Self care...

Nurses Stress 101

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I find it so funny that nurses preach self care blah blah but during a eight hour shift I can barely eat, sit down or let alone use the restroom. Why do we put up with this kind of work environment?! I love taking care of patients but this type of environment is burning me out and makes me want to leave the bedside for good. Anyone else feel like this?

Specializes in Critical Care.

When I'm super stressed and busy and if my patient took a turn for the worse and I'm struggling to stabilize them, I feel too stressed and that I can't take a break until the patients stabilized or transferred to ICU. This may take an hour or may take most of my shift, doesn't happen often, thankfully, but it is nerve wracking and stressful when it does. Also when I'm stressed out or overwhelmed, I lose my appetite and am no longer hungry at all, just get by on a soda. Luckily this doesn't happen everyday!

Even when I do go to lunch I always feel so rushed and then get back to find out the covering RN dropped the ball for instance a cardiac drip ran dry so they just turned it off rather than getting another bag from pharmacy!

Mustlovepoodles....I am fine on time management but I do have a hard time saying no to non-urgent requests. I seriously think patients and families come up with the craziest requests and I have a hard time saying no or explaining to them that their being ridiculous in a polite manner. I do believe the reason breaks are not taken is due to management and the fact we are always being floated to other floors to help cover them.

Lately I have been floated half way through my shift which as you can imagine makes the shift very difficult and stressful. I am starting to think I would fit in more in a clinic or a true per diem position.

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