What's it like being a Nurse?

oaklore

I'm 32 and mowing fairways for a golf course for 'almost' minimum wage. I'm looking into different courses at school and Nurse caught my eye.

So my question is "Is that even good?" I mean, monetarily, benefits, retirement and all of that jazz.

What's the nurse total package like?

bowen

Be ready to work long hours, be abused by both patients and your supervisors, and move job to job because that's the most realistic way to earn raises. In my experience.

Ruckus

Also, Catheters.

EggyToast

My friend is a nurse in, uh, brain trauma or something. She likes the job but she admits that it's hard work and the hours can be annoying. She's in a ward where most of the people she sees end up, at best, with a significant drop in quality of life due to their injury, but she remains a pretty upbeat individual, mostly because she's pretty well grounded.

It's easier than medical school, as far as crazy tests go, and you have more options for moving or being hired, but yeah, it's harder than mowing grass (which is probably why you're interested).

kharvelan

I was just talking to my nurse friend of mine this weekend and she explained how it was a good job and very rewarding but very tiring, and very long hours.

oaklore

I think I'm going to do it. We have an army base here (Fort Drum - 10th Mountain Division) and I think I'd like to be a nurse there.

Anyone know salary ranges?

Doxa

In the state of texas RNs start at $22/hr. I think Oklahoma has the lowest paid nurses at $19/hr. If you aren't a wussy and can handle dealing with seeing stuff like naked old people or blood then its fine. 12 hour shifts are the norm, some nurses work 7 on 7 off. I know a few rare rural hospitals do 3 16 hour shifts a week but if you're in the city 12 hour shifts are the norm. There's a lot of different things to do as a nurse; ER, ICU, psych, pediatrics, geriatrics. There's always demand for nurses and hospitals have deals for year contracts and the like. There's suppose to be a huge shortage soon or something. US nurses are loved by all countries.

I recommend it as a good job. By all means if you have the chance and are sick of minimum wage jobs then do it. Medicine is an interesting field and can be fun.

edit: I can answer most specific questions if you got any. Grandma is a nurse Mother is a nurse, sister is in the nursing program, I am an EMT.

Noquar

It is an occupation that will always be needed. It has a path to a doctorate. It can pay well - but can also have long, long hours. However, if you do decided to get into nursing you can take on some really interesting jobs. We have nurses out in some of the rural areas here in Alaska that absolutely love their career simply because it affords them the means to accept jobs in so many different areas across the country that they may have never thought of seeing before. On top of that, many of the female nurses I speak to are of the same mind as female social workers -- they are really, really, short on males in the field -- which could be a boon for your career aspirations.

Thanatos

Yeah, you're virtually guaranteed employment as a nurse. And yes, long hours and hard work are the norm, but at the same time, most nurses only work 3-4 days per week, which means a lot of time off, too. It's a really solid career choice.

MegaMan001

bowen wrote: »

Be ready to work long hours, be abused by both patients and your supervisors, and move job to job because that's the most realistic way to earn raises. In my experience.

I started laughing so hard at this. Are you a nurse or is one of your parents?

So, for the record, I am a registered nurse at a medical ICU in one of the largest hospitals in the country (check my location).

Being a nurse, overall, is great. You get all of the really cool stuff of working in medicine. Saving lives, improving lives, helping families, and learning a lot about yourself, right? You, usually, make good money.

Of course, there is some shitty parts too. Yeah, you run into angry patients. Patients who are mad at their own situations and take it out on the staff. Also, yes, there are abusive supervisors. However, you can run into a shitty customer population or shitty supervisors in any job, so your mileage may vary. Hell, I get pretty negative after a twelve hour shift when I lost two of my patients in cardiac arrest.

Okay, about the hours. I see a lot of people quote friends as thinking they are long. Well, yes, they can be. I work three, 12 hour shifts a week. Yes - when I first started a year and a half ago they were long. You kind of get in the habit of doing them, though, and they become much easier. Also, think of it this way. I work three days a week. That's 12 days a month. When I work a weekend, I'll work three straight 12 hour shifts then have four days off. That's a vacation every weekend I work.

Money. It can be great or it can suck. Typically, at smaller places (rural institutions) you make less money. It varies a lot, but typically about $20.00 an hour. At larger hospitals (such as the one I work at) I started at $28.00 and now I make $31.00 an hour a year and a half later. We get a raise every 6 months. There is usually overtime available for as much as you want to work. I worked roughly $2,000 of straight overtime over four weeks to purchase this fine Sager 8662 I am posting on.

Location. Where you work and who you work with will make your break your nursing career. If you work at a shitty, country, regional hospital with a shitty supervisor and borderline dangerous coworkers, yeah, that's going to be a shitty work-life. If you find a solid crew of people you get along with in a hospital that puts the patient first (yes, they are out there) and treats the nursing staff with respect and dignity - it's great.

In the end, I'd tell you that nursing is like any job where what you do and how you do it could legitmately either end someone's life or improve it - it's challenging. Like any job, the hours could be long and the coworkers / supervisors could suck. The one big thing nursing does have for it, is that you can do it just about anywhere and the master's degree programs are bad ass.

Let me know if you have any more questions and would like them to be answered by an actual experienced RN rather than 'what my buddy said last night after he had a shitty assignment'.

EggyToast

Hey MegaMan, this is my impression from the local nurse scene as well as from my friend, but given the hours and the stress the one consistent thing I've noticed is that it's difficult to do the family thing as a nurse.

There's a lot of single nurses around here, and the two nurses that I do know (my uncle, who's gay, and my friend, who's husband is a PhD and therefore equally busy at odd times) have schedules that tend to make their waking/working life very structured, due to the on/off and holiday working. For instance my friend here always works Xmas, although she says it's not bad because it's usually only the day after Xmas or Jan 1 where all the attempted suicides come into her ward. I know my uncle has similar trouble getting time off for holidays because, well, a hospital can't stop for a holiday.

I mostly mention this because I get the impression that the OP is single, or not married or with offspring, which may make it a good career choice for him right now anyway.

What my nurse friend here also tells me is that the best nurses are the ones who are fresh to a ward, because they're not jaded, and that hospitals tend to encourage school/training so it's possible to move into different divisions or specialties. I'm not sure how applicable that is to the nursing world overall, though?

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

A lot of areas are hurting for nurses, and will give you lots of bonuses, free schooling, and perks with the terrible hours, so maybe that makes it better?

VisionOfClarity

Why nursing and not a tech position? My friend does ECHOs with a private doctor, works normal hours and makes somewhere around $40-50 an hour. There's almost an endless variety of positions for different specialties and it's a lot less stressful than nursing for similar time in school.

EggyToast

I think techs are in less demand due to the ease of the job and the fact that a hospital needs a small staff of, say, xray techs but a huge staff of nurses.

SatanIsMyMotor

My sister is a nurse. It is the hardest job in the world. You get paid quite well though.

Having said that my sister has been stabbed by no less than 4 needles which of course results in many disease scares.

MegaMan001

There seems to be a lot of questions about perks.

As with anything else in nursing (or medicine for that matter) it depends on the hospital you work at. Most hospitals, not all, have some measure of tuition reimbursement and continuing education on top of solid benefits and health insurance.

For example, my hospital offers up to $7,200 a year in undergraduate tuition / fee reimbursement and $5,400 in graduate level courses. So you could easily finish a graduate degree for free.

Sign on bonuses are rapidly becoming the norm as well. A lot of my friends got hired in Chicago area hospitals (albeit, total shit holes) and got anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 in a sign on bonus alone.

Due to your age, OP, I really recommend against doing a tech job. You'll make less money, with poor benefits, and have almost zero upward mobility. Nursing gives you more money, the ability to go into a master's degree program, and is ultimately more rewarding.

As far as disease scares. Well, SatanIsMyMotor, I can't speak for your sister - but four needle sicks in how long? There are so many safety mechanisms to prevent that from happening I am not sure if she's just had horrible luck or what. Yeah, there are some threats - I've had a few OD meth heads come at me a few times, but far and wide it's pretty safe.

CarolinaBBQ

I've just knocked down my first year as a nurse.

I hated having a bunch of patients and their whiny families so I went to the OR and am having a pretty sweet time in wood shop.

Nursing is way more physically demanding than I ever imagined it would be. Beyond 12 hour shifts, its lots of lifting and footwork.

New Nursing Grads in my area are in a kinda crummy situation in that hospitals still need nurses but are way less willing to hire new grads with zip experience. However, Tech positions like scrubs and xray are in an even worse spot that the market has been saturated with new graduates since we have 6 community colleges pumping them out all in a 60 mile radius.

I got into it for the money and the job security and I have to admit that those reasons won't get you through the day most times.
However, there are a thousand different jobs you can do as a nurse that surely one of them will feel like a perfect fit.

Good luck to you

dispatch.o

Step 1: Become a Surgical Nurse
Step 2: Make 60$/hr
Step 3: Read a chart, move a patient
Step 4: Do sudoku puzzles for 40-60 hours a week.

I'm not exaggerating. Surgical Nurses are the most spoiled lazy employees in the entire medical field.

It is good to keep in mind that becoming a nurse lets you join the club. No administrator or case manager employed by a hospital will be anything other than a nurse most of the time, they see to it that no matter how awesome an employee you are, or what kind of degree you have... if you're not a member of the club, you can't be a boss or move up any ladders more than a rung or two.

CarolinaBBQ

Douche

Mega Douche with a chip on his shoulder

dispatch.o

CarolinaBBQ wrote: »

Douche

I really wish I were joking. Though my experience is largely in California, and CNA is fucking insane.

Edit: It's not to say all surgical nurses are lazy and useless, some are very good at their job and put in the effort. It's just not really a prerequisite of staying employed or making ridiculous money so after 5-6 years most stop trying so hard.

edit2: Find me another job that involves sitting on your ass for several hours doing crossword puzzles at the age of 67 and being paid 70$+/hr with perhaps the best medical benefits of any profession and 6 weeks of paid vacation a year. Also, a week of education leave and a 300$ bonus for coming to work if they ask you to.

dispatch.o

EggyToast wrote: »

I think techs are in less demand due to the ease of the job and the fact that a hospital needs a small staff of, say, xray techs but a huge staff of nurses.

This is also a load of crap when it comes to surgical techs, most scrub techs have to know more about the procedure and assisting the surgeon than a nurse who does not scrub ever will. They also make around 50% the pay and work longer hours with smaller bonuses.

S'all about whether you're in the club.

dispatch.o

CarolinaBBQ wrote: »

Around here, there is no ridiculous amount of money for nurses, that 60k doesn't kick in until year 25.

CRNAs.....yeah they make loads of money and seem to have tons of time to read the paper and learn how to fly.

As far as lazy bitches go, agreed we've several brain dead motherfuckers who need to go a head and retire but who doesnt?

They only way I'm getting any money is working 5 days a week, 43 scheduled hours, call once every week, an no less than 5-9 hours call overtime every week. I slam through 6 patients a day in a 8 hour shift switching out operative tables and rustling up missing trays between every case. When some dipshit doesn't bother to notify anesthesia that the next patient hasn't been seen, its my fault we're running late.

Fuck sudoku

Not talking CRNAs, just OR Nurses. The ones who prep, put in a foley, do some billing and then sit around. I'm in the bay area and CNA basically protests everything and demands lift teams and stuff for essentially everything. Also, I see you mention between every case. If you do cardiac that's two cases in a shift. Not everyone has to work hard, and he should be prepared to be shit on heavily getting nothing cushy until the old fuckers die at their charting terminals.

Also, starting nurse pay here is low 50$s.

Edit: Forum has gone crazy, will clarify later. I do not hate nurses, I just think that CNA is crazy and nurses out here don't know how well they have it.

Demerdar

Nursing pays well :^:

Dog

dispatch.o wrote: »

edit2: Find me another job that involves sitting on your ass for several hours doing crossword puzzles at the age of 67 and being paid 70$+/hr with perhaps the best medical benefits of any profession and 6 weeks of paid vacation a year. Also, a week of education leave and a 300$ bonus for coming to work if they ask you to.

I don't think you really want to go down this path. ;-)

Endomatic

robothero wrote: »

dispatch.o wrote: »

edit2: Find me another job that involves sitting on your ass for several hours doing crossword puzzles at the age of 67 and being paid 70$+/hr with perhaps the best medical benefits of any profession and 6 weeks of paid vacation a year. Also, a week of education leave and a 300$ bonus for coming to work if they ask you to.

I don't think you really want to go down this path. ;-)

Why wouldn't you?

bowen

MegaMan001 wrote: »

bowen wrote: »

Be ready to work long hours, be abused by both patients and your supervisors, and move job to job because that's the most realistic way to earn raises. In my experience.

I started laughing so hard at this. Are you a nurse or is one of your parents?

So, for the record, I am a registered nurse at a medical ICU in one of the largest hospitals in the country (check my location).

Being a nurse, overall, is great. You get all of the really cool stuff of working in medicine. Saving lives, improving lives, helping families, and learning a lot about yourself, right? You, usually, make good money.

Of course, there is some shitty parts too. Yeah, you run into angry patients. Patients who are mad at their own situations and take it out on the staff. Also, yes, there are abusive supervisors. However, you can run into a shitty customer population or shitty supervisors in any job, so your mileage may vary. Hell, I get pretty negative after a twelve hour shift when I lost two of my patients in cardiac arrest.

Okay, about the hours. I see a lot of people quote friends as thinking they are long. Well, yes, they can be. I work three, 12 hour shifts a week. Yes - when I first started a year and a half ago they were long. You kind of get in the habit of doing them, though, and they become much easier. Also, think of it this way. I work three days a week. That's 12 days a month. When I work a weekend, I'll work three straight 12 hour shifts then have four days off. That's a vacation every weekend I work.

Money. It can be great or it can suck. Typically, at smaller places (rural institutions) you make less money. It varies a lot, but typically about $20.00 an hour. At larger hospitals (such as the one I work at) I started at $28.00 and now I make $31.00 an hour a year and a half later. We get a raise every 6 months. There is usually overtime available for as much as you want to work. I worked roughly $2,000 of straight overtime over four weeks to purchase this fine Sager 8662 I am posting on.

Location. Where you work and who you work with will make your break your nursing career. If you work at a shitty, country, regional hospital with a shitty supervisor and borderline dangerous coworkers, yeah, that's going to be a shitty work-life. If you find a solid crew of people you get along with in a hospital that puts the patient first (yes, they are out there) and treats the nursing staff with respect and dignity - it's great.

In the end, I'd tell you that nursing is like any job where what you do and how you do it could legitmately either end someone's life or improve it - it's challenging. Like any job, the hours could be long and the coworkers / supervisors could suck. The one big thing nursing does have for it, is that you can do it just about anywhere and the master's degree programs are bad ass.

Let me know if you have any more questions and would like them to be answered by an actual experienced RN rather than 'what my buddy said last night after he had a shitty assignment'.

I spent the better part of my life around nurses. And especially so the past 6 years with my girlfriend. I've gotten to know them on a personal level and I know the situations around here.

It's rewarding work, but not without a huge list of problems. And yes, you can have grumpy customers no matter where you are, but there are positions that don't deal with customers (almost non existent in the medical world) and if you ignore your customer or don't deal with them, they don't die or get really sick because you didn't want to get yelled at when draining a JP or Foley. Plus, old sick people tend to be real big assholes, even more so than old people with nothing better to do than heckle people at best buy.

But some of the most upbeat people tend to make the best nurses. And I've seen lots of upbeat people in the medical field. It really does take a special person to work in that field, and the people who are the worst nurses tend to be the ones that want to make more money because they're mowing lawns.

I'm just seeing if he's ready to be that person, and not the dick nurse who treats the good patients like garbage because they were soured by all the bad patients 10 minutes into the shift. (There's enough of those kinds of nurses)

Dog

Endomatic wrote: »

robothero wrote: »

dispatch.o wrote: »

edit2: Find me another job that involves sitting on your ass for several hours doing crossword puzzles at the age of 67 and being paid 70$+/hr with perhaps the best medical benefits of any profession and 6 weeks of paid vacation a year. Also, a week of education leave and a 300$ bonus for coming to work if they ask you to.

I don't think you really want to go down this path. ;-)

Why wouldn't you?

Because I can name probably a dozen just off the top of my head.

oaklore

But some of the most upbeat people tend to make the best nurses. And I've seen lots of upbeat people in the medical field. It really does take a special person to work in that field, and the people who are the worst nurses tend to be the ones that want to make more money because they're mowing lawns.

I'm just seeing if he's ready to be that person, and not the dick nurse who treats the good patients like garbage because they were soured by all the bad patients 10 minutes into the shift. (There's enough of those kinds of nurses)

You're a long way off if you think that someone who's looking into a nursing career is just in it for a more lucrative job. How much sense does that make? Did you forget what the job will likely entail? Who thinks washing down old people is easy money?

It's just me looking over long term options. What I'd be able to accell at, enjoy, and things I'd be well compensated for for the work. I've looked at civil service tests and nothing really stood out as something I'd want to spend the rest of my life doing. I've done retail, management even so the pay was decent, and I slowly got turned off by that. Restuarant work, being a chef, seems like it would be rewarding, but it would be hard finding a good place to work with all of the benefits that a medical position would offer.

I am upbeat. I love being a positive influence on people's day. I don't mind hard work, I just want to be compensated fairly for it. That's the reason the original post mentions pay/benefits/etc.

Thanks for making the effort of seeing if I'm the right person. I think I could be.

Input and advice from you guys

Thanks. Thats alot of stuff I wanted to know. Things like working 7 on 7 off, or just making longer shifts toward my 40 seems like real perks to me. I have a 2 year old son now and having days off to spend with him will be great. Also, the ability to put in overtime when I really need it sounds amazing. I work six days a week now.

I haven't considered what field yet. It's good to know there are choices. Like I mentioned, we have an Army Base close by. I think it would be great working with GI's. My Mom mentioned being a male nurse is good too, since thats something that hospitals look for sometimes. So much to think about.

Oh yeah. I don't know if its just my college here, but they're offering tuiton incentives right now for jobs in demand. So that's quite a help too.

I have the chance to do this. It's going to be hard but it's the best thing I could do right now.

Should I contact someone at the base's hospital, even before I begin? Ask about tuiton imbursements, mentoring, whatever?

bowen

I wasn't doing it to be disparaging, more of a gauge to see what kind of person you are. And of course I was met with disdain by an already nurse with "you don't know what it's like!" But yes, I do, and I'm glad you can be not one of those nurses. You'll be a great asset to your fun and happy patients and a mild annoyance to the grumpy ones. And you'd be surprised how many people would wash an old person for $15 an hour or less.

It's always a good idea to ask if they're hiring and if you were to be hired would there be any of that stuff. Tell them you're interested in becoming a nurse and are just looking around for information.