Hi, I am an ADN on my third year of working as a med surg RN. I did my first year at one hospital, whose staffing became so awful I felt no choice but to move on. I had GREAT coworkers, but for some reason management decided we could each handle 8 pts and not need any techs. We ended up moving and I applied for a ton of jobs and quickly got a couple of offers. I chose a med surg position, liked the feel of the environment. Management told me about the low turnover rate, their nurse: pt ratio goals (ha ha!) and it sounded good and is very close to my house.
We have brief periods where we have 5:1, but usually 6 or 7. Usually not enough techs. Not always a secretary or a charge nurse without a team. We don't always have transport to run the pt to tests.
I have improved so much since becoming a nurse. I manage my time well, I am organized. I am always willing to help my coworkers, and they help me. I feel I have decent critical thinking, basically handle or appear to handle stress well. But I don't enjoy this very much. I hate being expected to be nurse, tech, secretary, etc. I cannot do all of it. I struggle with wanting to please my patients and their families, some of whom will never be happy with their care.
In staff meetings they talk about patient satisfaction scores. Please talk to me once you give enough staff... ugh. We had about 6 nurses quit recently. A couple were just bright and excited new grads less than a year ago. Disheartening to see them run into the ground taking 7 pts at a time sometimes without a tech.
So now I have experienced staffing issues at 2 hospitals. I know I don't want to med surg anymore. I am not sure if I am just stressed and anxious in THIS situation, or if I am truly not suited to be a nurse, but my anxiety level is through the roof. I want to do anything else, even for less money. I joke about plumbing or truck driving... but I am not joking. I am a veteran, lived and worked nonstop in Baghdad and I found it less stressful than some days on med surg. I find that upsetting. I should be able to handle this stress, but I am not doing well.
My husband tells me to not wait 10 years before I decide I really don't want to be a nurse. I think I should try another area, and then make a decision. Any ideas?
That's the same year I left hospital nursing. Never looked back, either. I can't even imagine working under the conditions nurse work under these days...it was bad enough in my day!
What really scares me is that by the time I'm going to need good bedside nursing care, there won't BE any bedside nurses.
Nursing will be nothing but APNs with PhDs, who all got them from online "schools" after first getting a BA in Teaching or Business so they can breeze past all the unnecessary and boring Nursing pre-reqs, bought a BSN from a for profit school, didn't have to defend a Master's thesis, and never had to set foot in a clinical lab.
I plan on being admitted to a hospital only as a last resort.
yes. I left too, and *'ain't gonn-go back'*. I keep myself and loved ones as healthy as is humanly possible so hopefully none of us needs hospital and/or long-term care unless as a very last resort. That and pray! Just the thought of possibly ending up being the responsibility of an over-worked and under-appreciated health care professional is scary and I give daily thanks for my family history and dynamics of long lives and great overall health.
I loved being a nurse, and from the time I began clinicals, knew I wanted to spend my career caring for elderly people. The OR was fun, the ED was exciting and the Peds were cute, but LTC was really what I wanted to do. Nursing was a career-change for me, so I didn't have the 'dreeeaamm' fantasy going, I just wanted good, steady work. However, over time I truly have come to despise the ltc model as it is. It's darn near criminal in how it functions, and how it is accepted; and those working the floors (with nurses in particular) are the most detrimental enablers to the whole cluster-mess), because they are just too accepting (plus the whole female-oriented dynamic thing).
I took a very large (and somewhat frightening) pay and benefit cut to become a nurse and when I finally went back to my previous line of work (skilled trades) I immediately took back all that plus much more (there's just no comparison).
I freed myself of all the rediculousness that is ltc and there's no going back to that for me, God be willing. I read and learn from this board because I still miss being a nurse; that is why I'm here, yet when it comes right down to it, I'm out and happier for it.
Jensmom7, BSN, RN
1,907 Posts
What really scares me is that by the time I'm going to need good bedside nursing care, there won't BE any bedside nurses.
Nursing will be nothing but APNs with PhDs, who all got them from online "schools" after first getting a BA in Teaching or Business so they can breeze past all the unnecessary and boring Nursing pre-reqs, bought a BSN from a for profit school, didn't have to defend a Master's thesis, and never had to set foot in a clinical lab.
I plan on being admitted to a hospital only as a last resort.