To ask Is nursing really horrific?

I nursed for almost 40 years and had a great career working with some fantastic people. I worked in acute hospitals both NHS and private at a very senior level. Nursing is however extremely hard work and can be either very rewarding providing great care to patients having their worse day or incredibly frustrating looking after people who continually make poor life choices and don’t help themselves.
You need to be aware of the requirement to work shifts that are not conducive to family life - weekends, night shifts , Christmas etc . On the positive side I was able to work night shifts for 8 years when my DC’s were little as it meant that one of us was always there for them ( even if sleep deprived). You need to be the kind of person who can juggle many balls and catch them all, make quick decisions and be both proactive and reactive. It is not a career for ditherers, those who need their meal break on time or those who want to leave promptly at the end of their shift.
Having said that, it’s a career I loved. Get some experience as a HCA and make an informed decision on whether it’s for you or not.

I’ve been a nurse for 13 years. It really depends what area you work in. It’s a profession that offers a fairly large variety to work in. I’ve been in ICU for 8 years, it’s stressful and busy but no not horrific and I enjoy it for the most part. But we have staff, we have resources, we have support staff, good working MDT, we have funding and money for interesting initiatives because it’s ICU. The general medical and surgical wards are not like this. The staff are on the bones of their arse with a skeleton crew, no equipment, spending half their time running around looking for an obs machine or ecg that works or pumps that are rationed. Taking all the shite from patients and relatives who rightfully aren’t happy with the very basic care they are receiving because realistically 3 nurses simply can’t do everything for 28 patients yet for some reason everyone thinks they should be able to. You couldn’t pay me enough to step back into that environment. Do I hate it.. no. Would I want my children to do it.. no.

@Takersgonnatake has given you a really good realistic picture here.
I’m in a specialist community team and I LOVE my job. My team is amazing, my work is varied, working with other specialities is interesting and above all providing the patient with good quality care is the best feeling.
Most people are eternally grateful. However, you can’t win them all. People are becoming more and more demanding. The demand for the resources far exceeds the resources available, and it’s hard to manage those expectations because “I’ve paid my taxes”. It’s hard being the face of the NHS when you don’t make the decisions.
The worst part of my job is that decisions are made by big bosses about service provision without any consultation with the ones who provide the service. We have to change the way the service runs purely to fit with the new technology or audits. It’s really bloody frustrating!
Ive worked on some awesome wards where the standard of care was exemplary and others that were toxic and patient care was impacted as a result. It’s like office work, some good and some bad.
Despite the challenges, I would not do anything else. Kneeling at the bedside of a patient in need, doing your bit to comfort them is the most humbling and rewarding feeling.

And my last little nugget of wisdom….. you probably won’t end up doing what you think you want to now! I really wanted A&E but it was a complete anti climax when I was placed there.

DS2 and DDIL are nurses. DDIL is ward based and says even if she won the lottery she wouldn’t give it up.

DS2 wanted to be a nurse from when he was 4. He decided he wanted to work in A&E when he was a teenager and that’s where he went when he qualified. He left there after 18mths because, at times, he was put in dangerous situations with lack of staff. He’s still nursing in the same hospital, he’s now Critical Care Outreach, and really enjoys it. He has 2 modules left in his Masters in Advanced Practice.

He is a brilliant nurse. It was exactly what he was made to do, and he can’t see himself doing anything else. I’ve asked if he ever thinks about teaching new students, but he doesn’t want to do that. He always says he wants to make a difference to people who are having terrible times, and he really does.

Have you considered radiography OP?

Been a nurse for 25 years, loved it for 20 of them, extremely tiring, hard work, very rewarding, met some of the most amazing families and patients and colleagues. Feels too much now though, the lady that said it’s like running a bath with the plug out is exactly right. And you know you are going to do it again tomorrow…and the next day…
For me, I want to leave now because of the culture and bullying I’ve seen. And if you speak out you become a target. For me it’s a huge problem. I can’t deal with that any more. I would say though that as a student you will see different areas, I think if you find somewhere with a lovely team you’ll be ok. Wishing you the best of luck. You can only try.

I’ve been nursing for 17 years, if I had my time again I wouldn’t do it. It’s not the actual job or the patients, that’s the good part. It’s the politics

I've been a nurse nearly 9 years, have always worked in the community, wouldn't work in an acute hospital. Demand constantly outstrips staffing capacity, but there are jobs/services you can work in which are easier. Practice nursing is popular with colleagues leaving. My Trust are good for training, I'm getting my prescribing qualification at the moment.

We have HCAs in the community as well if that was a route you wanted to go down to get a feel for it. I hadn't had any care experience when I applied for my nursing training other than some volunteering as a meal time helper in the hospital.

Not a nurse but an AHP and I love working on acute wards. I appreciate I am in the minority mind. I have been lucky enough to work with some amazing nurses at all levels.

I’m a nurse, qualified nearly 20 years. On any given day it can be the best or the worst job in the world.
Depends entirely on patient group/acuity and the numbers and calibre of the team you are working with. For a few months over Christmas my ward was opened to winter pressures beds ( we don’t say bed blockers but essentially what these patients were, medically fit and waiting for care packages or nursing homes). They were mostly immobile and incontinent which was grindingly hard work but on a good day with enough staff on the floor I’d have a great shift even though it was non stop. On an understaffed day it was still non stop but you’d be haunted by all the things you’d failed to do and that feels crushing. What you do on any given day makes all the difference to a patient’s experience and that responsibility can be very heavy. On a day when you’ve not stopped rushing but you know you’ve given substandard care you just want to go home and cry. The lady who wet herself because you told her you’d get the commode and then got waylaid, the man who was in pain because he needed his CD and it took over an hour to get two trained staff together to sign for it, the very heavy patient who is always last as it takes 4 to safely move them. The ones stuck in bed all day as the physios took the hoist off the ward and you simply didn’t have the time or staff to fetch it, the quiet little lady who just needs a chat and hand hold who you just didn’t get to, it’s endless.
You’ll need a thick skin, people are getting more and more entitled and you won’t believe the amount of families that think your only role is to make them all a cup of tea because they can see you there not moving for five minutes. You’ll need IT skills because everything now is on the computer. Every set of observations you take, every glass of water, every time you check someone for pressure damage, all has to be entered on a computer. Every time someone asks me for even something as innocuous as a couple of paracetamol, I have to find a computer, log in, open the Wellsky ( medication application) check when they last had it before I can even get the keys, go to the med room, unlock the cupboard and dispense it. Absolutely everything goes through those computers, discharge summaries, TTOs, every test request and result for every patient. I spend a large chunk of my working day on a computer and this is very likely why some families think I can make them all teas, I don’t look like I’m working do I? Meanwhile the boards may be lighting up with buzzers which I’m just praying my HCAs can handle as I try to print out my discharge summaries for todays lucky leavers. Admissions obviously generate huge amounts of forms and safety risk assessments to be completed too, but meanwhile everyone else still wants feeding watering, cleaning, toileting and medication too.
so are you well organised, kind hearted, not too sensitive ( you’ll get abuse plus NHS is notorious for its bullying culture) the general observation on management is that shit floats so don’t expect more than lip service to support from people who will expect more and more of you with less and less in the way of backup. If you are all these things, then go and get a job as an HCA in a nursing home for a year to check you are ok with handling other adults faeces, urine, blood and vomit. If you can, welcome on board! Hopefully you haven’t got small children because three 12 hour shifts a week is a bastard to organise child care for. But as you will find, your convenience is the least of NHS Englands concerns - they introduced them to save money on handovers between early and late staff and so what if they are physically exhausting and drive women with young families out? Plenty more nurses to be recruited from India and the Philippines.
Hope I’ve not put you off, I mean I’m still doing it! It helps that my ward is an outlier, we are coming under constant pressure to do the new hours but have managed to cling to earlies and lates so far. Once that goes, I’m out. 12.5 hour night shifts are killers! If you genuinely like people, it can be a very rewarding job. Everything I’ve said is absolutely true but when you work with a good team the camaraderie is like nothing else and will carry you through the shift!

Theatre nurse here (scrub, plastic surgery)
I would recommend that you get a job as a theatre support worker first and see if you like it. It is definitely not for everyone. I have seen lots of people come and go who couldn't cope. You will struggle if you are very sensitive generally.
Theatres are very hierarchical, kinda like the military lol with the surgeon at the top and non-clinical staff at the bottom. Shifts are long, egos can be massive, there is a lack of staff and reliance on agency and bank is huge. Which puts alot of pressure on experienced staff. Which us why I now work in a private hospital in skin cancer surgery mainly and intend to stay there til retirement.

I am a nurse and have loved my career from cardiology to general/emergency medicine to oncology. Would I do it again, yes. I have also seen awful bullying and worked in two toxic environments. The job has changed so much over the years but my knowledge is forever evolving! Do it or you will never know 😊

Nursing is not all it’s cracked up to be.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7287gxn7m3o.amp

I’ve been nursing 35 years, 29 of them in primary care which is slightly the lesser of two evils. I retire at 55 next year and the pension is the only thing keeping me going tbh. And many others I know. It’s a bit of a timebomb.
Working in the NHS currently is like trying to fill a bath with the plug out. Nurses always seem to be at the bottom of the pile..An impossible and thankless job in many respects.
I feel genuinely sorry for those with years left.

Definitely get a job as a hca before you apply. You will get a good feel for what it’s like. I would suggest a hca job at a hospital to give yourself a proper idea. I nursed many years ago loved a lot of it and hated some.
Shift work is exhausting, I left because I got fed up with the shifts and working Christmas etc.
I do still miss it sometimes though

I love my job (I'm a nurse in primary care) but I'd never work on a hospital ward again!
Better pay would be nice though. I'm an independent prescriber so I have a high level of responsibility, but the pay absolutely doesn't reflect it.

35 + years and still loving it
Go for it !

It’s both the best and the worst job in the world.

I’ve been qualified 30 years and have spent 25 of them in primary care. Wouldn’t go back into a hospital for all the tea in China. (Not that they’d want me really as my skills are very specific to primary care!)

I am proud to be a nurse, and proud to lead and be a part of a team that delivers excellence. That doesn’t happen everywhere I know.

It does drain you though. You give so much of yourself there’s not always much left.

Paediatric can be fun and rewarding, although there is a lot of safeguarding involved and some truly awful things you might see/hear about.

Theatre can be okay if it’s your thing. Can be quite boring and repetitive.

Emergency is varied, but this is where you’ll probably experience a high level of assaults/abuse.

I think it honestly just depends on your lifestyle/personality/tolerance as to whether you’ll enjoy it.

As others have said though - it’s not just the patients that can be challenging. There’s a lot of backstabbing and bullying within some departments. Ok when you are in a job and can leave but during placements you just have to put up with it, because it’s very unlikely the uni will let you change it.

I think it depends what kind of setting you work in & what kind of personality you have.

It is pretty relentless on, say, an elderly care ward. I worked on one as a HCA & had a place to do nurse training via the trust I worked for, but left before starting because I just knew I couldn’t take the 3 years of study on top of working on the ward.

Elderly care was mainly dementia patients with complex needs & was the most understaffed ward day in, day out. Everybody would book bank shifts on Outpatients, Discharge Lounge, Gynae etc as ours was the most challenging ward for physically. The nurses either loved it & had been there for years - or hated it & didn’t come back after 1 or 2 shifts.

If you can find your ideal fit I’d say do it - if not, it’s a big commitment to take on for not much money.

Oof I’ve been nursing for MANY years. It’s never been easy but I’m not sure it’s ever been more difficult than it is right now. I moved into a specialism, which is better. I’d quit nursing before I went back on the ward.
We see people at their most vulnerable. It can be incredibly rewarding. Equally it can be awful. Some people are very emotional, some are disoriented, some are downright nasty. We are working with huge staff shortages, expectations from management to do more with less resources, budgets cuts. Staff that leave aren’t replaced (although they seem to find the budget for new roles at the most senior levels 🤨).
Patients can be extremely demanding, some expect speedy service and think they’re the only patient we look after! We are STILL dealing with the aftermath of Covid. My service has seen an increase in the number of patients with symptoms that need to be seen, flares and being short-staffed puts lots of pressure on us. I’m pretty experienced in my current role, but I was almost in tears this afternoon.
I would definitely suggest getting some work in a hospital. I worked as a healthcare on the nurse bank before I did my training. Here’s the ironic thing. In 18 years, there’s been a couple of times my health issues almost stopped me working, and I hated the idea of having it taken away from me. So in summary, yes, it’s one of the toughest careers out there. Sometimes I wish I’d occupational therapy instead. But I’m still doing it and I love what I do (most of the time!).

I’ve been a nurse for 15 years. I was a late starter. Never wanted to do ward nursing so worked in theatres. I’m now an Advanced Practitioner. Love it most days. It’s very hard and we certainly don’t do it for the money. Not sure I’d want to do anything else though.

I qualified two years ago as a mature student. I absolutely loved the actual nursing side of things. However the atmosphere, bullying and bitching on wards was just not for me (wasn’t even targeted, just hated/seeing hearing it and trying to stick up for wronged people). I could’ve stuck it out but just found it draining.
I now work in a day nursing job which I definitely enjoy but it’s not exactly what I originally wanted.
Some places really are lovely and actual nursing is rewarding (if a bit stressful). I’d just be aware that if you do go into it and love it, it might take a while once your qualified to find a place you enjoy.