Ever have such a bad day/week, you've almost quit?

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

  1. Ever feel like you can't go back to work???

    • 20
      Yes...but I did!
    • 6
      Yes...and I never went back!
    • 9
      Yes...due to physician attitudes, behaviors
    • 14
      Yes...due to management or administration lack of support
    • 3
      Yes...due to patient interactions
    • 15
      Yes...due to staffing problems: inadequate for patient numbers or acuity
    • 4
      Yes...due to equipment and supply problems
    • 1
      Nope! I have the perfect job

72 members have participated

Staffing? Patients? Doctors? Oblivious Management? Equipment? Layout?

Ever have it ALL become overwhelming?

Ever think you cannot come back the next day?

After 20 years on my unit, I left sobbing, feeling I could never go back! And, I haven't!

Patients unappreciative, patient care minimally adequate, patients complaining after all you do.

Physicians who have such a 'me first' attitude, regardless of unit activity, patient's preference, or staffing. (You know, the 'STAT' c/s so they can get home for dinner...the 'let's section the 28 week triplets in an hour but NICU is on divert...the 'let's push the pitocin' even though the patient really wants natural childbirth)

Broken or missing equipment (you know, reaching for O2 mask and finding none; no IVs in the stock room...and your patient is bleeding out; bed controls that don't work anymore, etc.)

Management whose goal is to fill the beds and keep the doctors happy...regardless of the nursing staff work load, acuity of patients, etc. Bringing in elective inductions as soon as beds are emptied & cleaned...before breaks or lunches, etc.

Please, help me find the courage and strength to go back to work!!!:o

I find that the best way to handle a demise (for me) is to cry with the patient and family (if they're at that stage of grief), and to lean on my co-workers.

Whenever one of us has a demise on my unit (and we all know they come in 3's), we make sure that that nurse has only that patient (if census allows), and 'check in' with her frequently to make sure she's okay and see if she needs a 'break' from dealing with the family for 30 minutes or so. We also try to make sure the same nurse doesn't get 3 demises in a row, like your old unit did to you.

I also recommend for the particularly bad demises, like the couple who lost the baby after ttc for 18 years (I've had a similarly awful situation....it just kills you, doesn't it?), that talking to the chaplain helps a LOT.

Then go home and give your wife and kids a biiiiiiiiiiiiig hug and have some quiet time with them just appreciating that they're alive and well.

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that sounds like some good advive SHAY, that is basically what i have done.but it is still diffucult. I made a vow to my self never to let my self get put in that position again. where i work now we pretty much take turns with the bad ones.

thanks for the advice.mark

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Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.
Look, why do you need to find the courage to go back?? HONESTLY?? WHY??? If it's that bad....I mean bad enough to make you sob, cry, feel nauseated, and get tired just at the THOUGHT of having to return, honey, it's time to bail. I'm sorry, I just don't see the logic in staying at a hellhole, no matter HOW long you've been there.

Haze K, life is just too short to live under such constant stress and strain. Some units are like the frog in the water--slowly upping the temp until you're constantly on "boil." If there is no joy in your workplace anymore, I say it is time to search for something else--a place in which you can practice as that wonderfully competent nurse you are. It takes a whole lot of courage to start over. Take some time off, search around. You just may be pleasantly suprised at what you find:kiss

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Ever heard the saying: People prefer a known hell to an unknown paradise?

Most humans are so afraid of change that they're willing to put up with reprehensible conditions (I think this is even truer for nurses--we always think we can fix things).

Write down the things you like and distinctly dislike about your current situation (separate the emotion) then decide which side holds more weight. If the bad outweighs the good then imagine your worst fears about changing--are those fears worse than the things you're already tolerating? If not, then go for it!!!~ Good luck

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Not me, not afraid to change an intractibly rotten and stressful situation. I have done this before....ex military, need I say more? Anyhow, hey, The shortage is too great and life is too short for me to put up with this sort of gobbledygook. I would MOVE on if it is that bad. I wish you the BEST!

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