Kelaaax3

Really interesting article. So I’m on call every weekend which I know is pretty normal with hospice positions but I don’t think I’m the type to handle it well especially when sometimes I go for 2 days without any sleep. I don’t think it’s sustainable. I’ve communicated with my boss about these issues and we do have backup but it doesn’t matter when it comes to issues like getting enough sleep, it only matters if there’s 2 deaths at the same time. That’s the only time when they like you to call for backup help. I also have to do lots of admissions and referrals on the weekend which is hard to do in between emergency visits and now my boss wants me to start putting them in myself but I’m already so busy during my weekend on call shift that I don’t have time to sit and put info in when she can easily do that from home. We are very short on staff so I’ve been picking up a lot extra throughout the week. I’m fine with driving within the area but I’m not okay with having patients that are 1-1.5 hours away when there is an emergency. I’m carrying a lot of guilt about that too. I do believe I am experiencing burnout. I knew I was on med/surg and I’m disappointed in myself for hopping into the first job I got close to home, not considering that it would only exaggerate my burnout. I also just don’t agree with a lot of the company’s practices. Instead of caring for patients, it is more about making a profit. I’ve seen shady stuff. I’m just not happy here, although I do love caring for my patients. I’m definitely going to switch once I find something I enjoy and shadow. I guess sometimes it’s about learning what you don’t like. I’m getting there. Thank you for your response. Do you have any advice on dealing with burnout? I wish I could take a couple of days but that’s out of the option.

I’ve been a nurse for a little over a year now. I previously worked on a med-surg floor for almost a year and I decided to leave mainly due to the fact that I was driving 7 hours a week. I also began to feel like a pill pusher, we were very understaffed, unsafe ratios, just general issues like that. I was also home sick. Our floor also done inpatient hospice so I decided that would be the perfect thing to do when I found a job closer to home so that’s what I did. I have been doing outpatient hospice for about 3 months now and I’m so overwhelmed. I do call every weekend (it’s just me, so the company depends on me heavily) and hardly get any sleep. I did not realize we would have patients an hour-two hours away which I think is ridiculous. Being on call every weekend is very difficult, a lot more than what I imagined. There is very little support. I do love my patients and I love being able to spend more time with them and educate them and I do feel as if I'm making more of a difference with this career but I'm also forced into working overtime a lot ever since I first started due to the fact that staffing is so horrible. There is a very high turnover rate with the company and during meetings and surveys we even had two employees recommend that nurses don’t work here at all. We have mostly one medical director over all of our patients and he is very rude to the families and also to the nurses. I had a family member of a patient call me breaking down in tears about how rude he was to her. Management is aware but they continue on like it’s all fine and dandy. I’m overworked. Things are very disorganized. Cant get ahold of physicians to put in orders for GIP patients, number is wrong in the chart and I call my manager about this at 2am, and I still have the wrong number. I also hate when there is a death or another medical emergency and I’m an hour and a half away, and that’s with no traffic. I feel so bad for the families when that does happen. This job has given me so much anxiety, I have nightmares when I’m on call and trying to sleep. I know they will be very disappointed if I quit but I’m not sure what else to do. I feel very guilty about it but I’m sick of running on no sleep and they are well aware of the issues going on but continue to turn a blind eye when it’s obviously not working and they can’t keep staff. I’m very hurt because I really do love the patients and want to provide the best care possible but it’s hard to do under some conditions. I will have another position lined up which is a travel nurse job that’s actually not far from my home. I’m also looking in to other positions. I’m just not happy at all and my anxiety is crippling at this point. My manager is very nice and I know there will be a big fuss when I do quit. They will have a hard time replacing me because it’s a tough job and feels almost impossible at times. I wanted to give a 4 week notice but I will probably just settle for a 2 or 3 week notice. I’m not a quitter and I hate that I’m giving up after 3 months, but the overtime, staffing issues, and issues with the primary doctor is killing me. They tell me I do such a good job but it’s not worth the stress anymore, especially for the pay cut I took. I’m just venting and hope someone can understand and provide some insight on whether or not I’m making the right decision, knowing that this will be hard on the company. The nurses who work throughout the week were taking call on weekends before I came along and I hate that they will have to go back to that because they’re already so overworked themselves but I feel like I have to put my mental health first. Wondering how I can make this a smoother process.

Hello, I have been a nurse for a little over a year now. I started on a med surg/hospice floor and left at 11 months. I was driving to the hospital 3 1/2 hours twice a week and it got to be too much with no work/life balance. We were also transitioning to a step down unit but we did not have the staff I feel to make it work and we’re very unorganized. Everyone on the unit was burnt out and many had left due to this. The money and set schedule was great but the drive was taking a toll on my car. I chose to make the long drive because I live in WV in a very small town with only one hospital and one stand up ER. The pay was also very very low at 23/hr. I made the switch to a hospice company naively accepting a weekend on call position. Everyone says I’m doing very well and they’re glad to have me. My boss is mostly nice, and my coworkers as well although I don’t see them often. However there are a lot of issues and I don’t think I can stay long term. We cover two counties. The first is fine, as all my emergency visits are 20-30 mins away or less. The other county is about an hour away. I am paid salary. The workload is tremendous because there is a high turnover rate. Sometimes I am so busy I don’t sleep in over 20 hours because it’s call after call. I also still do admissions, evals, deaths, and other emergency visits. My schedule is Friday 5pm-Monday 8am which I guess is pretty standard but when I get calls about admissions frequently and also evals it is very rough. However I love my patients very much and next month I will have been here for 3 months and I don’t want to give it up so soon but I am not happy. I hate feeling like I complain all the time, but being called out at all times during the early AM is not fun at all. I’m disappointed because I should have expected this much and I knew I would be called out at those times, I just didn’t think I would be called out for so many non emergency situations. I don’t want to be seen as a job hopper. I want to go somewhere that pays me well, still close to home so I can spend time with family and pets, and not feel so exhausted or anxious every time I get a call. It has been a very rough first year and has made me feel like I don’t want to be a nurse anymore but I love helping others. I don’t think I’ll even last until the end of next month at this point. During nursing school and high school I held a job at a pharmacy for 5 years and I just want to go somewhere where I’m comfortable and not overly stressed 24/7. I know I’m still new and that it might be better eventually but we have so many staff that don’t stay and other staff speaking up for nurses about the crazy hours and workload that is expected of us and I am already experiencing that and not sure what to do. I just got an apartment and I take care of my grandmother so I have to be close. The only other jobs that pay pretty well would be an hour and a half away and I’m not sure if I could deal with making that drive. I also just feel like I give up too easily but my body is already exhausted and I haven’t hit 3 months. I don’t want to constantly be depressed and always forced into picking up overtime after an extremely long weekend because we don’t have staff. I want to stay somewhere for two years at least and be happy for the most part. I know that all jobs will hold some stress and have it’s pros and cons but I’m just not sure what to do. I have thought about OR, psych inpatient for children, psych in general, and possibly ICU. I’m terrified of taking another job and ending up being miserable there like I am now. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you!