The Physical Stamina Needed For Nursing

[mammaoftwo]

Can someone please tell me about the physical stamina needed for nursing?

I realize your on your feet for long periods of time plus all the bending, stooping over, etc.

Is there a difference in the stamina needed depending on the area of nursing you go into or which degree ie; LPN or RN ?

I want to be a nurse almost more than anything. I have dreamed of this my entire life and am waiting to see if I am accepted into the LPN program this fall. But I also want to be very realistic about the expectations of nursing on me physically as well.

Do the RN's have better opportunities at less physically demanding jobs then an LPN would?

Many, many thanks for your replies.

[Ophelia78]

Working at the bedside is very demanding (and hard on the feet!) but doable. Wear support hose, have a good pair of shoes, and stay physically fit. I've had fibromyalgia for 14 years and I've had no problem. I was told nursing would be too demanding, but the opposite has been true. My symptoms are less than when I sat at my desk writing all day. I'm pooped after a 12 hour shift, but I sleep like a baby!

[mammaoftwo]

Working at the bedside is very demanding (and hard on the feet!) but doable. Wear support hose, have a good pair of shoes, and stay physically fit. I've had fibromyalgia for 14 years and I've had no problem. I was told nursing would be too demanding, but the opposite has been true. My symptoms are less than when I sat at my desk writing all day. I'm pooped after a 12 hour shift, but I sleep like a baby!

You know, I've been dx with fibromyalgia for over 10 years and I had a desk job before that I could not continue to sit at! I do better standing and walking than sitting at a desk all day. I'm sorry you have the fibro, however, I am glad to hear someone else that could not sit at a desk all day. I had to give up a job in insurance making $42,000 a year.

Blessings to you.

[Imafloat, BSN, RN]

I know exactly how you feel... Except I also have a foot bath and hot tub that I have become extremely attached to.

quote]

While I slept today I dreamt of soaking in a hot tub. Pretty sad...

[TonyFl]

Hmmm....sounds like you need alot of stamina for this job.

[Shantas]

I work in a med/surg floor. Both the RN's and the LVN's, also the PCA's we all work hard like a dog. Very physically and mentally demanding, not to mention all those VRE, MRSA crawling up in your nostrils or any other cavities in your body!!

I usually work 3 days a week, 7a-7p. You also have to deal with the grumpy docs and irritated, abusive families.

After 12 hrs I feel like some one beat me up with a cane:(

I use a back massager...you know those thingy you can place on a chair and it gives you massage!!

I think every hospital should have a on site massage therapist for the staff....it should be mandatory by JACHO:D

[Shantas]

I know exactly how you feel... Except I also have a foot bath and hot tub that I have become extremely attached to.

I work in ICU 7P-7A and some nights are non-stop run-run-run and other nights are less stressful. By the end of my 3 or 4 day stretch I am toast. I usually lay in bed the first day off until around 4P. And I agree that pacing yourself is the key. When I first started in ICU on nights I lost weight but then the body became used to it and "Hello Lost Weight".

One more thing....sorry....I also have one of those foot bath thingy....I dont use it that much becuz my feet are very sensetive....when I soak my feet in it, I start gigling.....my family thinks I am a nut case:lol2:

[EmmaG, RN]

I was always a fast walker, at and away from the job. I'd leave everyone in the dust. But after nearly 25 years of floor nursing, my kids have gone from, "MOM! Slow down!" to "MOM! Hurry up!"

Yeah, it wears you down.

[leslie :-D]

it's funny how at work, i can trek in miles and miles of fast, furious footwork.

but at home, you will find me slightly bent over, clutching my lower back and shuffling painstakingly across a room.

and don't forget the sound effects:

"owwwwwwwwwwwwwww, omg, owwwwwwwwwwwwww, omg, owwwwwwwwwww, omg..."

leslie

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

I am an LPN that works in a hospital clinic that still has me run around a great deal. Yes, it is less than the floors, but I have to go out in the waiting area to call the patient, get the medication if applicable, chase doctors to change orders, get nebulizer treatments and a host of other things. I do think that some positions require less physical labor, but since I am new, that will not be a current option but if I find it, I will run.

I assume that nurses with their BSN and MSNs may have more options for working as case managers, and other positions that are less demanding on the body, but, most nurses have to pay their dues first by getting experience.

I am physically exhausted each day I get home and I sometimes dread going into work to do it again. In fact, I already called in for two days because I need my sink to be repaired and I hired a cleaning crew because I am too tired to clean my house the way I want to myself.

[CaLLaCoDe, BSN, RN]

Dang Bill!! You make ICU sound like a cake walk.

In MY ICU world, it's very physically demanding. Yes, we have two patients, but our acuity level is very high. My last shift involved a 20 year old with end stage cardiomyopathy, on a BIVAD, to whom I gave 14 units of PRBC's, 4 of FFP, and a 10 pack each of platelets and cryo because of a coagulopathy post-op - and that was just in the first 5 hours of my shift with him. I won't bore you with the details of the rest of the stuff he had going on, but I only got to sit down (and chart and eat at the same time) while he went to the OR for a look-see. Not all shifts are so crazy, but I don't recall ever having several hours where all I do is turn people.

ER is a nuthouse as well. Been there done that many times, as a float, and I always ran my tail off.

Basically, mammaoftwo, any bedside position is going to require a fairly large amount of physical output. It's just the nature of the beast, whether you're an LPN or an RN. As an RN, however, you have more opportunity to move away from the bedside and into something more administrative in nature.

Dang! Reading this post makes my lower back ache.. And I'm sure most of you people know what I mean! Nursing is physically demanding work and can leap out and tax you at any moment, unannounced and uninvited.

[EmmaG, RN]

it's funny how at work, i can trek in miles and miles of fast, furious footwork.

but at home, you will find me slightly bent over, clutching my lower back and shuffling painstakingly across a room.

and don't forget the sound effects:

"owwwwwwwwwwwwwww, omg, owwwwwwwwwwwwww, omg, owwwwwwwwwww, omg..."

leslie

My daughter came to visit on one of my assignments, and was terrified watching me try to get out of bed one morning (this was back when my plantar fasciitis was screaming--- now it's down to a dull roar).

[angelique777]

WOW STAMINA. THERE ARE DAYS THAT THE JOB HAS SUCKED EVERY BIT OUT OF ME LOL.

Invest in good pair of shoes. My first shoes where the wrong type and I almost crippled my self. One of those whirlpool type foot care massagers is a nice gift to your self unless your hubby or boyfriend does it for you lol.

There are nights that I do not think I will make it. Call lights that never stop going off. Cardiac monitor with patient having to be checked constantly and those freguent PVC that make you want to shoot the monitor just so it can stop alarming.

With q2hrs vital signs, and q2hr finger sticks. q2hrs urine out put monitoring , alot of chest pt for those that desat (post op CABG) then add to that you do not get any help and your doing all the bedside care of emptying urinal cleaning your complete patients etc. The nights patients are unstable or they code......It helps that adrenaline quicks in. I spend the night praying in my head Lord help me Lord Help me.Helpppppp!!!!!!

Then those nights when your PCTs point up there noses at any chore that needs to be done and just happens to be there job. Oh my God its like the power of the wills. Those type of people problems drain me more sometimes more than the physical work.

Yes nursing is a lot of physical work, and lots of mental and physical stamina is required to survive a shift. I do not leave my house without saying Lord give me Strength and do not let me do any harm and prevent me from loosing my mind lol.

Eat your wheaties you will need it. lol

Its not like that every day thank the Lord for small mercies. Yet just making the 12hrs at nights I figure is an acheivement in it self.

Angela