Burnt Out, Tired of Floor Nursing

[MystyqueOne]

Hi everyone,

It's been nearly one year on the med-surg floor at the VA. I will tell you that I am SO burnt out. I know I needed this year of experience, but with the high patient loads with each shift and the drama between the staff, and the high death rate, I am just done with this floor nursing. I knew in the very beginning that I would never like floor nursing, but now I'm really disliking it even more. Plus the scheduling is horrible. I have small children and about once or twice a month, I am scheduled for night shift. If I don't have a sitter, then I have no choice but to call in. So, I can feel that it is definitely time for me to change. But with only 1 year of RN experience, what could I possibly change to??? There are not any other open positions right now at the VA. I would like to get into maybe the clinic, but they require 2 years of acute care experience.

I'm just stuck and want out now. I'm so stressed out, I've noticed my family being on the receiving end of my stress. It's not a good thing any longer. I applied for NP school, but in the meantime, I need to work somewhere. Any advice for me in my situation?

Thanks so much!

[Anonnymiss]

I left that position, and I avoid floor nursing altogether since then (it was a postop ortho unit that also treated the hospital's oncology population). I have been working as a psychiatric admissions nurse conducting face to face admissions, preadmission triage by phone, and reviewing cases from referring hospitals (many emergency rooms) to determine admission appropriateness for the facility. I do some care planning, insurance authorization, and inpatient treatment when necessary as well. I am actually trying to get a full time case management position right now as I work on my BSN and have an interview for that coming up!

[Anonnymiss]

Wow. Was it med-surg that stressed you this much? Did EAP help you feel better about this job? And are you still there and coping better, or did you end up quitting?

I answered your question about the job, but about EAP -- it did help me make the decision to take a leave of absence. In my case, I needed out asap. It was not going to work out for me in that environment. I had frankly become a HOT MESS very quickly. That was several years ago, and looking back it still kills me that I worked so hard to become a nurse for it to turn out that badly for me. It truly broke my heart, and to this day it still bothers me a bit that I don't feel able to work as a staff nurse on a hospital floor; but I took it as a learning experience and moved on to find something that works for me.