Detox nursing is sucking the life out of me

[number41]

Hey all, I was wondering if anyone with detox nursing experience would care to share their experience? I have been a detox RN for almost a year and I feel like it has made me jaded and is making me question why I even became a nurse. Some days are better than others, like any position, but rough shifts have me leaving feeling like I don't even want to do this anymore. Has anyone else had experience in this area, like this? Manipulative pt's aside... I don't have anymore in me to deal with being spoken down to, lied to and yelled at. I'm sure this happens in any unit but does detox carry a bit more of this sort of thing?

- frustrated

[Marshall1]

I worked a very short stint at a rehab facility. Most of the staff were former addicts which I understood as it helped them related to the patients better but some of the staff were just as difficult, unstable, etc at the patients.

It was a facility with a good reputation outwardly but once inside it was obvious what was presented to the community was not how it operated internally. Leadership turnover was truly almost weekly, it was controlled chaos at best. It was shocking to see just how many medications of ALL kinds the patients were prescribed - in addition to whatever their choice(s) of drug to abuse were. Many patients were from other parts of the state or had literally just left (within a few hours or days) other rehab facilities for not following the rules. Patients often "cheeked" their medications to share w/others, had sex in out of the way places of the facility...it was nuts. I understand completelely why you feel as you do. I would NEVER work another rehab facility again.