I miss bedside nursing.

Nurses General Nursing

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I never thought I would say this. I am an ICU nurse turned nurse manager. I really wanted to get out of bedside. My body was beat after only 5 years bedside, 12 hour shifts without barely eating or peeing were killing me, especially as a single mother. I have been a manager for 6 months and hate it. The corruption (yes, where I work there is actual corruption) politics, my CEO hates me..... I just want to take care of my patients again. I want to use my critical thinking skills, I want to make people feel better...have that contact with individuals.

I never in a million years thought I would feel this way. But I do. I am seriously considering going back, but the pay cut would hurt. But, I am probably getting fired soon anyways!!! Maybe I will consider PACU, or same day surgery. Of course these jobs are hard to come by now.

I guess the grasss isn't greener on the otherside.

That's typical though when your workforce is largely female. No offense to anyone. Just speaking from experience.

I don't want to offend anyone either but I think "ImThatGuy" has a point. I was actually going to start a post and ask why theres so much cattiness in nursing? I am a female and currently a CNA/pre-nursing student and have noticed a rise in the overall cattiness compared to any other job enviornment Ive been in. I have heard comments to the same effect from nurses that I am friends with (outside of my workplace.) I have also seen posts on here in the Student forums saying that there's a lot of "drama" in nursing school. I have wondered why that is. Shouldnt everybody be too busy for that nonsense?? I know that men are guilty of it too, but not to the extent that most women are
:(

Absenteeism. Women seem to take more time off to go to school functions, deal with pregnancies, take care of sick children, take care of sick so and so's, and be gone more than men in general. I'm not saying it's bad, but there is obviously an absence in force when that happens. There also seems to be more cattiness in a female work place. Rare would it be for a male to have an emotional breakdown in the workplace. It could happen, but that's probably an exception to the rule. It's easier to get onto men. They'll just get mad and take it somewhere else. There are also dress code elements to managing women. Telling a woman her cleavage is showing and needs to be covered is slippery slope compared to say a fat man's pants sliding down and showing some crack. Again, just my experience. If it bothers you then let it.

Specializes in Med-Surg/Peds/O.R./Legal/cardiology.
Absenteeism. Women seem to take more time off to go to school functions, deal with pregnancies, take care of sick children, take care of sick so and so's, and be gone more than men in general. I'm not saying it's bad, but there is obviously an absence in force when that happens. There also seems to be more cattiness in a female work place. Rare would it be for a male to have an emotional breakdown in the workplace. It could happen, but that's probably an exception to the rule. It's easier to get onto men. They'll just get mad and take it somewhere else. There are also dress code elements to managing women. Telling a woman her cleavage is showing and needs to be covered is slippery slope compared to say a fat man's pants sliding down and showing some crack. Again, just my experience. If it bothers you then let it.

That could be because, in my experience, MOST men do the work for which they are paid and are oblivious to the work that is still required at home. If that bothers you, let it.

That could be because, in my experience, MOST men do the work for which they are paid and are oblivious to the work that is still required at home. If that bothers you, let it.

LOL. So true. Nah, that doesn't bother me. I like stuff like that.

Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

I hear you! I have been ANUM (associate nurse unit manager)for 5 months and I have a patient load on night duty but never on days. And there is only so much you can do to patients on nights! They don't really want to be poked and prodded and lectured to as much I want to overnight!! :D Today was the first day that there was 2 ANUMs on shift and I pulled the patients!! It was great! I really do miss it!

Specializes in Public Health, TB.

None of the women I have worked with have come to work drunk, hung over, or disheveled. They have never pushed me against a wall and threatened me, diverted drugs or stolen from the employer (that I know of). When I've had a really cr@ppy day they don't accuse me of "bein' on the rag."

And on the rare occasions when I have had a family emergency they covered for me.

Just speaking from experience.

None of the women I have worked with have come to work drunk, hung over, or disheveled. They have never pushed me against a wall and threatened me, diverted drugs or stolen from the employer (that I know of). When I've had a really cr@ppy day they don't accuse me of "bein' on the rag."

And on the rare occasions when I have had a family emergency they covered for me.

Just speaking from experience.

Fire them, lol. All of those. Experiences would make termination uber easy.

Fire them, lol. All of those. Experiences would make termination uber easy.

Apologies for the strange sentence structure. I typed that out on my Droid.

Specializes in Med/Surg.

I worked in EMS for several years. There was so much gossip, back stabbing, sabotogue, and cattiness in that male dominated field. For some reason, because men were involved, society does not consider it "catty." That misogynistic stereotype is reserved for women. :uhoh3:

The worst is when women trash other women to get virtual high fives from the guys. This is prototypical histrionic behavior. They generalize their own gender based on trendy mistruths and act as if they are the lone exception! And, ironically, they are being catty, competitive, gossipy, and disagreeable - which are often the reasons they don't like women!

Sorry, I did not mean to derail this thread. It's just a topic I'm passionate about as a nurse and social worker.

Back to the thread...I do harbor some disdain for nurse managers that are not clinically competent. On a few occasions, we were exceedingly short-staffed and my manager "helped" us...like pouring gasoline on me as I'm on fire would help! How can they budget, advocate, incentivize, redirect, and evaluate us if they haven't a clue?!

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