Most stressful and least stressful nursing specialty in the hospital?

echoRNC711, BSN · Oct 21, 2012

I have worked in all of your choices with exception of L&D

In my experience the order of difficulty are :-

CVRU,OR, ER, MICU/SICU, EPS, Stepdown, CCU, Med/surg ,Peds, Tele, ASU , Psych, Detox, Nursery, PP, Pain Mgmt, Cardiac Rehab

I used to ,in addition to my F/T crit.care position ,do 1-2 per diems anywhere in the hospital . The hardest working nurses were MICU (heavy work!! ) ASU the most fun. Cardiac rehab is simply cake!!!

RNGriffin · Oct 21, 2012

I think the most stressful unit is MED-Psych. You are dealing with patients with psychiatric disorders as well as severe medical conditions. Try starting an IV with a patient who is schizophrenic and tell me how well you do.

PMFB-RN, RN · Oct 21, 2012

For me:

Most - Tie between LTC and med-surg.

Least - critical care transport.

RNJill · Oct 21, 2012

I just have to say that I cannot IMAGINE medical psych!! As a nurse on a medical/surgical floor, I feel like the days that are most draining usually involve a pt who is very medically and psychologically ill-if you can successfully deal with this type of patient and be patient/kind/etc. you have my respect!

Good Morning, Gil · Oct 21, 2012

Really depends on staffing ratios, unit culture/teamwork, and hospital differences in each unit. I think from those options, the ER would be the most stressful (and I don't work in an ER; I work in an ICU). You have no control over families in the ER really, and you never know what's going to walk in the door, and you have something coming in constantly.

In the ICU, we never know what our new admission will look like either, but we don't travel near as much as ER nurses, which adds to the time away from your other patients. Yes, we go to CT, MRI, etc with our critical patients, but with far less frequency than ER nurses who might have 4 other patients that need to be transferred or stat labs, etc.

Least stressful: mother/baby. They're generally happy to have their baby, generally healthy, so you don't have the emotional burn-out that the other specialties have in seeing frequent fliers, suffering, end of life on a routine basis.

Good Morning, Gil · Oct 21, 2012

Griffinchet, I have to agree with you. You deal with those patients routinely, whereas the other units still see them with fair regularity, but not every single patient every single day. Yeah, med/psych would be the worst unit to work on, at least for me, for sure. Not necessarily the most stressful, but definitely one would burn out very quickly.

Good Morning, Gil · Oct 21, 2012

PMFB, good thought. I would love to be the critical care transport nurse. That job must be a dream, and have the lowest turn-over of any nursing job lol. Transport patients all day and code them if necessary. Or you have an agitated patient fighting vent while in the CT scanner, a little ativan for the scan. Then, return them to their primary nurse, and move onto the next patient lol.

katiedid53 · Oct 21, 2012

I have worked, ICU,Trauma, ER, Homecare, Hospice, LTC and when I was in working the hospital I had to float out to the med surg floor once and I thought I would die, I was used to 1-3 patients and even though they were very critically ill, I would rather have been in a code than having 6-8 patients. Then I had worked as a Nurse Manager and Supervisor in LTC and I would sometime have to have to work the floor and and I said, OMG, there is not enough money for me to work the floor, the facility that I was in had vent unit with 36 vent patients and on the second shift all they had was one LPN and One C.N.A. and if it was a good night we would have a RT and if not I was the RT and the Nursing supervisor for the whole building (356 beds). Obviously, I left and reported them to the state. So, I would say, it depends upon where you are working, the staffing, the quality of care provided, the support that you have from your coworkers and from management, and your attitude. I do not think that there is a specific area more stressful than others, because nursing is stressful and we need to support each other and remember to appreciate each other. But I do have to admit, that vent unit for me took the cake, and I am glad to say that the state shut down that vent unit. Too bad they did not shut down the whole building.

Christy1019, ASN, RN · Oct 21, 2012

I have worked in all of your choices with exception of L&D
In my experience the order of difficulty are :-
CVRU,OR, ER, MICU/SICU, EPS, Stepdown, CCU, Med/surg ,Peds, Tele, ASU , Psych, Detox, Nursery, PP, Pain Mgmt, Cardiac Rehab
I used to ,in addition to my F/T crit.care position ,do 1-2 per diems anywhere in the hospital . The hardest working nurses were MICU (heavy work!! ) ASU the most fun. Cardiac rehab is simply cake!!!

Wow!!! You've been in so many specialties that I can't even figure out what some of them are lol. Is CVRU cardiovascular rehab unit? What's EPS, PP, or ASU??? LOL

katiedid53 · Oct 21, 2012

I never knew that there was such a thing as a med psych unit. Wow, that has to be a challenge. I cannot even imagine the sense of humor that you would have to have for that job. I salute you for working that unit. Although, I think it would be interesting, but then again, I gravitate to the interesting and out of the ordinary stuff.

joanna73, BSN, RN · Oct 21, 2012

Your coworkers, management, and general flow of the unit make all the difference though. I came from a very busy high acuity critical care unit. The stress didn't bother me because the support was awesome. Currently, I work LTC. Very busy, less critical, but, I'm stressed every day. People work against each other, and the politics is terrible. So, the specialty doesn't make or break your stress. People will.

wanderlust99 · Oct 21, 2012

I find neuro ICU to be the most depressing.

I've worked in dozens of places as a traveler.

The most stressful was this awful tele unit I'd get floated to on one contract. Most of the nurses didn't speak English, I'd ask the charge nurse a question and she wouldn't help me, the management was awful, the patients were entitled and mean, the doctors were all jerks and it wasn't uncommon to get hit with admits, discharges, post ops and etc... all at the same time. It was tough. But after working there, every other place is a breeze. Anytime I get floated to the floor now (which all ICU nurses usually hate), I don't mind..b/c I know it can't be worse than that one hospital I suffered through.

I can remember crying in the elevator on the way to my car after work and going to the bathroom in tears a few times. Eating alone for lunch. ohhhh it was a terrible assignment!!