I had an interesting conversation yesterday with a student nurse and an RN who had been working for about 2 years. I volunteer at a neighborhood clinic and was telling them that I had started reading nursing blogs just to see what nurses were saying these days and that it seemed today's problems in nursing were much the same as they had been for years: not enough staff, not enough time with a patient, burnout, etc. The RN launched into explaining that the current term was not "patient", but rather "client". Her position was that all healthcare operations are for-profit businesses, and every nurse should remember this; everyone in healthcare management was in it for the money. I was taken aback and could see the student was also. I felt sad for the RN, and felt the need to explain that I've worked in many different settings, and in every one of those, there were wonderful people trying to do as much as they could for people, but there were also a few who never should have been there. Nursing is one of the few professions which allows you to choose among multiple paths of practice, in almost any location. I wanted the student to know that while nothing is perfect, there are always options!