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Discussion

Burnout from Tele Unit

I started my nurse residency in Oct '17 on a telemetry unit (glorified med/surg), where we have 6 patients every night and hardly any PCA's or a secretary. I have quickly become burned out, and I have really been trying to figure out what I want to do next. In school I always wanted to do NICU, until I had capstone in pediatrics and fell in love with that. Unfortunately, I was not able to get into either one of those areas and really took a job that I was offered for the experience. Since I had experienced this exact unit during clinicals, I figured I could handle it. I work nights and I am NOT a night person. We are understaffed and always have to have a float (I see this is fairly common on a telemetry unit), but I am just not enjoying my job at all, but I am not sure where to go from here. I recently applied for research nurse positions, and also a PRN Pedi OR position. I have been in contact with HR about the OR, but have heard nothing from the Research. The thing about the research position is it's another residency. HOWEVER, this is a completely different area and I wouldn't mind joining another residency...especially for research. SO, here I am and I just don't know what route would be best for me, but I do not want night shift anymore, and I am not liking the idea of staying bedside at this point...My background is accounting. This was a career move, and I have just been sad that I am not enjoying it like I thought. Also, the things I craved most about nursing, I am not really getting either. We are so busy I never really get to slow down to get to know any of my patients...AND being on nights doesn't make it easy. Any advice?

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    Stick it out for a few more months so you will have one year acute care experience under your belt.

    Why don't you follow your original passion of working in pediatrics? Is there a children's hospital in your area?

    Tele is good experience to have to work in an outpatient surgical center. You would have more time to spend with your patients working in a preop or PACU position.

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    Yes! I definitely plan to stay until I get my one year, but I have applied to an outpatient cardiology pediatric clinic. So far, I have not heard anything back from any of the pediatric clinics. However, the PRN job did call me back and I may hear something from the manager. I figured I can at least start working 1 shift a week and see where that leads me. It would be AMAZING if I could go on full time there. I figured it would be good experience, but I feel it is just SO competitive here where I live in Houston. Ill keep looking into more Preop or PACU positions! Maybe I will get lucky and be able to get one! Only a couple of more months left until I am at my one year mark! :) Thanks so much for the response and advice!

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    Try working prn at school nursing. It could help get your foot in the door for peds, and it helps develop soft skills you'd need for an ambulatory clinic (phone triage, office skills, paperwork knowledge for outpatient care, the whole family-dynamic thing in peds, practicing nursing with little supervision which demonstrates independent nursing skills, which is super-important in ambulatory). It worked for me.

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    Thank you! I think I will try that!! I actually got a job in Pediatric Burn ICU that I will start on August 13! :) It kind of happened really fast, and I was shocked that I was able to get this opportunity. I went for a shadow day on Monday, and they offered the job on the spot to me. I am so excited, and I know this experience will be invaluable! BUT, I would LOVE to do the school PRN thing too! That may be what happens in the long run. I can see myself doing that in a few years, and that would definitely set me up to where I can easily transition into school nursing. I am just happy I get to work with kiddos now!

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