3 Common Myths & Realities About Being a Nurse

3 Common Myths and 3 Realities about being a Nurse

Nursing has gained increased attention throughout the years as a viable and successful career path. A nursing position is relatively easy to gain as an entry-level professional, and the demand for nurses has not decreased throughout the years, but instead has continued to increase. With our aging population and our society's increased dependence on organizational healthcare, nurses remain in high demand. Before you decide to be a nurse, however, you will want to read this list and see if some common nursing myths versus realities make the career as attractive to you.

Myth 1: You carry out the doctor's orders after (s)he makes all the decisions about the patient's care.

A nursing position is relatively easy to gain as an entry-level professional, and the demand for nurses has not decreased throughout the years, but instead has continued to increase.

Fact:

No. Instead, the fact is that bedside nurses are heavily relied upon to make decisions about the patients in their care. Often, bedside nurses see an issue, intervene with a previously successful treatment, many times without the doctor's order. This is especially common during night shift nursing when a doctor simply may not be available, or when a patient's stability is quickly declining, and there is no time to involve a doctor before making decisions about a patient's care. Doctor's are often managing many hospitalized patients, as well as their office patients, and they may miss details such as lab-work that is contraindicated with an ordered medication, drug-drug interactions that are actively causing symptoms in the patient, or early physical indications that the patient is

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becoming unstable. A nurse is often the healthcare professional diagnosing the patient, especially in acute care settings, and a good doctor relies on a good nurse to tell him what is wrong with the patient and offer advice on how to treat that patient.

Myth 2: You will make a lot of money. Fact:

No, you won't. Nurses on average are low-income earners, with hospitals, home health and hospice companies usually paying the most. Expect to make between $13-22 an hour starting out as an RN. Most hospitals have top out pay for nurses, which is around $30-40 an hour, even for nurses with double digit years of experience. You can live off a nursing wage, but you will never be wealthy or rich, and most nurses live paycheck to paycheck. With the physically demanding aspect of the work, and the intensity of life and death situations that nurses deal with routinely, the pay will simply not be worth it to if you are going into nursing with money as the main motivation.

Myth 3: Being a nurse will let you help people. Fact:

This myth is mostly true, thankfully. Unfortunately you will find yourself in situations that you may feel are morally or ethically wrong. Many experienced nurses find themselves disagreeing with prolonged life support measures, especially artificially prolonging life when there is no hope of recovery. These situations can arise out of the decisions of family members when the patient is unable to make their own healthcare decisions, or when there is no family available to make healthcare decisions. Nurses may find themselves questioning the ethics of discharging a patient from the hospital to home health when that patient cannot move and may need care in a skilled-nursing facility, or even a short-term rehab to regain strength and get physical therapy. Nurses face these ethical dilemmas about human dignity and patient's rights frequently, and are often powerless to advocate for the patient's under their care.

When you do successfully help someone, however, your feelings of satisfaction will be incredible. When your actions as a nurse save a life, help a dying patient return home and spend their last days with family and friends, or provide comfort and support to family members during a heartbreaking time in their lives, then all the stress and ethical dilemmas and frustrations become irrelevant, and being a nurse again becomes the most rewarding thing in the world.

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