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In nursing school, I remember being appalled by the way staff treated patients on a psych unit. I remember when I got my first job on a psych unit, I was appalled by the way staff spoke to patients. I know of a few classmates who refused to go into psych nursing because they did not want to be a part of such treatment of patients. A few weeks ago while students were on the unit, we had an incident with a patient. One of our very needy, attention seeking patients always, and I mean ALWAYS, tries to get the attention of staff when we are trying to deal with an incident. Of course, every time she tries, we have to be stern and firm with her. We tell her, in a very firm manner, "This is NOT the time SO and SO. You need to back it up and move somewhere else. This does NOT involve you." When she refuses to leave, we have to be even more firm with her. We do not use profanity. We do not degrade. We do not demean. And this was how those nurses spoke to those patients when I was a nursing student and when I was a brand spanking new nurse. However, when I tried to set limits with this patient in this manner in front of the nursing students, I had a feeling they were judging me the way I was judging those other nurses. It actually bothered me a little bit to feel that they viewed me as a cruel nurse. I'm not sure if they did....but I felt that's how they judged me. But I'm not. None of the nurses I work with are. Setting limits with some difficult patients with personality disorders most especially requires being firm and it doesn't require the use of profanity or degradation. Actually, most of the limit setting is done on those with personality disorders. So, please, next time you're on a psych floor, and you hear a nurse being firm with a patient, please don't assume its not warranted. As long as the nurse or nursing assistants don't use profanity or degrade a patient, there is a reason why the nurse is speaking to a patient in such a way. Playing nicey nicey with a "pretty please" doesn't work.

You're going to be a nurse. Not a nun. Many young nurses live it up and enjoy their night life to the fullest. Their social life isn't affected in any way. It's not that bad.

I'm soon to start the RN-MSN informatics program. No BS. No pun intended (joke ya'll. No harm or offense intended). Yeah, its online. Is this order misplacement of credentials so bothersome that you compare it to fingernails on a chalkboard? Geez. I'm glad I don't work with you. If this bothers you that badly, I can't imagine what other minor things set you off.

When I was in school, I always felt this way. I felt I was terrible in clinicals. I always got tongue-tied and would freeze up when my clinical instructor asked me a question. I felt like I always goof up if my instructor was watching me from behind. I was always anxious at clinicals. I was terrible. I have had two jobs the past 3 years. The first few months I started at each job, I felt that I was TERRIBLE at my job. I always questioned myself, my judgments, my interventions, etc. I would go home the first few months feeling like I had lost all confidence, completely inadequate, completely incompetent, that my co-workers judged the 'new' nurse, etc. But it was all in my head. I was making myself feel that way. Looking back, I was never really that bad at clinicals. Yeah, I goofed a lot but I'm sure not worse than most students. I wasn't bad at my new job; I was unfamiliar and just still learning how things were done. I'm pretty solid as a psych nurse, despite only being 3 years in. In school, I was just nervous. I turned out a'ight

My entry would have been.. "You looking in here doesn't help me. Get your ahole in here and help me."

Psych nurse here. I have a borderline patient who has been with us for about a year but has used our services frequently previously. A sitcom could be based on her. Very demanding. She has gotten many staff members in trouble because we try to set limits but being the borderline, she is very good at spinning situations. This one day, I can't really remember what prompted the exchange, but I remember her telling me after I told her, "no, not right now" she says, "you do realize that I chose to serve this country and for your freedom." This infuriated me. So I said back, "If you really wanna use that argument, I chose to take this job to take care of you who have served this country. I mean, if you really wanna use that argument" She isn't combative so I wouldnt say she is the one of the worst....but if she was a private sector patient, you all would be fired. I work at a place where we are regarded as such peons because such a place has given these patients the power to become enabled to use the system up as they please. "frequent flyer" isn't a term we use at our place because being a repeated patient is the norm. Don't get me wrong; there are many patients who I appreciate. Oh wait. For my even having to add a disclaimer excusing the "good" patients is a bit telling. Yeah, I work for a pretty crappy entity. If I didn't have such awesomely great co-workers I would say peace out.

"What sort of entitlement? The sense of entitlement that health care should be a basic right as opposed to something a person only can get if they have the right health coverage?" Lol. Sorry. That is waaaaaay off base from what I am speaking of. Healthcare coverage has absolutely nothing to do with the the type of "entitlement" my unit deals with. Healthcare coverage, in fact, is irrelevant where I work. Coverage is a non issue.

The way I see it.....at work I need to apply nursing care unconditionally. Even if a cluster B is driving me to wanna strangle them....I still gotta do my job as a nurse.... However when it comes to my personal life I am allowed to dislike and ignore who I choose. I have no obligation to anyone outside my family. I have enough stress dealing with such pts. I don't need added drama that I'm not getting paid to deal with. I don't need that extra histrionic friend in my life. I've avoided a few of my now ex husbands friends cuz they got on my nerves. But we managed. He dealt with them and I stayed away.

By the way, I work with a certain type of population that for some reason believes they are so special...I've worked in a prison with bona fide criminals who weren't as bad as the people I serve now. If you're homeless with a crack addiction, i find it exceedingly distasteful to be as picky, as demanding, as self righteous as you are. Three hots and a cot with snacks and entertainment. nd you still have stuff to complain about. Ugh!

I'm so sick of the homeless that come in with this outrageous sense of entitlement. I mean ffs, you were out on the streets hungry and laying on concrete but you wanna come here a gripe about every little thing? And on top of that verbally abuse the staff just because you don't get your way or you hate our rules? Of course not everyone is like that ....especially not the psychotics. But a good majority of our patients are. And I'm so sick of how they use the system.

I'm bringing it back !

We have our own police unit on campus. We call them for simple walk throughs if the malingerers start acting up or seem to be scheming. We call them if we need to give an IM whether it's a dec shot or prn to a normally uncooperative patient who always cooperate once they see uniform presence. At this current job where I've been for 1.5 years I've only needed the cops to help with restraints once and physical hold I think twice. At my previous job we had security guards who helped a lot on physical holds but as long as I was there which had been 1.5 years, we had one restraint but we had enough male staff that day that the security guards weren't needed.

Sorry.....or HE

Because the universe finally said, "OK, she is good to go." Congrats!

ALL jobs are exhausting. Working people from all professions, whether they are nurses, cashiers, doctors, servers, physical therapists, construction workers/home improvement people, telemarketers, delivery people, postmen, developers, custodians, social workers, teachers, professors, MBAs, etc....All jobs have their own nightmares and headaches We nurses are fortunate that the creators of this site offers us a place to discuss our issues and allows us to vent and give/receive support. We have to appreciate that. Many other professions don't have that sort of anonymous support, but they for sure have their gripes. Nursing does have a lot of crappy stuff to deal with.....but so does every single other profession out there. Don't let the stories here scare you. It's life :) BTW...before considering nursing, we all should have know the sacrifices it entails. We work weekends. We work holidays. We could work nights. Those are the definite things we should have known about before going to nursing school. It's the other frustrations we were naive about. But at the same time.....all professions have their causes for frustration. I don't regret going into nursing. Its a love/hate thing.