Burned out already

Nurses General Nursing

Published

It's been a year. And I'm already burned out. Is it wrong of me to think of switching to part-time??

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I think everyone feels this way at some point. After my first year, I was ready to go back to school and do something completely different. I stuck it out. I say, go PRN for a little bit, and if you need the money, find another part-time job. Or, try a different unit or area of nursing. You may just need a change of scenery.

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Thanks for your input. Yeah, I'm trying so badly to get into the area I want to, but it's so hard. And I'd LIKE to do PRN, but I need health insurance.

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After five years in acute care, I found myself burnt to a crisp. I've been in an outpatient non-bedside capacity for a little over a year now, and find myself missing acute care and feeling ready to get back into it. The nice thing is I'll be going into it with my eyes open, and I feel like I've had the opportunity to develop my interrelational skills, which will help me to manage expectations, set reasonable boundaries, and avoid the role stress that drove me away from the bedside.

The other thing that helps is that I work part time, which gives me plenty of time off! Like you, I'd like to go PRN, but I need those benefits.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

first, I recommend you do a little research on the difference between burnout and compassion fatique. If you have compassion fatique you will not do any better somewhere else, unless your patient interaction is less. For instance, going from 1:1 in ICU to 1:5 in medical. With more patients you have less interaction. There are suggestions for coping with both issues. Good luck!

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All I have time for is handing out meds. I don't even have time to sit down and actually have a conversation with my patients. In fact, my co-workers were talking about the exact same thing. At least I don't feel alone about it. It's not compassion fatigue. I'm literally running around trying to do everything I have to do, and new orders keep constantly popping up. It's way too much to do. It feels impossible... like 12 hours is not nearly enough. By the time I come home (and on my off-days), I'm too physically and mentally exhausted to do anything. And then I have to do it all over again. It's overwhelming. It makes me feel depressed.

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Specializes in retired LTC.
first, I recommend you do a little research on the difference between burnout and compassion fatique. If you have compassion fatique you will not do any better somewhere else, unless your patient interaction is less. For instance, going from 1:1 in ICU to 1:5 in medical. With more patients you have less interaction. There are suggestions for coping with both issues. Good luck!
Am not too sure about the term "compassion fatigue". But might OP be experiencing the results of 'reality shock'? The new employee honeymoon period is over for this somewhat new newbie so I might guess that reality shock may be more the cause.

The literature/research is out there for reality shock with recommendations for relief. It appears to me that much of the distress that so many newbies experience is reality shock blasting them REAL HARD! I don't think anybody in schools addresses it - of course, why would they?! It would just cast a pall on the rosy picture that they paint about the work environment and professional opportunities.

Not what was expected!

Good luck to OP.

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I feel ya! I'm 9 months in and feeling pretty crispy. The running around and not even being able to truly interact with patients is quite irritating. I love the teaching aspect of nursing, but when you have so many patients, so many tasks, and so little time...I just feel like a med and charting robot. A REALLY good day on my floor is 6 patients. The norm is 7 to 8 and often times we have 9 (on eves! Which is uber busy!) I don't even start charting until my shift is over so then get stuck there another 1 to 2 hours over. (Meanwhile, I often have to stop charting to answer a light or run to a bed alarm going off because nights is short and has only one aide). Getting admissions makes me nearly cry sometimes because I am so overwhelmed with my enormous patient load already and so behind!! In nursing school I was aware that this whole having 1 or 2 patients was a luxury and the reality is we would have more when we started our career. NEVER did I think that having 9 patients per shift was in my future.

And to get to your question...it is 100% not wrong of you to want to go part-time. I work part-time and sometimes it is the only thing that keeps me from leaving this whole thing. So sad, but so true. I hate when people say nurses are selfish because they should only care about their patients and not about the money or conditions. People just don't get it. I care a lot about my patients and that's why this sort of working condition is totally ridiculous and wrong. Plus, we are human too and can only handle so much.

I really wish working conditions for nurses were fair. This is human lives we are dealing with here. With short staffing, we suffer and our patients suffer. How hard is that for upper management to understand?! (End Rant:arghh:)

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I am only 5 months into it, and feel that way already. Second career and in the first career I put in a lot more hours and made more money. I came into nursing because I had the passion, at age 52. I hate the part where I have no time to care for the patients as needed. In my last career I hated the people pushing way too much to make the almighty dollar, and, yet, I see it again. While I realize that a business is started to make money (I get it), I struggle with the non-care patients get. The strangest thing to me is how health care facilities put nurses on as part time in order NOT to offer them health care. huh!.? I have about 15 more years of work (with Social Security becoming insolvent, probably more), so I will hang in for the fight! Good Luck to all of us who know the truth! God Bless.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I was burned out by the time I got out of school!!!!! LOL!! Find what you LOVE and be happy in what you're doing.

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Specializes in neuro/ortho med surge 4.

I have been a nurse for all of 5 years. I am looking for something out of the hospital or a job out of the nursing field. In 36 years of working I have never felt like this about any job. I absolutely dread going in and dealing with the BS. It is certainly not patient care that is driving me away because there is very little of that but rather it is the responsibility of being responsible for EVERYTHING!. If the meal did not come up it is call the nurse. If the cable is not to the patients liking it is call the nurse. If the light in the room is not working it is call the nurse. I swear the other departments are useless. Can a phlebotomist not call maintenance if a light is not working? Instead of wasting my time they can just call themselves. It is not rocket science!

I can understand being burnt out after a year. My burnout did not occur until the 3 year mark. It is not unusual. There are not many nurses who enjoy being run into the ground and not having time to eat and then hearing about overtime even though it was impossible to stop and chart within the 8 or 12 hour period.

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Thank you all for not making me feel alone. I know I'm not; it's just that hearing it from other people makes me feel a little better. Venting, and hearing others vent, makes me feel a little better, too. If we were just given the proper resources to actually do our job well, being a nurse wouldn't be so bad...

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