Starting to feel the burnout

Updated:   Published

So it's been almost a year and a half since I started working as an RN on a medsurg floor. After taking care of countless patients I've started to notice a couple of things. I work in a **** floor and pain medications don't work. Every time I do a pain reassessment there's never any improvement. Most of my patients have a history of chronic pain so 6 mg of morphine is the equivalent of taking one sip of water to them. The call lights are also going off every 5 minutes because the patients are requesting saltine crackers and soda even though they are diabetic. When I enter the room I give fulfill their request and tell them if they need anything else while I'm here they should let me know because I will be helping another patient. They say they don't need anything else. You can guess what happens 5 minutes later. On top of that they keep getting out of bed after being educated on how to use the call light. A fall happens. Now I have to report it and spend an extra 15-20 minutes charting. Last week I had a whole team of GCS 14's so the bed alarm and call light pretty much went on for 12 hours. Then the manager has the nerve to ask me why am I always clocking out late. I almost forgot, a patient threw a tele monitor at me lmaooo, but I dodged it.

So whoever is reading this I have a question, do you wake up every morning and tell yourself, "Yes this is what I want to do with my life. This is exactly what I signed up for. This is my passion and I wouldn't have it any other way."

Specializes in Travel, Home Health, Med-Surg.

Sorry you are having such a hard time. MedSurg/tele is a very difficult floor to work. The last hospital job I had sounded just like yours and it was horrible, people constantly screaming at you, throwing things, literally chasing you down the hall for pain meds etc., believe me I know exactly what you mean and it sucks! The good thing for you is that now you have some experience and can look for a new position (although you may need to wait until this pandemic has settled down, depending on your location). I would start looking around and see what interests you. You may or may not ever find your passion but IMO you have invested too much to not keep going forward and give it a try. I wish you well and hope you find your niche!!

Specializes in Med Surg, Tele, PH, CM.

I strongly believe that all new grads need to work at least a year of med/surg after leaving school. That having been said, there are many challenging, rewarding nursing jobs out there that do not involve bedside nursing. I worked med/surg for 11 years while my husband was active duty military. Easiest place to "start over" every three or four years. When he retired, I left the hospital and never looked back. Public Health, Administration, and finally Case Management, I loved it all. Get out of the hospital before you totally burn out.

Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry.

I've been burned out for some time now and all that sounds like some of the floors I work to and management encourages *** patient and family behavior too. Anything for those positive hcahp scores!

Finally interviewing for some non med-surg positions next week and hope to leave soon. At times I just feel like a glorified servant at a restaurant.

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