The hardest parts of nursing?

Nurses General Nursing

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I've definitely found what's hardest for me - and it's when people really open up to me, especially ones that are not doing well. I had a patient this week who was freshly extubated and still in ICU because of heart rate instability, and I really bonded with her over the course of a couple of nights. She was intelligent and a great conversationist, a real gem among the sedated, the barely conscious, the delirious, and the detoxing patients I usually encounter. She told me that she had talked to me more in the past couple of nights than she had talked to her own family members, that she was really going to miss me when I was off work, and that she felt safe with me around. She wanted my address so she could keep in touch, but I explained to her that it was against hospital policy and I didn't want to get in trouble, but she was welcome to come up to the unit and say hello when she was better.

Maybe it's just how I'm programmed, but my patients expressing these heartfelt feelings of trust and attachment put the heaviest weights on me of all. Being responsible for someone's emotional well-being is so much more difficult for me than taking care of their bodies, and it feels like so much more responsibility. These are the types of days when I go home and can't sleep because I feel so overwhelmed.

I will be responsible for people's lives all day long, but please, please, please don't give me their hearts.

What parts of this job are hardest for you?

Specializes in Med Surg, Perinatal, Endoscopy, IVF Lab.

the ridiculous "customer service" mentality that has pervaded healthcare facilities in the US. this isn't a ******* cruise ship

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^^^ Aint that the truth.

The hardest part for me is dealing with this mom's on drugs having drug-dependent babies. The drama, the lies, the acting job.... it kills me a little each day.

I hate when the appointment note/CC says something innocent like pain or callus but the assessment reveals a nasty ulcer, then trying to keep my facial expression and voice under control when the patient asks if it "looks bad"...most of the time, yeah it does...but I don't want to be the one to say that.

Specializes in CICU.

Learning how to be comfortable being very uncomfortable.

Best parts:

1.Seeing people who have a shot at improving their lives get better and leave without ever coming back

2.Solving puzzles medically

3.Tracking a patient from admission to discharge

4.Co-workers

Worst parts:

1.Terrible patient population. Druggies, welfare leeches and the hapless who will either come back again and again without making life changes or end up dying during their admission. It's time like these where I feel my job is pointless. These people never truly want to get better and do not have the means to for whatever reason (Even when we give resources). Literally it feels like we spend all of this money and time on a lost cause. Truly depressing.

2.HCAHP scores........

3. Management

4.Unruly families

working nights/weekends/holidays/mandated overtime/in the middle of dangerous snowstorms

the ridiculous "customer service" mentality that has pervaded healthcare facilities in the US. this isn't a ******* cruise ship

the ******* insane martyr mentality - yeah i didn't get the memo that working as a nurse means i'm supposed to be a paragon of virtue, a self-sacrificing angel of mercy, who cares more for strangers than for my own life and health, who never has a negative thought about a patient or a moment of frustration, and who would never dream of being so base as to expect money or the right to a personal life.

True that.

Specializes in Inpatient Oncology/Public Health.
the hardest part - people that come in through the ER with a simple malady - abdominal pain or a cough they can't shake and have stage IV cancer. I work med/surg Oncology and we currently have a patient - late 20's came in to the ER a year ago with abdominal pain - stage IV metastatic colon cancer. She's dying at this point (slowly), and I can't wrap my head around it. Very sad...

This is mine too. I work the same area. We've even had people come in after a car accident and found advanced cancer afterwards they knew nothing about. Seeing people in their 20s/30s dying, seeing their parents or young children in the depth of grief.

Specializes in Critical care.

Going to work is the hardest part for me. Used to love it. No more.

I just can't not feel for them and find it hard to not cry along, I know I'm less help to them if I do, but it's hard.

Vianne, I have been on the receiving end of such a nurse twice. One was a rude jerk, a stone who would barely even answer questions. Before you call me mean, I think she was trying not to cry and that's why she wouldn't really speak or be in the room much. The second time around was two nurses I believe, and the lady did end up crying some but it was very appropriate and the man, naturally, answered all the questions he could. So it's not always a bad thing.

The hardest part for me is when a patient is actively dying and on comfort measure only or hospice care and the family still can't accept it. Instead they want to fight me tooth and nail to stop giving the patient pain medication or ativan and to allow their dying and somnolence loved one to drink water.

Eveything have been said and I would like to add the hardest part of being a nurse if he/she is being bullied by their senior nurses esp. When they are still beginning on the field and being judged by others and talking behind their back. i guess in all fields of profession sometimes **** happens. Hehe but as a nurse we have to separate our emotions from work still we give respect to our seniors. And just be focus on the patient care.

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