Feeling isolated at work
Featured Replies
Currently Reading 0
- No registered users viewing this page.
View in the app
A better way to browse. Learn more.
A better way to browse. Learn more.
A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.
I realize this is lengthy but any input, advice or similar experiences you all have is much appreciated. I work in an ICU at one of the best hospitals in the country as a patient care tech who was cross trained for watching telemetry and assisting in invasive procedures at the bedside. I've been feeling pretty down lately because most of my shift is spent separated from the nurses station staring at a monitor. Before this job, I worked in a CV Surgical ICU where my job involved me interacting with patients and nurses for the entire 12 hours. I never sat down and was always busy helping out, or stocking the rooms, checking sugars, assisting with dressings, sometimes doing 8 baths a night by myself - and I LOVED it.
The hard work I was able to put in was noticed and so I was able to see more, the nurses would offer me bits of knowledge (new terms, numbers and correlations), involve me in conversation and I never heard a bad word said about me while I was there. I was always asking questions. I was always on my feet. I even won "Nurse Tech of the Year Award" at that hospital in a ceremony during Nurses Week that is still is my highest achievement to this day. Then I decided to leave my "work family" to move closer to my mother after just over a year working there.
At this current hospital, I had signed up as a PCT for this specific unit due to previous experience but later found out I was expected to watch telemetry when there were not two techs scheduled for that shift (90% of the time). I was also asked to cross train as a Procedure Technician (which included watching tele) after my probationary period. I quickly decided this isn't what I want to do after 6 months - sitting down for 12 hours a day - and approached my NM, asking to keep me on as a PCT instead of a Procedure Tech. Sadly this unit doesn't have techs who only do direct patient care. I was told I will not be used frequently and might need to work on a floor, but as a solution she extended me the substantial pay increase close to what the other procedure technicians earn if I decided to be ok with the isolation. I figured "if this is all I have to do to make X per year" I can do it.
A year in and I feel useless. My job used to give me strength to keep going day to day because I knew what I did directly made a difference in someone's life that I could see with my eyes. It was heavy work but I knew that my work was felt. I was proud of who I was everyday reflecting on the things I did. Currently, I am not allowed to leave the monitor without permission, i must always have my eyes on the monitor (I am monitored as well), I am separated from the nurses but within earshot, and I maybe do patient care once per pay period. I hear some nurses saying hurtful things all while thinking if I was able to get up and help them, they'd like me. I can't engage in casual conversation without raising my voice for them to hear, and hardly anybody talks to me. I feel overjoyed when someone decides to treat me like a human and talk to me.
My updates about patient vital signs on the monitor are either seen as too much or too little, always hearing snickering when I get uneasy about something or frustration that I didn't call a situation out sooner, comments about how they wish they had a REAL tech on the unit to help. Someone once, without meaning to be hurtful, told me to go back to my chair when I had a question regarding a telemetry strip I printed. Am I setting myself up to fail with this job? Have any of you ever been isolated at work? I absolutely LOVE my unit and I want my coworkers to like me too. I enjoy being in a cardiac intensive care environment vs a floor, but I feel like this particular job is hurting my mental health.
Thanks for reading