Life is too short to be this stressed

littleneoRN · Jun 23, 2009

The thing is that it is not this way everywhere. Sadly, many places are this way, especially adult med-surg floors. We need change there. But know that not every job in the hospital needs to mean stress, burn-out, and way more work than you can possibly do. I by-passed the supposedly important 1-2 years of med-surg experience because the work didn't appeal to me and the stories I've heard have always made the work conditions sounds....less than acceptable. Instead, I'm working in a lovely Children's Hospital with appropriate staffing and good working conditions. Yes, there's a lot of paper, but it's generally managable. I almost always get my breaks and leave on time. I had a good orientation and feel like I have most of the resources I would like to provide good patient care. All that to say...please don't give up on nursing! Instead, give up on the poorly managed unit or facility, vote with your feet, and find a healthy place to work. I know this can really vary geographically and I feel for the people for whom moving would be difficult due to families, etc. But just know that nursing does not have to be that way.

karenchad · Jun 23, 2009

went to my first staff meeting- i'm only a per deim and working a cardiac/tele- med/surg----med/surg shouldn't even be but there- the patients are far too critically ill to be in the same sentance we get them out of MICU and SICU there is no other place for them to go. I was very impressed with my nurse manager- she began our staff meeting addressing the nurse patient ratio( currently 1:6) and the speed at which the SICU is sending them to us- post open heart. she heard all our complaints reguarding the heavines of care they require and the number that need to go back to SICU. our last comment to her was a reminder that the patients we admit to our unit are patients that have been transferred from another facility's ICU/CCU, which alot of us need reminding ourselves because we don't think about it- just do it and move on to our other 5 patients. I was impressed with the sincerity she conveyed and stated that she wanted to know when the last time our direcor of nursing was up on our unit and she was going to bring this to her attention and invite her up. also brought up was the possiblity of patients being given a HANDBOOK of the expectations of them in their own recovery process- this customer service crap has gone too far- they refuse to wash themselves, refuse their physical therapy, refuse their meds. I have seen a patient needing readmission for CHF who 4 times refused his physical therapy- (got homeand what?became SOB when there was no nurse there to fetch for him - how much do we think that readmission cost) another patient with a history of HTN with his b/p= 70/40 has been allowed to lay in bed for 1 MONTH because he REFUSES to get OOB- patient relations should start adoption proceeding on him. He's almost customer serviced to DEATH. another patient has been allowed to refuse his Cardizem- now every time he eats his heart rate goes up to 130's- food must be 5 star. It was our conclusion that the customer service extreme is also stressing nursing out- we are no longer employed by a hospital for seriously ill people( because that is the ONLY people that now-a-days can be admitted) but a SPA/HOTEL. All these MONEY administrators (their MBA's) have created a trash can of fiscal waste- the unnecessary readmissions, less reibursements , more burned out nurses( from trying to jump through hoops of the Neiman Marcus customer service ploys and do their REAL work--/nursing) high turnover and short staffing and then have the gaul to preach- no money to replace a nurse, no money to orient a new nurse. GET THESE BUSINESS DEGREES OUT OF THE HOSPITALS AND NURSING- they are so proficient at masking ways to waste money in health care. A good frugal housewife could do alot better.

GooeyRN, ADN, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN · Jun 23, 2009

I agree. I am sorry you are so disappointed. I only work part-time, b/c I feel the stress of working full-time would cause me to not enjoy life much at all. I would rather have less money to live on and be more frugal than deal with all that stress on a daily basis. :crying2: The paperwork is horrendous, and everything is dumped on nursing staff. Especially on non day shift nurses. There is no nurse manager, charge nurse, unit secretary, or unit coordinator to deal with the crap work. The meds are just as heavy as are the treatments, and the same amount of visitors come. WHY does everything fall on nursing?

karenchad · Jun 23, 2009

Children's Hospitals are a whole different ballgame- if a sentenal event happens with a child the place is surrounded by the SWAT team. the management of these hospitals have to deal with angry and devastated parents, grandparents- the likes of which they don't want to see.( ie. the Heparin mistake with that actors twins, several years before that a child also died in the OR- hence we all now have this policy to disclose mistakes when they happen to lessen the lawsuits, OB/GYN's high malpractice insurance rates) the gloves come off, so management acts more responsibly and delligently in providing a healthier environment- better staffing ratios.( happier nurses; happier patients/children/families) this falls by the way side when it comes to adults-administrative greed takes over. Ronald McDonald doesn't visit and the only fairy tales are told by the management- yes, they are grim. the conditions in some LTC- horror stories- the food is slop ( i once saw a dialysis patient served a hotdog and potatoe chips for dinner- i went to the kitchen to get the RESIDENT something more apprpriate to a RENAL diet- I was threatened not to ever come into the kitchen again by the administrator/ the lost her licenseRN, I lasted 6 months) the staff inservice consists of ABUSE training, some administrators are nurses who have lost their licenses( when they were employed in a hospital- I can give a name of one in BURLINGTON, NJ) my 83 year old mother will NEVER go in that LTC. I've seen BETTY DAVIS but no Ronald McDonald, hotdogs no hambergers.

Terpole · Jun 25, 2009

I completely agree with the OP and most of posts on the first page (long night last night, too tired to read all the other stuff in between).

It's time for a reflection after this first year, to ask ourselves questions. Do I really want to do this? Why am I doing this? If I don't want to do this, then what will I do? I'm willing to be the first person to say I might've chosen this career for the wrong reasons. But I refuse to let myself be scared into misery because I'm afraid to do something else, to get out of my comfort zone (such as a steady paycheck and being done with school).

And to the new nurse who has second thoughts, you shouldn't either.

NightNurseRN · Jun 30, 2009

Maybe you should try a unit with higher acuity pts, not that is is easier by any means but you get lower pt. to nurse ratios. I worked on an IMU and got 4 pts maxium. It is still stressful and hectic but at least you get to really know your patients and their illness and comorbities. I remember working medsurg and a someone would ask me something about a patient and i couldnt even remember why they were in the hospital! i was so busy trying to complete paperwork and tasks that had to be done by a certain time. Im not a fan of medsurg unless they have low ratios.

NewTexasRN · Jul 1, 2009

Wow. As a recent GN I'm not looking forward to the grunt work. You should get a least one year of experience and move up the ladder as you get your BSN and MS degree.

karenchad · Jul 2, 2009

the grunt work- there is no shame in doing bedside nursing- this is the essence of nursing- where nursing begins, it's reality - not nursing administration. a bedside nurse with razor sharp assessment skills often times mean life and death for a patient. It's the bedside nurse who informs the nursing administrator that there is a problem. a nursing administrator has to have bedside experience to even understand what the reported problem is. sadly enough alot of time they don't- have enough bedside experience. bedside nursing is great we need the staff to do it, which means we need the new grads, who need competent orientation/preceptors to help get them there. you new grads are the reinforcements. we need to get the controllers of the purse strings to take off their greedy blinders to see this. and put some money into the workforce. that staffing ratios of 1:6,7,8 on med/surg and tele floors are deadly- then all the money the budget and finance offices horde have to be given out in out of court lawsuit settlements. how disqusting- sorry for your loved ones loss here's some money- like a department store- the dress didn't fit, here's your money back. the entire nursing and hospital culture needs to change. it begins at the grunt work level- the bedside-- the first to go should be this garbage of customer service/ satisfaction. I have never seen anyone write on discharge instructions-Cashier/checkout- Did You Find Everything Alright? your total comes to $300,000 would you like cashback.

Carla001 · Jul 6, 2009

Well...I really am glad to read these posts b/c I have been conisdering nursing for 5 years now and have not made the decision to go back to school yet. I love medicine, I have a CNA license, I want to help people when they are sick but when I read these posts I do have second thoughts. Maybe I have a "dream" of nursing that is not the reality in any way. My husband once spent 3 hours in the ER at a very good hospital and never saw a doctor/nurse and we ended up at another ER where he ended up having an appendectomy. That's when I started to think more about going into nursing b/c i wanted to try and prevent things like that from happening but I may be disillusioned. I have a job working from home...which is great....but I have wanted to go into nursing for years now. But gosh...everyone I talk to here at home who is in nursing and then reading these forums makes me see that it isn;t exactly what I think it is. I am starting to understand where the "shortage" is stemming from...kind of like in "teaching" where there is so much turnover.

karenchad · Jul 6, 2009

I don't mean to discourage anyone from entering nursing if that is what they really want. I think all should go into nursing with a realistic picture of what exactly nursing envolves- what does a CNA?, what is the role of the LPN? What is the RN's role. Nursing is not glamorous- it's hard work on all 3 levels- each level has their own SPECIFIC PRIMARY functions that they are directly responsible for( the CNA and the LPN answer directly to the RN they are assigned with-yes, the LPN and the RN can do the CNA work but the LPN and the RN have work/tasks they are "assigned" by their license that the CNA cannot do, The RN has work/tasks that can ONLY be carried out by an RN per their license(all levels of licenses comes from the Board of Nursing- which puts into place laws that govern nursing practice) I have come across on these busy floors where LPN's and CNA's often resent the RN- ie. a call bell goes off the RN could be at the meds or the computer/chart documentating and the RN is expected to stop and answer the light. the comment is why can't the RN get that (light) the RN is closer: that's not the point- the point is the Board of Nursing and or/ the hospital policy dictates the RN only is to give out certain meds and/ or to do specific documentation( assessments- very lengthy, admission data, doctors orders etc) to disrupt a nurse during giving out meds is VERY dangerous- the are 2 people involved- the Patient recepient of the med and the Nurse giving the med- THIS IS ALL THE TIME. I have on occassion told a CNA or LPN "here, you go give this IV lopressor and I will answer the light" I once stuck up for a new RN coworker who was being "prevented from doing his job by a group of CNA's- ALL the CNA's were in the lunch room together having lunch, only the RN's were out on the floor (we had no LPN's) a call bell went off for a bedpan- the RN assigned had just got an admission from the ER and needed blood transfusing( an active GI bleed) the RN asked me to ask the CNA to get the light while he went to the Lab to pick up the blood- what I got for a response was- Oh does he think he's too good to put some one on the bedpan. What's wrong with this picture. this happens ALL the TIME- this makes nursing an uphill fight, and more stressful than it already is. this is not glamorous. That same RN had a patient go into cardiogenic shock NOONE would help him- how dangerous is that. I reported this to the Manager- (the BSN) AND the Chief Nursing Officer (the MSN)- NOTHING was done- I was patted on the head- thankyou for your teamwork. I was fired because I spoke up about the bedpan insident- I dearly loved that job- tele in an urban unserved area of a big city. I was furious and went to the hospital CEO, the hospital lawyer and the state's department of labor- the CEO had the hospital lawyer go up to the floor to interview and investigate, the hospital lawyer had to give a written response to the State Dept of Labor- the statement was "there's no problem found on this nursing floor, all the nurses were happy and work together well. This is the reality, the unglamorous/ugly side of nursing. there are so many facets to this- the waste of money employing a lawyer to dictate NURSING responsibilty( stick his no nursing knowlege nose into nursing affairs, an office degree nurse manager who didn't know what to do , a MSN office nurse who didn't know what to do) and patient's lives being threatened by insubordination, and RN nursing licenses in jeopardy of prosecution for neglect. This is the reality of Nursing

karenchad · Jul 6, 2009

Please read the thread- Nursing Board investigates Reno Hospital NURSE Managers. here's another example of bedside/ER RN's making ligitimate complains that need addressing and those complaints being covered up by the money people of hospital administration. this just shows nothing is going to be fixed in nursing, it will be covered up and aspergians will be cast on those who dare to to have the good conscious/prudence( it's in the nurse practice act) to come foreward and expose/complain. this is office/administrative nursing at it's best- collecting big salaries, no clue as to what bedside nurses do and calling upon stupid( non nursing educated) administors/lawyers to help them out with PR press statements- FIX THE PROBLEM AND MOVE ON TO THE REAL ESSESENCE OF NURSING_ PATIENT CARE AND SAFTEY. STOP WASTING MONEY THAT COULD BE SPENT ON OPENING NEW GRAD POSITIONS WITH COMPETENT ORIENTATION so they can be competent, functioning members of the bedsie nursing workforce.

tarahope · Jul 12, 2009

One more thing that I'd like to supply: pharmacy's carzy phone calls over and over again.