proud of the work I did and the care I gave. When the stress of not being able to provide quality care due to the unrealistic expectations of the administration, the ratio of staff to pt., got to the point where I found myself cutting corners and feeling defeated, I left. I am also very happy that I chose to simplify my life and make less than half of what I made as a nurse and am now amazed at what it’s like to work a “normal” job. I still work holidays, my husband and I are the 24 hr. staff for a hotel, I live where I work. People think my current job must be stressful and I always laugh and say, “not compared to nursing”. I keep up my nursing license, just in case I have to go back.
I am an LPN at a nursing home. I love my job, I just worked three 12 hour night shifts on the weekend. There is good and bad with every job or profession. We have one RN for the whole facility at night and she mostly pushes papers. She works codes and IV’s and stuff. I would never want her job. I love my residents they are like family to me. I hope to retire there. To be holding someones hand when they leave this earth is a priviledge. I do gripe about hours and working holidays but that is part of my job. We have a huge turnaround on CNA’s because their job is really hard and you can’t do this just for a paycheck. When they realize that they have to decide am I cut out for this? It is a thankless profession a lot of the time but my residents tell me everyday how much they appreciate me and love me. What more could a person ask for? I have one sister that is an LPN like me and one that is an RN in Atlanta and I wouldn’t trade with my sister in Atlanta. I love my job!!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone has to vent every once in awhile and I love my nursing family and coworkers!!!!!!!
Well said! I have been a nurse for over 20 years and everything you said is true!! We all need to take better care of ourselves and each other! I have been very fortunate and never missed my daughters school events mostly due to my coworkers . I have also worked many weekends, missed family dinners and holidays due to schedules and work policy!
You need a new job, I’ve been at mine for 25 years and no intentions of leaving. I’ve worked every shift, cleaned up a whole lot of messes, lost patients, saved patients but never hoped to be in an accident yet. And you can thank the government for all the cutbacks; CMS rules and regs border on insanity and are very costly, reimbursements are based on moving targets… hospital administrators had better be well prepared and nicely paid for their efforts or we won’t have any hospitals left.
What is a CMS? I’m possibly looking far a career change…
Wow, sounds like nurses have it so tough… 2-4 years of education, and BAM! a well-paying, secure job for the rest of your life. I do know nurses personally – while they love complaining about the hardships of nursing, they look very well taken care of. Most have bought homes before they hit 30. Paid sick leaves, long vacations, and a salary that’s higher than most Masters graduates get these days. I agree that nursing is physically challenging (due to shift work and having to clean up messy patients), but it’s not mentally challenging. Sorry, but if you find nursing too hard, maybe you should try another field.
Ha! Not mentally challenging?! Ask your nurse friends about that one! Cleaning up vomit and throw up is just the top of the iceberg! We deal with families of patients, abuse cases, death, severely understaffed, NOT that great of pay, especially depending on where toy work! 12 hours shifts easily become 15, doctors are never there and get all the credit. Having 15 things to do at once and not knowing where to begin, verifying medicating doses, starting highly risky medications and treatment on people! I can’t tell you how many tines I’ve been at work and haven’t so much as used the restroom by 6pm! You know nothing about the profession, and that’s why she put this article, she’s not saying is horrible all the time, just venting, and we’re all entitled to that!!!!
Not mentally challenging??? A secure job for the rest of your life? You have never been a patient who’s first line of safety is the RN. Walk a mile in their shoes and get back to us.
this response comes a year after the original post and probably won’t even be seen, but I just have to say: You are truly a moron!
sorry, I misread the date – well I stand by my statement to Anne
It is VERY mentally challenging… you are obviously not a nurse and have no idea what you’re talking about…
It isn’t mentally too hard?! Try constructing a ace tan e a little better than a tenth grader before you start espousing your ill-informed views on the mental capacity required in roles you have no experience working in. As an RN in Australia with a previous degree in humanities at one of the highest ranked universities in the world, I think that nursing, if done well, can be one of the most intellectually, physically and emotionally demanding jobs out there! Yes, our jobs are secure and we earn what could be called good money, but as you stated earlier, there are pros and cons of every job. I imagine job insecurity and poor rates of pay get a lot of air time when you’re bitching about your jobs to friends….here’s an idea, why do t you try nursing?! With an intellect like yours it would be a walk in the park!
Anne, instead of judging why dont you go to Nursing School and work 1yr. You wont make it. My wife is a RN and every 12 hour shift she has 4-5 patients and sometimes more. On top of that she is a mother and an incredible one giving up sleep to be there for everything, even going to every VA medical appt I have just to make sure the care I get is up to HER standards. So unless you can walk in their shoes, dont comment.
“Paid sick leaves, long vacations, and a salary that’s higher than most Masters graduates get these days” you just described administrators and you forgot about their bonuses…..nurses don’t get bonuses. Paid sick leaves? Really, it’s called pto. We earn it, have to work 8-12 hours to earn 1 hour. Maternity leave? not a right. I wish “messy patients and shift work were the worst of our problems!. Nobody told me 2o plus years ago that I would have to fear for my safety working in the hospital. A guy or girl hits me in Walmart and they go to jail. THey hit me in the ED and I have to accept it as part of my job. There is no pay or :salary” worth being in fear! I LOVE my job I LOVE doing what I do.Your nurse friends are indeed lucky to have you such a caring and understanding friend to support them.
Suck it Anne! When you get sick I hope you have a nurse like the ones you describe .
Anne,
Hopefully, the nurse who you don’t believe is mentally challenged can calculate that dose correctly of the medication You need when You arrive in the emergency room.
Hopefully, the last code she dealt with or name she was called has no affect on her mental state when she cares for you or your family.
Sounds like You think its easy? Go to school– try it !
Try walking in our shoes before you say it’s not a mentally challenging job. Ever tried keeping a person alive? Doing cpr on somebody while praying that they make it? Do you constantly and consistently make decisions where a persons life depends on that decision? Have you ever comforted somebody whose writhing and crying in pain? And then try to do everything to make that pain go away? Have you taken care of five people like that all at once in 12 hours?
Not mentally challenging? Ha! Pray that if God forbid that you end up in a hospital that whoever takes care of you is actively thinking because that is what is needed to keep you alive.
Never judge a nurse (anybody really) until you’ve been where they have.
Anne, I think you’re confusing nursing with some other job. Nursing is indeed VERY challenging mentally. You have to take report on a number of patients, most of whom have outstanding orders to process, as well as numerous needs and requests. Then you have to mentally sort out all those tasks, determine which need to be done first and which can wait a bit. And, finally, you need to get them all done in a timely manner, OMITTING NONE OF THEM FOR ANY REASON, while being constantly interrupted by the telephone, call lights, coworkers, patients, patients’ family members, computer glitches and unexpected problems.
I’m a bit amused by your claim that we get “long vacations.” I’ve been at my current job for 15 years and have quite a bit of personal time accrued, but I’m not allowed to use more than two weeks at a time, and those two weeks must not be during major holiday times. Believe me, I’d love to take several weeks off, but I can’t do it.
And, yes, the pay is decent, although not princely. Do you know why? Because they HAVE to pay decently, in order to attract experienced nurses. There’s a reason, you know, that there was such a serious nursing shortage up until recently.
You know something? I detect some resentment in your post, as well as the posts of others who reacted negatively to Grimalkin’s original commentary. Maybe you wish you had our job, so you could show us how much better your attitude would be? Well, come on and join us, then! Go to school, get your RN or LPN, take a job on a busy hospital unit, and THEN tell us we don’t work all that hard, or use our brains all that much.
I think you, and many others, would be eating your words within a couple of weeks.
Well said
Well said Jamie..I really do think Anne must have nursing confused with something else. I know “critical thinking ability” is included in my actual written job description. Everyday is mentally challenging and taxing and I know we all learn something new daily on the job on top of the education and experience we already possess. I wouldn’t trade this job for the world though!
I gaurantee both her AND Brandon would be eating their words, and I’m certain it wouldn’t take a couple of weeks. Tell us Ann, what would you do for someone who went into cardiac arrest, or pulmonary edema? How about if someone is puking up blood all over your shoes and scrubs; what do you do for them? What does that mean? How about if the little old man comes in with a respiratory rate of 32 or a pulse of 210? Then what? What does it really mean when someones BP is 210/120, or their blood sugar is 523? Oh, wait, I bet you didn’t realize that those was outside of normal limits, did you? Tell us how you measure up the correct dose of medications for these people, and tell us that without googling it, because we don’t have time to google these things, we have to know it, inside and out!! Oh wait, you don’t really know what cardiac arrest or pulmonary edema means???? Now tell us how to handle all of those issues ALL AT THE SAME TIME! Yeah, you both would be in the corner, in the fetal position, sucking your thumb, asking for your mommy. How long can you wait to pee? Can you hold it for 12 hours? Try it one day, and then remember that nurses do that very thing every single day. I suppose you get two 15 minute breaks and a lunch break at the same time every day. Try working 15 hours straight on a small, snack-size bag of cheetos, while walking AT LEAST 10 miles in that 15 hour shift. I guarantee, nursing is not a cake walk, but you know what, we love it!!! Go somewhere else; you’re not big enough to play here with the big kids either.
Anne: you actually just brought tears to my eyes. After just coming off 3 night shifts, and seeing an unsuccessful resuscitation on a young male trauma patient in his 20s last night, it actually just doesn’t offend me as much as it hurts to hear something like this. Not mentally challenging? Do you know the breadth of knowledge that a good nurse carries with her? Knowledge ranging from human anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, pharmacology, etc. Or that her decisions based upon her assessments are actually often life and death decisions? When one day you land yourself in the care of a nurse in a healthcare facility -because let’s be realistic – we all land there sometime, watch a bit more closely. I, like the writer of this blog, am not suggesting that nursing is the only challenging profession out there, but simply that it is challenging. period. She is simply sharing her experience – how arrogant of people to think that they can challenge another’s experience.
Dear Anne, not mentally challenging? You try doing math to calculate a drip while your patient is seizing. Now try it if it’s a child seizing and the parents are shouting at you. You try programing a pump while explaining to your patient yet again why they can’t have anything to eat or drink. You try constantly deciding which med order or treatment needs to be done first based on need, acuity, and irritability of patient and family members. You try juggling ALL of this while charting it in a computer program written by people who obviously have no clue what nurses DO. You try scheduling everything you suddenly can’t do now because you have to take care of the critical patient that just came in the door and figuring out what you can delegate while putting the patient on the cardiac monitor and evaluating their rhythm. You try answering a lawyer’s questions while not freaking out or crying because they are trying to trip you up and make you sound like you don’t know what you are doing when you did everything you could, and did it right but they still had a bad outcome. Yeah, I bought a home AT age 30, but I feel like I earned it. I was also a single mom to two boys and I COULD have just become a welfare recipient and been there for all their holidays and games and school things. But I chose the house and hope for retirement someday. I chose to work, use my head, my heart and my body to help others while I was at it. I don’t want to find another field, and I don’t complain to my non-nurse acquaintances at all. Instead, I come here and discuss it with the others in my field. I think that’s appropriate, even if it upsets you.
Excellent reply…you said exactly what I wanted to say, but couldn’t articulate the way you did.
Not mentally challenging? I suppose you can calculate a dopamine drip or a heparin drip in moments and make sure there aren’t any contraindications while preparing yourself to deal with any complications that arise, or prioritize a dozen tasks while orchestrating the flow of a busy ER? You are probably knowledgeable about a myriad of diseases and conditions and have the ability to decide which patients need immediate interventions and which ones can wait. You can’t make a mistake, because if you do, someone could die in your waiting room! Nursing requires very high mental acuity.
Even nursing jobs are not always secure; we get laid off, too. And by the way, I don’t know any nurses who get paid sick leave.
Nursing is a wonderfully rewarding, fulfilling career that I wouldn’t give up for anything, but it’s not easy…physically or mentally.
Anne, pardon me but you sound like a complete idiot. Yes nurses do make a good living compared to others, but the job isn’t just passing a few pills and calling it a day. There are people, I’m certain like yourself, who treat nurses like slaves and maids. When Mr. Smith is lying in one bed dying, I’m sure you are in the next room wanting your pain medication you don’t need or that bowl of chicken broth the doctor told you not to eat because you have pancreatitis. I’m sure that you are the one individual that makes a nurse’s job miserable. But I doubt you see that because morons don’t usually get it.
Not mentally challenging!!!!!????? Are you kidding me???!!!!! You obviously haven’t a clue what nursing requires! Do you realize that nurses are just as accountable as doctors for a patients care? Do you have any idea what the nursing process is? Not mentally challenging!!!!! ha! Perhaps YOU are mentally challenged to believe that!
To the nurses who replied,
I understand the point you raise. Yes, there is a certain mental challenge to nursing – but it doesn’t measure up to the mental work in engineering, computer programming, science, or teaching (esp. high school). Have you ever experienced migraines, brain glucose depletion, dizziness, depression, mental disability as a result of too much mental work? I know people in these fields who have. I respect all working people, even those working in in McDonald’s, because I can see that their job is hard in ways people don’t appreciate. I don’t think nursing is harder or more worthy of praise than many other professions, which makes me annoyed when nurses complain about how hard their work is, and exalt the value of nursing to a ridiculous degree. I’ve even heard nurses compared to saints. I get that nurses are overworked, but it’s partly the fault of the nursing unions – if they didn’t demand $30/hr wages, maybe governments could afford to hire more nurses. Don’t forget that our economy has not yet exited the prolonged recession. Also, a lot of the stress is self-inflicted by nurses as a group, in the form of older nurses bullying younger ones. The nurses I know personally suffered far more from bullying than from dealing with difficult patients and families. One was depressed because the older nurse who bullied her would be there EVERY DAY for the 10+ years it took her to retire, and it was the only hospital in town to work at.
Maybe I’m a little resentful, because after completing a graduate degree in a very challenging field, I’m finding it hard to start a career without the unpaid internship. I’ve experienced underpaid office jobs that were so stressful that I did nothing but work and sleep for the period of my tenure. I know the stress of having zero paid sick days per year. Holding a dying patient’s hand doesn’t sound so bad compared to what me and my peers are going through, but I would never choose to be a nurse because it’s a poor fit with my abilities and interests, and because I couldn’t take orders I disagree with. I will stick it out in my chosen field without complaining, because it’s a field I love.
I may also have a skewed view of nursing from observing nurses at an outpatient clinic where I was volunteering for 2 years. Most of their work seemed incredibly menial – like showing patients into rooms and organizing charts. The lunch boxes started coming out at 11:30am, and you wouldn’t believe all the superficial chatting. It must not be like that on busy hospital floors. Even in this clinic, I’ve met wonderful nurses who rightfully took pride in the great job they were doing, but also many who suffered from a severe lack of professionalism. They were the ones who complained about everything, started cat-fights, and passed on too much of their work to volunteers. I hope more real-life nurses are as wonderful as you, and not as lazy and catty as some nurses I met at this clinic.
To summarize, yes nursing is a hard and valuable profession, but it’s not moreso than many other professions, so the complaining is unjustified, in my opinion.
Are you a nurse? How would you know what the mental challenge of nursing is? Are you an engineer, computer programmer, scientist and teacher? Do you really know what the mental challenge is with those professions, or do have skewed vision of those careers, as well? The poster is not saying she has it any worse or better than any other profession. Maybe if you weren’t just a bit too sensitive, you’de realize this post isn’t about you. It’s about her and a particularly trying shift. She’s not complaining, she’s venting about a particulary trying shift to fellow nurses who have been there, done that. And yes, you do have a skewed, narrow-minded view of nursing, so perhaps you should do your homework before you flap your jaws about something you know nothing about. And, for your information, not only do nurses have to do UNPAID internships, we are racking up students loans, and forking over money to do those UNPAID internships, just like people in other professions do. This includes working very little while in nursing school, because there’s no time for all the studying and a full-time job. And yes, before you also get your little feelings hurt, I’m aware that engineers, scientists and teachers all have student loans, and too much studying to work full-time, and unpaid internships; however, this blog is about NURSING! Why are you even here? Go to an engineers blog, or a teachers blog, and complain to them about how their blogs don’t include everyone.
I was a nurse for a decade, and I have to respectfully disagree with you – I’m on my 2nd career, running a business from my home, and even with the 16 hour days that I pull right now, sitting in my chair, and grinding away on the computer with very cerebral tasks, I count my blessings everyday that I’m able to do this, even if it is a 24/7, around the clock job. There really is no comparing the two.
Nurses are some of the hardest working people I have ever met in my entire life. Yes, you get a few bad apples in there, and some are lazy and complacent, but most of those staff don’t last, or end up leaving or getting fired.
Not all nursing jobs are challenging or difficult, but a vast majority require an immense amount of strength and are,mentally, physically, and emotionally draining.
You also commented about your observation of nurses working in a clinic, and how menial their tasks seemed, and yet, generalized what nurses do based only on that observation. You are completely wrong, and speaking from someone who is an observer, and never worked a day as a nurse, I don’t understand how you can even form an opinion.
Why don’t apply to nursing school, get a job on any of the floors in the hospital including med-surg, surgical, telemetry, ICU, CCU, or trauma, then come back and tell me what you think again.
You will never understand how difficult it is to be an RN unless you’ve lived it, so I politely suggest that you re-think what you said above as you may offend a lot of very hard working people on this forum.
@ Josi – wow you are so rude. I noticed you left rude comments one someone else’s post as well. I can appreciate that many people here have different opinions from my own, but you just go straight for the personal insults – is that because you are too emotional, or you can’t come up with good arguments?
For your information, yes I’m an engineer. I won’t quiz you on your knowledge of engineering as you quizzed me on my knowledge of nursing, because that wouldn’t be fair. As I explained, I know of nursing from volunteering and talking to many nurses, some of whom are close friends. If we were only allowed to have opinions on things we have extensive personal experience with, there would be no politics or public debate of any kind. And FYI, practicum during nursing school does not equal unpaid internship, because it’s an integral part of your degree – you can’t become a nurse just by taking lecture courses. Now if you excuse me, I have better things to do than to argue with you further. Good night.
@ MB – thank you for the different perspective.I don’t mean to offend nurses – I know many of them do work hard and do a superb job. I guess my frustration is just based on a collection of blogs and posts that get shared around social media that make nursing sound like THE hardest, most unrewarded, saintly job there is, which I think is offensive to hardworking professionals in other fields. My perspective is based on volunteering at a large clinic, personally knowing many nurses, and news sources. I don’t claim to know everything about nursing, but I feel I know enough to have an opinion. Maybe we can just agree to disagree on this issue.
Anne, the fact that you say holding a patients hand while they die hardly seems to compare to the stress of having trouble finding a job just proves you are a bitter human being. Go somewhere else with your negativity. Don’t be mad at us that we took a look at the economy before going to college and picked a degree with a high probability of finding work right after graduation. This isn’t about you so go somewhere else with your negativity. Or, better yet, maybe you should be spending your time looking for a job instead of spewing your uninformed and frankly useless opinion.
PS To those questioning what I’m doing on a nursing blog – well I’m here because my nursing friends have plastered this blog post all over my Facebook and Twitter. I usually ignore these posts, but it was just one time too many, so I ended up reading and commenting on it. We engineers design the car you drive and the bridge you take to work. We solve difficult problems daily, working under immense pressure. Yet you don’t see this type of empathy-seeking behaviour by engineers or any other professionals.
I should also note that this original blog post is not even that bad – it’s insightful, well-written and shows that the author is a caring and responsible person. I’m a little sorry for my original comment – the author didn’t deserve to get my reaction just for being the “last straw” in a mountain of similar pieces that have been barraging my social media feeds courtesy of friendly nurses. However, some of the comments here are quite trashy, esp. those by the likes of Josi.
Anne, what you say about engineers simply isn’t true. My husband is an engineer, and he’s done plenty of venting to me after a really stressful day at work. So do his coworkers, at the annual company parties.
The difference is that I can listen and commiserate, without trying to turn it into some kind of contest or opportunity to sermonize.
The simple fact is that, when we fallible human beings have endured a lot of stress—-for whatever reason—-it helps sometimes to vent about it to a sympathetic ear, and to think aloud about what could be done in the future to address the underlying problem.
Oh Ann, don’t go away mad, just go away! I’m not emotional to have a debate about this subject; I just don’t have time or patience for narrow-minded people.
Hey Anne! How about you comment in a profession in which you have expertise in! You clearly know nothing about nursing personally & this post was meant for Nurses!!! & those that appreciate them. Go find your own little blog to preach your opinions to. It’s clear no one here is interested in your opinions/observations!
Sorry I have to respectfully disagree with you. I am not an engineer, but have been a critical care and hospice nurse at the bedside for many years. Our work is intensely demeaning. Yes sometimes we do menial tasks, but we do them to provide the patient with dignity. Becoming a nurse isn’t just about cleaning up people, It is about understanding people, holding a hand, knowing when to be firm when to cry with them. It is about understanding math, chemistry, biology, microbiology, physics, and computers. It is about knowing about meds, their interactions, How to shock someone back to life, and if it fails, how to deal with the family who is devastated.
It is about putting on someone’s shoes because they can’t bend over. Calling social services to help the homeless man. DOing CPR and bringing someone back to life. It is also about making sure they are clean, they have dignity, their beds are made, they understand what is happening. It is about teaching, loving, learning about yourself each and every day.
My only complaint about nursing is the lack of support we give each other, and the lack of support from management. Harassment runs wild amongst us, and due to the stress, we are not often nice to each other…
Anne, I am a cna who is in nursing school currently and work in a hospital on an inpatient unit. The only thing that really struck a nerve to make me personally reply to this comment was you saying that holding a dying paty hand as they pass doesn’t sound so bad. You DO NOT understand thats not just some stranger in there with a room number instead.of a name we usually get to know our dying patients and when they pass you will remember their face forever that look of death seeing them hearing then breathe that last breath will be imprinted in your memory forever and in your heart so dont you dare say it doesnt sound so bad. It is the most emotionally tolling part of our whole job loosing a pt is never easy no matter how they pass. If you take one thing away from this whole conversation know that it is never easy to hold a pts hand as they die.
Anne…
Know I don’t know much about your profession, so let me ask you a question.
What happens is you make a mistake only to catch it later when the math doesn’t add up?
Or
What happens when you must multi task and are behind on one of your tasks?
For nursing depending on what area your in can mean the death of a child (in my case). May sound dramatic but if some of these kids have their meds stopped for even a minute it could mean they have no blood pressure.
Or try to talk to a family and explain things that they are told just don’t understand when their child is dying or just died.
We have also had nurses (and staff) attacked, we had a shooting in the middle of our Peds unit (not a single nurse left their patients side), we also have had nurses refuse to leave a patient that couldn’t be moved during a serious bomb threat.
So this may not be the same type of mental demands you have but it’s no less demanding.
Anne, I’ve worked in the education field (secondary), as well as nursing. I found nursing to be much harder. Why? Because, if a teacher makes a mistake, it can easily be rectified, with no damage to the student. Not so with nursing. Because, if a teacher is having a rough day and needs to take things a bit easier just to keep his/her sanity, s/he can do it with impunity? Not so with nursing. Because a teacher KNOWS, before walking into the classroom each day, who his/her students are, and what kind of challenges they present? Not so with nursing, except perhaps in long term care and some home care jobs. In others, each day brings new patients, with a brand new set of problems and (in some cases) unfamiliar diagnoses and equipment to master. Because teaching has some routine to it, and teachers have reason to assume that the issues they tackle on Wednesday will be fairly similar to those they tackled on Monday and Tuesday? Again, not so with nursing.
In any case, this isn’t a contest about which profession involves the most mental work. Can you, a non-nurse, just accept that, when the vast majority of nurses here claim that their job involves a lot of mental work, they’re probably better qualified than you to know what they’re talking about?
If Nurses have it so good, and have a well paying, easy secure job, why don’t you do it? Why are you so bitter that nurses are earning a good salary? Why do you think nurses earn that salary? Because it takes a special kind of person to do that kind of work.
In addition, just because one has a Master’s degree, doesn’t guarantee a higher pay. If you’re a liberal arts major, or an MBA (which are a dime a dozen degree), a JD, or any other higher education degree I could list here, doesn’t mean you command a higher paying salary because of it.
There are also many jobless engineers, and MBA’s out there, and I know many people that have Master’s and even JD’s that don’t use their degrees, and are off doing something else.
Griping about not getting a good salary because you’re an MBA, or have obtained a higher education sounds like something a millennial would say – expecting to start off at a good salary because they decided to do additional education.
Guess what – nobody cares what degree you have, it’s the experience you have in life and what you make of yourself after that counts.
Nurses are worthy of EVERY single damn penny they get, and unless you’ve worked as one, you can take your opinion elsewhere.
And by the way, what higher education degree do you have, and what is it that you do for work?
I agree with you all the way. I remember working at the unit one night and we had a lady come in from an incident. Her family was allowed to visit past visitation because she was a new admit and her ex husband as well. I had managed to get her a meal even though our kitchen was closed. I had filled her ice pitcher, I had her meds straight, room straight, admission complete. Her ex is in the room. She asked me for some ice. I told her I would bring her some. Her ex then states, “don’t hesitate to ask for anything because that is why they (nurses) make the big bucks”). He then turned to me with a serious look on his face and said “you are going to get that ice right?” I told him I would bring it. I then left the room and told my charge nurse who nicely told the ex that visitation was now over.
Are you kidding? The mentality is the job. You cannot be a nurse adequately if you cannot think critically. If your a nurse you’ve figured out proper drug calculations, recommended treatments courses to doctors, prioritized and multitasked and saved lives based on as little as intuition or a slightly misplaced p wave, spent at least a few hrs a week researching to make sure that the total patient care is being done and being done right. You are responsible for making sure everyone from the doctors writing the correct orders to the kitchen bringing the correct diets all while your patients belittle you and order you around. Our job is not a job. It’s a career but it’s not that either. It’s a lifestyle. A lifestyle that takes the mental strength of a Buddhist monk frankly. And if you think they pay is great, just ask a construction worker with no education how much they make…I’d say it’s similar. It’s not about the money or the professionalism, or the vacations (Ha! Most nurses have months of vacation time stacked up that goes right back to the hospital when they are too short staffed to ever approve time off). And if you don’t think that’s hard enough multiple it by the number of patients you have and then add in the time it takes to complete all the paperwork and if you get a chance to pee in that 12 hrs, coworkers might actually congratulate you. But what nursing is really about is none of that. It’s about making people well, bringing a peaceful ending to a life and saving another one. It’s about seeing someone walk or talk or being the first to read the lab results that the patient you worked so hard on is in remission. And you know who those people are that we do it for? All the assholes that think nurses have it easy!
I have been a nurse for many years and have spent all of those years in the Emergency Department, and I can tell you from those years of experience that nursing is, in fact, challenging in every way: mentally, emotionally, physically. Walk a mile in a nurse’s shoes, then we’ll talk.
Anne, you obviously have never taken care of someone. While giving care to someone you can often become vested in them and their families. Nursing is by far more mental than physical, for you to say otherwise just shows how naive you are. Hopefully you’ll never have to be hospitalized, but if you are I pray you get a compassionate nurse. Karma has a way of catching up with you though, good luck.
I have been a pediatric nurse for over 40 years and have just decided to retire my license. It has been a hard career but meaningful. You do miss family holidays, but you know, your patient and family missed theirs as well. When I started nursing school my mom was my first “patient” when she came to the practice lab with me so I could practice some of the skills on her. Last month she also became my last patient as I helped to care for her at the time of her death.
I have three sisters with non-nursing careers and I wouldn’t trade my ability to help my family and other’s families in their time of need with any of their careers.
Consider me grateful to have the honor and responsibility associated with being a nurse.
It iss very true that nurses are really the ones that truly only understand what our job is on any given day. I love what I do but I am there for my patient s not the administration or the rules and regs. My reward is the true gratitude of a patient when I have helped them in some way. It may be as simple as just taking the extra few minures to listen or just paid that extra bit of attention to something as simple as a missing phoneline and getting that corrected for them. I have a dream to have my own small retirement home where my 4-6 residents can live the remainder of their life as they choose with more choices andless regulations. Where I hire the CNA s and nurses that have a heart for them not just a paycheck. I may be out of my mind but I think our job might be more rewarding when we can give care the way we feel it should be given not the way the administration/state regs say care has to be given. When you love what you do and have the freedom to do that job with freedom it becomes the true calling you had when you pursued this vocation. This doesn’t mean it still doesn’t drain you and there are not days you just don’t have the energy to face the day. But those days come fewer and farther between.
Well said
I do not know any nurses that became a nurse for the money. First of all you have to want to be a nurse, and those who go into it for the money soon leave the profession. There isn’t enough money in nursing to endure some of our experiences in patient care; good or bad!
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Thanks a million and please carry on the gratifying work.
This blog made me cry. I am a Hospice CNA. I used to work in the SNFs. I have been thru every situation you wrote about. Although I do not pass meds, the story rings true. I carry my grief and physical pain around. I ALWAYS offer to help the other aides out when they need time off. I am finally taking 2 days off after new years. 600+miles every 2 weeks to bathe and love my patients has taken a toll on me… take care all of us Nurses.. even if we’re just CNAs
You are not “just CNAs” you are the ones who give the most intimate care to our patients. You make a difference in their daily lives. You are a vital, appreciated (or should be) part of the team.
I agree with what is being said, nursing while having it’s rewards is tough. Every area of nursing has its own challenges and if we are being honest we have all felt overwhelmed in our careers.
Donna, this part is specifically for you and your CNA colleagues. You are not JUST a CNA. You are a CNA with unique talents and understanding. I get very upset when you or any other CNA says, just. Your skills are valuable and I have learned things from more then one of you in my career. I have been in education for the past 10 years and part of my job was the education of the CNAs in the hospice that I worked. One of my first challenge was to banish the feeling of being a JUST. It took time and work with the other disciplines to reach that goal but they no longer feel they are a JUST. They know that they can help there patients by what they report to the nurse before others may even see it because they are there at the bedside.
So, Donna, never say JUST because you are not and anyone who tries to make you feel this way is so wrong. remember what I say to you here because that is what counts not what some uninformed person says. Donna you are a proud CNA or while in hospice a proud Hospice Aide!
It takes a nurse practicing in the current healthcare environment to fully appreciate what you have to say. Ahhh…. nursing ….. definitely a “love/hate” relationship …… an abusive marriage we can’t seem to walk away from. Practicing the profession is both a blessing and a curse. My children have terrific lives ie … educations etc for my having made nursing a career … I am single and own a nice home on the sunny coast of California … however the stresses of my job changed the person I once presented to the world and those I love …. soooo yes indeed there is a price to be paid for donning the “white cap”. Yet? given the choice ….. I’d do it again.
btw ….. Thank you …. I appreciate your insights.
Thank you for your honesty that only a nurse can understand! After working 15 years as a flight nurse/ ER nurse, I had nothing more to give. I was spent. Thanks to my previous employers greed, I now have a wonderful job working for a company that puts its staff and patients first. No weekends and no holidays.
Were do you work now?
I am so glad you posted this! Everything rings true! I am an RN who just recently left my job at a hospital on a busy Telemetry floor. Lots of behind the scenes drama and politics that drove me away. I hope to return to nursing soon tho, just in a different atmosphere. Your blog just validated everything I have been feeling but just couldn’t put it into words. I think my friends now understand my inner feelings that I just could not express into words. It’s not about being a nurse and taking care of patients……..there is a lot more that you never get taught in nursing school that goes on! I thank you!!!!
I just quit my job of almost 20 years due to harassment, and the accusation of faking a sick day by a coworker. I had 2 surgeries this year, and was genuinely ill. My coworker called in the managers, despite my attempts to talk decently to her. I was becoming sick with all the hatred nurses have for each other, for their managers, and for the way they are treated. There were many people I love that I will miss. I loved taking care of patients, I hated the way I was treated. If I go back to nursing I will go around the floor and interview everyone to see how they like it at the new place…..
I was tired of going home upset at managers and other nurses. All I wanted to do was be a great nurse, take care of people, and I was blindsided.
Nurses have phenomenal responsibility. We hold the hands of the dying, we keep people alive, we clean dead bodies, we comfort families, we teach, we run, we don’t take breaks, we lift we move beds, think about labs, compare meds, look them up for interactions. We need to know the settings on a ventilator, we need to know Chemistry, science, microbiology, math, We need to be well read, to understand people, We need to respect all religions and cultures. We do it all with grace, but then we stab each other in the back. I don’t’ understand it.
Good luck
Patient care techs work right along side the nurses too you know. N when the nurse has had it we are left to keep it going as best as we can.
How true, thank you xx
I am in my final year of my Nursing degree, and even though it has been the 2 hardest years work I’ve done, I am immensely proud of myself for getting where I am now.
I am so excited about graduating, and will proud to be able to call myself a nurse. The work to get there is so tough, but the rewards will be so worth it in the end. I will be a RN when I am 21, and I am so looking forward to be able to make a change to people’s lives.
So for people saying ‘suck it up’, maybe you should try doing a nurse’s job for one day and see how you hack it. I have chosen to do this career, and even though I know there are many tough times ahead of me, the benefits outweigh the negatives! If we can come home from a shift, and know we have made a difference, then we should all be so proud of what we do.
Honestly, what is wrong with some of these people?! Not mentally challenging?!
Maybe you should sit and hold an elderly man’s hand, as he slowly passes away. Maybe you should sit with a family who have just been told they have lost a loved one. Maybe you should sit with patients who are also missing family holidays as they are too ill to move from their bed. Maybe you should try and do half of the things we do as nurses, and then come back and tell us it’s not mentally challenging.
People don’t realise the stress nurses can be put under. Looking after 11 patients who are all critically ill, is difficult! Some people should put themselves in our shoes, and work one 12.5 hour shift, and then see how they feel!
Nursing is physically and mentally challenging. Nursing requires you to leave your own problems for eight, 10, or 12 hours. When a nurse clocks in, her only thoughts; to focused on taking the best care possible of his or her patients and keeping their nursing license. Mental clarity is a must in nursing if adverse events are to be avoided.
I think the people here (with disgusting grammar, at that) who are insisting that nurses just need to ‘get over it,’ and ‘stop complaining,’ are proving your point. People who aren’t nurses simply don’t understand. Let me put it this way-if you’ve got to call off of work, do you feel guilty because your coworkers may not get a break due to your absence? This woman is posting on her BLOG. Her PERSONAL experiences. And you know what? They’re pretty damn accurate. Nursing is exhausting. How dare you claim that a cashier with no education or a doctor that gets government funding for education and $100,000 a year is the same as a nurse. I hope for your sake you get a nurse her hasn’t read your nasty comments the next time you need medical assistance.
As for this post I completely agree. I’m in school to become a FNP just to get out of inpatient work. But in the same breath that I say how much my career choice exhausts me and drains me physically, mentally, and emotionally, I’m also stating that I wouldn’t change it for the world. It’s an honor to be a nurse. Thank you for your perspective!
I am a retired RN and I do agree with some of what you say. I fully agree that healthcare rationing has been happening for several years. I agree that we are martyrs for the cause. I agree that we have to deal with many different issues in a given day…but I also disagree with some things. I have never had a day that I didn’t want to go to work and see my patients because I needed a mental health day but I have had days when I wished I could attend something my children were involved in. I do regret the fact that as RN’s, we tend to feel sorry for other RN’s and therefore allow them to do poor quality care or actual patient compromising care and don’t report them. I have noticed this particularly as I have grown older and have some significant medical issues. I contracted a severe MRSA infection from a surgical wound packing done in a completely contaminated setting by a health care aide, who was told to do it by the RN, because “she was too busy.” After getting no satisfaction from the RN involved in relation to why this was wrong, my family finally requested that she not be assigned to me any more. 5 days later, I had a 105 fever and have had treatment for MRSA repeatedly but it continues to reoccur. In retrospect, I did no patient a favor by not reporting this to the nursing supervisor. The RN probably is continuing to cause issues by not following protocol. Sometimes we care too much and don’t want to hurt another RN but we denigrate the concept of nursing care when we don’t speak up whether we are nursing supervisors, coworkers or patients!
I’m highly upset by some of the comments that I seem being posted by people who know nothing about the nursing profession and aren’t in the nursing profession but have been nerve to tell us that our job is not that challenging and we are Needing to find other field! if you got into nursing for the right reasons, then you will definitely find the benefit and being a nurse. You all have those days where patient or family touches your heart and reassure you that you’re in the right field and you’re here for a reason. But more days than not wearin appreciated understaffed and underpaid. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve missed lunch or realize that it’s 6 p.m. And I have yet to use the restroom. Its not bad to vent in fact we need to in this profession in order to keep yourself sane and to remind ourselves of why we started here to begin with. Anyone who is commenting on the situation and who knows nothing about being a nurse should really do more research.I’ve had great days and horrible days and I to have wished that I might get in a fender bender just so that I could not have to go in for the day because the day before was so horrible and the day coming looks just as bad. There’s nothing wrong with those thoughts it just shows that we are human. Why are we not allowed to have a bad day? Especially considering all that we deal with. We hold the emotions of all of our patients and their families good and bad. We need to be able to get off of our chest without being ridiculed and the rest of the world needs to understand what we go through. Not to say that other professions are just as demanding or challenging or more rewarding. But nursing definitely has this ideal image to some people and some port in that you know what you’re getting into before you go into it. If not you wind up with a lot more nurses who will not just complain after work but will show it in their work ethic while there. That’s not fair to the patience, the families, or the nurse herself. To say that nursing is not in mind challenging job is completely irrational and ridiculous! You should be ashamed of yourself for ever making such a comment about such a Honorable and hard profession!
How true! Nurses need to insert a NG tube and a foley before they clock in, so we can be feed and bathroom during the next twelve hours. Research from a urologist reveals nursing have the largest bladders related to infrequent toileting.
wow that is the way I feel my mortgage is gonna be paid off in less than a year and im taking some time off im exhausted, emotionally spent and with the cutbacks the nursing field isn’t getting any easier
Thank you for posting this. It’s nice to have my thoughts and emotions reaffirmed by someone else. Although I’ve heard other nurses say similar things, it’s always comforting to hear someone agree with how you feel and show their support.
Great post! I am a nurse in a third world country. We are overworked and underpaid. It’s odd because everything you said is true and I never realized it until now. I need a mental health day.
Reading your post and the comments (I’m ignoring the negative ones because I think they just simply don’t understand), I don’t feel as alone and feeling guilty because I hit my proverbial wall and just want to quit caring. I’ve been a nurse for 5 years and all those years working at night. And yes I’m burnt out. I’m at a point where I dread coming to work. Which is sad. So I’m stepping back and be selfish for a change and take care of myself.
Nursing is physically, emotionally and mentally draining job. It takes a lot out of us.