Nurse burnout is treatable through counseling, yet despite experiencing toxicity, we tend to feel as though we are able to "fix" ourselves. Stop this madness! Find joy, balance and boundaries by cycling back to determine what led you to want to heal others.
Alrighty then nurse person, so you cry on your way to work, fantasize about moving to a mountain top with a shaved head while cradling a book titled "How to Obtain Enlightenment in Three Days", and are enjoying your 5th diagnosed bladder infection in the last 6 months. Despite being an avid believer in probiotics you realize if you eat one more lousy spoonful of yogurt you will quite simply toss cookies, so just the idea of slathering this refrigerated dairy food complete with fruit chunks onto your urethra is actually enjoyable at this point. Enter reality. As you take your morning report and begin your rounds, one of your patients replies to your luke warm "good morning" by threatening to choke you if you don't medicate them for their pain. 7:34 AM, but look at the bright side. You only have 11 and half hours to go.
You aren't sure how to accurately describe the zone you just entered, but for some reason, thanks to some form of grace, you are in your car, ready to escape the madness. The minutes turned into hours, the hours melted into some sort of inexplicable space in time. The blisters on your heels are oozing and raw. As always, there is a nagging sense that you forgot to report something, or that something will go wrong as a result of something that you did or didn't do. You fleetingly consider returning to the unit to make sure that you dotted "T's and crossed your "I's. (Yes, I realize that this was reversed, but you are delirious). There is a quickening in your chest as you struggle with the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. You limp aimlessly toward your vehicle. You'd haul *** if you could.
You manage to start the ignition of your car and peel off your shoes and socks that tell the story of the angst and pain that you have witnessed and endured. Hell, if you have breasts your bra may have already been winged into your back seat. As you operate your motor vehicle, the trees that pass you by turn into looming shadows which tell stories of the promise of darkness. For some creepy reason, you find comfort in that. A song comes on the radio that eventually becomes a part of a dream which you will never remember. In your driveway you realize that you do not recall the drive home.
A probably well meaning yet horribly ignorant family member tells you how lousy you look and possibly asks you what's for dinner. Your forehead becomes intimately close with your kitchen counter, and you may even at this point wonder how many bashings it would take in order for you to lose consciousness and at the same time, you cannot possibly endure any more pain. As you weep, the good intentioned sap has an epiphany. The words uttered out of their mouth actually sound something like this:
"Just relax"!
Your exhausted mind bends and twists in an attempt to comprehend. Did this person just tell me to...relax?
Oh, ok.
How on earth can a professional healthcare provider such as a nurse just relax? What that statement actually indicated was that the well meaning idiot cannot deal with how your stress affects them, or is simply at a loss to fully comprehend exactly what it is that a nurse endures during a work shift. Join the club you think, because neither can you. I mean, it's not that you haven't dabbled in aromatherapy, enjoyed some retail therapy or possibly enjoyed a cocktail or ten with your comrades. Did those actions create a period of time when you felt relaxed? Possibly. Yet they were all temporary escapes.
These things are simply fugacious bleeps in time. Look at the trends. They are all extrinsically obtained environmental actions. You may as well have put a Dora the Explorer bandage on a cavernous, extravagating abdominal wound. A 0.009 cc of the blood will be absorbed into Dora, yet the goal is to stop the bleeding. Even more imperative is to determine the cause of the bleeding in the first place.
Nurse focused, integrated transpersonal counseling creates an environment where you will cycle back intrinsically to determine root causes for your authentically personal energetic attraction to healing others. By coming to terms with, and embracing these issues, you will cycle forward with fresh perspectives, learn healthy boundaries and enjoy your profession again. You will heal yourself and others from a place of compassion and despite non-compassionate healthcare work environments, learn how to achieve an incredible work-personal life balance and get that bounce back in your step.
It is imperative that we raise awareness and demolish the stigma that the individual nurse as well as the collective consciousness of the nursing profession largely subscribes to, which is that nurses do not need counseling. This is highly detrimental, however completely reasonable in the manner in which this notion is derived, as the very definition of nursing includes being an expert in the diagnosis of the human response to various conditions. After all, we are fixers of humans. We ourselves are human. Therefore we can fix ourselves.
Guess what my friends? This simply cannot be accomplished independently. If you realize that you are apathetic or experiencing anxiety and dread when you even think about going to work, you need to be carefully and professionally guided back to your authentic joy.
Care to be contagious? What you learn about yourself will be magnetic, and those fortunate enough to be in your company will respond in kind.
Nurse your spirit, because peaceful and cohesive healers create a peaceful and cohesive planet.
Specializes in Dialysis,M/S,Home Care,LTC, Admin,Rehab.
jrbl77! I love your airplane analogy! It seems as though you were driven to the point of having to look inward in order to survive! We need to remember exactly what it is that you are suggesting...that sometimes taking care of ourselves is not selfish in a negative sense, it is necessary. You Rock!
I find myself WANTING to help the new RN's that are already experiencing burnout, especially after only a year in the field. I myself have almost 2 years as a nurse. The problem that many new grad nurses are experiencing comes from deep, complex and very elaborate issues in the workplace. If you can image again being the "new" kid at school, how uncomfortable you felt, how you just wanted to fit in, didn't want to look "Stupid", well add that to the already stressful career as a nurse and you have double the trouble. If you are an experienced nurse try adding years of "keeping quiet" and not "stirring the turd" (so to speak), and you have even more complicated issues to deal with. What I have noticed, being a relatively new nurse, is that many new grads come into the career because of 2 reasons. Some truly want to help heal, while others, they see the money and the illusion of "Glamour" as portrayed on Sitcoms. When the new grad nurse finally finds that her "ideals" of wanting to change the world, go up in smoke, they feel less than enthusiastic about their job and they basically GIVE UP. They look to their peers for guidance and most times find snide remarks and ridicule for their naive ideas and their "Rose colored classes". We all need to be aware that "Burnout" affects all nurses of all year's experience. I want to help new nurses feel comfortable because my first days on the floor as a "New" grad nurse were less than welcoming and by far less than warm. I would LOVE to be a resource that new grads can come to for advice or questions on procedures, or if they just need a second ear or another pair of eyes. The way that I see it is that I am about 10-15 years older than some of the new nurses coming into the field; chances are THEY will be taking care of me at some point in time, if I ever have the misfortune of being hospitalized. Why would I NOT want them to know what I have learned! I would NEVER make anyone feel stupid for asking any question. I know NOT all workplaces are unwelcoming! However, I do find that new grads are truly unprepared for the working environment they will find themselves in, and 9 out of 10 times, they feel like they cannot ask questions and make needless mistakes that could have been avoided if they had a true confidante. I SEE the new nurses coming to the floor to work, with their heads held High, their hair and make-up done to perfection and then I see them leaving end of shift with a look of exhaustion and completely disheveled as if they just got dragged by a semi-truck three blocks and back, Heck, I still feel/look that way sometimes. Education for the new grads is of extreme importance whether it comes from the seasoned nurses/preceptor or from the department educators. WE look up to those nurses that KNOW more, that have SEEN more, and have MORE experience! Burnout needs to be addressed and all nurses need to realize that sooner or later it will be an issue that can affect them as well. After all, we all are on the same side and have the same goals of providing compassionate and healing care to our patients, it is time to address the needs of the nurse, realizing that if we are not able to help ourselves and our co-workers , how can we effectively help our patients?
DocLori RN, hits the nail on the head for me. I hadn't been taking care of myself from 1999 to 2006. I had gone through a job loss, a sister with cancer, another sisters suicide, revelation of a cheating spouse (everyone in the hospital we worked at knew about it), a messy divorce, loss of my house with my equity, September 11th, 2001, and a few more upsetting changes in my, what I thought was an OK llife. And it was the people I worked with, my fellow nurses that were the most critical, most hateful, ignorant, rude, impatient, callous, tiresome and completely oblivious. I found that support, emotional or physical, was not something nurses liked to do for each other. On the contrary, I found other nurses out to sabotage other nurses careers, jobs, love lives, confidence. I had already figured out that most, if not all nurses, are from some sort of dysfunctional background. Abuse, alcohol co-dependents, enablers, OCD's, and too many other psycological problems to list here. So I did not seek emotional support from fellow nurses. I just listened to whatever opinion they wanted to share. And tried not to judge them for their complete lack of compassion for anyone going thru a rough time, especially another nurse. And then my coping and capable exterior facade began to crack. In 2006, I quit my ER job, no decision making, no notice, just QUIT. And although I have not been able to afford any type of counseling, I have attempted to try to heal through time. I have had several jobs since 2006 and been fired from them for personality "flaws". Not for anything dangerous to patients or illegal. No drugs, no alcohol, no abuse, no rule breaking. Although I did fail to follow a minor policy that would have warranted a "write up", and was fired from that one too. My attitude towards other nurses has had an impact on my self-esteem and confidence. I do not socialize with people I work with. I try not even get into small talk. I keep to myself, take my breaks by myself, and just do my job, all of it. I am never late, do not call in sick, finish all of my tasks, use the nursing process to care for my patients, answer everyones call lights, pick up, clean up, participate although quietly. And still fellow nurses find fault with that. To DocLori RN, thank you! I understood and appreciate your article.
Specializes in Corrections,Med/Surg, Infectious Disease.
Doc Lori, R.N.
I was cracking up, laughing and thinking "Wow, this is so true to the "T" that it isn't even funny. But how righ on the nose you said it all!! I am in major burn-out and it's affecting my life in many ways. I have family that worries about me because I'm just not the same anymore. I was a CNA for many many years before becoming a nurse and only been a nurse for a few years and already I want to run for the dang hills and never look back.
Specializes in Dialysis,M/S,Home Care,LTC, Admin,Rehab.
Thanks for the validation and support MyLove Rouxbi and krystal and everyone! At least there is a forum for sharing an adult discussion. (I think)!
Individuals go into nursing for particular reasons and have different energetic attractions to healing others, and we all know there are bullies, and we may even work with some!! (poor, dysfunctional, co-dependent "I'll show you a thing or two" bullies) who would just explode with glee if they felt as though their behaviors, which are a result of being unwilling to address their own dysfunctional pasts were causing you to lose balance! It is manipulation in order to seek control of their environments.
Nurse counseling is not a taboo, but the idea that it is not necessary for us and our profession to heal is a stigma which needs to go away!
I voted the article "average," because I thought it takes a rather narrow focus, and moreso because I found some of the responses to TakeOne a bit high-handed, although technically not part of the article. I don't mean I don't believe counselling can have value, nor do I object to the OP mentioning her involvement in the field. But I also haven't seen the dire straits described in the article as anywhere near typical. For reasons not entirely clear to me, the past few months on my floor have been kinda tough. I've felt the stress of it, and pretty much all of my coworkers have, too. But, you know, as I think about it, I don't ever recall having been told, "Just relax." Now, truthfully, I know I'm not always as relaxed as I appear. But I don't generally hold onto my stress or anxiety after whatever situation that prompted it is over. The assertion that we "can't fix ourselves," seems to me to presume we're broken. I'm not, and I don't really mind my few scratches and dents. Perhaps counselling can be a path to joy for some, and more power to them. But it most assuredly is not the only path.
Specializes in Dialysis,M/S,Home Care,LTC, Admin,Rehab.
Thanks nursemike. I agree with you, sort of. Anyway, what I hear you saying is, it's like "when the student is ready, the teacher will come" take on things. If you aren't in the market for a new car, you don't notice all the new models, if you aren't searching to buy a house, you don't notice all the for sale signs. Counseling is the same way. If it ain't broke, why fix it? But when it is apparently obvious when something is broken, it does no good to dance around it and point fingers at the many ways it could have become broken. It's one's own responsibility to fix themselves. Currently, the profession of nursing is lost in the dysfunctional conglomerate of our healthcare system. Instead of spinning wheels on trying to fix the system, go with the flow and fix how you perceive it.
The idea that this article is narrow to me is like saying that an OB-GYN forum is narrow because it doesn't focus on nephrology. Having said that, I appreciate your vote and your viewpoint.
Again, it is my expertise and that is why I feel confident in my knowledge and passionate about the life enhancing effects that nurse counseling has on the nurse. I'm not pimping out my phone number or website. I am raising awareness, and opening a discussion. I'd like to think that I have achieved this goal, as evidenced by the vast viewpoints.
While it is obvious that counseling is not the only path, when it is the optimal choice, embrace it, and do not delay!
Frankly, I took the opportunity with some perceptions and ran like hell with it. A real gift! If individuals had approached me with some sort of maturity, hell..then thanks and I value your opinion, whatever it is. Yet the tone was really ascerbic, raising my counselor antennas with a few red flags as to the avoidance dance we easily do when we are not either consciously or subconsciously aware of our behaviors. I chose to use his/her character as an example. In a way, his demeanor "gave" me permission to do so.
With your energy and candor, nursemike, I am not surprised that you have minimal issues. However, the stats show that many nurses do, and that is reflected in my practice.
Specializes in Nursing burnout retreat CE teacher, etc..
I just had a nurse email me to tell me she appreciated the daily burnout blips that I post on my facebook page, which are short messages that offer insight, hope and ways to deal with burnout in life and in work. This very experienced nurse, in a long term job position, told me how she was feeling invisible these days as she dealt with some health issues and frustration on the job. Many nurses who are experiencing burnout these days just keep it to themselves, trying not to rock the boat. It you have not experienced it, it is not so easy to understand.....but one the jobs of the nurse is to have compassion for people who are in stressful situations, including patients and fellow staff members. Often this compassion has just enough juice to deal with patients, and not much left to share with colleagues. Might be worth some "heart work" to gaze around your work space and notice the invisible ones who are doing their jobs, quietly and maybe needing some extra support.
Uh, I think I may have misconstrued one or more posts. I'm all for counselling being one of the options available when needed. Really, I do it, informally, all the time, when I go to my more experienced peers for advice and feedback. I don't believe all, or even most, nurses are in need of formal counselling, although any of us could, at some point.
Can't really dispute that we have more control over our own response to a situation than the situation, itself, either. As long as we aren't relinquishing what control we do have over the environment.
Doc Lori, R.N.
1 Article; 135 Posts
jrbl77! I love your airplane analogy! It seems as though you were driven to the point of having to look inward in order to survive! We need to remember exactly what it is that you are suggesting...that sometimes taking care of ourselves is not selfish in a negative sense, it is necessary. You Rock!