i HATE my job. Does anyone else feel the same?

Jenni811, RN · Feb 13, 2013

Oh dear lord, don't even get me started on banging and shaking the side rails. For real...i don't get what makes people act so childish when they are in the hospital. And its like 90% of all patient's act like this. You cannot tell me that 90% of the population in the real world acts like that.

I was a patient once in the emergency room when i split my forhead open. I seriously felt TERRIBLE the nurse had to clean my wound. I was like "Just lay out the stuff i need and i can do it. You have things to do." He looked at me and was like "You are not a nurse right now. You are my patient, now sit back and let me do my job" I work with him everyday, so it was more sarcasm/telling me how it is and what i would say in that situation to a patient. I just felt TERRIBLE because i knew what was going on down the hall. a Trauma had just come in and here i am with something SO MINOR compared to the trauma a couple rooms down.

SERIOUSLY this story is no joke. We had a patient for months on end, in and out for pancreatitis flare ups. She was strict NPO except for "mouth swabs" i put that in quotations because that is what we call them. Every freaking 15 minutes she would scream from the top of her lungs "SWAAAABIE! SWABBIE!!!! I NEED SWABBIE! BRING BE SWABBIE. SWWWWWWAAAAABBBBIEEE" Perfectly capable of putting on call light asking for a mouth swab. The same time she was here we had a code blue from a open heart patient in the same hallway. and she is screaming SWAAAABBBBIEE!!! the entire time. we all ignored it, we were fed up with "swabbie lady." Finally one of the doctors in the code looked out of the room and yelled "SOMEONE GET THAT LADY A SWABBIE NOW. I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE!" welcome to our world Doctor! We explained to her another patient was in need of our care with urgent needs. "I don't care, i want my swabbie."

ugh.

PRICHARILLAisMISSED · Feb 13, 2013

I'm sorry you feel that way about your job, OP. I read a lot of similar stories on this forum. I'm currently only a student, so I'm not in a position to give you any professional advice. What I can do however, is regurgitate both what I read on this forum, and what a few of my RN buddies (some of which feel as you do) tell me. "Go back to school and become an NP." ALL of my friends are working towards this, and not for pay reasons, either. They're just sick of the same things you are. If you can some how manage to cut your work schedule to only 3 days to 5 days a week, It should be entirely possible for you to go back to school.

Just a thought. Good luck, and I hope things get better.

uRNmyway, ASN, RN · Feb 13, 2013

Oh dear lord, don't even get me started on banging and shaking the side rails. For real...i don't get what makes people act so childish when they are in the hospital. And its like 90% of all patient's act like this. You cannot tell me that 90% of the population in the real world acts like that.
I was a patient once in the emergency room when i split my forhead open. I seriously felt TERRIBLE the nurse had to clean my wound. I was like "Just lay out the stuff i need and i can do it. You have things to do." He looked at me and was like "You are not a nurse right now. You are my patient, now sit back and let me do my job" I work with him everyday, so it was more sarcasm/telling me how it is and what i would say in that situation to a patient. I just felt TERRIBLE because i knew what was going on down the hall. a Trauma had just come in and here i am with something SO MINOR compared to the trauma a couple rooms down.
SERIOUSLY this story is no joke. We had a patient for months on end, in and out for pancreatitis flare ups. She was strict NPO except for "mouth swabs" i put that in quotations because that is what we call them. Every freaking 15 minutes she would scream from the top of her lungs "SWAAAABIE! SWABBIE!!!! I NEED SWABBIE! BRING BE SWABBIE. SWWWWWWAAAAABBBBIEEE" Perfectly capable of putting on call light asking for a mouth swab. The same time she was here we had a code blue from a open heart patient in the same hallway. and she is screaming SWAAAABBBBIEE!!! the entire time. we all ignored it, we were fed up with "swabbie lady." Finally one of the doctors in the code looked out of the room and yelled "SOMEONE GET THAT LADY A SWABBIE NOW. I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE!" welcome to our world Doctor! We explained to her another patient was in need of our care with urgent needs. "I don't care, i want my swabbie."
ugh.

Oh yes, heard that one before. We had one lady who went one step farther. When we told her someone was not doing well and we needed to attend to them first, she responded 'I don't care, I am more important than anyone else.'

At the top of her lungs. Loud enough for all the other patients to hear and get pretty darn upset.

Or 'If you don't put me on a bedpan I'll just go in my bed.' Fully lucid Walkie-Talkie.

Been lucky enough to mostly avoid the irrational, slap-you-in-your-face family members by working night shift. Trade off to that is sun-downers. *Shrug* At least you can medicate and restrain sun-downers if it gets bad enough whereas you are kind of limited with families.

Honestly though, even with the patients I could just shake the poop out of sometimes, I still love bedside nursing. Those patients who do appreciate you make it all worth it. But that is me. I haven't reached the point where I want to leave bedside nursing, and maybe that's just because bedside is my place. Maybe you really aren't meant for that. As others have said, the wonderful thing about nursing is that there are so many things you can do with that licence. Look at the specialties area of AN. School nursing, Home health, Case management, research, teaching, insurance company...

Sky's the limit!

imintrouble, BSN, RN · Feb 13, 2013

I've felt every single thing you describe. Personal care on pts who can do it themselves is the worst.

I'd like to say it gets better. It doesn't if you work med/surg. Hopefully you learn to adapt.

jrock17 · Feb 13, 2013

Thank you for speaking the truth! Too many of us feel ashamed that we hate nursing, but can't tell anyone about it because it makes us look like 'bad people.'

I tried to tell my mother (who is an RN of 20+ years...ICU, ER, Comm Health, and now Endo) that I hate nursing and she just cried and couldn't understand why I felt that way. Boy did I feel like an a**hole :no: .

I dream every day (for the last 6 years of being a nurse) that I was doing something different. When I worked on my first Med/Surg floor, I used to dream about mowing lawns, picking up garbage, making birdhouses (yeah, I know...lol), anything that WASN'T nursing. I play the lotto and scratch off's religiously in the very small hopes that I don't have to be a nurse anymore.

I have worked travel assignments and it's all the same in EVERY hospital...same nurse personalities, same jerk patients and families, same 'customer service, it's all about money and we don't care what your nurse to patient ratio is, as long as there is a warm body to fill in part of the census.'

What's the old GI JOE theme....'Knowing is half the battle?!' :jester:

Maybe now that we know we hate nursing, we can make our lives better, in what ever way possible, so that we don't look back and regret the time we wasted hating our work lives. We work too freakin much to hate every second of it.

LandD_RN_chica · Feb 13, 2013

Advice...think back to nursing school. What was your favorite rotation? Where is your heart in nursing? My heart has always been in L&D. I took a job in the OR for my first year and am starting my new job in L&D in a couple weeks. I couldn't be happier. The OR is nice. Your patients are sleeping you don't really need to interact with them or family. You work 5 eight hour shifts but there is sometimes alot of call if you are in a trauma hospital. Find where your heart is in nursing and start applying there. Good luck.

wannabecnl · Feb 13, 2013

Whether in school or in a short-lived job after graduation, I never liked med-surg nursing (I know telemetry is considered progressive care in many institutions, but I'm speaking of the general care model, not the level of acuity), and the stories you share (and those from people who replied) are part of why. It is such important work, but I don't see how nurses stand it. I am now working in the PACU and LOVE IT. The experience is worthwhile, but med-surg nursing is just not for everyone.

With your background, what about something like cardiac cath lab? Interventional radiology? Endoscopy? PACU/pre-op? I love surgery, so those things appeal to me, but your skills would translate well, and the relationship with the patients is completely different. But if you hate where you are, I think you need to find something different, or at least work at a different hospital. Good luck!

A~L~B · Feb 13, 2013

I work in the ICU. My favorite patients are sedated and on a vent. When they become able to use the call bell I'm ready to see them go. Most days I really like my job.

proud nurse, BSN, RN · Feb 13, 2013

I hated my job so much at the nursing home. I stayed there way beyond time for me to go, I should've left years earlier. I won't even go into the many reasons why, but just so you know that you're not alone. I'm not gonna sugar coat it, I couldn't stand my co-workers, the residents, or management. I hated it with a passion.

nicenurse46 · Feb 14, 2013

I understand how you feel. I felt the same way about a previous job. I now work in the nursing informatics specialty! I love it! Best career decision that I have ever made! Look into the informatics specialty, you may like it.

carlyfry · Feb 14, 2013

Thank you for this! You took the words write out of my mouth. I, one time, had a patient call me to pull the blanket up over his shoulders! I wanted to scream!

My coworker and I are applying to a per diem case manager RN job and hopefully that leads to something better!

I absolutley despise my job. I work as a nurse in a intermediate/telemetry type floor. We are in the process of moving to a new hospital, so we were a telemetry unit and we are splitting into telemetry/intermediate care. We will be split evenetually but right now kind of combined...its weird.
Anyway, i HATE HATE HATE HATE my job. I i get so worked up on the way to work, up to the point i start getting massive headaches and offset my vertigo issues. I've always struggled with unexplained vertigo that comes with stress/anxiety. i can't stand patients and families who are so demanding and disrespectful.
I do my absolute best to put on my "fake smile" to please them. i'm a person of very short temper so it takes every ounce of energy in me not to slap some of them in the face. I got in trouble one time because a patient's daughter was giving me a really hard time and everything she said that came from her mouth started with "Well i'm a nurse and...." it ould have been totally irrelevant to what she had to say. For example: "Well i'm a nurse and i had an egg salad sandwich for lunch."
"Well, i'm a nurse and i have a kitten named Dutchess" (that was actually a real one).
She was SO disrespectul, rolled her eyes everytime i talked, very short answers. Finally i had it...i looked at her and said "I don't care if you are a nurse. I'm her nurse now and i will make the decisions on what i think is best for my patient."
Yup...i got in trouble for that one. But i explained everything to my manager and she, deep inside, i knew agreed she was being ridiculous. And i told her i just couldn't take it anymore. It went on for THREE DAYS, in 12 hour shifts and i was on day 4 with her. I snapped...yup.
Anyway, my point with that story is it wasn't this one time...it is ALL the freaking time. Patient's are so demanding. What on earth makes you think i want to "wipe your butt" when you can do it at home just fine? Ok...you have two broken arms, i will help you. But if you are here for i don't know...Chest pain observation and you can feed yourself the 50 trays of food you just ordered and open the soda bottle your family snuck you in, why would you not be able to wipe your own butt?? What makes people feel the need to be so darn needy like this?? Don't put on your call light for me to pour you a glass of water from the water pitcher sitting next to your hand. You are perfectly capable of doing it yourself (Im talking about people who CAN do it.) You are not a 65 year old baby, you are an adult who has wiped your own butt and poured your own water for i don't know, 63 years now??
Im sorry i have to vent. Makes me feel better. Does anyone else feel this way about nursing? I feel so stuck in it and i want to get out. What else can i do with my degree that i would enjoy??
Once my fiance and i are married we want to start a family right away. he has agreed for me to quit my job at that point to be stay at home. I'm afraid i will enjoy not being a nurse so much i may never go back. What other career choices do people ENJOY as a nurse? I have my BSN.

Ackeem, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN · Feb 14, 2013

oh my gosh this rant made me laugh so much, very good read and i feel your pain i would advice that you get out of nursing immediately.

good luck

Ackeem.