HATING MED/SURG

[pale_pilsen]

I just need to vent away my feelings today at work. It was so horrible that i feel like a walking robot that keeps on going and going and ignoring my time to eat lunch and bathroom because the workload is just too much to handle! I was literaly crying inside. Fast pacing my walk from one hallway to the other. In my head, i need to keep going because im still behind with everything. I hated it. I hate getting piled up with so much things to do. Do this, do that, phonecalls, labs, dr on hold, pain meds, family complain, admission is here, discharge in 10 minutes, pain meds again and again and again, etc. I asked my other co-worker whos been there for 1yr and she told me, just keep on going. Shes right. Even though the workload keep piling up every minute of the hour, i just have to keep going because otherwise, i would have to stay for god knows how long just to finish my unpaid charting. And you know what, no matter how hard i worked without any breaks today, i still ended up staying for 2 hours to chart! Why? I didnt get to chart properly all freaking day long because so many things would come up that its literally impossible to stay in one place without someone calling your name. Ugggghhhh!

Some of you would not understand this situation. But some of you whos been there and done that would understand. So please dont judge me right away. I love nursing. But this type of nursing is toxic and detrimental to someones health overall. I dont want to be in this type of work for so long. I would go nuts! With the economy being so bad, its impossible to find work asap, even as an rn. Yes, thats right, even as an rn. There is no nursing shortage, even as predicted couple of years ago. If they were right with their estimated nursing shortage (look in your nursing books) in 2020, there wouldn't been complains about nurses not finding a job left and right in this site. Its all crap. Its business, and its all about the profits. I just wish someone would do a documentary film about med/surg nurses and see the real nursing as it really is, live and raw! Not the edited ones by johnsons and johnson commercial where everyone is smiling, clean, and happy.

Oh by the way, im still waiting to get that o.r. Job. But i dont have the result yet. Thanks for reading my vent. Sorry its so long. This is my only way of releasing my stress. I love this site.

[TriathlonRN]

I feel your pain, frustration and stress. Unfortunately its not going to get any better with HCAPS scoring. Real life nursing can be very disheartening after nursing school but you have to find something positive to get through the day. Remember nursing is 24hours and when you have so many things coming your way your have to learn to prioritize. Ask for help if its available and the rest is "one bite at a time."

If you still find that med/surg is not for you then do your time, prepare yourself and set your self up (BSN, MSN etc) and find another nursing specialty. Med/surg is not for everyone...in fact at my facility we have 40 staff M/S RN's. Out of that, 2 of them have been there 25+yrs, 4-10+ yrs and the rest less than 2 yrs. For some its just a stepping stone into another nursing specialty. Don't give up just yet...I know you can do it......at least until you find your niche!!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

i empathize with you. my first med-surg job was very caotic not to mention i had a preceptor who always disappeared during my shifts. i felt the same enormous demands pulling me in different directions. i was constantly getting off late due to my charting. i noticed that the other nurses refused to help with patient hygiene care when the cnas needed help in order to finish their charting and get out on time. i always helped the cnas in this area because mng made it seem like you have to help in these areas. i hated nursing and always felt i would get off the med-surg floor at some point.

my second nursing job in a different state was about as worse as the first one except for the nurse to patient ratio. the cnas were nursing students who did not want to do their jobs. since this hospital sent out patient satisfaction cards and the mngs followed up closely to patient feedback, i felt i needed to keep the patients and family happy. i saw myself getting further behind because of doing more cna work than making sure my documentation was entered on time. i found myself getting off wk 30-45 min late each shift. i even felt badly when i'd take a lunch, thinking that i could have gotten off on-time if i would have skipped lunch...bad thought process. i learned that not eating slows your critical thinking process as well as make you feel 10x worse with the high anxiety. at the end of my 6mth period on my second med-surg job, i was let go because of my inability to appropriately manage my time. the mng even had lead nurses shadow me to see how i was conducting my day and did not find anything wrong..they did not see the cnas ignoring my patient's call lights to the nursing station to go to the bathroom or diabetic patients waiting to be fed. ethically, i felt i could not neglect my patients so i ended up doing it.

after getting let go from my second job (1.5 yr nurse at the time), i signed up with a nursing agency and went back to school to work towards my bsn to see what other nursing specialties out there that are not as demanding and taxing on the body. now i can go to my assigned med-surg shifts and leave the drama behind. i feel a lot better.

i would advise talking to another staff nurse cautiously about your frustration of the demands of your job. the wrong nurse may report to mng that you are struggling and will cause them to watch you more closely and weed you out if they ever need to downsize in some way.

it gets better. time management is constantly on my mind when i work because you are not suppose to work off the clock legally. moreover, management wants you off the floor as soon as you finish end-of-shift report (no one ever says it but they do).

what is "mng"?

[yotaka]

what is "mng"?

i'm guessing it means "manager".

[trulyblessed2]

Hi I really need help. Are you still available for a pm?

[RN-dancer]

I'm a fairly new nurse also and, of course, got sentenced to med surg. This is NOT nursing..its just looking at the clock and throw pills and antibiotics at patients. Anyone could do this. There is no assessment, intervention, nothing, just delivering meds. And u mess one tiny thing up, even setting a normal saline rate at 75 when it should be 80 and someone is writing you up! Two more months and I can transfer to ER.

Did you transfer?

[Guest1030824]

I know how she feels. I've been working in Med Surg for two years. There is so much to do and everyone pulling at me at once. It's difficult to make everyone happy when I have 7-8 patients. It is difficult to eat when I need to or take a break. I have some CNAs that make my job harder when they don't help. It's difficult to get everything done when nurse to patient ratio is so high. I don't feel like I am really learning because I am too busy. I have a love hate relationship with Med Surg floor. I would like to transfer to another unit that is more specialized.

[Guest957596]

Med-surg sucks, but only in that it relates to inadequate staffing. My sister nurses (I am the only dude) are frigging awesome! However, our nurse manager can't seem to get adequate staffing on a consistent basis. I hate not being able to actually spend time with my patients. I have floated to other floors where they have the same number of patients that my floor has (????) and I can spend time with my patients and not feel rushed. I floated to a cardiac floor where I made it 8 nurses total with 3 PCTs. The PCTS did Accuchecks and all of the vitals. I had 4 patients. On my regular floor, if you get 4 patients, you don't get a tech. And the 4 patients are usually total care, so the nurse and the patient gets screwed. On my floor, I usually get 6 patients and the tech has 12-14 patients. I came into work the other week and had one patient in restraints, 3 on drips (and 1 of the 3 had 2 drips). The other patients were incontinent and needed frequent attention as the tech was overwhelmed. Hospitals need to adequately staff and yet consistently fail to do so. And I might add that my hospital is a for-profit.