r/Nurses

Hello!! Hopefully this is allowed! My mom goes to dialysis and I know nurse appreciation week is coming soon! Would love to get some gift ideas for the nurses at the clinic. Anything that is actually useful or you guys tend to like when gifted.

We’ve done tiff treats and gift cards in the past years but I’d love to turn it up a notch this year. Budget is $100 dollars per nurse, just cause I think there’s 6 of them and I’m just a teacher myself 🤣🤣 would gifts be nice or would $100 in a coffee tumbler suffice?

Thank you all for your support and for being part of health care, it’s truly appreciated.

Hi i’m thinking about going back to nursing school as a second career. I’m a 25-year-old female. I have experience as a medical assistant in an urgent care however, I remember the urgent care setting being extremely tiring. I do remember enjoying my days off, however. To all my fellow nurses on here is what I see on TikTok true? the work 3 - 12 hour shifts and travel/ shop/ ect and enjoy the rest of the 40s of the week with friends and family. OR are you too tired and fatigue to actually enjoy those four days off and you just rather spend them recharging? My biggest fear is that I won’t be able to handle the how physically tiring nursing can be and also not being able to enjoy my days off and have a good life work balance please let me know your thoughts and opinions and experience.

I’m a new Travel Nurse Recruiter and I want to understand nurses perspectives of the industry so I can do right by y’all. I also want to avoid working for any agencies/companies that engage in shady or unethical business practices and screw y’all over in any way.

A big complaint with the company I work at is that we don’t fully max out stipends. As a nurse, what are some other red flags you look out for when working with agencies/recruiters? What needs to change in the industry and how can agencies/hospital systems be better?

I’m not sure if any ethical healthcare agencies even exist in the current market, but if you’ve seen any, I’d love to know what that looks like.

I hope this is okay to ask. My manager is zero help when I ask these questions and I don’t know many travel nurses personally so I feel very out of touch.

I appreciate y’all ❤️

Hello! I work at a thrift store, I mainly hang and size clothing and we do have a section in the store for work uniforms (such as scrubs). What makes scrub pants different from regular pants? The shirts are usually pretty obvious. I want to give you guys options to pick from and keep them seperate from the regular pants, so any advice on this would be appreciated.

Just looking for some feedback here, I’ve chatted with a couple nurses I know IRL but that’s about it.

Long story less long, I’m turning 38 in a few months, graduated from college back in 2011 with an undergrad geared towards nursing. But, because I was young and dumb and positively wanted no more schooling, I moved across the country and decided to shoot my shot at being in hospital admin.

Well, considering it was a post-recession job market, I worked at a factory just to make money which got me into my current career, supply chain. SC is what it is, stressful, thankless, and I have a pay ceiling because I have no desire to be a manager in this field, point blank. I have a lot of trepidation about the future of this career with AI, sudden over-saturation of workforce, and just not caring about the work I’m doing in general.

So here I am, looking to go back to school to actually pursue nursing. This would be a pretty quick program, just a couple core competencies, then into an LPN program in 2027, and finishing with an integration to the RN program in 2028.

So reasonably speaking, would be 40 years old trying to break into the new career. While I have to say the primary impetus for switching careers is to get more satisfaction out of my career (I genuinely want to help people) I’m curious if there’s anything I need to look out for making a switch this late? There’s really only so much information one can glean from internet and forum searches.

I’m a pretty strong / jacked dude and have been warned about the underrated physical labor that goes into this job by a buddy who’s also a lifting murse. I’d obviously like to make a reasonable amount of money but not sure how realistic that is esp within the first few years of starting. I’m in Michigan now but can’t lie that my ultimate goal may to be get out to the west coast for a myriad of reasons.

I guess my general desire is to be in inpatient nursing but not sure if I’m unaware of the difficulty of getting *into* those jobs, things I may be overlooking in general, etc

Appreciate any insight in general!

Hello fellow ER people 👋

I'm not a new grad (5 years as an RN, 4 in bedside med surg and 1 in outpatient neuro), but I got a new position as a specialty float pool (ER/PCU/ICU) and I start my ER rotation Thursday.

The extent of my ER experience consists of watching the Pitt, so I am terrified.

What is the flow like? How does it differ from med surg? What's the scariest part? Is it as overwhelming as it seems?

Any advice would be much appreciated ❤️

Obviously I wouldn't get paid like an RN but I feel like I'd want to work someplace chill and take it easy as a part time job lol

Working for the first time in a mixed ER, whats the best method of convincing a kid to comply with getting an IV without kicking and screaming... or bribes

Hello everyone. I'm thinking of studying nursing to work as one but I've heard the work-life balance isn't the best, is this true? Do you have time for your personal life or is work too demanding? I would also like to know what unit you're in because I believe that has to do with this. Thank you in advance.

Honestly, even though I’ve been a nurse since 2022, I still feel like a brand‑new nurse half the time. My entire career has been in pediatric home health, but I was promoted to case manager a year ago. I manage five patients and cover for other managers when needed. I’ve learned how to handle admissions, recerts, discharges, transfers, and all the forms and acuity grids that come with them.

I also review every nursing note for my patients and decide which ones need to go to insurance for recertification. While I’m reviewing, I have to catch inconsistencies or red flags—like one nurse charting frequent seizures while another charts none, or constant suctioning from one nurse and zero from the next. I’ve seen plenty of cases where the notes clearly showed a patient getting sick or declining and no one escalated it. I also catch the smaller stuff: copy‑and‑paste notes that never get updated, missing bowel movements or diaper changes that “haven’t happened” in months, things like that. When I find issues, I send the notes back for correction, document why, and explain why accurate charting matters.

Another thing I’ve had to learn is switching patients to OASIS charting once they turn 18, since their documentation requirements change. That’s been its own learning curve.

And all of this is on top of my regular home‑health shifts—about 30 hours a week. Some weeks I’m well over 40 hours, and other weeks I barely hit 10 because families cancel last‑minute for things like surprise Disney trips.

Recently, I interviewed for a Quality Assurance role with a competitor. I originally thought it would be a great part‑time side gig: steady hours, consistent pay, about $5 more than I make now, Monday through Friday, 9–4, all office work. No bedside care. But during the interview they really liked me and started talking about making it full‑time and having me switch over completely. Anticipate that my responsibilities might go beyond that of the quality assurance nurse due to my experience so they are trying to figure out what kind of role would that put me in. Furthermore, I would be one of like 10 people in the office to help manage things for an entire company. Which feels a little daunting.

I also want to keep my bedside skills sharp. I love working with trachs, vents, feeding tubes, and doing real assessments. And I want to go to NP/APRN school eventually, and the programs here require a certain amount of bedside hours on top of majority of the coursework being in person during the day. I don’t want to lose those skills or hours.

So now I’m trying to figure out if I’m overthinking this, or if this is one of those “too good to pass up” opportunities that require me to rethink what kind of further education I go into.

I feel so lost. I graduated in December 2025, i got my license in late Jan. the entire time i was in nursing school i didnt feel like i belonged there, i honestly just did it to satisfy my mom. I’m trying so hard to find a job in my town as she wants me to stay home with her. I tried looking for jobs here, theres very little of them, and each one i apply for i get a rejection letter. I applied to 2 nursing residencies and I got rejected to those too. I dont know what else to do, shes really pressuring me to find something, to apply to anything, but none of it is working, nor do i want to apply to something i wont enjoy. i feel like time is ticking too because the longer i dont work the more likely i wouldnt get hired as im ”losing my skills” for waiting this long.

Hey my nursing homies,

I was just sent an email from my travel company letting me know that they are shutting down operations. So after 7 years of travel, I can either find a new company or throw in the towel.

I have been thinking about leaving travel for a while but the few hospitals I really enjoyed, and would go back to, don't pay their staff enough. So my question to you guys...

What cold state has the best pay to cost of living ratio for nurses?

I am initially from Houston. I hate being hot. I will never go back to the south... unless my mother asked me to. Through traveling, I discovered that I love being cold and I specifically love long "terrible" winters. Give me months of snow and I am happy as a clam. One of my favorite winters was in Milwaukee and my other favorite winter was in Augusta, Maine (where all the staff nurses had two jobs and I'm just not doing that).

I have four medium sized dogs.

I like being cold.

I like the snow.

I prefer small to midsize cities. Honestly, as long as the city is big enough to support a 24 hour animal hospital, it's the right size.

My favorite thing about nursing is working my 3 shifts and then going home. I don't want to live somewhere where I need to pick up overtime to support myself.

Could you guys suggest a nice *cold* city where you feel your paycheck goes pretty far? And please don't suggest California. I was there for a year and while the checks were amazing the cost of living was insane. It's also not cold enough. I want a reprehensible level of freezing. If it doesn't hurt to breathe for at least 3 months a year, it's too hot.

Trying to get off of nights, been doing 3x12 hour shifts a week 7pm to 7am for almost 2 years now and I feel myself getting tired of it and not liking it as much as I did before.

New job schedule is:

Sunday 9am-9pm 12 hours

Mon 11am-9pm 10 hours

Tues 11am-9pm 10 hours

Wed 9am-5pm 8 hours

Total 40 hours a week and I'll have Thursday, Friday and Saturday off each week

I've spent hours researching how AI is actually being deployed in clinical settings — not the hype version, but the real rollout. What I found surprised me.

Hospitals aren't trying to replace nurses. But they are quietly shifting which tasks get automated first — and the nurses who don't know what's coming are the ones most likely to lose bargaining power, seniority, or scope of practice when it arrives.

The three things I think every nurse should know:

1. AI is already making decisions in your unit — you just might not know which ones.
2. The nurses who understand how these tools work are being promoted into oversight roles, not replaced.
3. "I don't need to know about AI" is the most dangerous sentence in nursing right now.

Has anyone here dealt with AI tools being introduced in their hospital? How was it handled? Were nurses involved in the rollout or just told to adapt?

Hi I am actually debating between the ABSN-MSN NP route vs ADN-MSN NP route. I currently have an AA, BS in Political Science, and a MS in Management (Business). Which of the above paths would you recommend cost wise? I work in Data Analytics and my company may not sponsor my education in Nursing so I am paying out of pocket. Looking for advice on what route would work best in this case?

With Nurses Week coming up in a few weeks I’d like to do something special and/or get something special for my wife. She works so hard and has to endure a lot of shit from patients, patient’s relatives and even her leadership that she, like a lot of other nurses I’m sure, feels under appreciated at times and I really want to celebrate her and the work that she does. I’d appreciate some ideas of something I can do for her and a gift I can get for her.

How common is it to be forgetful when you are a brand new nurse? 😢 I'm not meaning life threatening things necessarily!! I just keep forgetting little things. And yes, I write them down, but somehow with the moving 1 million miles an hour as a new grad day shift on a med surg type unit, my notes get scattered or the time has passed from when I should have seen the stinky note because I haven't been back to my work station in over an hour! Does remembering the little things get better? Examples : emptying the cath bag more than once on a shift, documenting my frequents (I forgot one whole patient to document their frequents yesterday and it's eating me alive ..I'm sure it won't be noticed but I'm terrified). Other examples: had an antibiotic scanned and ready to give but noticed the IV site was bad, so called VAT team to place an IV, they got on the floor at 530 pm and the message was sent at 130 pm, they had a list of patients before mine...when they came up and placed the IV I completely forgot I had the antibiotic scanned and set aside to give. I got chewed out by the next shift and I apologized over and over again... It was day 3 on my own yesterday after 8 wk orientation. So, just little examples like that. Anyone wanna give me their forgetful nursing stories so that I can calm down this weekend 😅😅😅😭 sorry for the long read.

My fiancé is leaving for OCS by the end of the year and I graduate my BSN program in December. Any advice on how to find new grad job? I'm nervous since I might only be there for 6 months before getting to first station? Also when applying should i leave out that we are military?

Hello nurses,

I’m an incoming BSN student at Stanbridge University, and I’m hoping to get some clarification from alumni familiar with the school’s tuition payment process.

At my financial aid meeting today, I was told that all students must pay the full remaining tuition after financial aid is applied for their program before they can start their cohort, regardless of campus or program. I was also told that this payment must be made no later than one week before orientation and is required to secure a seat in the cohort (on a first-come, first-served basis). Just for reference, the estimated total tuition cost before any financial aid is $155,995.

I do qualify for some aid, including the Federal Pell Grant and loans, but I do not plan to take out interest-bearing loans. Based on what I was told, I would still need to cover the remaining balance of the entire program after my first year of aid in order to begin the program.

This seems unusual to me, so I’d appreciate it if anyone with firsthand experience could confirm whether this is standard policy at Stanbridge.

Thank you for your time!

Yall, I(27M) am generally just looking for advice on how to proceed with a career path. I currently have a BS in chemistry & work in pharma in Chicago, Illinois. For a variety of reasons, I am back in school to pursue healthcare doing my prereqs before applying. I had two DUIs in college (the first in 2022 & the 2nd/last in 2023) that I regret tremendously & understand how stupid/dangerous it was. One was not convicted w/ court supervision & the 2nd was convicted, both in Illinois so they never fall off my record. I imagine I will report both but unsure of the legality there. There were issues I had stemming from certain events/diagnosis & personal. Though from what I've realized, it has made me want to be helping people. By the time I finish the programs it will have been 5 years since the second.

I will be applying to ADNs & LPN and in progress of getting a CNA before that. In preparation, I am in the process of getting my driver's license reinstated, will be pursuing therapy to show recovery, and possibly contacting lawyers. I am scared of pursuing this route to be told no by the board of nursing, even though I do understand the reasoning, after all of this is over and have put in the time & money. I have contacted the BON for my state, and they have told me that I am not barred nor disqualified. I am primarily planning hopefully to get an LPN first to see if I can even get the license.

If anyone has any experience with a record prior to being licensed, I would really appreciate any advice.