Most Challenging Aspect in Your Nursing Career?

Hi all! I love nursing for so many reasons: The contact with people, being able to care for them when they are sick, and the fascinating medicine and clinical aspects that you use everyday. However I want to know, what has been the most challenging/frustrating aspect about your nursing career and would you recommend nursing to others?

I have a very romanticized view of the profession because many nurses have provided care and comfort for me when I spent much of my childhood in hospitals.
As a bedside nurse, I would say that explosive families, visitors and external 'customers' are easily the most challenging parts of my shifts at work. Lat me explain further...Customers who harass the pilot on a major airline will be forced by the air marshall to exit the airplane. Customers who curse at a bank teller will be forced to leave the bank by security. Verbally abusive patients and demanding family members who mess with the physician at his/her private practice will be asked to leave the medical office and risk being dropped from that doctor's practice for inappropriate behavior.On the other hand, management expects nurses to accept the public's rude behaviors because these 'customers' are under stress. They ask us to coddle abusive families and menacing visitors because 'coping skills' decrease during times of illness. People in other occupations receive more respect from the public than the typical bedside nurse.These know-it-all family members and explosive visitors should be held responsible for their unacceptable behavior. I wouldn't come to other peoples' workplaces to tell them how to do their jobs, hover over them like a helicopter for hours, and use profanity when things aren't going my way. These things happen to bedside nurses daily and it's flat out wrong.

Thecommuter nailed it. I still love my job though. ER nursing is more funner than corporate cog.

The most challenging thing for me is also the families and their unrealistic, romanticized expectations.

The most frustrating thing: finding a job. Other than that I'd say unmanageable patient loads. I know everyone says you eventually get faster, but in the meantime, life is miserable. I'm a newbie and already completely jaded. I do not recommend nursing to people unless they have done extensive research about the realities of nursing school and the job itself.

Dealing with crazy admins and DONs (thankfully only a few qualify for the term), and totally unrealistic families.

Commuter hit the nail on the head. Well worded.

Quote from SleeepyRNOther than that I'd say unmanageable patient loads. I know everyone says you eventually get faster, but in the meantime, life is miserable.

Not enough support staff, not enough help, understaffing to save money, being treated like a number by mgt & a slave by some patients, many people don't respect the nursing profession, rude families, rude and demanding patients, short lunch breaks, paperwork, watching the healthcare system function & its problems, physically demanding - we are the number 1 profession for back injuries - yet most hospitals don't provide adequate lifting equipment to protect your back, fellow nurses/coworkers can be a pain to deal with too, etc.

Lol.. I don't think I can pick just one.. Worthless management, lazy staff, and ridiculous families are my top 3.

I'd rather have the obnoxious rude family member in the room, then deal with the absent ones. I work in pediatrics as an acute care bedside nurse, and the hardest part of the job for me is watching sick kids suffer and fight alone because their parents are worthless. I will never ever get used to it. No amount of love from me will replace the love that these kids need from their mom/dad. And nothing will ever prepare you for listening to a 5 year old cry in his room alone for his Momma who can't even be bothered to call in and tell him good night.

Quote from rednotebookHi SleepyRN! What is the patient to nurse ratio where you work? I hope things get better for you!

That is terrible. Where does this occur? On a PICU? In the inner city or just anywhere? I am asking because my goal is to help kids who are neglected by their parents or caregivers.