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Tuesday, July 22, 2014

bursting your bubble about nursing


Dear John/Jane Q. Public:

I am about to burst your bubble about nursing. You know the profession that is most admired, comes up number one in those polls? Those angels of mercy, Mother Teresa types? The ones that soothe your fevered brow?

Guess what? Nursing is a job. Thats all it is. The difference between your job and my job is that there are sick people at my job. My job is no different than your job. I punch the clock in and out. I do whats necessary to the best of my ability.

Here's the thing: I did not have a "calling" to this job. Mostly I went for this job because of its flexibility, security and variety. I didn't have a deep yearning to help people. Thats just a nice side part.

I do this job to help support my family. If I won the lottery, would I keep doing the job? Hell no. I would be out of there in a heartbeat. I'll let you in on a secret, Mr./Mrs. Public, this is just a job to me. I didn't set out to help humanity. I am not Florence Nightengale. A lot of the time, the job sucks.

I can just hear some people saying: You obviously never should have become a nurse. Blah blah blah. People have this distorted image of nursing as these people who have a need to sacrifice themselves for others. We are these angels of mercy put on earth to serve humanity. Makes me laugh. We do the job, cash the check, go home to the family and try to forget about the job. So don't put your ridiculous expectations on us and then be disappointed that we are just people doing a job.

Sincerely,

madness the nurse

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Every time someones says how fulfilling and rewarding my job must be, my nervous twitch gets worse.

Anonymous said...

Society regards a caring attitude as weak and insignificant and yet expects it of it's nurses- absolute bullshit

Anonymous said...

Amen.

Anonymous said...

New nurse here, all of six months on. My new job is a safety nightmare, 7 to 1 ratio PCU/Tele/Stroke floor with no aids, lab techs or secretaries 90% of the time. I've been looking around the interwebz to help me figure out where I want to go next and after finding your blog I've discovered a number of things: a) You are hilarious and refreshing 2) the healthcare field isn't just ridiculous at my hospital and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing and c) I think I can officially cross ED off the list of possible specialties to try out. I thought it'd be cool to learn the variety of shit that rolls in to the ED, but after talking to co-workers and reading yours and a number of other blogs, I'm not sure all the bullish*t would be worth it! Sincerely, thank you for all three of these discoveries lol. It's nice to find a nurse who is real about things! (sorry for the long comment lol)

Anonymous said...

Agree. People have the same rosy view of teachers...."you should love and be greatful to work for next to nothing despite all the hours you work and the crazy parents and kids you sometimes deal woth". Nope, it's still a job. You don't have to be.a martyr tobe a good, teacher, nurse, etc.

EDNurseasauras said...

I have developed an actual nervous twitch since starting my latest job.

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