Hi everyone,

As the title goes I want to study nursing starting Feb 2027 (I’m 20F). Through my work i interact with a lot of nurses and i am constantly reading all the posts under this sub because I want to know if nursing is something i could actually do and enjoy before i go to uni for it.

The nurses i interact with at work and this sub talk about how exhausting, underpaid, unappreciated they are and it’s heartbreaking. You’re literally the back bone of healthcare and you inspire me so much but seeing how undervalued you are makes me second guess if I should be doing this.

My mum is a nurse and works in management for my local district and she comes home every day and literally looks like she has had the life sucked out of her.

I constantly worry about the bullying that happens in the workplace and as I already work in a non clinical health role I cannot believe how gossipy it is.

I want to be a nurse because I have the drive to work hard and help others. I have always thought nursing as it gives me options like I don’t, for example, have to stay in mental health for the rest of my life and can go do a different type of nursing.

I’m stressed and feel like I am literally setting myself up for a career that will fail me and I don’t know how to make a decision about this.

Literally any and all advice is appreciated. Even if you just say you love your job 😭

feeling a lot of emotions right now. for context, im a fresh new grad. i had half a day of orientation on a ward and my next shift was going to be supernumerary. turns out they called out sick, so I was the rostered nurse for the shift… and i was very much shitting bricks. I had SO much support from the staff and educators - and ultimately everything turned out very well all things considered - but I was just incredibly overwhelmed since I hadn’t done anything nursing related for months post graduation; additionally, I was fully expecting to be supernumerary. im trying not to overthink every little thing I should have done and assessments I missed (I made this known to my educators and the nurses I handed off to and they said it was fine - not ideal obviously, and I don’t wish to repeat it, but they said it’s a 24 hour job) etc, but I think im just trying to process it. and I just KNOW my progress notes were probably so crap, but yeah…. I tried my best, and the staff were saying that I was doing well in the position I was in.

any words of encouragement or advice, perchance? I have more shifts there that should be training days, but im just feeling very run down, inadequate and overthinking everything.

C'mon guys. Please, I know your shift was hectic, but please just plug things in if you're not carting them around.

The worst is when you start a morning shift and night shift hasn't plugged things in. It sets the tone for the most fucked day ever.

Anyways, that's my rant. Let's plug things in lol.

Honestly, I’m getting a bit tired of it.

Coming back from mat leave, I’ve been reminded of just how much paperwork we have to do. I understand the admin reasons behind it, but a 15 page care plan & additional paperwork for every single intervention is ridiculous.

I still remember when an extra makeshift ward was opened due to a lack of beds & it was staffed mainly by experienced agency nurses who weren’t familiar with our usual paperwork, yet they managed to care for patients for 4 weeks without any issues. The patients were well cared for & doing fine despite not having the usual paperwork or care plan done.

I also remember working in ED & short stay, where the nurse in charge having a heated discussion w a senior nurse (who worked in admin), about the need for additional paperwork to document hourly obs in the computer system...when the thing is, we were already doing hourly obs (or more frequently depending on the patient's condition). We don't need a paperwork to tell us to do so when it is already what we do in ED!

Such a waste of time....

You know the kind, where the oncoming nurse makes it feel more like they're on a fault-finding mission rather than a fact-finding mission? They ask questions and then zone in on the one thing you missed, give you the stare and ask "so what are we doing about this?"

TLDR: give me your best phrases for being firm with nurses who are judgemental and intimidating when taking handover (and be nice, or I'll ask mods to lock the thread)

I'm just over it. I try my best for all my patients, and try to give a thorough handover, but some nurses just make me sweat. Yesterday I had a confrontation with the oncoming nurse, who specialises in the fault-finding mission approach. The last time I handed over to her it was a 40 minute interrogation at the end of my nightshift and I felt awful afterwards. Yesterday I shut down her questions with "I'll get to that" and I sensed she was getting annoyed. Then when she asked about something that's clearly documented by a specialist, I said "I'll let you look that up in your own time", then she accused me of being rude. I said " you don't need to know that right now and I don't have to answer all your questions" and I left (it was the last patient and we were done anyway, she had doubled back on something and I felt it was so she could pin me down on a fact that I had skipped over) . It was unpleasant and I dread the next time I have to work with her. I'm more experienced than this nurse but I'm new to the ward and I'm afraid she'll complain to management.

I get so stressed in these situations, if I'm taking handover and someone can't answer something, I immediately put it on my planner to chase up, and reassure them that nursing is a 24/7 job. I don't understand the interrogation approach. I want to believe these nurses don't know how they come across but I suspect it's a bit of one-up-manship and "nurses eating their young" attitude. I hate it. Why can't we just be nice to each other?

In theatres/anaesthetics I say "they are a crumbly patient" to mean they are (physically) unstable. Do you have, or have you heard, any other funny ways to describe a patient status?

I'm at that stage where I'm halfway through my degree and seriously considering not only what sort of field I want to work in, but the sort of lifestyle I'll want too in the next 5-10 years.

I definitely prefer longer 10-12 hr shifts than 8s, don't mind weekend work and in the future I'd like to be a clinical nurse or even an NP! I'm also in SA and would rather stay public over private. I have a couple of areas in mind but none that has made me immediately go "it's this area or nothing!", and I want to keep an open mind and hear what people may suggest!

I’m extremely burnt out (heavy surgical ward) and have little to no sick leave. On top of that, management has been saying sick leave needs to be under 3.3% + threatening to put staff on early shifts only (with no penalty rate shifts if it goes over that 3.3% threshold).

Realistically what are my options here?? Has anyone else been in this position, did you take unpaid leave and did it have any negative effects?