Kind of fed up with things...possibly nursing in general

Nurses General Nursing

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So I've been getting more and more frustrated and angry at work for various reasons. Anything from long hours to mean/ungrateful patients. I've worked ER since 2006 with a small stay in icu in there. I feel like it is time for a change, and I'm kind of thinking of getting out of nursing all together. I would like a more steady schedule. Something 7-3 or 8-4. Yeah I have 4 days off a week now but I'd rather work a couple days more during the week and be off in the afternoon to be able to come home, workout, and see my wife before having to go to bed to wake up at 5 and do it again tomorrow.

Has anyone ever felt this way before or almost gone through a complete career change to be happier?

Are you nuts? How long is your shift? I can only guess that it is 12 hours, if you factor in 8hours of sleep there are still 4 hours left. You may have a huge commute which eats time. If that is the case I would move close to where you work. even I commuting was 20 mins you still would have 3 hours of spare time a day. I know many people who think they are burned out on there job but really they hate sitting in a car for 2 hours a day moving 15 mph. That is a huge killer. I had a job I didn't care for very much but it was a 10 minute bike ride. When you can quite work and then be home an relaxed in ten minutes you can start handling anything.

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Are you nuts? How long is your shift? I can only guess that it is 12 hours, if you factor in 8hours of sleep there are still 4 hours left. You may have a huge commute which eats time. If that is the case I would move close to where you work. even I commuting was 20 mins you still would have 3 hours of spare time a day. I know many people who think they are burned out on there job but really they hate sitting in a car for 2 hours a day moving 15 mph. That is a huge killer. I had a job I didn't care for very much but it was a 10 minute bike ride. When you can quite work and then be home an relaxed in ten minutes you can start handling anything.

0645 - 1900 is supposed to be the shift hours. By the time the oncoming shift comes in and gets report it is 1915 or a bit later by the time we leave. I live 7 miles away which takes me 10-15 minutes to drive. I never hit traffic. Definitely no time to see family

I come home, attempt to workout, cook dinner and, eat. Barely enough time to do that before I have to go to bed to do it again the next day. No real time to wind down unless I want to stay up late and be tired the next morning.

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0645 - 1900 is supposed to be the shift hours. By the time the oncoming shift comes in and gets report it is 1915 or a bit later by the time we leave. I live 7 miles away which takes me 10-15 minutes to drive. I never hit traffic. Definitely no time to see family

I come home, attempt to workout, cook dinner and, eat. Barely enough time to do that before I have to go to bed to do it again the next day. No real time to wind down unless I want to stay up late and be tired the next morning.

I used to be a firefighter and worked 72 hours straight. That would leave me 4 days off but I never saw my family at all for the 3 days and it was hit or miss on whether we would get to sleep/wind down. I understand the fatigue that you can get but I have also worked a 7-3 job and would always prefer more days off.

Maybe you could get a better schedule with your wife so that she prepares meals on days you work. Or you could plan larger meals that yield easily served leftovers. If you place a priority on working out 14 miles of bike riding would be great exercise and maybe only add 15 minutes of commuting each way.

There are many people waiting to take your place, but unless you have some other highly marketable skill now is a risky time to gamble on recareering. I can only recommend that you simplify the aspects of your life that are not job related and then maybe those work hours wont seem so intolerable. good luck.

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