i HATE my job. Does anyone else feel the same?

[Jenni811]

I absolutely despise my job. I work as a nurse in a intermediate/telemetry type floor. We are in the process of moving to a new hospital, so we were a telemetry unit and we are splitting into telemetry/intermediate care. We will be split eventually but right now kind of combined...its weird.

Anyway, I HATE HATE HATE HATE my job. I get so worked up on the way to work, up to the point I start getting massive headaches and offset my vertigo issues. I've always struggled with unexplained vertigo that comes with stress/anxiety. I can't stand patients and families who are so demanding and disrespectful.

I do my absolute best to put on my "fake smile" to please them. I'm a person of very short temper so it takes every ounce of energy in me not to slap some of them in the face. I got in trouble one time because a patient's daughter was giving me a really hard time and everything she said that came from her mouth started with "Well I'm a nurse and...." it would have been totally irrelevant to what she had to say. For example: "Well I'm a nurse and I had an egg salad sandwich for lunch."

"Well, I'm a nurse and I have a kitten named Dutchess" (that was actually a real one).

She was SO disrespectful, rolled her eyes every time I talked, very short answers. Finally I had it...I looked at her and said "I don't care if you are a nurse. I'm her nurse now and i will make the decisions on what I think is best for my patient."

Yup...I got in trouble for that one but I explained everything to my manager and she, deep inside, I knew agreed she was being ridiculous and I told her I just couldn't take it anymore. It went on for THREE DAYS, in 12 hour shifts and I was on day 4 with her. I snapped...yup.

Anyway, my point with that story is it wasn't this one time...it is ALL the freaking time. Patient's are so demanding. What on earth makes you think I want to "wipe your butt" when you can do it at home just fine? Ok...you have two broken arms, I will help you but if you are here for I don't know...Chest pain observation and you can feed yourself the 50 trays of food you just ordered and open the soda bottle your family snuck you in, why would you not be able to wipe your own butt?? What makes people feel the need to be so darn needy like this?? Don't put on your call light for me to pour you a glass of water from the water pitcher sitting next to your hand. You are perfectly capable of doing it yourself (I'm talking about people who CAN do it.) You are not a 65 year old baby, you are an adult who has wiped your own butt and poured your own water for I don't know, 63 years now??

I'm sorry I have to vent. Makes me feel better. Does anyone else feel this way about nursing? I feel so stuck in it and I want to get out. What else can I do with my degree that I would enjoy??

Once my fiance and I are married we want to start a family right away. He has agreed for me to quit my job at that point to be stay at home. I'm afraid I will enjoy not being a nurse so much I may never go back. What other career choices do people ENJOY as a nurse? I have my BSN.

[chinacatRN]

Ok, so now I hate my job even more. I left a job I mostly liked because I wasn't getting enough hours to survive on. Then I end up with this turd of a job. Then I find out that there's this night nurse (at my current job) who knows someone at my previous job and is spreading rumors about me at work about how I got fired for falsifying documentation! How unprofessional and immature is that? And she doesn't even know me. We don't work the same shift. We've only said a few words to each other. I just don't get how someone can hate someone else enough to do this - especially when they don't even know them.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

Every freaking 15 minutes she would scream from the top of her lungs "SWAAAABIE! SWABBIE!!!! I NEED SWABBIE! BRING BE SWABBIE. SWWWWWWAAAAABBBBIEEE" Perfectly capable of putting on call light asking for a mouth swab. The same time she was here we had a code blue from a open heart patient in the same hallway. and she is screaming SWAAAABBBBIEE!!!

Oh. My. GODDDDDDD!!!! Now this statement is stuck in my head for the evening.......

I once had a patient who spoke strictly baby talk with their mother. Literally, I kid you not." Am I mommies angel?"

And then some gibberish baby talk, then "who's mama's big strong girl???" OK. the woman was 35 and the mother in her 60's. Then nice as you please, regular but harsh demands: Nurse, go get me another pillow.

Felt like at any moment green bile was going to come pouring out of the patient's mouth and her head spin all the way around.....

But nothing beats the "SWABBBIEEEE".......

[CaitlynRNBSN]

Don't you just wish we could yell at them back and tell them how ridiculous they are being?? I can't stand when they claim they are "too sick" to do anything.

Like onetime I had a surgical patient get mad and turn me in because I made him wash his hands after using the restroom. He attempted to wipe himself (YES!! I know. A patient who actually wipes themselves. rare right?) anyway, it didn't go over well. He used like 2 squares of toilet paper. He used a paper towel to wipe all the BM off. He had poo stuck in his nails. AWFUL.

So I brought a chair in the bathroom, filled the sink with soapy water and told him to soak his hands while I went to get something to clean his nails out. He got TERRIBY upset because he was like "I HAD SURGERY AND I NEED TO GET INTO BED! AND YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE ME SIT HERE AND SOAK MY HANDS? I ALREADY CLEANED THEM"

rasiing his voice.

I was like....No, you have poop stuck in your nails and wiping your hands with a dry paper towel does not count as washing your hands. If you touch your incision you could develop an infection.

why do people insist on being like that??

FIRST time meeting another patient, I walk into the room...introduce myself "My name is Caitlyn, i'll be your nurse today."

His response : "I don't care who you are. Get me my morphine and Ativan now. i'm having back pain and anxiety"

I was like.."Well it's nice to meet you too"

His girlfriend did NOT like my response and was like "Do you think back pain is a joke?"

the doctor was out in the hall (after she got yelled at by patient for not ordering morphine quick enough). need I say this guy was on our floor for 5 whole minutes! God forbid if he needs to wait 5 minutes to get his pain meds.

Anyway, doctor just laughed at me when I walked out of the room....I was like "You could have warned me."

Oh, such a pleasant man to deal with. I just wanted to give him a big hug.....psht! couldn't pay me to take that man ever again.

[CaitlynRNBSN]

Another reason I hate nursing: Situations similar to this. (Don't know who to push a new policy on?? Just give it to the nurses. They can do it)

I once got a "talking to" because I had infection control call me to tell me that the wrong isolation orderd were ordered on my patient. He had MRSA in his sputum so he had Isolation droplet precuations ordered. It is supposed to be droplet/contact. we were al doing contact/droplet, it just wasn't on his chart correctly. So doctors are supposed to put these orders in, but they never ever ever do. So nurses always put in the order for them. We got reprimanded for doing this and were told that if the doctor didn't order it, we were to call them and have them do it. (you can only imagine how this went...) anyway, so when infection control notified me that the wrong order was placed and that I would have to notify the doctor. I told the person calling me I said, "What is your job title?" she was like "Registered Nurse" im like..."Ok, so as a registered nurse you can take orders correct?" She was like "Yes, but that isn't my job?"

"It isn't your job to take orders? Because you could cut me out of this, and call the doctor yourself and take a verbal order for this."

she is a NURSE!!!!!! she is just as qualified as I am to take a verbal order from an MD and put it in the computer. You are making this 4 steps too long. Cut out the middle man, call the MD yourself and take care of this yourself. You are a nurse. I am busy taking care of patients who are sick and who need me. I haven't peed i n12 hours, I haven't had a drink or ate in 12 hours. You are "busy" sitting on your butt, in your office reading patient's charts to make sure everything is documented like it should be while drinking coffee and eating cookies. Make yourself useful and call the doctor yourself.

any new policy is pushed off on the floor nurse, because that's the "simple answer." when really, lets think logically here people.

Ok, vent done.

[babysteps25]

I once got a "talking to" because I had infection control call me to tell me that the wrong isolation orderd were ordered on my patient. He had MRSA in his sputum so he had Isolation droplet precuations ordered. It is supposed to be droplet/contact. we were al doing contact/droplet, it just wasn't on his chart correctly. So doctors are supposed to put these orders in, but they never ever ever do. So nurses always put in the order for them. We got reprimanded for doing this and were told that if the doctor didn't order it, we were to call them and have them do it. (you can only imagine how this went...) anyway, so when infection control notified me that the wrong order was placed and that I would have to notify the doctor. I told the person calling me I said, "What is your job title?" she was like "Registered Nurse" im like..."Ok, so as a registered nurse you can take orders correct?" She was like "Yes, but that isn't my job?"

"It isn't your job to take orders? Because you could cut me out of this, and call the doctor yourself and take a verbal order for this."

I run across this problem a lot and ts so irritating. Just yesterday I had a patient admitted with right leg swelling, went for a stat ultrasound to rule out dvt. The physician ordered a bilateral ultrasound. The ultrasound tech calls me and asks "why is it ordered bilateral, do I really need to do both legs? Why don't you call the doctor and find out then call me back". Ultrasound techs are allowed to get verbal orders from physicians, and they frequently do, so I explained that I was busy and told him to call the doc himself. Well instead of being productive and calling the doc, he called my manager and told her I gave him a 'that's not my job' line. I never said its not my job - I just said it was ALSO his job. Why doesn't he cut out the middle man (me) and call the physician himself!?! In the time it took him to complain he could have called to clarify the order. Grrr..

[aywl]

I worked in a medical floor for a while, almost half of the patients are confused, they are physically dependent on nurse, but They never complained to the management's office, I feel more released to work with confused patient.

QUOTE="loriangel14;7199329"] About half to three quarters of our floor is confused.lol

[aywl]

I worked in medical floor for a while, almost half of the patients are confused, they are physically dependent on nurse, but they never complained to the management, I feel more released to work with them.

[aywl]

Many many times, one pt or her family asked me to clean the bathroom from her roommate's pee or poo, I simply just did it instead of calling housekeeping, many times pt's family asked me to find chairs for family, I still have to do it, just to make them happy....but they still never stopped complaint....

And management sit on the office all day long, demand nurse do this do that, once something wrong, it's nurse's fault, so nurse did all kind of jobs, got complaint from everyone....

............................................

I completely understand you. I have always worked in outpatient care decided to go into nursing, now in my last semester and thinking I made a big mistake. I know I will never want to stay at the bedside, will do my bare minimum to get experience then run. I absolutely hate it. As previously mentioned, I have had a patient ask me to hand her her water two inches away from her, wipe her face, yet she can do fine eating and stuffing herself all without any help. I have no compassion for theses ppl, its just not in me. Maybe because I am not used to it, but I am outraged and shocked at the abuse nurses take! Since when is this ok? I have never seen this type of abuse in any other job field! Mangement does not stick up at all, even if you get physically HIT/KICKED, and people have come to think hospitals are hotels. This just sickens me, doesnt matter who you are/how sick you are, you cannot go around thinking you can treat others this way without some type of consiciences. Nurses are a big group, we need to band together and demand respect for ourselves. Patients do not act this way around doctors, I almost always see a completely 180 when the doctor comes in...[/quote']

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

Dementias, delirium and depression. As more people continue to age, you will notice the behavioural issues on all units increase. Probably 65-70 percent of the population on these units are geriatric.

On a related note, I don't hate my job, but it is definitely time for change. I think we all need to learn to adapt to healthcare the way it is, unfortunately. Cutbacks are everywhere. I think you need to decide where your own limits are, and which areas you most enjoy, or can tolerate, at least.

[cocoaluv]

I have a pacemaker and had a delirious patient kick me in the chest....I am looking to get the hell out of here with in the next 6 months

[CaitlynRNBSN]

YES!!! I get calls CONSTANTLY from techs. (I.e. lab techs, ultrasound, MRI, XRay). they call me and will be like "Did Dr.X really want this PTT at 6:00? YES!!!!! if he didn't want it, he wouldn't order it.

I get so so so so annoyed with techs from places like that. it is constant, does Dr.X want contrast dye or not?? I don't know....figure it out yourself. Ugh, sorry if any techs on here. but seriously. figure it out yourself and stop making bedside the middle man.

[jaad]

Don't feel bad. I think most can relate unless they've never experienced hospital nursing.

Our medical system, and country for that matter, are becoming a living nightmare.

Gone are the day when people worked hard for medical care, appreciated it, and tried to do everything in their power to stay healthy!