Life is too short to be this stressed

I wish the nursing forum would have been around when I started, then I wouldn't have felt so alone in my low morale period.
You are not alone, a lot of us have been where you are.

I too feel the same way. Nursing 30 years ago was not as bad as it has become over the past 7-10 years. My experience has been entirely bedside med/surg/tele. back in the day our patient assignments were 10 12 patients with an aide or LPN, we managed to get all the work done and had a slower pace. Now it IS INSANITY. the paperwork, computers- neither has made the job easier but I think only more difficult as one of you accurately put it these software programs are not user friendly and the assessment sheets to cover assessment sheets, then there are the managers who act like oversearers in sweat shops just sifting through our charts and looking for mistakes and chances to write some one up. They i believe some of these managers (i'm trying to leave name calling out of this but you get the picture) know how stressful and daunting these assignments are and as you state just don't care, because they know that when one drops there's always one more wide eyed nurse to fill our dead and worn shoes, and are anxious to kick us to the curb and place the blame on the staff nurse, because it covers up their(the manager's) own incompetency. I had an old retired military Nurse manager who use to tell us"those who can do -do. Those who can't-lead" and if you take a look at all your managers- i think that is true, as they are clueless etc. all the adjatives everyone has decribed them as. In 30 years i can't honestly say i've seen one i can say i respect-as none have ever shown me that when the shifts were overwhelming they actually pitched in and answered the callbell and followed through so you could get your meds out, or did the last minite admission so you could get caught up on your HOLY PAPERWORK or get out on time so you don't get written up for incidental overtime. What i have seen is they put their coats on and walk out the door at 5PM, after they have disappeared for hours. how many have ever taken your assignment over so you could go and eat like a normal humanbeing but instead bark at us like a rabid dog "NO eating at the desk" Just once i'd like to se them screamed at by family or patient or doctor like we have been. I remeber the days/times when med/surg was the greastest thrill- juggling all those patients and their needs/priorities, it was like a great puzzle to figure out what was wrong with the patient/what brought them into the hospital and collaborating with the docs. Now a days, this is garbage- am i burned out- OH, YAH

Wow, am a new grad and your experience is exactly what I am seeing at my hospital. I am so disappointed--I don't feel like a nurse I feel like a glorified secretary at times.

Am also a new grad and dreading seeking employment at the hospital for this very reason. Nursing is also a mid-life second career for me, and I also have 2 young children < 7 at home. I fear the cost to my health and family getting that 1 - 2 years of hospital med/surg experience working nights.

The thing is that it is not this way everywhere. Sadly, many places are this way, especially adult med-surg floors. We need change there. But know that not every job in the hospital needs to mean stress, burn-out, and way more work than you can possibly do. I by-passed the supposedly important 1-2 years of med-surg experience because the work didn't appeal to me and the stories I've heard have always made the work conditions sounds....less than acceptable. Instead, I'm working in a lovely Children's Hospital with appropriate staffing and good working conditions. Yes, there's a lot of paper, but it's generally managable. I almost always get my breaks and leave on time. I had a good orientation and feel like I have most of the resources I would like to provide good patient care. All that to say...please don't give up on nursing! Instead, give up on the poorly managed unit or facility, vote with your feet, and find a healthy place to work. I know this can really vary geographically and I feel for the people for whom moving would be difficult due to families, etc. But just know that nursing does not have to be that way.

went to my first staff meeting- i'm only a per deim and working a cardiac/tele- med/surg----med/surg shouldn't even be but there- the patients are far too critically ill to be in the same sentance we get them out of MICU and SICU there is no other place for them to go. I was very impressed with my nurse manager- she began our staff meeting addressing the nurse patient ratio( currently 1:6) and the speed at which the SICU is sending them to us- post open heart. she heard all our complaints reguarding the heavines of care they require and the number that need to go back to SICU. our last comment to her was a reminder that the patients we admit to our unit are patients that have been transferred from another facility's ICU/CCU, which alot of us need reminding ourselves because we don't think about it- just do it and move on to our other 5 patients. I was impressed with the sincerity she conveyed and stated that she wanted to know when the last time our direcor of nursing was up on our unit and she was going to bring this to her attention and invite her up. also brought up was the possiblity of patients being given a HANDBOOK of the expectations of them in their own recovery process- this customer service crap has gone too far- they refuse to wash themselves, refuse their physical therapy, refuse their meds. I have seen a patient needing readmission for CHF who 4 times refused his physical therapy- (got homeand what?became SOB when there was no nurse there to fetch for him - how much do we think that readmission cost) another patient with a history of HTN with his b/p= 70/40 has been allowed to lay in bed for 1 MONTH because he REFUSES to get OOB- patient relations should start adoption proceeding on him. He's almost customer serviced to DEATH. another patient has been allowed to refuse his Cardizem- now every time he eats his heart rate goes up to 130's- food must be 5 star. It was our conclusion that the customer service extreme is also stressing nursing out- we are no longer employed by a hospital for seriously ill people( because that is the ONLY people that now-a-days can be admitted) but a SPA/HOTEL. All these MONEY administrators (their MBA's) have created a trash can of fiscal waste- the unnecessary readmissions, less reibursements , more burned out nurses( from trying to jump through hoops of the Neiman Marcus customer service ploys and do their REAL work--/nursing) high turnover and short staffing and then have the gaul to preach- no money to replace a nurse, no money to orient a new nurse. GET THESE BUSINESS DEGREES OUT OF THE HOSPITALS AND NURSING- they are so proficient at masking ways to waste money in health care. A good frugal housewife could do alot better.

I agree. I am sorry you are so disappointed. I only work part-time, b/c I feel the stress of working full-time would cause me to not enjoy life much at all. I would rather have less money to live on and be more frugal than deal with all that stress on a daily basis. The paperwork is horrendous, and everything is dumped on nursing staff. Especially on non day shift nurses. There is no nurse manager, charge nurse, unit secretary, or unit coordinator to deal with the crap work. The meds are just as heavy as are the treatments, and the same amount of visitors come. WHY does everything fall on nursing?

Children's Hospitals are a whole different ballgame- if a sentenal event happens with a child the place is surrounded by the SWAT team. the management of these hospitals have to deal with angry and devastated parents, grandparents- the likes of which they don't want to see.( ie. the Heparin mistake with that actors twins, several years before that a child also died in the OR- hence we all now have this policy to disclose mistakes when they happen to lessen the lawsuits, OB/GYN's high malpractice insurance rates) the gloves come off, so management acts more responsibly and delligently in providing a healthier environment- better staffing ratios.( happier nurses; happier patients/children/families) this falls by the way side when it comes to adults-administrative greed takes over. Ronald McDonald doesn't visit and the only fairy tales are told by the management- yes, they are grim. the conditions in some LTC- horror stories- the food is slop ( i once saw a dialysis patient served a hotdog and potatoe chips for dinner- i went to the kitchen to get the RESIDENT something more apprpriate to a RENAL diet- I was threatened not to ever come into the kitchen again by the administrator/ the lost her licenseRN, I lasted 6 months) the staff inservice consists of ABUSE training, some administrators are nurses who have lost their licenses( when they were employed in a hospital- I can give a name of one in BURLINGTON, NJ) my 83 year old mother will NEVER go in that LTC. I've seen BETTY DAVIS but no Ronald McDonald, hotdogs no hambergers.

I completely agree with the OP and most of posts on the first page (long night last night, too tired to read all the other stuff in between).

It's time for a reflection after this first year, to ask ourselves questions. Do I really want to do this? Why am I doing this? If I don't want to do this, then what will I do? I'm willing to be the first person to say I might've chosen this career for the wrong reasons. But I refuse to let myself be scared into misery because I'm afraid to do something else, to get out of my comfort zone (such as a steady paycheck and being done with school).

And to the new nurse who has second thoughts, you shouldn't either.

Maybe you should try a unit with higher acuity pts, not that is is easier by any means but you get lower pt. to nurse ratios. I worked on an IMU and got 4 pts maxium. It is still stressful and hectic but at least you get to really know your patients and their illness and comorbities. I remember working medsurg and a someone would ask me something about a patient and i couldnt even remember why they were in the hospital! i was so busy trying to complete paperwork and tasks that had to be done by a certain time. Im not a fan of medsurg unless they have low ratios.