Caregiver fatigue

Dixielee, BSN, RN · Mar 19, 2005

I don't have any answers but am just curious, did you mean caregiver in terms of being a nurse or being "the family"? I have been on both ends of that one!

I was talking to another RN from my ER last night, and we were talking about how the ER just drains everything you have. Probably not just ER, but that is where we had just finished another exhaustive shift, ending with a doc throwing a fit, because, "How hard is it to set up a nosebleed tray"??? (of course he was in a room we do not use for nosebleeds and had no idea he had just brought one back that we did not know about...it was a family friend he was seeing on the side, but I digress)...

There are not many warm fuzzies given out in the ER, you have to look long and hard for them sometimes. We have a huge turnover and large travel staff (of which I am one), simply because of the never ending stream of patients. The only way I survive is because I do travel. I can renew a contract or not, and go to a town because I like the scenary, people, weather or because I have family there. I have not worked "staff" in a hospital since 1993, and the way things are going, I doubt I ever will again.

This may not be what you meant at all, but thanks, I feel better for venting! :clown:

Fiona59 · Mar 20, 2005

I know what you mean. It can be very disheartening working in LTC or a similar setting. One MD explained to me thats why he only did it part time (had a family practice elsewhere), he said he got so depressed knowing that his patients would not improve, so he had to find other outlets to take his mind off of it.

I've never seen anything aimed at the professional care providers. Management seemed to think that staff were simply disgruntled and never considered the "burnout aspect".

Having been unemployed for 8 months has really made me rethink my choices. I really don't think I could go back to LTC on a permanent basis. Casual maybe. I loved my job, and most of my seniors. I just couldn't take the hassle from the families any more (we had a few seniors who knew their kids were a pain in the a@@ and told us not to take their comments to heart, hard to do, when they comments were sent straight to management).

Aneroo, LPN · Mar 20, 2005

AH! Timing! I was in a group for school that just gave two seminars at the health fair on caregiver role strain!!! I typed in caregiver role strain on Yahoo and Google, and found so much info. I cannot remember all of the sites we found, but that's how we got a lot of our info. AARP has a lot of good info. Also try local councils on aging. Good luck-Andrea