Most stressful and least stressful nursing specialty in the hospital?

liveyourlife747 · Oct 20, 2012

The medical/surgical floor I work on is very stressful most days. This is due to the high turnover of Pts. Multiple discharges and multiple admits all in one shift. We also tend to get people from Ccu that definitely still require icu attention but md wanted them here. Add in the constant double charting and you have a full blown shift of fighting fires!

liveyourlife747 · Oct 20, 2012

The medical/surgical floor I work on us Rey stressful

sapphire18 · Oct 20, 2012

It definitely depends on the individual unit. Acuity level, ratios, staffing, peer support, and your love for a specialty will all factor into how stressful a job is. Everyone will argue that their own specialty is the most stressful. But if I were to make a general decision between those specialties, I would say ER.

Also, there are different kinds of stress. Emotional, physical, mental, intellectual...you just have to learn to cope with it.

Donnuh · Oct 20, 2012

I am currently working night shift on medsurg and it is stressful. Although the stress level was ×2 during day shift. I have a very supportive crew and charge nurse at night so it makes it better. They cannot pay me enough to make me go back to day shift. I just accepted a position as a l and d nurse. I know that would be a different type of stress. Do you guys think it is more stressful than medurg?

allnurses Guide · Oct 20, 2012

ICU step down here. Moderately stressful but not 100% of the time. We have good ratios and good team work and are respected by and supported by most of the doctors. I like my job a lot.

Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN · Oct 20, 2012

To be honest, you're going to receive as many answers as there are specialties, and each and every answer is going to be correct :)

Each specialty has its own stressors and bright-sides. People are different too: what stresses one out, another may thrive on. In addition, like sapphire said: unit or facility itself can also influence the stress level. A well-run unit is going to be much less stressful to work in than one staffed with the bare bones or that has no managerial support.

A valid argument can be made for almost every specialty's stress factor, so I think it's impossible (IMO) to crown one specialty "most stressful" of all.

sapphire18 · Oct 20, 2012

I've never worked either...but from what I've seen and heard, I would think that *in general*, L&D would be less stressful than med-surg...it involves a limited number of diagnoses (if any), and the ratio is lower. Plus, it's not usually dealing with illness...so people are happier:) At least, after they get that epidural;)

RNperdiem, RN · Oct 20, 2012

I have this image in my head of an awards ceremony where the announcer would say things like "For the heaviest workload, the award goes to...Med-surg! For the most tragic cases, the award is a tie between Burns and Neuro ICU!"

I would nominate other categories for stress: most faced paced, most unpredictability, most family/visitor conflicts etc.

It depends on what you find stressful.

brownbook · Oct 20, 2012

Sapphire, I know I would have agreed with you about L&D.......until I worked as a night supervisor for five years. I love your quote, don't always believe everything you think.

Obviously I just got called when things were bad.....and I know my old memory isn't really accurate....but nothing to me was more stressful than L&D nurses calling me........"we need a stat c/section" or "the bus just pulled up (joke) 5 active labor moms just walked in we need more help."

ICU, ER, you, all the staff "expected" the "bad" things to happen.

Nothing is more stressful than L&D where it is SUPPOSED to be happy mommies and daddies and cute bundles of joy and then things go wrong.

boywork · Oct 20, 2012

that depends on many factors acuity of patients and staffing levels as well as experienced or junior staffing in the mix.

CapeCodMermaid, RN · Oct 20, 2012

Nursing is stressful no matter what specialty you work in.