Those of you that know me realize that I have been participating here since nursing school. I graduated May 2009 and have been working in oncology. I worked in oncology as a nurse assistance and student extern before I graduated. After graduation, I started off in a Stem Cell Transfusion unit and loved it; however, I soon realized the acuity was too much for me. I resigned (in good standing) and started anew at another hospital on a generalized oncology/hematology unit. I've enjoyed it and my skill set has grown enormously. Please let me start off by saying that the end-of-life aspect of my job does not effect me nearly as much as the other points I will be making. I am becoming depressed. I am assuming it is because reality is setting in and I'm doubting my decision to go into nursing.
First let me say that there are a few patients out there that keep me in this job because they appreciate the job I do for them; however, the negative is starting to get to me too.
I am tired of staff being cut, leaving the nurses with not only more patients per nurse, but higher acuity patients, no nursing assistant, no unit clerk, and sharing our charge nurse with two other units. I had a pt have a reaction to a transfusion and luckily I was able to handle it on my own, because no one else was around. Unfortunately, I had to leave the pt alone to pull meds and call the doctor; which I know is a big no-no. To top it off, scheduled vital signs and glucose levels were not done because the reaction set me behind and they had sent our nurse asst home when we "dropped" to ten patients (five per nurse).
I am tired of monthly meetings where we are told we need to improve our "customer ratings", the "ratings" determine our raises, while they cut staff and call bells cannot be answered in a realistic time frame. (E.g., the transfusion reaction). And, of course, the nurses are left to make the circus work. When asked an opinion and I professionally and courteously reply with the reality of the situation, we are told "to just call me to help out". Yeah, the DON, OA, Unit Manager, and Unit Director come running from their meetings when you call for help (inject sarcasm here).
I am tired of one of the charge nurses making comments like, "If you make friends, more people will help you." I am a friendly person, I don't hang out alot after work, so I do not know what she means by this. I have noticed her being slower to help out some people, including myself?
I am tired of managment telling me to document precisely because "everything falls back onto the nurse", but precise charting seems to be a luxury lately.
I am so very tired of getting flack from families about wanting information from the doctor, but the doc has yet to come see them.
I am tired of docs making certain patients DNR, but leaving me to tell the family (we have a medical futility law that allows physicians to make a pt DRN, with or without the pt permission).
I am tired of calling security because people don't know how to behave when they visit loved ones, or having to speak to families about their out-of-hand children destroying the family lounge.
I am tired of finally getting myself organized and safely performing care, to only get another email regarding more paperwork we are required to squeeze in to our daily responsibilities.
I am trying to decide if I should keep doing what I'm doing. Is my license worth the occassional smile from a patient, or the feeling of satisfaction I get when I explain something to a patient or family member that "no one else would help me understand"?
I knew nursing would not be a cake walk, but I did not think I would burn out so quickly. Thanks for any advice you may have.
Been a nurse for 16 months on a neuro/ortho floor and feel the same way as you. My unit is cutting aides and secretary hours. Now we are expected to do more with less. This is unsafe.
I love the hands on patient care but there is so little time for it. I dread going to work because of the stress level.
Is changing hospitals the answer? I think hospitals are only interested in the bottom line so I don't believe changing hospital would do any good.
:redbeathe Thanks for your responses. I have a question. Maybe it is just a matter of getting more experience under my belt, but, how come other nurses seem to handle these issues effortlessly? They complain and discuss "getting out of here"; however, they seem to sail through the guff. Your comments have made my day, thank you. I am starting to work on my OCN (more marketable), and put out applications.
KOT
It could be that the other nurses ARE feeling stressed, but are able to not let it show because they do have more experience.
Your examples are the reason why I left the hospital for good. I simply couldn't be the nurse I wanted to be there because of short staffing, and at times it was very unsafe. (At bare minimum, I need my workplace to be safe.) My work-life balance was poor and my health showed the beginnings of decline because of my work. I was depressed a lot.
As to your question on how do others do it - a lot feel trapped. Many are single mothers or are the sole breadwinner in the family and don't see any other choice. As an earlier poster said too many try to not let it show. Many go on antidepressants. Many take shortcuts on the care they give. One nurse who had superwoman energy during her shift told me she was depleted off-shift and her family life suffered, and she no longer works at the hospital because of it.
Its really sad when you see the thread pop up every now and then encouraging our fellow nurses to eat lunch and to go to the bathroom. That's the ever more common working conditions at the hospital for you.
I don't know the answer to how to fix these issues, but nursing outside of the hospital has helped my health and my home life. It was sad how excited I was to have time to go to the bathroom and not having a phone on my hip ringing while I was in there. The 'change the world' naive ideal has died (it was difficult to let that go), replaced by 'its just a job' with a feeling that I'm doing something to help others in the process. I am glad to hear you are putting out applications. I hope that you can find a better, safer, workplace. It will make a big difference.
A lot of that comes with the terrority and are common nursing complaints but you seem to have ALL the bad parts of nursing lumped into one job! I have a few of those complaints (the new forms..STOP with them already!! We have enough to chart!!) and sometimes tight staffing but if I had to deal with all of that all the time, I'd find somewhere else to work. It seems like nursing is right for you but maybe the unit or facility is not a good match.
I could have also written your post WORD for WORD. I have worked onc/med/surg for 5 years this summer.
I also spent time wondering how others seem to be doing this job without going completely insane. So I started paying attention....
I noticed that some of these nurses are just not doing their job. I am not sure how they are getting away with it. There is a nurse on my floor who refuses to get up and off the computer until 800am. ( We get out of report at 730) If pts call for pain medis at 735, she says they are not due until 8 (even if it is time) She sits all day and manages to get out on time. I have seen full bags of antibiotics in the pts garbage that were charted as given. I could go on and on but I wont. Our floor has had more falls this year alone than in the past 4 years combined. We once had 2 different pts fall in one shift. On the flip side, I have seen RN's crying in the breakroom, locker room, and at the nurses station too. Totally overwhelmed and broken.
So here is how I see it. I am an experienced ethical RN who has come to the realization that there is NO way I can do a safe proper job on my unit. More experience or a vacation is not going to change the conditions on the unit. It is the ENVIRONMENT, not me. So I am leaving. (and I'm not the only one sista) In fact, tomorrow I am taking my resume to a different department.
The straw that broke the camels back for me....I went to my manager and asked i(in a non threating way) if she had noticed that many RN's and CNA's are having a rough time lately....and what did she think about it? What could we do? She told me that most nurses who have trouble at work "don't take care of themselves very well" and "many who have personal problems will bring them to work" And that "they can find other places to work if they cant handle it."
I was almost embarrased that she thought I was dumb enough to fall for this line of B.S. So Kim, realize that you are not the only one. Can you really do everything they are asking you to do, safely? Is it humanly possible? Not on my unit Kim. Nurses with 20+ years of experience are saying the same thing on my floor. They have seen nursing change for the worse, first hand. They say they can't leave because they have invested so much time and money into staying a building their retirement. I say good luck to them keeping their licence over the next few years. Not to mention keeping their sanity.
Been a nurse for 16 months on a neuro/ortho floor and feel the same way as you. My unit is cutting aides and secretary hours. Now we are expected to do more with less. This is unsafe.
I love the hands on patient care but there is so little time for it. I dread going to work because of the stress level.
Is changing hospitals the answer? I think hospitals are only interested in the bottom line so I don't believe changing hospital would do any good.
I agree about changing hospitals. I don't necessarily know if one will be better than the other. A co-worker once commented that she believes all new nurses should start on night shift because it is slower and there is more time to build up time management skills. I don't know if I really believe that. I did some school clinicals on night shift and found it busy too. Usually a higher nurse:patient ratio and less resources.
Been a nurse for 16 months on a neuro/ortho floor and feel the same way as you. My unit is cutting aides and secretary hours. Now we are expected to do more with less. This is unsafe.
I love the hands on patient care but there is so little time for it. I dread going to work because of the stress level.
Is changing hospitals the answer? I think hospitals are only interested in the bottom line so I don't believe changing hospital would do any good.
Is there really a perfect hospital where nurses are supported, pt ratio is realistic, and staffing is adequate? What kills me is when we do have a unit clerk scheduled, she sleeps half the shift (while call lights are going off and the rest of us are expected to answer them for her) or is on the phone having conversations all night with her friends (it's actually shocking to me how many RNs and PCTs are on the phone all night, when cellphones aren't even allowed!). I don't get how someone gets paid to do that. She's a lovely person but it's a little hard not to resent her work ethic while I'm busting my butt doing what I get paid to do.
:redbeathe Thanks for your responses. I have a question. Maybe it is just a matter of getting more experience under my belt, but, how come other nurses seem to handle these issues effortlessly? They complain and discuss "getting out of here"; however, they seem to sail through the guff. Your comments have made my day, thank you. I am starting to work on my OCN (more marketable), and put out applications.
KOT
I imagine they hide it really well. I'm known for being very calm, but inside I'm a boiling cauldren of rage. Really. I get irritated very easily, especially when I'm tired, but you'd never know it to look at me. I'll probably have a stroke one of these days, from all the repressed emotions.
I agree about changing hospitals. I don't necessarily know if one will be better than the other. A co-worker once commented that she believes all new nurses should start on night shift because it is slower and there is more time to build up time management skills. I don't know if I really believe that. I did some school clinicals on night shift and found it busy too. Usually a higher nurse:patient ratio and less resources.
Some things are better on nights, but it's still plenty busy. When things go bad, they go really bad.
Oh, "building time management skills." Please. What they mean by that is figuring out shortcuts and learning which things I can safely blow off. Time management is a blame-the-victim phrase management uses to guilt trip its staff.
sistasoul
724 Posts
Hi Kim,
Been a nurse for 16 months on a neuro/ortho floor and feel the same way as you. My unit is cutting aides and secretary hours. Now we are expected to do more with less. This is unsafe.
I love the hands on patient care but there is so little time for it. I dread going to work because of the stress level.
Is changing hospitals the answer? I think hospitals are only interested in the bottom line so I don't believe changing hospital would do any good.