not what I bargained for

Nurses General Nursing

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I just recently started working in a hospital. I love the interaction with patients and tending to their very needs. I do not like the hospital politics nor the overload of patients on one nurse. It makes it hard for me to give the kind of care that I would really like to give. Is this normal to feel this frustration.

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Specializes in School Nurse, Med/Surg, Float.

I have been floor nursing for the past 4 years and I am feeling that way. I love the interactions with patients and knowing I am helping but the workload is way too much, CNAs disappear often and I find myself trying to do both jobs, and hours have been cut where I live so I am now driving an hour to get to work each way.

I was burnt out with med/surg staff nursing so I joined the float pool. I love being able to see different units, learning new things, and meeting new people. One hospital is a cardiac hospital the other is a level I trauma center. This variety is helping until I figure out my niche in nursing....I know it will not be floor nursing but the knowledge and experience will serve me well in whatever I choose.

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Oh my gosh...your EXACT words could have come out of my own mouth!!! I am a new nurse and am wondering what the heck I have gotten myself into. I am hoping I can get my "one year" of experience so I can figure out where else/what else I can do.

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Specializes in Med-surg, Ed, Trauma, ICA, LTC.

Yep, normal. Normal in most professions. People are people. You just have to find your niche. When you do, the other stuff will be less bothersome. Like most nurses you are concerned for your patients and want to do the absolute best for them. Politics and those who don't feel the same are major frustrations. Those who don't care are not bothered in the least. Be glad you're bothered!! lol

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Yes it is normal, then again I work at a nursing home. I have up to 38 "patients" (residents) to myself. It's impossible to care for all of them properly. I don't think I can do it anymore to be honest... Good luck to you

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yup, its normal. Don't go to a LTC facility--this is wayyyyy worse. More then twice the number of patients and most have like 10-30 pills each med pass! Insane!

And the politics---yeah its not good. I hate all the constant meetings and inservices, mock codes and stuff.

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Specializes in PACU, OR.
yup, its normal. Don't go to a LTC facility--this is wayyyyy worse. More then twice the number of patients and most have like 10-30 pills each med pass! Insane!

And the politics---yeah its not good. I hate all the constant meetings and inservices, mock codes and stuff.

I wouldn't include in-service training and mock codes in "politics." The meetings, yes, they can degenerate into mud-slinging and irrelevant nonsense if the person chairing doesn't maintain control. In my hospital, there is no in-service training program, so I'm doing (and paying for!) my own course of training; in the process, I am compiling lecture notes for the other nurses. Sad to say, we are all horribly rusty!

I regard the kind of politics that the OP is referring to as the "clique" mentality that develops when you have weak unit managers. Too much attention is paid to tale-bearers, who all too often carry their stories in order to cover up their own shortcomings.

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I just recently started working in a hospital. I love the interaction with patients and tending to their very needs. I do not like the hospital politics nor the overload of patients on one nurse. It makes it hard for me to give the kind of care that I would really like to give. Is this normal to feel this frustration.

yes. common, unfortunately.

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Specializes in ICU, PIC, BURN UNIT, PEDS, MED SURG, PSY.

I wonder what would happen, if all nurses joined forces and refused to do all the things that took us away from caring for our patients. According to the Code of Nursing Ethics if we see harm coming to a patient from the system they're in, we're supposed to advocate for the patients! Somehow we have bought the idea that our caring, our observation, our counseling and caretaking at the bedside has been devalued, and has been taken away from us so that we can act to protect the hospitals and insurance companies from malpractice. But is that the nursing any of us dreamed of? I don't think so. And as the new studies on healing and intention and energy transfer are shown to be healing or damaging, those of us who know what heals will begin to have a voice and be valued. Not only because of degrees which take us away from the bedside, but because they realize our value as caretakers and nurses. Not as medical secretaries who work as shills for the business of medicine. Don't be discouraged though, there always has to be a breakdown, before we have a breakthrough....to a real healing system. Keep heart. And just be kind to the patients, that heals...

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Specializes in ER/Ortho.

I am a new nurse and I feel the same way. When I signed up for this gig it was to be a nurse which I thought meant to care for people, and give good quality nursing care. What I have found my job to be is very different. My job is to make the hospital money by taking on as many patients as is humanly possible while not letting any type of lawsuit situation occur, and/or killing anyone. This leaves little time to actually care for my patients. In nursing school we learned to care for the whole patient emotional, spiritual, educational...are you serious? I am running around like a chicken without a head trying to get meds passed, check off orders, and put out fires. At the same time you have to navigate the world of hospital politics, other unhappy burnt out nurses, and trying to learn as a new nurse. I can't complain or do anything about it because if I do there's a long line of other nurses who would be more than happy to take my job, and then I would be an unemployed nurse. I have wanted to be a NURSE since I was a little girl, but knowing what I know now I would have picked a different major.

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In any job, there's a rash of crap to be dealt with that you never considered. There's always coworker drama, organizational politics, and paperwork that you never expected. Gone, are the days of one simply going into work, tending strictly to patients, and scribing a few notes onto a chart.

When I was working for state government we got a new Excel form monthly to fill out and save on the regional server. At one time we got a form wanting to know the dimensions of ALL the light fixtures in the building. Light bulbs were a contract item so we could only buy lights to which the bulbs on contract would fit so I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of having an off-site manager aware of fixture dimensions. ?? That was extremely time consuming for my staff then I got to transcribe all of their handwritten notes onto the Excel form. Ugh.

Believe me, the farther you move up, the more you have to do, until you reach the top and have to start compiling all of the mess.

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Ok thats it I have to say this.. I hear all the time how hospital nursing is not for you or not what i wanted or not what i bargained for. You know why I'm not an active Nurse it's because i busted my butt in nursing school i worked up the ranks CNA Med Tech LPN and i tried really tried to get in to a hospital. No one would give me a shot. Heck i can give you my name to a hospital and you will find My apps are still pending from 4 yrs ago.

I had 1 mind you 1 interview with a nurse manager who didn't care about me who was more concerned who was going to pick her son up for baseball and answered her cellphone every 2 mins. I have sat by and i have watched Co-Workers ( Female) mind you put in an app in to the same hospital and get called 3 days later and be hired. BS I would break my arm to get in to a hospital would give anything to even get a shot to do it So shut up already about not what you wanted.

I was stuck in LTC's and Psych Rehab Hospitals No acute care. ( Just a Babysitter) Even spoke to a Nurse Recruiter Who told me i shot myself in the foot going LTC and No hospital would take me. This hospital has a stepping stone program They pay for you to get your RN you have to sign a 2 yr contract with them. I'm stuck as a LPN because i can't afford a RN program. So yeah i work in a factory working my tail off wondering why i can't follow my dream in nursing.

So now I'm trying for Holistic's currently in school for it lucky for me the courses are cheap and i get a discount for being a resident. But please please stop talking about how hospitals are not for you because some of us never even get a shot to try one. Sorry for the vent These are my thoughts use them as you wish

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