WilksRN

Hi. I have been a nurse for 15 years. My aspiration right out of nursing school was to work in a fast-paced, exciting area such as the ER or ICU. However, my career took a completely different turn as getting a job as a new-grad was difficult back in the early 90s. My first 5 years were spent in home care, primarily working with spinal cord injured clients. While working in this capacity, I dabbled (part-time or less) in nursing home & hospital orthopedics. Then, I decided to go into telephonic disability case management for an insurance company. Then, after having my 3rd child, I stayed home for a year. Now, I find myself in a small community (due to my husbands job transfer) at a relatively busy hospital as this is the only employment option available to me right now. I've worked in this hospital med/surg department for about 1 year now & the transition has been extremely stressful as not only do I have 3 little lives that depend on me (ages 1, 3, 6) but I'm finding myself back in the acute setting where I feel incompetent, unknowledgeable, fatigued, underscored by co-workers (usually behind my back), etc. In many ways I feel less knowledgeable & equipped than new-grad nurses. It's a very frustrating place for me to be at this point in my career. As I read articles, I see that I have every characteristic of "burn-out" & that concerns me. I do LOVE taking care of my patients, just feel inefficient & at times incapable of doing so. There are many things that I am doing that I've not done since school 15 years ago (i.e. peds, hospice, blood transfusions, starting IVs', etc.) I would love some advice/support/comments maybe from other nurses who left & now are back in acute care or maybe just ideas on how to improve efficiency, knowledge (I'm already reading many reference books including the Bible in my spare time), etc...Any tips to help improve the transition, please!!?!