speedynurse

This is not a shocker - I left the ER basically because of an incident very similar to this.

I had a good team in general that was wonderful to me as a new grad. However - this incident eventually made me lose all respect for my manager. And honestly, I would never work for her again.

Sign on bonuses are never a good sign. Job hopping may or may not catch up with someone. In all honesty, since Covid, I feel like there is a ton of forgiveness in terms of job hopping out of desperation for finding experienced nurses and not just all new grads. I personally don’t look at other jobs unless I have some level of dissatisfaction in my current job (not boredom) but the need for a better work-life balance, better pay, better insurance, or a better team/management, etc. In addition, as terrible as this sounds, staying at one job for 10 plus years is not always beneficial either. Some employers want to see diversity and different work experience.

It can be difficult to live your own life/make your own decisions when still living in your parents house. Once you are in your own apartment or house, it will be easier to separate yourself from these. It’s your life - make your own decisions and then live with those. It’s a choice every adult has to make at some point in their life and part of growing up. I wish you the best.

Everyone above has given some good advice. One thing I want to mention is have your thought of trying for a different bedside nursing job first? Inpatient floor nursing is TOUGH. Nights are miserable for those who struggle with that shift. I never did inpatient nursing (new grad ER nurse and then to pre-op and PACU) and never want to seeing how all the nurses are run into the ground. Have you thought of day shifts or a different speciality? There are lots of options from ICU to ER to surgical nursing, etc.

I completely understand that for some, it truly is hard to work nights. I have worked all shifts and honestly, I never could adjust to nights. However, this is a night position. In addition, many people are on the list to move to days. I know I was one of the employees on night shifts that was on the list to move to days. And guess what happened? New employees were hired to day shifts while I waited years patiently - using excuses from they had kids, they couldn’t do nights, they had other jobs, had health issues, couldn’t sleep, etc. While I understood this - it was incredibly hurtful to me when I was dedicated to my unit and job and saw this happen. I just wanted to give you a perspective- not to discount your concerns but to understand other perspectives. I get not being able to do nights. I personally don’t think I could EVER go back to nights. However, it will put you in a bad place with your future team not to mention this is a NIGHT position.

Pink doves - there is nothing wrong with looking into a non-nursing job/career. I do agree that often the way nurses are treated has become much worse throughout the years. One thing I recommend on your days off is to truly try not to think about work. Don’t answer calls/texts from work unless absolutely necessary. Don’t pick up extra shifts. Find something you enjoy! I know changing specialities helped ease a lot of the stress for me. My nursing career is a very small part of my life - it’s a way to pay bills and while I do take pride in my job, I rarely bring it home anymore. I go out with friends, walk my dog, hike, spend time outdoors, read a good book, do errands, take classes, discover new areas in my hometown to explore or do day trips. Again - there is nothing wrong with finding a different career that you enjoy. Another option is to find a non-bedside nursing job while you try to go through school for another career option. Nursing is difficult and has become more so in my opinion. I have had to strategically separate myself from my job on my days off. One thing left I thought I would mention is to maybe think about is it the career itself that you hate? Or the specialty, shifts, management, team, etc? I know sometimes dissatisfaction can stem from a toxic team, poor management, night or rotating shifts, a specific patient population, etc. I wish you the best in your career and happiness….

I am currently a PACU nurse - I enjoy my job, comfortable with the surgeons and anesthesiologists, and absolutely love my team. It is the easiest bedside nursing job I have ever had (and by far the lowest stress!). However, I have had fairly extensive health issues rise to the surface these last few years due to my EDS/HCTD and related multiple neurosurgical issues. As much as I love my job and team, I have very much considering pursuing a non-bedside nursing job, such as in education/staff development. The chronic pain/multiple injuries/potential neurosurgeries in the future has me realizing that bedside nursing is just not the greatest for my body. I am relatively young and have not had children - I want children in the next several years (even if it's through adoption) and want to be in well enough shape that I can take care of them/play with them/be their mom. I am concerned with the pace that my body is going that I won't be able to do that if I continue in the field I am in. So what's the issue? I also want to be able to go to NP school (hopefully in maybe the next 5 years if I can get a grip on health issues). I am concerned that if I leave bedside/hospital nursing now that I will not be able to be a potential candidate for an FNP program. Has anyone ever gone to NP school after leaving bedside nursing? Or does anyone have any ideas of other bedside nursing jobs that are potentially less risky? The only other thought I had was to perhaps seek out shorter shifts at an outpatient surgery center with generally healthy patients. Thoughts? Not asking for medical advice - just asking about the possibility of NP school after leaving bedside nursing and/or other ideas. Sorry for the crazy long post!

I worked in the ER for 7 years - before Covid we were holding patients (sometimes all the ER rooms were full and we had nowhere to place ER patients). Now it’s worse of course. I moved from the ER to pre-op/PACU nursing and we are now holding patients there as well. Not to the point the ER is being but enough that we are working our day shifts and our on call team (which is often the team working that day) working all night as well to take care of hold patients ??‍♀️

Okayyyy….not sure where this post is going. I actually think basic cleanliness and scrubbing into surgery is one of the most basic forms of ethics in the surgical field. Working in the surgical field….I know of one surgeon that doesn’t follow basic forms of cleanliness and has the highest rate of post-op infections. I think this is time for a break from AllNurses with the way this thread is going.

I hated all of nursing school - I couldn’t wait to finish. Two miserable years….saying that nursing is nothing like nursing school but is very hard and stressful - in a different way. One way or another….2 weeks in is not enough time to make a decision.

There are multiple threads on this so this is very redundant. There are legitimate reasons for not getting the vaccine (anaphylaxis, etc). There are other precautions to take as well. On another point - that’s how I feel about surgeons not washing their hands….and have a high rate of post-op infections. Or of vaccinated coworkers refusing to put on PPE to go into a covid room. The list goes on and on.

I think it depends what you are up for. I personally would go for the day shifts but that is essentially because I know the last time I did nights, I essentially crashed and burned…..never a good situation to return to. It depends on what works better for your life….is it money or the commute or the insurance or the doctor-nurse relationships? Personally - most doctors and nurses seem to relate fine to each other . In all honesty, coming from the ER - I don’t put up with garbage. I expect my opinions to be listened to when I have a patient safety concern and vice versa. Nurses don’t like the way they are treated? Then do something to change that….my philosophy is we are all human beings and can figure out a way to work together.

In all honesty, I generally try to be positive but I also think sometimes it’s needed to see things as they really are - here is the reality: nurses are working shifts that are impossible, patient safety has fallen by the wayside because there is no one to take care of them, and yet nothing changes. I think I have reached a point of: it’s time to set the record straight and just tell the truth.

I think this title was used short term and has now gone away in my opinion. I don’t think our profession ever needed that title - what we did need was compensation, decent insurance, and not having to essentially work double shifts with is not even compatible with the human body. I don’t need or want that title - instead I need people (administration) to understand what we go through and actually try to meet us in the middle with what I mentioned above. Instead, it is now seen OK to work all day and all night, not get a raise for years, have very substandard insurance so we can’t afford healthcare when we need it ourselves, etc. (Oh and by the way - we are supposed to keep going to school to get our BSN for magnet status even though we are already burning the candle at both ends). Ironically, I actually do like my job - I just don’t like the way things are being twisted - the word hero means nothing to me.

I would be cautious any time the supplies in a hospital is used - I know of one nurse who got fired over a slightly similar experience….well an experience with hospital supplies. It was an innocent enough situation that ended badly. Just be careful in the future - it’s important to be transparent and watch out for yourself because unfortunately, most others will not.

My guess is if we go home an hour or two or is it’s called “on call” then it can be seen as “acceptable”. One way or the other though, we are awake for 24 hours ?

My guess is that it can continue because it is called “on call” even though it’s really not on call but staying all night. I keep telling myself it’s still better than the ER ?

I don’t work in the ICU but can say the pandemic has changed things drastically in nursing (even if they were already going that way). I know once upon a time we were never allowed to work beyond 16 hours. Now we are working sometimes 24 hour shifts between regular shifts and on call (which isn’t on call anymore but holding admitted patients)….and unfortunately I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

I left the ER for pre-op/PACU and have never looked back. I would like to try endoscopy nursing at some point maybe, but am happy where I am for now. The only thing to think about is the on call requirements for Pre-op/PACU as those can be draining sometimes (or it is at my hospital as it has turned into we work all day and sometimes at night too for admitted patients that don’t have rooms upstairs). However, the job itself is very nice and relatively low stress - much more so then inpatient or ER nursing. If you want to stay bedside, it’s a good idea to look into.

I actually haven’t seen this at my facility. Maybe it’s a matter of where you work. One thing though is that I think a lot of these nurses realize they are easily thrown away and undervalued by these facilities. Most administration lacks common sense and would rather spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to train new grads then retain their experienced nurses. Most realize it is better to transfer from hospital to hospital system every few years to increase pay rate rather than stay dedicated to their own hospital because they never get a pay raise. The list goes on and on. I know I have no desire to go into management - especially not in this day and age. I have seen so many NPs having to go back to bedside because of lack of jobs in my area….the list goes on and on. Sometimes I think the new grads are smarter about how the healthcare systems use and abuse them so they simply employ the same attitude.

As I have mentioned before, I think covid has simply illuminated what was already broken in healthcare. I do know I left the ER during covid for a Preop/PACU job and now no one can pay me enough to go back to the ER. We are working sometimes 24 hours though between our regular shifts and on call (which have turned into holding admitted patients). I will say though our leadership team has been right there with us trying to cover part of those shifts and pulling some of that time themselves. The administration though has truly shown how worthless and useless they are (yes this is the CNO, etc). I do see our actual team coming together to help each other - I have seen anesthesiologists and CRNAs taking patients to the restroom and surgeons offering to help transport patients with us. I know I personally have kept an eye out for other jobs to stop having to pull the 24 hour shifts (which can’t often be covered even with pay being offered equivalent to travel nursing) but the sad thing is that I don’t think things are better at any other hospital and likely are even worse. I am just glad I am out of the ER…..

Correct. Any generation can be entitled and any generation can be hardworking with critical thinking. It often depends on what they have gone through in life, how they responded to it, family support, etc.

I think it depends on what unit you work in. When I was in the ER, I pulled meds all the time for other nurses, including having to pull controlled meds or even overriding meds. There is a trust factor that comes with working in the ER. You have to do some things unconventionally to keep those units running. The main thing is that the MARs matched up with what was pulled from the Pyxis. I never ever had any issue with a discrepancy in the ER. When I came to the surgical field, it was considered taboo to pull meds for other nurses (well, controlled meds; other meds were OK to pull), but in all honesty, we generally have time to pull our own meds. I think it’s just different for every field and some fields you really have to rely on your team and your sense of trust with them.

For me, I don’t think it’s choosing between money and respect but being heard/having a good team/patient safety and being able to afford to live on the salary I make. I am in a job now where I like my team and for the most part, I like the patients and actual job. However, I do need to afford to live….and have been looking at other jobs that have a better salary and better insurance. I think in most places, administration is all the same. They can put on smiles and a show, but when it all boils down, they don’t hear what we are saying. Management can be iffy depending on the job. Some people places have really good management and some are just OK. I think as for respect or along those lines - everyone deserves to grow, to learn, to be accountable and responsible in their roles, to be heard, to feel their patients and licenses are safe, and to take pride in their role. However, at the same time, money is needed to survive in this world. Sometimes the grass is not always greener at other employment….but sometimes it is. And sometimes change is needed.