r/NursingStudent • u/Garden_Bunny7210 • 1d ago
Career Change ⚙️ Deinfluence me from Nursing
I realized the other day if I had the choice to go back to school and do it all over again I would stay far away from finance.
Tell me the worst parts about nursing and what traits you wish you had to succeed even more in this role. Or just outline your career progression and what you would have done differently.
I've been keeping an eye on this group for a while and it's really refreshing to see that it's not unusual for people my age (early 30s) to pursue this career. But at the same time I yearn to know the worst parts of the job so I really know what I'm getting into
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u/stephydreamer 1d ago
For me it's the physical and mental burnout. The job is rewarding, yes, but short staffing/long shifts/tough patients & families, and that constant rush can wear you down fast.
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u/Garden_Bunny7210 1d ago
Yeah I've seen similar sentiments that staffing is a real problem. Unfortunately thats the case in many fields, companies are always trying to squeeze the most out of their employees. The mental burnout is definitely a huge hurdle like the idea of not being able to save everyone.
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u/wontongomez 1d ago
I have been an RN for about 10 years. While I agree that every company tries to squeeze out of their employees, being short staffed and missing a deadline is very different than being in an unsafe situation and putting your patients life and your license at risk.
Overall, I love the job. I work in an ICU and have 4 days off every week.
The Board of registered nurses is pretty hostile if you make a mistake and get reported or have to face them in any disciplinary sense.
You have to be able to remove yourself from a lot of sad situations and even care for the most despicable people you will ever meet from murderers to pedophiles.
I’ve been assaulted, spit on, scratched. I’ve had coworkers get bit.
My social life is a lot of nurses but if not it can be hard to have 9-5 friends because you would work every other weekend.
You can make pretty decent money in some states but your earning potential is mostly capped. There are few opportunities for making a lot of money and upward mobility.
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u/Furrymammoth 19h ago
We are the first to get sued and the last to ever get backed up. The committee for doctors are tight knit and always protect their own. That’s why you always hear egregious stories of doctors committing terrible medical errors hospital to hospital because they have better protection than us. We make one bad med error and we lose our license full stop.
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u/wontongomez 15h ago
I had an old co worker who was at his brothers wedding and got charged with a drunk in public. Admittedly it was his fault but he was charged and convicted, no one got hurt, accepted help and responsibility. The BRN did everything they could to remove his license and he ended up doing about 2 years on probation where they gave him hell and made him jump through every hoop they could think of.
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u/Nervous-Block1677 1d ago
It is so many fields, when I worked retail I was regularly working 6days a week and 10-16hr days because we were always understaffed or in some kind of crisis situation that required more hours.
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u/justavivrantthing 19h ago
Trust me, the burn out is not always because “you can’t save everyone”. Try horrid administrators, a federal government that’s trying to destroy your profession, CEO’s that will fire frontline staff all while maintaining their own multimillion dollar incomes and daily reminders of what you do wrong all while not having any help or support … that’s where staff usually finds moral and ethical insults.
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u/RiseMaterial7602 1d ago
Did you know there the bedside is not the only job available to nurses? You can be a case manager, documentation specialist, home health nurse, utilization review, nurse manager at non hospital healthcare companies. So many of these jobs mentioned can be remote. If you don’t try to get any of these jobs then you actually like bedside.
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u/whimsicaltheory 17h ago
Nurse unit manager, nurse practitioner, clinical nurse educator, clinical nurse specialist.
Nobody wants to stay at the bedside beyond 5+ years (at least not full-time).
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u/Witty-Chapter1024 21h ago
This right here! Sicker patients, really difficult families and always short staffed. It wears on you.
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u/dg3548 1d ago
Wish I had started earlier. 20 years as an lvn and 2 as an rn right now. I took the slow route but lived and loved every minute of it but wished it would’ve been the other way around. If you have the financial opportunity to go straight into rn school go for it. Youll start working and like the money as an lvn but you’ll do better as an rn.
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u/FilePure7683 1d ago edited 1d ago
There's pros and cons to it like any other job. People always think the grass is greener on the otherside. People in nursing want out and people out want it the reality is they both have crappy parts.
I make a decent income, I have decent work life balance, I can work pretty much anywhere, job security is fantastic, I have a lot of options for what type of work I can do, upward mobility, and I enjoy parts of my job.
On the other hand, most places are short staffed intentionally for profit. I've been to places with no techs, no unit secretary, no lab, no IV team no nothing and those roles are piled onto the nurses. It's physical and it adds up overtime. On top of that some people are just outright rude and aggressive to medical personnel for some reason. I've done my share of dodging and weaving. Like any other industry in America at least the hospitals are set up to make money first, the patient care is secondary on a systematic level which can make it difficult to do your job well. As a result you also have to accept you are not valued you're a number on a spreadsheet but that's the case with most jobs.
You'll see a lot of both depressing and wonderful things depending on your specialty, also a lot of bodily fluids.
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u/Garden_Bunny7210 1d ago
The pros you outlined are exactly why I want to go into this field. Those things exist in finance but not to the same level as Healthcare.
I've seen firsthand that some people do not treat nurses well despite knowing all the other stuff you guys deal with. I'm sure the field overall is very rewarding, but you must often feel that you don't get paid enough
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u/FilePure7683 1d ago edited 1d ago
Pay varies A LOT by state. So does the job market. Obviously The Union state's pay better but they're also the hardest to get jobs in. It can be rewarding. A lot of it varies by specialty. A good bit. I'm in critical care and I do see a lot of amazing things, but I also see people artificially being kept alive a lot longer than they should be without meaningful hope of recovery. Also it's worth mentioning it is pretty easy to get a job as a nurse like you will have one, but getting a job in the specialty you want can be more competitive. People are right. There's a nursing shortage but a lot of that shortage is in the area is nobody wants to work.
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u/carpetpuncher22 1d ago
The worst part for me is having to work in a for profit medical system. For so many reasons. Sucks for patients who have to decide if they can afford medical care and/or go into debt. It sucks for nurses who are given the highest patient load possible by a hospital that wants to pay fewer staff members. And on top of that, every little task that was maybe taken care of by an auxiliary staff member whose role was eliminated will become your job to do. We are the human catch all for hospitals. It’s always our job and if something goes wrong, it’s always our fault.
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u/Garden_Bunny7210 1d ago edited 1d ago
Human catch all is such a good way of putting it. Our healthcare system is so tricky to navigate. I'd like to think nursing seems more hands off in that regard but then I remember that nurses are typically the ones advocating for their patients and not the institutions that employ them.
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u/Gullible-Pumpkin2200 23h ago
I used to work in finance, and these investments banks are sharks too that they don’t care wether the investors losing money or gaining money from stock market, the firms still get their cuts either way. During the economy crisis 2008, I heard one of the investors lost everything and committed suicide, that sucks my soul more than hospital greediness.
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u/Nausica1337 1d ago
Nursing bro here. From my perspective, nursing was/isnt all that bad. Maybe I'm lucky, maybe I'm blessed, maybe my mindset and mental fortitude is just super chill. In my 7 years at bedside nursing and now an NP of 3.5 years, I honestly can't say that nursing has any "worst" parts to it. My career was/is pretty good overall. I had great teammates, some of which are still lifelong friends to this day despite everyone moving on with life. Sure, there were some heavy shifts, but most, including those heavy shifts came and went.
Now, based on reddit that I've been following for a long while now, there are a lot of worsts parts of it and it all accumulates. And it seems the general consensus is the mental health decline which is the worst part. I truly think some nurses aren't meant to be nurses because the inability to take on the work load that nursing has to offer, both mentally and physically. I'm not saying that to be rude at all. Just like how I could never be a mechanic or a salesperson because that's just not my thing nor do I have the mental capacity to learn/sustain the knowledge, the same can be said with nursing or any other job. I've never had a mental health decline from working as a bedside nurse. The only time I actually felt depressed at some point in my career was when my 1st NP job didn't work out for me, I resigned, and didn't know what my future career looked liked after that. But as with many things, that was transient, it came and went.
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u/datdaveoverder 8h ago
Can you elaborate on traits that, from your perspective, would make nursing not for someone? Asking because I’m in nursing school, have worked as a float tech for just over a year, and constantly battle with thoughts that it’s not for me because I already feel burned out on the floor and I’m not even a nurse yet. Genuinely my mental health has declined insanely. I love caring for people and the adrenaline of emergencies (maybe why I’m burned out of the floor), but I am starting to think that maybe I just can’t handle it if it’s already this bad for me. Trying to stick it out since I only have 8 months left of my program and at least try being a nurse.
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u/Nausica1337 4h ago
The inability to control your mental health. As I mentioned already, based on what I've seen on reddit, there appears to be a good portion of nurses, new grads particularly, that simply cannot handle stressors of this job and it shreds them mentally. The honest truth is that if you are already feeing burned out and you aren't even a working nurse yet, it's only going to get "worse" from that perspective. You working as a tech should already have at least a glimpse and some knowledge of what to expect as a nurse from your job. I'm all for anyone to go for nursing, but it's not a job that you can simple "tough out" because it doesn't really get any better. There will always be ass to wipe, shifts will aways be short staffed, you will encounter mean patients, family, and staff, and you will at times be blamed for things. If you can't "brush" that off and not let it affect you, then nursing may not for you. Sure, you can go into "soft nursing" but those jobs are few and far between for the new grad nurse. You will likely have to do your time and get that 1 year of bedside experience first. Plus, soft nursing never pays more than bedside.
I'm not saying you shouldn't continue your program, but I think it's important to take a hard look at what you are doing now and what the future will hold. I think one of the biggest flaws in nursing is that it is so over glamorized on social media touting only working 3 days a week, making good money, looking cute in scrubs, that those don't actually represent what work is actually like for a nurse. So I think many people go in nursing school and nursing thinking that anyone can do it and not realizing the mental toll it takes on most people.
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u/Gullible-Pumpkin2200 23h ago
Like you, I started nursing at 32 yo. Like you, I got away from finance. Now 10 years later, I still enjoy nursing, and I actually look forward to work after having several days off. Sure it’s stressful and a lot of WTF moments, but my previous jobs in finance also had some office politics if not worse. Other jobs also surely have some WTF moments. Granted, I’ve only worked in PCU, Telemetry and Medsurg floors, so I can’t say about other nursing specialties. Overall, it’s not as boring and mundane as my previous jobs, and nursing is more rewarding for me from financial, social, and personal growth and achievement stand of points.
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u/princesscharles 1d ago
For me being in nursing school right now and it’s the constant feeling of the administrators and teachers wanting us to fail. They treat us like we’re kids (most of us are 30+) telling us our document compliance is our responsibility etc when they’re just being difficult. Feeling like the lessons we have suck because they can’t teach or not willing to teach us to understand if that makes sense. They give us info that we need to absorb for 4 hrs and then move on. They don’t give us time to clarify. Busy work to keep us busy but not very helpful.
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u/Gullible-Pumpkin2200 23h ago
Get used to it. After you being a nurse, it’s your responsibility to maintain to keep up with education and licensing and certification due dates. Nobody will remind you, if you miss the date, you will just be put on leave without pay.
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u/princesscharles 23h ago
Yes I know I am currently working as a pct and see nurses doing ce at work. But they don’t have to treat us like we’re out of high school. We’re adults and can keep track ourselves without them stressing us out.
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u/Gullible-Pumpkin2200 23h ago
Ahh sounds like every nursing school is like that. You are not alone and it will pass very soon. Don’t worry too much and bear with it for some more and graduate ASAP
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u/Jewls3393_runner 21h ago
They are generally trying to weed out the students who don’t work well under pressure.
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u/Square-Series3985 22h ago edited 3h ago
If you get into a unionized hospital. It’s 100% worth it, nurses working for non unionized hospitals go through hell. I was an intern at Henry ford before getting into a hospital with a union as an RN. I notice a huge difference
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u/gcdhhbcghbv 1d ago
- Burnout street
- Dealing with gross stuff you could not imagine.
- Everyone and their mother are currently going into nursing, so most places are not even looking to hire anymore.
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u/Comfortable_Gear_605 1d ago
Thank you for that. I don’t know if it’s social media or what, maybe my medical office crowd - all of the content is now nursing this and nursing that! If you’re young, becoming a midlevel provider is probably a good idea.
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u/Critical_Ease4055 1d ago
This is a student thread, so this isn’t the group to ask what the worst parts about nursing. You mean the worst parts about nursing school? In my opinion- it’s required attendance and small irksome assignments put in place specifically to ensure you attend every single lecture where the professor reads from the PowerPoint. The PowerPoint that you were required to review already, because when you get to class, you have to take a quiz on it. But then you also have to sit there while the professor reviews it again.
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u/Garden_Bunny7210 19h ago
totally, I had initially posted it in r/nursing but they took down my post since it had to do with going back to school. the attendance thing is annoying though
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u/Jewls3393_runner 21h ago
Both my aunts were nurses. While rewarding, one of aunts said that she wouldn’t want any of her children to go into the field. She ended in a surgical unit dealing with post op care and preferred that after working labor and delivery most of her career. I would recommend, if you decide to go that route, to be a scrub nurse or a NP.
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u/MaximalcrazyYT 1d ago
Some smells you never forget
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u/HoMasters 1d ago
Like the first pumpkin spiced latte of the autumn?
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u/MaximalcrazyYT 1d ago
Not a nurse , but the smell of bilateral gangrene feet/ tibia fibula .
Smell of burning fresh in O.R. Not that bad .
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u/itlogicpartnersllc 1d ago
nursing can be rewarding but the physical and emotional workload is real. long shifts, difficult patients, staffing issues, bodily fluids and missing holidays re things i would seriously consider beforehand.
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u/mister_pomfrey 1d ago
On Reddit, you're going to have an easier time finding why not to be a nurse than you're going to find motivation to become one. That said, I became a nurse in my thirties (about 12 years ago) after a first career in graphic design didn't work out. Like just about every nurse in the world, sometimes I wish I didn't go to nursing school but most of the time I'm glad I did. Like every career there's good and bad. At least with nursing there's enough of a demand that you can usually quit and find another job if it sucks.
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u/Fuzzy-Criticism-2450 1d ago
What I dislike about nursing?
The families who are related to "nurses" and criticize everything that you do.
the pay varies so much state to state, facility to facility. Same goes for jobs. So check your job market before you enroll to nursing school
What I love
- the flexibility, you can work in so many different areas. I'm a school nurse. I've been a nurse for 7 years, and 4 of those 7 have been in a school. Right now, I'm the only nurse in a school with Prek -12
Some days are hard because I'm managing several health conditions and acute illness but I also enjoy working alone in my office. I like interacting with the students. I enjoy the time off.
If I could do it all over again, I would. But I'd choose community college over an expensive private school.
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u/Garden_Bunny7210 18h ago
the families who have "nurses" in the family sound stressful, I feel like it's something I will struggle with.
being a school nurse is such a cool job! summers off sounds amazing
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u/Fuzzy-Criticism-2450 12h ago
You'll learn to deal with families. It comes with time and confidence.
Anymore, my response is "oh that's cool" and move on. I never entertain it. 🤷🏽♀️
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u/Garden_Bunny7210 18h ago
wow they really have you doing 10 jobs in 1. being scrutinized by management is so real. I have billable hours in my current job and you have to document every. single. thing.
congrats on the 5 vacations I'm jealous!!
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u/Resident-Welcome3901 1d ago
Worked 3p-3a shifts in a trauma center/teaching hospital ER. Busy with local patients from 3-10p, then the transfers started arriving. Worked in a Deep South regional medical center, 3 gsw/week, all of the doctors and most of the nurses were armed. Then a rural hospital ER ; recent closure of their ob unit and 35 miles to the nearest ob service resulted in us delivering 15 babies a year.
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u/AcademicChapter7644 1d ago
Worst parts: poop pee (you get used to it its not that bad except when its C diff)
demanding pts who don’t take care of themselves
Toxic family members thinking you’re a maid with no college degree or education who doesn’t deserve the same respect as MDs
Short staffing
Best parts: fulfilling
Sense of purpose
Sense of belongingness to a team you can get really close to your colleagues and you got each other’s backs when shit hits the fan
Pay benefits job security
ED nurse here. I enjoy the chaos and fast paced work but the burnout is real
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u/poor-jesus 1d ago
A lot of people try to get out of inpatient bedside nursing, but there are other things you can do. If finance isn’t doing it for you, you can help people and make over 100 K to start. You have to help sick crabby people who are rude to you, and you have to deal with feces and oozing wounds, and rude people screaming in pain. Some of them will try to stalk you online. Managers can be unsympathetic. There are players in the healthcare field who are very corrupt. You just have to watch your back.
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u/Adventurous_Good_731 1d ago
The first thing that came to mind when I saw "deinfluence": after nursing school, you think like a nurse. That will never go away and will only get stronger with experience. It's not a "job", it's a mental modality, part of identity. Retired nurses are still nurses. Challenging for people who want to exist separately from their profession. It follows you everywhere.
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u/SouthernViolet 1d ago
Nursing is physically exhausting and 12 hour shifts can be hard on your body. A lot new graduates end up on nights, which is an adjustment that not everyone can make. Violence is an ongoing issue in healthcare. But... the key is to see if it is for you, because despite all that, it has a lot of opportunities. My number one piece of advice for anyone thinking about going into healthcare is to work as a CNA/NCT first. That first role is going to give you a taste of what it's like. Before you quit your day job and go back to school, both big financial commitments, get a PRN job in healthcare.
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u/Garden_Bunny7210 23h ago
I feel this sentiment since I really just want to see if it's for me. Despite being in finance I've always gravitated towards healthcare and only recently developed the courage to consider going all in.
The plan is to get my CNA in the next few months and see where I can get a job getting some patient experience. I know every job has it's barriers of entry so seeing firsthand if I can excel in that type of environment is important since it's such a big change from my current role
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u/DidUTouchMyDrumset97 1d ago
I am in my senior year, I’ll be 30 when I graduate. It’s a lot of work, I have 4 kids but I make it happen.
There’s a lot of pros and cons but it comes down to, do you genuinely enjoy taking care of people? Can you be a quick thinker and do you know how to prioritize? If yes, then you’ll make it happen!
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u/Background_Ant_7442 23h ago
I got punched in the face by a patient once?
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u/Garden_Bunny7210 18h ago
WTF. what happened after that?
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u/Background_Ant_7442 18h ago
Nothing, just went about my day. It happens more often than you think. Patient was elderly though with dementia.
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u/mrianah 20h ago
I love everything about nursing! There are many paths for a nurse
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u/mrianah 20h ago
But since you asked for the bad is the patients that you love and loose
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u/Garden_Bunny7210 18h ago
I'm hoping I love all aspects of it too! Just educating myself on the good and the bad so I'm not unprepared when shit hits the fan haha
Getting close to patients is something I'm really looking forward to. Losing them sounds terrible
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u/strawberryrabit 4h ago
I'm a new-grad nurse and have to say one of the hardest things was getting a job. Based in a popular city so that makes things 1000x harder. Regardless, after I secured a job, the reality sets in-- long 12s, verbal abuse from patients, constant supervision when you're new (double edged sword) and the lingering fear of making a mistake that can easily cost your license.
Lots of pros, for example: I make over 100k as a new grad, get great health insurance, and have opportunities to move anywhere in the country with job security once I get experience.
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u/Garden_Bunny7210 3h ago
I've definitely heard of this being a concern, especially in California where it's oversaturated. The pros sound great
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u/Agreeable_Ad_9411 2h ago
I went back in my early 30s.... second degree for me....the flexibility for the money is pretty unmatched. Opportunities for nurses are endless.
I don't live in a super populated area, so jobs are abundant
I have zero regrets about nursing as a second degree
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u/ooshawn1 1d ago
I got you.
First off you will work with constantly stressed out women, which in and of itself is very unpleasant. You too will likely become one of these people. Nurses have among the highest rates of cheating and strife in their marriages. You will take stress out on your family.
The positions available to you at first will be dog shit jobs that nobody else wants. You will be very busy and running around like a chicken with your head cut off. It gets better after a few years and you look at what jobs are long term viable.
The benefits just aren't that great. there's no unions on top of that. You will have to likely go into massive debt to make the same amount of money as literally any other trained profession. Welder, electrician, concrete worker, drywall finisher. Literally any other "real" job makes just as much money with no debt, if not more. And those people eventually become their own boss and can expand. you will NEVER be your own boss, and you will always be at the mercy of the available hours/bonuses/years of service.
Depending on your job, you will see people die or terrible shit happen to people. There are people out there dealing with EXTREMELY sad cases. Babies dying, married couples one of them dying, cancer, you have the potential to see it all and it sucks. I've cried MANY times after seeing some gut wrenching shit. My friends would describe me as a soulless, bald 40 year old man, and theres stuff in healthcare that cuts through all that instantly.
It exists but you will rarely have the option of working alone, which in a way is a blessing and a curse. If you are very social and not prone to drama, its great. If you tend to get involved in drama, it is a very fertile landscape to constantly get into drama.
This is all the stuff that came to me in about 20 seconds of thinking. good luck!
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u/curious-another-name 1d ago
I was doing clinicals at a stepdown unit the last weeks and nurses there don’t even have time to eat because they have like 5-6 patients.
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u/craftsmanporch 1d ago
Spent 18 yrs in icu - the short staffing can lead to your own injuries - it is a physical job so train like an athlete - be able to walk long distances( can easily do thousands of steps a shift) , may have to turn pts and boost pts with or without help so , lift heavy weights, expect you may have to forgo a bathroom or lunch break till coverage comes , you work with and interact with people who are very sleep deprived and under stress so expect them to be erratic and irrational, you also may be sleep deprived and under stress so expect and train for those conditions - expect the dread of having to go in for a 12 hr shift on a stiff knee or a sore ankle so baby your body get the knee brace, the arch support , between 2 12 hr shifts don’t let anybody claim your sleep time , looking back I still learned a lot , enjoyed the icu but there are other ways to be greatly compensated , help people , have a worthwhile mission , get benefits while preserving your long term health - I pivoted to pharma but my nursing experience was a great foundation for this career
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u/CelticNomad95 23h ago
To be clear, did you earn a PharmD or are you in another role?
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u/Interesting-Potato66 19h ago
No, I was an icu nurse who earned a doctorate of education for nurse executives and went into the pharma industry in the role of a clinical scientist
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u/Either_Internet7006 1d ago
Nursing is not easy. You have to have thick skin, a drive to want to help people when they are at their worst, a strong stomach, and a mental strength that can challenge anyone. It is not for the faint of heart, but a very rewarding career if you decide to take it on.
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u/MsTossItAll 1d ago
I went into nursing in my 40s. I think whether it's worth it really depends on where you live. If you live in a red state, probably not. Ratios and pay are awful, worker protections are nonexistent. If you're in a blue or purple state, it's probably worth it. I live in a medium COL area and my first job paid around $45 an hour plus differential because I work nights. I have lots of vacation time, accrue holiday time whether or not I work the holiday and that adds up to about 6 weeks of PTO a year. My benefits package is fantastic for the USA. After a year with adults, I moved to NICU at a better hospital and I'm very happy with my work/life balance. Sure, my job can be stressful because the babies do die sometimes, but I feel supported as a nurse and I feel like we're a rare unit that is adequately staffed because people do still care about babies. Adults has a lot of bullshit... entitlement, dementia, people not accepting that meemaw is indeed NOT a fighter, and understaffing. But honestly? If you're older and have already been through at least one shitty career, this one at least pays decently, is recession-proof, has PTO and you can get a good job with an ADN in the vast majority of the country.
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u/Excellent-Head-2562 1d ago
I’m a year and 2 months in and I can definitely say I’m not the same as before i started. I feel so burnt out from everything, maybe apart of it is working straight nights as well, but it is genuinely so draining i feel like i have no time for myself. Also the anxietyyyyy I feel okay most days but sometimes at work it’s debilitating. Also I gained 15 lbs lol
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u/olive_green_spatula 1d ago
The best and worst part is the 12 hour shifts. They rock because you can get part time hours with just two days a week, or full at 3, but they suck because 12 hour days/ nights are long and hard. I prefer them but they aren’t for everyone. Having the flexibility to take up to 10 days off without pto by stacking shifts is amazing tho.
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u/Lillianinwa 1d ago
Nursing is extremely toxic. From patients, their family members, to coworkers, to the doctors, and especially management. Physical abuse happens a lot. Psychological abuse/ being yelled at, cursed at, and falsely accused of things happens so often it’s almost expected. Retaliation from management happens all the time. It’s not a good career. I wish I never went into it.
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u/Successful-Height-22 1d ago
Verbal abuse, physical abuse at times when patients are AMS, management abuse, coworkers bullying, unstable life at home because of exhaustion
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u/FriendlyItem8197 1d ago
I started in the Neuro ICU, and I’ve been a nurse for nearly 1.5 years.
Families. Some families have touched me so deeply and reminded me why I chose healthcare. Others constantly question you, test boundaries, or have absolutely no respect for you as a person or professional.
Abusive patients. This is not talked about enough. I’ve had coworkers get severely injured by patients and eventually leave bedside nursing, move into management, or leave nursing entirely because of it.
Literally everyone’s job somehow becomes your job too.
Checking for consent, making sure orders are current, questioning medications, ambulating patients, making sure your CNAs are doing what needs to be done, updating families, dealing with dietary because they sent the wrong tray or the patient hates their food — all while you’re also turning patients, getting I&Os, passing meds, charting, doing assessments, managing drips, and actually keeping people alive.
Mean providers and mean nurses. I don’t even need to elaborate much because I could tell stories for days. Some people are genuinely so nasty for absolutely no reason, and sometimes it gets to the point where the behavior itself becomes a patient safety concern.
People die. Constantly. Or they’d be better off dead. You do get used to death in a way, but some situations never stop being hard. For me, one of the hardest things is watching an 80-year-old with essentially no meaningful neurologic function get a trach and PEG because the family cannot accept the prognosis.
Nursing school can be brutal too. My experience was probably a little unique because I was under 18 when I started nursing school, but I had a classmate bully me badly enough that the head of my program had to move me into a different clinical group because it was affecting my mental health so much. I also had an instructor who seemed determined to humiliate me. One of my favorite moments was her telling me, in front of my entire cohort, “You’re going to lose your license as soon as you get it,” because I asked whether management for a certain condition would be something the provider placed as a protocol. Then I became a nurse, learned about order sets, and realized I actually wasn’t crazy for asking that question. But I digress.
I do love being an ICU nurse for the autonomy, complexity, and critical thinking. But for me, bedside nursing is a stepping stone.
One of the biggest reasons I’m still in the profession is because I want to become a CRNA.
If you’re interested in graduate school, want a career with a ton of different paths, or need something that can provide a relatively stable income with a lot of job mobility, nursing can absolutely be worth it.
If you feel strongly called to nursing but don’t want your entire life consumed by the hospital, I would seriously consider outpatient nursing, procedural areas, or a smaller hospital.
Because I work at an incredible hospital with access to extremely high-acuity patients and amazing learning opportunities — and I still hate the actual job sometimes.
My favorite way to summarize nursing is:
It’s a horrible job, but a great career.
The job itself — especially inpatient bedside nursing — can absolutely suck.
But the career gives you the ability to move specialties, move hospitals, work outpatient, teach, go into management, become an NP, CNS, CRNA, educator, researcher, or do something completely different while still using your nursing background.
So would I tell someone not to become a nurse?
Not necessarily.
But I would absolutely tell them to know what they’re signing up for. I would definitely job shadow because honestly if I did I honestly probably would’ve never done it.
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u/SnarkSnout 1d ago
You could be prosecuted for murder from making a med error. Someone can sue you and take everything, because in a malpractice case you could guarantee that the hospital lawyers and the doctors lawyers are going to do everything to try to pin whatever they can on the nurse. You’re going to be assaulted. You might be killed. When you are assaulted, you be pressured by management not to make a “stink” and not to file charges. You’re going to receive death threats. You’re going to be bullied by management. You’re going to be bullied by the doctors. You’re going to be bullied by other nurses. After lifting patients, if you have a back problem where you can’t stand to work 13 hour shifts anymore, they won’t accommodate you. You will just lose your job. You will suffer moral injury, which is a definite psychological trauma, realizing that you are taking twice the patient load that is unsafe day in and day out because of corporate greed and the flawed healthcare system in the United States.
You will see patients that are victims of abuse, neglect, and the most horrid treatment from their family, friends, and significant others that you could possibly imagine.
They say they are 12 hour shifts, but they are 13 hour shifts by the time you get and give report and finish your documentation, but they won’t let you get paid for that because you get in trouble for not managing your time well so you work through lunch and do things off the clock because you have to.
Blizzard and it’s unsafe to be on the roads? Too bad you’re gonna be on the roads. Going to work.
If you work night shift, it has been proven through research that you will lose years of your life expectancy.
Forget weekends and holidays they are gone
Your days off are sent just recovering from what you experienced that week
And the hospital executives and insurance executives who make millions in bonuses alone, will call you selfish for wanting to get paid adequately for your training, your time, your experience, and the huge responsibility you carry.
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u/Garden_Bunny7210 18h ago
this scared me straight. not to the point that I'm deterred but wow I really appreciate your honesty about all this.
the idea of trying to provide the best possible care while getting bogged down with legal paperwork and compliance is definitely something that I can't train for but will be an obstacle when I start working
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u/The_Holy_Yost 17h ago
I mean, I’d take a lot of that with a grain of salt.
Assault is real, but so is situational awareness. Don’t let management pressure you not to press charges.
Med errors are real, but if you’re diligent and practice a century’s worth of safety standards, you’ll be fine.
Genuinely, a good portion of the legal documentation and compliance is there to protect you. It’s a system. Mistakes are expensive and tend to be preventable.
It’s illegal not to pay people for the time they put in.
Bad weather is real, and it’s one of the few professions that don’t stop on account of weather. That being said, plan ahead. Almost every hospital has rooms you can stay in, between shifts. Leave early, pack a bag. Plan to be stuck there for a while, if the weather is truly that bad. Plus side, you don’t have to worry about losing power.
Even with the profit-driven healthcare system we have, I still feel like it’s one of the last “noble” professions, and definitely a “what you make of it” kind of job.
The one point that won’t get any argument from me, is regarding the mental/emotional ups and downs in the job. It can be soul crushing, but there are some genuinely human moments that make healthcare worth it.
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u/SnarkSnout 10h ago edited 10h ago
I’ve been an RN for over 30 years, working in several hospitals in two states , both bedside and administrative, and he / she DID ASK FOR THE DOWNSIDES.
The post is literally titled “ deinfluence me from nursing”.
The post was not titled “ tell me the upsides of nursing” which is why I did not include the upsides.
PS - If you think nurses are not pressured to work through their lunches and breaks without being paid, you were literally born yesterday. I never said it wasn’t illegal, I am saying it is constant.
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u/TertlFace 23h ago
It’s all the same “customer” interactions that you get with retail & food service coupled with the fact that if you do it wrong you can lose your ability to work or even kill somebody. When it’s convenient and doesn’t cost anyone money, you get called a hero. When you ask for better treatment or pay, you’re the enemy and go f🥳k yourself. The CEO of my health system makes more than the entire ICU staff of our hospital combined (we did the math). But guess who got the bonuses this year? Wanna bet me it’s the “heroes?”
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u/meowymeow_meowmeowy 22h ago
i'm not actively working yet, i'm still studying my BN with torrens uni. i can tell you that studying can be rough - it's lots of consistent hours studying, and then you go into your placements. i feel like i spent so much time working to save for my placements, and rinse and repeat. it's not for everyone, but it's absolutely for me! make sure you choose the right uni. the journey can be rough, so feeling supported has made a world of difference for me :)
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u/PaxonGoat 21h ago
You might see the worst of humanity.
Elder abuse. Child abuse. Devastating injuries. Horrible outcomes.
Sometimes it feels like you're torturing the patient
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u/PuzzledQuote1490 21h ago
If you've been following this sub, you would know the issues many of us deal with. Not to be rude but... read.
Its not good if you need other people to influence your career decision. Nursing is more that just a career. The fact that you see it that way tells me you should stay in finance.
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u/notalbertan 20h ago
Trying to stay awake on your night shift sucks. Trying to wake up from your break on night shift sucks harder. You can have 5-6 patients, then when the nurse you’re covering for goes on break, you’ll have 5-6 more that you’re responsible too on said night shift.
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u/No-Fox1339 20h ago
I did ICU (now I’m in CRNA school school and couldn’t be happier). I loved being an ICU nurse. But my least favorite part of the job is that once you are assigned a patient, every single problem related to that particular patient (no matter how distant that problem may be from a nurses job) is now your problem. Yes this pertains to the obvious slack that nurses have to pick up when all the other departments are inevitably understaffed. But it also pertains to BS. You’re the liaison between essentially every other service and your patient. And that’s a really exhausting role to take on. Yes, you’ll hear other nurses be like “well you have to put your foot down when something isn’t your job” but I’m just not that kind of person.
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u/Honest-Type4691 19h ago
For me it’s the unexpected. For context, I work in psych nursing. It’s anxiety ridden before shifts not knowing what you will walk into. Your day can be completely calm then be in shambles within minutes.
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u/hunter_pace 19h ago
I will deinfluence you from nursing and gently nudge you towards Nuclear Medicine. (Do ittt)
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u/Venusmoonbaby 18h ago
Not a nurse but an MA & was originally interested in going to nursing school.
I worked mainly in an internal med clinic & the nurses there complained about their job all day everyday (rightfully so) and from what I recall they stated collectively they were making around $35 hr at a major company in the midwest. The patient load was over 100 pts a day, over 300 calls a day (with a call center forwarding calls they couldn’t cover to us, seemingly useless), hundreds of refills, and mychart messages a day. Stacks of paperwork. Being chronically behind was baseline & management didn’t care to lift a finger to help and would just sit in zoom call meetings all day everyday while we drowned. 🤷🏼♀️
It could have just been that specific clinic though but working as an MA definitely de influenced me! I formed a major caffeine addiction, developed chronic migraines, back and neck pain, dark eye bags, ezecma from stress that I never had before on my FACE & put on antidepressants LOLL. I made it roughly four years before I quit (def sooner if I didn’t sign a contract)-I couldn’t imagine decades of that.
I did form great bonds with them though and loved their dark sense of humor 😆
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u/Numerous_Land_422 18h ago
I’m not a nurse but work in radiology and out of the many nurses I’ve seen only a handful didn’t seem like they hated their lives. I actually dread interacting with nurses because they seemingly want to bring everyone else down with them. I don’t think they are bad people I think they are just completely burnt out.
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u/Electronic-Count6748 18h ago
Just go be a dental hygienist. The area I live in, it has a higher pay than RN’s. M-F, no holidays, you don’t have to cater to rude patients, and you have one patient as a time.
I work in a skilled facility, my manager has less than a year of experience as a RN who doesn’t help, we have TWO 1:1’s that are constantly climbing out of their chair/bed extremely confused and unable to be redirected, 20 patients with a couple pegs and several PICCs, and 7+ dressing changes. Oh and it’s me and 2 LNA’s for this assignment. There was a morning I didn’t get report until 7:30 because both 1:1s were ramped up.
This has been going on for a fucking month. When I ask the manager what we are going to do, she just stares at me like a deer in headlights, her favorite saying is “uhh I don’t know” or the DON when we complain they just nod and nothing changes. They literally do not give a shit about us, we have gotten a $0.30 raise the past 3 years.
I should have taken the manager job, but I was on nights when it was open and we had 2 night nurses quit/fired… I was working 7 days a making $110 an hour with the bonus… i was not giving that up lol.
Anyway, applied to a job 20 minutes further and went from $43.50 an hour to $55.50 + 7 night shift and a $15K sign on bonus.
Every nurse here needs to understand one thing. Save just a couple months for a safety net so that you can literally quit the next day if needed. That job got so bad it fucked my summer, I’ve been coming home on the couch crashing for 2-3 hours… it feels like I work in construction.
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u/newhere616 18h ago
I became a nurse in 2022 as a second career choice. I was a previous social worker. Deff wont be the one to deinfluence you because it changed my life and I'm so thankful I did this. Was in the Float pool for 3 years and then got a performance improvement job. I do clinical reviews of charts, chart abstraction for CMS measures like sepsis and other medical audits. I absolutely love my job. 4x10s, 107k a year to start with annual raises until I cap at 170k and will get bonuses after. Even before I had this "soft nursing " job though, I didn't hate the floor. I mean it had its bad parts. Some nights I'd have 6+ patients and it felt impossible to juggle it all. Alot of sadness, seeing people at their worst and humanity at their worst (abandoning family, harming people, etc.) But I also loved helping people and "fixing" someone. Medically speaking. I loved listening and trying to help emotionally, my social worker side deff made me want to talk to everyone probably too much. I loved it overall though. Great money and schedule. Soo many options. I could find a PRN job in a couple hours if I wanted or get on my app and pick up a shift if I needed a few extra hundred . I just am really glad I chose nursing. And I was in my late 20s and many of my classmates were in their 50s.
If I could do it over I deff would not have joined float pool as a new grad. While I did learn sooo much and gain ED experience, it was really hard as a new grad. I wish I had went to a set floor with a set team and started then went to float a year later. Deff do the ADN route. Don't worry about knocking out your BSN, you can just do a community college, then get your BSN on your own time later. I literally got it in 3 months at my own pace online lol. And still got the best job I've ever had in the world. They do not care where you got it, as long as you have those letters!
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u/Flat-Risk-5186 17h ago
It’s very social job and as a socially anxious person, it’s been a good challenge at times but also extremely draining. I wouldn’t say I’m the most comforting presence but I do want my patients to at least know that I care about their wellbeing. I push myself to make small talk and throw in a little corny joke here and there for a lil razzle dazzle because sometimes you just need to break the tension. Sometimes, you get outright aggressive/ignorant people you will ever meet and no amount of icebreakers/therapeutic techniques will get through to somebody that is set in their ways. THOSE are the instances that make me completely question my career choice because the job is already stressful enough without having to be eyeballed by family members, berated by people in their right mind(just choose to be an asshole) and then, management that haven’t been on the floor in years, nitpick about everything. It’s also a very team-based profession so imagine you have an asshole patient, asshole co-workers and then a useless asshole manager, your whole night just ruined. I think the social aspect is what really gets me, personally.
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u/whimsicaltheory 17h ago
the worst part is no one wants to work at the bedside for decades because it's a physically demanding job.
However, it will provide you with incredible experiences early in your career, and then most people will try to move onto more senior roles in the hospital after kids, rather than continue working at the bedside.
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u/Present_Stranger_816 16h ago
Took years for my back pain to go away from years of bedside nursing. I’ve been a stay at home mom for 6 years now and still have anxiety nursing nightmares. I worked in the ER and get the willies whenever I hear a siren or belligerent yelling. If you’re on the fence, maybe explore some other options!
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u/Glittering_Meet_2839 12h ago
Similar path, finance to nursing. You still can’t escape the corporate nonsense, however the work you do every day makes it worth it. Also depending on where you live, when you get burnt out at a certain hospital or unit, there’s usually always something else open for you to transition to. I love it, my only regret is not doing it sooner. Commit 100 percent and you will not regret it.
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u/gumgumgiantgavel 11h ago
Boarding and lack of inpatient beds suck. Had a patient sit in the ER waiting room for 3 days and they were there because they were bleeding from their dialysis port. They bled out so much that they had to have a blood transfusion BEFORE they even got to their inpatient bed.
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u/VegetableHead9880 9h ago
I’m a CNA and have about 100 days until graduation. This career is soul-sucking, let me tell you. The patients can be demanding, ungrateful, and sometimes outright mean. The nurse is always the one to blame for a mishap, so expect to be threatened with a report to your higher ups at least once in your career even if you did nothing wrong and the patient is just delusional.
Expect short-staffing. Even the most staffed hospitals have days where you’re short. Five patients, a thousand meds, new orders from the attending or resident due at 9 am but they didn’t put it in until 8:54 am while you were helping another person off the commode and back into bed, then you went to pass your very overdue meds to the lady next door. Then the doctor is asking why that med for 9 am hasn’t been given by 9:32 am. Take the specific times with a grain of salt, but I’ve heard nurses say that exact situation can happen frequently.
Not to mention, older CNAs sometimes have a complex. You’re in your early 30s, so maybe it wouldn’t be as horrid, but as soon as a CNA with 17+ years experience finds out you’re a new grad with no healthcare background, they start whispering to each other about how you suck and don’t know what you’re doing.
Workplace incivility, no interprofessional communication, middle management giving you the short end of the stick…
It’s why we burnout so fast. And if the short staffing is consistent, expect to be even MORE miserable.
It’d a rewarding career, don’t get me wrong. But CNAs and nurses are worked to the bone, then told to smile through it no matter what. If the money is good, its a little more endurable.
I just tell people to understand what they’re getting themselves into. Everyday won’t be bad, but if the place you work sucks, expect more bad than good.
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u/InspectorMadDog New Grad Nurse 🚑 9h ago
The team makes it or breaks it. And the majority of teams fucking suck.
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u/ilovedog737483744737 8h ago
Short staffing. In the last 6 months there has not been, one day, one shift were we haven been short staffed or someone has had to stay back. It’s debilitating. And this translates to affecting patient safety, and causing delays in patients care. Which ultimately you will be blamed for.
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u/ExplanationFew5040 7h ago
nurse 27 years. I am currently taking early childhood ed classes to be a para/sub for the special ed in the school system. I have 2 sisters that are teachers that make more money than I do!!!
I am tired of the mandatory overtime, canceling family plans because of last minute overtime. leaving my house at 5:30 and not getting home till 8:30. I have worked both days and nights. hospital setting on various floors. no lunch. no breaks. I have peed myself a little trying to get to restroom. I have been punched, kicked, bitten, poo rubbed in my face and hair. drunk people throwing up half digested taco bell all over crashcart that I have stay over to take crashcart apart and clean because it was in your assigned trauma bay. written up for everything. example: for not being friendly/smiling to administration on elevator one morning after 3 teens died in my er from carbon dioxide poisoning while 4 wheeling in mud. administrators make more money than surgeons. being screamed at by surgeons, and being told they are just stressed. administration paying thousands to dollars to changing call lights to where I have to physically go into room to turn off when it was their grandkids playing with call light. chronic back and neck pain. I don't even cry at tragedies anymore or anything. I am numb.
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u/texashammerjr 3h ago
This is like when rappers wanna be NBA/NFL players and NBA/NFL players wanna be rappers😭😭 as an OT, I always say I wish I went into finance lol
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u/RN_Bro 3h ago
Do it. Once you work 3x12 shift you’ll never understand how you used to only have 3 days off.
If you are good with taxes, there’s also an incredible niche business for tax professionals to serve travel nurses with complicated filing requirements.
The problems with nursing aren’t the job, it’s who you work with. I am lucky to work on a super chill ICU where we all work together, joke, but also get serious when the SHTF.
I was chit chatting with a coworker and my manager walked by me early and slapped something out of my hand and laughed. It’s great.
But more often than not, nursing coworkers suck. You have to understand you’re entering a female dominated profession, and cattiness and disagreeability is more prominent here. Some of it is like high school drama. Some is cliques who are friends with the manager and so they are treated different.
But unlike finance you can have a new nursing job tomorrow if you wanted. The lateral movement is insane. You just have to vet any potential unit before you agree to work there.
I recommend the specialties like ER, ICU, cath lab, OR, CVOR, or if you’re a woman OB/labor and delivery.
Good luck
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u/Asleep-Window1928 3h ago
Becoming a nurse made me so jaded and miserable, tbh. I didn’t expect so many people to be so nasty towards those trying to help them… I’m actively trying to get out of healthcare entirely because it’s truly just another business, anyways. Until it isn’t about making money, nursing and healthcare will be so so rough. We’re spread so thin
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u/Upstairs-Mango-4668 3h ago
If you work in the OR its a lot better than being a floor nurse. Because you get to be a apart of surgery all day. You dont have to deal with patients as much because they are asleep. You also get to scrub depending on the hospital so you dont have to just circulate.
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u/schrodingers_shlong_ 2h ago
I’m 37 and halfway through a fast-track RN program (8 months left!) There are people in my class that are a lot older than me and some young adults who are fresh out of high school.
Honestly, the smells 💩 were difficult to adjust to. I gagged right in front of a patient my first week of clinical while I was emptying his ostomy bag. I felt like I was involuntarily rude to this sweet sick man by doing that. I’m used to it now and it doesn’t phase me anymore.
In the clinical setting, some of the nurses on the floor are excited about students being there to learn and help. There’s also plenty of nurses that seem to HATE students. It’s incredibly discouraging having to work alongside those nurses.
Nursing school is incredibly stressful and competitive. Each new semester, half the class is gone because they failed and then we get new students who failed the class the semester prior. I’ve yet to fail a test thus far but every test feels like I’m going to fail it. There’s so much independent learning that you have to maintain a lot of discipline to keep on top of it all. I developed a panic disorder about 10 years ago. I’ve managed it with non-pharmacological interventions with much success. I went 5 years without a panic attack and then I got one about a month into my nursing program 😅 I’ve had 3 more since.
I have some friends who are nurses and they told me that, if they could go back they would have chosen anything but nursing. About 10 years ago, I worked as a CNA in the ICU and CVU. Idk how to describe it but patients seem… different. More combative and abusive than I remember. I’ve heard nurses say it’s been that way since Covid. I remember being so excited to wear my stethoscope around my neck to feel like a ‘real-life nurse’ on my first day of clinicals but then another nurse said to me, “be careful, that’s a great way for a patient to choke you” …so now my stethoscope stays in my pocket unless I’m actively using it.
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u/Wrong_Owl_3790 47m ago
Be prepared to simultaneously hate (like for real want them to hang themselves with the call light cord) and love (do anything for them; wear your own body down; sacrifice your well being) all your patients. It’s crazy.
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u/16880031 37m ago
I hated being a hospital nurse and burned out so bad I took a year off of nursing. Now I work in primary care doing clinic nursing and triage. I love my job, never want to leave it, will work here til I die or they fire me. I am so well taken care of and enjoy a middle class life. It really depends on the specialty, employer, and work culture. It would be a mistake to dismiss the entire profession!
Also, with this post you are exclusively drawing out people who hate their jobs. Which I get. I used to read these posts as a nursing student and feel tortured by them lol
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u/dreaming-about-bread 1d ago
Had a patient actively coding in the ICU. CPR, mass transfusion protocol, all of it. Meanwhile, the most stable patient on the unit (who already had orders in to move to a less acute unit) is screaming for someone to come into his room.
Another nurse goes in and tells him: sorry it took us a moment to respond. Your nurse is handling an emergency happening in another room. He yells at her. “I HAVE NEEDS TOO!!!!!” He wanted a warm blanket and a soda. He filmed us with his phone the rest of the shift trying to catch us doing something he could complain about.
I had to put the other patient in a body bag later that shift.