A naval hospital was the only place where I felt structurally protected or valued in a nursing role. Even as a low-ranking enlisted medic, an LPN-equivalent, I had positional authority where anything medical was concerned unless a higher ranking medical person arrived. I literally stopped a ship to pull a drunk off of it, right under the nose of its captain and master chief without them being able to do a thing as I could theoretically call an admiral. If a patient gave me shit, or better yet if they tried to fight me, not only could I shut them down in that moment without fear of being sued but I could go to their command and derail their career. I could yell at patients, always for good reasons, and they legally had to listen.

Going from that to civilian nursing was like putting on clown shoes. Zero protection from management, zero structural protection unless the patient assaulted me, patients who mistake nurses for butlers and hospitals for hotels. I'd still work in something like MSF where the patients understand the value of what they're receiving but if conscripted into an American ICU tomorrow I'd show up eating edibles.