Hello all. I'm looking for some advice or maybe hints on how to handle my stress at work. I am not a new nurse. I worked for about a year at a LTC SNF, then 3 years in outpatient with case management and low income patients. I have been at the hospital about half a year now and dread going to work every day. I prayed for a hospital job for years but never got one until after I finally finished my BSN. Now I regret taking the job because I am so stressed out and afraid.
I work on a floor where acuity is high. We take PD, HD, non-critical drips like insulin, heparin, dobutamine, CBI, etc. We also take a ton of addiction/active withdrawal patients and tons of psych issues, complicated telemetry patients, and more. We even can take patients on bipap. However, I received 5 weeks of training with 5 preceptors then was left alone on nights with at least 6 patients every night. All of my preceptors have left this unit and moved on as well as at least 20 other staff members on that floor since I came. I fear so much that I will miss something or do something wrong. Any time a patient's IV infiltrates, I get an admission with a bunch of bedsores, or I hear any alarm, I start to have a panic attack inside. This is not normal for me. I clinically feel I am competent but I am overwhelmed with such a high acuity patient load and there's always 10,000 things going on and going wrong. Is there any advice you guys might have to calm down? I want to cry almost all shift every shift. I am afraid I am a bad nurse because some people seem to be just fine. I have been a nurse much longer than some people who are thriving there as well. I am so sad.
I want to leave and go somewhere else but there are not a lot of jobs in this area and I can't transfer to another unit within this system for at least a year. I am depressed recently and don't know if I can do this 6 more months. :'(
