NURSEJSS

Thank you

I had 3 other patients. I did not have the time to be able to do that. On my unit it's usually our charge nurses that transport the patients.

I need help. I have been burnt out for a long time for various reasons. I have come to my end of burn out and I am severely depressed. There's a lot of background to why I feel like this but this is why: I work on a cardiac tele unit, ratio is 4:1. Always understaffed. I work often as charge nurse with up to 4 patients, no secretary, no aids. I often don't go home until 9 pm because no one wt my job can keep up with all the work and lack of help. We are technically a step down unit and should be 3:1 but they changed our name to "cardiac tele" to place us at 4:1 Friday I was at work taking care of a man with ARDS. He was severely ill and I called an RRT on him. He should have been intubated but he was DNI so they placed him on BIPAP instead. Well this guy was also an a-hole. He was the typical patient that curses you out, presses the call light every second, etc etc. I asked for help multiple times from my supervisor who was also working as the charge nurse that day and she did not help me. She also had 4 other patients of her own and used that excuse to ignore her charge nurse duties. Well this his guy was on the verge of basically coding all day if it wasn't for me staying at his bedside all day long managing him. I asked for ICU orders which the doctor placed and I told my charge nurse about it. She made no effort to move him and I was too busy with him and my other patients to move him myself. Long story short he threw his bipap at me multiple times, threw his urine at me and soaked my clothes, sexually harassed me, called me a B*tch, showed off his erection multiple times at me and tried to grope me as well. I did everything to defend myself as much as I could but there was only so much I could do because he would exacerbate himself so much when he would do this that I would then have to manage him again to not code. That at was the last straw for me. I'm so depressed that I put myself out there so much to save this man from coding and he disrespected me this much. I asked for help and got nothing. My management also turns their heads and does nothing. I have been depressed and crying all weekend. I don't know what to do. some additional background: I made a medication error a while back. Was put on leave for it for 2 weeks then returned to work with a final written warning and I have to be monitored every week for the next 2 months when I pass meds. Not to go into detail but this was definitely not a just cause for the error I did (no harm occurred) so my union has placed a greivance. i have a new job now working out of bedside but I don't start until Next year. I don't know how I'll make it till then. I don't even know if I can return to work tomorrow. I have been a mess all weekend and have been crying, not eating, etc. can I please have some advice or words of encouragement? Please help me. I am so depressed.

Hello! I am looking for advice on how to prepare for an interview in the cath lab. I have 2.5 years experience working in a progressive cardiac care unit. We take cate of patients with all sorts of cardiac procedures and open heart surgeries as well as other less invasive procedure such as TAVRS. The cath lab I applied to is within the same hospitalI work in. They do perform interventions and they do accept nurses with no prior cath lab experience. I want to know if anyone can offer some insight on how to be prepared for my interview, what I should freshen up on, and what questions to ask. also, is there anything I should know before going into cath lab or any advice you can share? I know a lot of people out there immediately say things like "oh it's so hard you need extensive ICU experience" and the insight people give is usually negative. However, I know a lot of people at my work place who have gone into the cath lab without even any sort of cardiac experience and have thrived well. I'm pretty confident because I work in cardiac tele and have a lot of experience caring for patients with various cardiac procedures so I'm fairly well rounded in that aspect. Thank you!

Hello! I am currently working on a step down cardiac unit. Was previously working in an ICU of a trauma center. Total I have 1 year of nurse, which I know is obviously not a lot. I have learned in my one year that I do love nursing, but I do not like the hospital environment. What I hate about being an acute care bedside nurse is how rushed we always are. How you do more stupid tedious type of work instead of feeling like youre actually making a difference for a patient and spending time with them and their families. I like educating patients and really feeling like you make a difference. I also like investigating and learning about different things such as, why is this lab value this high, etc. I have always been interested in being an NP. Currently I do like my job (like not love) but I know it is not something I want to do forever. I hate chasing patients down, running to bed alarms, feeling more like a maid or a housekeeper rather than a nurse somedays. I feel like my job only feels like a job and not a career. I feel like as an NP I will find more job satisfaction but I would like to hear from NP's as well. Would NP be a good option for me?

Nope i did not know. I THOUGHT i knew but turns out I didnt. I thought I wanted to go into intensive/critical care but once I was in it for about a year I learned I HATED it. And it was a field that before and during nursing school I thought was my passion, and it was, until I actually went into the field and started working as a nurse. some things, no matter how much you research, you will just never learn if its for you or not until you try it.

Hello, I would like some advice on resigning. I am leaving for various reasons. I work in a county hospital that is severely understaffed. I work in the ICU and it is common to get 3 unstable ICU patients regularly. I feel very unsafe being here. working conditions are terrible. I never get a break due to how understaffed we are. I go the whole 12 hour shift with no break, and its not just me but all my coworkers and charge. Even charge nurse gets 2-3 patients regularly. We have no nursing assistants to help us, no phlebotomy, no ward clerks or secretary, all paper charting. on top of this we are very underpaid compared to hospitals around us. I get paid at least $10.00-$15.00 dollars less than other nursing friends I have who work in the same town with the same experience. I do love my management and coworkers but I feel like I need to leave. My health is seriously being affected working here. I am forced to work more than three 12's a week working night shift. being that I have no breaks and we are overworked and I get no sleep and work a lot of over time My health is going down the drain. I am turning in my resignation letter tomorrow. Do I need to specify in my letter or my verbal resignation to my manager why I am leaving? I dont want to talk about it. I want to leave on good terms but I dont want to tell them all my personal reasons for leaving, its confidential right? thanks!

I decided to start applying to various places and in the meantime continue working until I got a better job somewhere else. At least that way I can continue to work on my experience meanwhile I look for something else. I plan to definitely leave after 1 year.

Thanks for understanding! The acuity at my hospital it pretty high. It's not level 1 trauma but most of my patients are intubated, sedated, or restrained. However that is not ALWAYS the case. Some pts are in ICU for other reasons that don't require them go be intubated or sedated. A lot of our doctors donut like sedating our patients (lol) so I still deal w a lot of hitting. The violence comes from mainly the population of people my hospital serves. I do also mind having 3 ICU patients. Although they don't move or talk they areusuallu the sickest and the ones you need to keep an eye on or those whose health is crashing. I do not feel safe working with 3 intubated patients that are unstable. Just one ICU patient keeps you on your feet all day. I don't want to deal w 2 others! The night we all had 3 patients my third admit I admitted coded. I needed so much help so I had a lot of the nurses helping me one nurse was forced to take care of FOR ICU patients during that code all which were not stable.

Hello, I am a new nurse graduated in December 2015. I have been working 6 months in an ICU at a county, trauma level 3 Hospital. I have been working in this same ICU for 1 year previously as a nursing assistant and got hired as an RN after obtaining my license. I want to leave already. I am fed up with working here This is why: We are extremely understaffed. Our acuity is extremely high and being were a trauma center we also get crazy trauma patients. Well, it is not rare that we get THREE ICU patients a night. Just the other night we had a full census and there was only 5 nurses. Every nurse had 3 ICU patients including the charge. I got no break the entire shift, only a quick 15 minute break. It is not rare for this to happen. Also since we are county we get nothing but homeless patients, drug addicts, alcoholics, and MANY inmates from around the area. I am not discriminating against these populations of people, but they tend to have no respect for people. I have been hit, punched, spit at, etc. almost daily at work with the population of patients I work with. Also, I am considerably underpaid here. I get paid like $15.00 to $20.00 less than other nurses around the area. I am not complaining of the pay but when you add up our working conditions it is not fair. We don't have aids, phlebotomists, sometimes we dont have clerks. We also dont have any form of computer system. Everything is still paper charting which just adds more work to me. Usually i dont get breaks. and I always get more patients than we should be safely getting in the ICU. Well, im tired of this and I want to leave. My question is, am I ready to leave somewhere else with only 6 months experience? I dont mind where I work. I have been thinking ER, a step down unit, or tele. I dont think I want to do ICU anymore. I really love critical care like responding to crashing patients, codes, and rapid responses which is why i want to go for ER. Any advice is welcome please. Working here is affecting my mental health a lot. I have been very depressed lately and very anxious. I cry a lot at home and at work. I also work more than 3 days a week. I work 4 due to the understaffing and I am still called EVERYDAY to come in. the only thing that has kept me lifted up is how much support i am getting from my family and friends/boyfriend. They are always checking up on me and taking me out to make me feel better. without their support I would not be here. This is not what I wanted from nursing. please help!

Thank you for replying. It's not so much that I don't feel comfortable in my nurse skin. I recognize that every new job rakes it's time to feel confident and I don't have a problem with not knowing how to do things and get things done or assessing situations appropriately. I think I am actually getting better at it. I don't go to work anymore scared and nervous. I go ready and I am pretty good at anticipating things I need to do. I have a good rhythm of how to do my work. What I don't like is the work itself. I thought I would enjoy taking care of patients and their families but I don't. The high stress affects me a lot even when I come home. I hate seeing people so incredibly sick. It doesn't scare me, I just don't like it. I have been able to work with patients on multiple drips who are crashing, patients who come unstable from OR or a trauma. Etc. it is not that I can't do it or don't feel comfortable in my skin, it is the work itself I just do not like. But then again how would I know? Maybe the way I feel is ALSO part of being a new nurse and I have to live through it. That is what I don't understand

Hello! I am a fairly new nurse who has been working 5 months in an ICU. I started off here as a new grad straight out of school. I do not enjoy being an ICU nurse. I thought it would be exciting but I think ICU is maybe not my niche for many reasons. I do not like critical care and floor nursing. I think for my personality it is too stressful for me. I do not like dealing with codes, MTP's, patients dying all the time, and just the high stress of it. Also, I hate seeing how awfully sick the patients are in the ICU. I think i would better enjoy a place in nursing where I am not stuck with patients for 12 hours. I dont mind working 12's and I DO enjoy helping people get better, but just not in the ICU. I would more so like to know what other options are out there for me having some ICU experience. I am willing to stick it out for a year to get my 1 year experience but I CANNOT stay any longer than that. I will be out of the door by 1 year. Thanks!

Hello! I am a new grad interested in OR nursing.. I graduated in December and as of now have 5 months experience working in a trauma center ICU. I do not enjoy my job. I thought when I first started that I woud enjoy ICU but so far I do not. I think in general I do not like floor nursing. I enjoy helping people and helping them feel better but do not like the type of stress involved with floor nursing. I've been researching OR nursing and would like to give it a try. I have a couple questions for OR nurses out there? 1.) How do you become an OR nurse? What kind of experience? How would you recommend for me to get into OR nursing with my 5 months experience in ICU? 2.) Do you enjoy OR nursing? What do you dislike? 3.) What type of personality or what type of people go into OR nursing? thanks!

Thank you so much. You described exactly how I felt in every sense. and you brought up a point I didn't see before. I think my lack of interest and dislike of working here really shows in my patient care. I'm just not enthusiastic about it and it reflects in how I treat my patients. Yes I am nice and kind to them hit I have no desire to interact with them or their families. I have to push myself so hard to put one foot in front of the other. I knew I could do so much more better on the way I take care of my patients if I had a passion for this but I don't. And that scares me. I don't want to put someone's life at risk. And I want them to have the best nurse they can have and recieve the best care possible, but that is just not going to be me. The way I feel about work is starting to affect my personal life: I feel very depressed and unhappy all the time. I get in such a bad mood when I know I have to go to work again. I used to always be a happy person and now I'm not. I feel like I can't enjoy my life. Is that a sign I should leave then and not stick it out? I tell myself maybe I can stick it out for a year but then it's going to affect my social and emotional life instead. and how do I even figure out where I should go if I choose to leave? You are lucky you found ER was good for you once you repositioned units. Thank you

Thank you to everyone for replying. I will stick it out a little longer and see maybe if with more time of working here and getting better at my job MAYBE I'll grow to like it. I was thinking maybe just staying for the experience and going to OR nursing. I have thought of going to a clinic outpatient area but being that I'm a new grad I don't want to give up on acute care so soon. I feel like it would make me feel like a failure for not sticking it out longer and getting my acute care experience. Plus I want to stay in acute care a little longer and see where I feel I can find a niche or a place I want to go. I had my eyes set on becoming an ICU nurse and going on to CRNA or NP school but not I feel like my world was turned around and I don't want to do that anymore. I feel like I have to start from scratch again and find a new goal. Thanks!