I'm the insensitive husband. My wife is a nurse that works in the float pool. She spends a lot time working in behavioral health and the medical floors.
She has been working 3-4 16 hour shifts per 2 week pay period lately.
She feels that since she is working 16 hour shifts, and a nurse that I should be more appreciative.
I see things different than her. I wish I could 16 hour shifts and have more days off. I will 4 days off to her 8-9 days off per pay period. I work 80 hours per pay period and she works 60-70 hours. I wish I could do that.
She will also explain to me how hard nursing is. In my mind, that is what she enjoys and is good at. Most of her issues with being a nurse is dealing with other nurses. It has nothing to do with the work itself.
I basically came her to see if I could get a better understanding of how she feels. To hear from other nurses that have done the same thing and how their spouses were.
Please don't hold back. I want your real thoughts. If I mad you mad, then tell me.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
That thing or the other thing?
Wait... THIS thing?
I don't know how you ever became a Nurse without knowing your things but I tell you this missy- if I ever, and I mean EVER, get a hold of the Instructor that did you the disservice of not teaching you from thing from the other, I will literally give him (or her) a thing he (or she) will be able to tell his (or her) Grandchildren about !
I don't know how you ever became a Nurse without knowing your things but I tell you this missy- if I ever, and I mean EVER, get a hold of the Instructor that did you the disservice of not teaching you from thing from the other, I will literally give him (or her) a thing he (or she) will be able to tell his (or her) Grandchildren about !
But you won't tell her the other things...will you?
Specializes in Pharmaceutical Research, Operating Room.
He must be great. Great at watching you do everything for him.
I was thinking this myself. This is why I waited to get married and found a man, not a little boy that expects me to be his mommy and do every. single. thing. for him.
I got halfway through the thread and the light bulb went on. If somebody else hasn't already pointed this out, I suspect this is all about the money. Who makes more. Who's the bread winner. Who pays the bills. I wonder how old the OP and his wife are.
I could go on and on, but sometimes it's just about the money.
Thanks to everyone that posted. I know that its a strange post. I was just curious if other nurses feel that working part time as a nurse is the same as a full time job.
I do want to say that I appeciate the work you do. It is a very thankless job, and nurses don't get the credit they deserve.
It's probably that she works 16 hrs straight. It takes MUCH more out of you than a regular 8 hr day, 2 days in a row. I used to work full time, overnight 12 hr shifts. My 3 week rotating cycle was this: 36 hour week, whole week off, 72 hour week. I needed almost that whole week off before I would start to feel normal.
Nursing also has a trifecta of challenges: it's stressful physically, mentally, and emotionally. When I say mentally I mean always being on high alert, needing to catch everything going on with the patients (the drs are barely present unless we need them), making sure everyone else does their job (I can't tell you how many times I have to call the lab bc they haven't come to take my pt's blood, or they even cancel orders without asking). Emotionally, we see some very heartbreaking situations. One patient death left me exhausted for a week, and I can still hear her mother's and husband's cries as she was dying...all the while her daughter was also dying in the PICU.
My husband is the CFO of his company. Does he have stress...absolutely. His work is very mentally taxing, and he earns every penny they pay him. But his job is not emotionally draining, and the only physical difficulty is jetlag from flying overseas, which happens only 1-2x per year.
Just examples from my perspective, but that's what makes nursing different from many jobs.
ETA: I love being a nurse. I could be a SAHM with my 5 kids, but I chose to keep working PT. Because I love it. And it is still stressful.
I still think you should listen when she tells you what her stress is like, though.
Farawyn
12,646 Posts
This one? Or that one?
:)