Burnout

I have found a book that has really helped me. It's called Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others. There is a website about it also: https://traumastewardship.com/ It just gives tools and suggestions for managing burnout for roles like ours where we are exposed to lots of other people's trauma. I have been burned out in the past and using some of the strategies in the book has helped me a lot! I can completely relate to your struggle and I wish you all the best. I am going back to get my RN in Jan so I'm trying to strengthen my own coping strategies to prepare since I know I will feel more stressed.

You have one more semester to complete your ADN.  Don't  quit now. That will  open many doors for you. Spending eight years at one place will surely limit your insight.

Use the education and experience you have  to move forward in the nursing field. 

Best wishes.

Thank you! I am hoping to do so.

On 12/15/2021 at 8:32 PM, Squidpdx said:

I have found a book that has really helped me. It's called Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others. There is a website about it also: https://traumastewardship.com/ It just gives tools and suggestions for managing burnout for roles like ours where we are exposed to lots of other people's trauma. I have been burned out in the past and using some of the strategies in the book has helped me a lot! I can completely relate to your struggle and I wish you all the best. I am going back to get my RN in Jan so I'm trying to strengthen my own coping strategies to prepare since I know I will feel more stressed. 

Thank you. I will look into this book. Being there firsthand for peoples trauma whether big or small definitely takes its toll on us. Good luck with your RN journey!

I was redirected to this group since my insight seemed to be out of context? Who hasn’t had the feeling of burnout nursing is lonely and it’s a profession that gets little recognition hardly ever hear a thank you only blamed and made to feel like we can’t ever get it right. Dealing with sick patients takes a special type person so give yourself a pat on the back and find a happy place where those little moments like breaks to eat with people that same share sentiments are relaxing and a time to reset and that self care should be done as much as possible take the time to iron your scrubs do your hair and makeup make your self feel good about you whatever it takes for yourself to feel good I am not at all saying that is what needs to be done I’m only saying it works for me I prefer to look clean and feel clean not go to work with messy bun and wrinkled clothes looking a hot mess...if I feel that burnout coming I also step back and look to self schedule and change things around asking the scheduler to allow shift changes to accommodate personal time to get beauty sleep are you getting sleep?

As far as burnout every nurse has the right mechanism that works for them Myself cannot work in a dull environment rather prefer hospitals working in the ER where every night we have someone shouting GSW....remember the first time I heard this seeing everyone running thought it was some signal only to find out it was a wounded person usually it’s gang era in certain community’s and the scary part is sometimes they drive through our parking lot for minutes with caravans of followers shooting at each other until a body gets dropped off and we run out to stabilize the situation I am only a PCT but it something that irks me every time the security and police ask them are they part of a gang when it’s obvious reading there tattoos on the body you can see either Hispanic gangs Black gangs Asians gangs read all on the chest blasted and they ask them a dumb question like what gang are you part of why when a person is shot does that make a difference part of the process but these things are what burns me out stops us saving lives protocol when someone is dieing looking at you with little to no life in there helpless body I don’t think the last thing they wanna say is what gang they are from just my honest insight but again what do I know I’m only a nursing aid

I know I have trouble staying in one place for too long.  I currently work in outpatient dialysis. Recently we had a couple of techs graduate with their RN. As a result of (I'm assuming) covid, our clinic has been training many people for the other clinics in the same company for the past couple of years. We now have several preceptors, and I was approached to be an LPN preceptor for the clinic. I took it for the increased pay, since I was already doing the work. I enjoyed teaching, and I wanted to be that person to help other LPNs. I feel like I didn't always have the support I needed, so I want to be there to support others. 

The job is definitely bringing more stress, but I still feel it's keeping me motivated to keep working. It's also teaching me valuable things that I know I have to improve in myself. When I train, if they're a person who is not fresh out of high school or taking care of children or a sick family member, I have less empathy. You are an adult. You agreed and signed up for these early hours. You need to work. My most recent trainee is someone I went to school with and she definitely was taking advantage over my kindness. Even though I felt I was laying down the line, in the end, I was not. And now I know that this is something I have to work on.  

At the moment I'm working on A&P, so I guess I stopped having this burnout feeling because I don't have as much time to dwell on the fact that work is hectic, my pay was low, and I didn't have any motivation or desire to continue working. I know if this class lasted even longer than it currently does, I probably would begin to feel burnout again. But for now, I think I'm managing.