I don't think I can do this anymore...

FLArn · Nov 5, 2009

mc3:icon_hug:

Katie5 · Nov 5, 2009

Count me into this conversation. I've been a nurse for almost 3 years and I'm fed up. I continually search the classifieds for something different. I've researched different career tracks, getting my MSN, etc. I've also considered working part time at PetSmart or something. I'm trying to get my husband to move back to our home town so I can go back to my maternal child health job full time and pick up shifts at my hospital, but he's not having it.
Hang in there. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. Nursing has made me hate people, but it's also taught me a lot about human nature and myself.

Somehow I could not move further because of this statement.That is deep! Wow. Nursing can really do that to you?Wow

GiGiOm · Nov 7, 2009

I am so glad not to be alone in this. Thank you for expressing what you are feeling so articulately. I also feel the same way. I have nursed for twelve years in multiple areas. I've always enjoyed learning something different. But lately, I just want to keep on driving when I reach the turn-in to the hospital. Press Ganey has destroyed morale for nurses. It's gotten downright Orwellian at my hospital. If you don't get your patients to fill out a survey and mention you, you must not be a good nurse. Well, I don't need my name mentioned in a survey to know what kind of nurse I am! I care about my patients' outcome. That is more important than a stinking survey with my name on it! I don't believe in sticking surveys under sick people's noses when they are at the hospital to get better. And the throughput is unbelievable now! They just slam people through the doors as fast as possible. We got two admissions in at the same time. One was coding as soon as we got them in the bed and the other was having chest pain from an acute MI! We had to choose between coding someone and tending to someone's MI! I felt horrible when I got off work, like I just hadn't done my job well. I know it's impossible to "schedule" admissions, but we shouldn't have even gotten the patient who was coding! That patient should have gone to ICU (I'm in stepdown). And people DO feel so entitled these days. The patients who are the sickest and neediest end up getting the short end of the stick because a routine surgery patient who happens to have sleep apnea (and has to be monitored overnight) is on the call bell with a new demand every five minutes - and their family is at the nurses station every ten minutes! So the sick patients who need the care get screwed. I'm just very frustrated. I am also sick and tired of never getting out on time and never getting finished with report on time, waking up hurting all over and feeling sick even when I'm off because I was so stressed and pushed for three twelve hour shifts in a row! So, I'm joining the growing number of disenchanted nurses who just can't do this anymore. Sorry this comment was so long!

jbjelus1 · Nov 7, 2009

i don't think i can be a nurse anymore. i am tired, tired, tired of all the b__s__. i did hospice work for 6 years, then took a short break to help take care of my sister who was diagnosed with breast ca. went back to work, but tried home health. i'm just so weary and tired of having to cater to people - patients and families. it doesn't seem i can just "be a nurse". i'm tired peoples' demands ("no, you can't come at 9:00. i don't like getting up early" no, you can't come because i have to take the dog to the groomers" to "you have to check my 02 sats" even though i don't have an order, and pt is asymptomatic. or, being unable to schedule a visit because the patient is driving his wife to the airport (!!!) yet i'm told i still have to see him for blood work. i tell the office about these folks, and i'm told to see them anyway. or, how about telling a patient the truth, even if the agency doesn't like it. (yes, mrs. jones the wound on your leg is horrible and getting worse daily, but don't ask my opinion about seeing a different doctor for a second opinion because doctor #1 won't like it and will complain about me. btw - lady ended up in the hospital for it) and, one pt i saw this week - who has early stage dementia - had a gun in a holster on him with his wife sitting 2 chairs down from me. i didn't see it until i went to check his lungs. the wife? she told me that she was glad she gave him his medicine to "calm him down" earlier. i can also honestly say i have never met a group of people who felt so entitled in my life! people are sick - i understand that - but the ones who are truly sick are the least demanding. and the families...yikes. i can't take it anymore. i am giving my notice tomorrow, even without another job to go to. i need to clear my brain and do some soul-searching before i pursue anything else.
this makes me sad, though. i went in to nursing with such high hopes and good intentions, and look what happened
mc3

nursing for the most part can be a draining career profession. i often ask people when they tell me that they want to become a nurse what drives them toward this career, surprisingly a lot of them say the money. i tell them that they need to search a little deeper if all their drive is for the pay check, because if you do not enjoy what you are doing, then the money just isn't worth it.

i am pretty sure that many nurses have felt the way that you do at some point in their career, i know that i sure have, fortunately i have been blessed to have a job where i only work friday, saturday, and sunday, eight hour shifts, 11-7 as a charge nurse. while i still do patient care from time to time, most of my duties include looking after other staff members and running the unit now. i decided that i did not want to work full time a while back after i had my son, because a draining job can be havock on the family, especially if you are unhappy, but i feel your pain, honestly i do !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ONCRN84 · Nov 7, 2009

Somehow I could not move further because of this statement.That is deep! Wow. Nursing can really do that to you?Wow

Take it for what it is, but as a nurse you see the worst side of a lot of people. You also see some good times. I didn't say I hated my patients... it's usually families and administration.

MedSurgeMess · Nov 7, 2009

Yeah. I've been trying very hard to get away from M/S. Its not for me. They like me there though cause I am efficient, but its an unhealthy match for me to be there. I get toxic dealing with medical patients. Too much of the type of pt. I described.
The economy has slowed down my efforts to leave the M/S field. People see on my application that I have experience in M/S plus a little more and want me there. I've had HR offices string me along, acting as if I am being considered for an ICU position, then come up with some excuse that they "Prefer you take a M/S position, just to help us out for a few months, then down the road you can transfer." Unfortunately, I think I waited too long to decide to go back to being a staff nurse instead of traveling. Now, at least until the economy improves, I am stuck on M/S humoring pt's with no chance of getting better because in their minds..........them getting better is everyone else's problem.

I have the same problem, 7+ yrs in M/S and that's all anyone wants to give you. I'm going back to school for MSN Educator, so someday, I'll have something else to fall back on. The M/S patients are killing me, they are the neediest bunch. Yes, some are truly sick, but many are not as sick as they'd like to lead everyone on to believing....

nurseby07 · Nov 7, 2009

The last few weeks for me have also been filled with annoying family members. It would be so much easier if we could ask the family members to step outside, like we could in the hospital, but in HH you can't. Uggh.

I hope you find what you need.

eriksoln, BSN, RN · Nov 7, 2009

I have the same problem, 7+ yrs in M/S and that's all anyone wants to give you. I'm going back to school for MSN Educator, so someday, I'll have something else to fall back on. The M/S patients are killing me, they are the neediest bunch. Yes, some are truly sick, but many are not as sick as they'd like to lead everyone on to believing....

Just had an admit last night...........young girl, mother of three with a "cough". Neg. Flu A+B. You could tell, she checked into the hospital for a break from the kids. She was perfectly ambulatory but the second her behind hit the bed, you could see the change in her. Asking for things to be handed to her that were two feet from the bed, on the bell for..........1st time:an extra pitcher of water, 2nd time: adjust the curtains, 3rd time: adjust the room temp., 4th time: When is the doctor coming in, she'd like that med they put in her IV while she was in the ER ordered on the unit too (morphine..........FOR A COUGH?!!!), 5th time: Ice cream.........orange sherbert and vanilla both to make a creamsickle with. That was my night.

These are the people that burn out nurses, not the sick ones. Shame really. I'd rather go to a jail and take care of convicts than deal with these people (I have applied to a few places for Correctional Nursing).

jbjelus1 · Nov 7, 2009

I have the same problem, 7+ yrs in M/S and that's all anyone wants to give you. I'm going back to school for MSN Educator, so someday, I'll have something else to fall back on. The M/S patients are killing me, they are the neediest bunch. Yes, some are truly sick, but many are not as sick as they'd like to lead everyone on to believing....

I must agree with you on that. I work on a M/S unit too, and although I am not usually doing direct patient care I still get frustrated at times with the patients that we get. A lot of them are sick, but then you have those who come in for their pain med fix. I think that it's obsurd. We have doctors prescribing pain meds, such as Dilaudid for people that come in with asthma exacerbation, and they take the medicine like it's candy, and not to mention the nursing home patients that come in with the difficult family members that always complain and never help, oh I could go on and on venting but I have to come out of it now. It is these times that I am glad I do nursing because I really like helping.

jbjelus1 · Nov 7, 2009

Just had an admit last night...........young girl, mother of three with a "cough". Neg. Flu A+B. You could tell, she checked into the hospital for a break from the kids. She was perfectly ambulatory but the second her behind hit the bed, you could see the change in her. Asking for things to be handed to her that were two feet from the bed, on the bell for..........1st time:an extra pitcher of water, 2nd time: adjust the curtains, 3rd time: adjust the room temp., 4th time: When is the doctor coming in, she'd like that med they put in her IV while she was in the ER ordered on the unit too (morphine..........FOR A COUGH?!!!), 5th time: Ice cream.........orange sherbert and vanilla both to make a creamsickle with. That was my night.
These are the people that burn out nurses, not the sick ones. Shame really. I'd rather go to a jail and take care of convicts than deal with these people (I have applied to a few places for Correctional Nursing).

Check this one out I was working one night on the unit, and we had a female patient that kept complaining that she was throwing up, well evertime we went into her room to empty out her basin, there was nothing but a small amont of spit in the basin. At first I had a puzzled look on my face but I emptied it out for her all of the same, even though she had a garbage can rightbeside her bed. As expected she kept doing this, finally another nurse went into the room and asked her (in a polite tone i may add) why she couldn't empty the basin in the garbage can, since she was only coughing up a little mucous, the patient got extremely upset and called her a" b****" and said that it was the nurses job to carry the basin to the bathroom and empty it out. I just thought the nerve and to think that you still have to be polite and turn the other cheek

mc3, ASN, RN · Nov 7, 2009

Well, everyone, I did give my very short notice. I had to - I was afraid I was going to blow a gasket or something. It was better to go out on a somewhat high note. Hubby and I will be very, very conservative with the cash and expenses. We always have been, and that's why I can do this now. I feel like I'm at the end of a nightmare, or a very long sickness. I hope in the next days and weeks that feeling goes away, 'cause it's not comfortable. I am so very sick of people, I have little compassion anymore. Yet, someone said it and it's so true - the folks that are truly ill I still feel for - it's everyone else - family members, especially, that I'm burnt out on.

Thanks again for all your kind words.

mc3 :paw:

leslie :-D · Nov 7, 2009

mc3, may i ask why you left hospice?

(actually i can think of many reasons, but was curious as to yours...)

leslie