Areas of nursing less stressful than hospital?

[WannaBNursey, ADN, ASN, RN]

I've been working as an RN on the med-surg unit since June. Everything was fine up until recently when they changed our ratios. For last few weeks I've had panic attacks each night, it's now so bad that I'm having panic attacks before work. I used to love working here, but now I'm dreading each day. I've talked to my supervisor about it and she says I'm doing fine, but the new ratios are here to stay.

I love the pay I make at the hospital, but I know for a fact I won't say here for more than a year. In fact, I want to leave now, or find another job and cut down to PRN here. I want to find a job outside of the hospital that pays as much a the hospital. How stressful are the nursing homes, homecare is only PRN around here, or the full time jobs require 1 year of nursing experience. How is telehealth nursing and how does it pay? Any other fields of nursing that I could consider? I'm very interested in hospice, but they're strict on the 1 year of nursing experience policy.

I'm getting ready to go to work and I can't stop panicking. Please help!

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Stress is a subjective response ... and each individual is different. For instance, many nurses have enormous fear of 'flying without a net'... being solely responsible for patient care interventions or decisions without a more experienced nurse near by to back them up. For them, home care would be very stressful.

From your thread, it seems as though the increased workload is a major trigger for you. Do you think the problem is the sheer number of tasks you have to accomplish? Or is it the increased amount of new/ unanticipated changes you have to deal with? If it is the latter, you'd probably be happier in an environment in which patient turnover is less & length of stay is longer - such as LTAC or Rehab.

I hope you are able to find your groove sooner rather than later....

[sourapril]

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