To ask Is nursing really horrific?

[scotchbonnetface]

It’s a bit of a pipe dream, but I always felt I had a “calling” for nursing.

Im getting to the stage where if I don’t do it soon, I never will. But I’m scared.

Maybe I’ve read too many horror stories, but if there are any nurses or HCA that could give me your feelings on the job, I’d really appreciate it.

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’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!

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'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.

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

Jesus. This is what I need. A comprehensive analysis of day to day life as a nurse.

Im definitely organised and kindhearted, I am sensitive though and I am known to cry at any shift in emotion, good or bad ha!

thank you so much

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.

Have you considered radiography OP?

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.

@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.

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.

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 left the nhs 12 years ago & i would never go back. Lots of girls i qualified with have also left and the ones i know still in it hate it

Paeds nurse here! I’ve recently changed jobs actually I spent 7 years working On a high level NICU and I just got to the point where I was thinking “all this stress, making me mentally ill, why am I doing it”

I now work On general paeds ward and I am loving it. I was so so worried about the change and if I was doing the right thing. But I absolutely love it. It’s so much less stressful and I’m really enjoying being around the older children as much as I loved working with the babies too! It was the stress of the intensity of that role couldn’t take anymore!

paediatric nursing has so many different opportunities. I’d say go for it!

I’ve been nursing 14 years and absolutely love it - have worked in extremely toxic environments though :( but overall the difference you can make it such a great feeling. I did go into a very very specialist area though

I was a children's Nurse. I tried different roles on the wards, and ended up as a Clinical Nurse Specialist with vulnerable adolescents in community services before eventually leaving the profession for good in 2016.

Firstly, I really enjoyed my nursing degree but a lot of my peers were not prepared for how demanding it was, academically and in terms of time commitment, and quite a few dropped out at various stages. You need flexible and reliable childcare, and a really good support network, to juggle parenting with working shifts on the ward on placement and studying for exams and assignments. I loved it, but I didn't have children yet at that stage and I had done a previous degree so wasn't phased by the written assignments, volume of reading etc. For those who found the academic side difficult there was a good level of support from the University though.

I loved the actual work with the children, which was interesting and rewarding, but as the years went on budget cuts and lack of staff made it increasingly difficult for me to do my job to a standard I personally considered acceptable. With every year that went by I had more patients, with more complex problems but less time to dedicate to them and fewer resources to offer them. There was endless talk from Managers (who were Nurses once upon a time but hadn't worked on the front line for decades) about "efficiency" and "throughput" and needing to run the services with a "smaller financial envelope" to justify taking away services from people who needed them, and would have been able entitled to them a few year earlier. Our concerns about the safety and quality of the care, along with concerns about workload and staff wellbeing, fell on deaf ears.
I got so demoralised by having to constantly apologise to desperate and often angry (sometimes aggressive) parents for things that were not my fault and totally out of my control. I was Line Managing a team of unqualified support workers (who had replaced experienced Nurses who left or retired) who were, frankly, shit, a nightmare to manage and increased my workload but the powers that be didn't care because they were cheap. Staffing levels went from being challenging to being unsafe, and I started to have re-occuring nightmares about vulnerable children on my caseload dying. I was bringing paperwork home with me every evening and weekend to keep my head above water but still always felt like I was chasing my tail trying to keep up. I reduced my hours to part time in an attempt to manage stress but basically ended up still trying to do a FT job for a PT wage.

I don't know what things are like now but based on my experience its not a profession I would encourage my DC to go into.

Palliative care nurse here. For the last 15yrs.
I adore it and would do it for free.
It had absolutely been my calling in life.
The biggest privilege there is.
🥰

I have 2 friends (they don’t know each other) who are qualified nurses but who never practised. I guess it’s not for everyone, but yes- very expensive mistake. Neither of them do jobs that involve their nursing qualifications at all.

I’ve been a ward nurse for 3 years and it’s soul destroying and really effecting my health if I’m honest and I’m relatively new, only 3 years in 🙈 I do work on geriatric though and think it’s time I had a change soon.

Im constantly one nurse for 15 patients because of constant staff movement, miss breaks, don’t leave on time because of documentation and some of those patients I barely see for 10 minutes in a whole shift other than giving medications. Patients meant to be turned and checked every 2-3 hours but you can’t do that because you’ve got multiple poorly patients where it’s literally life or death. Confused patients assaulting your colleague and security don’t have enough security to come and help. Spending time away from patients that need me to deal with complaints from relatives that often aren’t our fault but the fault of the system or staffing movement. It’s just relentless and I can’t recall the last time I had a ‘good shift’. HCA’s in my trust are lacking and often we’ll have an extra nurse instead of a hca as they don’t want to do it anymore for the same pay they can get in Aldi and I don’t blame them, so many of them left during Covid. Writing this I definitely need a new area and I used to think yeah right when mentors during my training said if they had their time again they wouldn’t do it again. But whatever the general public think is overstretched and lack of resources in the NHS, it’s even worse than they could ever imagine on the wards. I don’t know what else I could do other than be a nurse but it’s really really hard going the majority of the time and the stress doesn’t stop when you leave work. It’s not a job you can just leave there when you leave duty

I'm 25 ish years in.

Pay is insulting, progression is glacial, shifts are brutal, autonomy is absent, the physical environment is crumbling, equipment is scarce, the healthcare and social care landscape is post apocalyptic.....

The NHS is absolutely falling apart. Nothing feels safe, nothing feels productive. You end up delivering care you know isn't good enough, while also never getting any breaks or thanks.

I wouldn't recommend anyone paying for their own training, getting into large amounts of debt in the process, while working for free on placements where the staff can't and won't teach or support you, paying for parking to stay up all night and be on the receiving end of abuse and aggression from patients and their relatives. Once qualified you will struggle to get a job (most trusts have recruitment freezes), have next to no say in your working hours/days/annual leave, get no CPD opportunities and be paid what you could have earned working in a leisure centre or something.

Erm…. Yes sadly. I started as HCA aged 18, now been a nurse nearly 16years, only 39 and it scares me I’ll probably have another 30yrs to go. I’ve suffered with stress and MH issues related to work. HOWEVER, most of the time I find pleasure in what I do, self-fulfilment, and I’m passionate about being a nurse. However as nurses we are let down by management, society, the Government, we are severely undervalued and disrespected and don’t we know it! Would I do anything else tho? Probably not…… I do love being a nurse and proud to be one.
I realise this is a very confusing jeckyll and hyde answer, but it sums up how I feel.
Give it a go if you feel you have a calling, if it’s not for you then leave as many others do x

When people refer to bullying on wards and ‘toxic culture’ can someone explain a bit more what this means? Sorry to be thick but as someone not from an nhs background it’s hard to completely appreciate what the reality and context of it is - so are nurses bullied by other nurses? Sounds dreadful

I’m a nurse lecturer with many years’ experience as a nurse. Our nursing students drop out for a number of reasons, the biggest one in the first year is that they didn’t realise what was involved. They go on their first placement and are shocked that it’s not like on TV dramas or how they imagined it would be. I would recommend getting some exposure to ward work so you can see what you’re getting involved in.

Another big reason students leave is they aren’t committed enough. You are expected to essentially sacrifice a lot. You will have to work shifts, write coursework, attend lectures and deal with a lot of difficult experiences. If you add in worries about academic performance, it can all get a bit much.

I’d say the next biggest reason for dropping out is childcare issues. There is no allowance made for your family needs. You have to do the shifts you are given and attend all lectures. This can be hard when you have to get kids to school and pick them up.

Then there is the problem of failing modules and having to leave for that reason. Some people struggle with the academic side.

A few of my students have had to leave due to financial reasons as being a student is very hard on the money front.

My advice to you would be to make sure it is what you want to do and that you are willing to sacrifice your life for 3 years and not be as present in your family for a while. You have to know that it will be worth it. Read the Nursing Times or Nursing Standard to see what is going on in the nursing world. Go on a university open day and see what you think there. Checkout what finance would be available to you and see if you could budget for it.

I personally don’t regret being a nurse and I still love it, but it isn’t for everyone.

I’ve been a nurse for 15 years, I still love it. I specialised early, did about 6 months on the ward before moving in to interventional cardiology. I’ve been a CNS since 2017. It’s rewarding but stressful and resources are stretched. It’s hard but I can’t really see myself doing anything else, hearts are my thing

I’ve been in in since 86. First as a HCA in Learning Disability, then in 1990 training in mental health, qualified in 93.

I admit last few years I’ve felt burnt out. Once my mortgage was cleared I went part time. I’ve since relocated from London to Somerset. I’m collecting my NHS pension next year and thankfully no longer need to work full time. I’ve registered to work Bank, so only want to work part time and in teams where I don’t have the stress of care coordination or working on the wards. I’m being booked a lot (well 2/3 shifts a week) on mental health liaison which involves assessing people in a&e or on the wards, so short term assessments and signposting. Suits me fine!

Do I regret it? 70% no. It’s a job for life and while I don’t have a degree or diploma ( I trained under the traditional system) my skills and experience are easily transferred to loads of different environments. But I’m also only experienced at nursing. Sometimes I think I’d love to work in a pub or shop because at my time of life money isn’t essential as I’ve cleared my mortgage and don’t have kids but worry if I wanted a supermarket job (which I’d be happy to do) employers would think I’m overqualified for and wouldn’t look at me!

Tldr: yes it’s great if you know it’s your field and a job for life especially if you want to remain hands on. They’re always looking for hands on nurses.