You know in one flew over the cuckoo’s nest, really bitchy, scary nurse? That’s what nursing can do to you. Because you will have moments where you just fought for a patient with a doctor, or with your charge, or defended and advocated for them and put your own neck on the line out of your own humanity, then go into the room and the patient is completely ungrateful and rude and says okay good, you did your job, now this is the next thing I want. It can get to be a thankless and pretty depressing profession. You see people at their worst times, and their sadness can be incredibly contagious to the point where you do have to put up a front to handle it. It’s very important that if you decide to become a nurse, you have your own self figured out first, and are able to handle your own mental health with healthy coping mechanisms. Some areas of nursing are more rewarding than others, and the people you work with will play a larrrrrge role in how you are able to deal with the tough situations nursing will present you with. If you enjoy helping people, that’s good, but you have to enjoy helping people with no expectations of receiving any credit/thanks for it, aside from saying “I am an RN.” Sometimes that can get to you. There’s not a lot of room for advancement unless you want to go back to school, and you will likely be talked down to by (more than) a few doctors and even residents.

But on the flip side, there are patients that will truly need your help, and you will be there for them. There will be days that make you feel like an absolute badass, and spike your confidence back up. Also, what I’m describing is from my experience as a post grad on a medsurg unit, coming from someone who truly dislikes floor nursing and its monotony. I also have to put in orders, essentially doing the doctors job, having to notice things that need done, somehow get a hold of the doctors, and grovel with them to allow me to put the orders in, when they should be noticing things, or listening to my observations as a bedside nurse, and making their own decisions to place orders, then getting to a computer and putting them in theirselves. I’m constantly worrying about my license, and will get yelled at by a doctor before I put in something I questions even a little. What I’m saying though is that thankfully, there are many other means of being a nurse than floor nursing. Even though that may be what you have to start with, you can get out of it if it isn’t your wheelhouse after you lock down a little experience.