Anyone ever felt like this?

How long have you been at this job? Long enough to feel like you gave it a fair chance if you were to give it up now? I am a clinic nurse and have "banker's hours" but there are still nights when I go home and feel like you do--like the worry never stops. I tried LTC nursing on top of my regular job--they wanted someone from 6pm to 11:30pm so I went there after working until 5 at my regular job. Trust me, that didn't last long. I felt like a pill pusher too, and being accustomed to having actual conversations with my pts during the day made it that much harder. I wanted to be able to talk to 'Mrs. Jones' not just give her pills and leave. Plus, I felt like it took me forever to get done with a med pass.
Anyway, you may want to re-evaluate if LTC is for you or not and just go from there...
I know this wasn't much help, but just wanted to let you know you aren't alone.

You are just the type of nurse I want to take care of me. You can't " turn off " your brain because you are consciencous! You CARE! That's why you can't sleep at nite. I have been working long term for almost 40 yrs, I have no trouble dropping off to sleep, but around 3 am, my eyes open, and all the things I did for the day before come playing back to me. I analyse everything, " I should have done this" or " I shouldn't have done that". I try to answer call bells, answer questions, I make promises to get a resident a toothbrush and at 3 am I remember that I forgot to do it, and then lay there and worry about it!
It is stressfull, it's a hard job and you really feel like you don't make a difference in someones day, but you DO! Believe me, you DO! Long term is hard! But you need to love it! If you don't, it won't be for you!

I work 2nd and have 30 myself plus i do my own txs, charting, summaries, skin assessments, admissions, calling the doc for everybody else most of the time and writing and processing everybody elses orders without any help (2 out of 5 are not even my pts), plus staffing bs, and med passes and now we have to chart if someone eats poorly instead of the cna's doing it on their flow sheets...and this is on a smooth night. I used to fall behind alot more than i do now til i got a routine that worked for me. I have a strange system i use for myself and ive started telling the other nurses to do their own orders from the doc. as for your hs meds..and the narcs..what are they mostly? pain pills? sleeping pills? maybe some of these narcs times can be changed or if you are giving sleeping pills to pts who may already be asleep by the time you get to them....maybe that can be changed to prn instead? both my passes are pretty heavy but i start my hs stuff at 7pm since i have an hour leeway. if you guys use a doctors book or whatever put down some ideas....it tends to work better if you are on a certain hall most of the time...and if your hs pass tends to have stuff like vitamins ..see about a time change too. might work out better.

Believe me when i tell you i will get much better and easier, but the best thing you can do is become an RN