Need advice regarding reducing work hours due to anxiety please.

[sistasoul]

Hi all,

I dread going into my job due to the stress level I have when I am there. Even just walking on to the floor with all of the call lights, telemetry boxes beeping, occasional yelling out from our little old confused peeps, and just the general noise level at the nurses station creates a high level of stress for me. All of this without even seeing what my assignement will be. Then I have an admission rolling on to the floor at change of shift and another waitng for discharge. Not to mention our little old combative people who like to swing and kick us as well as the detoxers. We are a neuro/ortho floor so we get all of the confused and demented as well.

I have tried 6 different types of medication to help with this and I could never tolerate the side effects. I even got sent home one day because the medication made me unfit to work with patients. I always knew I did not want to work in a hospital due to the craziness I had witnessed as a nursing assistant but felt I needed to get acute care experience. I have been at this job for 4 years and I work 32 hours a week. I can support myself on 24 hours a week and would love to cut down to 3 days so I can still have benefits as I am a single person. How do I tactfully tell my nurse manager that I would like to cut down to 3 shifts a week without her thinking that I can't handle the position?

I have been actively looking for other employment and would most likely work as a waitress to supplement my income until I could obtain a full time nursing position in some type of outpatient facility. I love the hands on care of patients I just can't handle the other stuff that comes along with it.

Any advice or suggestions regarding a good way to bring a way to tell my supervisor about wanting to reduce my hours would be greatly appreciated.

thank you,

Sista

[Mulan]

Reducing hours so that one can take classes and advance their education is always a good thing.

[sistasoul]

That is hilarious. What a great memory you have. I love that song too but it is not why I chose the name.

[goalienrse]

I know the feeling. I adapted well to full time in my second nursing job. In my 3rd I am happy to be going back to part time, as my second job didn't go very well and I'm happy to be out of the supervisor 'radar' like I seemed to be when I was part time.

To sum that up, part time employees I think aren't picked on as much, maybe were not as important. lol. But it stress reducing.

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

There has only been one time when I asked management to cut my hours R/T stress. They wouldn't so I quit. I'm not brave. I honestly didn't believe I had a choice.

It seemed stupid to me then, that management was willing to lose an experienced employee who only wanted 8 hrs less a week. Maybe your employer will be smarter than mine.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

It's not as simple as just asking to cut back your hours. Unless you work at a very unusual hospital, your manager has to work with the available positions s/he has been allocated. Usually, this is divided into a specific number of FT & PT positions. If PRNs are assigned by department (instead of in a central pool) the department would have a specific number of PRN slots also. You would essentially be shifting from one (FT) slot to another (PT). If there is no available PT slot, it may not be do-able.

I completely understand the stress issue. Have you discussed (with your physician) the possibility of a worker's comp claim & paid medical leave? I know of several instances in which this has happened. I also encourage you to talk to HR - not your manager, because it seems like that is not working so well. Recruitment is expensive. You have 4 years of experience and are a valuable asset. It would be better for them to transfer you into a less stressful environment than to lose you - particularly if you are going to file a wc claim (see what I mean?). If nothing else, it will help bring attention to the need to improve their nurses' work environment.

[MadpeysRN]

Why not put in to transfer to a different unit?

I am a new nurse but I was told by a nurse of many years, that if you are unhappy where you are it's your own fault because there are so many different things you can do or units to transfer to, atleast within our hospital.

good luck

[sistasoul]

Hi HouTx,

I am now considered a part time employee at 32 hrs a week and would still be considered a part time employee at 24 hrs a week. Right now the hospital is remodeling the 5th floor and we have absorbed all of those nurses into our pool until the 5th floor is finished in the beginning of 2014. We have more than enough nurse to pick up the extra shift a week. This doesn't count all of the perdiem staff we have that are screaming for work.

Also, I really don't want to to start a worker's comp claim and HR is never really on the worker's side. My hospital rarely has openings except for the cardiac floor and I will NEVER work on that stress inducing floor. I actually like the hospital and my co-workers and even my bosses. Just too much stress and craziness.

Thank you all for the wonderful replies.

[Marshall1]

For a variety of reason I left the hospital environment in early 2010. I've held a couple of positions and last fall "everything" caved in on me after going to a M-F 8-5 position. I am not a weak person by any means..there were just too many changes, too many loses, etc for me to hold up. As it stands now, I will be returning to work in March, PRN in a hospital setting. For me, right now, PRN is the best option and one, thankfully, for awhile anyway, I can go on. I was offered a position in a doctors office/clinic but the pay was extremely low ($13/hr!) so I will work PRN and in the meantime look for something non-hospital based that doesn't require call.

One thing I have absolutely learned on the past 6 months is I want/need balance..not too much work - not too much time home. I don't have children so working holidays/weekends is not a big deal to me. I am not interested in FT hospital work - regardless of the unit, and home health, at least where I live, is paid by the visit only so that is out unless going FT which again is not something I'm interested in as it's usually M-F and call.

My point is, you won't know about cutting hours unless you ask. I agree w/others on here - say its for school, family - then take it from there. As I've posted in other places, NO job is worth your health. Every job has good/bad days but when the bad outweigh the good & time off is spent worrying about the next work day - time to make a change. Life is too short. Good luck.