Okay, I've worked as a nurses aid in a very large ER for 2 years, I've worked as an RN for 2.5 years on a cardiac step down/ telemetry unit (during that time I was floated to floors with less acuity), now I'm doing travel nursing. I like the travel part of travel nursing...I like my pay as a nurse, but I really do not enjoy cleaning up poop, pee, vomit, blood. I don't like dealing with the whinny, b**chy family members, I don't like getting blamed for everything, and I hate the fact that I hardly get to spend any time with my patients.
I'm just tired. I knew that poop, pee, and other gross things were going to be part of my life when I became a nurse. It's not so much that I'm grossed out by it as I've just grown tired of dealing with it...as I have with all the other things that I mentioned. My ability to tolerate it without getting snippy has shortened a great deal since I've started in the medical field. I'm not tired of helping people, but I don't know what else to do. I need my pay to be what it is. Furthermore, I want to have a family. I want to date so that I can eventually have a family. I'm tired of working nights so I don't have to deal with the crap that happens on days. I'm tired of working days to have a social life and having to deal with the crap on days. And finally, I'm tired of working every other weekend and every other holiday. 9-5 monday to friday or less....ah, I just want to feel like I'm living.
Okay, I've worked as a nurses aid in a very large ER for 2 years, I've worked as an RN for 2.5 years on a cardiac step down/ telemetry unit (during that time I was floated to floors with less acuity), now I'm doing travel nursing. I like the travel part of travel nursing...I like my pay as a nurse, but I really do not enjoy cleaning up poop, pee, vomit, blood. I don't like dealing with the whinny, b**chy family members, I don't like getting blamed for everything, and I hate the fact that I hardly get to spend any time with my patients.
I'm just tired. I knew that poop, pee, and other gross things were going to be part of my life when I became a nurse. It's not so much that I'm grossed out by it as I've just grown tired of dealing with it...as I have with all the other things that I mentioned. My ability to tolerate it without getting snippy has shortened a great deal since I've started in the medical field. I'm not tired of helping people, but I don't know what else to do. I need my pay to be what it is. Furthermore, I want to have a family. I want to date so that I can eventually have a family. I'm tired of working nights so I don't have to deal with the crap that happens on days. I'm tired of working days to have a social life and having to deal with the crap on days. And finally, I'm tired of working every other weekend and every other holiday. 9-5 monday to friday or less....ah, I just want to feel like I'm living.
I know exactly how you feel! After hanging onto a relationship with a man I dearly love for 20 years that is now over, I am definitely single again. Forget about dating when doing shiftwork - I was too tired to do anything else but eat and sleep, and hardly ever saw friends - when I was off, they were working, or had kids to pick up/attend to, when I was working on afternoons or nightshift, they were off or doing stuff with their kids. When ur single like me and have no children, I find people tend to exclude you from their social activities, or you go to kids birthday parties and if u have no kids, people lose interest in you. Nobody thinks of single people at all.
I feel exactly the same way as you right now - I'm just really tired of dealing with it all now. I feel like there's no challenge in what I do anymore. You try to teach patients things and try to help them as much as you can, and I feel like I'm getting absolutely nowhere at all. People don't listen and do not really care about their health in my opinion. I'm tired of nursing the same fat, whiny, non-compliant private patients (and public ones too). I'm tired of not being thanked for my work, I'm tired of people saying 'Oh you're only a nurse' - I feel like saying to their face EXCUSE ME? Why am I less than a doctor - or any other health professional for that matter - just cos I'm a nurse?
Hospital patients suck, to be perfectly honest. Private patients are pampered to too much by the doctors and nurses.
Sounds like you need to do some hard thinking like me. I've applied for some different nursing jobs up north, as it's a different style of nursing. Can you go agency for a while and pick and choose your own assignments? Or just brush up the CV/resume and look for another position.
I do agree some nursing jobs do suck, actually most seem to suck lately from what I've read on here.
Keep your chin up matey and at least you know ur not alone :)
I know exactly how you feel! After hanging onto a relationship with a man I dearly love for 20 years that is now over, I am definitely single again. Forget about dating when doing shiftwork - I was too tired to do anything else but eat and sleep, and hardly ever saw friends - when I was off, they were working, or had kids to pick up/attend to, when I was working on afternoons or nightshift, they were off or doing stuff with their kids. When ur single like me and have no children, I find people tend to exclude you from their social activities, or you go to kids birthday parties and if u have no kids, people lose interest in you. Nobody thinks of single people at all.
I feel exactly the same way as you right now - I'm just really tired of dealing with it all now. I feel like there's no challenge in what I do anymore. You try to teach patients things and try to help them as much as you can, and I feel like I'm getting absolutely nowhere at all. People don't listen and do not really care about their health in my opinion. I'm tired of nursing the same fat, whiny, non-compliant private patients (and public ones too). I'm tired of not being thanked for my work, I'm tired of people saying 'Oh you're only a nurse' - I feel like saying to their face EXCUSE ME? Why am I less than a doctor - or any other health professional for that matter - just cos I'm a nurse?
Hospital patients suck, to be perfectly honest. Private patients are pampered to too much by the doctors and nurses.
Sounds like you need to do some hard thinking like me. I've applied for some different nursing jobs up north, as it's a different style of nursing. Can you go agency for a while and pick and choose your own assignments? Or just brush up the CV/resume and look for another position.
I do agree some nursing jobs do suck, actually most seem to suck lately from what I've read on here.
Keep your chin up matey and at least you know ur not alone :)
Have you been able to find anything fun to do with any time off you get? It is hard to be single and alone.. I have that T-shirt too.. but I am trying to find interests where I can at least interact with other people, either nurse or not.. Usually not.
make sure to take care of yourself, trust me no one else will. The job should not be your entire life! :)
Have you been able to find anything fun to do with any time off you get? It is hard to be single and alone.. I have that T-shirt too.. but I am trying to find interests where I can at least interact with other people, either nurse or not.. Usually not.
make sure to take care of yourself, trust me no one else will. The job should not be your entire life! :)
Hi, I do go to the gym, though I've had a very bad cold thingy I can't seem to shake off (had ABs not long ago for an infected chest and ingrown toenail). So couldn't go to the gym for a while!
I'm not working at the mo, supposed to be starting a new job in the nearest city to me thru an agency, but many of our larger teaching hospitals via government decree, have decided to cut back drastically on agency staff. That is why so many Aussies are waiting 14+ hours to get seen to in Emergency, one was an old woman about 80+ and her son was a local MP (a politician). She DIED at one of our large teaching hospitals in the ED/ER simply because no-one had actually checked on her! Waiting 14 hours to be seen - in any city or country hospital - was unheard of even when I was in my 20s (I just turned 44).
I do lots of things to relax - I love my yoga and pilates - but the work situation is very dire nowadays, and very depressing. Not long ago, I was working at a hospital I loved - getting called in all the time - and now they too have cut back. That is why I ended up leaving - couldn't pay my bills.
What on earth will keep happening if the government in all our countries decides nurses aren't really needed? Why doesn't the government put more money into training up NPs and using them at least in the ED/ER?
I get so annoyed about these fat (living off the fat of the land AND being obese) administrators and politicians who have no idea what it is like at ground zero.
Yes I always say people have to look after themselves first. But it gets hard to stay positive with all the cutbacks lately.
Hi!! I can totally understand this feeling and I am wondering if you have ever considered psychiatric nursing. Although it is definitely not for everyone, you dont have to deal with alot of the stressors you have mentioned. Most of the "hands on" work is done by psychiatric technicians, the patients have to be medically cleared to be admitted and you dont have to deal with family members unless you are working with child/adolescents. oh and the best thing is that a major part of your job is talking to the patients! just an option! ;)Hope you feel better soon. Sending positive vibes and thought your way! Sorry its my first post and Im loving the icons.......
I too feel the same way, I hate floor nursing. I have been an RN for 2.5 years, prior to that I was a paramedic. I have always been used to the fast pace of emergency medicine. I have bounced between the floor and the er since I work in a small hospital. The ER has been great for me! Now I am moving on to a position in a bigger hospital that is strictly er, guess you just have to find your area in nursing.
I am a psych RN and although you don't have to deal with some of the things you mentioned in your post, I can tell you from personal experience that psych nursing is very emotionally draining. It can suck the life out of you, especially dealing with borderlines and patients with behavioral problems. And, at least at the hospital I work at and the populations we deal with, it is VERY stressful. You may hear from some folks that psych nursing is easy. I couldn't disagree more. I think often the people that make these comments have never spent a day working as an RN in inpatient psych.
I totally empathize with your current situation and I honestly do not have any answers. I find myself in a similar situation and feel disillusioned by the current state of nursing. I am hoping to eventually go into informatics.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
A lot of us know where you're coming from.
With me, it was the Community Nursing thing and Administration. I got tired of constantly putting my safety on the line (I guess I wouldn't go too far as to say, "life on the line" since I was stabbed by a Patient once) and Administration always looking at ways to cut Staff, Costs, and Services.
So, I just Gave Up. Let It Go. Shined It On.
Only then did My Solution find Me. It was very Zen of me.
But, hey- it worked. I've been reasonably happy for the past several years now. And who could ask for more?
With me, it was the Community Nursing thing and Administration. I got tired of constantly putting my safety on the line (I guess I wouldn't go too far as to say, "life on the line" since I was stabbed by a Patient once) and Administration always looking at ways to cut Staff, Costs, and Services.
So, I just Gave Up. Let It Go. Shined It On.
Only then did My Solution find Me. It was very Zen of me.
But, hey- it worked. I've been reasonably happy for the past several years now. And who could ask for more?
Dave
God's sake! Stabbed by a patient? Do tell please. What solution worked for you?
Aaahhh, Davey Do I to have been attacked by a patient twice. Once at gun point in the ER and another time when a enceplopathy pt got confused and decided to choke me. I feel the same way, poor staffing puts us in mortal danger along with the patients. I wished I'd known that nursing was such a business before I became one.
I liked being in the ER, fast pace, stablize and then hasta la vista. However I felt it was a huge brain over load for a new grad...even though I'd worked there for 4 years prior to becoming a new grad. I play with the idea of going back, but then remember all the fast paced traumatic things and the crappy hours and I'm not so sure.
I thought about NP...but frankly I don't want to go to anymore school until I have my BSN paid for. At the rate I'm going that's going to take 3-4 more years. And by then I'd have to go to 4 years of school instead of 2 and really I'm not sure it's worth it. Nursing school was a hard 4 years of my life, not to mention financially difficult. I'd really hate to spend the time and money like I did for nursing and find out it's really not my cup of tea.
I like health, fitness, food and diet education, drug education, etc. I never really wanted to be an administrator...I already hate the nit picky paper work I'm responsible for.
No, but I went from one position to another in the same field. It's really working with the public that hacks me off. I'm still working it while I'm in nursing school. I don't like either because they both deal with the public. I love the cognitive aspects though. It's the hand maiden element that hacks me off.
;)Hope you feel better soon. Sending positive vibes and thought your way! 
Sorry its my first post and Im loving the icons.......
carolmaccas66, BSN, RN
2,212 Posts
I know exactly how you feel! After hanging onto a relationship with a man I dearly love for 20 years that is now over, I am definitely single again. Forget about dating when doing shiftwork - I was too tired to do anything else but eat and sleep, and hardly ever saw friends - when I was off, they were working, or had kids to pick up/attend to, when I was working on afternoons or nightshift, they were off or doing stuff with their kids. When ur single like me and have no children, I find people tend to exclude you from their social activities, or you go to kids birthday parties and if u have no kids, people lose interest in you. Nobody thinks of single people at all.
I feel exactly the same way as you right now - I'm just really tired of dealing with it all now. I feel like there's no challenge in what I do anymore. You try to teach patients things and try to help them as much as you can, and I feel like I'm getting absolutely nowhere at all. People don't listen and do not really care about their health in my opinion. I'm tired of nursing the same fat, whiny, non-compliant private patients (and public ones too). I'm tired of not being thanked for my work, I'm tired of people saying 'Oh you're only a nurse' - I feel like saying to their face EXCUSE ME? Why am I less than a doctor - or any other health professional for that matter - just cos I'm a nurse?
Hospital patients suck, to be perfectly honest. Private patients are pampered to too much by the doctors and nurses.
Sounds like you need to do some hard thinking like me. I've applied for some different nursing jobs up north, as it's a different style of nursing. Can you go agency for a while and pick and choose your own assignments? Or just brush up the CV/resume and look for another position.
I do agree some nursing jobs do suck, actually most seem to suck lately from what I've read on here.
Keep your chin up matey and at least you know ur not alone :)