posted October 06, 2018 07:01 PM            

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Originally posted by ChildofVenus:
Would Moon in the 6th house or Venus in Pisces be one of them?

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Yes, those would be good placements for a nurse. I work as a cardiac nurse and I honestly regret my decision. It's a crappy job and the pay sucks (I made better money in my early 20s). Ive never even had time to drink a sip of water in 5 years while running constantly for 12hrs. People are becoming more and more sick. Patients that would have been in the ICU 15 years ago are now on the regular medical-surgical floors. Kiss your holidays goodbye if you work in a hospital or nursing home. I have had to work every holiday (major and minor). Also, get ready to be at risk for being assaulted. My pregnant friend was beaten by an Alzheimer's patient at a nursing home and lost her baby. I've been stabbed and punched by male patients. Think you can press charges? Think again. Courts will just excuse the patient's behavior by saying they are mentally unstable or were in pain. My mom's friend was raped at work at 21. No one gave a sh*t.

You can work in the doctor's offices, but the pay is very low. If you have a spouse who makes good money, then this is a good option. Otherwise, you will have a hard time making ends meet depending on the cost of living in your area.

posted October 06, 2018 07:57 PM            

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Originally posted by Astra:
Yes, those would be good placements for a nurse. I work as a cardiac nurse and I honestly regret my decision. It's a crappy job and the pay sucks (I made better money in my early 20s). Ive never even had time to drink a sip of water in 5 years while running constantly for 12hrs. People are becoming more and more sick. Patients that would have been in the ICU 15 years ago are now on the regular medical-surgical floors. Kiss your holidays goodbye if you work in a hospital or nursing home. I have had to work every holiday (major and minor). Also, get ready to be at risk for being assaulted. My pregnant friend was beaten by an Alzheimer's patient at a nursing home and lost her baby. I've been stabbed and punched by male patients. Think you can press charges? Think again. Courts will just excuse the patient's behavior by saying they are mentally unstable or were in pain. My mom's friend was raped at work at 21. No one gave a sh*t.

You can work in the doctor's offices, but the pay is very low. If you have a spouse who makes good money, then this is a good option. Otherwise, you will have a hard time making ends meet depending on the cost of living in your area.

I strongly recommend choosing a career as a physical therapist. Nursing sucks. Even the nurses who have been working for decades agree.

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posted October 06, 2018 08:53 PM            

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Originally posted by ChildofVenus:
The pay sucks? Where I live nurses start off making $26 an hour. I really don't think that's bad. I'm not sure where you work or on what floor. But it sounds like the patients you work with are mentally ill. The demented and Alzheimer's patients are combative I've heard. Sorry about what happened to your friend. How many years were you in school for nursing?

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I did 4 years of nursing school and I work on a cardiac unit. I briefly tried a surgical unit and it was no different in terms of violent and mentally ill patients. One thing you will quickly learn is that regardless of your specialty, you are always a psych nurse. There are many undiagnosed mentally ill people....more than you can imagine. Where I live, a RN with a BSN degree starts off at $18/hr in a hospital, but the cost of living is low. I have now worked my way up to $25/hr, but it is not worth it.

There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that you won't be aware of until you are a fully fledged nurse. Nursing school and even working as a patient care tech on a unit in the hospital will not show you everything that goes on. Your real education starts when you graduate nursing school. Many new nurses quit nursing altogether during their first year. I did not experience this, but many new nurses are bullied by their more seasoned coworkers. I fortunately have kind coworkers, but that isn't the norm from what I have heard. There is apparently a lot of backstabbing that goes on. One of my friends works in an ICU in California and she was bullied so severely during her first year as a nurse to the point where she suffered a nervous breakdown. Some nurse managers are effective at dealing with bullying while others will look the other way. Make sure you pay attention to the overall vibe of the unit when you are interviewing.

If you want to pursue nursing, then by all means go for it. Don't say I didn't warn you. I wish that the nurses I spoke to were honest about their experiences before I invested all of this time and money into nursing school. After I joined the trenches, then they chose to tell me the truth. I am extending to you the courtesy I was never given.

posted October 06, 2018 09:43 PM            

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Originally posted by Astra:
I did 4 years of nursing school and I work on a cardiac unit. I briefly tried a surgical unit and it was no different in terms of violent and mentally ill patients. One thing you will quickly learn is that regardless of your specialty, you are always a psych nurse. There are many undiagnosed mentally ill people....more than you can imagine. Where I live, a RN with a BSN degree starts off at $18/hr in a hospital, but the cost of living is low. I have now worked my way up to $25/hr, but it is not worth it.

There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that you won't be aware of until you are a fully fledged nurse. Nursing school and even working as a patient care tech on a unit in the hospital will not show you everything that goes on. Your real education starts when you graduate nursing school. Many new nurses quit nursing altogether during their first year. I did not experience this, but many new nurses are bullied by their more seasoned coworkers. I fortunately have kind coworkers, but that isn't the norm from what I have heard. There is apparently a lot of backstabbing that goes on. One of my friends works in an ICU in California and she was bullied so severely during her first year as a nurse to the point where she suffered a nervous breakdown. Some nurse managers are effective at dealing with bullying while others will look the other way. Make sure you pay attention to the overall vibe of the unit when you are interviewing.

If you want to pursue nursing, then by all means go for it. Don't say I didn't warn you. I wish that the nurses I spoke to were honest about their experiences before I invested all of this time and money into nursing school. After I joined the trenches, then they chose to tell me the truth. I am extending to you the courtesy I was never given.

If you choose to pursue nursing school, always make sure you go to a fully accredited school and that it is not one of those "for-profit" schools. Good luck in whatever you decide.

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posted October 06, 2018 10:09 PM            

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Originally posted by ChildofVenus:
I appreciate you being honest with me. Why is that the more seasoned nurses bully the new ones? This profession is suppose to be about helping people. Why not just work together instead of trying to give people a hard time. I think most people become nurses for the money.

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I really don't know why. I personally think that it is incredibly stupid to bully new nurses because fewer nurses= a larger patient workload. There is a saying "nurses eat their young." Nurses as a whole can be some of the meanest people towards each other. They are usually nice to patients, but it's different behind the scenes. Again, I personally never experienced bullying at work, but my friends have and it is well publicized.

posted October 08, 2018 10:36 PM            

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3. For some nurses, incivility can wreak havoc not only on their self-esteem, but on the health and well-being of their patients. In an interview for Marie Claire, 27-year-old Christi — who declined to provide her last name to the publication — said about four months into her job as an intensive care unit nurse at a North Carolina hospital, a group of nurses refused to help her care for a patient who had suddenly lost consciousness. A week after stabilizing the patient on her own, a friend told Christi not to go into her locker and to call a manager. Christi said she opened her locker and, after lifting her clothes with a tongue depressor, discovered a bloody syringe.

"My first thought was, 'This could be attempted murder' … because I didn't know what was on the needle that I would have contracted if it stuck me," she told the publication.

4. Nurses who have historically faced bullying or harassment in the workplace often do not report their concerns. If they do report the bullying, managers may do little to remedy the situation. During a September 2016 discussion hosted by the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses and streamed live on Facebook, Linda Groah, MSN, RN, CEO of AORN, cited a survey in which only 38 percent of managers said they attempted to address complaints of bullying brought to their attention. Christi told Marie Claire she asked management to investigate the situation involving her locker. She said management refused, stating they "[couldn't] fire 14 people for one nurse," according to the report. Christi said she decided to leave the health facility after management did not allow her to change shifts or transfer departments, according to the report

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That aside, I recall that there's a lot of transferring of nurses (which those on top of the pecking order can likely avoid) which doesn't help. On top of that, bullying (including by women) happens in many professions.

I'm sure it's not like that everywhere. I was once friends with a nurse who shared a lot of personal stuff with me and she didn't report much of that, and it sounded as if there was a lot of camaraderie for the most part (though she did share of horrible experiences in certain hospitals that she sought to transfer from ASAP, but those sounded like the exception for her). Nevertheless, one should be prepared for it.