We are all stressed out at work due to several nurses out sick. Without giving out too much detail, I pretty much lost it today. We've been working short for a while. I go in to accept report for my assigned pts. I thought It would be better because we would have more nurses. No, found out 3 more called in sick! I didn't feel safe accepting my assignment, especially since I was on day 6 working short-staffed. I wanted a different assignment since I had been working with the most critical patients. Our supervisor resigned, so the only person to contact about this was our DON. Of course, I did do that but she didn't answer the phone, like always. I started cursing (not in front of the pts) about how she (DON) never answers her phone and how much I hate her. Several other nurses were around that I know feel the same way about her but they were wide eyed when they heard me lose my temper (I'm usually quite and accept any assignment with a smile and am very passive). I told them all I would walk out and leave before I accepted my assignment (and meant it at the time). 2 nurses were happy to trade with me but when I finally got in touch with the DON, I simply told her I didn't feel comfortable accepting the assignment today because I felt tired and overworked. She had a problem with that because "we can't just pick and choose which pts we want". She did switch my assigment but I know that I am now on her bad side.
Has anyone ever lost their temper like that at work? I know it was uncalled for. I am just sick and stressed out and sick of working short all the time. S
Sorry for the horrible grammer, I am just so tired and will shortly be working day 7. UGH!
