Why do Most Nurses seem to Hate the career path they chose?

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EMDO2018

EMDO2018

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This baffles me, aren't perspective nurses required to do some shadowing or clinical volunteering to see what nursing is really like before they apply? Nursing seems like a sweet gig: 4 year degree, 60-70k, 36 hour week, what's not to like?
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No, there are no shadowing requirements.

Many units are understaffed. For example, an ICU, because of its acuity, is supposed to have a low patient-to-nurse ratio. It's supposed to be a maximum of 2-1 and many times 1-1 because the patient is so critical. There are so many things you have to do and chart as a legal and facility obligation in an ICU setting, and I've seen on some occasions a 3-1 or 4-1 ratio in ICUs some nights with extremely critical patients. There were too many people who called in sick and no one could be pulled to the unit. This is just one example. It's really hard to put into words, and until you experience stuff like this, it seems innocuous.

I worked 87 hours last week. Next week I'm only working 60. The 36-hour week is not all common.

Our unit has no secretary or aid. There is a lot of non-nursy things we have to do on top of the many tasks already.

It's not a bed of roses, but it is what I signed up for...until I start medical school, so, while I'm there, I don't bitch and moan, I just work.
 
EMDO2018 said:
This baffles me, aren't perspective nurses required to do some shadowing or clinical volunteering to see what nursing is really like before they apply? Nursing seems like a sweet gig: 4 year degree, 60-70k, 36 hour week, what's not to like?
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I don't know if "most" nurses "hate" their career path, I think that is something of an overstatement. And in many areas of the country, RN's do not make that much.

Having said that, there is a lot of turn over in nursing, especially in critical care areas and in med-surg. The reasons are many, but in my opinion, there are two major reasons. The first is the red tape and nonsense that flows from regulations from bodies like JCAHO, CMS, and state health departments. The second area is the financial pressures faced by hospitals. Often these two areas are closely linked (especially with CMS). The result is that a significant portion of your job has little to do with direct patient care, and much to do with meeting metrics and covering your (and the hospital's) butt.
 
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60-70k? Lol with overtime I was hitting 100k right out of school (not even in Cali). Being an RN is just draining, not only do we manage patients we have a bunch of other requirements that the hospital expects us to perform. CNA, secretary or even environmental services are just some of the jobs we tap into. It is especially worse when you or short staffed or your auxiliary staff are incompetent. Seriously we have secretary/HUCs who barely answer the call lights when they are sitting right next to the phone.

BSN/RN is probably one of the most profitable bachelors degree to get ranking right up there with engineering. So as long as you can handle the work it IS an awesome gig.
 
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Most people complain about their jobs. And if you catch me on a day I'm caring for one or two drug addicts keeping me busy pushing meds or telling them why I'm not pushing meds, and having them retaliate by finding other things to do to tie me down, I'm going to have a frowny face on.

I'm out of school about a year, and with overtime and callback, I make north of $70k, and I don't even work as much as I'd like to. If I wanted to work more weekends, I'd be sitting even better. The money is there. I know nurses making $100k that still have plenty of time off. One key is to make yourself valuable. Get certs, fill in when they need you, jump in and help your neighbor. Males generally have it a little better than the gals, because they can often drop stuff to get to work for some last minute extra shifts. Hard to do that when everyone at home looks to you to solve problems there in mom like fashion. That kind of weight on a nurse can wear you down and make you grumpy. You'd be surprised how fast your 3 or 4 days off fly by, especially since the 3x12's leave very little time to get done with other stuff. And 12 hour shifts usually work out to be 13 when you count pre and post shift report (assuming you are a floor nurse handing off 5-7 patients). Add in travel time of half and hour to 45 minutes on each end, and that's close to 15 hours. 7 hours of sleep, and you get 3 hours to play around (or shower, eat, and get dressed or undressed.

When I'm floating on a general medical floor, I'm running tail. You have meds to get in patients all through the shift. You have to assess everyone at intervals. Every time you walk in a room, a patient seems to ask you do something. When you are documenting all the minutiae, you are interrupted. You have other nurses asking for help, phone calls, procedures, admits, discharges, patient family, tons of questions asked of you, rounding with physicians, order changes, pharmacy changes. Then there are patients that are decompensating in the middle of everything. Call lights, getting folks up to the bathroom, changing meal menus. Drug addicts and chronic pain sufferers, malcontents. Then, when you have someone that you'd really like to give extra time to because they are alone, scared, and possibly getting the worst news of their lives, you have someone who seems like a professional smart Alec making you run errands for them because they get off on manipulating someone ("yeah, I hit my call signal to get you in here to pick up the pen I dropped from my bed for the 3rd time"). ER is pretty much the same for me. Intensive care is where I'm doing everything by myself without an aid. You have a patient on a ventilator, and another patient comes in in terrible shape from ER or surgery, and you have to get everything started.

It's not all that. But if you enjoy a challenge (and I do), it's good stuff. But even if you know what you are going in to, it can grate you down. When you have the mantle of responsibility, it's different than watching someone stumble through it. Shadowing is helpful, but it's not the same beast as actually being accountable. But i do think it would be helpful nonetheless. But most nurses at the bachelor level don't seem to have spent much time on a floor prior to school. I had a classmate who claimed to me that his first moment in a hospital (apart from his own birth) was his first day of clinical.
 
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I've had some jobs in my life where I've said to myself things like "this is a pretty good deal for me to get paid this much for what I do". With nursing, I don't complain about what I make and wish I made more, but I do find myself thinking things like "I earned my money today!", along with "I'm eager to keep making what they are willing to pay me to do this, even if it beats me up to do it".

I picked up a couple overtime shifts this week. Close to $1400 bucks for the two shifts beyond my usual 3. Beat me up. Next week I'm not game for that kind of thing, but I know they will be begging me to help out. They'd rather do that than hire another employee. But there comes a point where you need to recoup, if only for your sanity.
 
I think people just have some unrealistic expecations and/or get into the wrong specialty. If you don't like the patient population, you'll be miserable. I only work in NICU and I love it, been doing it for almost 6 years.

OTOH, when I float down to the pediatric ICU, I'm pretty miserable and it's more about, "it's only 12 hours, you can do anything for 12 hours." I would say that 3/4 of my co-workers love their jobs for the most part and our dissatisfaction comes mostly from floating to other units where we are uncomfortable taking care of another critically ill population without much training (because honestly, would you want someone that is barely qualified to take care of your critically ill child?). Some of the nurses are actually terrified of doing it...I always find the PICU nurses right next to me and ask a million questions. I'm sure it gets annoying for them, but I always answer all their questions when they come up to the NICU and have the situation reversed.
 
Nursing has some upsides, you get to help people, $ not all that bad, plenty of extra shifts available. However, you are basically the patient's maid. If they need ice, towels, food spilled, extra napkins, etc…it's all the nurse's responsibility. Sometimes CNAs will take care of these things. But ultimately the nurse is responsible for everything.
 
1. Bad management
2. The Joint Commission ridiculous regulations
3. Catty women (I'm female, but some of the back stabbing is amazing)
4. "Customer Service" (at my hospital, even if the pt is abusive, we are supposed to try to make them happy)
5. Bad management
6. High acuity, not enough time for basic patient care
7. Time-eating computer systems
8. Taking away support staff and making the nurses do it all
9. Bad management
10. Doctors who expect the nurses to do their secretarial work (actually, the younger docs are great, it's the older guys)
11. Surgeons
12. Bad Management
 
EMDO2018 said:
36 hour week
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??? Where are you getting that from? I have three friends who graduated from MSU's nursing school and they work as RNs at a hospital. Their schedules are much different than whatever you have been told. One of them told me that her schedule is something similar to this: Works 10 straight days for 8-10 hr shifts, then have 6 straight days off. Two of them went on a near week trip to Vegas and didn't have to take a single vacation day because they just got done working their 10 straight days and had nearly a week off.

And then add in that sometimes they work midnight shifts, other days they work day shifts, other days they work morning shifts. The hours sometimes change and pi$$es them off. A lot of the younger nurses are the ones that have the disgruntled hours. Then I know nurses who are in their 40s who love the hours because they work the 40 hour weeks and not the 70 hour weeks.

Another big turnoff for nursing from what I have heard is that many hospitals have high turnover rates and become understaffed very quickly. Some hospitals make it all about the money of the CEOs and Presidents and place patient care services at a higher ranking than it should be. I live just a few miles away from a large hospital in SE Michigan, I knew the ex-President and when she got an offer from a more profitable hospital just 30 min away and she got up and left immediately because the hospital she previously worked at was not allowing her to hire more nurses than she wanted. They hire the high management workers with no experience as nurses or doctors, but are BUSINESSMEN/WOMEN first.

A big issue for nursing schools is that there are not enough nurses who will trade their high paying nursing job to become a low paid university professor to teach two classes a semester and teach the students for their practicals. Here at MSU, the nursing school at one time in the '90s and early '00s was considered one of the best RN schools in the nation, now it is in the 20s to 30s ranking in the nation because they don't have enough teachers. They accept just 60 students per year for the program. That sounds good, but when you have over 2,000 students applying the chance of getting in is very hard.
 
Hospitals that make their employees work unreasonable schedules pay significant costs in turnover, absenteeism, and ultimately lawsuits from mistakes made by overburdened nurses. It's in facilities best interests to try to keep nurses happy. New nurses are expensive as well because they aren't as efficient. I'm inclined not to believe most of the horror stories where schedules are wacked out and involuntarily shift between nights and days. Even patient ratios are held to reasonable levels because the laws of physics demand that there is only so much that one nurse can do. Beyond certain ratios, things break down pretty quick and a patient would find the hospital experience completely unbearable. The front office would love to have things to quicker, but it takes a certain amount of time to get someone up out of bed, and so much time to give a medication. I look around at my peers and they face the same problems. You can try to make a new grad sign a contract to work for 2 years after they train them, but if it's a bad place to be, then they lose them as soon as that trainee can get out of there. When you lose experienced staff, you lose patients, and you lose money and lawsuits. You get the reputation of being a bad place to work and you can't recruit. Then you get staffing problems and can't take more patients because you can't get anyone to come in to work. On the flipside, if your workers are happy, you get more efficiency, less overhead from trying to enforce rules and cost saving schemes, and retention so you don't have to spend 30k training a new hire. Seniority can be an issue in places that hand senior nurses whatever they want, but fortunately I don't live where that's the case. The joy of living in a heavy union state is that seniority is king. You don't have it, you get crapped on. There are some benefits to the union, but there are also drawbacks. My guess is Michigan is steeped in union hierarchy.

I'd bet that anyone working crazy shifts or week straight shifts is doing it for money or for convenience. I worked 7 days straight once so that I could take 3 weeks off without touching my paid time off bank. It could have even turned into 10 days straight if my 3 days had been right up against the seven I had set up to work. I know many nurses on nights with me that work 7 days off so they can party for 7 or 8. Nobody makes them do this. I don't know any nurse in a hospital that would work a 10 besides maybe surgical or ER. So the girls that made the Vegas trip on their 6 off probably set it up that way. The moment my shift changes from a night to a day I make more money due to it being a change of schedule. I don't even live in a location that's known for being progressive with wages. I'm making close to 86k as a nurse with less than 2 years experience because I am willing to work with my bosses to help out when they need someone to fill in. I'm not working more than an extra shift a week either, so it's not like I'm the new guy that's getting beat up working all sorts of shifts. The nurses that want the easy shifts can keep them, nobody is making me make more money.

Rumors about why a CEO left are just that... Rumors. Most it's for the cash, but most CEOs are where they are because they are discreet, and wouldn't trash a former company they ran. The hiring company wouldn't stand for that either because it makes them look bad.
 
Here's one big reason. If you draw a flow chart of where all the abuse gets thrown, all arrows lead to RN. Patient upset? They get mad at the nurse. Family upset? They bitch at the nurse. Physician upset? They get grumpy with the nurses. Management upset? Obviously time to straighten up some nurses. PCA pissed? Be passive-aggressive and do everything you can to not help the nurses. I could go on and on, but everyone from pharmacy to social work to respiratory can make nursing miserable if they're having a bad day. Oh yeah, and then there's all the other nurses- let's not even pretend everyone plays nice.

By being the center of a patient's daily care, nurses are also at the nexus of every complaint, the contact point for every miserable clinician, and the first to take a beating when things go south.
 
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Mad Jack said:
Here's one big reason. If you draw a flow chart of where all the abuse gets thrown, all arrows lead to RN. Patient upset? They get mad at the nurse. Family upset? They bitch at the nurse. Physician upset? They get grumpy with the nurses. Management upset? Obviously time to straighten up some nurses. PCA pissed? Be passive-aggressive and do everything you can to not help the nurses. I could go on and on, but everyone from pharmacy to social work to respiratory can make nursing miserable if they're having a bad day. Oh yeah, and then there's all the other nurses- let's not even pretend everyone plays nice.

By being the center of a patient's daily care, nurses are also at the nexus of every complaint, the contact point for every miserable clinician, and the first to take a beating when things go south.
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This post sums up why I'm excited to only have 3 more shifts before I start medical school.
 
acceptmeplease said:
This post sums up why I'm excited to only have 3 more shifts before I start medical school.
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Didn't it feel like someone had opened a back door out of prison the day you got that acceptance letter? :laugh: I danced my way out of the building and then ran to my car on my last day. (Former RT here)
 
Nurses are miserable and their goal is to make everyone around them miserable. I learned this my first day on the wards as a HA.
 
acceptmeplease said:
This post sums up why I'm excited to only have 3 more shifts before I start medical school.
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Ha! Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Now instead of being the whipping boy, you get to be the guy who is the last word... Not sure where I'd like to be some days.
 
d2305 said:
Nurses are miserable and their goal is to make everyone around them miserable. I learned this my first day on the wards as a HA.
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As a nurse, every individual around me that I make miserable makes me twice as miserable, so you better believe I do my best to keep people happy. Sometimes, that's the only control you get to have over a situation.
 
So, if I worked just 36 hours a week, I would take home net about $2500 for the month. I work 50-60+ weeks as a matter of course to gross $60k. I am several years out of school, making less than many new grads in cities. The hospital system that I work for claims to pay market rates for our area, but since it drove everyone else out of business or bought them out, it is the only game in town for people who work in my specialty. (In which I am certified.)

I love what I do. I hate the conditions in which I must do it.

I have ranted, raved, cried, and pleaded with administration about patient safety concerns arising from extreme understaffing. I have been told by administration that my concerns are baseless and that I had best cease my complaints or find alternate employment.

I have extraordinary responsibility with very little power, and when anything goes wrong, I am the fall guy. With some of the patient safety issues that the hospital system will not adequately address, it is clear that their actual plan is to just let the worst happen and then fault the nurse who wasn't able to prevent it despite the odds. When I used to speak up to the Patient Safety Officer, a nurse they send around every month, she hangs her head and won't make eye contact with me because she knows that my concerns are valid and that the hospital has decided not to address them. I feel bad for her, because I know she has no more power than I do, so I've stopped asking her for help.

I don't even blame other nurses for throwing one another under the bus. The system is so rigged against us that survival-of-the-fittest tactics look like rational behavior. Hospital administrations are the ones who foster Lord of the Flies style nursing, I would say deliberately. We are easier to control when we are too busy undermining one another to work together on the real problems.

I can't get out of here fast enough. I might spend my time between acceptance and matriculation delivering pizzas or waiting tables, for my sanity.
 
AnnoyedByFreud said:
Wow, your pay is terrible for an RN. You must be in the South.
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That's just about what my pay is and I'm in the south. There are no unions here so working conditions don't matter to administration.

The staffing grids we have are ridiculous because they don't account for acuity at all. Four one-day post op CABG patients are not the same as four observation chest painers :/
 
I've pretty well decided to take my show on the road. Looking into travel gigs now. I'm just sitting still long enough to get my interviews out of the way.

My pay isn't bad for my area, sadly. Too many schools here churning out new grads who are willing to work for $20/hr. Nursing shortage and all.
 
EMDO2018 said:
This baffles me, aren't perspective nurses required to do some shadowing or clinical volunteering to see what nursing is really like before they apply? Nursing seems like a sweet gig: 4 year degree, 60-70k, 36 hour week, what's not to like?
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The same thing can be said about physicians... Have you come across some @DermViser threads/posts in the pre-allo/allo forums?
 
I think that most nurses complain about the work because we are at time the middle-men in healthcare. At the end of the day though, most nurses are know feel very good about being part of this profession.


———————————
UCLA FNP Class of 2016
 
The work is tremendously stressful, and a lot if that comes from being put into a position where you have to juggle a lot and often don't have the power to move things along. But I can't imagine myself working in a job where there isn't a lot at stake. I'd go nuts in sales or in a cubicle typing out code. There are plenty of jobs out there that are indirectly critical (maybe the code that is typed out is for an airplane safety system), but at the end of the day I like the rush. I'm fortunate to be paid well for my time. I don't enjoy getting in trouble for all the things out of my control. It seems when something gets messed up, they talk to everyone who touched the issue, even if you had very little to do with it. I've realized I've got to move up the career ladder to NP sooner than I expected to do I can get out of that kind of struggle. It may not go away, but at least I'll make more. I'm lucky I work at a decent hospital, though.
 
acceptmeplease said:
This post sums up why I'm excited to only have 3 more shifts before I start medical school.
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I hate to break it to you but you don't magically get more respect when you enter medical school. In fact, you get less. In addition to all of those ancillary staff, families, patients, and docs taking out their frustrations on you, now you get to take the heat from your former colleagues in nursing! Nobody gets in trouble for taking things out on the medical student and there is no retaliation. When a doc gets a nurse angry there is huge backlash and their life can be made miserable from the other nurses. As a student you have no army behind you. And don't forget that every day you go to work you make no money. For 4 years. You may have 3 more shifts as a nurse, but you have 4 more years as a student. After that you are an intern and guess what... Still little respect, lower pay than nursing for another 4+ years, more responsibility, and still take heat from everyone. After those 8 or more years nursing will probably look a little better.
 
joeDO2 said:
I hate to break it to you but you don't magically get more respect when you enter medical school. In fact, you get less. In addition to all of those ancillary staff, families, patients, and docs taking out their frustrations on you, now you get to take the heat from your former colleagues in nursing! Nobody gets in trouble for taking things out on the medical student and there is no retaliation. When a doc gets a nurse angry there is huge backlash and their life can be made miserable from the other nurses. As a student you have no army behind you. And don't forget that every day you go to work you make no money. For 4 years. You may have 3 more shifts as a nurse, but you have 4 more years as a student. After that you are an intern and guess what... Still little respect, lower pay than nursing for another 4+ years, more responsibility, and still take heat from everyone. After those 8 or more years nursing will probably look a little better.
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I'm not saying you're wrong, but I don't care.

If I were to remain a nurse, I would have a lifetime of being crapped on (literally and figuratively).

As a physician-in-training, I only have but a handful of years comparatively.
 
I graduated nursing school in 1987. I hated being a nurse right from the start. Looking back with that 20-20 of hindsight, I hated it for two main reasons: hospitals and other nurse. Nothing was like I'd hoped it would be. Hospitals are about profit and nothing more. Other nurses were nasty. Like the worst middle school mean girl politics all the time. The nice nurse don't last. The meanies, bullies and the ones who play along with the profit above all else mentality are the ones that last.
 
For me....
1. Being treated like a kindergartner rather than a professional.
2. Abuse from management, coworkers and doctors
3. The ANA is a joke and so out of touch
4. BSN programs are full of fluff nonsense that has almost no application in practice because nurses are too overloaded to actually be able to apply any of it.
5. The move from MSN to DNP for nurse practitioners is a joke....again, 70 hours of mostly fluff classes
6. Nursing "shortage" is really just code to cover up hospitals not wanting to staff their units properly $$$
7. Low pay in certain areas ($18-20)
8. Managers are terrible
 
What you said about interruptions is probably my biggest hangup. As a nurse, everyone around you has a better idea of what you should be doing at any given moment than you do, from the CNAs, to the patients, to the physical therapy aids, to the charge nurses. Someone wants to talk to you in the phone during the five minutes where you can get in and out of a room to change a dressing. You go in to pass a med and the patient insists that exact moment is when they want to walk, and the doctor is in there and is like "yeah, let's get them up right now this instant". But of course the patient is 400lbs and now you have to go find someone else to help you. There's half and hour at least. If I could work my shift around a routine I set, everything would go smooth and everyone would be happy, but then you get one or two or all of your patients are needy, codependent, or have personality disorders. Or a little old lady that wants to get up to pee every hour. Some people call all that multitasking, but it's chaos to me. We do so many different things in our job that there are a million different directions people need us to travel. I look forward to getting into a role where that's not part and parcel of what I do. For now, I can handle it because the pay is good and 3 or 4 days of that isn't terrible, but the second guessing and having your time spoken for is something I won't miss. Another thing I won't miss is administration insisting on initiatives that take up more of the time I don't have so that they have something to tout to their superiors. One clinical nurse supervisor's pet project to improve her resume comes at a price for everyone who has to do the documentation for it.
 
Nurse's I have worked with over the year's seem to enjoy their job. Actually the men the most. The better the ratio of male to female nurse's on units I worked with meant less drama on the side. I.E. 2 male RNS 2 Female RNS.

I definitely say it seems stressful for them. On our floor we do treatment/care plans. notes, DAR :-(, that the nurses have to cosign. Other place didn't have to, but it does make sense. We stopped doing admissions and nurse's do admissions now. We do draw blood/EKGs. However, still comes under the scope of the charge if something goes wrong that's a lot of pressure and trust in your staff.

Understaffing is huge. It comes down to, where I work, budget issue's. State taxes the hospital's like crazy to cut cost they reduce hour's so limited staff, but doesn't make a difference because staff is still short. There are nurse's working 80 hour's. I mean I need the money but I did 60 as a tech burned out quickly in two month's.

Then there is the issue of cliques not too many on my floor. There are nurse's who like to undermine other nurse's, definitely eat the young mentality. If a new grad or new nurse on the unit your not up to participate learn quick or go.

Then there are some egotistical nurse's who will boss anyone around techs or doctors or other nurse's.

Then a lot of favorites best to fly under the radar.

Then there is the education you have to have a BSN in five year's or can't work with us.

Some nurse's feel argue over experience vs BSN. Paper vs rock.

However, in the end seen some of the best, inquisitive, smart, empathetic, and compassionate nurse's in my state.

Pay is not bad once can get through the rigorous education process, ha. Most programs in the state can't keep up with demands for students entering the program. Wait list has dropped by 5 years to 3 year's.

Pay is good though LPN/ADN start out relatively the same $25-$28 an hour. Some ADNS make $30-$302 am hour. Most BSNS float around $30-$40, some upper $50 that is mostly for Master level nurse's. Then Doctorate Nurse's $75 and up depending on specialty.
 
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PsychadelicTech said:
Nurse's I have worked with over the year's seem to enjoy their job. Actually the men the most. The better the ratio of male to female nurse's on units I worked with meant less drama on the side. I.E. 2 male RNS 2 Female RNS.

I definitely say it seems stressful for them. On our floor we do treatment/care plans. notes, DAR :-(, that the nurses have to cosign. Other place didn't have to, but it does make sense. We stopped doing admissions and nurse's do admissions now. We do draw blood/EKGs. However, still comes under the scope of the charge if something goes wrong that's a lot of pressure and trust in your staff.

Understaffing is huge. It comes down to, where I work, budget issue's. State taxes the hospital's like crazy to cut cost they reduce hour's so limited staff, but doesn't make a difference because staff is still short. There are nurse's working 80 hour's. I mean I need the money but I did 60 as a tech burned out quickly in two month's.

Then there is the issue of cliques not too many on my floor. There are nurse's who like to undermine other nurse's, definitely eat the young mentality. If a new grad or new nurse on the unit your not up to participate learn quick or go.

Then there are some egotistical nurse's who will boss anyone around techs or doctors or other nurse's.

Then a lot of favorites best to fly under the radar.

Then there is the education you have to have a BSN in five year's or can't work with us.

Some nurse's feel argue over experience vs BSN. Paper vs rock.

However, in the end seen some of the best, inquisitive, smart, empathetic, and compassionate nurse's in my state.

Pay is not bad once can get through the rigorous education process, ha. Most programs in the state can't keep up with demands for students entering the program. Wait list has dropped by 5 years to 3 year's.

Pay is good though LPN/ADN start out relatively the same $25-$28 an hour. Some ADNS make $30-$302 am hour. Most BSNS float around $30-$40, some upper $50 that is mostly for Master level nurse's. Then Doctorate Nurse's $75 and up depending on specialty.
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There is no LPN/ADN. ADNs are not LPN; ADNs are RNs just like BSNs and the pay is the same (in my region).
 
^^^ Probably put the syntax of that wrong. Just noting the pay for an RN with an associate's is similar to an LPN pay in my state.
 
PsychadelicTech said:
^^^ Probably put the syntax of that wrong. Just noting the pay for an RN with an associate's is similar to an LPN pay in my state.
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The average national ADN pay is about twice that of LPN. LPN doesn't have the scope of practice or education or pay rate of an ADN. As a new grad ADN, I was making more than an LPN coworker who had 15 years experience. I'm not sure where you're getting your information, but it's wrong.
 
Yikes everything I have ever hated about nursing is in this thread. So I will offer tips that have worked for me to make it better.

1. Go faster. Seriously. Find ways to do things faster.

2. Anything they don't complain to you about later when you don't chart it is something you don't need to chart. I can't count the amount of times I was told that I should chart such and such by one nurse, and then told something different by another. Eventually you will figure out which nurse is more reliable, but for now, just drop any charting that there is a disagreement on.

3. Change units. Follow the money/glory. If you hospital is super proud of a certain unit it's gonna be better because they care about it. Also if the unit spends a lot of time with money bringing physicians (like OR or Endo) it will be better.

4. Don't complain. Hospitals are the feeding grounds for complaints. Negativity is bad for you, avoid it. If you have a suggestion for an improvement that cost nothing then you can say it. Otherwise no good comes from anything you comment on.

5. Upgrade and run. The great thing about nursing is that it has lots of ways to trap you deeper in the rabbit hole. Popular options are:

*management - now you get to be who you probably haven't liked at some point. Pick the unit carefully on this one as being a regular floor manager may pay alright, but it generally sucks. Try one of the specialty units. Surgery/ER management seem to be prerequisites of becoming real big wigs.
* FNP - the easiest option. You can work while you goto school. And then you can graduate and keep working on the floor when you can't get a job! :highfive: Which has a decent probability of happening. Google Nurse practitioner can't find job. You will see why FNP is becoming as saturated as regular nursing. (obviously I am not to high on this one, but if you already know a doc who liked you and will hook you up with a job, then it's fine.)

*CRNA - the golden bullet. This is the favorite. But be ready to jump thru hoops to get in ('ICU level exp'/the dreaded GRE, lol). And then get ready for 40-50% of your class to fail after the first year (tuition is front loaded). Once you get out the situation may still be a problem. You still might have to take a job at a worse group to get exP, and while not near as saturated as FNP, CRNA is slowly working itself upto saturation levels.

So there. All your nursing options in one post. Next time someone looks up 'I hate nursing' they will get all the wisdom I can offer.

Although I like my current job I am very excited to be starting medical school in a month. I get to see a alot of medical/PA students at work. Their 'suffering' in clinical's is no where near what a new nurse would go thru on the floor with a malignant preceptor. Intern year I could agree with, but as a student? Just completely different, that student coat gives you a ton of protection that an 'employee' doesn't have.
 
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Just saying I knew an LPN making around $25 an hour outpatient and an RN making $28 an hour inpatient at the hospital working at. The BSN nurse's at my hospital get an additional $3-$5 an hour on top of the $28 an hour pay.
 
Whoever said that nurses are the nexus of the complaint paradigm was dead on.

Everyone in the hospital has a job and most of the time it is one job and the nurse ensures this job is done correctly or does the job themselves. It's almost mind boggling how much responsibility there is with little power. I honestly think most physicians don't understand how much juggling the RN does. On a busy ICU patient a while back I consulted a cardiologist, pulmonologist and nephrologist within the span of an hour, briefed my observations and implemented their plan without them even looking at the patient. They were just going off of my observations/recommendations regarding about the patient's condition (along with labs, tests, procedures etc). In the meantime had pharmacy calling to clarify orders and me calling back to hurry them on sending meds. Lab and blood bank were also calling along with my hospital supervisor to tell me that I was getting another admit. This doesn't include wailing family bursting into the unit and on the phone all wanting to speak to me. Throughout this whole affair we also have to ensure everything is clean and all of those amazing bodily fluids are managed. No CNAs, no health unit coordinators, no environmental services half the time. the documentation afterwords is endless as well. Lord have mercy on day shift where the RNs have to assist in the procedures, work with SW, dietary and PT/OT. The landslide doesn't end.

Being a student is way better, verbal abuse is a lot easier to deal with.
 
Dranger said:
Whoever said that nurses are the nexus of the complaint paradigm was dead on.

Everyone in the hospital has a job and most of the time it is one job and the nurse ensures this job is done correctly or does the job themselves. It's almost mind boggling how much responsibility there is with little power. I honestly think most physicians don't understand how much juggling the RN does. On a busy ICU patient a while back I consulted a cardiologist, pulmonologist and nephrologist within the span of an hour, briefed my observations and implemented their plan without them even looking at the patient. They were just going off of my observations/recommendations regarding about the patient's condition (along with labs, tests, procedures etc). In the meantime had pharmacy calling to clarify orders and me calling back to hurry them on sending meds. Lab and blood bank were also calling along with my hospital supervisor to tell me that I was getting another admit. This doesn't include wailing family bursting into the unit and on the phone all wanting to speak to me. Throughout this whole affair we also have to ensure everything is clean and all of those amazing bodily fluids are managed. No CNAs, no health unit coordinators, no environmental services half the time. the documentation afterwords is endless as well. Lord have mercy on day shift where the RNs have to assist in the procedures, work with SW, dietary and PT/OT. The landslide doesn't end.

Being a student is way better, verbal abuse is a lot easier to deal with.
Click to expand...

Right on the money there. I left day shift because it was a madhouse, and taking it's toll on me. Coordinating with other personnel and dealing with distractions were the biggest struggle. And having others place their priorities above my own made me a robot. I've been lucky to have gone on resource pool early in my career, and the variety keeps me sane. If I had to live on one unit all the time, I'd go nuts.

Advance practice nursing is calling my name, but it seems to be calling out to almost all of my male peer, and many of the new grad females. Nursing schools are really pushing it as well. I'm in a market where there is said to be saturated, but I don't know of an NP who works as a floor nurse for lack of job opportunities. I have heard CRNAs make a few grand less here because it's a desire able location, but one told me the other day he makes north of $160k and doesn't work more than his 36 hours (including call). He said that's "pretty typical" of what to expect. I'm on track to make $86k my this year with less than 5 years in nursing. For some reason, right now there are so many jobs open that we can't keep up.

I'm telling you, the key to happiness is being a resource nurse, and or night shift.... Preferably both. Variety, new faces all the time, you don't get sucked into unit politics. I've found an extra perk... I work when I want, and can change my schedule a lot easier.
 
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pamac said:
Right on the money there. I left day shift because it was a madhouse, and taking it's toll on me. Coordinating with other personnel and dealing with distractions were the biggest struggle. And having others place their priorities above my own made me a robot. I've been lucky to have gone on resource pool early in my career, and the variety keeps me sane. If I had to live on one unit all the time, I'd go nuts.

Advance practice nursing is calling my name, but it seems to be calling out to almost all of my male peer, and many of the new grad females. Nursing schools are really pushing it as well. I'm in a market where there is said to be saturated, but I don't know of an NP who works as a floor nurse for lack of job opportunities. I have heard CRNAs make a few grand less here because it's a desire able location, but one told me the other day he makes north of $160k and doesn't work more than his 36 hours (including call). He said that's "pretty typical" of what to expect. I'm on track to make $86k my this year with less than 5 years in nursing. For some reason, right now there are so many jobs open that we can't keep up.

I'm telling you, the key to happiness is being a resource nurse, and or night shift.... Preferably both. Variety, new faces all the time, you don't get sucked into unit politics. I've found an extra perk... I work when I want, and can change my schedule a lot easier.
Click to expand...

My key to happiness is celebrating the 1-year anniversary of my last nursing shift.
 
You won't make me jealous until you get through medical school, get through residency, pay off your debt, and amass as much money in savings as I have. Then, I may be jealous. But maybe not given that I also don't want to sacrifice the time and the relocation. I do fantasize frequently of what it would be like to be a security guard or a night custodian and walk around alone at night enjoying myself thoroughly. I hope you go into radiology and make $400k your first year out of residency, kicking back and watching movies in between reading exams, because after being a nurse, you deserve every bit of career comfort coming your way.

Several years ago, I had the prereqs and the test scores to be a dentist (I guesse I could have taken the MCAT, but I've never tested physics using a standardized method). I think if I did some MCAT review I'd be a good candidate for DO school (unless they have a time limit on some of the prereqs). But I spent my 20s in school and starting a career. I don't want to finish out my 30's and start off my 40's working on a carreer where I count the days to retirement. I enjoy my 3 days per week schedule. I know a nurse couple who are both RNs and they both work part time, love life, and take home a decent wage between them. As time goes on, that kind of arrangement appeals to me more.

Nursing has been pretty good to me so far, but I'm also working towards the next phase of my work life.
 
pamac said:
You won't make me jealous until you get through medical school, get through residency, pay off your debt, and amass as much money in savings as I have. Then, I may be jealous. But maybe not given that I also don't want to sacrifice the time and the relocation. I do fantasize frequently of what it would be like to be a security guard or a night custodian and walk around alone at night enjoying myself thoroughly. I hope you go into radiology and make $400k your first year out of residency, kicking back and watching movies in between reading exams, because after being a nurse, you deserve every bit of career comfort coming your way.

Several years ago, I had the prereqs and the test scores to be a dentist (I guesse I could have taken the MCAT, but I've never tested physics using a standardized method). I think if I did some MCAT review I'd be a good candidate for DO school (unless they have a time limit on some of the prereqs). But I spent my 20s in school and starting a career. I don't want to finish out my 30's and start off my 40's working on a carreer where I count the days to retirement. I enjoy my 3 days per week schedule. I know a nurse couple who are both RNs and they both work part time, love life, and take home a decent wage between them. As time goes on, that kind of arrangement appeals to me more.

Nursing has been pretty good to me so far, but I'm also working towards the next phase of my work life.
Click to expand...

Ha, I love medical school. The information is extensive, but is stimulating and enjoyable. Nursing school made me miserable. Nursing culture made me miserable. Nursing administration made me miserable.

I'm going to be in debt. I'm sacrificing my mid twenties studying instead of having children or traveling or saving money or whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing, but it has been a fun journey.

I'm not asking you to compare salaries or time costs or savings accounts in order to be envious; I'm not even asking you to be envious. I'm simply celebrating the fact that I took a leap, it paid off, and a milestone has been reached.
 
oldiebutgoodie said:
1. Bad management
2. The Joint Commission ridiculous regulations
3. Catty women (I'm female, but some of the back stabbing is amazing)
4. "Customer Service" (at my hospital, even if the pt is abusive, we are supposed to try to make them happy)
5. Bad management
6. High acuity, not enough time for basic patient care
7. Time-eating computer systems
8. Taking away support staff and making the nurses do it all
9. Bad management
10. Doctors who expect the nurses to do their secretarial work (actually, the younger docs are great, it's the older guys)
11. Surgeons
12. Bad Management
Click to expand...

This is kind of healthcare in general, but the customer service thing is one that steams me!

Sorry no patient Joe you can't cuss me up one side and down the other and verbally abuse me and get away with it. I won't take the abuse. The big H stands for hospital not hotel.
 
Dranger said:
Whoever said that nurses are the nexus of the complaint paradigm was dead on.

Everyone in the hospital has a job and most of the time it is one job and the nurse ensures this job is done correctly or does the job themselves. It's almost mind boggling how much responsibility there is with little power. I honestly think most physicians don't understand how much juggling the RN does. On a busy ICU patient a while back I consulted a cardiologist, pulmonologist and nephrologist within the span of an hour, briefed my observations and implemented their plan without them even looking at the patient. They were just going off of my observations/recommendations regarding about the patient's condition (along with labs, tests, procedures etc). In the meantime had pharmacy calling to clarify orders and me calling back to hurry them on sending meds. Lab and blood bank were also calling along with my hospital supervisor to tell me that I was getting another admit. This doesn't include wailing family bursting into the unit and on the phone all wanting to speak to me. Throughout this whole affair we also have to ensure everything is clean and all of those amazing bodily fluids are managed. No CNAs, no health unit coordinators, no environmental services half the time. the documentation afterwords is endless as well. Lord have mercy on day shift where the RNs have to assist in the procedures, work with SW, dietary and PT/OT. The landslide doesn't end.

Being a student is way better, verbal abuse is a lot easier to deal with.
Click to expand...
That's why I am out... I did not even renew my license when it expired. Nursing can be [you know what]....
 
acceptmeplease said:
Ha, I love medical school. The information is extensive, but is stimulating and enjoyable. Nursing school made me miserable. Nursing culture made me miserable. Nursing administration made me miserable.

I'm going to be in debt. I'm sacrificing my mid twenties studying instead of having children or traveling or saving money or whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing, but it has been a fun journey.

I'm not asking you to compare salaries or time costs or savings accounts in order to be envious; I'm not even asking you to be envious. I'm simply celebrating the fact that I took a leap, it paid off, and a milestone has been reached.
Click to expand...
I hear you... I always tell people that if you gonna be a nurse for the money, don't do it! I am glad I am out of that hell hole cause I was miserable for 7 years I worked as a nurse...
 
W19 said:
I hear you... I always tell people that if you gonna be a nurse for the money, don't do it! I am glad I am out of that hell hole cause I was miserable for 7 years I worked as a nurse...
Click to expand...

Yeah doing anything just for the money is never worth it. Heck I am certainly not an audiologist for the money (yes I make a good living and I cleared over 100k last year before taxes working a full time job and some contract work), but by and large I would have been making much better money in nursing or optometry.

If I wanted to just make a ton of money then I would have put all my organic chemistry knowledge to work and went the Walter White route. :clap:
 
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