I want to do something else

DolphinRN84, MSN, RN, APRN, NP · Dec 23, 2006

Hey smileysenior. I remember your past posts about being a med/surg nurse. I totally understand how you feel. I've been on my unit (vascular surgical unit) for about a month and a half (still in orientation) and it is very overwhelming. We get a lot of heavy patients..they are so complex! I'm a new grad myself and I thought about giving up since I cried almost every day. But the people on my floor are really supportive and willing to help out. So I'm thankful for that. Yeah maybe you can look into other fields of nursing...like ICU, Psych..maybe office nursing? All the best to you! I know how hard it is believe me!

dazey71 · Dec 23, 2006

Find something else to do before you hurt someone.

well, since you're not actually a nurse yet, you really have no room to comment, especially with rude replies. i strongly doubt your first year is going to be a breeze.

melissa*lvn · Dec 23, 2006

i am sorry you are feeling the way you are, i am a recent graduate and kinda nervous but i wish you all the luck and hope things work out for you which ever way you decide to go.

weetziebat · Dec 23, 2006

I've been a nurse for a looong time and it just keeps getting worse. I can understand why you say what you do, but it may have something to do with the hospital or unit you're working on.

Before you go through all the expense and time involved in getting into a new career, check out other things. Maybe a small, rural hospital. Or working with an HMO, or clinic. I have had very few Nursing Jobs that I could say I really love - alright, till now maybe one or two - but I'm now in hospice nursing and truly love it.

One of the few great things about nursing is that it covers a very wide range of specialties from which to choose. Don't know anything about legal nurse consultants, but is there a forum on here for them? If so you might check it out.

Hope you find a niche in nursing you like. If not, get out while you are young and find a career you can live with. You've got far too long before you can retire! Good luck :wink2:

Kymmi · Dec 23, 2006

Tweety---excellent post I really like your attitude.

Smiley---I wouldnt go as far as to say find something else to do before you hurt someone...that was uncalled for because I think just the fact that you feel like you do goes to show you care alot about other people however I do have to say you remind me of a nurse I used to work with. She absolutely hated bedside nursing although she was a terrific nurse. I remember once when she told me that she was trying to figure out how she could wreck her car on the way to work and not get hurt or hurt anyone else but if she had a wreck that would give her reason to not have to come to work that day. I do remember telling her that she needed to find something else to do before she hurt HERSELF. It wasnt long after that day that she enrolled in college and took whatever classes she needed to take to become a foresnics ( ? spelling) nurse and the last time I talked to her she absolutely loved her job now. So I guess what Im saying to you is that somewhere out there is a perfect fit for you but you really do need to find it before you get to the point in your life that she was at. There are so many avenues to go down in nursing. When I first started nursing I worked LTC and I really didnt like it and I take my hat off to anyone that does LTC however I also have heard nurses say that they wouldnt dream of doing intensive care and I love it...so every personality has a different desire for happiness....thank goodness we are all different and enjoy different areas of nursing because that's the only way that all fields of nursing can be covered.

MsPiggy · Dec 23, 2006

Hi Smiley,

I feel for you, I have a lot of those issues where I work too, it is a very toxic environment to say the least, even though we are a union workplace it doesn't seem to do much except keep our health ins rates reasonable. I am very fried after 16 yr.s of nursing. I love patient care, unfortunately we are not adequately staffed enough to give really good care.

I'm working on my BFA, and planning on going into teaching art & hopefully making enough to maintain my metalsmithing & painting habit and socking away some retirement money. I love nursing don't get me wrong, but the current negative environment and employer nastiness towards their nursing staff seems to growing, at least from what I hear talking with other nurses in my neck of the woods.

A lot of my friends are starting second careers too. Maybe we are just getting older and tired, at least I am. Legal nurse consulting sounds pretty interesting to me and I've always thought forensic nursing sounded pretty good too. There are so many areas in nursing you could get into, why not explore them a bit?

Good luck to you whichever you choose, try not to stay in a negative environment too long, there are plenty more jobs out there but only one you!

Ms.P

Liddle Noodnik · Dec 23, 2006

... I hate it. Nursing is not what I thought it was.,, this is not something I see myself doing for much longer. Anyone who is considering a career in nursing, RUN and fast!

Classic case of burnout in my opinion, and no wonder! No one can take advantage of you like that (I saw your list) without your permission.

At 21 you haven't really learned how to say no yet perhaps? The most important is what Tweety said about ignoring the answering machine. And when you say no, you don't have to defend yourself!

I will echo what someone else said; you can't maintain your sanity working five 12 hr shifts! EEE! Physically and emotionally impossible. Money does NOT matter that much!

I worked my first job on a med-surg unit, nights, and it was very difficult to stay on top of that many patients with that many problems. I was very disappointed with nursing. But after 6 months they started floating me, and I ended up working more and more in the ICU, and loved it. So I transfered up shortly after that.

I got a really good orientation to the unit. You get to really know the patients, and although they are usually more ill than med-surg patients, I was able to focus my energies on them and take good care of them.

It was also cool to learn all the new technology and to really understand the anatomy and physiology of the heart and lungs, to really "see" it.

In other words: Take a few vacation days to rest and to remember what the sky looks like. Learn that "no" is a complete sentence. And maybe you can ask your supervisor or DON if you can try floating to other units.

Truly - I think you have been run over by a truck and you need some "you" time to really know how you feel when you are not physically and mentally exhausted.

medsurgnurse, RN · Dec 23, 2006

Find something else to do before you hurt someone.

I didn't hear the OP say that she had a practice issues. She reported the same stuff most nurses put up with. When you become a real nurse, come back and tell us alllllll about your problems. Just remember to change you screenname first. You were unnecessarily rude to the OP. Especially considering you are not a nurse yourself.

shuuu1968 · Dec 23, 2006

I am a new grad since May. I started a new grad internship this last August on very busy cardiac step down unit at the hospital. For about four months I thought "What the heck did I get myself into?" I was quite depressed, cried alot, my stomach hurt, had anxiety, lost weight...etc. Guess what? 5 months in, and I can say I like my job. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it, so overall "like" is a good word.

One thing that helped was switching form days to nights after my oreitnation was over. Sleeping sucks, but at night you have less interference from docs, families, pt/ot, etc. You have more time to figure out your own routine, and to get to know your patients a little better. You also have time to actually think, which fosters a better learning atmosphere. I now have time to eat, pee, and maybe sit and do nothing for more than 2 seconds, a luxury not afforded on many day shifts.

It does get better. I almost quit many times. I hung in there though, and I am so glad I did. It does help to have a good team (mine is GREAT..I love them) and a company that does not take advantage of you, like working you 5 12's a week, that is just plain dangerous if you ask me. Some situations are just better to get out of.

As far as mean docs and annoying coworkers...all I gotta say is whatever. I don't deal with it too often, but when I do, I just do my job. They are usually the ones who have issues, not me. Sometimes if you give it back a little (without stepping out of bounds) those annying docs tend to respect you a little more. They will realize you have a backbone, and that demands respect.

Hang in there anyone who is having a rough time and just starting out. And if your job is truly unsafe or overly demanding beyond what constitutes the norm, then start looking for something else, there are so many options for us out there in the health care world.

Merry Christmas all....

Sue ):Ball: :Santa3: :Reindeer:

RNinSoCal · Dec 23, 2006

Smileysenior,

Wow. I feel for you. That sounds like the floor I used to work on. I used to work wayyyyy too much and had little or no respect, was constantly threatened to be sued, had a patient population that was 50-70% non-english speaking, co-workers who tried to spread rumors about me, had to beg for time off, and had to be hypervigilant due to working with resident MDs. I hung in there until my contract ended and then I left. I did not know how bad it was there until I tried another hospital. My current job/hospital is wonderful. I am still on med surg but I only work four 8 hour shifts a week, overtime is something I choose and no one pressures me, the MDs are more professional, the pay is better, the nurses here are more professional-very little cattiness, and my patients speak English 80% of the time.

It sounds like you hate your workplace more than your work. Try to find another hospital that has low nurse turnover and is unionized if you can. It might be worth it to give nursing another try in a better hospital. And by better I don't mean how it is rated in the public, I mean how it is rated by nurses. I don't work at the famous teaching hospital 10 miles away because they expect super nurses not human beings.

Best of luck.

tddowney · Dec 23, 2006

1. The long work hours, you never get off on time, 12 hour shifts turn into 16s
2. Being harassedto come in on your days off and being made to feel guilty if u dont
3. working on holidays
4. No compassion, u walk around vomiting with a 103 temp and they wont let you go home, yet u are expected to be compassionate and come in extra, stay late, work under backbreaking conditions with too many critical patients
5. Constant threats of being sued from patients and familiy
6. Drama from coworkers
7. People trying to write u up for stupi BS
8. Anal retentive nurses
9. Night shift vs day shift drama
10. vultures
11. No respect or appreciation from anyone
12. anxiety, stress, depression
13. being edgy and moody all the time
14. ruining your health due to lack of sleep, stress, mental issues, eating crap
15. being criticized for little things
16. back problems
17. catching illnesses like crazy
18. the 4 years of school i went through only to be a high tech babysitter because everyone thinks u are stupid and ur job is so easy
19. sucking up to rude people
20. people who think the hospital is a hotel and demand stupid BS
21. calling MDs for everything- they get irritated
22. feeling burnout
23. shall I go on?
I wish I had known this when I was in school.

Looking at these issues you have, some are perhaps fixable now.

Use caller ID/voice mail/answering machine to screen your calls. Don't answer the hospital. Don't feel guilty about it, either. You are not the one making the decisions that lead to chronic understaffing. You don't have to cover someone else's stupidity.

Drama is best enjoyed as a spectator. Refuse to participate. Dramatists are looking for attention/sympathy/whatever. If they don't get it from you, they'll move on before long. While they're getting the message, secretly rate their performances. "X threw the best temper tantrum, Y did the best poor me act, etc." It can be quite amusing.

Look at criticism honestly, and let the petty stuff go. Not worth your time. Do your best to address the criticism that has merit. I don't know if you get defensive, but I know I sometimes do, despite my best efforts. It costs energy much better spent elsewhere.

It's great to be appreciated openly for what you do, but it can be a long wait before it happens. One thing that I've found that helps is to appreciate others openly. You know you've given credit where it's earned, and it often comes back around as well.

Take positive steps to move on to another job, be it in nursing or elsewhere. Just the act of moving toward a goal can change your internal thoughts from "I'm trapped" to "I'll be out of this mess before long."

In the short run, you can't change the conditions all that much, but you can change your reaction to them.

IMHO, you want to make the current situation at least tolerable, so that you can plan your future moves without panic.

Best of luck to you.

Liddle Noodnik · Dec 23, 2006

...While they're getting the message, secretly rate their performances. "X threw the best temper tantrum, Y did the best poor me act, etc." It can be quite amusing.

Ha ha, love that!

...I don't know if you get defensive, but I know I sometimes do, despite my best efforts. It costs energy much better spent elsewhere.

I do sometimes get defensive, even if the criticism seems unwarranted. There is a part of me that wonders if they are right, and I am NOT as wonderful as I think I might be. I need a balance between egotistical and a doormat!

...IMHO, you want to make the current situation at least tolerable, so that you can plan your future moves without panic.

Wow, this is EXCELLENT advice. Too often we want to cut and run - with work, relationships, friendships, whatever ... when it is more than possible to tolerate a situation til we can look at it calmly.