I Hate Nursing Too

My legacy was multi-generation, white trash. A high school drop out , the only work I could get was minimum wage , nurse's aide job in a convalescent home. This economic plight made me dependent on one ugly boyfriend who shared living expenses with me. Junior college was cheap, so I went there to get an associate degree in nursing so to,get a living wage job so to get away from ugly. My first nursing job was at a large Catholic hospital. Too many patients, too few breaks and I quit after two weeks. Trying to,remove myself as far from nursing, I got a job at a psychiatric hospital. I digress to make my point. Dante's Inferno from Divine Comedy shows the inhabitants of hell are very happy with their eternity spent cavorting with fellow reprobates. Only when confronted with goodness and light do these sinners turn their smiles upside down. Working in psych showed me most of my patients there were perverts, drug addicts, child molesters, wife beaters and petty criminals using the popular "my bi-polar made me (insert crime) do,it." Toss into,this filthy mix, the psychiatrists, psychologists, social,workers who equally cavorted in Dante's hell with their patients. Possessing average intelligence, I quickly became a nursing supervisor at this one in many of a chain of paych hospitals for four years. During this time, I earned a bachelor's degree in history and English. After spending all day in classes, I went to the nursing supervisor small office at the psych hospital, shut the door and rarely left it or answered the phone because I was studying something worthwhile. When I did have to,leave my tiny office, the professional staffs' pandering to the evil,inhabitants, the patients, stood in stark contrast to the beauty of learning about politics, religions, economics, poetry, major litererary movements all riding on the tides of civilizations. When I graduated from college, I left the hell hole forever and left behind the grotesques so well described(analyzed?) by Dante Aligheri.

I agree with you Peachy, after years of study and putting out money for families to abuse nurses is wrong. There should be a law to protect nurses!
This is the nations largest abuse to a human being! Being a nurse we are abused every day! No one stops this abuse! I am tired of doing every right to be told literally "your an idiot". I cry every day! Now I am the one on celexa and Zoloft! Never thought this in a million years. Our hard studies and money to become a "nut"!
Well I am with you after 27 years! And I hated every minute if it!
I am as done as I can get! I don't even tell anyone that I use to be a nurse!
I am done! Thank you for your post!
It just proves there is life after nursing!
Thank you and have a happy life!
Pyoung142!!!

Well said!

I find humor in the respondent who is ashamed of these posts. They must be a fairly new nurse if they think the answer is to change what we as nurses don't like. I've been an LPN, and an RN, and am working on my BSN, and have done this since 1999. Here's a newsflash to that newbie....really, the patients and families and coworkers and colleagues don't really respect us. We are the sounding board and the scapegoat. We have to know everyone elses job and how to do it and if their job gets done wrong, guess who is to blame...that's right, the nurse. I have worked everywhere from Med Surg, to ICU, to ER, to Long term care and nursing homes. It's all the same. Pile as much as possible on the nurse and expect it to get done and get done right, and when you've piled all you can on the nurse, go ahead and pile some more. Oh, and a 25 cent per hour raise every year or two should be greeted by nurses with joy and appreciation. You don't have the supplies, make do and get the job done...you don't have the staff...make do and get the job done...don't screw up or you'll lose your license...oh, and we're gonna need you to go ahead and stay overtime because your relief is not here, but you'd better clock out the second they get here because we won't authorize one second over....and everything had better be done despite the nonstop interruptions of a patients family member needing a bottle of milk for their grandchild who shouldn't be running around the ER in the first place...who cares that your patient in the next room isn't breathing, this baby hasn't eaten!
UGH. I am finally realizing I am over this profession. But I am only 41 and have a family to support as a single mom because my physician ex spouse left me for a physician he works with....yes, very cliche.
So, I don't know what type of profession I want to switch to, but I'm over nursing, as are about 80% of my colleagues.....

Yes , it is ****** and all other parties will **** you as well. I have been a nurse for over 20 years, you can stick it !!!!!!!!!! **** off you fat *******.......

I have been feeling the same way. I have been a nurse for many years and decided to write a couple of articles on Hubpages that discusses issues concerning the lack of information that nurses receive prior to going into the field. Would love for you to check these out and provide feedback with regard to whether you agree, disagree and generally what your experience was when you entered the field. If enough nurses are willing to provide information with regard to where things have gone wrong, maybe there is hope for the future of the profession. Remember we will all need nurses ourselves one day. Let's hope things get better! Here are the links
bremma.hubpages.com/hub/The-Days-Nights-Life-Times-of-a-Registered-Nurse
bremma.hubpages.com/hub/The-Days-Nights-Life-Times-of-a-Registered-Nurse-The-Series-Article-1-part-2

Totally get it. Hate hate hate it. Done it 28 years. Im old, depressed and worn out. Spent weekends and holidays attending to others. Lost one boyfriend when he met someone else skiing new years day while I, you guessed it, was at work.

I feel u all. I was a singke mom and thought thst nursinv was the answer. Idvrather go back to waitressing. Its exhausting mentally and physically. Im a homecare case manager that wirjs day and nuht 7 days a week. Screw this. As for all if you people telling us to stop complaining......walk a day in our shoes. Youll wish you had not. Im to exhsusted from an 8 hour day followed by 5 hours of paperwork to tell you how i really feel. Its all bs and not wortht money. This profession will take years off of your lude, for what? My husband makes 6 digits a year w many perks bonuses and still sees our children more than i do. Hes a project manager that travels. Who here doesnt desire more time listening to their childrens complaints and acheivements rather than the constant complaints of others. Ive never felt more stress in my life....and im still paying back loans only to be miserable. All of you preachers down grading the feelibfs of 95 percent of us.....oh holy ones, what is the answer?

I went into nursing because I couldn't really think of what else to do. Plus nurses came to the highschool waving the profession around like it was a golden ticket. A ticket to do amazing things and go amazing places. What they don't tell you is that being an RN isn't exactly transferrable to anything else. You can't just 'do anything' as an RN. You get stuck in a role and in a niche and it's very hard to get out. I graduated in 1999 and between having my kids, really have only worked for 5 years. The only job I have liked was in preadmission clinic (assessing patients prior to surgery) but it's so hard to get back into a 'desk job' again that is 9-5 as the competition for those jobs is so high. I can't stand ward nursing and literally have panic attacks when I think about the responsibility for patients and the lack of support. Being in a desk job my clinical skills are crap so have no confidence anymore.
I need to get out and am currently on leave trying to figure out what I'm going to do. Losing my registration is going to HURT me as I will feel like a failure. I picked the wrong thing, I'm 36 years old and feel like I've wasted so much of my life. What a loser I am!!!

I recently did a phlebotomy course and enjoyed it, work in a nice clinic, normal hours (no nights)...see people for 5 mins, take their blood and that's it. Wasn't stressful at all, which is what I'm aiming for..:) as the stress of patient care really does me in.

The pay is a lot less though but frankly at this point I will work for free if I'm happy with what I'm doing.

How do you get over the feeling like a failure if you leave? That you made a mistake in picking nursing in the first place?

Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories, it helps to know I'm not alone.

I have been in the nursing field for 20+ years. Currently, I am an RN for the last 14 or so years. And yes I agree that nursing sucks. Especially from my perspective. Being a male, in a female dominated field . I am one of the few demographics that can be discriminated against and not have a legal leg to stand on. The constant back biting and bitching ,in my opinion, is the obsolute worse about the profession. As if you don't have enough to worry about with the patient's, doctor's and everyone else it's your own colleague's who want to do you in. How pathetic is this. For this so called 'profession' nursing lacks any professionalism. I am not a hater but this field would do better with more men in the field.

I totally agree with your assessment of nursing, I'm an RN in Ontario, Canada, who has worked in different hospitals in different fields, and it sucks. I hate having to work weekends, working holidays, listening to the docs tell their vacation stories, and talk about their mansions and sports cars while we nurses struggle to pay the bills. On top of that having to deal with horizontal violence everywhere from abusive nurses, annoying patient families, having to fake being nice, worrying about losing license all the time, it does not add up to much. RNs are not paid well either despite what ignorant people say about us. I wish I had never become a nurse and I discourage all others thinking about becoming from becoming one.

Thank you all for these posts. I left my practice of law before I got married to be a CNA so I could help ppl. What a foolish choice!!!)@# But now, 20 years later, it's too late. I'm an RN at an inner city hospital. The hospital has outdated equipment and poor resources and facilities. There's maybe one thermometer for 16 people and a broken glucometer, and tele boxes that won't work. The other nurses really aren't so bad, but the expectations are outrageous. I work on a CCU and Medical-ICU for three 12s a week. Every time I work I thank the Lord I haven't harmed someone and that I made it through another shift. Before work I pray that I'll make it through one more day. I can't believe all the lifting and personal care we're supposed to do with such old, dilapidated equipment and no support or back-up from management. How the h**l am I supposed to lift, turn or clean this 500 lb patient? Is anyone talking to that patient's family because they expect us to get him up and running for the next marathon by tomorrow? I want to get out -- to do something else -- but I only know how to be a nurse now. Most RNs I'm with are back in school for NP or anesthesia or education -- but none of these make sense to me -- I would never want to teach this -- although I love teaching, I can't imagine taking smart, young, enthusiastic people and telling them to sell their souls to a field that will abuse them for the rest of their careers -- and being a NP or nurse anesthetist would require a BSN, which I don't have and then more graduate school, and even more $$ than I can imagine acquiring before I retire. I'm not young anymore - nursing was a 2d career, and at my age, 53, I feel like I'll be doing this for another ten years and then I'll drop dead from overwork or I'll just retire in bankruptcy, go to a NH and get treated to another dose of someone who like me, is done ad fed up with nursing, but has to work to survive. I wish there was a way out. But as a practical reality, I'm not going to sell pharmaceuticals, I not going to work in IT/ Informatics, I don't have any $$ to spend -- and I don't know what to do -- I HATE, HATE, HATE nursing! I hate being around the drugs, the poop, the management and the expectation that families will all have their needs met all the time.

This is an embarrassing forum that I found when searching for articles related to nurses' abuse of patients. We are professionals, fellow nurses. If you don't like the way the profession going, get involved and change it. Patients and families read this public forum-- if we don't respect ourselves and our work, how can we expect to get that from others?

Om my god I feel your pain. I am a student nurse and i fear this is my fate. I dont know what to do but I want to get out of nursing.

Have only been a nurse for two years but feel like the hospital is an abusive boy friend and I keep going back to him despite the pain!

Well ladies, thank god im not the only 1 who feels like this!!!! Seriously, I thought I was the only 1 who had become disillusioned. I started out in nursing feeling wonderful, thinking I was making a difference in these ppl's lives. Ya know, doing things for them that they could no longer do themselves!!! And which their families REALISED they could not do for their relative!!! Ya Ha!
Im a Mental Health Nurse, so as u know NOT REALLY A REAL NURSE AT ALL!!!!!!!!!
Although, who could work under the conditions such as; the verbal abuse; spitting; nipping; kicking; punching; pulling clumps of hair out; biting; slapping; and yes, sexually assaulting us and yes, this unbelievably, is r day, times 10!!!! Yet, we are supposed to record every incident, (impossible), and behave like normal human beings!! I am TIRED. I have seen the most inspirational, dedicated, nurses go down over a tecnicallity or just an A******* of a relative out for blood and the management letting this happen!!! That I no longer give a R**s A** about the patient or any1 else cause im to busy hiding in the office doing those paper exercises looking after my own *** and biding my time till I can join 'Tesco's', or my local cleaning company. Its not worth my reputation and I know for a fact I have done more than my share making a difference. JOB DONE. Good bye.

I have been a RN for 20 years. I work in a state that I believe actually has above average pay, and a hospital that is decent. I still hate the job. The demands are ridiculous. No patient or family should be unhappy for any reason. The families are out of control, their demands are crazy. I have been called into my bosses office for really ridiculous reasons, and we are told to just "make them happy". What about when this is impossible? I have 2 daughters, I have told them to never consider nursing.

I know exactly how you feel. One night in the ER there were two of us nurses with a ER doc, of course we were packed and a code was called upstairs on the floor, so one nurse and the doc go up thre leavig me with a full ER and no secretary. I have this woman that comes in having chest pain and sometimes you just know this is real and the big one, and it was. I called an off duty doc and told him what was going on and I needed help knowing all along I would probably be fired for calling but three minutes later he came thru the doors to my amazement. He had just been leaving in the parking lot and was there in no time, thank god.We took care of the woman and all that was there when the others came back one and half hour later, anyway getting back to the point the next day my nurse manager said I had a complaint on you today stated you were very short, and rude with a family member.First I said who, then I explained the circumstances of the night, then she said to me "Well you know we are southern here and you are from north and people just dont know how to take you, what we need to do is get you a southern hospitality class so you can learn to talk to people in a southern more polite way".I was stunned, not in trouble for calling in a doc but was in trouble for priortizing a big mi and saving someones life over a frequent flyers child with a ear ache.Go figure.Im currently finishing up my BSN and waiting to hear from graduate school but you know what I dont think I can handle anymore .Each day I work I swear when I leave Im never comming back.

Seriously, I'm sitting here, dressed for work ready to go. Except, I'm not ready. I noticed my breathing has increased, my heart rate is up, and the general overwhelming feeling of dread has come over me. I work between 2 hospitals, per diem, on their M/S, Neuro, Tele, and Acute Rehab floors. Being core staff is bad, but being per diem? Impossible. I can be moved every 4 hours on a 12-hour shift between units and hospitals. Just the other night, one of the core nurses on a Med/Onco unit gave me the group she had the night before, simply because they were a "heavy" group, knowing I was leaving the unit in 4 hours. She floated (a.k.a. sat on her *** and relaxed) for 4 hours, while I was crushing and pushing meds down 3 PEG's, mind you, after not being able to get out of report until after an hour upon arrival. She played charge nurse and had the balls to give me a transfer pt (7 total). Then I moved to another unit, only to closely monitor a pt who I had to transfer to ICU by the end of my shift. He had been tachycardic since admission and no one thought to do anything about it. On that unit, the charge nurse and her orientee along with all the other floor nurses, sat and played games while eating all night. Must be nice! This job kills you. I like per diem so that I don't have to expose myself to unit politics. But in return, I get to endure extra abuse and stress. It's no wonder I refuse to get to know any of the nurses I work with outside of work. Acute and LTC nursing will not get better, but I plan on trying to at least find something tolerable. If I'm going to be running like a maniac, might as well be somewhere where it's expected, right? ER or ICU is my goal. I'm too detail-oriented and too careful to work around the careless nurses and impossible pt loads and acuities of Med/Surg. Guys, let me just say, I'm glad we can all vent here, because god forbid, hospitals don't offer debriefing or counseling support for stressed nurses. What an investment that would be. Had a bad night at work last night? call or see an employee counselor and vent. Let me tell you, if I were a manager, I have pages upon pages of issues I would address and programs I would set up that would benefit morale, and in turn, save the hospital costs of call-outs. Efficiency, we need it.

I passed the first semester of nursing school. I failed the 2nd semester I hated school and needed some really great reasons to not be a nurse. Not that I really wanted to be one in the 1st place just sounded like a good thing to do. Thanks for all the negative posts and Im running far far far away from nursing school I hear each and every one of you loud and clear!

THANK YOU FOR THIS!!
I'm 23 and have been a Registered Nurse for over 2 years. LPN for 1 year and a CNA for a few more. I have worked in long-term the whole time. Recently, hours are being cut because of low census. 58 pts to 2 nurses and 58 to 1 on NOCs. Got to love the family members who show up every couple of weeks and demand everything under the F-ing sun; or call and yell for something that wasn't done by another nurse(s) or bombard you with questions to the point of brain freeze.
I am thinking of becoming a Pharmacist. Not sure if it would be a whole lot better, but I cannot take this S&!T anymore!!! I feel like I am losing my sanity every day...same S&!T, different day. I feel like if I stay and try to “improve” the work environment it will not make one bit of difference. It’ll be like trying to save a sinking ship. Where are the days when I was soooo happy to be a nurse? How did I get into this state of mind? Overworked, underappreciated, it's a race against the clock every time I work. I HAVE TO GET OUT, NOW!!!!

Although I absolutely LOVE patient care however, this is such a small part of nursing. What is nursing...gossip, backbiting, cliques. Oh, did I mention more gossip. One nurse, who has been one for 18 months says to another as I was walking by, "I can't stand her". I've never talked about her behind her back or said to her that she's a horrible this or that. Nothing...because I'm not like that. I work with a doctor who needs his ego constantly stroked and if it is not, he will be the devil in a white jacket. He was able to get one RN sent home, another quit because of him and I'm always one shift away from putting in my notice. My family says I'm a disaster before I have to go to that awful place, which I am. I've never worked at a job where I was treated so horribly by so many people. I think I'm done. Chalking up this experience to a nightmare and going back to school for something else in January. Heard they may need a new morning anchor for one of those shows...

Hearing you loud and clear. Never did like nursing it was something I HAD to do at the time and here I am 38 years later still hating it. it pays the bills and that's about all its good for.

THE ABSOULUTE WORST CAREER CHOICE OF MY LIFE! I NEED HELP TO GET OUT OF THIS! From the constant abuse from residents and fellow employees (mostly the higher ups--administration who don't know crap about real nursing) to the demanding overload of bull*&%& work that doesn't even benefit the resident.....what was I thinking--get me OUT!

I agree and am looking for a completely different career!

hello i am a nurse in homecare. Homecare has changed so much and though meeting the patients can be rewarding, the travel and paper work and stress associated with long term care is exhausting. ladies Please go to www.everyonebenefits.com/healthcoverage. find out about working from home. its working for me and my family. life is too short not to enjoy it

I agree with everything you say but I hate to tell you wether or not your in a hospital, doctors office or home health it really all sucks balls!! I have done it all I'm 39 and I have to go find something else to do. Maybe I will do hair it be a trainer then I can get paid to stay in shape, wear what I want, have finger nails again and do fun things with my hair!!

I would just like to say...I am nurse for 4 years now, and I agree with so many of you and or feel exactly the same. I got into nursing with the passion for women's health and to advance to become an NP in that speciality. The thing is in my 4 short years doing this, I have not been able to even get my foot in the door to get experience in women's health, and thought that was the reason I was not enjoying myself, but the truth is...I just hate being a nurse....I feel exactly the same as the person who so honesty and bluntly said..."I just dont care"...It's true. It doesn't take long to realize nursing is a business like anything else....the things that matter the most....don't matter at all. Management is awful...they don't respect us...talk down to us, they don't care about us AT ALL, they only care that everything creates the illusion of being wonderful when the state comes around to evaluate us. I am mentally and emotionally exhausted and physically from it. It literally sucks the life from me. I was beginning the process to my NP, but have stalled because I don't know that is the answer anymore, I feel like I will end up doing all the extra time for something I will still hate. I don't really have much else to add, but it feels nice to know I'm not alone.

i'm just going to cut to the chase. i don't like being a hospital nurse anymore because i'm sick and effin tired of taking care of people. and i don't care how that sounds. i've been a nurse for over 11 years and i've had enough. i don't care about the patients wants and needs and i don't give a sh*t about the families wants and needs. when i was a new nurse i was eager to learn and excited to be there. but as the years have gone by, that attitude has become extinct. i'm sick of BUSTING MY A$$ every 12 hour shift without being financially compensated for it, not getting a decent meal break, not getting a pee break, getting varicose and spider veins because you stand CONSTANTLY and rarely have a chance to sit. all your blood, sweat and tears you shed every f*cking shift never even gets noticed. the job is too hard for the money that i make. it's just not worth it anymore...to me. nurse managers sit in their air conditioned offices all day and are so out of touch with being a nurse on the floor. they are quick to criticize and are frequently unsupportive. working every other weekend, holidays...ugh. so tired of it. i'm sick of catering to people. EVERYONE. patients, their families, doctors, nurse managers and other rn's. i'm not going to waste my degree i worked so hard for and switch careers at 38 yrs old. but i have decided to find another position in the nursing field. what i do know is that i have a very real hatred for hospital nursing and i need to get out of it as soon as i can. there IS such a thing as being burnt out, and i'm burnt out.

I need to work 5 more years. I will be able to retire from nursing then. I just don't know if I can last. I have put in 32 years so far. I feel like someone has pressed me into the ground with a muddy shoe. Managers steal your ideas (or mine do @ least). Managers blame their subordinates for their own mistakes. They are trying to look good and keep their jobs. I am exhausted. I think the profession is corrupt. I like the patients, but the hospital is a negative place to work. Floors always dirty, poor staffing, mandatory on-call ( not really- you just happen to have to go in everytime you are on-call). Long shifts, gossipers, people who compete with each other "(she is really dumb" kind of thing). Having to trade your days so you can get married. Feeling watched all the time, managers trying to improve morale by sending thank you notes. Managers patronizing you by giving the "sunshine award" for helping (or doing what you are supposed to do). No raises when you have topped out. Families who are disrespectful, even when their care is free.Physicians who make $ 700,000 per year and you are lucky to make 1/10, but do all the physical labor and thinking for them. Long days, body aches and pains. I just need health insurance. The hospital won't even give you supplemental insurance when you retire. See ya-wouldn't want to be ya.This is authentic, supportive and respectful and I approve this message.