I am a Canadian male who is going to be a US citizen soon. I am planning on going to school to become an RN either specializing in Psych or Oncology. I am interested after reading all the threads/posts on burn out as to what reasons lead to this (physical/mental/emotional reasons) and what your previous work/life experience was before becoming a nurse.
Myself I have done everything from working in a bank to deep sea fishing,managing companies and owning a few myself. The last one being a construction company that I would work doing 12-14 hours of heavy manual labour and then take home the job to do paperwork/office work at the end of the day. I was until recently doing this 6-7 days a week since going into construction 11 years ago.
I am feeling burned out now, not from the amount of work but the plain stress of finding work to keep myself and my crews running during the recession. I want/need a job that will keep me hopping and am tired of having the responsibility to have to feed other peoples families in this cutthroat market.
So please tell me your own experience with life and work and how nursing has made a positive or negative impact on your life in relation to your previous experiences. I am all ears.
One of the things that really bother me is that you can do 100 good things, and the thing that sticks in everyone's head is the one mistake you made. I suppose that's true in life too, but I am really sick of getting my a** chewed for a mistake, but have done the same thing properly many time either before or since and not a single thank you or "attaboy".
OK, CanadianW...if you can hang with deep sea fishing for days on end with no sleep, nursing will be no problem for you! When I come home frustrated and complaining, all I have to do is watch Deadliest Catch for an hour and I quit my whining.
Yea I fished in the same area. Definitely an experience that reverberates through my life. I also did high mountain logging,shake blocking and ran dynamite and other explosives where I was almost killed multiple times. I'm older now though lol and the adrenaline factor has worn off a bit.
I see that you made a statement about not taking any crap from anyone...and while I think this is a good rule of thumb in life, in the nursing world, you kinda do have to take crap. Literally.
hahaha yea I didn't mean literally. I have a newborn and feel definitely desensitized to being covered in some pretty heinous stuff lol. Pretty sure Pre op nurses don't have this problem though.
If you have a doc giving you crap about not having sterile instruments available for his first case, you can't very well give him crap back-you have to rectify the situation even though YOU are not at fault. This is the biggest hurdle that nurses face, in my opinion. We get flogged for things that are out of our control, yet have to fix it. For example, I am charge nurse in a busy OR. We are required to open 40 rooms each day. If I have staff that call out sick, I cannot possibly staff 40 rooms. As a charge nurse, I don't have the authority to just call a temp agency to get nurses to staff the rooms. My boss (the Medical Director) does not take "no" for an answer. So that means that I have to stagger rooms in order to open them...which means that I have surgeons who are screaming because they can't start their cases on time...and I have the medical director yelling at me because the surgeons are yelling at me. WHAT do I do?!?!? It is frustrating to fix problems when you are given no autonomy to do so, work with a broken system, and do so with professionalism.
Yea I feel ya but I don't think it is any better in any other job as an employee. Gotta shut off a part of your brain sometimes.
I bet you would love nursing. It is fast paced if you choose the right specialty for you. What are you interested in? When do you want to start school? Have you applied?
I am interested in Psych,Oncology and pre op. I am planning on starting next year or the year after depending on when I can finish off my pre reqs and get accepted.
One of the things that really bother me is that you can do 100 good things, and the thing that sticks in everyone's head is the one mistake you made. I suppose that's true in life too, but I am really sick of getting my a** chewed for a mistake, but have done the same thing properly many time either before or since and not a single thank you or "attaboy".
Well it would be nice if an employer did that consistently...I have yet to run into that in any area I worked except as a sous chef which started out the way you mentioned it anyway. When you do make a mistake apologize quickly, make no excuses and if they go over board on the reprimand set them straight. I know a doc that told off a head nurse in our local hospital for yelling at a subordinate, simply because she herself was unable to say "hey I don't deserve to be talked to in this manner". If you can learn to let most things slide off your back you can take anything within reason IMO. Realize that your worth a lot more that what people give you credit and be happy in the strength of your resolve to not give up.
One of the things that helped me this time around was to stop being so much of a perfectionist, and not care nearly as much about what everyone thinks. Yes, I care about doing a good job, my coworkers, and my patients. However, there are healthy limits.
One of the things that helped me this time around was to stop being so much of a perfectionist, and not care nearly as much about what everyone thinks. Yes, I care about doing a good job, my coworkers, and my patients. However, there are healthy limits.
There are days where having been in management is what makes it so hard. I feel like I can voice my opinion and my point of view, but I lack the power to make any real changes. I don't feel like there's retribution for pointing out things that need to be improved/ changed/ corrected, but my input is brushed off as that of someone that doesn't know what they're talking about or hasn't "put in enough time" to be listened to, despite the fact that our previous careers sometimes give us a different point of view that enables us to see things in a new light. I was in the military for 8 yrs before getting out to go back to school, and having been an officer for that many years, got me to a point where I was able to get stuff done and was a voice that may not have always been agreed with but at least was heard.
Also, though I do feel that there is some teamwork where I am now, the camaraderie just isn't the same as it was in the Marine Corps. It's a reality I need to adjust to, though, I suppose.
Heidi the nurse, BSN, RN
248 Posts
One of the things that really bother me is that you can do 100 good things, and the thing that sticks in everyone's head is the one mistake you made. I suppose that's true in life too, but I am really sick of getting my a** chewed for a mistake, but have done the same thing properly many time either before or since and not a single thank you or "attaboy".