I HATE my job....what now?

[heartlover07]

It's a common thread it seems, but here goes my version. I originally posted this in response to another unhappy new nurse, but I thought maybe a good idea to start a new one.

I just got off orientation 2 weeks ago (a couple of weeks early at the request of my supervisor), and I HATE my floor. I really got to see the difference in patient load that the new nurses get compared to the senior nurses. When I was on orienatation with the senior nurses, we would have one "complete" care or isolation patient, now that i am by myself, I have had 2-3 complete care patients and 2 isolation patients to care for, and some of the NA's don't lift a finger to help! So as a result I am running around changing patients, getting water and ice, grabbing blankets, heating up food, and all of this before I can even get my meds done!! It sucks!! I am so depressed, I hate this work....I am only one person, but I feel like I need to do everything. I don't like to make waves, so I just do everybodys job.

I want to quit right now...maybe go the OR, which is where I wanted to go originally anyway, but decided I needed to get some tele/med surg experience first. I am a shadow of the old me right now, I used to like to do things, go places, see my friends, now I don't care about any of that. I feel miserable just thinking about work all of time. I need to do something, and fast! I just don't want to leave before 6 mos. Thanks for reading......

[bigmona]

I wouldn't tell her that you'll leave if things don't change.. however, I *would* tell her that you often feel like you're left alone to do all the work, you often get the heavier assignments, etc. Is there anyone you work on nights with you feel like you can rely on?

the problem with working nights is that the NM never actually sees what goes on- they can tell you to be "assertive" all they want but they also need to be assertive to the people who arent working as a team. my old NM was the sweetest woman, but when it came down to it, she didn't have what it took to keep the "strong personalities" of night shift in check. some of those nurses had been there 20+ years. they ruled the roost. after a while, i learned to ignore them. and while i wouldn't deny them help in a life/death situation, i definitely didn't go out of my way to be pleasant or helpful to them either. maybe its not the best attitude, but it helped somewhat to get me through my own work.

[RN1989]

You have just described at least 90% of nursing units in this country. This is not new and is not only happening to you.

You are new. It is going to be harder on you because you don't have years of experience. It takes you longer to process information than it does an old nurse. After you have been a nurse a while, it's like being on autopilot. When I have students ask me questions, sometimes I have to really stop and think because I know to do a particular treatment or whatever because something else happened. But I no longer have to think through all the rationales about WHY I do what I do. That comes with experience and you're stuck until you get that experience.

You need to work on your priorities. Assessments, VS, meds are priorities over fresh ice and blankets. Do your assessments, ask if there is anything they need and then let the patients know that you have to see all the patients first and make sure they are ok before you come back to give them a blanket. But after you reassure them that you WILL come back with a blanket and then you actually DO come back, the patients will trust you that you will do what you say and will not demand that you do it immediately. Most patients want things done NOW because too many people have said they would get the patient something and never came back.

As far as the lazy CNA issue - I have yet to find a way to fix that. I will say that I get better and more help from CNAs because I am willing to do bedpans, baths, beds, etc. I've watched the passive agressive nature of nurses and CNAs for years. CNAs will watch you to see if you are willing to do the dirty work and if you treat them nicely. If they hear you are complaining about them or unwilling to do their work - you have screwed yourself. Once you prove to them you aren't going to act like a princess, you can usually get more work from them with less lip. But being the nurse who says "it's not my job" just gets even less help from the CNA's.

Threatening to quit will not get you far. New grads are a dime a dozen. Starting off complaining will get you marked as a troublemaker. From your post, it just sounds like you are in the usual nursing environment. Unless you have documentation of actual wrong-doing (nurses lying about treatments completed, finding a staff member asleep on the job) going to the manager is unlikely to get you anywhere but into trouble.

Going to the OR is not going to solve your problems. They have just as many problems there. A friend of mine thought that going to the OR would solve these very similar problems as you have described. She has now found that it isn't what she thought it would be and the OR staff has their little issues and games too. You have to work with each other so closely yet no one wants to play fair. There is the same gossiping and laziness in the OR but there you cannot get away from it because you have to work together. Unlike the floor where you can go for hours without seeing a staff person except in the med room.

The grass is not greener. It may be a different kind of grass with different manure but it isn't greener or better. You obviously have high standards for nursing. You are going to need to learn to let some things go or you will kill yourself trying to be a nurse. There is always going to to be some crap to deal with. The only trick is to find a job where you can put up with their kind of crap in order to keep that job. Nursing is not fun, it is not glamorous. People don't think of us a Florence Nightengales and they sure don't treat us with respect. In fact, our peers treat us crappier than a lot of the patients. So if you came into nursing because you wanted to make a difference - think again. You can make a difference, but it may not be that big, huge difference you were hoping to make. Most of the time you won't ever know what difference you made in someone's life. There are so many things that can be good about nursing. But sometimes you can't see it because the working environment sucks. Sometimes you have to just remind yourself "I'm here for the patient. I'm not here for a popularity contest. And I am going to have to work my butt off without help because my co-workers don't care. But my patient needs me and that is what counts."

[heartlover07, RN]

In response to your post, I have tried to tell the patient that I need to see my other patients first, but then I have to deal with P'd off, nasty person the rest of the night because I didn't do what they wanted when they wanted it. I seem to have a lot of dialysis patients that give me this attitude, its like I can't do anything right by them from the moment I walk into the room....

Also,I have more than shown the aides that I am plenty willing to do their work, I do it all the time!! I worked as a nurse extern for 10months, and in that time became more than comfortable with the back and bottom end of my patients, I am by no means a "princess" that feels that I am "above" this type of work. I am simply asking to to not have to do it ALL. I know that the grass is not always greener, but there has to be something more wrong on our floor than most, because most of the nurses that come to our floor (pool, float) comment on how they hate coming to our floor for this reason. Also, when I work with aides from other floors I feel like I am being met halfway at least.

For instance, I had a patient the other night that had two loose stools within 2 hours, I changed her the first time, I was in the room already. The next time the aide did because I was busy drawing labs on all of my patients and she was in the room. I don't mind that. SHE was not a regular on our floor.

Now, in contrast the night before this I had a patient that had multiple BM's and I was working with a "regular" aide, I changed the patient once, then the second time I called the aide and she said she would go do it, two hours later she still hadn't been to the room, I jus ended up doing it myself. The aide came while I was changing her and said "oh I told her I would be right there" well that was 2 hours ago!!