is anyone else stressed out?

Nurses General Nursing

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recently i have found it harder and harder to go to work. i find myself not wanting to be a nurse anylonger, but i still need to work to support my family and don't have any job skills other than nursing. i work day shift and you can't find that many places. plus i live very close to my job and with the price of gas that is important. the floor i work on is a med surg floor and has been considered the best floor in our hospital. if you are sick that is where you want to be. it just seems every day we are expected to work harder and faster and never told we are doing anything right- only more things we should be doing as far as paper work etc. i guess this is just a pahse in my life and i hope this too passes, but i know that i am really stressed out about this now.:scrying:

I'm more than burned out, but I can't afford to quit nursing, either. To make it worse I suffer from chronic depression that the stress just magnifies 10 times over, so I am really about to go around the bend.

I am supposed to be working on getting into NP school, but I just don't have it in me right now, and don't know if I ever will. I love the patients but I just don't like working so directly with people. I've been told I'm very talented with my sewing and I should try to do something with that and word of mouth will get me business...but I can't afford to stop working at my nursing job long enough to get started. Just feel defeated and overwhelmed.

I'm supposed to see a psychiatrist next week, maybe he will keep me doped up so I don't care.

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The dread, fear and anxiety caused me to leaving nursing after only two years (94-96). I also worked on a busy med-surg floor.

May I ask - what parts of the job caused you dread and fear? I can understand anxiety because that comes as a result of continuously putting yourself into a stressful environment. But were there specific things that caused fear and dread? I'm really curious because I want to know as much as I can about this profession.

Also, are most of you who feel burned out or over-stressed working on med-surg floors? I am considering pursuing something more along the lines of OR nurse. What are your thoughts?

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Today was the most stressful day I've had since I started back into acute care last month. To begin with, I went to work sick (being a new person, can't use sick time). By the end of the day, I was in tears. Not only was I hopping around like a pingpong ball, but it seemed that every person I encountered--with the exception of the patients!--had to bless me out for something. I even got snapped at by the computer person when I was having problems with the central supply system.

I know I should try to focus on what I did well--including gently convincing a very unstable lady not to go AMA when everyone else had pretty much written her off--but I just lose it when people start to yell at me when I'm dealing with them in good faith. I did have the support of my charge nurse and my co-workers today or I'd never have made it.

And I've been a nurse for over 20 years, so you'd think I'd be used to it by now, but I never am.

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i don't love what i do. it's a job, and it will always be a job. there's no "love in my heart." that wasn't on the skills checklist. i worked hard to become a nurse because i saw limited options if i failed. i continue at it because i have bills to pay.

if you chose nursing because you are looking for a career with less stress than what you are doing now, you chose badly.

catlady, i couldn't have said it better myself.

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may i ask - what parts of the job caused you dread and fear? i can understand anxiety because that comes as a result of continuously putting yourself into a stressful environment. but were there specific things that caused fear and dread? i'm really curious because i want to know as much as i can about this profession.

also, are most of you who feel burned out or over-stressed working on med-surg floors? i am considering pursuing something more along the lines of or nurse. what are your thoughts?

i'm really not trying to discourage you from going into nursing if it is what you want to do, but i do encourage you to dig deep to find out if it is what you think it is.

anxiety because of non-stop stress - from patients, families, friends, other nurses, management, doctors - whatever it is, it must be the nurses fault.

fear because you are dealing with people's lives everyday, and being so short-staffed and overworked, with everyone yelling at you to do more, you fear making a mistake. like hanging the wrong i.v. med.

in most fields a mistake can be upsetting and perhaps costly, but you usually aren't worried about killing one of your customers. in nursing that is a daily possibility.

dread because of many things - as you head into work, you wonder will you be floated to a floor you have no experience on, how short-staffed will it be, hoping you won't be assigned to the patient you had the day before who was on the light every three minutes for things like kleenex, to pick his pillow up off the floor, or because he dropped the t.v. remote. will you have time for a potty break? you know better than to expect a dinner break.

after 35 years in nursing i have finally found an area i really enjoy, but from the time my daughter entered high school all she heard was "don't you dare even think about ever becoming a nurse!!"

it is not something i felt 'called' to. women weren't offered jobs as commercial pilots in 1970, and my vision wasn't good enough to join the police force -then i was offered a scholarship to nursing school. gee, working side by side with all those good looking doctors...ahhhhh. :rotfl: :rotfl: how naive can one young woman be?

thirty five years ago the options were not there for women. today i think many people go into it kind of like the army - believing the propaganda. its all madison avenue advertising. not the work - nursing is great - but it is the management that runs the hospitals that value only $$$, and who value the nurses (despite all their claims) about as much as i value a cockroach crawling across my dinner plate.

if you want the medical field, why not consider occupational therapy? or physical therapy? there are many jobs where you can make a difference, make good money, and not be the can that everyone kicks as they walk by - otherwise known as the nurse.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Parish Nurse, Hospice.

i appreicate all the support i have recieved- it is nice but sad to know that so many nurses feel the same way. as far as transferring to another unit in my hospital- my unit has the reputation for being the best in our hospital- the floor where all the docs want there pts. i would love to go to hospice but there are no jobs open at this point. i am looking into a few other things. will continue to hang in there because i know i am a great nurse and i do care. like alot of nurses the pay is great, but money isn't always everything. it is hard when you are the primary breadwinner to take a huge pay cut. i'm sure god will send me a message and send me in the right direction.

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I think after doing anything for 29 years, I would be going crazy. Change is a good thing. We need change to grow. Change can be scary and hard but it is a necessary part of life. I also want to applaud your hard work as a nurse.

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I posted this in the psych nursing forum as well:

I work in a 23 bed psych unit at a hospital. This is my first job as an RN, however, I've worked in the psych field for about 5 years doing other things. I am still on orientation until the beginning of October. Due to staff issues, I have already worked without a preceptor many times. My patient load increases daily it seems and my pt's seem to have higher levels of acuity. For some reason right now, most of these pt's are all axis II and are very demanding, needy, cutters, constant suicidal thoughts, swallowing things for attention, etc. I am constantly sending down pt's to have things fished out of their stomachs. We have more pt's than we can handle and they still seem to find a way to squeeze even more in. We have been getting pt's that are admitted to us who are elderly and depressed because they have been diagnosed with terminal cancer....duh! I'd be depressed too. Some of these pt's medical conditions far outweigh their mental illness. We have tons of pt's on coumadin, tons of IV's, people on oxygen, etc. We have had 3 deaths on our unit in the last couple of months because they send three elderly pt's there to basically die since they were depressed. I wanted to be a psych nurse and now I am a med surg nurse anyway. I have been going home and crying in the last few weeks after work. I am so stressed out. There is so much to learn. There is so much paperwork. I don't know if I'll ever learn how to do it all and manage it all. I am going home depressed. I really love the counseling end of psych nursing, which we do as well, but rarely because we are always calling doctors and giving meds and running around crazy. I love the quality time with the pt's and I have no more quality time than any other nurse. I thought this was what I wanted. I just feel like a bad nurse because I feel that I can't possibly do my best under the stress I'm in. I don't know what to do. I didn't sign my contract yet. It was supposed to be for 3 years. I really hate being a staff nurse. I would love to do outpatient behavioral health counseling or even home health at this point. I just don't know how long I can keep this up. I am not happy and I'm starting to feel like not even getting out of bed. Does anyone feel like this? Can I work in home health or something without working as an RN for a long time? Ugh!:(

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Specializes in med surg, telemetry, stroke.

Alam, I am feeling the same way as you. I am a new LVN (five months) in med surg now and so overwhelmed. I have 12 to 14 patients and these patients are so critically ill most should be in PCU. I changed careers late in life and now I am starting to wonder why. I am so stessed all the time and depressed I too don't want to go in to work. Am working on my RN and sometimes I wonder why. Nursing is not what I had expected. No time to care for these patients the way they deserve to. Spend most of my time apologizing for being late with meds, treatments, forgetting something, etc. This was not what I thought it would be at all. Too many patients and hospitals that don't care about their nurses is all I have seen so far.

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Graduated 12/05, had two med/surg jobs (6 wks ea.) quit and can't see ever going into nursing. I know my lack of orientation contributed a lot, but now I just with I had never done this. And still have school loans to pay off. Sad

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MimisMom, do you think it has to do with age? I'm 55 and I notice several of the other frustrated nurses are in their 50's or late 40's.

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mimis mom...thanks for the reply...yeah...all we want to do is make a difference with our patients and I feel bad for them because they deserve more. My stress is really taking a toll on my health. I get constant migraines. My body feels worn down. I really feel like a failure for wanting to give up so early, but all I want to do is run far far away. I wonder if I'll ever be happy in my career. If I'm not meant to be a nurse, what am I meant to do? I've wasted so much time and money on multiple degrees, etc. The money I make at my hospital is great, but is losing my sanity worth that price? I don't think so. I think I should take care of myself first. I'm glad I'm not alone in my feelings....does anyone know if I need a lot of RN experience before going into home health or doing outpatient mental health? I think I just need to get out of where I am right now.

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