Are any of you guys as burned out as I am?

Nurses Men

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:madface: :madface: :madface: :troll: I've been an RN and NP for almost 22 years now. Most recently I was working as an RN due to the rather soft job opportunities for NPs around my area. This past Friday I walked away from my job. My manager told me she was receiving complaints about my nursing style. Most of the gripes seemed to focus on my not being empathetic or not seeming to care about my patients. Not true but at the same time I've always come across as more serious in demeanor. That conference with my manager was the last straw. I talked things over with my wife and quit the next day. I'm now looking at changing careers and getting out of healthcare.

This is not a new feeling for me. Working in hospitals for so long and dealing with difficult patients, families with unrealistic expectations, arrogant MDs, assignment overload and managers that want to turn me into a woman has finally pushed me off the cliff.

I've been in nursing a long time and really don't know how to do anything else so I'm in limbo right now. I'm leaning toward getting some job that has the least resonsibility possible. Kind of like Kevin Spacey in "American Beauty". Maybe the local Wal-Mart or Burger joint has some openings. But this I know, I'm never going to work as an RN again.That part of my life is over.

I appreciate all the responses to my rant and all of the suggestions for alternative employment. I got into nursing when I was 30 so I already did my time in the ashes, so to speak. I worked in construction, taught school threw drunks out of nightclubs; you get the picture. I worked as an NP this week through an agency and actually enjoyed it. There were and always will be trying or difficult patients but most of the folks I treated this week were appreciative of my efforts to get them well. I still feel the same way about nursing though. I will never work as an RN again. Maybe it was just the last situation I was in that helped finish burning me out, I don't know. I do know that I'm ready for a change. A big change. Thanks for the support I've seen here on the forum.

Yea, walk away. Life is too short not to. I was in yours shoes in another field, and now I'm interested in nursing. Right now it's sorta new and fun.

I'm glad you had the nads to walk! Find your new passion and dive in.

:madface: :madface: :madface: :troll: I've been an RN and NP for almost 22 years now. Most recently I was working as an RN due to the rather soft job opportunities for NPs around my area. This past Friday I walked away from my job. My manager told me she was receiving complaints about my nursing style. Most of the gripes seemed to focus on my not being empathetic or not seeming to care about my patients. Not true but at the same time I've always come across as more serious in demeanor. That conference with my manager was the last straw. I talked things over with my wife and quit the next day. I'm now looking at changing careers and getting out of healthcare.

This is not a new feeling for me. Working in hospitals for so long and dealing with difficult patients, families with unrealistic expectations, arrogant MDs, assignment overload and managers that want to turn me into a woman has finally pushed me off the cliff.

I've been in nursing a long time and really don't know how to do anything else so I'm in limbo right now. I'm leaning toward getting some job that has the least resonsibility possible. Kind of like Kevin Spacey in "American Beauty". Maybe the local Wal-Mart or Burger joint has some openings. But this I know, I'm never going to work as an RN again.That part of my life is over.

Boy, do I commiserate with you. The part about finding a job with no responsiblity strikes a cord with me. I look forward to the day (in a three long years) that I won't be responsible for anyone but myself (I'm currently a nurse manager). I have the same feelings of burnout that you seem to have.

No advice from my end - except that I'd think an NP would be an outstanding candidate to teach nursing school. I don't know how that would change your perspective, but at least you wouldn't likely be in direct contact with patients (although you owe it to your students to provide TLC to their learning needs).

Good luck as an NP. Hopefully, your organization won't put added pressure of seeing a ton of patients on you - and allow you to enjoy actually caring for patients.

Everone has moments of burn out from time to time...When we dwell on that emotion for long periods of time, we have real issues on our hands. Burn out is a natural part of any job. My advice would be to shake it off and don't linger on that thought for long.Life goes on no matter how we feel personally. " Fight or Flight".

Specializes in icu, neuro icu, nursing ed.

i wish you well and much success.

take a break. and maybe...part time nursing outside the hospital will be in your future??

also, consider auditing / working for insurance companies. or look into state or federal jobs. the retirement benefits are usually worth it.

it's tough every where, but especially in hospitals.

Specializes in SICU-MICU,Radiology,ER.

I dont blame you for wanting out.

Ive only been in this for about six years and Ive just about had it.

Ive been in a few jobs myself having got into this later in life. Ive never met a more rude group of people.

Im not sure what it is about nurses overall that makes them think they have the right to talk to other nurses the way they do. They cant do that to strangers on the street....

Ive heard a lot of suggestions about making nursing a better profession including being treated better by Doctors. I think nurses should focus on treating each other better instead. An entire year in Iraq in an Infantry battalion as an Infantryman I was treated better by peers and Iraqis alike.

Dont get me wrong. Ive met some amazing individuals in nursing.

My solution?

Working part time and agency has been the solution so far. And setting myself up in another industry.

Best of luck to you. Perhaps occupational nursing might be worth looking into-

Specializes in gen icu/ neuro icu/ trauma icu/hdu.

For me switching specialties was like a rest cure, 11 yrs doing the same thing in the same place, sometimes a change can be all you need.

Specializes in Emergency Room.

I completely understand your frustration, but they are a lot of opportunities in nursing. Especially if your a nurse practioner, just check out all the different specialities nursing has. Sounds like you need a break from the hospital grind. Maybe private practice with a physician might be better. But dont throw away all the education and experience, they are people who will pay well for those qualities.

After reading Atlas Shrugged I began avoiding overtime and instead I work a second job completely unrelated to nursing.

I'm am soooo glad I found this forum.

Sorry if the below is so long.

I work in the IT field and have worked for Compaq/HP going on 7yrs.

Relegated to a cubicle for 7yrs!

I've been in a few different careers, with 4.5yrs in USAF, 8.5yrs as a Federal Corrections Officer and 7rs in IT.

I'm now back in school and will apply for Nursing school in the spring.

I'm burned out with IT. The jobs are all being shipped to India or other 3rd world countries. Trying to stay on top of the ever changing software/hardware and chasing after certifications that become obsolete as fast as you obtian them is crazy. It's a career where the age of 40 is considered over the hill. Corporate America is saying there isn't enough smart American's and therefore we need to import H1b Visa workers. I'm surrounded by Indians. Nice people, but you can't tell me with the thousands of IT people being laid off by Intel, IBM, HP and others that they can't find enough educated people to fill these postions.

I've looked at trying different areas, made some changes, but I can see the writing on the wall. Most of the jobs I found were contract only and reqired a lot of travel or it meant taking a 20% or more pay cut.

When I saw engineers with vast knowlege in VMS, Unix, Stoage, SAN's and other areas being laid off and replaced by H1b Visa workers, I knew it was time to jump ship.

So I thought about a carreer change and started looking.

A neighbor of mine happened to be a nurse and she suggested I try nursing. As a male, I never would have thought about this carreer field, but the more I looked into it the more I liked it.

Here are the possibilites I can see in nursing and please let me know the other pros and cons.

Longevity (you're not considered too old at the age of 40)

Flexability

Scalability

Profitablity (I'm not going to have to worry about being replaced by an H1b Visa worker or have to worry about my job moving to India)

Scrubs.... I get to wear scrubs!

As a former Federal Correcions Officer.. I can take the verbal abuse, shift work and political butt kissing. It was the idea and knowledge that I was stuck in a rut and couldn't move up or out. Please tell me if I'm wrong, but I see endless possibilites in a nursing career.

Thanks again for all the support. I've decided to work NP temp assignments in corrections for now. I found an agency that staffs locum tenens slots at prisons around the state. The pay is good, the benefits non-existent and if an inmate gives me any grief I'll throw his ass in the hole for a month or two. Not really of course. The guard will throw him in the hole while I laugh loudly. There should really be an equivalent punishment for difficult patients in hospitals and MD offices. Someone is rude or beligerent--pop 'em with a tazer! turn the firehose on them! unleash the dogs! (I see that my burnout and anger hasn't totally faded.) Whether this situation will improve my outlook on my chosen career I really don't know. Again thanks for all the replies.

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