angelsigns

Hello, I am a nurse in CA with over 5 years bedside experience, specifically ICU. I recently left the ICU for a position at an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) as a preop/recovery nurse. I was excited leaving bedside after being super burnt out from the typical hospital like environment plus working the ICU during the pandemic. My issue is my new place of employment is toxic. Everyone except maybe 3 people at the most are incredibly petty, passive aggressive, gossips, backstabbers, etc. The director herself is hard to work with. I think her job stresses her out and she will outwardly demean employees in front of everyone. She will throw things when she's mad and slam doors. There is no support. Everyone talks crap about each other behind each others back. There is no teamwork, Etc. (I can go on but you get the picture). My other issue is we're understaffed and they expect me to work over time. It is not mandatory per my offer letter and I always decline when they ask if I can stay. They ask why can't I stay and I just make up excuses like "I have a doctors appointment", "I need to pick up my kids" etc. I can tell they get extremely upset with me. I get really upset too that they expect me to give them a reason as to why I can't stay when its personal matters at the end of the day. I do not want to share me life outside of work with these toxic people and I feel like I don't need to give them an explanation but at the same time they make me feel bad for not staying. 1.) How do I deal with an environment like this? I keep to myself, I don't gossip with them, I eat lunch in my car, etc but I just hate being in that negative environment. 2.) Can I be reprimanded or suffer consequences for not staying over time when they ask if it was not a condition of employment? I'll take any advice you can offer. I don't want to quit this Job because I haven't been there long and I don't like to be that type of person that job hops and I also recognize no job is perfect. I would like to learn how to deal with difficult situations like this. The thing I am struggling the most with is overtime. I have thick skin and can let the negative vibes just brush off but I don't like the position they put me in when they ask me everyday to stay. When I work in the recovery room I often stay over time up to 2-3 hours Because no one is available to relieve me to go home and I can't abandon my recovery patient of course. So in my head I figure "Well if I know I going to stay over time anyways on the days I work in recovery why is that not good enough for them? I am not going to stay over time on the days I do have the opportunity to go home on time and I hate that they make me feel bad for it when I'm already forced to stay over time when I work in recovery anyways."

thank you, I have considered it but I am at a point where I am so tired of bedside nursing that I don't want any part of it at all, even in the NICU I actually did try Cath lab for a while but went back to what I was doing because I didn't like the call schedule. It's crazy what they work at my hospital

Hello, I have been a bedside nurse for almost 5 years. I did cardiac tele for 4.5 years and just moved to cardiac ICU 7 months ago. I love my new role in the cardiac ICU. Everything is so interesting and fascinating to me, however, at the end of the day I feel like you put up with the same old crap you do as any other floor. I am tired of the unpredictability of bedside nursing. I am tired of being torn left and right between patients, family members, doctors, etc. I am tired of cleaning up mountains of poop. I am tired of running myself ragged. I do not want to float to other floors I don't feel comfortable working on. I now want a job that is more predictable. I want a job that I can walk into in the morning and at least somewhat know what to expect. I want something with more stability. I worked 3 12's in a row this past weekend and it was so busy. I've been off 2 days now and still trying to recover. I want a job where I can have a life and not have to try so freaking hard to pull myself together on my days off. Any recommendations?

Hello, This is my 4th year of nursing. I have worked 3 years on a step down cardiac tele floor where I have worked as a preceptor and charge nurse. I left 3 months ago to the cardiac icu in hopes of having a better job experience. I was hoping to find some relief from the burn out I felt while working on cardiac tele. We take care of a lot of open heart patients on that floor and having to reposition them, ambulate them, etc while they are weak and almost total care has worn my body down. I am only 27 years old and my body hurts every day so much. I have scoliosis so I live in chronic back pain but it has gotten so much worse. On my days off I feel so week and my entire body and back hurt. I feel like an old lady. Someone my age shouldn’t feel the way I feel. I left to the icu 3 months ago hoping it would be better. I have realized it’s not. Not only that, my body, back, and neck pains hurt so much more. I think it’s from the higher level of stress caring for icu patients. I think I’ve been carrying the stress on my shoulders and my neck and upper back are so sore. I realized the ICU is also so much more stressful and I was not expecting to experience all this stress. I have a hard time eating sometimes because I clench my teeth so badly at night from the stress. I don’t feel like I see any hope from here on out. And I am wondering if this is a sign for me to leave. I didn’t want to be like all the new nurses who flee so soon. I was hoping at least going for 5 years at the bedside. I don’t see my over all health getting better. I feel like a chicken and I feel like a weak person for deciding to leave.

I was diagnosed earlier this year with Bipolar disorder type 2. I have had symptoms for many years since when I was 12-13 years old. Up to when I was in college I never knew what my symptoms were from and once I became a nurse I think I considered if I was Bipolar but was in denial. I am 27 now, have been a nurse for 4 years. My symptoms have gotten much much worse which led to My diagnosis. Aside from Bipolar DO, I was also diagnosed with generalized anxiety DO, which is also pretty bad. in the past, my symptoms were subtle and manageable. Now they have become much worse but have been manageable with meds and therapy. My trouble area is that I believe I have noticed that working in beside may be a trigger for me. I worked in cardiac progressive care for most my of my career and now I transferred to CICU and I am in orientation for 2 more weeks. when I am at work, I can completely keep my symptoms in check, but I believe I have noticed that because it takes so much mental energy to keep my symptoms in check, on my off days I am truly struggling. On my off days I have severe panic attacks that can be ongoing. I can also be thrown into severe episodes of either depression or hypomania. The 2-3 days off that I get is only enough for my to try to hardwire myself back to normal and the cycle continues. Also being in bedside and being exposed to so many difficult and sad situations puts a huge load on me. I used to not get emotional at all but with my symptoms being much worse it truly does take a toil on me. I don’t want to have to give up my new job, but I am worried I may have to due to my mental health. I am also afraid to disclose my dx to my managers in hopes that I can have their support by maybe requesting better scheduling or what not but I am scared it will backfire on me. Generally speaking, from what I have observed during orientation and spoken to my coworkers about, management schedules our shifts horribly. It’s not uncommon for nurses on that unit to work 3 in a row and sometimes only get 1-2 days off. I definitely CAN NOT do that. I am already imagining that that will also be hard on me. The discrepancy in the days I am scheduled is also a trigger for me. I think that if I had a job with a fixed schedule it could Iess of a stressor. I have noticed that the best way to manage my symptoms is by having consistent routines and being scheduled all over the place is just a huge trigger. I need structure in my life for me to manage my symptoms and thrive. can I get some advice from other nurses with disabilities who have maybe been in this position? have you been able to manage your symptoms appropriately and working bedside without your mental health or home/personal life being badly affected? i am starting to consider the idea of leaving bedside although I don’t want to, and taking up a job that is less stressful with a fixed schedule.

I was at work on my cardiac unit, it was 6:00 p.m., and we had gotten a patient from the ED. He was an elderly man that was in horrible shape, he looked like he was dying. My friend who was his nurse had paged the Dr to receive orders. His call light was continually going off. The first time it rang I thought it was his neighbor in bed 2 because the patient was severely obtunded, my coworkers and I figured it wasn't him who pressed the call light. We went into the room to cancel it and I had remebered that the patient in bed 2 was discharged, so the only person in the room was the obtunded ED patient. I walked out and thought nothing of it. The call light went off again. I peaked in the room and the patient was still obtunded. I turned off the call light figuring that maybe he was laying on it and it accidentally got pressed. A while later the call light went off again. My friends and I all walked in the room to see why the call light kept going off. We all figured that he was either laying on it or something was hitting it. When we walked in the room we noticed the call light was no where near him. We freaked out but told ourselves that it couldn't be a scary coincidence. Well, the call light kept going off every 5 minutes. We kept turning it off. The patient progressively looked worse and worse. We continued waiting for MD orders but he was taking a long time. At 7:30 p.m. at the end of our shift the patient passed. He was DNR and DNI so when he coded they only called an RRT and no compressions started. The MD who responded to the RRT pronounced him dead. We had no issues with the call light inside that room until the patient entered it. As soon as he entered the room, the call light kept going off non stop. It stopped ringing when he died.

I think you being cognizant that you want to be detail oriented already puts you ahead of the game. Take notes throughout the day of your patients activity. I write to do lists that help me stay organized. As far as knowing when to contact the doctor, I always say if you feel its important to share then simply share it. You won't lose out on anything if you call the doctor, however you WILL lose a lot if you don't share something with the doctor that could have changed a patient's course of health. If the Dr gets mad for calling him because of something he found insignificant just shrug it off and move on. Better safe than sorry. Of course do consider details like if your working night shift and calling a Dr at 12 am or calling a surgeon in surgery. Always go to your veteran nurses and charge nurses for guidance. When in doubt just CALL THE DOCTOR, look at your policies and procedures over the topic, call a charge nurse, or even call an RRT

With my experience and having gone through the same thing, I think 6 months isn't fully enough to appreciate what the job has to offer. Sometimes particular ICU's are better to work in than others depending on what specific ICU you work in. If your hospital has more than one ICU maybe consider transferring to the other one and seeing how that goes. I would advise give it a year. After a year you should definitely have a clear understanding if you truly like it or hate it. You'll also have a clear understanding of what factors are involved that make you dislike it. Those answers will be clear down the road. I have moved 6 months after being in a job I thought I didn't like. After I left I wish I had gave it another chance. I wish I had waited it out a little longer. Plus, 1 year is really not that long. One year of solid ICU experience is also super valuable if you want to transition into other nursing career paths such as working in the Cath lab which is DEFINITELY exciting. I think you're better off waiting it out.

Hello, I am just wanting to hear from veteran and newbie nurses, what made you decide to leave bedside and why or what did you use to factor in your decision to leave? I want to leave not because I hate it. I learned to love it. I had an up and down rollercoaster with bedside. Sometimes I loved it and other times I hated it and became bitter with burn out. After 4 years of nursing I have learned to even out my emotions and I currently love what I do. My desire to leave bedside is because my father passed away the beginning of this year. His death really shook up my world and helped me to see things in a different way. After his death, I realized that I don't want to continue missing out on spending quality time with my family due to working weekends and holidays. I realized life is short and I want to spent the best part of my time with my family. I also had my own medical emergency recently and had to undergo emergency surgery. I had an alarming scare with my health (I am better now). These two events made me realize: 1.) Life is so short and valuable, why spend the better part of my energy and time working under high pressure, long work hours, inflexible work schedules, etc, all the while missing out on weekends and holidays with family. 2.) My health is important, I have chronic back pain among other health problems. I think to myself that I should get a less stressful job and not have to endure through bedside. I think might as well get out now. The problem is my heart is heartbroken and I don't know what to do. I had just gotten a job in the cardiac icu (I had been trying to get into the CICU for a while now). I was on cardiac step down for 4 years where I worked as a charge nurse, preceptor, and responded to RRTs and Codes. I was so excited for my new transition. I am currently out of work until November due to my medical emergency. Im not sure if this is my open door to leave now. I would love to hear your stories or get any insightful advice.