simplminz

Being a good nurse manager is not an easy job. A good nurse manager is a leader and supports her staff while balancing the demands of those over her. It requires a lot of hours and work. Good managers are in short supply. If you want a department that runs well and is respected you need to have the respect of your staff. Managers are responsible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Take a long hard look at what you want your life to look like. Do you want work life balance? Your time off not to be interrupted? Does it energize you to mold and shape a department? (If so I would encourage you not to make sweeping changes immediately if you want to earn the respect of your staff) It sounds like you're enjoying the position you have now and the benefits of it. Are you bored with it? There will always be management positions available and other avenues in nursing to pursue. Good luck

I am nearing retirement and finding a new job is as anxiety producing as remaining in the nursing job I currently have. Covid certainly has made work challenging but I have to say it wasn’t good before Covid. Even before Covid we had limited staff and quality of care suffered. Then and now I don’t feel I am giving the care my patients need. I’m so envious of those who have been able to leave nursing. What is the answer to this? I don’t feel that nurses in my facility are cohesive enough to work together toward change. I see fracturing of relationships of nurses between units.

I agree with the other respondents to keep your license active. You never know when you might need it to fall back on it. I wondered when I read your post where your educator was while you were being precepted? Was there not anyone from continuing education following you to find out how things were going? Do the preceptors not have any training? I think too it's important to take a good hard look at yourself. I agree with you, there is no excuse for being treated badly by a preceptor at any stage in your nursing career, but especially bad when you are first starting out. I will say it is very hard to precept a new nurse let alone an experienced nurse in a new, unfamiliar area. This is not an excuse for her behaviour, but it adds stress to her day too. I always think it's important to consider how I may have come across to cause problems in a relationship. I think you were fortunate to find a position on day shift. I have always believed, and even as a new grad many years ago, that I had to do my time on the off shifts before I could move on to days. In every profession people have to work their way up to the more desirable position. Med/Surg nursing is rough, I think more now than when I started out. If you think your heart is really in nursing try to find a small hospital, start out on a med/surg unit and if you have to work an off shift so be it. Getting at least 3 years of that kind of nursing experience is worth it's weight in gold. Don't let those old crabby nurses ruin all the hard work you put into educating yourself. Maybe you can be a changemaker for the future of nursing.

If I felt as though I could afford to quit nursing I would in a minute, not because of patients,but because of nursing and administration itself. It is time to take a good hard look at why nurses are leaving and make it attractive to be a nurse...some things will be very difficult to change, some things will take a very long time to change, and some things may never change. I for one am tired of being accountable for every discipline, including physicians and nurses taking on the weight of the world. When something has to be done Nursing takes it on. JCAHO piles on more and more mandatory requirements, some which in theory, are good, but where are the nurses and the hours to do all of these things? I don't feel that I am underpaid. I do not feel that a higher wage is a long term solution to this problem or the nursing shortage or to make nurses who are unhappy for other reasons, happy. I think mandatory overtime, 12 hour shifts and overtime in general all lead to unhappiness and burnout and poor patient care as well. I'm envious of nurses who love their job and wonder how nurses who work on busy med/surg units and critical care areas cope with their day and leave still saying they love their jobs. I don't work in this type of area and in the busiest of times I leave feeling as though I have been unfulfilled, behind, and given substandard care. Good luck to all of you leaving nursing and enjoy your new careers.