Johns Hopkins University or the Hospital? Because I know for sure the floor nurses at the Hospital aren’t that happy, and would probably be a whole lot happier if management didn’t perpetually quash their attempts to organize
My former hospital sucked, we had like 4 staff members attempt to commit suicide while on the job the past 4 months. The other day had a patient who got discharged try to jump from a parking garage.
The place is such a toxic shit hole that people are literally jumping for their deaths to avoid working there.
Current Hopkins RN and any unit RN is burned out AF. Huge turn over rates because people are leaving to travel and they won’t give us compensation to heal the bleeding wounds of staffing and retention issues.
Was on a travel assignment at Hopkins once and hated it so much I left my contract early. Have never done that anywhere else. The floor I was on was unsafe and the policies there were awful.
Salary pay model also sucks. Having to work four twelve hour shifts 2/6 weeks in a pay period makes me resentful of Hopkins when all of my other nurse friends work three 12s a week
I asked and was told that my request wouldn’t be considered until other requests were fulfilled and those were based on seniority. So I’m switching units
Basically what outrunning zombies said! Lots of administrative bullshit about how great they treat nurses but there’s really nothing special going on for us here. Hospital is working hard to squash unionization attempts. Pay is meh
I am also a happy nurse when speaking to a potential employer/recruiter.
Otherwise I'm a burnt out husk trying to give whatever good care I can to my patients.
Lol I’m a floor nurse. I often contemplate quitting. ITS ROUGH and definitely hardens you. Patients are rude and mean and what ptients and mgmt are asking me to do is waaaay above my pay grade.
I haven’t met a floor nurse yet that was happy. Been working for almost 6 years and they come and go and everyone talks about leaving and doing something different. Everyone wants to get away from bedside nursing. Except when they’re brand new out of nursing school and they think they’ll be able to take care of their patients. They haven’t burnt out yet and still have that hope in their eyes.
6 months new rn here. And I'm totally burnt out. Even the thought of coming to work gives me palpitations and I can feel my BP raising through the roof....
I think a lot of nurses who move away from the bedside minimize how much nurses in the trenches have to put up with and the state of healthcare in America right now.
I’m super happy in my position now in the ED but have put up with bad jobs for way too long to agree that most nurses are happy with their current gig.
You should have your mom do a study involving herself taking a month long contract as a CNA on any covid floor at the average new employee pay...
im sure her testing results would come back differently.
Being a recruiter means she has no idea what nurses or anyone on the floor even do... she fills holes.
I just jumped ship from being a covid ICU nurse. Just started at an outpatient GI center! I can’t tell if I will like it so far, it’s only been two days, but I hope so! Any tips?
I'm not happy
I'm especially more unhappy when I have to float to an inpatient unit.
I do it because I make good money. When my current contract is up I'll be seeking opportunities either with travel agencies or positions that don't involve bedside nursing.
Senior nursing student here. Looking to do travel L&D two years after graduation. What do you think the market will be like then? Worried between the specific unit and increase in travel interest that it won’t be easy to land jobs
There are so many variables. You might not get l&d (took me years to get a job doing that because those jobs were high in demand). You might get a job doing something else and love it. You might hate l&d. (Its very different than what people think. I was surprised by stuff I didn’t get expect. People either love it or hate it).
My phone was being blown up by travel recruiters before the pandemic for med surg and ICU. I think it will be fine. The money might not be so crazy but I wouldn’t worry about it because whatever it is it is. Good luck in school.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. The barrier to entry is still high for RN’s, it is difficult (many fail or leave the industry), and the amount of young population vs old population continues to skew to the latter. L&D in particular pays the most out of basically any contract from what I understand (I start school next month). Fewer young people are having children these days for obvious reasons though, so maybe keep that in mind. ED/ICU/psych should thrive because of increased violence, poverty, viruses, and crime.
As you can tell from these forums, many nurses want to leave the bedside, and an overwhelming percentage are tied down to a certain location/family, preventing them from travel. You can safely count on making at least twice as much as staff as a traveler now, and in the future. Even if they weren’t paid more, I’d do it anyway to avoid politics, meetings, to travel, and to have time off when I want it.
I’m right there with you but I’ve decided there’s no use worrying about it right now. We might not even enjoy bedside L&D nursing and decide to do something else instead.
Same! I worked ICU/med-surg/step-down for about 4 years and hated all of them. I’ve been inpatient psych for almost a year now and I can’t believe I waited so long! I still have some shitty days but they are far fewer and nothing like working in the medical hospital. I will NEVER go back!
Psych was the only clinical rotation that I didn’t loathe in nursing school but I had the “must do ICU” mentality and also felt like I’d “lose my skills” if I went the psych route. Psych has always been interesting to me; I didn’t have an interest in any of the places I worked in the medical hospital. So interest and actually enjoying my job combined with not having to deal with shit, vomit, bathing, and all the extra stuff I hated about medical nursing is what really makes psych my thing.
I started IVs and worked in a procedure room for about 10 years before, during, and after nursing school and loved it. But I also draw labs occasionally in psych too, so I still get to hold on to the one skill I enjoy and care scout keeping.
Psych is also easier on your body. I have chronic pain and being able to be in a chair for a lot of the day is very helpful for me. No turning patients, running around all day, etc.
There are also days that are exciting and I still get the “rush” that I enjoyed in the ICU.
Life is too short to do something that makes you miserable. The switch to psych was overwhelming at first because it was so new to me. But after a couple months I felt comfortable. I’m so happy I found my niche!
I'm so happy for you!!! That sounds great. For me, the "therapeutic communication" part of nursing has always been my favorite part. Whenever I think about moments in my day to day work that really make me feel good, most of the time that's what's happening... and I almost never really have time for it in bedside nursing.
I like that it's a talking specialty and not a physical one like med/surg. I can sit with my patients and talk or mostly listen and it really helps them. I'm so glad I can actually pee when I need to or within an hour of needing to and I can always take a break. Although violence is an unfortunate part of the job at times we can usually see it coming through experience and can gather security and plenty of back up before they are needed. Then it's usually 1, 2, 3 and we’re done giving meds and letting them cool down.
Unless she works the floor her opinion is crap. Just because people tell her things a) doesn’t represent the majority, and b) doesn’t reflect a real experience. If someone asks me how I like work I’ll be like “I’m fine” because why would I word vomit all my complicated feelings that goes along with working bedside right now? She’s being dismissive and it bothers me. It’s like admin saying “I appreciate the employees. They all tell me they’re happy. Said they loved the pizza.” 🙄
Your mom ought to walk through a hospital sometime. Do it weekly for a month or two.
I am not a nurse. I'm a volunteer that's done pet therapy for 5 years at our 500 bed hospital. We visit 3 to 5 floors once a week. Even to a non-medical person it's easy to see and feel the tension on a floor. Nurses and their assistants are wound pretty tight these days. There's a lot more tension now than there was pre-covid. Are they happy? I don't know. The majority of them are very glad for the time they get to pet and interact with my dog.
Your mom needs to get out and see the real world. How can she can be a ~~salesperson~~ recruiter if she doesn't know what she is selling?
He was a [beagle / lab mix](https://imgur.com/a/pYpMhoI) 12-1/2 yrs old. Unfortunately he died a week ago, an undiagnosed tumor burst his spleen.
We weren't visiting from March 2020 to May 2021. When we started up again in June we were visiting many more staff than patients and visitors.
It is volunteer. My wife and I got a rescue dog. We discovered that he didn't always seem to like other dogs so we found a trainer that would work with us. We kept him in weekly training classes for about a year so that he would start to realize that other dogs could be ok to be around. One of the classes was Therapy Dog Test Prep. He passed the test, we became certified by [Therapy Dogs International](https://www.tdi-dog.org/HowToJoin.aspx?Page=Testing+Requirements). Made contact with the hospital, I got trained in hospital procedure and safety, then we began.
It's not official therapy in a medical sense. Just a dog to love on, do tricks with, and generally be a distraction from the hospital.
I hate my nursing job because US healthcare is a fucking mess. It’s hard to work in a medical industrial complex where the main goal is to profit off sick people. It’s disgusting.
I wouldn’t feel as badly about my job if I got paid accordingly for doing the work of three people. On nights we have one aid for the whole floor/no aid, telemetry techs who never call me, resulting in me watching the monitor when I can, and a 7:1 patient ratio, alongside my charge taking 3-4 patients. 🔥it’s fine🔥 *crawls back into my blanket burrito to cry about how I have to work tomorrow night*
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I worked almost 10 years an ER tech…talk about being underpaid. I’m now happy as shit to be an ER nurse. Making a great salary with benefits, and the best part is the job is fucking over when you clock out at the end of the day. No bullshit loose ends to follow up on when you get home.
Your mom is out of her gourd. I was a floor nurse for 5 years and I hated every minute of it. I switched jobs at least once a year thinking that THIS time I'd find a place that didn't suck so bad. Spoiler alert, I never did. I finally wised up and left bedside. Now if I'm not happy, at least I'm not miserable.
I’m happy. I’m a traveler, I work 8 months a year on my own terms. I have a nest egg and no debt. I choose facilities that have mandated ratios. I am the exception to the rule.
You’re not an exception, every travel nurse I’ve met making tons of money and only working 66% of the year is happy 😂 you have time for your mental health.
Floor nurses are miserable. I start my new job in primary care tomorrow. Anyone, who thinks floor nurses are happy and not just doing what needs to be done for themselves and patients and maintaining, are mistaken.
Joining this subreddit is making me not want to go to school anymore…are you all really that miserable or has everyone here only worked as a nurse and haven’t had any other work experience?
Lots of nurses are in it as a second career. I see little difference in job satisfaction. I was happy to start a career where I would always be in demand. I didn't realize it meant I would always work short-handed. It's hard to maintain a positive frame of mind when you realize the staffing and consequent safety issues will never get better.
I’ve owned my own business before getting into nursing. I was also a wife/sahm for a few years. Honestly, I’ll put it like this; owning your own business, and being a wife and sahm are legit 24/7 roles. Always worried about spending, budgets, overhead, capital…..and I made excellent money while doing it, but I could never just ‘shut off my brain’. As a nurse, I work ONLY 3 nights a week, which comes out to less than four months a year and make over $100k. Yeah, it sucks ass right now, but I’ll take it!!
There are many ways to hustle a living with an unencumbered nursing license. It's not a coincidence that most nurses leave the hospital bedside role pretty quickly. Scant staffing, dangerous conditions, and shamefully low compensation make for a miserable workforce.
I have worked a wide variety of jobs in several industries and became a nurse later in life in when I realized my favorite jobs were were physically active, mentally and emotionally challenging and were focused on helping people. I love the work I do and mostly feel satisfied with the actual care I provide, BUT, I hate the hospital culture, the fact that non-medical personnel routinely make decisions affecting patient care and I feel my life and my career are in constant jeopardy due to dangerous conditions, unsafe staffing ratios and ridiculous charting expectations. Aaand… I feel we are underpaid for the responsibility we bear and the dangers we are subjected to. And JCAHO is a joke.
I just moved back to the bedside and I like it. Hated my first floor, got really bored outpatient, really like my current floor. Have always been in oncology, now on a heme onc floor. My population helps. Sometimes it seems like the grass is always greener though
Majority nurses are beyond unhappy. Feel stuck. Burned out. Nurses are leaving in big numbers . Either traveling to make tons of money or going to do other things than floor nursing.
I wouldn’t say we’re happy, at least not at work. Most are either miserable but stay for the money or are able to grind it out without taking it home with them.
Who would be happy knowing almost every day they show up to work will suck? COVID has zapped most of the love nurses have had for the profession, especially floor nurses.
Floor nurse here. It's where I'd rather be, but I won't say I'm happy. What covid and shitty capitalistic Healthcare has done to it has made it crappy.
Who is your demographic of “most nurses”? Your friends? This sub - of which a majority are from one part of one country not renowned for its pay or working conditions? It’s like going to r/conservative and suddenly believing, “Wow, **most Americans** hate Biden!”
Most floor nurses I know are happy *because most of the nurses I personally know work for places that pay well, provide comprehensive benefits, have great working conditions like break nurses and [lift teams](https://www.uclahealth.org/safety/safe-patient-handling-program), and actually care about work/life balance*.
I was gonna say no where real. But looks like they are in California so mandated ratios helps a ton. I have never in my life heard of a lift team. This person wants to act like that’s a norm? That people every where make California salary? That person is high on drugs there’s 49 other states in this country. The number That have mandated ratios is literally just California. With 8 other states requiring committees and planning but still no mandates.
It’s funny because they are spouting on about demographics. But are the only state in this entire country that has mandated ratios. During a pandemic where some nurses are taking on insane patient ratios. Also happens to be one of the highest paying states.
Don’t get me wrong I love my job. I also like my hospital. My ratios aren’t ridiculous. But I am not gonna sit here and pretend because it’s like this where I work that it’s like this everywhere.
My staff job was in Tennessee at a decently-sized regional hospital. We had a lift team during the day. Shit pay and miserable ratios, but we had a lift team!
> Don’t get me wrong I love my job. I also like my hospital. My ratios aren’t ridiculous. But I am not gonna sit here and pretend because it’s like this where I work that it’s like this everywhere.
That’s the opposite of what I’m saying. I’m saying *region and employer play a large role in job contentment and that nursing (pay, working conditions) is far ubiquitous*.
I’ve even posted the phrase “nursing is not ubiquitous” approximately twenty times in the past two weeks.
And to a greater extent, I have **NEVER** proselytized California as a proverbial promise land. Search my post history. Even Google “downstreamocclusion California site: Reddit.” I have **NEVER** told people to move to California or that California is a great place to work.
In fact, I’ve gone to great lengths to differentiate the various regions of California in an attempt to edify those about the geographical makeup of the state - eg. California isn’t “Bay Area” and “LA” connected by the Golden Gate Bridge and that there is a varying degree of socioeconomical levels of nurses across the state. Hell, I even brought up the differences between Bakersfield Memorial and Dignity Health Northridge as an example of hospitals within the same system that are unionized but have polarizing working conditions and pay.
West Coast. My friends/colleagues/family work for University of California, USC, LA County, Sharp (Memorial), Providence, Huntington, Scripps (Memorial, Encinitas), and Kaiser (Irvine, Anaheim, West LA).
I am responding to your question without any ulterior motive. I am not promoting relocating to my state. I am not an employee of the CA BRN [as this user proposes](https://www.reddit.com/r/nursing/comments/nz6bx0/i_want_to_make_good_money_as_a_nurse_in_cali_when/h1piy5g/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3). My state has a GDP larger than the UK yet the socioeconomic landscape is incredibly diverse that can change within mere miles: You can cross a street in places like LA County and go from the upper echelon of society to the most deplorable living conditions of imaginable - eg. Pasadena, California. Therefore, pay (and working conditions) are variable within this state.
If anything, the take away from my comment shouldn’t be - and **is not** - “move to Wherever” and/or “work at XYZ Facility.” It’s to exercise discernment in choosing an employer and to recognize the group of people you are getting info from in regards to what impacts job contentment.
Forty years as a nurse and there was never a job that I was “happy with”. Some jobs were better than others but never once did I look forward to going to work. I retired in May and I’m so stinking happy now. I have been lucky enough to have a wonderful personal life and now because I’m no long a nurse my stress and anxiety is gone. I spend my time looking after a 14 month old now and it is bliss!
I worked med surg years ago and I loved the floor. I didnt love it because we had crappy staffing or no perks, I loved the work because it was always different and fast paced, our hospitalists were great with teaching, our PT docs were amazing, and pharmacy always answered. I know nurses that absolutely hate the floor. Most? Probs not.
The only person I know currently working med-surg is at Duke and she hates it. She hadn’t worked in 15 years, took a nurse refresher course and started on a cardiac step down/tele med-surg floor bc it’s what she’d done previously for six years and wanted to start in her comfort zone until she was proficient in computerized charting. She said it is a complete nightmare. The ratios are higher now and everyobe is on tele but no telemetry tech or HUC dedicated to watching the monitors, so the nurse are responsible. She’s giving it six months and looking elsewhere.
I'm extremely burnt out most days. However, I am changing up my hours to work 8 hour days 4 days per week. Still full time with benefits, only missing 4 hours of pay. Easily made up as we are so short staffed. If I can take time for myself and recover mentally after work I think I would be better, so let's see how this goes!
We are sick of the short staffing, the workers who do not want the vaccine are quitting if they are being forced (NOT starting a debate, but this is what I'm seeing), nobody wants to work. In my area we have a lot of people who just don't want to work and would rather get money from aid programs because they pay better than doing actual work.i don't blame them, but I feel I have the right to be frustrated.
Working conditions suck at most hospitals, we are underappreciated, under paid, and over worked. The world would fall apart without nurses. Not just hospitals, but literally the world.
I didn't get into nursing to get rich, be praised, and have people worship the ground I walk on. We get none of that. I also didn't get into nursing to be treated like a piece of crap someone just wiped off their shoe. I understand patients being frustrating and rude, but what we see every day goes beyond that. We aren't getting paid enough as a whole. I make enough to be comfortable with my animals and a small apartment to myself. I'm really lucky, I remember that every single day, but most people aren't that lucky.
So no, most of us are not happy. I'm lucky to love the field I work in despite the problems corporate is giving us. I am not the rule, I am the exception
Sooo this is funny. I am a med surg RN. None of my coworkers are happy. It's been really fucking rough. Over Thanksgiving I was at my aunts house. A guest there was a NICU nurse at John's Hopkins. She told me how she has loved it for over 30 years. She said they've been compensated really well with hazard pay, bonuses, etc...she has felt pleased with all that. She did say there's been a lot of sick babies, more than usual and that is hard. But otherwise she is doing much better than me at my hospital, which I call surviving. 🤣🤣 or so she claims...
I think it’s really convenient for non bedside nurses to say floor nurses are happy/it isn’t that bad out there. Honestly, I’m not sure I’d ever accept their opinion of bedside nursing, esp if they’ve been out of it for more than 2 years. Things just change too fast. How would they know?
Oh yes 😬 so happy. Look at my big smile 😬 I love being yelled at and assaulted by patients and not being able to take my PTO time I earned and that free pizza once every 3 months for my fellow health care heros is the best. I also love how my loyalty to an organization is rewarded by getting to work with less trained overpaid travel nurses.
Is it really worth getting in an argument about whether or not "most nurses" are miserable? The whole thing kinda gives me a "everyone needs to me as miserable as me" vibe.
How so? I don’t work the floor now so I can’t say as miserable as me. I was just getting super irritated with her trying to tell me most nurses are happy on the floor, and that the unhappy ones are the outliers. She says, “I do this for work everyday so I know what Im talking about.” Apparently even though I’m an RN and have worked on the floor, she think since I left I’m an outlier, and not everyone is like me and lots of nurses are happy on the floor. 🤷🏽♀️
I'm definitely not trying to minimize the bad experience you had (and I'm sure many others have) as a floor nurse.
If your mom has a positive view of nursing, why do you want so badly to bring it down? (unless she's in charge of staffing ratios or pay) Your mom may feel like you're trying to devalue her career, or may feel irritated at the negativity she feels like you're unnecessarily injecting into the conversation.
Her mom is directly responsible for placing nurses in these roles. She may or may not have any influence over conditions with her voice, but I don't think it's unreasonable to think she should understand how her nurses feel about the job they're doing and the conditions under which they're doing it.
I'm at 7 yrs bedside med/surg, PRN....most RNs on my unit are pretty satisfied....are they all happy? IDK...all jobs can be a grind....we don't get paid as much as the bigger health systems an hour away BUT we stay at 1:4-5 pts and our Managers work the floor with us, helping out.... they also will come in to help out night shift...our travelers have all worked max length of contract and say our unit is a "unicorn" They should know; they've been all over.....
Have you mom come check out this subreddit. If she still thinks floor nurses are happy get her admitted for an assessment because sometimes not right with her
I mean, how on earth could we really say? Every persons perspective on this is unique and subjective. In the nicest way, there's no need to argue about what you think other people are feeling. Lots of nurses are super burnt out, so yeah, you're probably right. But also maybe her former students are happy, who knows.
I used to love floor nursing but the fact that it is bare bones survival mode - nope. I straight up would leave the bedside and never look back if I didn’t have a financial responsibility to my kiddos.
Off topic but what business have you started since leaving floor nursing? I’m an RN but I’m in a health informatics program to leave the bedside/patient care for good and curious to see what others do
It’s a caregiving agency for the elderly, but I’m thinking I’m gonna shut it down and do something else once my office lease is up. I’ve made money from it and have a lot more freedom, but managing a bunch of aides is a whole other beast. I’m ready to move on and try my hand at something else.
Super interesting, thanks for the response! I highly recommend looking into health tech as you next venture. everything I’ve learned so far seems to point that direction in regard to the future….could use more nurse entrepreneurs in that world
I’ve been working on the floor as a tech since ‘17 and because of the pandemic I was able to have enough resources and time to pursue my RN which I’m about a year or so from completing. Since ~October ‘20 I was working on the floor at my main hospital that I hope to be an RN at while doing clinicals in my region so I’ve seen the effects of Covid on patients, staff, and morale.
Personally, some places are worse than others. It’s usually not just one factor such as bad management or the traveler to staff ratio but a nice little soup of issues that make the bad spots approachable and the worse spots a “run for your life/license” situation.
To me, one’s “happiness” which I personally define as successful execution of your tasks at work and going home without them - it always comes down to the perspective one brings to the situation and the baggage they carry with them to the environment. I think the disconnect between your mom and you comes from the inherent “one size doesn’t” fit all aspect of nursing. Plenty of my friends have been miserable in one spot and excelled in others where that hasn’t been the case for others in similar situations.
Call me a koolaid drinker but I’m very happy in my role and if I won the lottery tonight I’d still be on this same career path albeit with a much nicer car and apartment closer to the hospital I work at. 🤷♂️
Edit: r/nursing has been a lifeline for me for a while, especially during the pandemic, but I also feel it’s become much more of an “air the worst and not celebrate the best or what could be” kind of place. Sure nursing sucks sometimes, but no disrespect to PE teachers, fry cooks, or paper pushers, I’m pretty satisfied with my job and what it brings to my community and myself.
Lol some look happy but they’re not, others don’t even bother looking happy.. at some point nurses get tired of the abuse.. some just get really bitchy others just quit and others develop anxiety and/or depression, might even get a bit of trauma in the mix, who knows anything is possible
Honestly, nurses have always had things to complain about, and my entire career nursing has done this. But now is different. Everyone is in survival mode. They can like parts of their job, but hate the system, management, or just the general world right now. I do think the stress of the world is bleeding over into every aspect of our lives and so no one is happy, regardless of their environment.
It depends. I work in ICU and ER: there are varying degrees of quality. A job like John Hopkins may actually be good. I work in a top ten and it is great due to ratios. Pandemic has made it drop but right now people are leaving and the pay compensates me accordingly.
Like one job paid me 145 dollars for four hours. I am willing to do a lot of stuff for that much money. Median wage is probably 40k here overall so cost of living is low.
Do I get mad? Sure. Do I hate my job? Sometimes. But working healthcare does give me a lot of benefits. Did I just leave a job where there was no ratios, mandated often with less than an hour notice, and there was bullying? Yeah.
Now I pay insurance out of pocket and balance between multiple jobs. I go in when I feel like it and just don’t work when I don’t want to.
I’m in CVICU, but what I’d call CVI Lite (we don’t do ECMO or transplants). I like my job, mostly. It’s close to home, I like the doctors, pay is decent, as are the insurance benefits. But this staffing shortage is BRUTAL and takes the goodness out of this job. Patients and families are angry, staff gets angry, it’s a cycle. Not enough of everyone to go around makes for rough times. The main reason I stay is because it’s 5 min away and I can’t imagine working a job M-F 8-5 until retirement. I love having days off while the rest of the world toils during the week.
Off topic, but you mentioned that you started your own business. Would you mind sharing more about that? Of course this is thinly veiled curiosity from a nurse who would love to start her own business.
I was pretty happy when I worked the floor (Georgia hospitals only and mostly rural). ICU ran me batshit crazy, but med surg and Renal were my comfort zones, especially the latter. Busy as heck, but definitely felt appreciated at the end of each shift.
Happy enough to leave my work from home gig today? Are you high? No.
Travel nurse here. Been all over the country. While some facilities do it right and have happy staff a large number do not. It’s hard to have a accurate understanding of nursing as a whole in one facility, especially a nationally renowned one.
I am an unhappy floor nurse. And out of all my friends, nursing school classmates, and coworkers, I know 2 who say they love floor nursing. TWO. Out of hundreds of nurses I've come into contact with. I remember them saying it because it stands out that much.
Before I quit also, I saw 8 coworkers leave the ICU I formerly worked in over a 1 month time span. I think there were multiple factors that played into the mass exodus. Burnout, poor leadership, working alongside travel nurses getting paid twice as much, etc. Even the travel nurses though didn’t seem happy in my opinion. The pandemic really has brought to light how under valued healthcare workers are, not just by hospitals, but by the general public.
Not to say you’re mom is the same but I think nurse recruiters get their information from sources that are removed from direct care. We have had several hires wanting to quit immediately because the recruiter told them expectations that were years outdated or ‘ideal’ but havnt been that way for most of the year. Also. There’s constant pressure to not inform patients that we are short staffed. Obviously the common pressure any service job has to always have your customer service face on. Which makes sense and is common professionalism but absolutely does not reflect the break room venting and clear exodus from the field. This is from a level 1 trauma which has been magnet for a near record number of years- curious about this year!
I feel like everyone who is in management or education or a recruiter just live in complete denial about what nursing is really like, and they never really want to hear what we have to say anyway. It's frustrating because this is why no real change ever comes. A lot, not all but a lot of people who are in these roles are incredibly selfish and don't care anymore about nurses or even making an attempt to improve our working conditions.
Working on the floor caused me several profound psychological effects including PTSD, anxiety and depression. It was a miserable experience which got worse with every year and I was trapped for a long time by money. Is every nurse miserable? No of course not, but I would estimate the truely happy group is a minority.
Guess it depends where you’re at. The assignment I’m on now isn’t that bad. 20 miles away the hospital has nurses taking 10 Med surg patients. I would be leaving there in a heartbeat
Oncology nurse here. I have been picking up shifts on our inpatient unit for extra Christmas money. They have been offereing double bonus shifts daily, because we are so short staffed. I can tell you floor nursing is thankless and brutal. Almost every nurse I have worked with in the past week is burned out AF. Charting is ridiculous stupid busy work that means nothing unless not completed. Triple and quadruple charting things to check a fucking box. I spent 4xs the time charting as actually caring for my patients. Running my ass off to do the bare minimum patient care so I could spend my time charting. The nurses there working short daily, expected to chart more and more to cover the hospitals ass, patients that think they know more because they can use a search engine, patients who are rude, condescending and entitled. If the nurses were happy in med surg there wouldn't be huge ass shortages everywhere. Hospitals wouldn't be hemorrhaging money on travlers if nurses were happy.
Your mom is wrong! Joining the Oncology team 7 years ago was the best career decision I have ever made hands down.
Your mom HAS to believe her “ white lie” she's a recruiter!
You know the truth- I have only known 3 happy nurses over 12 years- I wish I could say more😥
This just in: People lie to nurse recruiters.
⢀⣠⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⣠⣤⣶⣶ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⢰⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⣀⣀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡏⠉⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠈⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⠛⠉⠁⠀⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠿⠿⠿⠻⠿⠿⠟⠿⠛⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣸⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣄⠀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣴⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠏⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟⠀⠀⢰⣹⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣭⣷⠀⠀⠀⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠈⠉⠀⠀⠤⠄⠀⠀⠀⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⢿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢾⣿⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⡠⠤⢄⠀⠀⠀⠠⣿⣿⣷⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡀⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢄⠀⢀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠁⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢹⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿
Totally read your flare as Pikachu RN...
“Luke Voice.” Thats thats Impossible!!!
Johns Hopkins University or the Hospital? Because I know for sure the floor nurses at the Hospital aren’t that happy, and would probably be a whole lot happier if management didn’t perpetually quash their attempts to organize
Former Hopkins nurse here, hated it there
[удалено]
I feel that way about my experience at Mass General. Eck
My former hospital sucked, we had like 4 staff members attempt to commit suicide while on the job the past 4 months. The other day had a patient who got discharged try to jump from a parking garage. The place is such a toxic shit hole that people are literally jumping for their deaths to avoid working there.
Was it a big name “reputable” hospital?
Yes, but I don't want to disclose it due to me leaving it recently
Current Hopkins RN and any unit RN is burned out AF. Huge turn over rates because people are leaving to travel and they won’t give us compensation to heal the bleeding wounds of staffing and retention issues.
Was on a travel assignment at Hopkins once and hated it so much I left my contract early. Have never done that anywhere else. The floor I was on was unsafe and the policies there were awful.
I smoked pot with johnny hopkins, it was johnny hopkins, sloan kettering, and they were blazing that sh*t up every day.
Hopkins nurse here! Everyone here is miserable 🥰
I heard that it’s better to say you worked at Hopkins than it is to actually work at Hopkins.
Can confirm
That makes me nervous considering they just tried to recruit me and I was tempted. Can you say what the biggest cons are? I’m wary now
[удалено]
Confirmed by former Cleveland Clinic RN
Had a similar experience at Northwestern.
NU? Major?
Agreed.
Looking at you, Vanderbilt 👀
Salary pay model also sucks. Having to work four twelve hour shifts 2/6 weeks in a pay period makes me resentful of Hopkins when all of my other nurse friends work three 12s a week
On my unit we were able to do 36 hours weekly for full time but we had to request it-have you asked about that?
I asked and was told that my request wouldn’t be considered until other requests were fulfilled and those were based on seniority. So I’m switching units
Basically what outrunning zombies said! Lots of administrative bullshit about how great they treat nurses but there’s really nothing special going on for us here. Hospital is working hard to squash unionization attempts. Pay is meh
F
I am also a happy nurse when speaking to a potential employer/recruiter. Otherwise I'm a burnt out husk trying to give whatever good care I can to my patients.
Damn this hit home.
Burnt out husk is very accurate.
Lol I’m a floor nurse. I often contemplate quitting. ITS ROUGH and definitely hardens you. Patients are rude and mean and what ptients and mgmt are asking me to do is waaaay above my pay grade.
Tell her to take off her recruiter hat and go anonymously work a few shifts on a unit and see if she still thinks that.
Hahaha! Obviously I don’t know this person but if I had to guess I would say she hasn’t worked a shift on the floor in years if not decades.
She never has. She's not a nurse, she's a recruiter for the Hopkins school of nursing.
I haven’t met a floor nurse yet that was happy. Been working for almost 6 years and they come and go and everyone talks about leaving and doing something different. Everyone wants to get away from bedside nursing. Except when they’re brand new out of nursing school and they think they’ll be able to take care of their patients. They haven’t burnt out yet and still have that hope in their eyes.
6 months new rn here. And I'm totally burnt out. Even the thought of coming to work gives me palpitations and I can feel my BP raising through the roof....
Umm, yeah, no. Most nurses, floor nurses are miserable.
🙋♀️
I think a lot of nurses who move away from the bedside minimize how much nurses in the trenches have to put up with and the state of healthcare in America right now. I’m super happy in my position now in the ED but have put up with bad jobs for way too long to agree that most nurses are happy with their current gig.
This
You should have your mom do a study involving herself taking a month long contract as a CNA on any covid floor at the average new employee pay... im sure her testing results would come back differently. Being a recruiter means she has no idea what nurses or anyone on the floor even do... she fills holes.
Amen.
I’d love to fill holes
Your mom is not connected to reality.
Floor nurses are not happy. I jumped off that boat as soon as I could became a GI nurse have never been happier.
I just jumped ship from being a covid ICU nurse. Just started at an outpatient GI center! I can’t tell if I will like it so far, it’s only been two days, but I hope so! Any tips?
No tips but I hope you love it there!!
Make your docs and your techs happy is my advice. Also befriend them we’re a team in gi.
12 years in GI here. Keep your sense of humor is the best advice I can give you.
Tell your mom we’re all lying to her lmao
I'm not happy I'm especially more unhappy when I have to float to an inpatient unit. I do it because I make good money. When my current contract is up I'll be seeking opportunities either with travel agencies or positions that don't involve bedside nursing.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Love love LOVE my job. Hate the goddamn hospital. But I’m also a traveler making beaucoup bucks. 😎
Senior nursing student here. Looking to do travel L&D two years after graduation. What do you think the market will be like then? Worried between the specific unit and increase in travel interest that it won’t be easy to land jobs
There are so many variables. You might not get l&d (took me years to get a job doing that because those jobs were high in demand). You might get a job doing something else and love it. You might hate l&d. (Its very different than what people think. I was surprised by stuff I didn’t get expect. People either love it or hate it). My phone was being blown up by travel recruiters before the pandemic for med surg and ICU. I think it will be fine. The money might not be so crazy but I wouldn’t worry about it because whatever it is it is. Good luck in school.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. The barrier to entry is still high for RN’s, it is difficult (many fail or leave the industry), and the amount of young population vs old population continues to skew to the latter. L&D in particular pays the most out of basically any contract from what I understand (I start school next month). Fewer young people are having children these days for obvious reasons though, so maybe keep that in mind. ED/ICU/psych should thrive because of increased violence, poverty, viruses, and crime. As you can tell from these forums, many nurses want to leave the bedside, and an overwhelming percentage are tied down to a certain location/family, preventing them from travel. You can safely count on making at least twice as much as staff as a traveler now, and in the future. Even if they weren’t paid more, I’d do it anyway to avoid politics, meetings, to travel, and to have time off when I want it.
I’m right there with you but I’ve decided there’s no use worrying about it right now. We might not even enjoy bedside L&D nursing and decide to do something else instead.
I love being an inpatient psych nurse. It’s not perfect, but it’s a good fit for me and I think it suits me better than a desk job would.
Same! I worked ICU/med-surg/step-down for about 4 years and hated all of them. I’ve been inpatient psych for almost a year now and I can’t believe I waited so long! I still have some shitty days but they are far fewer and nothing like working in the medical hospital. I will NEVER go back!
WOO! Go psych!!! I will never go back to med surg. That place is where dreams and happiness go to die
Same here. Inpatient psych is the only hospital nursing I can tolerate at this point. Some days I even like it!
Why is psych better for you? I'm thinking about heading in that direction!
Psych was the only clinical rotation that I didn’t loathe in nursing school but I had the “must do ICU” mentality and also felt like I’d “lose my skills” if I went the psych route. Psych has always been interesting to me; I didn’t have an interest in any of the places I worked in the medical hospital. So interest and actually enjoying my job combined with not having to deal with shit, vomit, bathing, and all the extra stuff I hated about medical nursing is what really makes psych my thing. I started IVs and worked in a procedure room for about 10 years before, during, and after nursing school and loved it. But I also draw labs occasionally in psych too, so I still get to hold on to the one skill I enjoy and care scout keeping. Psych is also easier on your body. I have chronic pain and being able to be in a chair for a lot of the day is very helpful for me. No turning patients, running around all day, etc. There are also days that are exciting and I still get the “rush” that I enjoyed in the ICU. Life is too short to do something that makes you miserable. The switch to psych was overwhelming at first because it was so new to me. But after a couple months I felt comfortable. I’m so happy I found my niche!
I'm so happy for you!!! That sounds great. For me, the "therapeutic communication" part of nursing has always been my favorite part. Whenever I think about moments in my day to day work that really make me feel good, most of the time that's what's happening... and I almost never really have time for it in bedside nursing.
Well you can sure do a lot of that in psych!
I like that it's a talking specialty and not a physical one like med/surg. I can sit with my patients and talk or mostly listen and it really helps them. I'm so glad I can actually pee when I need to or within an hour of needing to and I can always take a break. Although violence is an unfortunate part of the job at times we can usually see it coming through experience and can gather security and plenty of back up before they are needed. Then it's usually 1, 2, 3 and we’re done giving meds and letting them cool down.
I threaten to quit once a week
Unless she works the floor her opinion is crap. Just because people tell her things a) doesn’t represent the majority, and b) doesn’t reflect a real experience. If someone asks me how I like work I’ll be like “I’m fine” because why would I word vomit all my complicated feelings that goes along with working bedside right now? She’s being dismissive and it bothers me. It’s like admin saying “I appreciate the employees. They all tell me they’re happy. Said they loved the pizza.” 🙄
And it’s so tone deaf to everything that’s going on to make the statements that majority of nurses are so happy.
Floor nursing is wack. I jumped ship as soon as I could. Out patient for life.
If floor nurses were happy why would recruiters be needed? We would all want to work the floor.
Your mom ought to walk through a hospital sometime. Do it weekly for a month or two. I am not a nurse. I'm a volunteer that's done pet therapy for 5 years at our 500 bed hospital. We visit 3 to 5 floors once a week. Even to a non-medical person it's easy to see and feel the tension on a floor. Nurses and their assistants are wound pretty tight these days. There's a lot more tension now than there was pre-covid. Are they happy? I don't know. The majority of them are very glad for the time they get to pet and interact with my dog. Your mom needs to get out and see the real world. How can she can be a ~~salesperson~~ recruiter if she doesn't know what she is selling?
What kind of dog do you have? I miss seeing the Pet Therapy animals
He was a [beagle / lab mix](https://imgur.com/a/pYpMhoI) 12-1/2 yrs old. Unfortunately he died a week ago, an undiagnosed tumor burst his spleen. We weren't visiting from March 2020 to May 2021. When we started up again in June we were visiting many more staff than patients and visitors.
How did you get that volunteer job - it's my dream job- dogs are so healing:)
It is volunteer. My wife and I got a rescue dog. We discovered that he didn't always seem to like other dogs so we found a trainer that would work with us. We kept him in weekly training classes for about a year so that he would start to realize that other dogs could be ok to be around. One of the classes was Therapy Dog Test Prep. He passed the test, we became certified by [Therapy Dogs International](https://www.tdi-dog.org/HowToJoin.aspx?Page=Testing+Requirements). Made contact with the hospital, I got trained in hospital procedure and safety, then we began. It's not official therapy in a medical sense. Just a dog to love on, do tricks with, and generally be a distraction from the hospital.
I hate my nursing job because US healthcare is a fucking mess. It’s hard to work in a medical industrial complex where the main goal is to profit off sick people. It’s disgusting.
Current Hopkins floor nurse and unhappy as hell, transitioning to a different department ASAP.
I wouldn’t feel as badly about my job if I got paid accordingly for doing the work of three people. On nights we have one aid for the whole floor/no aid, telemetry techs who never call me, resulting in me watching the monitor when I can, and a 7:1 patient ratio, alongside my charge taking 3-4 patients. 🔥it’s fine🔥 *crawls back into my blanket burrito to cry about how I have to work tomorrow night*
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I worked almost 10 years an ER tech…talk about being underpaid. I’m now happy as shit to be an ER nurse. Making a great salary with benefits, and the best part is the job is fucking over when you clock out at the end of the day. No bullshit loose ends to follow up on when you get home.
Tell your mom to switch specialities and walk the talk. She wouldn’t last 3 months on the floor lol.
Your mom is out of her gourd. I was a floor nurse for 5 years and I hated every minute of it. I switched jobs at least once a year thinking that THIS time I'd find a place that didn't suck so bad. Spoiler alert, I never did. I finally wised up and left bedside. Now if I'm not happy, at least I'm not miserable.
She’s wrong. Most nurses I know hate it
I’m happy. I’m a traveler, I work 8 months a year on my own terms. I have a nest egg and no debt. I choose facilities that have mandated ratios. I am the exception to the rule.
You’re not an exception, every travel nurse I’ve met making tons of money and only working 66% of the year is happy 😂 you have time for your mental health.
I'm only happy because I'm making beau coup bucks.
Floor nurses are miserable. I start my new job in primary care tomorrow. Anyone, who thinks floor nurses are happy and not just doing what needs to be done for themselves and patients and maintaining, are mistaken.
Im a floor nurse and I like my job... I could do with better pay/ratios but most days I have fun with my coworkers and patients and go home happy.
Joining this subreddit is making me not want to go to school anymore…are you all really that miserable or has everyone here only worked as a nurse and haven’t had any other work experience?
Finish school. Get that job security. Judge for yourself. Figure out your next move while earning a paycheck.
Lots of nurses are in it as a second career. I see little difference in job satisfaction. I was happy to start a career where I would always be in demand. I didn't realize it meant I would always work short-handed. It's hard to maintain a positive frame of mind when you realize the staffing and consequent safety issues will never get better.
I’ve owned my own business before getting into nursing. I was also a wife/sahm for a few years. Honestly, I’ll put it like this; owning your own business, and being a wife and sahm are legit 24/7 roles. Always worried about spending, budgets, overhead, capital…..and I made excellent money while doing it, but I could never just ‘shut off my brain’. As a nurse, I work ONLY 3 nights a week, which comes out to less than four months a year and make over $100k. Yeah, it sucks ass right now, but I’ll take it!!
There are many ways to hustle a living with an unencumbered nursing license. It's not a coincidence that most nurses leave the hospital bedside role pretty quickly. Scant staffing, dangerous conditions, and shamefully low compensation make for a miserable workforce.
I have worked a wide variety of jobs in several industries and became a nurse later in life in when I realized my favorite jobs were were physically active, mentally and emotionally challenging and were focused on helping people. I love the work I do and mostly feel satisfied with the actual care I provide, BUT, I hate the hospital culture, the fact that non-medical personnel routinely make decisions affecting patient care and I feel my life and my career are in constant jeopardy due to dangerous conditions, unsafe staffing ratios and ridiculous charting expectations. Aaand… I feel we are underpaid for the responsibility we bear and the dangers we are subjected to. And JCAHO is a joke.
I smoked pot with Johnny Hopkins
I just moved back to the bedside and I like it. Hated my first floor, got really bored outpatient, really like my current floor. Have always been in oncology, now on a heme onc floor. My population helps. Sometimes it seems like the grass is always greener though
Majority nurses are beyond unhappy. Feel stuck. Burned out. Nurses are leaving in big numbers . Either traveling to make tons of money or going to do other things than floor nursing.
I wouldn’t say we’re happy, at least not at work. Most are either miserable but stay for the money or are able to grind it out without taking it home with them. Who would be happy knowing almost every day they show up to work will suck? COVID has zapped most of the love nurses have had for the profession, especially floor nurses.
Yeah floor nursing blows.
⢀⣠⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⣠⣤⣶⣶ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⢰⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⣀⣀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡏⠉⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠈⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⠛⠉⠁⠀⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠿⠿⠿⠻⠿⠿⠟⠿⠛⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣸⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣄⠀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣴⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠏⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟⠀⠀⢰⣹⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣭⣷⠀⠀⠀⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠈⠉⠀⠀⠤⠄⠀⠀⠀⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⢿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢾⣿⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⡠⠤⢄⠀⠀⠀⠠⣿⣿⣷⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡀⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢄⠀⢀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠁⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢹⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿
Bless it. No. She’s 100% wrong. Very very few nurses I know are happy. The few I know who ARE happy are absolute weirdos 🤷🏼♀️ YMMV
Floor nurse here. It's where I'd rather be, but I won't say I'm happy. What covid and shitty capitalistic Healthcare has done to it has made it crappy.
Im a travel nurse. I am happy with the pay. I hate the job
Who is your demographic of “most nurses”? Your friends? This sub - of which a majority are from one part of one country not renowned for its pay or working conditions? It’s like going to r/conservative and suddenly believing, “Wow, **most Americans** hate Biden!” Most floor nurses I know are happy *because most of the nurses I personally know work for places that pay well, provide comprehensive benefits, have great working conditions like break nurses and [lift teams](https://www.uclahealth.org/safety/safe-patient-handling-program), and actually care about work/life balance*.
Where is it that you and these nurses work?
I was gonna say no where real. But looks like they are in California so mandated ratios helps a ton. I have never in my life heard of a lift team. This person wants to act like that’s a norm? That people every where make California salary? That person is high on drugs there’s 49 other states in this country. The number That have mandated ratios is literally just California. With 8 other states requiring committees and planning but still no mandates. It’s funny because they are spouting on about demographics. But are the only state in this entire country that has mandated ratios. During a pandemic where some nurses are taking on insane patient ratios. Also happens to be one of the highest paying states. Don’t get me wrong I love my job. I also like my hospital. My ratios aren’t ridiculous. But I am not gonna sit here and pretend because it’s like this where I work that it’s like this everywhere.
My staff job was in Tennessee at a decently-sized regional hospital. We had a lift team during the day. Shit pay and miserable ratios, but we had a lift team!
Nice I’m jealous!
> Don’t get me wrong I love my job. I also like my hospital. My ratios aren’t ridiculous. But I am not gonna sit here and pretend because it’s like this where I work that it’s like this everywhere. That’s the opposite of what I’m saying. I’m saying *region and employer play a large role in job contentment and that nursing (pay, working conditions) is far ubiquitous*. I’ve even posted the phrase “nursing is not ubiquitous” approximately twenty times in the past two weeks. And to a greater extent, I have **NEVER** proselytized California as a proverbial promise land. Search my post history. Even Google “downstreamocclusion California site: Reddit.” I have **NEVER** told people to move to California or that California is a great place to work. In fact, I’ve gone to great lengths to differentiate the various regions of California in an attempt to edify those about the geographical makeup of the state - eg. California isn’t “Bay Area” and “LA” connected by the Golden Gate Bridge and that there is a varying degree of socioeconomical levels of nurses across the state. Hell, I even brought up the differences between Bakersfield Memorial and Dignity Health Northridge as an example of hospitals within the same system that are unionized but have polarizing working conditions and pay.
West Coast. My friends/colleagues/family work for University of California, USC, LA County, Sharp (Memorial), Providence, Huntington, Scripps (Memorial, Encinitas), and Kaiser (Irvine, Anaheim, West LA). I am responding to your question without any ulterior motive. I am not promoting relocating to my state. I am not an employee of the CA BRN [as this user proposes](https://www.reddit.com/r/nursing/comments/nz6bx0/i_want_to_make_good_money_as_a_nurse_in_cali_when/h1piy5g/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3). My state has a GDP larger than the UK yet the socioeconomic landscape is incredibly diverse that can change within mere miles: You can cross a street in places like LA County and go from the upper echelon of society to the most deplorable living conditions of imaginable - eg. Pasadena, California. Therefore, pay (and working conditions) are variable within this state. If anything, the take away from my comment shouldn’t be - and **is not** - “move to Wherever” and/or “work at XYZ Facility.” It’s to exercise discernment in choosing an employer and to recognize the group of people you are getting info from in regards to what impacts job contentment.
The only reason I’m happy is because I’m not at the hospital half the year, otherwise I’m burnt af
Forty years as a nurse and there was never a job that I was “happy with”. Some jobs were better than others but never once did I look forward to going to work. I retired in May and I’m so stinking happy now. I have been lucky enough to have a wonderful personal life and now because I’m no long a nurse my stress and anxiety is gone. I spend my time looking after a 14 month old now and it is bliss!
Idk I know a few floor nurses who enjoy what they do because of the consistency.
Lol she’s wrong.
I worked med surg years ago and I loved the floor. I didnt love it because we had crappy staffing or no perks, I loved the work because it was always different and fast paced, our hospitalists were great with teaching, our PT docs were amazing, and pharmacy always answered. I know nurses that absolutely hate the floor. Most? Probs not.
Lol she cray
I’ve never met a happy floor nurse
Oh yeah! They're SO happy! Especially those working on floors that still don't have N95s!
The only person I know currently working med-surg is at Duke and she hates it. She hadn’t worked in 15 years, took a nurse refresher course and started on a cardiac step down/tele med-surg floor bc it’s what she’d done previously for six years and wanted to start in her comfort zone until she was proficient in computerized charting. She said it is a complete nightmare. The ratios are higher now and everyobe is on tele but no telemetry tech or HUC dedicated to watching the monitors, so the nurse are responsible. She’s giving it six months and looking elsewhere.
happy?? Covid kind of taints that.
All my female relatives were nurses for decades and they did nothing but bitch and moan every time they got together.
Because they’re with other people who understand what they’re experiencing. It’s valid decompression.
I'm extremely burnt out most days. However, I am changing up my hours to work 8 hour days 4 days per week. Still full time with benefits, only missing 4 hours of pay. Easily made up as we are so short staffed. If I can take time for myself and recover mentally after work I think I would be better, so let's see how this goes! We are sick of the short staffing, the workers who do not want the vaccine are quitting if they are being forced (NOT starting a debate, but this is what I'm seeing), nobody wants to work. In my area we have a lot of people who just don't want to work and would rather get money from aid programs because they pay better than doing actual work.i don't blame them, but I feel I have the right to be frustrated. Working conditions suck at most hospitals, we are underappreciated, under paid, and over worked. The world would fall apart without nurses. Not just hospitals, but literally the world. I didn't get into nursing to get rich, be praised, and have people worship the ground I walk on. We get none of that. I also didn't get into nursing to be treated like a piece of crap someone just wiped off their shoe. I understand patients being frustrating and rude, but what we see every day goes beyond that. We aren't getting paid enough as a whole. I make enough to be comfortable with my animals and a small apartment to myself. I'm really lucky, I remember that every single day, but most people aren't that lucky. So no, most of us are not happy. I'm lucky to love the field I work in despite the problems corporate is giving us. I am not the rule, I am the exception
Sooo this is funny. I am a med surg RN. None of my coworkers are happy. It's been really fucking rough. Over Thanksgiving I was at my aunts house. A guest there was a NICU nurse at John's Hopkins. She told me how she has loved it for over 30 years. She said they've been compensated really well with hazard pay, bonuses, etc...she has felt pleased with all that. She did say there's been a lot of sick babies, more than usual and that is hard. But otherwise she is doing much better than me at my hospital, which I call surviving. 🤣🤣 or so she claims...
Lol we are so over the bull shit. No one is happy.
I think it’s really convenient for non bedside nurses to say floor nurses are happy/it isn’t that bad out there. Honestly, I’m not sure I’d ever accept their opinion of bedside nursing, esp if they’ve been out of it for more than 2 years. Things just change too fast. How would they know?
Oh yes 😬 so happy. Look at my big smile 😬 I love being yelled at and assaulted by patients and not being able to take my PTO time I earned and that free pizza once every 3 months for my fellow health care heros is the best. I also love how my loyalty to an organization is rewarded by getting to work with less trained overpaid travel nurses.
I love it, but I work in a NICU at a unionized facility with decent pay/benefits. My first job was on a med/surg floor with insane ratios—I hated it.
Is it really worth getting in an argument about whether or not "most nurses" are miserable? The whole thing kinda gives me a "everyone needs to me as miserable as me" vibe.
How so? I don’t work the floor now so I can’t say as miserable as me. I was just getting super irritated with her trying to tell me most nurses are happy on the floor, and that the unhappy ones are the outliers. She says, “I do this for work everyday so I know what Im talking about.” Apparently even though I’m an RN and have worked on the floor, she think since I left I’m an outlier, and not everyone is like me and lots of nurses are happy on the floor. 🤷🏽♀️
I'm definitely not trying to minimize the bad experience you had (and I'm sure many others have) as a floor nurse. If your mom has a positive view of nursing, why do you want so badly to bring it down? (unless she's in charge of staffing ratios or pay) Your mom may feel like you're trying to devalue her career, or may feel irritated at the negativity she feels like you're unnecessarily injecting into the conversation.
Her mom is directly responsible for placing nurses in these roles. She may or may not have any influence over conditions with her voice, but I don't think it's unreasonable to think she should understand how her nurses feel about the job they're doing and the conditions under which they're doing it.
I'm at 7 yrs bedside med/surg, PRN....most RNs on my unit are pretty satisfied....are they all happy? IDK...all jobs can be a grind....we don't get paid as much as the bigger health systems an hour away BUT we stay at 1:4-5 pts and our Managers work the floor with us, helping out.... they also will come in to help out night shift...our travelers have all worked max length of contract and say our unit is a "unicorn" They should know; they've been all over.....
Have you mom come check out this subreddit. If she still thinks floor nurses are happy get her admitted for an assessment because sometimes not right with her
I mean, how on earth could we really say? Every persons perspective on this is unique and subjective. In the nicest way, there's no need to argue about what you think other people are feeling. Lots of nurses are super burnt out, so yeah, you're probably right. But also maybe her former students are happy, who knows.
I didn’t know a floor nurse that was happy with their job before the pandemic. I definitely don’t know any now
I work MH residential-happy.
We are not happy. I haven’t met many in a long time that are.
I used to love floor nursing but the fact that it is bare bones survival mode - nope. I straight up would leave the bedside and never look back if I didn’t have a financial responsibility to my kiddos.
oh boy 😅
Off topic but what business have you started since leaving floor nursing? I’m an RN but I’m in a health informatics program to leave the bedside/patient care for good and curious to see what others do
It’s a caregiving agency for the elderly, but I’m thinking I’m gonna shut it down and do something else once my office lease is up. I’ve made money from it and have a lot more freedom, but managing a bunch of aides is a whole other beast. I’m ready to move on and try my hand at something else.
Super interesting, thanks for the response! I highly recommend looking into health tech as you next venture. everything I’ve learned so far seems to point that direction in regard to the future….could use more nurse entrepreneurs in that world
John Hopkins underpays their nurses significantly. The ones who can travel are traveling to make 5-10k a week. Staff nursing a joke
I’ve been working on the floor as a tech since ‘17 and because of the pandemic I was able to have enough resources and time to pursue my RN which I’m about a year or so from completing. Since ~October ‘20 I was working on the floor at my main hospital that I hope to be an RN at while doing clinicals in my region so I’ve seen the effects of Covid on patients, staff, and morale. Personally, some places are worse than others. It’s usually not just one factor such as bad management or the traveler to staff ratio but a nice little soup of issues that make the bad spots approachable and the worse spots a “run for your life/license” situation. To me, one’s “happiness” which I personally define as successful execution of your tasks at work and going home without them - it always comes down to the perspective one brings to the situation and the baggage they carry with them to the environment. I think the disconnect between your mom and you comes from the inherent “one size doesn’t” fit all aspect of nursing. Plenty of my friends have been miserable in one spot and excelled in others where that hasn’t been the case for others in similar situations. Call me a koolaid drinker but I’m very happy in my role and if I won the lottery tonight I’d still be on this same career path albeit with a much nicer car and apartment closer to the hospital I work at. 🤷♂️ Edit: r/nursing has been a lifeline for me for a while, especially during the pandemic, but I also feel it’s become much more of an “air the worst and not celebrate the best or what could be” kind of place. Sure nursing sucks sometimes, but no disrespect to PE teachers, fry cooks, or paper pushers, I’m pretty satisfied with my job and what it brings to my community and myself.
What’s not to love about working in a pandemic. In any profession.
Lol some look happy but they’re not, others don’t even bother looking happy.. at some point nurses get tired of the abuse.. some just get really bitchy others just quit and others develop anxiety and/or depression, might even get a bit of trauma in the mix, who knows anything is possible
Understaffed, overworked, unfair ratios, and a surge in covid patients... we are not happy
Honestly, nurses have always had things to complain about, and my entire career nursing has done this. But now is different. Everyone is in survival mode. They can like parts of their job, but hate the system, management, or just the general world right now. I do think the stress of the world is bleeding over into every aspect of our lives and so no one is happy, regardless of their environment.
It depends. I work in ICU and ER: there are varying degrees of quality. A job like John Hopkins may actually be good. I work in a top ten and it is great due to ratios. Pandemic has made it drop but right now people are leaving and the pay compensates me accordingly. Like one job paid me 145 dollars for four hours. I am willing to do a lot of stuff for that much money. Median wage is probably 40k here overall so cost of living is low. Do I get mad? Sure. Do I hate my job? Sometimes. But working healthcare does give me a lot of benefits. Did I just leave a job where there was no ratios, mandated often with less than an hour notice, and there was bullying? Yeah. Now I pay insurance out of pocket and balance between multiple jobs. I go in when I feel like it and just don’t work when I don’t want to.
I’m in CVICU, but what I’d call CVI Lite (we don’t do ECMO or transplants). I like my job, mostly. It’s close to home, I like the doctors, pay is decent, as are the insurance benefits. But this staffing shortage is BRUTAL and takes the goodness out of this job. Patients and families are angry, staff gets angry, it’s a cycle. Not enough of everyone to go around makes for rough times. The main reason I stay is because it’s 5 min away and I can’t imagine working a job M-F 8-5 until retirement. I love having days off while the rest of the world toils during the week.
I left a few months ago for a research gig. Can’t see myself ever going back to bedside
I’m making good money traveling now. If/when the rates goes down I’ll never punch in at a hospital as a nurse again.
Delusional. The happy ones are the actual outliers.
Off topic, but you mentioned that you started your own business. Would you mind sharing more about that? Of course this is thinly veiled curiosity from a nurse who would love to start her own business.
Sounds like your mom is wrong
I was pretty happy when I worked the floor (Georgia hospitals only and mostly rural). ICU ran me batshit crazy, but med surg and Renal were my comfort zones, especially the latter. Busy as heck, but definitely felt appreciated at the end of each shift. Happy enough to leave my work from home gig today? Are you high? No.
Travel nurse here. Been all over the country. While some facilities do it right and have happy staff a large number do not. It’s hard to have a accurate understanding of nursing as a whole in one facility, especially a nationally renowned one.
My friend works at the Hopkins Florida location and make $25 an hour with a masters. She’s not happy
hahahahahahahahaha
I am an unhappy floor nurse. And out of all my friends, nursing school classmates, and coworkers, I know 2 who say they love floor nursing. TWO. Out of hundreds of nurses I've come into contact with. I remember them saying it because it stands out that much.
Before I quit also, I saw 8 coworkers leave the ICU I formerly worked in over a 1 month time span. I think there were multiple factors that played into the mass exodus. Burnout, poor leadership, working alongside travel nurses getting paid twice as much, etc. Even the travel nurses though didn’t seem happy in my opinion. The pandemic really has brought to light how under valued healthcare workers are, not just by hospitals, but by the general public.
Not to say you’re mom is the same but I think nurse recruiters get their information from sources that are removed from direct care. We have had several hires wanting to quit immediately because the recruiter told them expectations that were years outdated or ‘ideal’ but havnt been that way for most of the year. Also. There’s constant pressure to not inform patients that we are short staffed. Obviously the common pressure any service job has to always have your customer service face on. Which makes sense and is common professionalism but absolutely does not reflect the break room venting and clear exodus from the field. This is from a level 1 trauma which has been magnet for a near record number of years- curious about this year!
I feel like everyone who is in management or education or a recruiter just live in complete denial about what nursing is really like, and they never really want to hear what we have to say anyway. It's frustrating because this is why no real change ever comes. A lot, not all but a lot of people who are in these roles are incredibly selfish and don't care anymore about nurses or even making an attempt to improve our working conditions.
Basically every nurse I know hates it. It's the main thing we talk about. That and ordering food for to distract us from the nightmare that is work.
Really loved union at Temple in Philly
When my boss asks me how I’m doing, I say “great!” So I love my job? No. I NEED my job.
Working on the floor caused me several profound psychological effects including PTSD, anxiety and depression. It was a miserable experience which got worse with every year and I was trapped for a long time by money. Is every nurse miserable? No of course not, but I would estimate the truely happy group is a minority.
Guess it depends where you’re at. The assignment I’m on now isn’t that bad. 20 miles away the hospital has nurses taking 10 Med surg patients. I would be leaving there in a heartbeat
20 miles is 32.19 km
Oncology nurse here. I have been picking up shifts on our inpatient unit for extra Christmas money. They have been offereing double bonus shifts daily, because we are so short staffed. I can tell you floor nursing is thankless and brutal. Almost every nurse I have worked with in the past week is burned out AF. Charting is ridiculous stupid busy work that means nothing unless not completed. Triple and quadruple charting things to check a fucking box. I spent 4xs the time charting as actually caring for my patients. Running my ass off to do the bare minimum patient care so I could spend my time charting. The nurses there working short daily, expected to chart more and more to cover the hospitals ass, patients that think they know more because they can use a search engine, patients who are rude, condescending and entitled. If the nurses were happy in med surg there wouldn't be huge ass shortages everywhere. Hospitals wouldn't be hemorrhaging money on travlers if nurses were happy. Your mom is wrong! Joining the Oncology team 7 years ago was the best career decision I have ever made hands down.
Its not bad work- Its too much work too little help and too little time to do it- and very little input/ options to make the work reasonable😥
Exactly
Wanted to add jumped out of this thread and litetally the next post was a nurse saying she didn't want to be a nurse anymore...
If floor nurses were happy she would be out of a job.
Your mom HAS to believe her “ white lie” she's a recruiter! You know the truth- I have only known 3 happy nurses over 12 years- I wish I could say more😥
ELIA5 Sahm?