Since I was a little girl, I have always wanted to be a nurse. I wanted to help people. I wanted to heal. Now 4 years out of nursing school, I HATE nursing with a passion. I am a med/surg nurse with a BSN.
Reasons I hate nurses (in no particular order)
1. Most days I feel like a pill-pusher. I don't feel like I make a difference.
2. Doctors feel they are perfect.
3. Patient satisfaction scores.
4. Patient sense of entitlement. (see #3)
5. Family at the bedside dictating what they want...like I am their personal servant. I have to comply (see #3).
6. Lack of appreciation mized with how much more work can they give us.
7. Nights, weekends, and holiday. I don't want to give everything I've got only to see no return in work satisfaction.
I don't want to be a case manager. I don't want home health nursing. I really want to be outside of the hospital. Quite honestly, I want to be away from people. I would be quite content to work on a computer and have email interactions. Preferably work from home. Any suggestions?
I used to work on tele floor where my work cell phone would ring constantly. I could never use the restroom in peace let alone take a 30 minute "off the clock" lunch break without being interrupted. Now I work in ICU and have 2 patients that are my responsibility. I have a work cell phone still but its more bearable now. If the phone rings nonstop interfering with my nursing duties then I dump it somewhere till the end of my shift.
The thing I have learned about bedside nursing is that I am NOT trying to be super nurse anymore. Now I just want to get through my day with Patient Safety in mind and my own Health intact. I no longer feel guilty saying I need a bathroom break or lunch break because my health comes first otherwise I cannot take good care of my patients.
There is a huge myth that nurses need to care for everyone else but themselves. I don't believe this is true because otherwise you will end up in that hospital bed putting an end to your career. I don't know why everyone belittles nurses who say they want to take care of their own needs first. . . there is no harm in that as long as your duties towards your patients are attended to also.
Ever since I learned this lesson I have become a better nurse and my patients appreciate me for it.
I can relate to the burnout and stress on the floor. I was so burned out and having co-workers that were miserable did not make it better. I was so burnt i decided to get into medical device education and sales. It was a nice change and allowed me to grow in different ways. My sales and communication skills allowed me to connect with different levels of clinical and administrative teams in the hospital. I started to learn the issues started not only high in the hospital, but also from mandates from federal government. All of this has caused shifts in care and direction of how we get paid. Management needs to communicate what is really going on on how to adapt to it.
Nurses do not realize the amount of respect they can get from physicians, especially when we are saving their bacon in a crisis situation. Many times i feel nurses do not communicate how they feel in a good way. We need to start working on how we can help change this. I am doing a project on this very subject. Instead of talking about the problem, how can we focus on the solution?
Sorry you feel burned out....I have been a nurse for 25 yrs and I might get tired and burnt out sometimes, but then I take a rest and get renewed and back to work. Compared to most jobs out there...I will take nursing anyday!!!! BTW I do private pediatric home health nursing....and I would not change to any other type of nursing!!!!
I feel the same way. I keep trying to figure out if its the facility where I work, if its night shift or if its bedside nursing or nursing in general that I hate. There are so many things about this career I did not anticipate based on what we learned in nursing school. I'm disappointed in myself that I have not even been an RN for two full years and I am already burned out and I feel obligated to remain in this field as my grandparents paid for my education and would likely kill me if I switched to something else. I always here people say how rewarding this profession is and how they feel so fullfilled. I was looking forward to that satisfaction but it just has not happened for me.
I also feel like every night that I work takes 4 days off my life, like the stress is just deteriorating me.
I agree with other people who posted, a good manager can make a difference, but I have found that most of the bad decisions where I work are because her hands are tied from administration above her.
"Many nursing assistances are downright hard to work with, lazy, expect you to do half their job (and tell the director of nursing on you if you don't, and you get in trouble), have an axe to grind against you because they feel bitter or something toward you because you have a degree (atleast it seems this way),"
Wow!! Bitterness! Take a vacation! People are usually not out to get you. My hospital is absolutely full of awesome aides!
"Pts are downright abusive and nasty and you just have to take it, on a daily basis too because there always seems to be atleast one rotten and mean pt on your set.
You get zero, nadda, respect as a registered nurse. "
Seriously?! I have found it to be the exact opposite the past 17 years! You may not be happy at anything you choose to do, a lot has to do with attitude!
I had a math professor that said if you change your attitude even math could be fun and easy, it was true, if you change your attitude even if your faking it, it will be so much better! Good luck!
Thanks for the advice, heres some for you.
Maybe you should take a vacation from all nurses web site, if it bothers you so bad somebody venting/posting about an experience and observations they have been going through on a daily basis they consider negative (because there not living in la la land) that you feel the need to repost it and add condenscending comments.
You might find after a break that you might be a little more polite in your interactions with others on here (ones that never did anything to you anyways).
I am burnt to a crisp. 3 years in med surg and I have had enough. Pts , drs, nursing staff. people who go off the deep end if i dont ask "how high ?" when they tell me to jump. Dr is on the phone, family wants a soda, pt complaining at the desk because it is 10:30 and he didnt get 10 meds yet. then another nurse treats me like i am garbage for not having given them yet. meanwhile i literally have 3 admissions, 2 who are post ops come up within 45mins . pt can wait. if other nurse cares so much then she can give the meds. sick of the staff who try to onw up each other and go to management about everything. i dont care. requests dealt with in order of priority. no problem saying i now to anyone. new grads who need constant help yet get paid little less than me. I want an uninterupted break yet no one can handle anything on their own. if i dont jump up they cry to management . nurses who cry ajd can't handle 2 admissions a shift so i get dumped on because i dont complain. well I guess i will start. other nurses who sit at the desk and do nothing yet cry to management when you do not "help" (do all their work). mandatory ot, mamagement disrespect. You have to stop caring and just try to ignore it. my back hurts and arms, shoulders, neck etc and I am in my 20s!!! i doubt i can handle another 30-50 years of this!!!!!
I couldn't care less what is going on in the unit. If have to pee I'm going to pee. I also ignore the phones for the most part. If I'm sitting by it I'll answer it, but I'm not making a special trip down the hallway for a phone. Logistically, it's easier for a male to urinate I suppose.
I'm always amazed by nurses being indoctrinated into putting everything else first. If you don't take care of yourself you can't effectively do anything else. We don't need to rescue the rescuer. Drink, eat, sit, rest, pee, poop, and do whatever you need to do to take care of yourself. You're more effective when you do. Everything else will wait. I commute to work. Some time during my first week back when I started I got there one morning and everyone was in a rush to go to briefing (or what they call "report"). I said I'll be there in a minute I have to use the restroom. The child/girl "orientating" me said, "You're a nurse. You don't have time to pee!" I have no idea if she was serious or not and have never cared.
People can object to this if they want. I don't care. It's my life not their's.
^I SECOND this. I'm female, and If I have to pee, I will. I give my phone to a neighboring nurse, and vice versa. That "I'm a nurse you don't have time to pee" is BS!!! Just as we are to utilize Maslow's for our patients, best believe I use it for myself, to benefit myself. I will eat, I will pee. If I need a break I will take it, and I will make sure of any nurse needs to, they can! :)
If I can't give my phone away, I pee in peace and call them back...not difficult at all...:)
I used to work on tele floor where my work cell phone would ring constantly. I could never use the restroom in peace let alone take a 30 minute "off the clock" lunch break without being interrupted. Now I work in ICU and have 2 patients that are my responsibility. I have a work cell phone still but its more bearable now. If the phone rings nonstop interfering with my nursing duties then I dump it somewhere till the end of my shift.
The thing I have learned about bedside nursing is that I am NOT trying to be super nurse anymore. Now I just want to get through my day with Patient Safety in mind and my own Health intact. I no longer feel guilty saying I need a bathroom break or lunch break because my health comes first otherwise I cannot take good care of my patients.
There is a huge myth that nurses need to care for everyone else but themselves. I don't believe this is true because otherwise you will end up in that hospital bed putting an end to your career. I don't know why everyone belittles nurses who say they want to take care of their own needs first. . . there is no harm in that as long as your duties towards your patients are attended to also.
Ever since I learned this lesson I have become a better nurse and my patients appreciate me for it.
I can relate to the burnout and stress on the floor. I was so burned out and having co-workers that were miserable did not make it better. I was so burnt i decided to get into medical device education and sales. It was a nice change and allowed me to grow in different ways. My sales and communication skills allowed me to connect with different levels of clinical and administrative teams in the hospital. I started to learn the issues started not only high in the hospital, but also from mandates from federal government. All of this has caused shifts in care and direction of how we get paid. Management needs to communicate what is really going on on how to adapt to it.
Nurses do not realize the amount of respect they can get from physicians, especially when we are saving their bacon in a crisis situation. Many times i feel nurses do not communicate how they feel in a good way. We need to start working on how we can help change this. I am doing a project on this very subject. Instead of talking about the problem, how can we focus on the solution?
I am burnt to a crisp. 3 years in med surg and I have had enough. Pts , drs, nursing staff. people who go off the deep end if i dont ask "how high ?" when they tell me to jump. Dr is on the phone, family wants a soda, pt complaining at the desk because it is 10:30 and he didnt get 10 meds yet. then another nurse treats me like i am garbage for not having given them yet. meanwhile i literally have 3 admissions, 2 who are post ops come up within 45mins . pt can wait. if other nurse cares so much then she can give the meds. sick of the staff who try to onw up each other and go to management about everything. i dont care. requests dealt with in order of priority. no problem saying i now to anyone. new grads who need constant help yet get paid little less than me. I want an uninterupted break yet no one can handle anything on their own. if i dont jump up they cry to management . nurses who cry ajd can't handle 2 admissions a shift so i get dumped on because i dont complain. well I guess i will start. other nurses who sit at the desk and do nothing yet cry to management when you do not "help" (do all their work). mandatory ot, mamagement disrespect. You have to stop caring and just try to ignore it. my back hurts and arms, shoulders, neck etc and I am in my 20s!!! i doubt i can handle another 30-50 years of this!!!!!
This is every day and every shift. Nursing school did not portray nursing like this. We were told things like what an honor it is to give a patient a bath and what an honor it is to care for a patient at their worst time. I don't feel honored. I feel used and abused. Too many patients are assigned to one nurse. Our poor techs have it bad too. Nurses have six patients each and techs have 12 patients each. Nobody can really help you because everyone is running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
Yo, OP, why don't you want to be a case manager? The term "case manager" can have a wide range of definitions, don't go just by what your hospital has. These days, it's a rapidly developing specialty that's different everywhere.
I burned out of public health & clinic nursing after 5 years (these are not safe havens from bedside, in fact just as stressful, poorly managed & bureaucratic) and found refuge working as a case manager last year with a mid-size medical group. I sit at a desk in my own office, and coordinate care telephonically. Most of my patients are hospice/palliative and I mostly talk to their family members. I spend the bulk of my day reviewing charts, med lists & DME, and on the phone or emailing with UM, MDs, NPs & their staff. I'm salaried (no clock punching, as long as I work my 8 hours a day & get work done I can come/go as I please) 5 days a week, no weekends or holidays. I get paid the same as the med surg RNs at our hospitals!
I don't see what's so awful about that. It sure beats working the floor.
Also, toughen up! I've been an RN for almost 7 years and only JUST now am I not hating it!
Sorry it sucks for you but you are the one in control. Vent away, we all empathize!! But don't be all talk, be ACTION!!!!!!
I don't know where you live, but there is a MAJOR insurance company hiring for medical reviewers/case managers. I wanted to do it, but it was too far from my house. I totally feel your pain. I have been in nursing now for close to fourteen years. I agree with previous posts that say a nurse leaves her manager. I have worked in some hell hole emergency rooms, but was able to manage because I had the proper support. With all the health care reform, the government doesn't realize that they are pushing out experienced nurses and doctors alike. Yes, we have a hard job and should make more than a fry person at a fast food joint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My advice is this: Sit down somewhere quiet and write down all the pros and cons of your career. Explore WHY you chose nursing. We live in an entitleist society now. That will not change. I have learned as an emergency room nurse to teach patients and families how to treat ME. I don't put up with their crap. I do it though in a gentle but firm way. You teach people how to treat you. That cup of ice is NOT more important than the code about to happen down the hall!!!!!! As far as patient satisfaction scores.... The only people that fill out those forms are the drug seekers who didn't get their drugs!!!!!! (I know... I do call backs as well). As far as pooh poohing jobs that want "experience", highlight the experience you DO have!!!!! Med/surg nurses take care of a WIDE variety of patients!!!!!!! Sell YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!! Good luck to you and I hope this helps!!!!!!!!!
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sonia211, BSN
31 Posts
I used to work on tele floor where my work cell phone would ring constantly. I could never use the restroom in peace let alone take a 30 minute "off the clock" lunch break without being interrupted. Now I work in ICU and have 2 patients that are my responsibility. I have a work cell phone still but its more bearable now. If the phone rings nonstop interfering with my nursing duties then I dump it somewhere till the end of my shift.
The thing I have learned about bedside nursing is that I am NOT trying to be super nurse anymore. Now I just want to get through my day with Patient Safety in mind and my own Health intact. I no longer feel guilty saying I need a bathroom break or lunch break because my health comes first otherwise I cannot take good care of my patients.
There is a huge myth that nurses need to care for everyone else but themselves. I don't believe this is true because otherwise you will end up in that hospital bed putting an end to your career. I don't know why everyone belittles nurses who say they want to take care of their own needs first. . . there is no harm in that as long as your duties towards your patients are attended to also.
Ever since I learned this lesson I have become a better nurse and my patients appreciate me for it.