Data explorer

“How about paying the staff nurses even half of what the travelers are making before perks? $5500/wk plus room and board is not “fair” pay next to the nurses making $1100/wk with no such perks and- at best- the same risks and schedule.”

“Healthcare workers also tend to vent more than they brag, so online and at work you'll naturally hear more negative stories than positive ones.”

“I work outpatient pacu so my weekends and holidays are free.”

“managing dying people all day has worn me down and I want out.”

“Fell into nursing and it turned out to be what I spent so many years looking for.”

“it is one of my pet peeves with nursing tbh because why on gods green earth do we need our hair down at a HOSPITAL. even just doing something as simple as flushing a line, my hair would fall over my shoulder and dangle onto the patient!!!”

“Even switching specialties as an experienced nurse is embarrassing af, you know what to do but don’t know where supplies are or who to ask”

“My hospital specifically is only hiring bachelors moving forward due to magnet status”

“I am planning on leaving the field and going back to school to be a therapist once I am settled back in the city.”

“The charge nurses have to clock in as a charge role. They only get paid extra if they are charging that shift”

“Regular charge differential, $5/hr . Permanent charge nurse which means you are in charge whenever you come in unless another charge is there is an additional 12k to your base salary.”

“A higher rating means a bonus, highest I’ve ever seen was $2500 for staff nurse for perfect rating.”

“Over my 11 years of homecare nursing, I have seen the acuity of our patients greatly rise. Things we used to manage, we now have the patients go to outpatient for. We no longer even provide flu shots for our homebound patients. After Covid, no one wants to go to a SNF any longer and everything is […]”

“These 12 hour shift have wrecked my consistency. I’ll go through periods when I wake up at 3:15 o rum for 30 minutes then jet to the gym for a 45 min lift. I’ve packed my clothes to work so I leave the hospital ready to run then sometimes I’ll duck into the hospital gym to lift. I run and lift on […]”

“I never have to worry about having a job, being behind on any payments, going out to eat with friends, etc.”

“I became a nurse because I always wanted to be prepared for the worst and have the money to support my family.”

“Honestly, I took a pay cut when I first became a nurse. Took me nearly 3 years to surpass what I was making before I graduated nursing school.”

“Watch the lifestyle creep. Make sure you save a big portion.”

“yes nursing gave me an opportunity to have my own home, buy a car out right, able to come off state assistance.”

“If I could go back in time I would have just gotten my associates.”

“I picked nursing because of the versatility. Decent money, but the moral injury is a lot.”

“I think nursing has so many different opportunities that helped me work much longer than I'd have been able to in another career path.”

“Ugh its totally different. Yes it's in the same field, but the opportunities are limitless. Nursing is sooooooo flexible.”

“Should be all paid back within 3 years because: nurse money!”

“I do not want to rely on being a nurse to make needs met anymore.”

“Hospitals have lowered the salaries of Travel Nurses/Medical Providers - and housing, food, transportation costs have greatly increased. Plus - Hospitals aren't hiring travellers as before. They're using students doing rotations, recent nursing graduates and they've hired "on call" nurses.”

“The role of a nurse is no longer sustainable for myself and my family. Nursing in the current healthcare environment is too detrimental to my mental and physical well-being for me to continue in the role. I no longer have the fortitude to deal with chronic understaffing, no chance for breaks, […]”

“Went to CC for my ADN since I already have a bachelor. Got my ADN was hired as a community mental health case manager. Did that for 8 years. Got my MSN while working full time and studying part time.”

“It’s not for lazy people; I really couldn’t tell you why people think it is!”

“BSN: rewards you with an RN degree and has leadership type classes. Able to have more opportunities for career advancement (certain jobs, charge, etc).”

“I studied Biology and thought I wanted to go to medical school but I shadowed a few CRNAs as well as physicians and it was over for me as soon as I stepped into the OR with a CRNA. I canceled my MCAT and applied to nursing school.”

“You will have a more 1:1 experience with your patients and will advocate for them each and every day to ensure their comfort and peace going in to a procedure.”

“I had a hospital pay for my 2 years of the nursing program in return for a 2 year contract working for them”

“Full time positions in hospitals often only require three days of work per week (12 hour shifts).”

“As a nurse your knowledge or lack of knowledge can quite literally be the difference between life and death for your patients.”

“Save your back till you are getting nursing pay and benefits.”

“you can essentially make 2x your base by working 2/3 more (3 base shifts+2 OT shifts per week), but you will be doing little else beyond work.”

“it is rare for family or patients to be reasonable about the goals of care and quality of life conversation”

“But it’s disheartening to know that they get paid so much more to work from home, work half days, barely work at all, etc, while we fight for our lives on the floor.”

“Option 3: Operating Room $34/hr Days only No weekends Possible call Same short commute as Option 1 One thing that’s making this difficult is that I’m really trying to avoid nights if possible.”

“Sometimes the days are stressful, but now I can comfortably go in and see awesome work.”

“After flight nursing, I refuse to go back to a hospital where I get assaulted then asked what could I have done better.”

“I get paid a livable wage, can find a job anywhere in the country, and if I get bored I can change specialties.”

“Ah a lot of profs are like that, honestly that livable wage is what’s enticing me, and bc I love helping ppl.”

“Sure, the patient care was heavy and exhausting, but the patients were usually kind, and the staff I was with were second to none.”

“That kind of impact is hard to find elsewhere. The most positive aspect is the human connection—being there during some of the hardest or most joyful moments of people’s lives.”

“My biggest regret is not doing it sooner.”

“You don’t have to put yourself in crippling debt for this career And to answer your last question, I would have done nursing sooner if I could.”

“that no job is worth u going thru that, u deserve to be happy. over this time, i realized that i think i just need something more routine and predictable, less life-or-death-ish, less hectic.”

“even on tele, i felt like something was gonna happen at any moment and i just couldnt take that stress and anxiety.”

“However, when my sister got better, she told me about her time in the psychiatric hospital.”

“As far as what I do as a BHS, I'm approximately just an unlicensed STNA with lower pay...flip people, clean, hoyer, shower, feed them, hand out food, take vitals, confer pt requests to nurses, listen to them talk about their issues (often imaginary because most of our geri psych is severe dementia).”

“I graduated high school in 2021, got accepted into nursing school in 2022, and officially started my cohort in January 2023.”

“I’m debating going to my local community college for my ADN!”

“I lost a parent and two siblings to this monster and I’m not leaving until I’m pinned and NCLEX approved 💪🏼”

“Not too long ago, someone asked me for advice to help their wife who had just started their first job as a new nurse. These are just some general practical tips, but please don't forget that nothing replaces good judgement, which I hate to say, comes with experience.”

“Sincerely, A new grad RN leaving home for the first time to live her dreams in a huge hospital!”

“Saving this post- I graduate with my BSN RN in may and will be working on an intermediate care unit”

“Think of your stories, practice telling them in a natural way, and on the day of your interview, you will have some great examples to draw from.”

“Since I love learning about health, like a lot of variety and challenges, and really yearn to make an impact, I've decided that something in nursing could be a good fit for me.”

“The ADN programs are actually the hardest to get into.”

“Some companies will pay for you to get a bachelors if you come in with an associates, but then you’d have to work and go to school which could get tough.”

“It is unnerving, sitting through college, taking up classes, wasting time and money, when you don't even know "what you want to be when you grow up." Know what I mean?”

“Changing careers from construction (self employed) to the corporate world.”

“I did it for a stable career path, because I love science (particularly microbiology), and I'm smart.”

“Dental hygenists get paid very well, better than RN's in most cities.”

“Some of this depends upon the region you live in, but the days of “paying your dues” before taking the job you really want are over.”

“I'm halfway through my ADN program and have found myself and many other classmates having second thoughts about our career choice.”

“For me, I’m burnt out of the corporate/manufacturing world where I’m only working toward making a large company money and not really benefiting my community. The thing most people don’t tell you is that burnout happens in just about every career; the best part about nursing is how versatile it is.”

“I spent nights with my dad in ICU and I saw the good nurses, meh nurses, and shitty nurses.”

“Graduated in December, passed my NCLEX in January, and started as a new grad on an ICU in February.”

“Ive always been tuned into other peoples emotions and really enjoy finding solutions to emotional distress, its a skill I wanted to evolve more.”

“I realized with nursing I can get a grad school degree, and even have a degree of autonomy if I work as an advance practice nurse.”

“My mom would tell me stories about how patients would tell her that she is the best/amazing nurse and I want that feeling of a patient telling me "you're amazing!".”

“During nursing school I had a clinical experience at an OB GYN office.”

“The great thing about nursing is so much to choose from within the field. My best advice is if you know what you want to do then join and get involved in the nursing orgs that support that specialty.”

“Was impressed with her pay, schedule, and general satisfaction of work.”

“It has made me wonder if I’d like to continue for a masters degree in nursing—I think nursing education is so, so flawed.”

“I’d describe myself as someone who loves to learn (ACLS and PALS renewals are my favorite part of the year), but I can’t stand the RN-BSN content.”

“I have two previous degrees prior to nursing and enjoy school....”

“Collect your paycheck, do a good job, and go home.”

“Edit II: Hospital experience is hospital experience.”

“I’ve been fortunate for clinicals, however I’m also a big time observer.”

“I expected nursing school to prepare me in the same way and was extremely disappointed.”

“The reality check took a minute but the reality is, I’m miserable. You have to either be evil, or hate yourself.”

“It just wasn't for me, and the pay increase wasn't worth it because floor nurses still made more than I did with a little overtime.”

“I was an RN in CV stepdown in the same hospital for a year and a half prior.”

“Our patient population is incredibly sick/unstable and almost all of them are on CRRT (and the ratio is still 1:2).”

“The reason Nursing should be your priority is because of its flexibility, pay, immediate and future opportunities.”

“Nursing all the way, I was at the same career fork as you and found out because I worked as a office manager at a physical therapy office that health insurances don’t pay well for preventative care.”

“A challenging field means more money in the current climate.”

“Ratio is always 1 to 1, and no pt family to deal with.”

“They have to approve any job I apply for (no home health, no hospice, no travel) and shifts (they can say no nights, no overtime, etc).”

“i feel like it would give me a good foundation to strengthen my assessment skills, better understand disease processes, and get more comfortable with medications (because pharm is literally my downfall 😅).”

“What I do enjoy is: Healthcare systems Leadership and management Improving processes and workflows Quality improvement Healthcare strategy Potentially government or policy work Healthcare innovation and technology I've been researching different master's degrees and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by […]”

“I guess I’m just trying to figure out: • How to keep growing as a nurse • What paths people actually enjoy long-term • Whether going NP is worth it (or too soon for me) If you’ve been in a similar spot, I’d really appreciate hearing what you did and how it turned out.”

“It might be a bit of an over generalization, but as an LPN, you'll get paid less to do the exact same job you'd do an an RN.”

“You failed an ADN, so you think you can do a BSN?”

“Nursing programs have different rules and policies in each state.”

“I wish more programs where LPN to ADN to BSN concurrent. Easier the second time around, AND they get their act together after realizing even an ADN program is not a slackers’ business degree.”

“About one month ago, I failed out of my first semester of nursing school after scoring a 74% in the class.”

“I’m a new grad and I have an interview for a Night Shift, 11p-7a in a nursing home that has a rehab, memory care, and assisted living sections.”

“I’m a wound/ostomy RN, and although I see patients all over the hospital from ICU to NICU and everywhere in between…I really have the upmost appreciation for every nurse in all units everywhere for doing and knowing all the things I don’t!”

“Can you throw a ball for your dog or is there enough freedom/wiggle room in your schedule to walk around the block?”

“Had one of those at my first civilian nursing job: the worst inner-city ED in the region, absolute front lines battle everyday against ODs, drug violence, and cost-cutting admin.”

“I'm really quite nervous about the whole thing- I believe that I know exactly what I'm getting in to, how my life will change, how difficult nursing school is, etc., and would like to be the least blind-sighted as possible!”

“I'm taking a 14 month program to get my RN license with an associates degree.”

“Anytime we ever tried to advocate that our clinical experiences were miserable, the staff was mean to us, we weren't getting ANY learning opportunities, etc, we were told we aren't there to have fun and that nursing isn't fun.”

“For the NCLEX-PN I practiced answering questions for about a month.”

“But i don’t want to be too overwhelmed either.”

“It is a bridge program but because it’s still for the ADN i still have the option to do concurrent enrollment for my BSN at the same time”

“You need to be planning for more the the absolute minimum working as a nurse before CRNA school.”

“Can you trust me to do what I need to do to get you better?" If a patient is truly in respiratory distress, chances are they are going to be vigorously nodding their head, because they are desperate for any help they can get.”

“I work in the pediatric ER so that i could get the best experience & I was told this would be a good place for me & my management has told me I’ve been doing fine but in these first few months I’ve seen death, trauma , abuse & so many other things.”

“My ratios are pretty good (1:4, sometimes 5).”

“Dont want to work for a for-profit hospital system?”

“For example, if you end up hating tradition bedside nursing, you could easily jump ship and try something else, like home care or hospice (arguably less stress).”

“But we still have paperwork or computer charting, long hours and work nights, weekends and holidays so we miss stuff too.”

“By the pay not being worth it, I really meant to recover the $80,000 on top of nursing school tuition is not realistic at all.”

“However, a psych hospital I applied to a few weeks ago called to schedule an interview, and I’m interviewing in a few days.”

“Bedside nursing is miserable for me so I regret not looking into these before I went into nursing”

“So, I quit my job at the end of July with no plans… I also gave up my extra $4/hr loyalty pay for 5 years at my hospital company which felt like the end of the world in itself, yet simultaneously insulting.”

“Coming from education, I obviously have not spent a lot of time in a hospital but for a lot of carefully thought out reasons that I won’t go into here for fear of boring you, I chose to switch gears and go into nursing.”

“Clinicals are not representative of the profession at all, especially nursing school.”

“In clinicals you have no autonomy, are in an unfamiliar environment, are stressed about being graded, and have no support system.”

“I love being a nurse and it was worth the sacrifice, but you'll never be able to pay those loans back.”

“The 12 shifts a month is definitely an upside to me!”

“I’m in an advanced program but bills have to be paid 🤷🏻‍♀️ when I’m in school I probably work 30 ish hours a week when I’m on break I work as much as humanly possible.”

“I expect that to be my worst enemy in regards to being a nurse, because there are times we have to do things the patients don't want us to for various reasons.”

“I would suggest you don't talk to the hospital even if you are not a student. Hospitals have a tendency to throw nurses under the bus to keep good terms with the worst of patients.”

“Several applications later, I only received one job offer on graduation, an OR residency at a major pediatric trauma hospital in my area.”

“I am a practicing nurse in both an active clinic as well as ER nurse overnights.”

“Entire rooms are overwhelmed with literal mountains of trash.”

“No advice wanted Content warning : cancer, psychiatry, hospital, medical abuse, child abuse, neglect, physical violence, brief mention of anorexia I'm just so angry right now and need to talk about this before I collapse.”

“I'm thinking about going back to college since I got an associate's degree a while ago in something not too serious because at the time, I had to go to college, but now I want to pursue a better paying job.”

“I'd look up the flight schedules, and there really were flights around the times he mentioned.”

“Currently I work 4 days a week (technically full time salary) and feel constantly stressed by the juggling act.”

“I recently found out that if I work at Costco for the next 3-4 years, I can reach the top salary, which is around $33/hour, not to mention potential promotions to managerial roles that pay approximately $41/hour.”

“Non-Maleficence ("Do No Harm"): Inflicting severe emotional and psychological distress upon a terminally ill patient.”

“You are enabling this behavior by saying having hobbies is enough.”

“Yes the career is riskier, but if you have a job the work itself is nowhere near as stressful or difficult day-to-day as bedside nursing is.”

“New nurses should be making no less than 80k to start and this should rapidly rise to 120k after a few years.”

“There are MANY nurses who are still working but super burnt out and are only staying at bedside for the travel $$$”

“The pay increase should have happened a long time ago”

“A Nurse makes 3 to 4x more money traveling than working in one location…..even if the companies are making money so are the Nurses.”

“they start their own nurses at $29/hour (in my area) and then are surprised Pikachu when their new grads stay for a year to get enough experience to travel and then bail”

“She has to work 12 hours with only 2 breaks and an hour for lunch!”

“instead of paying them more, the hospital reaches out to traveling nurses to replace the nurses, paying them what the staff nurses wanted and then some.”

“As a newer LPN who had only worked with the elderly in long term/ skilled rehab, the pin care and dressing changes alone were fascinating”

“private duty nursing sounded awesome (mostly because of the schedule flexibility)”

“New trends are these GLP1 inhibitors- some miracle drug- right. Every single patient has endorsed severe adverse side effects. This drug has no long term studies, l want to see a longitudinal 10 year study.”

“I graduated nursing school in May and passed my NCLEX in early July on my first try.”

“Unfortunately there have been 2 instances where staffing/acuity/timing was SUPER dicey on both icu & ED and we couldn’t quickly get one of our icu nurses down there to help set up”

“it’s not uncommon to have patients that have all of the above, and they are admitted for appendicitis, but as a nurse you also have to manage all the other conditions as well”

“One thing about this unit is they don’t train you on CRRT on orientation, they usually wait a year to train you. I have learned this is not the norm.”

“Not everyone who is admitted to the ICU is vented and sedated.”

“As an ICU nurse, I think CRNA is a good pathway for you.”

“As an ICU nurse you will be talking and interacting with a lot of different people, however, sooo much less so than floors like measure or Tele”

“I’m months away from getting my first RN check.”

“Nursing was my ticket out of poverty.”

“The money was good, but terribly inconsistent. It was also incredibly hard to budget and save when I had no idea what I'd be making each week. I now work as an RN making around 160k a year with all of my differentials.”

“It felt huge at first, but I was soon broke again and trapped by my low income.”

“Paid off student loans and travelled a lot.”

“Yes. Definitely worth it.”

“I have been feeling very stressed and overwhelmed. I also have worked nightshift my whole career and feel it’s taking a toll on me!”

“I also tell them if they come up to the nurses station that we discuss all of the patients out here and that for patient privacy, it’s important that they use the call bell and not come to the desk.”

“She assumed I was dumping off the responsibility for her to do on night shift. We had never met before that encounter.”

“everything’s harder now with how awful finding decent paying work is”

“When people say Nursing School is the hardest thing you’ll ever do in your life, it’s so true. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

“While you may not be doing 20k steps on the floors, you're still doing a massive amount of work.”

“you absolutely are supposed to do PCT work as well”

“I've done a good chunk of research on the different programs before I got my acceptance into a BSN.”

“My hospital is trying to push AI generated nursing note on us.”

“Hollywood confuses a lot of people but doesn't portray the reality of nursing at all IMO.”

“Pharmacy sucks, and it's 100% the asshole patients and them attempting to make everything your fault”

“I wouldn't change a thing.”

“if you are still a CNA and have to do that, take shifts that have a bit of free time. Graveyards tend to have a little more time to relax. This helped with studying and also helped because of the shift differential.”

“She ended up losing her license because of this.”

“I had to take their version of the NCLEX simulator three fucking times before my school even let me register for the actual NCLEX”

“But the benefit is going to be such an amazing boost that you need. It's worth it.”

“Leaving the bedside has given me a lot of free time/energy, so I want to pay it forward and help our future nurses.”

“I just feel like travel nursing is so unfair sometimes.”

“And professional summaries are not really a thing now since most people don't bother with reading that anymore (from my experience anyway and from when I applied).”

“Definitely ADN to BSN”

“I envisioned going into psych from the beginning but getting some medical experience for well roundedness, so to speak.”

“The HCA one cared only about two things: Symptom improvement and keeping patients until their insurance ran out.”

“You could also start a business using your nursing skills. For example doing cosmetic injections.”

“I would simply enjoy nursing more as a career, as well as more opportunity for advancement”

“No, my post secondary education BEGAN with a BS/MD program. I wanted to be a surgeon.”

“I don't think you'd have to put up with as many SW eating their own like nurses do though.”

“Many hospitals around here won't even look at your if you don't have the BSN.”

“Definitely ADN to BSN”

“I would agree that the blame doesn't lie with doctors for how we treat patients at the end of life, but I don't think it's of our own failing - it's a consequence of a broken medicolegal system that allows people to file malpractice suits regardless of whether or not they are likely to win them and […]”

“I do think it is partly to do with the American culture and health care system. Americans are far more likely to threaten to sue, they also pay so much for cover they probably expect more.”

“Let the staff know what you guys are feeling/needing. If you want to feel no pain, please say so, your nurse and anesthesiologist will do everything they can to make that happen.”

“I am a nurse making 80k and will be a nurse practitioner in a year and a half”

“I’ve talked to nurses who have gotten their nurse practitioners and it seems to even out the same as RN Pay due to them usually having to pay for their own health insurance.”

“it is unfair to ask a nurse to put her license on the line and risk their ability to properly care for their patients”

“I have seen first hand how institutions increase profit at the cost of reduced client care.”

“As a result of poor staffing, personnel lack the support required to perform the essential duties of their work. This results in burnout, high staff turn over and alarming levels of new and inexperienced staff.”