To ask Is nursing really horrific?

I also felt that calling and retrained as a nurse. I think it is an absolutely brilliant job…..away from the wards! So hard to give good care when you are so short staffed. I left to do a few years in intensive care and now I work in research. I absolutely love my current job. Lots of patient contact and I can go above and beyond for them. Still nhs and work for a fab team. Exciting being part of new treatments coming through and such a good feeling when we have patients who were told there were no more options and then our treatment u turns that. Would highly highly recommend.

Nursing is one of those jobs that in my experience is either the best, most rewarding and satisying role in the world-or the complete opposite-and when the shit hits the fan, the support is woeful.

I left nursing because when the shit hit the fan-pandemic, managing an independent nursing home-it nearly broke me as a person. But of course, those were very extreme circumstances. I also have some increible memories and real wins during my career and if I could go back and relive those, I would.

I would say go in with open eyes, recognise your limits for your own wellbeing, and crucially learn how to say no-24 hour shifts because the night nurse did not show up for example.

I loved uni, although the schedule can be brutal when juggling assignments, placement and eventually your dissertation. I would second getting some relevant experience before diving in-it is not always what people expect and is a lot more mentally amd physically draining than people realise.

And I say this next part as someone who worked in the profession whilst moving and handling regulations were still being developed-protect your back at all costs-trust me, you will thank me for that later. I can still feel the twinges of poor practices in mine.

No, I stick by that. My memory is intact.

I do hope it's better for student nurses nowadays.

Well I don’t think it’s fair to say uni is horrific then when it was so long ago!

No! I qualified in 2001 then retrained as a hairdresser in 2013 but went back in 2014 because I missed being a nurse. I can’t imagine doing anything else. A different role, yes but within the nursing field.

That certainly wasn't part of our syllabus because you are quite right, I would not have passed it in the first 2.5 years. I did train a long time ago though.

@NotanNHSnurseanymorehow did you manage that when there’s a practical medicines management assessment connected with every placement throughout the three years?

I’ve been a nurse over 20 years. It very much depends what area you’re thinking of.
In your training you’d have placements in different areas.
The money is rubbish, but you can climb the ladder. NHS pension is good.

Hi OP

Some really good points raised here, I'll add a couple:

Uni is horrific. Most of my placements treated me as an HCA. I understand that in perhaps your first year, but not afterwards, after all, you're training to be a nurse and not an HCA. I got to my third year having never done a drug round - and I was persistent about requesting this. I remember crying in the sluice because I was so scared that I was going to qualify but be unskilled and incompetent. The sister found me and told me I was ridiculous and to go to X ward and help them out as their HCA had gone off sick. I complained to uni and I didn't even get acknowledged.

The press and SM love painting nurses as "too posh to wash". Comments like "Where is Matron, she ruled the ward with a rod of iron" yadda yadda unoriginal rubbish.

Matron didn't live in a world with a vastly expanded population, an older, a sicker population. She didn't deal with highly complex technology, with a post Covid era; back then patients who were well enough pottered around filling up flower vases etc. Can you imagine keeping someone in that long today?

I've found a very niche and non clinical role that works brilliantly for me, whilst allowing me to keep my registration. And I'm paid well. I love my job and couldn't do it without my background.

Would I choose nursing again? Yes and no. Yes if I could guarantee my current job at the end of it. Otherwise, absolutely not.

One thing that slightly bothered me about your post is that your said you felt you had "a calling ". What does that mean? It sounded a little starry eyed, so please do unpack it now, I'm interested!

As PP said, another reason not to do it is the fact you will acrue more debt than you'll earn. I'm old school and we were lucky enough to get a (totally inadequate) bursary. Not so the case now.

And don't even think about applying without working as an HCA first!

Ive been a care assistant for 3 years and Im also considering becoming a nurse. I cant imagine doing anything else. Currently reading through threads so Im hoping they dont put me off!

I went back to education to become a nurse. I did two years of the degree before left. It gave me serious panic attacks and was definitely not for me.

Would never return to wards, a band 5 wage for the stress you're under is not worth it.
Also NHS management in my experience was horrific. Lazy incompetents fail upwards to get themselves away from having to actually care for patients, cliques reign supreme and if your face doesn't fit you'll know about it.

That said, I now work in primary care, which is variable as GP practices are independent entities but mine pays far better in line with my skill and experience than my previous NHS job and is a lovely place to work so I now find my job very rewarding.

I'm in Scotland and got a bursary when I trained, I would not take student loans to train as a nurse as it's unlikely you will ever earn enough to justify that amount of debt.

I would also caution against the rose tinted 'it's a vocation' angle.
In my opinion that hobbles us as a profession and is part of the reason our pay is so poor.... 'i wouldn't strike, it's not about the money', 'i don't mind staying late to finish x,y,z' and so on.

It's a job, one that can be great- both challenging and rewarding but still a job not a calling and I'm a professional not a martyr or an angel.

You need to go into it with your eyes open.

The ones who’ve done well for themselves love it. I had a band 7 tell me the other day she was bored shitless and had nothing to do. Meanwhile the b5s were rushing around like blue arsed flies. This is crit care btw.
Essentially if you’re ambitious, confident, gobby you’ll do well. Or a man. One colleague was qualified a few years. He talked the talk. Got the b6 post. Still lazy. We’re in a situation where B6s rarely take patients because they’re ‘coordinating’. Hence not having a clue how to use equipment despite being ‘super users’. It’s an absolute joke. Want an easy life, get promoted.

I had a manager who said it looked ‘unprofessional’ for us to be seen drinking and she wanted us to keep our bottles in the staff room. It wasn’t far to go was it? Except it was…it was 50 paces out of sight of patients. Most of the time we had patients who needed 1:1 supervision and no staff to do 1:1. You couldn’t leave them. If the other staff member was behind curtains or on break, you couldn’t have a drink?! I hid mine behind folders on the trolley. Easy enough for her to say when she sat in the office while we ran around on the ward!

Reading this thread is so interesting, there so much that is true.

Having to bring in your own food or drink provisions, the only thing we ever get given is from the patients who give us biscuits or chocolate when we send them home (and we’re extremely grateful). Our mugs and cutlery all go missing. It’s red hot on the wards at the minute yet for some reason we can’t be seen to have a drink, even by patients. Try going 12+ hours without one. Sometimes I don’t have time for a wee.

We used to get a cake or something for Nurse’s day. This year we got nothing.

Poor or incompetent staff just get moved around from one dept to another. Management move sideways more often than we can count, yet you never see any job being advertised. You move up if your face fits, that’s for sure.

However I have made some wonderful friends, gained an awful sense of humour and I’m very tired.

This thread is so sad.

And it’s interesting to see that ward nurses are the most unhappy, and those in paediatrics, specialist nursing and primary care are reasonably happy.

I’m an ICU nurse and definitely wouldn’t pick nursing again. It’s good for job security, always extra shifts and it works with my husbands job atm with our young children.
However, 3 nurses on our unit have been assaulted by patients this year so badly they have had to have significant time off. One still has problems with balance. Nothing will be done to the perpetrators (they just say they were confused from the meds etc.) One of them was a really nasty piece of work who was laughing about it with a relative. The entitlement of the general public and the way people seem to instantly think errors have been made/care is substandard is just infuriating. Since Covid it seems to have got worse, I’m assume with all the antivax stuff out there people don’t trust medical staffs opinion or believe they have an ulterior motive.

Of course there are many lovely patients and relatives but I’m just fed up of being treated like crap every shift. It used to be a rare shift but now it feels like it’s every day. I did go non clinical for a few years and that was much better but I need shift work again for childcare so here I am!

Also paediatrics on a surgical ward. I could have written this myself. But my ward manager is lovely and we all get on really well.

I started nurse training in 1981 and its always been like that, I think it became really toxic at the end of the 1990's when shifts changed from 7.5 hours to 13 hours. I really don't think anyone can cope with such long shifts, it;s too much and people become angry, tired and difficult to work with.
I love podiatry, progression up the bands is very quick, you'll definitely go up to band 6 or even 7 within a year of qualifying, it's 9 to 5 work with weekends and bank holidays off and the staff are generally lovely and easy to work with.
You work on your own anyway, patients in and out all day 30 minute appointments and home visits and it's acute so mostly wound care, not nail cutting as people think. Always interesting.
I really wish I'd skipped nursing and gone straight into what I do now. There are jobs everywhere as there is a national shortage of podiatrists.

Another poster reminded me, I forgot to mention the assaults.

The fact that I forgot probably tells you something! In certain areas of healthcare it's normalised and seen as part and parcel of the job.

I have worked in areas where assaults on Nurses were very rare. I've also worked in areas where being hit, spat at, pushed, having things thrown at you (including faeces) was a daily occurrence. I had a colleague who had her jaw broken at work and was off with PTSD for a long time.

I was never particularly frightened of being hurt, what bothered me was the attitude Management had towards assaults on their staff moreso than the assualts themselves. They didn't seem to feel any sort of responsibility or duty of care towards their staff. Even though many of the injuries I saw occur to Nurses and HCA's were entirely preventable, and could be attributed to low staffing levels, poor decisions made by Managers or Consultants, or staff not being listened to and taken seriously when they raised concerns about risk.

Having actual shit being thrown at you aggressively and being spat at is actually less upsetting than the people in charge, who are supposed to be responsible for your wellbeing, not making sure you have adequate PPE to protect you, or hiding in their office and not bothering to ask Nursing staff how they are and what they could do to help when they know you've been dealing with constant verbal and physical abuse for days on end.

I had no idea this was the environment nurses had to work in, sorry for my ignorance. Good god, how does anyone do it? And this is scary both for staff mental wellbeing and surely patient safety?

I did it for 25 years and ended up as a burnt out shell of myself. Im an NHS podiatrist now and love that.
It should not be approached as a calling, it is a career. A calling smacks of a sentimental feeling and you will be dissuaded of that pretty damned quick.

I think this is a common misconception but honestly, some of the worst bitchiness, shit-stirring and negativity I witnessed was from male Nurses. Usually male Nurses who were mediocre at their jobs but ambitious and keen to ingratiate themselves with Management by making others look bad.

On my first ever placement as a Student Nurse an HCA warned me "Nurses eat their young".

During my time as a Nurse I met some wonderful, dedicated people who I liked and respected very much. I made some good friends. I also met people who were so exhausted and demoralised by the problems within the system that I guess their way of dealing with it was to stop giving a shit, about your colleagues and in some cases even patients. People who do the absolute bare minimum, don't really see themselves as part of a team and complain about everything all the time, dragging everyone else's mood down. That kind of attitude can be catching, it spreads unfortunately and can become part of the culture.

I never experienced bullying myself when I worked in the NHS but I saw Managers belittle, talk down to and intimidate people. I remember one particular Manager who was well known for cancelling people's annual leave last minute or giving them the most punishing shifts if they ever dared to question or stand up to her. During my time Nursing I knew 2 Managers who were investigated for bullying staff. Neither of them were sacked or demoted, despite an overwhelming amount of evidence, they were just moved to a different team within the Trust.

I think it depends on your team, but in some clinical environments where things are really stressful and staffing levels feel unsafe there's a sense of real fear, that if there was a serious incident no one would have your back, that they would throw you under the bus to save their own skin. This can lead to people being very defensive, almost paranoid and doesn't make for great team relationships.

I have also worked in environments where some Nurses and HCA's were just very cliquey, gossipy and could be quite unkind, or at least unwelcoming, to anyone whose face didn't fit. I'm not sure why. I was fortunate not to be on the receiving end of this myself but I still found it hard to watch.