Are there ANY good nursing jobs?

[Parker]

My friend is an RN with 20 years of critical care experience. She's worked days and nights, 8 and 12-hr shifts, hospitals, clinic, etc. She's rarely called in sick, not a job hopper, cares for her patients, respectful of her employers, appears to be someone we might all like to have for our nurse. She tells me that nursing is the most difficult, stressful job, that there are no good nursing jobs. She says nurses often discuss the poor working conditions of long shifts with too much to do and not enough time to do things in, that patients pay the price for an overworked exhausted stressed-out nurse, and that she's concerned about the future of healthcare in a cost-cutting world. She says the pay is good but hardly worth the toll it takes on her, that she'd gladly take less for better working conditions. I told her to get another job but she says that according to the nurses she's worked with over the years, and her own personal experience, the grass isn't any greener on the other side of the fence.

So I started asking around to some of the other nurses I know. They say the same things. Yikes! Makes me concerned about getting sick and needing to be in a hospital. What do you all think? What do the nurses you know say?

[lanabanana73]

I live in a small town in Vermont and have always worked in small, community hospitals. That makes a huge difference. I've worked in labor and delivery, nursery, pediatrics, same day surgery, gastroenterology, the OR, and currently work in an infusion room doing chemotherapy and filling in for our school nurses. I have loved every job I've ever had and I attribute most of that to the facilities I've worked in. It makes a huge difference to stay away from huge city hospitals, particularly if they are affiliated with a medical school.

When I move to TV (Please, God!), I will be hoping to work there. I toured the Hospice while I was there in October and that looked like a lovely place to work. It only has 12 beds! Of course, they don't have many employees, so getting a job there could be tricky.

Hope this is helpful and good luck to your friend.

[graciegirl]

I am not a nurse but I appreciate their profession very much.

I would say that any job has difficulties and obstacles and downsides.

I have always told my children, seek to educate yourself for a job you will like. If you find it makes you happy most of the time then that is very good, but all jobs have their down sides. Parts of any job has boredom and some plain old drudgery. That is the reason you are paid.

I am proud of anyone who works to take care of their family and themselves. It used to be the American way.

[NotGolfer]

I would say that nursing is a "calling". For someone to be a really good nurse, she has accepted that calling and enjoys her work. That being said, every workplace has it's positives and negatives. I'm not a medical worker BUT I have worked in a handful of medical facilities as a support person (clerical). I've had poor managers and excellent ones. A lot of the time, no matter what you do or where you work "stuff" comes from the top and filters downward. I'm sure here in T.V. it's not a whole lot different.

As an example I've been in clinics here where the office staff had an attitude and had poor "customer" relations. I would venture to say that their bosses may not know how to hire and/or have made the work-place hard to deal with.

[SusanOfWoodbury]

I live in the Villages and I am a Licensed CNA, Florida. I am an excellent CNA and love my job and have a passion for our senior citizens. I love making our senior's smile. But in the 6 months I have lived in Florida it has been very difficult to get employment.
I have been hired by two Home Care Companies, they advertise for help, but, once hired there are no jobs...I totally understand that in Home Care clients do passaway and there families do jump into help.

When living in NH I worked for a Homecare Company for 5 years and always had a job. I also, have had the pleasure of doing private care.

I guess I will just have to hang on till someone needs a compassionate; caring; relable CNA.

[Madelaine Amee]

I live in the Villages and I am a Licensed CNA, Florida. I am an excellent CNA and love my job and have a passion for our senior citizens. I love making our senior's smile. But in the 6 months I have lived in Florida it has been very difficult to get employment.
I have been hired by two Home Care Companies, they advertise for help, but, once hired there are no jobs...I totally understand that in Home Care clients do passaway and there families do jump into help.

When living in NH I worked for a Homecare Company for 5 years and always had a job. I also, have had the pleasure of doing private care.

I guess I will just have to hang on till someone needs a compassionate; caring; relable CNA.

I know absolutely NOTHING about working in the medical field, but I wonder if it is possible for you to get a private clientele. There must be dozens of people living in TV who need home health care from a career nurse with your knowledge and background.

[ilovetv]

From all the nurses I know, it's the focus on and feeding of The Beast--the monstrous, slow, patched-together, too-complicated computer system with computerized charting, ordering, and all the malpractice/negligence possibilities these bring--that suck attention and resources away from patient care, which is what they went into nursing for in the first place. It is truly a disgrace to the profession and to the suffering patient and relatives watching.

It's only going to get worse, as hospitals change and hot-wire in new program modules into cranky old systems, and none of the hospitals seem to have the same software. Nurses looking for a different job are faced with months of orientation/training/probationary status, just to learn and tame The Beast, making it maddening and unstable for one's income to think of getting a different job that is better for their own sanity and quality of life.

[ilovetv]

....

[Jerseygirl08]

My friend is an RN with 20 years of critical care experience. She's worked days and nights, 8 and 12-hr shifts, hospitals, clinic, etc. She's rarely called in sick, not a job hopper, cares for her patients, respectful of her employers, appears to be someone we might all like to have for our nurse. She tells me that nursing is the most difficult, stressful job, that there are no good nursing jobs. She says nurses often discuss the poor working conditions of long shifts with too much to do and not enough time to do things in, that patients pay the price for an overworked exhausted stressed-out nurse, and that she's concerned about the future of healthcare in a cost-cutting world. She says the pay is good but hardly worth the toll it takes on her, that she'd gladly take less for better working conditions. I told her to get another job but she says that according to the nurses she's worked with over the years, and her own personal experience, the grass isn't any greener on the other side of the fence.

So I started asking around to some of the other nurses I know. They say the same things. Yikes! Makes me concerned about getting sick and needing to be in a hospital. What do you all think? What do the nurses you know say?

Gee Parker, you read my mind. I totally agree with your friend. I became a nurse at age 48 and it has about taken every ounce of life from me. Don't get me wrong, I love taking care of patients. Problem is, as stated above, the pay is not worth the toll it takes on you. However, its good enough to keep your bills paid - its a terrible toss up. Nurses used to be treated with respect by both patients and employers. We try to work just as hard now as way back then, we have too. Some nurses are having their pay cut by a few $/hr. and expected to continue working EVEN HARDER, with fewer staff. It's a horrible situation. Takes the pleasure out of a job that used to be so rewarding.

[scrapple]

I've been a nurse since 1982, have always loved it and what it offered, including the salary. I felt I rec'd a quite decent salary for my level of education. With a BSN, I made more than my husband with w his Masters Nd my friend with his doctorate. I've moved around a bit and have always been able to get a decent job. With the struggling economy lately, moving here from CO, I took an expected pay cut. Sometimes I feel "burned out" so might take a "Mental Health Day" everyone knows what that means now a days. The job has taken me to Puerto Rico, New Orleans, Jamaica and South Africa. I'm at a point where i can't work the floors, people recognize that and have guided me into fulfilling administrative roles. I think there might come a time when it no longer makes sense to work as a nurse, whether for safety issues or physical limitations. Until then, i'll hopefully rock and roll!

[Suzi]

Many nurses "of our age" DID consider nursing a calling. Not a job! We have delivered babies and held patients in our arms as they took their last breaths. And it has been an honor. But the art of nursing has changed dramatically. Computerization has taken more and more precious time away from hands-on patient care. Order entry, notes, vitals all have to be typed in....in fact, it is imperative that the computer be "cared for" before the patient. You can be the most dedicated, loving, hard working, nursing leader, receive accolades from patients and colleagues alike - but if your contributions to the computer are less than expected - you will not have a job. Nurses handle the messiest situations of life, see the worst and saddest of human suffering, put themselves at risks for all sorts of diseases known and unknown, work swing shifts and double shifts, talk and advise about all kinds of topics, council families and dying patients and do a host of all other bodily tasks that NO one else would ever do.
To compare a nurses profession with any other job is an insult. "every job has bad times" is a sad comparison. Everyday is a bad day (or as nurses would say good day) when you are up to your armpits in poop, or someone throws up on you, or your caring for a dying child, or an AIDES patient. Your nurse is an angel in hospital attire. She or he deserves your respect and compassion for a job that few would choose. Just think about it.....why would you need a hospital if it were not for the nurses that provide the care. Thats why Florence Nightingale began them. Doctors could always operate but how would the person get taken care of if not for the nurse.

[villagerjack]

Many nurses "of our age" DID consider nursing a calling. Not a job! We have delivered babies and held patients in our arms as they took their last breaths. And it has been an honor. But the art of nursing has changed dramatically. Computerization has taken more and more precious time away from hands-on patient care. Order entry, notes, vitals all have to be typed in....in fact, it is imperative that the computer be "cared for" before the patient. You can be the most dedicated, loving, hard working, nursing leader, receive accolades from patients and colleagues alike - but if your contributions to the computer are less than expected - you will not have a job. Nurses handle the messiest situations of life, see the worst and saddest of human suffering, put themselves at risks for all sorts of diseases known and unknown, work swing shifts and double shifts, talk and advise about all kinds of topics, council families and dying patients and do a host of all other bodily tasks that NO one else would ever do.
To compare a nurses profession with any other job is an insult. "every job has bad times" is a sad comparison. Everyday is a bad day (or as nurses would say good day) when you are up to your armpits in poop, or someone throws up on you, or your caring for a dying child, or an AIDES patient. Your nurse is an angel in hospital attire. She or he deserves your respect and compassion for a job that few would choose. Just think about it.....why would you need a hospital if it were not for the nurses that provide the care. Thats why Florence Nightingale began them. Doctors could always operate but how would the person get taken care of if not for the nurse.

I agree completely. :ho:

[rmcpklinefelter]

...my sis has worked hospital med/surg floor, been a missionary nurse in Alaska, heart center nurse, research nurse, surgery center nurse and now is in a quality control position...there are many avenues for nursing along with bedside nursing... she's loving her new position even though she took a pay cut to get it...this is a job she can do for the next 10 years until she retires. Having 2 sisters who are nurses and a daughter getting ready to graduate from nursing school, I've watched them deal with a lot of the aspects of getting educated and working in the nursing field...but as one who has worked in medical imaging for over 40 years I can also say that other parts of the medical field are over worked and under appreciated too...

[jane032657]

There are quite a few new assisted livings opening up in The Villages-they will need nurses and CNA's for sure, nice working atmosphere.

[Bonnevie]

I am not a nurse, but I am a pharmacist who works in a hospital. I agree with what everyone is saying about the computer work now. Unfortunately, in our hospital those who I consider among the "best" nurses have got out of direct patient care and into management or quality assurance, etc. It's unfortunate for the patients but they had to do it for their own sanity. It's the same in our pharmacy, what's rewarded on performance appraisals is adherence to certain functions that often don't measure the quality of patient care. So the people who go out of their way to actually help a patient may get a lesser appraisal than someone who knows how to churn numbers. I worry about patients as more and more of the workers who put patient care first burn out and take non-patient contact jobs or retire because they can't look at how things are changing on a daily basis. I had a situation last week where what would have been a dangerous drug was prescribed for a patient based on just looking at notes. When I asked the practitioner and my fellow pharmacist what the patient said, they looked at me like I had two heads. Neither had spoken to the patient. It could have been a very serious mistake to prescribe what they did given what the patient had been on and yet it appears no one cares. That is why I am not sleeping at night and why I worry about the future of health care. All I can say is exercise, eat right and stay as healthy as you can so you don't to rely on health care.

[Parker]

Amen hope2soon! Hospitalization is scary. Whatever happened to patient load discussions? And where are the oversight organizations is all this? You would think that nursing unions might be leading the charge on this, but silence...