I am so tired of bedside nursing!!!

Nurses General Nursing

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I am so absolutely tired of bedside nursing!! I have done critical care, med-surg, and orthopedics. Patients are so demanding, wanting pain meds all the time, dealing with the families who annoying. I am an RN and worked hard to get it and am so discouraged. Any advice? I live in a rural area and a good nursing job is hard to find.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Home Health.
I am so absolutely tired of bedside nursing!! I have done critical care, med-surg, and orthopedics. Patients are so demanding, wanting pain meds all the time, dealing with the families who annoying. I am an RN and worked hard to get it and am so discouraged. Any advice? I live in a rural area and a good nursing job is hard to find.

I am in the same boat as you are. Nursing jobs here are scarce and I HATE bedside nursing. It is destroying my desire to be a nurse. With me, the only option is to travel if I want to do something different. Maybe you could get a job staying home with a patient.

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

rural areas are a great place to do hh. i love driving in the country and getting paid for it.

:wlcmggrp:to all nurses!

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You may have the skills but it doesn't sound like you have the heart. When I went to nursing school many years ago, we were taught to have the skills and to also have the heart. We are in the business of customer service but few seem to know that now. I feel just the opposite of you. I am so busy with computer charting and too many patients that I don't feel I am able to spend enough quality time with my patients. :o

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Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, OB.

have you considered home health nursing? it is different than private duty alluded to earlier, but is skilled visits to patients homes (mostly medicare) for wound care, teaching disease process, medication teaching, rehab, and the like. usually even the most rural areas have at least one agency doing this. involves driving, and you must be super organized and sure of your assessment and teaching skills. there is a critical shortage nationwide, from 14% to 28% vacancies per a new journal. think about it!:idea::twocents:

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
you may have the skills but it doesn't sound like you have the heart :o

:wlcmggrp:to all nurses!

respectfully, i think that's a judgemental statement about someone you don't know. i have a huge heart and i have been a nurse for a long time also. many patients and patients families have become progressively more demanding and disrespectful of nurses. i had enough of it and had to get out. it was a smart and caring thing for me to do. it benefitted me and benefitted the patients. i no longer work on a floor but i still have patient contact and i enjoy them tremendously and the vast majority are polite, respectful and very thankful. i had one tell me last week. "if you had a tip jar you'd make alot of money" ;)

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
even the most rural areas have at least one agency doing this. involves driving, and you must be super organized and sure of your assessment and teaching skills. there is a critical shortage nationwide, from 14% to 28% vacancies per a new journal. think about it!:idea::twocents:

hh is nursing best kept secret, imho.

:wlcmggrp: to all nurses!

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Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, OB.
:wlcmggrp:to all nurses!

respectfully, i think that's a judgemental statement about someone you don't know. i have a huge heart and i have been a nurse for a long time also. many patients and patients families have become progressively more demanding and disrespectful of nurses. i had enough of it and had to get out. it was a smart and caring thing for me to do. it benefitted me and benefitted the patients. i no longer work on a floor but i still have patient contact and i enjoy them tremendously and the vast majority are polite, respectful and very thankful. i had one tell me last week. "if you had a tip jar you'd make alot of money" ;)

:anpom:amen! also check out the home health forum!

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Specializes in ICU, M/S,Nurse Supervisor, CNS.

Are there any discharge planner positions where you work, or maybe working in the OR? These two jobs have little patient contact...well the you have pt contact in the OR, but the patient's knocked out and the anesthesiologist is pushing all the meds. I'm getting a little tired of bedside nursing too, so I just recently got a job as a bedflow coordinator part-time. I am still doing critical care part-time too though, but I still love bedside nursing, I'm just getting a bit burned out, so this new job will break up the monotony.

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In response to the comment regarding not having a heart, I have a tremendous amount of heart and love for the field of nursing. I am just tired of being treated mean and nasty from old nurses who need to get out of the business, tired of being disrespected by patients and families, and annoyed with taking care of people who you know are never going to make it out of the hospital. I think I am suffering from moral distress. I feel like I either don't do enough for my patients or the decisions that I make in judgement aren't respected. I have a job interview tommorrow in rehab nursing and hopefully this will help to get out of critical care.

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
I think I am suffering from moral distress.

Sweetie...otherwise known as "nursing burnout", been there, done that, no fun. You're wise to get out and move on. Best of Luck.

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Specializes in Adolescent Psych, PICU.

HH is a good idea. Have you thought about going back to school because I know NP can be used in rural areas and you might enjoy that. Just a thought.

Good luck and I hope you find something that you will enjoy.

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