Am I being a baby?

[RNbubu]

Sometimes I get so overwhelmed that I do not have time to think or ponder on what is really important. Where I work there is no CNA, no phlebotomist. Rns do it all. I always have at least 1-2 total care patients (incontinent, needs assistance with feeding). Maybe one on a ventilator. And another in some sort of critical condition (either unstable, or on drips that need titration, or fresh out of surgery). I do vitals, assessments, feeding, oncontinent care, bathing, passing of meds, lab draws, IV starts, central line dressing changes, trach care, troublshoot vent alarms, read and interpret tele strips, fetch juice, water, blankets. Problem solve difficult discharges, discharge planner leaves at 3pm and I am

reaponsible to finish what he had not had the time to finish (yes, calling facilities, finding out where the heck the equipment that should hve been delivered for discharge is not here yet). I clean the bathroom

because janitor will not touch any body fluid or poop ("that is not my job

to touch patient's body fluids"). I have find clean beds when I am getting a new admit and there is no bed available. I have to check with pharmacy whether MD has sent the correct prescription, whether it has been properly dispensed and whether it is ready to be filled (seriously, RNs are responsible for this). I have to chart like crazy. I do not get paid overtime if I use my break to chart. I can go on and on and on. There is no support for nurses and they keep finding more stuff to put us in charge of. am I feel like I am the worst RN because I get somoverwhelmed with the millions of calls lights, and all these tasky tasks and I cannot focus on thinking about what is important for my patients. I feel like venturing out to

another hospital, but I wonder if all are the same way. Sometimes we are so short, I have worked 12 hours without a break. Sometimes our charge nurse is assignment patients because we do not have enough nurses. The acuity level in my unit is really high. 3:1 patient to nurse ratio. Low ratio, but each patient has really high acuity. Am I being a baby?

[RainMom]

As much as I & my coworkers like to ***** & moan about our workplace, it's posts like these that make me appreciate where I work.

OP, not every place is like this. Time to brush up the resumé.

[RNbubu]

Thank you for all the replies. It is like someone else mentioned, my co-workers are expected to help me and vice-versa, which is really challenging since every RN is equally busy and it is impossible to find someone with time to help. And yes, we are also expected to mobilize patients since PT will work with them only once every other day at most and never on weekends (we are supposed to ambulate patients 4x day, and those patients are on chest tube to suction, just to set up everything takes up the longest time). Not to mention the time it takes to set up vent dependent patients for ambulation.

After reading all your replies I have decided to find a per diem job at another hospital to test the waters and eventually move there if I feel comfortable. It is just too stresfull where I am right now, too much pressure on RNs to do it all and if something does not get done it is always our fault (the pt only ambulated twice today? Well let's yell at the RN; the walker the patient is taking home has not been delivered yet? Well, the RN is obviously not doing her job; the patient could not pick up her prescription at pharmacy because her insurance did not cover the cost? Well how come the RN did not check that and figured out a way to solve this issue). It is just too much to do all of this plus the usual RN job with no help or support whatsoever. No wonder the turn over on my unit is so high.

Thank you all for the replies.

[Deebuzz, BSN, RN]

Thank you for all the replies. It is like someone else mentioned, my co-workers are expected to help me and vice-versa, which is really challenging since every RN is equally busy and it is impossible to find someone with time to help. And yes, we are also expected to mobilize patients since PT will work with them only once every other day at most and never on weekends (we are supposed to ambulate patients 4x day, and those patients are on chest tube to suction, just to set up everything takes up the longest time). Not to mention the time it takes to set up vent dependent patients for ambulation.

After reading all your replies I have decided to find a per diem job at another hospital to test the waters and eventually move there if I feel comfortable. It is just too stresfull where I am right now, too much pressure on RNs to do it all and if something does not get done it is always our fault (the pt only ambulated twice today? Well let's yell at the RN; the walker the patient is taking home has not been delivered yet? Well, the RN is obviously not doing her job; the patient could not pick up her prescription at pharmacy because her insurance did not cover the cost? Well how come the RN did not check that and figured out a way to solve this issue). It is just too much to do all of this plus the usual RN job with no help or support whatsoever. No wonder the turn over on my unit is so high.

Thank you all for the replies.

Yes you need to get out of that place. Sadly this is becoming a reality in nursing where we have multi disciplinary teams yet the nurse is responsible for everything. PT, RT,OT all work with pts but it is the nurse who needs to troubleshoot everything and responsible for the general overall care. Organizations are looking to make money and will weed out where they can, if nurses can draw blood then there goes a phlebotomist too. We are expected to do more with less. If I could go back I wouldn't have gone into nursing. Sorry for my rant OP but u get it!