I know this rant has been making the rounds on Twitter. It is full of rage, a touch of woe is me and the grim reality of the situation we place so many new grads in. A quote (shield your eyes if easily offended…)

Well, after a year of getting rejected I have finally decided to give nursing the bird. FUCK YOU NURSING FIELD! Too bad the schools and media are still insisting that people go to RN school. Believe me THERE IS NO FUCKING SHORTAGE! New grads are considered garbage. On top of that, the degree serves no purpose in any other setting. BSN is a complete waste of time and money. …And it is not just the economy. Hospitals turning huge profits stopped new grad programs and hire foreigners.

Wow. The rest continues on in a rant that she (assuming a she) will never get a job, never put her degree to use and that she wasted 6 years of her life.

First gut reaction: she’s right. It sucks to be told there is a ready market of jobs just waiting for new grads. Read too many job requirements of “at least 2 years experience” and raged at the screen saying, “How am I supposed to get experience if I can’t get a job? WTF?!” I know many, many grads who have cycled through our unit for practicum who have yet to find jobs. We have nurses on our unit who jumped at the first offer (methadone clinic anyone?) but persevered and got the jobs they wanted. In fact that was me. I got lucky. I can empathize. The betrayal of it all is painful, kind of like when you realized Santa was not real, or your girlfriend was banging your best friend.

Second reaction: buh-bye. Maybe we’re (as a profession) better off not having this person in our ranks. Nursing is not easy…what happens the first time they get a difficult assignment? Or have “one of those days”? Run out? Quit? Nothing in this profession is given to you, one has to work for it. Take for example NurseXY, who landed his dream job in a world-class CVICU. Seriously, go read his stuff, he worked his ass off for it. Nothing was easy. No one ever promised (at least anymore) that a job would be waiting right when you passed NCLEX – and if they did you should make sure they aren’t selling a pile of hooey. Just because there is a nursing shortage does nothing to guarantee you a job just because you passed the boards. Anyone who degrades their education to this degree and doesn’t realize that sometimes sacrifice is a needed part of our job has no place being a nurse.

Final reaction: no seriously, buh-bye. If you want to work as a nurse enough to devote 6 years and thousand of dollars to do so, giving up isn’t an option. She never says that she looked out of state for jobs, into different avenues than the traditional hospital based nurse or for other ways to be a nurse. Our system interviewed over 500 grads for spots in our residency program and they came from all over the Northwest. They tried to make it work. There is nothing to say she did this, just a whiny, “why isn’t it given to me!” rant. We have too many toxic personalities in nursing and truly don’t need anymore.

I know this is harsh. Maybe this person is a amazing nurse, top notch clinical skills with empathy to boot, is driven far beyond belief and tried EVERY avenue to make things work, but based on what I’m reading, what they posted onto the internet for everyone to read, I doubt it. And with this rant, I doubt any but the most desperate, worst, idiot recruiter would ever even consider asking for a resume. I know it sucks, but maybe it’s for the better.