Nurses - do you enjoy your job?

[DratThatCat]

Im 41 and I really, really, really want to start my nursing training in a couple of years when both of my kids are at high school, but after reading the midwife thread on AIBU I'm worried about what I'm letting myself in for. I know nursing has never been an easy job, its thankless and underfunded, but is bullying common? Are patient lives being put at risk because of staff shortages? Do you ever regret being a nurse? Any insights are much appreciated!

@AluckyEllie

I’ve just left icu nursing and am now office based. Don’t do, it’s going to get worse. The wards are hell right now, super short staffed of both nurses and doctors. A&E have to allocate a ‘corridor nurse’ which shows how usual patients lined up on trolleys in the corridor are. Care in the community is in crisis, they are so short many agencies aren’t taking on new clients which leaves the wards full of people medically fit with nowhere to go. This in turn means ICU/recovery can’t discharge to the ward- elective surgeries cancelled. Slandered in the press. Morale is low. Everyone looking to get off the wards and clinical areas.

When I was an A+E nurse I was the car park nurse many times. I had to nurse patients on the back of ambulances because there was no space. Corridor nursing is now so common, its factored into the numbers.

OP dont go into hospital nursing. Its so awful.

Nursing nearly 20 years. Over all, I love my job (less so as time goes by) In a senior specialist role which is challenging and keeps me on my toes.

Positives -

• Feel like I make a positive difference to my patients/families care/experience at what would be considered a very difficult time.
• passionate about my area of work.
• Some amazing colleagues that I value as clinicians and friends.
• Good work life balance at the moment. Work part time, 9-5 (never leave on time) with some on call weekends. No nights!!

-it's taking a long time and hard work to get to this position

Downside -

• leave work most days worried that I've missed something important or recommended a course of treatment that may have a negative impact of the patient (high level of responsibility and my mind is always working)
• not paid enough for the level of responsibility
• there is an undercurrent of bullying from management that's different to challenge (I'm not affected but witness it daily and despite airing concerns, they get brushed under the carpet).
• bullying is common place, some trusts have a face fitting culture
• There's a hierarchy that's encouraged by some senior staff, frustrating to navigate.
• Incompetence is promoted into senior roles. (My experience/observation) over 20 years.
• Difficult to get study time or funding for courses.

Would I go into nursing now, not a chance.
Nursing is going to get harder over the coming years. The pressure/responsibility is unreal.

Currently trying to discourage my Son from pursuing medicine as a carer.

The pressures on all AHP is crazy.

Saying all this, I am hugely proud of the work me and my colleagues provide.

Best of luck with whatever you decide.

I was a district nurse and loved the role. It had its challenges, but I enjoyed building a solid relationship with patients (sometimes over a number of years!).
I am now currently retraining to be a health visitor, which is a specialist nursing role. Likewise, this has its challenges, but so far I am enjoying it (famous last words?!).
You couldn't pay me enough money to go back to the wards though.

I've gone from.worling on the ward to a specialist day clinic. I love it, and is find it much less stressful

I am not a nurse but do work in an Acute hospital. We need to be training more nurses. We can't continue relying on agency staff who often do not know the wards and patients. There needs to be financial incentives to train and hopefully in next few years we will be in a better situation.

Been a nurse for 34 years and specialist nurse for last 14 years
Have worked in a variety of specialties( renal, oncology,CCU/ITU) , but not worked in a ward setting for over 20 years
Have met many amazing patients and colleagues over the years , who have made the job and I've loved being able to make a difference
However can't wait to retire now as the job has changed beyond recognition in last 2 years due to reconfiguration of the job and management has made it unbearable.

I was a nurse for 40 plus years and can honestly say I loved it, the my patients often became friends. However I do think it depends on were you work.
Nursing has changed over the years and there is a lot competition hence the bitchiness but if you can get through the initial training the worlds your oyster.

Yep. Paediatric nurse. I love it and couldn't imagine doing anything else. It's a bit crap at the minute as we try and tackle the Covid backlog. But it will get better, it always does.

Never seen any evidence of bullying.

Watching with interest as a first year student nurse..!

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences, I've read every comment and taken on board your advice. I've got some serious thinking to do.

I am concerned (amongst other things) that I'm going to be in my late 40s when I qualify and the physical side might be too much for me. I'm definitely going to look for a HCA role before I commit.

I'm so sorry that some (most) of you are having to work under so much stress without support. It shouldn't be like that. The NHS should be the government's priority, but it obviously isn't.

You will be fine not all roles need to include heavy physical work ie practice nursing.

It’s a great job. I’ve never experienced any bullying. One of the best things is the opportunities that open up and the extra training available. There are so many roles these days for nurses. Go for it.

@vdbfamily

I am not a nurse but do work in an Acute hospital. We need to be training more nurses. We can't continue relying on agency staff who often do not know the wards and patients. There needs to be financial incentives to train and hopefully in next few years we will be in a better situation.

This is what I'm (naively?) hoping. The NHS is on it's knees right now, everyone knows something's got to change. They've started bursaries for nurses again, although its not nearly enough to pay for course fees, never mind living costs. But it might entice more people to train up so in a few years things will be better, staffing levels-wise anyway? ...No? Just wishful thinking then 😂

Thank you for the encouragement! I so, so want to do it, it's all I think about most days 😆.

I qualified in 2014.

If I was to go back I would train in something else.

I'm a mental health nurse ,

staff shortages are frequently meaning I'm the only nurse on a ward of 15 male patients for the entire long day (7am- 9pm) lucky to get a break during that time too.

Bullying and disrespect are unfortunately also common. Lazy staff that don't want to do the work which burns out the ones that are good at the job.

Managers that don't appear to appreciate their staff - the focus being on all the things we don't do instead of the things we do

Then there's the patients who treat you like crap and expect you to go the extra mile for them - particularly the ones that are claiming mental illness to avoid prison (my unit is medium secure)

Maybe general nursing is different ? I don't know

I’ve been nursing 13 years or so. It’s changed a lot since I qualified. I did my fair share on the wards. When I left there about 6 years ago, it had become hell. Busy, stressful, high risk patients wandering and agitated, falling and insufficient staff to do 1:1 with them. If I could leave an hour after my shift officially finished I was doing well. I still have nightmares I’m back on the ward. That’s how bad it is.

I now work mostly with outpatients which is better. We are within the hospital but separate (I’m in Endoscopy) so it’s better. We manage our own lists and timings. Still run over a lot and often end up staying late, but it’s less weekends and slightly more civilised hours. Positives are the sick pay - now I’ve been there donkeys years I get 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay. Not many places offer that..also the holidays aren’t bad but you’re often competing to get school holidays off if you work somewhere with school age kids. Literally planning a year in advance to get those.

I’ve seen and experienced plenty of bullying in my time. Nasty managers picking on staff (even though when you worked with them at the same level they were the laziest of them all!). Staff who are just bitchy for no good reason. People who have such awful people skills you wonder what possessed them to come into the field at all. But at the same time, you’ll meet amazing team workers who are lovely, caring. Patients and relatives who turn around and say you’ve made their experience positive, even if they were terrified or in awful circumstances like their loved one dying. I remember a relative of an end of life patient saying “You must hate this part!” and when I said “No, I love it” he gave me this look. I explained that if I could support that patient to have a comfortable and peaceful, dignified death, and support his loved ones, that was the best part of my ward work.

I don’t know what I’ll do long term. I trained in my 20a. I don’t regret doing nursing, if I hadn’t, I’d always have wondered “What if”?” and regretted it. I’ve considered the hospice because I did get a lot out of end of life care, but I was on an older people’s ward. Not sure how I’d handle the younger deaths.I’m not sure I’ll stick out nursing til I’m 60+. But I have no idea what I’d do instead!

I specialised and yes love it and it's easy. However if I went back I'd do social work as it pays more

I am a paediatric nurse, and I always say that I love my job apart from when I hate it.
I love that I get to make a difference to people (as cliched as that sounds) and obviously I like to see people get better and go home, no day is ever the same, I like working with most of my patients, who range from newborns to teenagers and their families, and I work with an amazing team of people who support each other everyday through all the challenges.
I hate the beauracracy, the short-staffing that means you go home feeling like you failed your patients and their families because you couldn't do everything, the stress, the exhaustion of working 13hr days and 12hr nights and never leaving on time and sometimes not having a break in that time. It is generally not very family friendly with the random shift patterns, nights and weekends and having to work Christmas etc, so a work-life balance and a family life is tricky.
I have never been aware of any bullying.
Sometimes I regret being a nurse because I would like more of a family life where I could see my DC everyday rather than leave home before they wake up and get home after they are asleep and spend weekends with them, but this is the only job I have ever wanted to do since I was a young child and I have no idea what I would do instead.

No, I don't love my job. But I am top of band 5 now, work part time in the NHS and also work with an agency which pays pretty well. I work in a "niche" area, which I don't find too taxing or stressful. You couldn't pay me enough to go back on a ward, though I had to for nearly 6 months last year due to covid and it was hell.

In hindsight, I wish I'd trained as a mental health nurse or something else in healthcare, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, pharmacy, radiographer etc. But the grass is always greener I guess.

I plan on carrying on like this for the next few years and then will be looking to retrain when I can afford to, not sure what in though. Nothing healthcare related.

Why does everyone hate ward work? What makes it awful?

I’ve been a nurse for 17 years. I love nursing. I have, however, left the nhs due to bullying, complete inflexibility around shift patterns making it 100% incompatible with childcare and an absolute lack of management support. I now do agency shifts in NHS A&E departments. I don’t have paid leave, sick pay, isolation pay, job stability or an NHS pension now but I can do a job I love on hours that work around my family and don’t risk getting stuck in a toxic environment: I’m not tied in if I encounter bullying again on a personal level. My mental health is slowly recovering from the damage done working for the NHS.

I've been nursing 31 years. Lasted six months on the wards after qualifying (which was horrendous even then) and went into district nursing. Loved that for 13 years until a restructure and lack of flexibility for family friendly hours redirected me into practice nursing.
Until the last year I've loved it, but the current tidal wave is horrendous and many patients are unreasonable, unrealistic and rude. Constant pressure from management to tick boxes and meet targets. Incredible demand pushed to us from secondary care. Appointment times slashed to squeeze more in, working faster and faster. Half an hours break in nine hours if you're lucky.
I can get most of my pension at 55 without penalty in five years and beginning to wonder if I want to even last that long.
Would I do nursing again? No. Maybe an allied health profession.

@DratThatCat you've got 15 patients on a good day. Each patient needs IV medication which needs a second nurse to check the medication, each patient needs observations, if you've got a good hca you can trust then you don't have to do them yourself but if not then that's , temp, resperation rate, heart rate for each patient documenting if someone is getting sicker, in addition to your IV meds you might have 5 on nebulisers, and each patient will be on oral medication as well. You've got admissions to do, discharging, calling social services to arrange care packages because you can't discharge that patient until thats in place, you've got all the paperwork for each and every patient, documenting giving your meds and any issues they've had, every single interaction with a patient needs documentation.

Every day you've got to update skin integrity paperwork, you've got doctors asking questions, you've got to make sure your HCA has fed and washed the patients properly, documenting what they've eaten, updating fluid balance charts. You've got relatives ringing every 10 mins because they can't come in.

Then it's lunch time and the patients need more medication. You've got an unwell patient getting sick so you're trying to juggle that with the IV meds you need to do. Bleeping the dr constantly to come and prescribe antibiotics and more medication and review the sick patient.

A&E then ring and say they need to give you a patient because you managed to discharge one, so you take handover and accept the patient, patient arrives and is sicker than A&E handed over so you've got 2 unwell patients and 13 other patients who also need things doing. Try and find the dr who is looking after your new admission and they can't decide if they're medical or surgical yet so no one has taken responsibility for that patient and you can't give drugs without a prescription.

Break? What's that? If you miss the timings for medications your patients suffer,

You rely heavily on your colleagues but they're doing the exact Same thing.

You've got people complaining constantly that you haven't got them water because you were busy stabilising a patient.

Oh and if you've not managed to finish your documenting by end of shift you need to stay and get it done because records need to be up to date so you have to stay late for free to
Do the job you should have had time to do during the day but didn't