How to fight burnout without leaving job

Published Apr 19, 2014

3 Articles; 1,144 Posts

I love many parts of my job. My patients are generally smaller than adults (peds) so easier on the body. Not to mention cute and innocent. My co-workers are generally great people to work with. The patients have interesting histories and the puzzles of their health issues are mentally stimulating. And I truly feel we are impacting and saving lives. I am getting paid a fair salary.

My main problems are

-- long 12.5 hour shifts, which are like an endurance race. I am not as young as I used to be and my body is tired and hurting about 6 hours into the shift. Even with an OTC pain med like ibuprofin I just feel achy and tired and it affects my mood and concentration.

-- the hospital is growing. While my manager has always been a good listener, overall I feel the nurses are more like bodies filling needed job slots rather than human beings with individual strengths and weaknesses. This is probably the reality at most bigger institutions.

-- Patient satisfaction surveys often have us changing our policies and individually bending over backwards to make families happy. Which is mentally exhausting and again contributes to the feeling that the nurses are just filling slots and not perhaps being listened to as often as we need to be.

-- I am just a restless spirit and it's hard for me to stay tied down to one area for that long. In my non-work life I am the same way. While I am not wishy-washy, I do often seek a change of scenery either mentally or physically if I start to feel stagnant.

I have no good reason to leave my job and doubt I'd find anything I like better. I just feel bored and burned out and blah at work. I want to get that passion back.

Any ideas or thoughts?