I'm hesitant to beat a dead horse, but would you mind elaborating on why you found your time as a nurse so displeasing? I'm mainly asking because you're the first person I've encountered who's had such a blunt, negative view of the profession (I'm not criticizing, just curious! Prospective BSN here). I'd really appreciate hearing about your experience with the field. Thanks very much.
Oh my! Do you have all day? haha. I will speak my peace but keep in mind that this is just my OPINION of the hospital I worked at.
I worked for a money grubbing hospital that cared far more about making money than helping people, patient safety, or employee satisfaction. I worked in a CVICU in which I constantly had to take more patients than what was safe. Think immediate post op CABG still intubated, pt on IABP and a ton of gtts that would not lay flat, and just for fun throw in an over flowed suicide pt in 4pt restraints that is trying to kill everyone. Why did I had to do this? Because my hospital refused to hire any nurses.
80-90% of the patients acted like they were not in the hospital but rather at the holiday inn on vacation and that I was not a well trained nurse but a maid. They were unappreciative of everything I did for them and acted as if it was MY fault that they were in the hospital. They were hostile and nasty when asked to do anything that was for their own good.
Know it all family members who would complained constantly and would not listen to anything.
Dealing w administration people who had no idea what needed to be done to take care of patients yet they would constantly meddle and screw stuff up.
Doctors who would transfer us BS patients that were not critical enough to be in a CV just because they knew that the CV nurses wouldn't call and wake them up with dumb stuff.
Doctors that would not transfer our patients out of the unit because the hospital made more money for a CV bed.
Doctors that would do interventions on patients KNOWING that we have NO CV surgeon available and that if they messed up a coronary that the nearest CV surgeon was 2hr by car away.
The fact that I couldn't find a SPO2 cord that worked in my unit but the hospital could afford to throw a xmas party in which only admin went to.
Having to argue w the house supervisor about literally everything because she might have had the worst clinical judgment in the history of the world.
Because we had no staff, it was almost impossible to take off. And it was "mandatory" for us to work overtime..every week.
Cleaning up piss, puke, crap, blood, from a patient that was loathsome in every way.
Dealing w residents that try to intubate pts w the ETT backwards or use a yankauer because they were that clueless and poorly trained.
Having to spend 30min on the phone trying to explain to a resident why a pt not peeing in the past 5 hrs was a bad thing. (they had been in the ER that whole time I didn't watch them not urinate for that long haha)
Dealing w doctors that would not call you back or would not show up with their pt was coding. Saying things like "I got some things to do around the house and take a shower..Just have the ER doc do it and I'll make it around sometime tonight". Or doctor that would call you back.... drunk.
The constant addition of bureaucracy and BS added to every part of my job bc some admin had a "bright" idea. Having to chart the exact same thing in 5 different places.
Not ONCE in 4 years having an actual lunch break. I would have to eat at the nurses station. In fact, one time I had to eat while nearly constantly suctioning a particular patient out.
Taking care of patients that to any sane person w any medical knowledge knew was "dead". But they family would not let us stop coding them everyday bc the doctor told them "I can save him!". Wasting countless hours, efforts, monies, on gomers who had 0 quality of life. Or they had as much quality as say a pet rock.
The fact that our patients were not our patients. They did not come in because they were sick or dying. They were our customers and we should not treat them as patients but like someone who was shopping at Sears. The customer might always be right, but the patient rarely is.
I could go on for days. But in the end it came down to the fact that the working conditions were bad, the patients were unappreciative, and admin tried to handicap or screw you over at every pass just to squeeze out a few more dollars. It was a soul sucking job and I can name at least 100 other nurses that feel the same way. If you got into nursing to actually do the "right things" morally, ethically, then GOOD LUCK. It will be tough because its not healthcare, its McDonald's with IVs.
Sorry if my thoughts are a bit scattered. It's hard to put all the BS into words. haha.
