A less stressfull career choice

[jherd]

I am a new hire RN, that just started the nurse residency program in an ICU setting. It's day 8 and I sort of feel like I am a private in the Army again. No phones except on lunch, no drinks or outside of the kitchen or the manager will throw your drink away, miss more than 4 shifts in a year and get reprimanded, fight it out for vacations, you can't have a day off unless you get someone to work your shift and then you work theirs and you can't get overtime without prior approval, you can't clock in more than 7 minutes before your report time, clock in 1 minute late and it's counted against you.

I understand why those rules are in place, but I'm a grown adult. I've already retired from another career and I'm not looking forward to being treated like a child. I signed a three year contract but I seriously regret it, so far.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend any RN career paths that are less stressful and demanding and allow you to have a life outside of work.

[jherd]

Thank you for the words of support and now that I have logged in about 15 shifts, I feel much better about the job. Like many of the experienced nurses predicted in this thread, it got better.

We had some events occur during my shifts that helped me become more included in the ICU team and that really eased most of my issues.

I think that many of my problems arose as a combination of not knowing anyone, not knowing the hospital, not knowing the floor, people not speaking to me and then a death by Powerpoint meeting where a management team read these stringent, strict, perfect world policies that are the "goals" for the ICU staff to achieve, but are always secondary to patient care.

So now I go in with patient care in mind and I practice skilled nursing to the best of my ability and time flies by and administrative policies don't even factor into my day for the most part....

[dec2007]

Jherd...sounds like we might work at the same hospital! Eventually those rules generally become less annoying, well, except not being sick more than 4 times a year (really??? With everything we are exposed to?) I'm not a big fan of the nurse residency program, as it seems to treat our new hires as if they were college freshmen. Obviously, you aren't a kid...you've already had one career. Hang in there and jump through the hoops for a couple of years, and it will get less obtrusive. I've found the most autonomous place to work are the ICUs. Good luck to you.

[LongislandRN23]

Nursing is an extremely stressful, labor intensive and demanding career. We are truly overworked and under appreciated. That being said --lunch break!? I haven't had a true one hour long lunch break in the past 2 years of my job (hospital step down unit) I get to scarf down half a sandwich and hide water bottles in the craziest places just to get by.

[swimmingpoolblues]

You might want to consider going to a home care company and trying to find a job as a private duty nurse. The pay is not as good, but you will probably find the atmosphere more to your liking.

[NorthstarStaff]

It is true, I currently work with 13 hospitals, 8 or 9 LTC's and they all do this. How do I work with that many facilities at the same time you might ask? I work for a staffing company lol. this is industry standard. It's not being treated like a child, it's being accountable.