I haven't done any hands on nursing for over 2 years now, but when I did finally leave it was after 2 years as an RN. In the mid 1980's when I graduated I was so happy, ecstatic even, in my chosen career choice and I was certain I felt appreciated by my patients. By the time I hit 15 years in my view started to change. You see health care systems started to be viewed by government as business systems, so patients became "clients" and "health care consumers". Avoiding law suits became top of mind to the higher ups, leading to things like ... if someone showed up at the emergency room external exit crying for help we were not allowed to step outside and help them in; we had to call 911 and simply stand there and watch them bleed to death until paramedics arrived (the bleeding to death is a little dramatic but you get my point here). At one new job site I was asked to remove my outdoor shoes (it was late Spring and the ground was dry) at the front entrance. Excuse me but walking in stocking feet in a hospital/community health setting is not particularly safe, nor sanitary in my view. It was circumstances such as these that began to drive a wedge between myself and the profession I had wanted since I was a child. Years went by and I could no longer work in a profession that seemed to have lost its very reason for existing in the first place; caring for other human beings. "Caring" seemed to take a far back seat to profits $$. I suffered emotionally and certainly financially when I finally made the decision to step out and away Today I am hearing that many new grads leave nursing after just year in practicing. Their reasons? Overwork, forced over time, bullying, violence, to name but a few reasons. The nursing profession is at the heart of, if not THE HEART OF, every health care system around the globe. Common practice now is hallway medicine, people dying in emergency rooms while waiting for care, and far too many other horror stories. Nurses must speak out, LOUDER, in order to protect the human rights of others

Wow, the authors of this blog post hit the nail on the head with this post. I would bet most nurses worldwide are dealing with exactly these circumstances. These ARE the problems, clear and concise. Now all we need to do is work on the answers. It's a quick read and I do encourage you to take the time to read it https://www.powerupnursing.com/post/at-the-breaking-point-the-three-fault-lines-reshaping-nursing-in-2026

When I was doing research for the first edition of this book I was uneasy about looking in to the bad things some nurses had done to others, but I told myself this book had to be the "real" story about the profession. And part of that real story is that some individuals who trained and practiced as nurses did some really awful and wicked things to those under their care. Many of these incidences bad the news and this type of reporting influences the way the public views us. Human beings seem to be drawn toward ugliness, cruelty, shock factors, and horror. Another hard pill to swallow but it does seem to be true. Perhaps that is why horror movies do so well in the theaters My question to you today is simple, though it might be hard to answer, and I understand that. Have you witnessed the "bad" side of nursing in your time practicing as a nurse? Would you be willing to share that here? But please please note this !!! This is not the place, nor will I partake in, condemning any individual for hurtful acts they may have done. Remember that nurses are as human as the people they care for, and we are susceptible to the same life stresses as everyone else, and in turn the same responses and vulnerabilities in dealing with stress

First and foremost I must thank you all for joining my community. Your membership, and participation, keeps me at home and working hard on this second edition of a book that really needs to be written. I wrote the first edition back in 2010 and self published it (currently still for sale on Amazon). Technically speaking it was not my best writing but the book contains everything I meant to say back then. What is frightening is that so little has changed in the nursing profession. I am shocked, so very disappointed, but not surprised Here we are in 2026 and women are not taken seriously, nurses are not valued (hurray for men who enter the profession; I applaud you), and governments continue to struggle with trying to "bandaid" failing health care systems. Now if they asked the right people, the right profession, about how to fix and evolve health care, well then we would not be in the horrid shape we are today. Will they listen? NO, not unless we, as nurse (retired or practicing) speak up So please, I beg you, speak out, speak up. Share your real life stories here, with other nurses. Get involved politically if you can, and write your own articles, books. Self publish if you must, just help me please to get the word out I applaud each and every one of you for choosing to be a part of the most powerful profession in the world