Not loving nursing....yet.

Hello everyone. I am just looking to vent. I am a newer nurse. Been on my job for 8 months and off of orientation for 5 months. I work on a very busy ortho/surgical floor. We tend to get a lot of nursing home patients, as well. So, some of these patients tend to be admitted for placement, multiple wounds, infections, etc. I am getting a little worn down with the assignments that I have been getting lately. My unit does not do well with assigning per acuity. Rather they assign by grouping the rooms together. So I tend to get a lot of the isolation patients. The other night I had 6 patients, 3 in contact iso, 2 had telesitters, a CBI, and a hip fracture. Of those 6 patients, 4 were complete care patients and my floor only had 1 aide for 32 patients. This tends to be the norm. I have talked to my manager, she said it is unfair and she will look into it. However, this has been an ongoing issue on my unit that never gets resolved. The other issue I am having is that 1) I work nights 2)I am a mother of 2 kids 3) I am becoming depressed, tired all the time, and am regretting becoming a nurse. The worst part of all is I try to vent to my husband and he just doesnt get it. He has no idea. He tells me, "Well, you only work4 days a week." Or he explains how much harder his job is than mine. My unit is always short nurses. They tend to float nurses from my floor to transfer to other units to cover their shortage. Therfore, leaving us short and at least once or twice a week I am told I may get mandated to work the day shift. I am just tired and frustrated. I am tired of working for an organization where it feels that they do not care about their nurses. It seems like management is always looking for ways to get the nurses in trouble for something and God forbid you ask a queation about something. We are a Magnet hospital, I thought they were supposed to be nursing oriented. Man was I wrong.

My personal experience in nursing has not been good, so I can't provide reassurance of better things to come. But that's just me, there are some very happy nurses out there. I think your hapiness in nursing will also depend on you, your outlook... For some people the giving and caring for others will make them happy. Others will focus on pay and benefits and find their hapiness in their career choice. As for your husband not understanding, somehow that rings a bell for me and I had to respond to you. I think that only another person who works in healthcare and is RESPONSIBLE for the care and life of another individual can really understand the challenges in nursing. I can't imagine comparing it to any other job.

Thank you for your response❤

Hello everyone. I am just looking to vent. I am a newer nurse. Been on my job for 8 months and off of orientation for 5 months. I work on a very busy ortho/surgical floor. We tend to get a lot of nursing home patients, as well. So, some of these patients tend to be admitted for placement, multiple wounds, infections, etc. I am getting a little worn down with the assignments that I have been getting lately. My unit does not do well with assigning per acuity. Rather they assign by grouping the rooms together. So I tend to get a lot of the isolation patients. The other night I had 6 patients, 3 in contact iso, 2 had telesitters, a CBI, and a hip fracture. Of those 6 patients, 4 were complete care patients and my floor only had 1 aide for 32 patients. This tends to be the norm. I have talked to my manager, she said it is unfair and she will look into it. However, this has been an ongoing issue on my unit that never gets resolved. The other issue I am having is that 1) I work nights 2)I am a mother of 2 kids 3) I am becoming depressed, tired all the time, and am regretting becoming a nurse. The worst part of all is I try to vent to my husband and he just doesnt get it. He has no idea. He tells me, "Well, you only work4 days a week." Or he explains how much harder his job is than mine. My unit is always short nurses. They tend to float nurses from my floor to transfer to other units to cover their shortage. Therfore, leaving us short and at least once or twice a week I am told I may get mandated to work the day shift. I am just tired and frustrated. I am tired of working for an organization where it feels that they do not care about their nurses. It seems like management is always looking for ways to get the nurses in trouble for something and God forbid you ask a queation about something. We are a Magnet hospital, I thought they were supposed to be nursing oriented. Man was I wrong.

That sounds a lot like my first nursing job. Just get your year or two of experience and move on to greener pastures. I guarantee you you're not the first to complain about your working conditions ...and you won't be the last. Change is not likely. They'll just wait for you to leave, then replace you with the next new grad.

For what it's worth, almost no one loves their first year of nursing. That's pretty much universal across all settings. Hang in there, get your year in (or longer if you can stand it, it looks better on your resume) and then go on to what I hope will be greener pastures for you.

Thank you everyone for replying, it is really nice to be able to vent to others that can relate. I am really trying my best to hang in there for a full year.

I totally get how you feel, I lasted about 1.5 years as a full time ER nurse before reverting right back to being a full time paramedic again. I don't regret that decision at all, and I am not sure when or if I will do full time nursing again. I don't know that it is worth the stress!

Annie

MrsJT,

I agree with those above...it's a sad situation but you are not going to change it. It's physically draining and even more emotionally draining because it doesn't allow you to provide care in line with the ethical nursing principles you were taught. Or any sort of principles whatsoever other than the financial bottom line.

The experience is worthwhile, though; I'm sure you are learning a lot and it will serve you for the rest of your career.

What you do need to work on is your support systems. When you're at home you need to be able to re-center and find some respite and emotional re-charging through the support of your spouse. He deserves that, too. Work and parenting young children make for an incredible stress on the marriage unless there is a connection, a team-spirit, and a desire for each to care for the other. Would you be able to make time for a date? And work towards being able to have a "meeting of the minds" as far as how you can support each other's stressful work and the job of parenting?

I feel for you and am sending positive thoughts...

Oh, one more thing:

We are a Magnet hospital, I thought they were supposed to be nursing oriented. Man was I wrong.

Now you know. It's a racket and a mean mind trick.

Thank you for your reply. My husband is a difficult creature. We do make time for each other and we are best friends. However, he has a no nonsense kind of attitude. I always make sure I ask him how his day is. It is just hard, because my work stress is polar opposite from his work stress. Unless you are in nursing, you just dont get it. He is a steel worker. So he is a little rough around the edges to begin with, lol

I think husbands like to feel that they work harder than us. Its a man thing. Especially if you previously did not work outside the home, you make more money than he does, he is an old fashioned sort of guy or he does manly type work.

Since I started working as a nurse, my husband has been picking up crazy overtime. I feel like its a competition. He needs to have the bigger paycheck, but my hourly wage is more than his.

I realize that my new job seriously rocks his world. If I talk about how hard my day was, he tops it. So I just don't. My mom is a former nurse so I talk to her. The non nurses don't get it.

Maybe you need a nurse confidant.

Ya, hospital nursing really does suck. That's why I got out. There are a lot of other nursing jobs out there. I was a school nurse for a couple of years and loved it. Don't settle for misery. You only have one life!

One of the most difficult things for me was to realize that nursing school does NOT prepare you for the real world. School prepares you for the ideal situation. I tried so hard to do everything perfectly (like i was taught in school) and i struggled. Knowing and assessing your patients will get easier with time. It might help to have the same patients two days in a row. You could ask. But most importantly, don't give up! You are doing fine. You have integrity.