I’m a graduate nurse that just started working on a med/surge floor beginning of August. The first few days were pretty exciting as I was learning the ropes and basics of how to chart and see my first few patients under my preceptor and things. But the 3 12-hour shifts a week I’m doing has really started to hit me hard. I wake up after 7+ hours of sleep now feeling like I got none, and I’m trying simultaneously to somehow cook for myself and keep my apartment clean, and just generally take care of myself but I just can’t do it all. These 12 hour shifts are awfully long and with all of this other transition I’m undergoing with living on my own and just trying to make a living, it feels like too much and I’m thinking about just quitting already.
I can’t keep up with all of these things I’m trying to juggle and I’ve come home many times now in tears from how overwhelmed and stuck I feel in the place that I’m in. Should I just give this all up and quit on my residency? Cause if I don’t do something soon I’m afraid I’ll just collapse.
Specializes in Clinical ICU/Hospital Administration.
BDluvs....... if I could wrap you up in my arms, I would. But that would be weird :) Listen, it sounds like you're having a crisis of soul and mind. I'm going to suggest something I did for my BFF in nursing school. She's the one who suggested we do a residency in her ICU where she had worked as a nursing assistant during college. I didn't want to, but if we were going to do something we should do it together, right?
Every shift, either 7a or 7p, she would spend pre-report throwing up in the locker room. Remember, this was her idea and an ICU full of friends and colleagues who knew her so well. This was her jam man, and yet she's throwing up every shift. Ultimately, she had to be able to look herself in the eye in a mirror and give herself affirmations. That sounds lame and felt even lamer at the time, but she had to remind herself that 1) this career was her dream 2) she paid for her education with her own hard work 3) and most importantly, she had to forgive herself for not knowing how this was going to feel. I mean really, putting yourself out there where the rubber hits the road - you're going to get road rash.
Look up "crisis of confidence". If you have done all this work and you're at the point where the rubber hits the road - working at night when everybody else in your sphere is tucked in and sleeping - walking to your car and saying "Just put one foot in front of the other"... you know, it's so isolating, yes? Being a nurse can be terribly isolating.
Recommended reading. The House of God Author Samuel Shem, M.D., Ph.D. Copyright 1978. It's a diary of his residency at Beth Isreal in Boston, Believe it or not, healthcare from a resident in 1978 is remarkably, exactly what it's like now. Humans and disease haven't changed all that much. There's even a glossary of terms and "The Rules of the House of God" Rule #1: Take your own pulse first. Best wishes my friend.
Just give your body time to adjust. I guess it depends how old you are too. In my 20s and 30s my schedule was 6, 12 shifts in a row and then had 8 days off. I did that schedule for years (ICU) While working those shifts I would just work, eat and sleep, nothing else. Occasionally a 12 hour shift would turn into a 16 hour shift. If I tried to do anything like that today it would kill me. I'm lucky I make it through an 8 hour shift today. It does depend how old you are and how much you like your job.
Kype
18 Posts
BDluvs....... if I could wrap you up in my arms, I would. But that would be weird :) Listen, it sounds like you're having a crisis of soul and mind. I'm going to suggest something I did for my BFF in nursing school. She's the one who suggested we do a residency in her ICU where she had worked as a nursing assistant during college. I didn't want to, but if we were going to do something we should do it together, right?
Every shift, either 7a or 7p, she would spend pre-report throwing up in the locker room. Remember, this was her idea and an ICU full of friends and colleagues who knew her so well. This was her jam man, and yet she's throwing up every shift. Ultimately, she had to be able to look herself in the eye in a mirror and give herself affirmations. That sounds lame and felt even lamer at the time, but she had to remind herself that 1) this career was her dream 2) she paid for her education with her own hard work 3) and most importantly, she had to forgive herself for not knowing how this was going to feel. I mean really, putting yourself out there where the rubber hits the road - you're going to get road rash.
Look up "crisis of confidence". If you have done all this work and you're at the point where the rubber hits the road - working at night when everybody else in your sphere is tucked in and sleeping - walking to your car and saying "Just put one foot in front of the other"... you know, it's so isolating, yes? Being a nurse can be terribly isolating.
Recommended reading. The House of God Author Samuel Shem, M.D., Ph.D. Copyright 1978. It's a diary of his residency at Beth Isreal in Boston, Believe it or not, healthcare from a resident in 1978 is remarkably, exactly what it's like now. Humans and disease haven't changed all that much. There's even a glossary of terms and "The Rules of the House of God" Rule #1: Take your own pulse first. Best wishes my friend.