Hospital nursing question

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What are some low stress units to work in the hospital?

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

:lol2::lol2:

Not being snarky, but considering how I feel right now, all I can do is laugh. ;)

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Specializes in Gerontology.

No such thing!

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

All areas have stress, so there isn't really any areas of low stress.

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Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.

To get to areas perceived as "low stress," one generally has to work in areas of high stress for a number of years first. :)

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The parking lot at 2 am, near the entrance nobody uses :)

Seriously, hospital nursing is not for those seeking low stress..... nursing is not for those seeking low stress.... neither are manufacturing jobs, teachers, paraprofessionals, librarians (job cuts), restaurant work (I'd clobber someone who whined about not cooking their own food- stay home if it's so bad where I work :D.... no I was never a waitress :lol2:), law enforcement, firefighters, EMS, etc....

If you want a job that you can create your own stress level by deciding how invested you'd like to be- run for Congress :D

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Specializes in ER.

Depends on what you consider stressful.

Codes? Forget ICU, ER, OR, Stepdown/PCU/tele floors.

Not enough time, trying to get 18 things done and multi tasking while people are berating you for being too slow? Forget med-surg, medical, renal.

Emotional drainage, death, injustice, complex medications and heartbreak? Forget oncology and psych.

Drug abuse, child abuse, and someone literally breathing down your neck ? No peds or L&D for you.

Squeezing blood from a turnip, water from a rock, making 28 phone calls to get information? Then forget case management/utilization review and discharge planning.

Working at a rapid pace and remembering every required, mandatory step on all of the 20 patients you see that day? Short stay/day surgery is out.

Not much left, but I'm sure others can chime in.

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rehab.

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There are different kinds of stress in different places, so it depends on what sort of stress you are trying to avoid.

I don't know of any areas with "low" stress, but will say the lowest I've seen were in the OP clinics (such as dermatology and rheumatology, that are part of our hospital). These positions are generally only reached after years of high stress jobs. They do have stress however. Their is stress related to decision making, personal interactions, and sometimes patients require emergency care.

Mangers have the stress of people. Not for the faint hearted or soft in character. It is often a thankless job and rarely can you please everyone. They are generally more removed from the physical stress of heart pounding codes, call lights, ventilator & cardiac alarms, hours on your feet, urinary tract infections and dehydration that many floor nurses experience.

ICU nurses often thrive on stress, having to make life saving decisions in an instant. On the other hand because of their nurse to patient ratio, and the benefit of having MD's at arms reach, in ways their overall day can be much more calm then the Medsurg nurse. They often experience their stress in bursts. They also have the stress of giving medications that can kill you quickly if given incorrectly .. and things like that.

Med-surg nurses have the stress of juggling more patients and depending on the facility often the stress of being the main coordinator of patient care. The physicians can be hard to reach and often need direction and continuous riding to put in needed orders. The Medsurg nurse has a zillion tasks to do in a day and non stop people wanting their attention (attendings, interns, residents, patients, family members, PT, OT, speech, x-rays, hemo.. etc). His/her phone probably rings off the wall all day, they often don't eat, drink, or rest during their shift. There is non-stop activity and they rarely complete a task start to finish without multiple interruptions. Their patients are less critical than in ICU, but can go bad at anytime and they need to be able to respond to emergencies.

The intermediate care nurse has the best and the worst of the ICU and the med surg floor. They can also have one of the most medically diverse populations and each hospital seems to structure this level of care a bit differently, so the stress level probably varies a bit.

There are nurses that work in different departments throughout the hospital (such as hemodialysis, angiography, ultrasound, etc.) Some of the departments can be less stressful in respect the the number of tasks, patients, and interruptions are less than the floor nurse. On the other hand they still need to respond to emergencies. The nurses I know that have worked in these areas all did high stress jobs first.

I'm sure there will be many that don't agree with this. It is only from my experience that I speak. Hopefully it will be helpful, if only to spark additional questions on your quest. Good Luck!

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Specializes in Med-Surg, & ED.

Plasma centers.

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Ok thank you for your answers. I work in medical surgical tele floor now and I was just interested in knowing if all units in the hospital are stressful like this.

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Ok thank you for your answers. I work in medical surgical tele floor now and I was just interested in knowing if all units in the hospital are stressful like this.

Yeah- pretty much- though there can be different types of stress.....:)

It gets better with time, if you're new. :up:

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