not what I bargained for

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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.

As a 40 year old cynic who is also a pre-nursing student (what an oxymoron, that LOL!) it seems like there are so many posts on this board dealing with disillusionment. It's like there is a real expectation that the reality of nursing will be like what is taught in the classroom bubble and when it becomes apparent that the real world is not like that it's very demoralizing. Maybe everyone needs to adjust their expectations. Maybe at the end of the day you need to ask yourself this, "Did I do ANY good for ANYONE today AT ALL?" If the answer to that question is "Yes!" then count yourself lucky and go home and get some sleep. Another question for everyone, pretend it is World War II and you are a battlefield nurse trying to save lives in unsanitary conditions with no equipment, no supplies, and no help. If what you're doing in your current job is not THAT bad, then maybe you can deal, because somewhere in the world RIGHT NOW nurses are dealing with those types of conditions. Probably in Afghanistan or Uganda or somewhere like that.

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Oh, boy. A couple of you are in for a rude awakening....

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My graduating year was '75 and I still remember how we were lied to. 5 patients at the most. Yeah....right!

All I can say is I hope you have some good comfortable shoes.

I'm retired now.....I'm not not sure if I will ever go back to work or not.

All you young nurses sure have my sympathies.

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Specializes in ED, Public Health, Travel.

Unfortunately, this feeling is all too true among many nurses who went into the field of nursing simply to care. Nurses are expected to get the job done, and thats it. In fact, I have never read a job description that required 'caring' as a role.

Try out home health nursing, or at least shadow someone in the field. They are able to go to the patients home and spend one on one time with them addressing all of their needs... and possibly some time to 'care'

Good luck!

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
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.

patients are sicker now than they were in the past, and staffing ratios are a whole lot tighter. no one has time to give the kind of care we learned about in school -- or that we had time to give a couple of decades ago. it's frustrating. it's normal to be frustrated. if you're a brand new nurse, you have reality shock to contend with, and the job is new. no one should expect to step into a brand new job in a brand new career and excel immediately. you'll learn how to be a nurse, and your knowledge base and time management skills will improve. things will get easier. but the only way to get to the other side of your first year of nursing is to go through it. there are no short cuts.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
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.

the days of simply going into work, tending strictly to patients and "scribing a few notes onto a chart" never existed. there were hospital politics and unit politics even back in the day. but i'll agree that there's a huge ration of crap to deal with in any job that you never considered . . . any job. not just nursing.

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

Dear coolpeach,

Until we can change the system, we have to bring the healing to the patients with our own knowledge of healing. Love heals, caring and kindness heal, that is what feeds the soul and the heart as much as food feeds their bodies. So if we go in to our patients, who feel lonely and frightened because they are vulnerable, with the intention of healing, if we touch them, and reassure them, then God will have to take care of the rest. The doctors can take care of the mechanical stuff, and we'll just keep practicing the art of nursing, because right now that's what we have. Until there are enough of us who get mad enough to change the system. In the meantime, those of us who care have to remember that caring is what heals, and service is really what we signed up for.

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Maybe nursing schools need to present a more realistic picture and train nurses for the job situation they will actually face and not a fantasy bubble that doesnt exist outside of school. You are right there are many worse situations in nursing. But schools are the ones creating the unrealistic expectations. The realitly is many new nurses burn out their first year, and many more the first five years.

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

Or maybe we should "believe" that each and every one of us who went into nursing to serve, will do just that. And that will have to be enough. That we are enough. And if we do it with the intention to heal, that's the energy we bring to it. The patients will feel it. That same five minutes we spend being frustrated by what we are being forced to do, can be spent listening to one patient, or just comforting someone who is frightened. We don't have to buy the BS that the degree makes the nurse. I love education, I truly do, but I didn't go into nursing to be a "manager" or to be a "medical clerk." I went into nursing to help the patients, and that's what I mean to do....

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Specializes in Rehab, LTC.

I have to ask, how many of you new nurses who are feeling "cheated" or thinking this isnt what you bargained for, worked in the healthcare field at all before becoming a nurse? this is where the debate of working as a CNA or something along those lines come into play. I am currently a CNA, soon to be graduate and I feel that this has been so valuable to me. I have been able to learn time management and prioritzation that they dont teach in nursing school. I know how to handle crazy patient loads, and difficult patients. I have also been able to stand by and watch what nursing is REALLY like, and decide for myself if that is still something I actually want to do (which it is). I truly feel it should be required for nursing students to work at least 3-6 months as a CNA, I guarantee half of the students wouldnt even make it and they would get a realistic view of nursing instead of the TV show fantasy world that alot of nursing school students are living in.:twocents:

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I thank you all for your comments. I think some of you may have misinterpreted what the initial post was about. I am grateful to be working in a hospital. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I just simply stated that I was feeling frustrated with not being able to give the kind of care I would prefer to give. Some of my patients just need someone to talk to, but if I have a patient that needs my constant attention it is at times impossible to just give them those couple of minutes just to talk. Like some of you stated thing really do need to change to keep the art of nursing moving forward. I knew what i was getting myself into because I worked as a tech before working as a nurse. However, I do agree that nursing schools do not at all prepare you for the real world of nursing.

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