What to do about burn out?

Specialties General Specialties

Updated:   Published

My give a damn is broken....and it has been broken for a few years now. I have taken a less stressful job part time in Home Health...it has helped with this some. Unfortunately my husband is ill and has been out of work for a year now. So I have to have insurance and fortunately I am able to work part time and have insurance at my current job. Really, when I can be objective, this home health job is the absolute best job in nursing I have ever had. Comparing it with other positions, I am able to have more of a life.

But something in me is just broke. I am not motivated to work hard, to do extra. I am always afraid I am one mistake away from loosing my license. Really this constant low level anxiety about making a big mistake has been constant since I became a nurse. I haven't made a big mistake, just tons of little ones....no more than most nurses, but that fear and anxiety hasn't improved even though I am a very competent nurse with lots of experience now (10years). I am sooooooooo exhausted from worry. I worry about phone calls from my manager even just for little critiques. I worry that I may have advised a patient wrong. I worry that I may have hurt one of my patients by missing something. I worry when at work and I worry on my days off.

I have always had a hard time keeping up with changes, computer program changes, new forms to to fill out changes, added responsibilities changes. And I am tired of trying to stay on top of it.

I was thinking about applying for a phlebotomy position at my facility. But I worry that taking any break from nursing will cause me to be unemployable or having to explain that I just had a period of burn out. I also fear not having enough money, but I would rather live in a tent under a bridge than keep trying to just plow through.

I also really hate most of the advice out there for burn out. It's all like, "rest, take care of yourself, eat right, exercise, yadda, yadda, yadda". I am barely motivated to get out of bed on the days I work. Then I spent all my time off distracted about how few hours I have left before I have to go back to work.

Specializes in Case Manager/Administrator.

There is a term out there called compassion fatigue, this is a real secondary stress related issue that plagues mostly medical professional, it is associated with the interactions we have with patients on a daily basis. Burn out is related to everything else that goes on in our environment i.e like having to walk down 3 flights of stairs to get to the cafeteria for a lunch break of only 30 mins if you are lucky, or not having lunch on a daily basis because you are always short staffed or dealing with dying patients or those who are difficult and malingering.

It is recommended that people in these situations get professional guidance. While working in the prison system I developed compassion fatigue, I truly had difficulty in having a thought at times for my patient, I would just follow the policy and had to force myself to ask the patient how they felt, if there was anything I could assist them with their healthcare. I never placed my patients in jeopardy but I did have difficulty dealing with the cries for help disguised as medical when clearly they needed mental health interventions.

Improving your situation using multiple methods and really acknowledging where I am and what am I doing really helped. I also learned to take care of myself better and developed new boundaries not only for me but my interaction with others.

2 Votes
Specializes in icu,prime care,mri,ct, cardiology, pacu,.

Burnout is real. Talk to your primary care or see a counselor. It's a present to yourself. You may need meds for anxiety/depression. Take care of YOU.

1 Votes
Specializes in nurseline,med surg, PD.

I understand. I have been a nurse for 47 years and believe me I understand your stress. My saving grace at this time is private duty. I only have one patient to deal with, and I specialize in infants, so I can learn every single detail about my one patient, plus I get to rock soft warm babies. Plus, good ole anti depressants. The job perk I love most is that I work when I want, where I want, and if I want to take a month off, I can. Although PD does not have benefits. Fortuneantly I have Medicare, so I don't need to worry about insurance.

2 Votes
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