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[151949]

i wanted to be a nurse for as long as I can remember. And once I actually became a nurse I never wanted to leave my profession to be a nursing school teacher or an administrator. I loved the patient contact, I loved the science aspects - esp. in critical care- and i always knew i was in the right job for me. It saddens me that so many of the men & women who go into nursing don't really want to do patient care - isn't that what you become a nurse to do? i even hated the days I would have to be the charge nurse instead of having a patient assignment.

[just bee]

On 9/20/2014 happy housewife said:

i wanted to be a nurse for as long as I can remember. And once I actually became a nurse I never wanted to leave my profession to be a nursing school teacher or an administrator. I loved the patient contact, I loved the science aspects - esp. in critical care- and i always knew i was in the right job for me. It saddens me that so many of the men & women who go into nursing don't really want to do patient care - isn't that what you become a nurse to do? i even hated the days I would have to be the charge nurse instead of having a patient assignment.

I was outraged -- yes, outraged -- when, on our last day of Nursing school and on the day before we were to be pinned, a speaker stood before our class of graduates who had just invested their time, energy, blood, sweat, tears, relationships, money, and sanity, and said:

"Now that you're JUST BEDSIDE NURSES, you'll want to get your advanced degrees as quickly as possible so you can facilitate change."

I'd learned very quickly when I started working with nurses that the one thing that instantly raises their hackles is the term "just a nurse." And I was so angry and insulted by the timing of this message. Just a bedside nurse. It's as if she was telling us that our goal now was to get as far away from patients as possible and get into administration. She urged advocacy -- not for patients, but for nurses. She essentially told us to get out of patient care and into the politics of nursing.

Who, then, I asked, will be taking care of the patients?

In retail, your goal is simple: It's the cash register. In manufacturing it's the product. In nursing, it's the... patient? Or am I missing something?

[151949]

On 9/20/2014 just bee said:

On 9/20/2014 happy housewife said:

i wanted to be a nurse for as long as I can remember. And once I actually became a nurse I never wanted to leave my profession to be a nursing school teacher or an administrator. I loved the patient contact, I loved the science aspects - esp. in critical care- and i always knew i was in the right job for me. It saddens me that so many of the men & women who go into nursing don't really want to do patient care - isn't that what you become a nurse to do? i even hated the days I would have to be the charge nurse instead of having a patient assignment.

I was outraged -- yes, outraged -- when, on our last day of Nursing school and on the day before we were to be pinned, a speaker stood before our class of graduates who had just invested their time, energy, blood, sweat, tears, relationships, money, and sanity, and said:

"Now that you're JUST BEDSIDE NURSES, you'll want to get your advanced degrees as quickly as possible so you can facilitate change."

I'd learned very quickly when I started working with nurses that the one thing that instantly raises their hackles is the term "just a nurse." And I was so angry and insulted by the timing of this message. Just a bedside nurse. It's as if she was telling us that our goal now was to get as far away from patients as possible and get into administration. She urged advocacy -- not for patients, but for nurses. She essentially told us to get out of patient care and into the politics of nursing.

Who, then, I asked, will be taking care of the patients?

In retail, your goal is simple: It's the cash register. In manufacturing it's the product. In nursing, it's the... patient? Or am I missing something?

IMO - the only real actual nurses are the ones whose day to day job involves some degree of direct patient care. The rest are not really nurses - they are administrators or teachers or whatever. Nurses care for patients, period.

[pitdakota]

On 9/20/2014 just bee said:

I was outraged -- yes, outraged -- when, on our last day of Nursing school and on the day before we were to be pinned, a speaker stood before our class of graduates who had just invested their time, energy, blood, sweat, tears, relationships, money, and sanity, and said:

"Now that you're JUST BEDSIDE NURSES, you'll want to get your advanced degrees as quickly as possible so you can facilitate change."

I'd learned very quickly when I started working with nurses that the one thing that instantly raises their hackles is the term "just a nurse." And I was so angry and insulted by the timing of this message. Just a bedside nurse. It's as if she was telling us that our goal now was to get as far away from patients as possible and get into administration. She urged advocacy -- not for patients, but for nurses. She essentially told us to get out of patient care and into the politics of nursing.

Who, then, I asked, will be taking care of the patients?

In retail, your goal is simple: It's the cash register. In manufacturing it's the product. In nursing, it's the... patient? Or am I missing something?

I don't blame you for being upset. That was pretty shortsighted and insensitive to boot. Nurses are so very important in many different fields and they certainly are important at the bedside. The care they deliver to patients in the hospital is crucial. I think she really went overboard by encouraging you all to continue your education and could have done so without insulting everyone.

We now have a number of master's prepared entry into practice programs all across the country where the graduates of the pre-licensure nursing program are master's prepared. So we have ASN, BSN, and MSN nurses working at the bedside. So there is no such thing as "just being" a bedside nurse.

And nurses are utilized so many different ways in today's challenging and dynamic healthcare environment. Nurses can choose to work in the hospital, but we have great nurses working in public schools, public health, community health, administration, case management, education, health policy, and the list goes on and on. One of the best things about nursing.....is you can move into another area if you want to try something else. And nurses are making significant contributions in those areas.

We have a long term care facility here that is repeatedly recognized for all kinds of awards. The administrator is a registered nurse that worked her way up the ladder. There is a waiting list for beds there and they have very little turnover of staff since they have such innovative staffing policies. It is recognized as one of the best places to work in my state for at least 6-7 years running. And all because of a nurse!!

[151949]

So many nurses today are getting advanced degrees that nurses with an MSN are working at the bedside right alongside AD nurses. However, they get paid a whole lot more.

[azureblue]

On 9/19/2014 just bee said:

Hey!I saw this when it was posted, but I couldn’t respond right away because I work both days and nights and I wasn’t quite awake enough to type a response that would be coherent.Hopefully, this response will be. Let’s give it a shot.

1. How long have you been in the field and what is your specialty?

I graduated with an ASN in Spring of 2013, took the NCLEX (just 75 questions!) in August, and was offered a job after my first interview.I’ve been working as a psychiatric nurse for almost a year now.

2. Did you take a traditional career path?

I went off to a university at age 17 and had a roommate who was a Nursing major.I clearly remember thinking that nursing would be the LAST thing I’d ever want to do.After September 11, 2001 I knew I had to do something different.I spent a lot of time talking myself out of going back to school and changing careers, but then I finally made the decision to test the waters.I took one course, became a Health Unit Coordinator, and got a job in a local hospital – on an infant unit – just to see if I’d like the environment.From there, I took more classes and trained as a tech.I worked as a tech the whole time I was in nursing school.Initially, I was interested in Geriatrics and thought I’d work with dementia patients.My classmates all knew where they wanted to be and I had no clue.One night, during my psych clinicals, my instructor pulled me off the geri-psych unit and told me that he thought I’d like the psych emergency room.The one thing I knew was this: I did not want to work in an emergency room. Not no way, not no how. So guess where I’m working.

3. What do you love the most about your job?

I’ve only met one nurse who loved nursing school.One of the things I hated about it was the thought that I was investing time, energy, and money in a career where I would be little more than a PEZ dispenser.I trained on units where med passes took hours.The second thing I hated was the interaction with patients.Sounds weird, I know, but it frustrated me that there was so little emphasis on listening to the patients.We were being trained to listen to their organs through a stethoscope.Every time I had to nip a conversation in the bud in order to listen to lung or bowel sounds, I questioned what I was doing and why I was doing it.Sometimes all a patient wanted was a minute of my time – some human interaction – but so much of nursing was telling the patient to be quiet.Don’t talk – I’m listening to your bowels.Don’t talk – swallow these pills.Don’t talk – I have to do my charting.The first time during clinicals where the students were instructed to listen to what the patients were saying was during the psych rotation.Strangely, the majority of my classmates hated that rotation.And I thought it was strange that it was the first time I couldn’t wait to get to clinicals.

I like that I work in an extremely challenging area – a place where many nurses don’t want to work. A lot of the charting we do is more like the charting the physicians are doing – more writing, more narrative notes. The environment is never boring. I like working a 12-hour shift. I like the concept that it’s job-hopping in just about every other field, yet a nurse can go from job to job, area to area, and no one thinks it’s a bad thing. If a nurse discovers one area isn’t working out, she/he can do something completely different. There are options.

There is no end to learning.I learn something new every day.The hospital requires that we complete competencies so we are always taking online courses or going to classes.It never ends.And you have to take a certain numbers of courses to keep your license.

I like that I can use all the skills I’ve acquired over the decades and put them to use in one occupation.Nurses have all sorts of interesting experience from past lives and they can apply it to nursing.That’s very cool.

They say that 98% of nursing is teaching.There’s some truth to that.

I also like going to work in my pajamas.Some nurses hate scrubs – I don’t.And I like that I get to wear Alegrias on my feet.(Invest in good shoes – you’ll need them.)

My patients offer variety.I work with children and adults.

4. What do you dislike the most about your job?

It is so hard to earn that license and it’s so easy to lose it. One mistake and all that work goes poof. The Board of Nursing sends me a magazine and there’s a whole section in it that lists the names of nurses who have lost their licenses. It’s not like it’s a secret. There it is in black and white for everyone to see: You screwed up and now you’ll never work as a nurse again.

And it’s frustrating that so much of nursing is charting.Yes, documentation is important.But you will be documenting constantly and in the back of your mind you have to be thinking: “Will this hold up in a court of law when I am sued by a patient?”If I had a dollar for every patient who said they were going to sue, I wouldn’t have to work.

And a lot of what you do as a nurse really has very little to do with nursing or patient care.

It’s also a frustrating experience seeing how health care works.There are patients who abuse the system and there’s really no way to stop that.Government regulations that may have sounded like a good idea at one time are now so complicated that I feel like I’m working in law instead of medicine sometimes.Doctors are leaving the profession.Nurses come and go.Turnover is common.

5. What is one thing you wish you knew that you did not know upon pursuing this field?

I guess I wish I’d known that an ASN would mean that I’d never stop going to school.Another poster mentioned Magnet status and the master plan for nurses.A lot of nurses never thought they’d see the day, but several hospitals have already stopped hiring LPNs.And now many hospitals won’t even hire someone with an ASN unless they can prove they’ve started a BSN program.Some hospitals won’t even consider an ASN now.Guess what?I’m starting a BSN this month.And it won’t be cheap.

And the certifications never end.My next project will be certification for psychiatric nursing.Another big test and another big check.

I’ve been working in a hospital since 2007 and I’ve seen a lot of changes.If you don’t like change, you won’t like this field.I’ve seen techs take on more nursing responsibilities and nurses taking on more doctor responsibilities.Many departments seem to be phasing out MDs and hiring more Nurse Practitioners.A BSN won’t be enough; nurses are constantly pressured to keep earning degrees.I haven't even taken my first class yet for my RN to BSN program and I’m already getting pushed to get an MSN.I’ll be 55 next month – let me catch my breath, will ya?

6. How is job growth/retention for you?

Behavioral Health is not a moneymaker for hospitals.After years of working without a raise, our hospital recently broke down and gave staff a 1-2% bump.Woo-hoo!

Baby Boomers are aging so there will be no shortage of patients.When I started looking for work I considered the two populations that seemed to be growing quickly: Older patients and psychopaths.

But there is no job security.A nurse can lose his/her position at any time.Depending on geography, the market can still be good for nurses looking for jobs.Other areas… uh, not so much.But, like I said, there are options within nursing and there are jobs that most nurses don’t even know exist.

When I worked with infants I worked with a lot of withdrawal babies.I actually liked that.Very challenging.And good training I guess for all the patients I work with now who have substance abuse issues.I’m surprised how much I actually enjoyed the babies and I often miss them.I liked talking to them and singing selections from Broadway musicals.But I was fortunate: I worked on a unit with less critically ill babies – not NICU.I floated to other Peds units to work and I trained on units for school, but I knew I wasn’t cut out for NICU.I felt that a nurse spends more time with equipment than with the actual patient.There are babies who are so ill that they can’t even be touched.I was used to things that someone would see on the unit, but several of my classmates were absolutely traumatized by the experience.Strangely, I enjoyed my L&D rotation because I was one of the lucky ones – I got to assist in two back-to-back deliveries.Wouldn’t ever want to work there, though.

The most interesting thing about nursing school is that you may discover that you don’t want to work with kids at all.You might just find something that you had never even considered.But there’s only one way to find out.

Just Bee *waves to you* --

Great hearing from you. You certainly have a way with words. I really appreciate you taking the time to reply and the great detail in your response as another poster already stated. I actually feel like I am walking through your shoes and experiencing and seeing exactly what you went through. You mentioned working both days and nights? What does a typical work week schedule look like for you? It sounds like you have quite an experience and you've only been in the field officially for one year - so exciting. I am trying to keep an open mind in terms of where I will end up even though the pull has been in place for Pediatrics and NICU. Great minds. In college I wanted to major in veterinary medicine but decided it would be too many animal systems to consciously master. I went for Bio-Pre med and the science classes literally kicked my booty. I had a friend whom was a nursing major. I thought briefly in passing but never explored it then.

I am extremely hopeful (now that I am older) that I will have the focus needed to meet this new goal. I imagine in the nursing world you literally have to take things one step at a time knowing the end goal will be in sight. I have done a lot of research and am certainly not disillusioned about nursing school being a challenge. I guess being in nursing school will really test what I am made of. Did you have to make alot of sacrifices in your nursing program? The first step is securing a position at a hospital and seeing how I would like it. What type of course did you take (I did not know if it was name specific?). I imagine any position in a hospital is helpful. It sounds like this field is full of endless possibilities with ample opportunities to grow and hone your interactions and care of patients. By chance do you have a contact email where I can keep in touch with you? I would love to do that. Agreed, it is certainly interesting where one ends up. I feel more empowered to get going. Let me know your view(s).

happy housewife - I agree with everything that you said. I was reading some job descriptions to get an idea of potential positions and noticed there are alot of positions that require lots of administrative work. I did not know if this varies based on specialty or type of hospital.

pitdakota- Do your student struggle with choosing a program? Of course I would be potentially starting out with the prerequisite coursework and going from there.

Please keep your responses coming. This is great information.

azureblue

[WhateverLolaWants]

Just came across this web page, and while it is generally negative in tone, thought you might want to read it

http://www.everydayhealth.com/news/why-americas-nurses-are-burning-out/?ncid=webmail6

I am a long-retired registered medical technologist, but I found the work very stressful.

[pitdakota]

azureblue,

I am not sure I can adequately answer if or how much our students struggle with selecting a nursing program simply because that topic really doesn't come up much since I interact with nursing students that are already in our program.

Of course cost is always a concern and rightfully so. That is a major consideration, so be sure to not only know about the tuition, but other fees that are tagged on to the specific nursing courses. Some courses may have a lab fee or something along those lines required in addition to the tuition for the course.

You might also want to check out the NCLEX pass rate for all the programs you are looking at. Every State Board of Nursing makes these available as public information. NCLEX pass rates have to do with how many graduates of the program successfully pass the licensure exam the first time. And of course it is crucial that the nursing program either be accredited by the NLN or CCNE.

And along those lines, make sure the college/university itself has regional accreditation. I can't stress how important this is. Our universities here are accredited by SACHS. The problem you face if you attend a program that is not regionally accredited is that if something does happen and you want to transfer to another program that is regionally accredited, your courses will not transfer. Not to mention that all universities that are worth their salt are regionally accredited.

NLN or CCNE accreditation is for the nursing program only. So a nursing program answers to 2 different accreditation groups.

I won't sugar coat nursing school. It is hard and it takes a tremendous amount of work. That is one thing I have to say as an educator. Our students always seem shell shocked at the amount and difficulty of the work. Once they tackle the chemistry, microbiology, A&P, and patho they tend to think the rest is smooth sailing. Somehow they know that dental or medical school is hard, but just don't anticipate nursing school being that hard. But it is. No way around it.

Another point I might offer is that in general our older students tend to do better. They are more mature and focused along with being more willing to give up their time to dedicate to studying and completing the work required while in school.

[RetRN]

There are definitely pros and cons to nursing, it is not a choice that you make on a whim. Many who choose it do so based on the income. Those are not the ones I would want caring for me or my family and friends. A good nurse is a treasure.

[just bee]

On 9/21/2014 WhateverLolaWants said:

Just came across this web page, and while it is generally negative in tone, thought you might want to read it

http://www.everydayhealth.com/news/why-americas-nurses-are-burning-out/?ncid=webmail6

I am a long-retired registered medical technologist, but I found the work very stressful.

The article makes some good points. When I was going through nursing school I knew which students were going into the profession for the wrong reasons. And when I worked with infants I saw a huge turnover in NICU because so many nurses are so emotionally invested in these babies that they just fall to pieces on the unit. There's enough drama in a hospital to begin with. Hysterical nurses really help no one.

Instructors make students practice "neutral face" all through nursing school. I believe a nurse has to neutralize his/her heart and mind to do this job.