"You've never said you liked nursing." A vent.

Nurses General Nursing

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Had a really tough shift the other day, and I brought it home. My husband asked me what was wrong, and I just rambled for 15 minutes. When I was done, he said to me, "You've never said you liked nursing."

He's right. I've never said that. Ever. I didn't even realize that I've never said it.

I've been on these boards since I was in nursing school. I read the descriptions of experiences by so many other posters, I talked to nurses in my family, and you never really get a good perspective on it. You think, "Maybe it's the facility; maybe it's the manager; maybe it's the unit."

I float now. Same ****; different place. Acute care floors are all the same.

Oh, yes. There are days where I feel like I truly cared for my patients and watched out for them. But those days are maybe one day a week, if I'm lucky. The rest of the time? I'm frustrated with so many things that end up sucking my time from taking care of patients. Vitals machines not working, glucometers not being docked in a timely fashion, meds missing that need to be tubed, orders put in by residents that need to be corrected or parameters entered, no one able to help on a complex sacral dressing change for a 400 pound patient because who has 30 minutes of spare time.

It's so difficult to find your niche in this profession without job hopping like crazy. I see posts by people who were miserable in one area, but found a job they love, and I'm happy for them. And jealous. There is one specialty unit I float to that I actually like, though. Hrmmm...

I have time off coming up in January, and I need it. I missed three weeks of work due to a medical condition that wasn't fun, but other than that, I haven't missed a single stinkin' day of work in the past 18 months, and I've not taken any PTO. Time to destress and consider my options.

This whole post is a ramble, but I just needed to get it off my chest. There's a lot more I want to say, but, quite frankly, I can imagine the posts I would read in response, and I'm just not putting it all out there. Anyway, thanks for reading!

I am totally sick of nursing. I AM SO SICK OF BEING UNDERSTAFFED EVERY DAY EVERY MONTH EVERY YEAR EVERY JOB!!!! In non nursing jobs being understaffed isn't the same stress as when it is in nursing. I am soooooooo ready to do any job other than nursing, the only reason I havn't quit yet is money of course. Been at it 8 yrs so burned out, and have tried many different kinds of nursing. Just don't like it.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Hospice, Palliative Care.

I love love love nursing, but not my facility. There are not many options where I live (almost a monopoly here, and that seldom leads to anything good), so I'm trying to stick it out for a while until I find a new job. I'm a second career nurse as well, but after 20 years of being a secretary, I guess that I'm used to getting the brunt of the badness of the work world (:

Specializes in Orthopedic, LTC, STR, Med-Surg, Tele.

I was having this very discussion with my girlfriend from nursing school the other day. Neither of us had a higher calling or some divine saintly moment when we felt called to be nurses. I like being a nurse, and so does she, but it is a blue collar job that puts food on the table.

We are understaffed at our hospital. We are frequently getting very high acuity patients that have no business being on a Med-Surg floor as well. I had a patient with a blood sugar of 800 and I was required to check blood sugar every hour. What? Really? I had 5 other patients

that day. How does one juggle this? Needless to say, I got behind on everything. I just keep saying to myself, "I can only do the best that I can do." This patient should have been upgraded to ICU or at least PCU to be on endotool, but there weren't any beds available. The computerized charting can make it easier, but when you're interrupted 13 times while you're just trying to assess your first patient, it's very easy to have holes in your documentation. That's why I stay late to ensure that my documentation was done correctly. If ED calls report, we have 2 minutes to get to the phone. Got written up the other day because I was gowned up in a C Diff patient's room taking care of the code brown without a CNA to be found. I'm okay with cleaning the patient up-- even with the lack of help. I realize the CNAs can't be in 14 different places at one time, just like the RNs can't. I would never leave my patient soiled, and I did what needed to be done. But, to get written up because I didn't answer ED's call. Really?? Annoying. Why can't I just call them back when I'm done cleaning up the patient. I love being a nurse. I really do, and I love my patients (well-- 85% of them). I do not like management. Things have to change. I don't have the time with my patients like I want. I am not sure how much longer I can go on like this, and it's a shame. My hospital will be losing a damn good nurse who genuinely cares about her patients. I really think I would like Med-Surg nursing if the ratios were lower and management had our backs.

Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

Have you considered transferring to ICU. Only 2 patients and usually a lot more time with them to do a good job.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
Have you considered transferring to ICU. Only 2 patients and usually a lot more time with them to do a good job.
I have considered that, but I do wonder if it's a frying pan to fire thing. I've become very wary of believing that the grass is greener on any acute care unit.
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