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Careers / Registered Nurses |
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| Happiness Index |
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| Users in this Career Group |
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| There are 9284 users in this career group. They represent 42 different countries. You can see the list of users in this career group by clicking on one of the links below. You can also join this career group simply by selecting your current status and clicking "Add Me." |
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2120 users are currently in this career. |
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370 users are considering this career. |
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241 users left or retired from this career. |
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6553 users have hidden memberships. |
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| (Hidden users have added this career to their portfolios, but have not indicated a publicly visible status.) |
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| Reviews |
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| There
are 24 reviews of this career. The most recent 3 reviews are listed below. You can see more reviews by clicking on "Read all reviews..." at the bottom of this page. |
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| Write an online review and share your thoughts about this career with others! |
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Author: |
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kevincodd (Washington, DC) |
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Date: |
August 14, 2012 |
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The average nurse burns out in 5 years. I didn't understand why during school. Now that I've been a nurse for 2 years, I get it.
First, the good:
1) It pays relatively well. If you stick with it you can make some serious dough through gigs like travel nursing. But remember, it pays well for a reason. You work your ass off and earn EVERY PENNY.
2) It's easier to get a job as a nurse than for many other careers.
3) If you're willing to work hard, you can help people out a lot, you can literally save lives that would otherwise be lost due to your coworkers' laziness or incompetence.
Now the bad:
1) Most of the Dr.'s treat you like crap. Most of your coworkers treat you like crap. Administration treats you like crap. In a legal situation, they will throw you under the bus in a heartbeat whether you're at fault or not. Many patients and their families treat you like crap; in an urban setting, most will. 9 times out of 10, this is a completely thankless job.
2) Patient loads are so freaking high that it's a miracle we don't kill more people. You have a new admission in addition to your 5 other patients. Did you take 10 minutes to go through the worthless fall risk screening criteria? Did you document it properly? Did you remember to put the orange sticker on their chart, door, and wrist band to alert ancillary departments of their risk of falling? Did you check the eMAR to be sure the pharmacy put in the new medications properly (10% of the time they don't)? Did you check to be sure food services brought the right tray? Guess who's liable if they brought up something the patient is allergic to. Hint: it's not food services. Have turned each of your patients every 2 hours to prevent skin breakdown? The nursing assistant has decided to be defiant and make herself scarce for 45 minutes, so now you have to spend a bunch of time cleaning up your patients after they crap the bed. Have you given all your meds on time? You go to put on gloves, but they weren't restocked. So now you have to go down to supply and get more, then get back to what you're doing. Two call bells go off before you even get to the supply room.
...I could go on. Point is, you spend most of your time either doing worthless documentation or other peoples' jobs for them. Your superiors never recognize you for this. All they notice are the things you don't do (most of the time, those things are pointless). In my practice, I care for the patients 1st and take care of the legal BS later. If I'm sued, I'm sued. I practice according to my conscience.
3) The hours are horrible. Most of the time, you work 3 12-hour shifts per week. At first glance, this seems great. "Wow!" you think, "4 days a week off!?" But you're so dead tired after your work days that all you can do is sit home and recover. Between the horrible things you see (and pain you sometimes have to cause to save peoples' lives), the insane amount of stress you're under, and hurt from how you're treated, I honestly feel the way soldiers look in movies after narrowly escaping death. It sucks the life right out of you. Plus, you will frequently work the night shift. When this is the case, that means you sleep during the day. That means your "time off" will be nights, when everyone else is asleep and there's nothing to freaking do.
4) Occupational hazards. I am a Christian and I try to see the dignity in every human life. But let me tell you, it is extremely difficult sometimes. You get patients who have every conceivable form of hepatitis, HIV, and who knows what else. They are drug addicts who CONSTANTLY harass you for pain meds when they clearly don't need them (they're sleeping soundly when you go into their room, for example). They don't even pay for their damn hospital stay. Taxes or the hospital do. And guess what, they have a sense of entitlement that would make Paris Hilton blush. You are literally risking your life taking care of these people (accidental needleskicks happen ALL THE TIME; hepatitis is transmittable through feces, which you get the pleasure of cleaning up) and they still treat you like crap.
5) You will get no respect. I think society generally recognizes that "nursing is hard", but they really have no idea the degree to which this is true. I could do any job after having survived this one, but doubt many employers would see it the same way. Most people just don't understand how tough you have to be. You have to have phenomenal time management skills, people skills, intelligence (after you have a year or two of experience you have more PRACTICAL knowedge than the new doctors do), and ability to handle stress.
My advice: This is a sacrificial vocation if ever there was one. DO NOT DO THIS JUST FOR THE MONEY. It is absolutely not worth it. Most days I envy the janitor who cleans up my unit. Only go into this job if your goal is to help people. No other reason is enough to make you put up with all the BS. |
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| Write an online review and share your thoughts about this career with others! |
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| Write an online review and share your thoughts about this career with others! |
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| Interesting Fact |
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| Before becoming an actor, Bob Newhart worked as an accountant. |
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| Did you know... |
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| The CareerMatch™ system scores and ranks 748 different careers based on your responses to the four career assessment tests! |
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