[Closed] OT: Is anyone a nurse?

I think TJ is.. Or something of that strain.. IIRC.

I've been a nurse for the last 30 years,in general medicine.Can be stressful,but very rewarding at the same time.Financially not bad,as a staff nurse on top scale ,I make about 30k.(that's with unsocial hours payments,etc .I also get 41 days holiday a year)
Ian

Yep, im a nurse. Have worked Medicine, surgery, A+E, Coronary Care, management. Now work in the offshore drilling world. Nursing is great as long as you're realistic - it isnt like being in an episode of casualty or Holby City. Its bloody hard work, you do shifts, deal with lots of smells and bodily fluids, oh yeah, AND other nurses, some of whom are wonderful, some of whom i wouldnt leave in charge of a dog, let alone a vulnerable ill person. Nurses arent angels, theyre normal people with normal peoples faults. Having said that, it can be the most rewarding job going, dealing with (literal) life and death situations, and you'll rarely, if ever be bored. The training is difficult, make no mistake, and like any other job some days you'll hate it with a passion, but the good days do make it generally worthwhile. I sure as hell dont regret it - ive seen things and places thanks to my nursing qualifications that i'd never have seen in any other line of work. Just dont expect to be rich.........

I am a Mental Health nurse. Qualified about 8 years ago. I worked on an adult acute ward until recently, when I got a community job with the crisis team. I found the course quite challenging at times, swapping between practice placement (which I loved) and lectures (which I found difficult/ dull at times!)

I don't know that I could go back to Uni again. I just did the diploma, but I am thinking about topping up with credits to make a degree...eventually!

It's a great job, it is rewarding and each day is different.

I'm not a nurse but my partner is - One think to consider is that you will probably end up working shifts, possibly round the clock. This suits some people and not others.

Yup - I am a general trained nurse. Working mainly in care of the elderly tho I have also worked in places as varied as a prison and an oil refinery.

you will never be out of work ( but might have to take a shite job) You will never be rich unless you go into management.

sometimes its great, sometimes its dull

When Nursing was poorly paid and you did the job because you wanted to help people,had a bit of empathy and understanding,that was a good time to be a nurse,now it seems another degree course, with more time spent on paper than meeting actual real patients.

Youll find the touchy feely bit has gone,all in the cause of so called profesionalism,youll be touching and helping patients in intimate areas and at sometimes traumatic times,youll be sworn at,threatened,hugged,and cryed on, all possibly in the same shift,youll see another side to hard people,when they cry, when you help them get better,

If you relly want to do it, go and try, working in a care home for 6 months, and only then apply for a degree in nursing, as if you dont and then after a few months relaise its not for you , youve deprived somebody who relly wants to be a nurse from getting that place.

I worked in the NHS, for 6 very happy years,
Every day was fun,and it was great to go into work,then we got a new boss who closed down our dept,so i resigned,then went back for another 2 years.

I'm a (resting due to childcare) District Nurse. It's a great branch of nursing, caring for people in their own homes you have to think beyond box with care thats individual. I enjoy working in a great team where we all pull together in times of stress and snow! My Husband was a nurse, now branched into Information side of NHS and loves it. Pay adequate, holidays plentiful.

I’ve been a psyche nurse for the last 15 years specialising in older people’s mental health and dementia in particular, I work in the community, visiting people at home. Its hugely rewarding career and I would not do any thing else.
That said I would not advise others to enter nursing. There is too much political intrusion and bureaucracy, this stops you getting out to see people and doing the job you’re trained for. The constant re structuring of service, both locally and nationally is destabilising and distracting. Organisations are increasingly risk averse and this leads to service driven clinical decision making rather then creative person centred solutions.

My wife's a community nurse these days. She seems to like it. Good for you if you do go for it.

I am: (well, 'managment' post means I do quite a bit less nursing on a day-to-day basis than I used to!) -childrens mental health.

Job security and a rather poor salary-to-qualifications-and-experience ratio, which is partially financially mitigated by a not so poor pension scheme (big bunfight on here a few months ago if you are interested).

I would see if you can get part time work as a nursing auxiliary to see how you find it, rather than flying straight into a degree. This will also stand ou a better chance of getting onto a course (some universities are fussy about experience as well as A levels) It is hard in some areas (geographical and departmental) to get into the NHS as a nursing auxiliary with no experience, but I wouldn't rule it out until you have tried working actually in the NHS a bit, as in my experience private and residential/nursing homes is less well paid and often less rewarding.

Oh and you [b]will[/b] see lots of peoples' bottoms and stuff. There is absolutely no way you will get through nurse training (or even a week of nursing auxiliary-ing) withou getting your (gloved) hands messy in one way or another. If you don't like that, train to be an occupational therapist! 😉

Wow - a very positive response - no-one seems to not enjoy the nursing side of it!

I have been thinking of a change of career for a while - moving away from IT. I currently work long hours, work hard but dont really enjoy my job - I feel like somethings missing. The part of my job I really enjoy is dealing with people - I can take or leave the IT side of things. 10 years back at uni when I was picking a career I think I was a very different person from who I am now. I used to be a pretty heavily depressed shy lad who hated dealing with people / couldnt make friends, would be happy hiding away playing computer (I nearly want pro playing quake for a living!).

Now I enjoy being out and about, I'm married, far happier, and feel like IT is just not for me. If I was then how I am now I would have made a lot of different choices. I have been thinking of changing career for a while and my Grandad suggested I would make a good nurse 6 months ago and the idea kind of stuck in my head.

I'm happy enough with other peoples poo and pee - as well as blood. I care for my granda (different with family I know) and intimate care doesnt bother me. I was in the red cross for a while until I went to Uni so I know that I am cool dealing with other peoples wounds. Mountain biking also exposes you to a fair bit of the red stuff (normally mine - I enjoy it but I am not very good!) so I know that dealing with that wouldn't bother me.

I find that I tend to get on with people as well, certainly more so than my collegues (out of 400+ staff I would say I am one of the few people that knows the cleaners names and could have some banter with them).

I like helping people and this:

youll be touching and helping patients in intimate areas and at sometimes traumatic times,youll be sworn at,threatened,hugged,and cryed on, all possibly in the same shift,youll see another side to hard people,when they cry, when you help them get better

This sounds difficult, hard, scary, challenging, amazing, rewarding. Pretty much 100% what I want from a job. If I need to spend my time working I want that time to have meant something to me and others.

I might email a few people from thier profiles for more info if thats okay?

Thanks for all the comments so far!

David.

Hey it sounds like my job in the police!! anyway shifts are the best thing in the world! I have just done 14 months of Mon-Fri 0800-1600 (or 0800-0200) and HATE it! Having 2 days off ..what's that about! Having to go shopping to Tesco when everyone else is there! Being able to hit the trails mid week with a few close buddies or alone when no-one else is around it's a dream! I can't help on the nursing front but I can tell you once you've done shift work you wouldn't want it any other way.

I definately say go from it, sounds like you definately have the right attitude for it. good luck and keep us all posted on here!

Further to what Julian was saying, I worked as a Health Care Assistant whilst studying to be a dietitian and really enjoyed it. Have a look at the NHS Professionals website for info, or have a chat with someone from HR at your local hospital.

Hey Munqe-chick,

I was thinking of the police for a while but prefer nursing for me - it fits more with what I want from the job.

Shifts dont bother me - infact I look forward to the ability to have some day time off for sneaky wee rides... (who am I kidding? I'll be sleeping!). The only part that bothers me is missing / loosing contact with my wife. Shes a maths teacher (and d*mn good at it!) so I worry that our working hours may drift us apart. If you dont mind me asking does this cause any trouble for you and Mr. Munge-chick?

Also 08:00 to 02:00 - oofftt thats a serious overtime payment right there - public order or something?

David.

ENT ICU and trauma orthopaedics for 14 years here, went into it as I wanted to look after people. Luckily still can and have a direct action on the way people are cared for, yes it can have it's bad points but the negatives far outweigh the negatives. One question you will be asked is "why do you want to be a nurse". I do seem to think that those who teach in nursing college are so out of touch of what nursing is all about. One minute your wiping bums then the next your dealing with someone being told they have cancer and wont survive.
There's a lot to be said that some professions can't understand the way your going through, i.e when your on night shifts and feel totally washed out, but if your relationship is strong enough. PS it helps when you've finished at 10pm and you have an assignment in the next morning you have someone who can help.

Been a nurse for 20 years, ten in theatre, ten in ITU. Earn 35ish grand a year, do three long days a week or some wierd combination of 3 or 4 nights a week.

Love it? not anymore, but it's still a good job in terms of stimulation and adrenaline and technical skills and people skills and management.

Shifts are less attractive these days; no guarantee of Xmas off, having to decide now what holidays I want until this time next year.

I work with a range of people, from those I like and bike with, to those who I would stab with a fork if I got stuck in a lift for more than 10 mins.

I'd be happy for my kids to do it; suppose that's a fair recommendation...

E-mailed you..........

My Wife's just started an Access to HealthCare course, with the intention of doing a Midwifery degree at uni. Will mean some big changes for a couple of years but going to make damn sure she gets the opportunity. She put up with me studying (albeit part time) while I did a BEng.
The plan then falls cunningly into place.
She earns £30k+ > kids start school > £900/month nursery bill become £900/month bike budget > I become a kept man.
😀

Been registered 15yrs this month. Mainly Spinal injuries & young neuro-rehab for 7 yrs, the rest in non-clinical when I got sick of shifts and the perpetual tiredness.

The job/qualification has an amazing scope for doing pretty much anything from actual 'caring', through to performing highly medicalised tasks (e.g. Endoscopy procedures). From high tech environments to the absolute basics.

Agree with others that over the last 10-15 yrs there has been a focus shift away from the obvious caring role as the NHS has shifted to patient throughput and hitting targets. Quick aside, there are murmurs of this potentially changing again as the patient experience / quality agenda takes hold. How you reconcile that with cuts... who knows

The NHS and nursing are always changing and will never stop, they have to in order to keep pace with the changes in expectations, technology & the population we serve, so you have to expect it. No use moaning afterwards.

Me - still NHS but now sit somewhere between IT, management & clinical teams, using the skills and experiences for nursing to change practice and implement clinical information solutions. I love it.

A&E Charge nurse and I love it, really do 🙂 I earn well, the shifts work pretty well around family life and I've always felt it's a job worth doing!! Plus I ride to work and the shifts mean I get to slot plenty of biking in, when the kids are at school or in bed, I do have to do most of my biking on my own but that suits me.

Loads of great responses - thank you!

Does anyone regret it? Has anyone done it and wished they did something else?

Everyone I have spoken to has said the down sides are similar to what people have mentioned here:
- Hard work. I’m willing to work hard for something that means something, I think this would be worth it! I currently work hard at something that doesn’t mean anything apart from shifting % points in some company’s stats. I currently do 12 hour days anyway quite often. Anyway – things worth doing are never easy!
- Abuse. I can handle that. I work for **** technical support and the abuse we get over the phone is shocking. And often hilarious 🙂
- Bureaucracy. You get that everywhere.
- Poo, Piss and Blood. I reckon most of the people that need a nurse are leaking one of these. It doesn’t bother me.
- Pay. You may be surprised but I wouldn’t be taking much of a pay cut moving from 2nd/3rd level vendor support for server, storage and switch support. Anyway – I would rather get £20k and enjoy the work than a bit more and hate it… My wife has said that the wages don’t matter, we can live on whatever as long as we are happy, and she means it!

Are there any other down sides?

Does anyone here mind if a email them directly with a few questions? Ideally is anyone a nurse in Glasgow that I could buy a beer for and have a chat with?

Cheers,

David.

i've been doing it for 25 years and well, much of the above. i've worked pretty much in every field i ever wanted to and while that's trickier now than it used to be it's still perfectly feasible.

i've been round the world with it, worked both nhs and private sector. and while i've bitched like a little girl about my job, and still do, i can't think of anything else to do that'd be anywhere like as interesting.

upside is you get to do a job that actually makes a difference. down side is that, particularly if you're working on the floors, it's easy to forget that. working with the public is always...er....challenging! the only other thing that bothers me is my perceived lack of weekends off. so far this year i've had three outside of holidays. tho i do get so many holidays it's the perception that bothers me rather than the actuality. time off away from the weekends is great and my other half works part time so i see her frequently.

the training, such as it is, is easy, at least from my point of view seeing as it consists more of writing essays than actual patient care. the first couple of years post-qualification are the tricky ones and rely on decent mentoring/not working with too many people with personality disorders in order to get your work methodology sorted out. like most jobs i guess, more or less, it's just down to luck.

would i do it again? my daughter asked me not so long ago if it was a worthwhile profession to go into. i said i'd rather see her go into physio
or even medicine. that said i get to work with loads of great young staff and encourage them on their way but they tell me that is not the norm!

just saw the glasgow bit. i'm not a million miles away from there. ic ould arrange a couple of things for you if you're up for it

Do it! Best/worst job in the world. 🙂

Not working as a staff nurse right now, as I have gone back to uni, but as others have said... employment as an auxiliary/care assistant would give you a good insight into what's involved (aswell as providing a means of additional income whilst a student nurse). Be prepared for moments of frustration during training - IME, the teaching will not always reflect shop floor reality (I could have done without the faux-sociology, for starters...). But when you find yourself working as part of a really good team, nothing beats it for job satisfaction.

just saw the glasgow bit. i'm not a million miles away from there. i could arrange a couple of things for you if you're up for it

That would be awesome swiss01! Can you email me on the address in my profile please?

David.

I know its a stereotype but are you lot dirty?

I've been an RMN for 23 years, and couldnt imagine doing anything else. The wages arent that bad (I'm currently working in forensics in the private sector, and earn 35k per year as a charge nurse). Just be realistic - as other people on here have said, you will have sh**e days, you will end up dealing with unpleasant people (and thats just senior management), but you will also see and experience things that no other job will allow you to. Stay positive and go for it, but make sure you have a good support network and never forget what made you want to do it in the first place - good luck.

And hora, yes I am - absolutely filthy in fact. Happy now?