Merritt1982

Hey guys, quick question. So I'm 25 and I have traveled for work to different states a couple of times still claiming my home as a permanent residence. I travel for 3 months at a time. Problem is, my home where I pay rent is the basement of my parents' house. My father retired since my last assignment and now works out of state as well, but comes home every other week or so. Recently, I've realized that I still cannot trust my father to not go through my mail. Wouldn't be a problem, but I have to keep up with bills, etc. And I sure don't want him reading my bank statements. My question is, what do nurses who own homes, etc. do about their mail and bills when they're on assignment with no one at home to bring it in for them?

I have read through most of the posts in this thread and I couldn't help posting. I have been a nurse in the ICU for about 2 years, started out in the ICU as a new grad after completing a one year internship requirement for new grad's in this ICU. Before nursing, I was in the best physical shape I could be in. Participated in multiple running and mountain biking races, worked out 5 days a week at least and had the cleanest health record of anyone I knew. About 6 months into my career I started suffering from health problems. I did as most people have said and just tried harder to cope with the high-paced, overly stressful environment that is ICU nursing. I spent days off researching nursing journals and articles online to try to make myself more comfortable with the work. Nothing seemed to alleviate my stress. This went on for a while until I passed out on the job. The charge nurse called my mother who lived locally and asked her to come pick me up while I spent a few minutes receiving care in my own ICU. Luckily for me, the NP for our Cardiology group had heard me the day before complaining of chest pain and had scheduled me an appt. with the Doc. before I even made it home. My mother even commented when she picked me up, "how I could stand working in that unit with all the noise, alarms, and craziness going on?" Even to this day I can never seem to make myself relax during the 12 hours. I am always tense, stressed, despite whether it's a "good day" or a "bad day." It's just not an enviroment that I feel I will ever be comfortable in. So, I guess my question to everyone is... Despite the fact that I love taking care of people... is it really worth all the stress and health ramifications? Every nurse I know suffers from some health problem of their own and a lot of them deal with stress with alcohol or nicotine. I gave it two years and I'm working on switching careers as we speak. I have to hand it to the nurses that have spent their whole careers devoted to such an amazing field of work. But I just can't handle it anymore. I just want a job that I can go to everyday without having to "expect the worse" and just try to "make it through the 12 hours." I want a job that I look forward to each and every day. Am I the only one that is struggling with this?