i HATE my job. Does anyone else feel the same?

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I absolutely despise my job. I work as a nurse in a intermediate/telemetry type floor. We are in the process of moving to a new hospital, so we were a telemetry unit and we are splitting into telemetry/intermediate care. We will be split eventually but right now kind of combined...its weird.

Anyway, I HATE HATE HATE HATE my job. I get so worked up on the way to work, up to the point I start getting massive headaches and offset my vertigo issues. I've always struggled with unexplained vertigo that comes with stress/anxiety. I can't stand patients and families who are so demanding and disrespectful.

I do my absolute best to put on my "fake smile" to please them. I'm a person of very short temper so it takes every ounce of energy in me not to slap some of them in the face. I got in trouble one time because a patient's daughter was giving me a really hard time and everything she said that came from her mouth started with "Well I'm a nurse and...." it would have been totally irrelevant to what she had to say. For example: "Well I'm a nurse and I had an egg salad sandwich for lunch."

"Well, I'm a nurse and I have a kitten named Dutchess" (that was actually a real one).

She was SO disrespectful, rolled her eyes every time I talked, very short answers. Finally I had it...I looked at her and said "I don't care if you are a nurse. I'm her nurse now and i will make the decisions on what I think is best for my patient."

Yup...I got in trouble for that one but I explained everything to my manager and she, deep inside, I knew agreed she was being ridiculous and I told her I just couldn't take it anymore. It went on for THREE DAYS, in 12 hour shifts and I was on day 4 with her. I snapped...yup.

Anyway, my point with that story is it wasn't this one time...it is ALL the freaking time. Patient's are so demanding. What on earth makes you think I want to "wipe your butt" when you can do it at home just fine? Ok...you have two broken arms, I will help you but if you are here for I don't know...Chest pain observation and you can feed yourself the 50 trays of food you just ordered and open the soda bottle your family snuck you in, why would you not be able to wipe your own butt?? What makes people feel the need to be so darn needy like this?? Don't put on your call light for me to pour you a glass of water from the water pitcher sitting next to your hand. You are perfectly capable of doing it yourself (I'm talking about people who CAN do it.) You are not a 65 year old baby, you are an adult who has wiped your own butt and poured your own water for I don't know, 63 years now??

I'm sorry I have to vent. Makes me feel better. Does anyone else feel this way about nursing? I feel so stuck in it and I want to get out. What else can I do with my degree that I would enjoy??

Once my fiance and I are married we want to start a family right away. He has agreed for me to quit my job at that point to be stay at home. I'm afraid I will enjoy not being a nurse so much I may never go back. What other career choices do people ENJOY as a nurse? I have my BSN.

Specializes in All areas of Critical Care, ED, PACU, Pre-Op, BH,.

I want out of nursing so bad I dread driving into work each and everyday! It is due to the changes in nursing and the micromanagement by individuals that are NOT nurses. How did this happen to our profession? Now I am too old to change professions. I just drive thinking I am one day closer to retirement. Then I will worry about the unsafe practices of ME being a patient in some **** poor healthcare facility.

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I am so relieved that I am not the only one! I had so much compassion for being a nurse and now I despise it. I was never good at being a waitress with rude and unappreciative people though.. Will definitely be making a change in my career. I am very disappointed that it didn't work out.. :/

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I have changed my focus. I have choosen to leave veterinary medicine for at least a year. The compassion fatigue and burnout is killing me. Plus my workplace has become more Toxic"

Fuzzy

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Specializes in PCCN.

so those who are leaving- what are you going to do? how will you survive?

I'd love to leave, but then i might , if i am lucky , qualify fora minimum wage job.

If only I would have known.......

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Maybe you should try home health nursing. You would only have ONE patient and his family to deal with---usually just the family that lives with the patient. I'm a home care nurse and I LOVE it. Once the family sees that you care about their loved one and know what you are doing, they appreciate you and most of all, they might leave you alone.

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so those who are leaving- what are you going to do? how will you survive?

I'd love to leave, but then i might , if i am lucky , qualify fora minimum wage job.

If only I would have known.......

I am a 'second career nurse'. My first career is skilled trades. I worked several years as a nurse, got fed-up with the LTC environment and went back to the trades. Best thing I did.

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The medical field is not for everybody, either you'll love it or hate it. Patients deserve nurses who like their job. If you are so miserable, find a new profession, life is too short !

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i'm also going back to my first career. It's incredibly difficult trying to build up my network and get back into the industry after being away for 4 years! It's been a long haul this past year but i'm finally at a point where i can afford to stop working as a nurse at the end of the year, which was my goal.

I've also bought a share of a hostel in a touristy beach town in my home country, so i get a bit of money from that, and when i get older i might move back to Europe and run a hostel myself. I have experience managing one here in the States and have learned a lot about the industry from working closely with the owners.

another guy i know quit nursing - he worked literally 7 days/week for a month or two, 12-16 hours a day. then he quit and backpacked around the world, filming travel videos everywhere he went. a year later, he's working for the Travel Channel after one of their reps found his YouTube channel; they pay him to make videos for their website. he's my inspiration for making a big change and taking risks and making a better life. :)

other people i either know or know of, who have left various jobs in the healthcare industry: turned his photography hobby into a legit business, started a personal -chef business, became licensed as a massage therapist, built her Etsy shop to the point where it's bringing in full-time income, started a landscaping business, moved overseas to teach English as a Second Language, and started a business teaching dance-based fitness classes. one guy that i know of moved to Germany and went for a masters degree (tuition-free, as is the custom in Germany and several other EU countries); I forget exactly what he studied but he now lives there and works for a tech company.

...aside from the ESL teacher and the expat in Germany, the one thing everyone has in common is they got out of nursing via self-employment. They did not wait for someone else to give them their free pass out of nursing; they made their own opportunities. Stop thinking about "who will hire me?" and instead HIRE YOURSELF. :) What do you enjoy doing? Forget formal education for a minute - what are your talents? What are your passions? What do you get excited about? There are many things you can do besides nursing. Don't put yourself in a box.

If you have a nursing degree and experience, you're in the perfect position to take a risk and try to make a new career opportunity for yourself. if you really do fail at your new endeavour the first time, you can always pick up a temp/travel nursing job and get yourself some capital with which to try again.

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I am like you, in constant fear of getting fired 2 months into my first job (LTC), but also hoping to get fired so I don't have to go back. I don't know who to trust, I think some of my colleagues are idiots and am learning that I cannot trust anyone's judgement, and I feel like "coorporate" and higher up management is pulling me in the opposite direction of patient care. I feel like choosing LTC is the biggest mistake I've made for my nursing career.

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Yes, why don't we band together? If there were more men in the profession it might happen. Sounds sexist, but I think it is true. Women tend to attack each other instead of sticking together. During my busy day yesterday noted the manager and a nurse on light duty (for what I don't know) just sitting around giggling and discussing the manager's upcoming Vegas trip. Gee thanks guys! I had a bad day yesterday, and at the end of the shift (change of shift), a middle aged patient's father was angry because no one came fast enough to help her to the bathroom. She is weak and needed a light assist to walk to the bathroom, which he (a strong looking 70ish man) could have easily done. I was so upset and went home and applied for a job in psych - a specialty I love and left a few years ago.

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I think another career would have been a much better fit. Or, better yet, having had my own small business. I know I would have loved that option, but I didn't really know that till too late in the game. Counting down to retirement now--even if I have to eat brown rice and broccoli every day, I want to leave early enough to still be somewhat sane.

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I too have lost my compassion. I started working at a new hospital because my crew at my other job left. This new place states that it is cutting edge ,but not from a nursing standpoint. I don't feel like I am able to practice to my full capabilities and I work in critical care. It is too the point I feel unsafe practicing there. Orientation was a joke and I think as for the posting of the job, it should have just stated warm body needed.

I am waxing and waning on quitting, but I have nothing else lined up. I am applying to other jobs that are non bedside nursing because I have an advanced degree, that is non nursing.

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