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Registered Nurse..
What do you find most difficult about being a nurse?
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4 answers
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Bailey’s Answer
The most difficult thing about being a nurse is that we advocate for what is best for our patients. This is hard for some nurses. I have seen nurses go above and beyond… and I have seen nurses not even try. Advocating and telling a doctor, supervisor, manager, or director “no” takes a lot of courage. Or to make the difficult phone call at 0200am to a surgeon because you are concerned about the patient. You will get yelled at by a doctor and you have to put the patient before yourself. This is hard skill to learn.
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Joey’s Answer
I am writing from the perspective of my clinical unit - a pediatric emergency department. The most difficult thing I have to do on any given day is having an assignment where one of my patients does not make it, and it takes everyone in the unit to try and bring them back (All doctors, all nurses, all health care techs on deck). We could be in this room for 30 minutes or longer, with alarms beeping, and people yelling for certain medications to be given in our attempt to regain a pulse. The doctor eventually calls the time of death, and you have to go into another room with a patient who is smiling at you, walking around the room, and parents who are visibly upset because no one has been in the room to see them yet. You cannot tell them what has just happened, but apologize, and tell them you will notify the doctor.
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Nathaniel’s Answer
First of all I was a nurse but actually ended up being a chiropractor. I love my time as a surgical assistant and working in the ER, but all I kept seeing was if these patients would have done x,y,z they would have never been in this situation. I wanted to be at the other end of the spectrum of saving people from the ER or OR. That was my biggest drive to go a different direction
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Claude’s Answer
My daughter is a register nurse and from many discussions with her, the greatest challenge seems to be being appreciated not by the patient but by the corporate hierarchy. That being said, she wouldn't trade her career for any other.