Percentage of Break Downs?

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Specializes in Transplant, homecare, hospice.

Is there a high percentage of nurses who have nervous breakdowns or get burnt out or both? Do any of these lead to workplace violence or suicide? I was curious because someone floated to my floor and said that the 2 team leaders that we have are so cruel that they are going to upset the wrong person. I guess meaning that someone may harm them in some manner. Not sure.

Then you read about how other nurses are completely burnt out. I'm thinking of myself and wonder if there are any other nurses that burn out after only 1 year of work. Any thoughts???

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:uhoh3: i've seen a lot of my coworkers "burn out". one of my friends took a "medical leave of absence". another keeps arguing with everyone at work. no one really wants to work with her. i myself went balistic. i was sexually assaulted (raped) by a former patient. i nearly lost it when i realize he's been stalking me for more than a year. i have two part time night shift jobs and somehow i always manage to double book myself. sometimes i wonder if i'm going to burn out. i try my best to take it easy and focus on the job or focus on the task at hand. i doubt i am wrong with this but i think most nurses are people pleasers. why else do we multi-task with thirteen, fourteen patients for eight to twelve hours?

i've heard of burn-out. i've seen burn-out. mostly at the hospital. i'm doing my best to prevent it. i've accessed the employee assistance program. i've approached and bugged my managers and i also vent to my hubby (it's confidential). i've also started walk outside with my dog and play with my kids and hubby.

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Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.

Will try to find some statistics :)

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Specializes in Transplant, homecare, hospice.
:uhoh3: i've seen a lot of my coworkers "burn out". one of my friends took a "medical leave of absence". another keeps arguing with everyone at work. no one really wants to work with her. i myself went balistic. i was sexually assaulted (raped) by a former patient. i nearly lost it when i realize he's been stalking me for more than a year. i have two part time night shift jobs and somehow i always manage to double book myself. sometimes i wonder if i'm going to burn out. i try my best to take it easy and focus on the job or focus on the task at hand. i doubt i am wrong with this but i think most nurses are people pleasers. why else do we multi-task with thirteen, fourteen patients for eight to twelve hours?

i've heard of burn-out. i've seen burn-out. mostly at the hospital. i'm doing my best to prevent it. i've accessed the employee assistance program. i've approached and bugged my managers and i also vent to my hubby (it's confidential). i've also started walk outside with my dog and play with my kids and hubby.

nurse clown: do you work in a hospital? 13 or 14 patients??? holy crow! :chair:

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I have the "break down" issue right now even though I am trying to manage it by focusing on the positive. :uhoh21: For me it started in June/July of this year. I started seeing a stress management counselor 1 time a week outside of work and she is wonderful. I would not suggest seeing anyone through the facility that someone works at for therapeutic purposes. I just "celebrated" my 1 year in nursing. This is a really good question because I am wondering how many nurses are "in the closet" about this issue and how many will never admit it. I was explaining to the counselor how hard it is (at least for me) to even admit there is an adjustment problem and that the current nursing that I am doing is affecting me adversly in my life. Just like any other profession, it is hard to admit that "it's too much" or " I can't handle it". I feel that because of my base Type A personality, it is even harder if I am not at the top of my game-- so to speak. If anyone is willing to share, I would also like to know what someone else goes through when that "overwhelming" feeling roles around.:uhoh3:

Thanks

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
I have the "break down" issue right now even though I am trying to manage it by focusing on the positive. :uhoh21: For me it started in June/July of this year. I started seeing a stress management counselor 1 time a week outside of work and she is wonderful. I would not suggest seeing anyone through the facility that someone works at for therapeutic purposes. I just "celebrated" my 1 year in nursing. This is a really good question because I am wondering how many nurses are "in the closet" about this issue and how many will never admit it. I was explaining to the counselor how hard it is (at least for me) to even admit there is an adjustment problem and that the current nursing that I am doing is affecting me adversly in my life. Just like any other profession, it is hard to admit that "it's too much" or " I can't handle it". I feel that because of my base Type A personality, it is even harder if I am not at the top of my game-- so to speak. If anyone is willing to share, I would also like to know what someone else goes through when that "overwhelming" feeling roles around.:uhoh3:

Thanks

FWIW, onconurseRT, I can tell you that I too am struggling with this realization.......and I've been a nurse for the better part of a decade.

Nursing was, and still is, the one thing I've wanted to do all my life, and I waited almost 40 years to become one. I had to claw my way through four years of school to earn a two-year-degree, went into debt which will take me the rest of my working life to repay, and worked my hind end off to earn those precious two initials behind my name.

Now I'm questioning whether it's my choice of career, or just me that's faulty. I can't seem to get it right, no matter where I work or what kind of nursing I do; I'll think I'm doing a good job, patients and co-workers alike will praise me, yet I always seem to be in some kind of trouble with TPTB. And Lord help me if I make an actual mistake.......check out my thread "A Hard Lesson Learned" to see what happens when the excrement REALLY collides with the oscillating ventilation system.:stone

Chances are, you're probably a better nurse than you think.......I know I've been told I am, and we both need to listen to that because we are doing some "stinkin' thinkin'". It's easy to fall into the trap of feeling inadequate, because the system works to beat nurses down---even though there's a nursing shortage on---and we wonder why fewer candidates are attracted to the profession?:uhoh3:

Hang in there........it sounds like you need a change of pace and place to me, not to mention somewhere safe to vent those frustrations that have nowhere else to go. That's one of the things this BB does so well, and there are always people here who can commiserate with and even help you.

Good luck to you, and enjoy your time here at allnurses........we need all the support we can get!!:)

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

The only violence I ever heard of occurring between nurses was in a LTC and it involved two CNAs. One pushed the other pretty hard. I reported what I was told since it came to me via other staff members. I felt it was a battery on the other person. We had a unit secretary in an acute hospital that we all knew had a temper, so most of us tried not to upset him. It was a shock, although we weren't surprised, when we heard on the news that he had been arrested one day for shooting and killing his live-in girlfriend.

Very sadly, I did work with one RN who successfully committed suicide. She had tried several times and had been on a LOA for awhile. Knowing that she was kind of fragile a number of us tried to befriend her. She always did her nursing job though, and very exceptionally. She told me once that she loved coming to the hospital to work but hated going home. So, there were personal problems there, not problems connected with her nursing job. She told me once that she was on massive doses of Thorazine. When she killed herself a large number of us went to the funeral home and funeral. It was so sad. Based on the talks I had with her I feel that her emotional problems were tied to her family and not to nursing.

We had another young nurse that used to come in with bruises on her all the time. She was kind of a milktoast. A lot of us felt that her husband was probably beating up on her. We never were able to confirm that because she just didn't talk about her home life much. If that was true it's amazing that he let her be seen like that. Anyway, she was quiet, kept to herself and did her job. She eventually moved on to another job. I think she might have been kind of rare. All the nurses I know are strong, sometimes pretty aggressive people, but not violent. You kind of have to be that way to survive this profession. You burnout when you feel so overwhelmed with the nursing work that you can't stand it anymore. When I started to feel that way I went back to school--what I had needed was an attitude adjustment, but that was me and I can't speak to what motivates others.

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Specializes in Transplant, homecare, hospice.
When I started to feel that way I went back to school--what I had needed was an attitude adjustment, but that was me and I can't speak to what motivates others.

Wow...what an amazing story.

I wish I could stop working and just go back to school, but I can't afford it. Oh well...What's that saying? Can't beat em', join em? :clown:

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