That is IT; have had it with nursing...I'm going insane!

[carolmaccas66]

OK, now it's MY TURN to rant uncontrollably!

Had to go to a shift today. The agency that I work for has a policy that they can't say anything to you (it's in our contract we sign) or fine you, if you can't go to a shift. Anyway, I had been cleaning & packing to move in a few days. Must have done too much (didn't think I did?) because later on, my right shoulder muscle started really throbbing & was really tight; uncomfortable & annoying & painful. So I do the right thing by me & by safety standards for any patients I may have come in contact with - I ring & say I don't think I will be safe enough to go to my shift. No problems, I apologise, then hang up. 2 seconds (literally) the phone rings, and one of the coordinators is saying I have to get a medical clearance; she was not friendly. I say yeh, OK, if I can get into a doctors, which I did manage to do. I didn't think much of it earlier.

But now later, I have been sitting here & stewing. I have NEVER called off (or called in sick) for a shift near the beginning of a shift, unless I AM SICK or have a very, very good reason. The only other time I called in sick was when I had sudden, severe gastro symptoms (which has never happened to me before).

What do these employers WANT from us!?? They literally SUCK US DRY of our humanity! They will tell you any old BS to get you into their company. I worked my BUTT OFF to get through study & exhausted myself - literally - I was ++ sick for about 4 weeks. I worked AND studied, which nobody out there wants to do anymore, especially young people, judging from the posts we get here. I moved to another state where I didn't know anyone & got the experience I needed. I didn't have to come back here, but family reasons etc compelled me to. Now I thought this agency was different from all the others, what a laugh!

I have been sitting here REALLY thinking: what do we REALLY get from nursing? I no longer have friends call me to ask me to events or BBQs etc; heck, my own brother hardly bothers calling me because he knows I'm always working. Nursing is VERY isolating & anti-social. I work long & weird hours, & travel quite a bit to get to work... STILL. I feel like I have sacrificed literally EVERYTHING for my career - friends, intimate relationships - & where has it got me? Life long study debts to get another qualification that will probably only earn me a few thousand more after HIGH taxes in my country. I STILL work shift work & am really disliking it now (it never bothered me much before, as it was part of getting experience). I don't tell my family nursing tales anymore, because they don't believe me so I shut up. I changed to only do afternoon shifts now, thinking that would help. It has mucked up all my sleeping - I can hardly get out of bed the next day before 10.30am because I'm so tired, I can't move. I have severe indigestion (on meds now) have had bloods done, nothing showed. I take a multivitamin every day. My eating has gone out the window; I either overeat (before I go to work as I may not get a break for a long time), or I just skip meals now - eating & cooking seems like too much bother. Study is just out and out boring me now, I don't have the mindset for it. I compare my friends to myself on Facebook - when I used to have an account. They are all happy, married, travelling overseas & HAVE A LIFE! The thought of getting up early to exercise (not that I have any spare money at the moment for the gym), just shatters me - I just can't do it now. And when I do try to exercise, I don't enjoy it now.

I've HAD IT with nursing! Is is THE most life-draining, soul-destroying, anti-social, bull**** job I have ever done in my life. We are not treated as professionals, just an accessory that has been tacked on to the doctor. You always see TV shows about great doctors & new doctors etc but never about nurses; have you noticed that? (Oh unless you count cameo stories woven around nurses on shows like ER).

We are not heroes and never will be. Nursing is a wasted career. It is a waste of time and money and energy. I so wish I could have done something in history where I could have travelled, & actually have the TIME to meet other, professional people, but am too old now. I find, personally, many nurses don't have time to meet others, don't want to associate with other nurses because it's just too depressing to listen to their whining, or don't make the effort to socialise. The number of times I have tried to start up support/coffee groups to meet other nurses, well; I can't count them now.

It's just started raining again outside now. Even the weather has gone bad again! I really feel like I'm slowly losing my sanity trying to keep this 'life' together doing nursing as a so-called career. I feel it has all been such a waste of a life. I wasted my youth being conned by people saying 'nursing is a brilliant career; you will always have work; you will always have security.' I know people who work/have worked in supermarkets who have a better and more secure career than a RN.

Please...if you're young & reading this, PLEASE DO NOT go into nursing. It is too late for me & I'm in a huge rut, but it's not too late for you. Choose a career that will let you travel, where you have normal or near normal working hours and where you make decent money to live on, if not heaps of money. Shift work is not worth your sanity, trust me.

I feel old, creaky, cynical, and used up by the BS nursing managers & lecturers who lied to us all about EVERYTHING to do with nursing.

It's now my goal to try & convince others on here to not take up nursing or to get out. And I am getting out; don't know if I'll study next year but I WILL get out into something else.

Stay tuned for more of this saga! Thanks for reading..... :)

[wooh, BSN, RN]

I had a coworker that called in sick with strep. They convinced her to come in, told her she could do charge and not have patients. Two days later, I've got a sore throat and rash. And had to call in for two days myself, plus pay for a trip to the doc for antibiotics because they made her come in sick.

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

I had to go in on my last 6 week clinical when I felt horrid; hot, flushed, sick to my stomach, sore throat, etc. I couldn't call in sick, cos I'd had 2 days off already (was waaay run down from working & studying) & they could have technically failed me (even with a doctor's certificate). Lucky I already had antibiotics to help me get thru the day.

I was working on the cardiac/renal ward at that time, yes cardiac! Even some of the CNs said go home, but I said I can't - they can fail me. I complained and even the CNs said it was a ridiculous rule.

I often wonder how many patients I infected that day (I did wear a mask with dressings, etc) & kept washing my hands all the time ++, but still.

I read a great book by a surgeon a while ago who had to work his surgical rotation with a temp of (I think) 42oC! He was told if he went home sick for even one day, he would fail his whole rotation. So he had to work.

The health industry cares for everyone except nurses & doctors, methinks.

[mama_d, BSN, RN]

Crikey, I need a stiff one after reading your post, Carol! If I have flashback nightmares to my first job tonight, the blame will lie entirely with you.

Hang in there. I hope it gets better for you (and anyone else feeling the same way). One of the sadder things about nursing (at the bedside, at least) is that even though I'm at a decent place now, there are still nights where I want to throw in the towel on the whole thing and go flip burgers for a living.

Family and hubby just can't understand why I'm trying to get a second job working retail or restaurant for less than half the pay...I'm willing to bet that approaching 99% of the peeps on here totally understand though.

Empathy and best wishes to you.

[DizzyLizzyNurse]

When I did my peds rotation I went in with a double ear infection and and bronchitis. I was on antibiotics and drugged up with dayquil and kept trying to quietly cough because I didn't want to get sent home. I didn't want to call off either because I saw a girl get ripped apart for doing that. :uhoh3:

I had to go to the police station today because I was in a car accident yesterday (on my way home from work blah). I watched a woman yell at a cop because she didn't like the way he filled out a police report. She insisted she hadn't done anything wrong when she had. She was screaming at him. He just kind of shrugged and said, "Sorry if you don't like it but that's what happened." She kept screaming, he was kind of ignoring her. Then she started screaming at him, "I'm gonna get my lawyer on you." The cop shrugged again and said, "You do that. Ok I'm going home bye." He shut the door in her face and went on his merry way. She stomped out the door. Wish I could do that at work sometimes. :yeah:

I have had some bad days, although I don't think I've worked at a really bad place. I'm even more convinced of this reading these replies.

The LTC place I used to work at had 10 days of sick time. You could use them all. You needed a dr's note if you took 3 or more days off in a row. Twice a year everyone got a check for all the sick time they hadn't used (after dividing the sick time in half). One of these checks was the month before Christmas. They did this to try to decrease the amount of sick time being use and it worked. Too bad so many places apparently like to go the negative way instead of trying to find a positive way to fix things.

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

Three years' experience does not confer the right to judge those who have been at it for ten, fifteen, or thirty years or more. And if this poster doesn't want to listen to our "whining", she would probably be much happier joining a nice, cheery website where all the nurses love their jobs, the patients and families are always appreciative, the doctors are respectful, and everything is peachy-keen all the time. I wish her the best of luck. :)

And where might we find this website, full of rainbow lollipops, unicorns and puppy kisses?

WizardofOz.com?

Nursesblowingsmoke.com?

DementedRNs.com?

AtivanistheshizRN.com?

Tralalalalahealth4U.com?

Allroses.com?

IgetknockeddownbutIgetupagain.com?

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

IgetknockeddownbutIgetupagain.com?

You all have this song in your head now, dontcha?

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

You all have this song in your head now, dontcha?

And now I have to go find my Chumbawumba CD! Goodness knows where it is - it's been moved from the Adirondacks to Texas and NOW I NEED TO FIND IT! Curses!

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

where i work we are expected to do plenty of overtime. 12-24 hours a week on top of the usual 36-40hrs. if not you than you are not a team player, don't really care about the patients. etc all that garbage management loves to preach. you can't call out sick EVER. there are so many heros and martyrs in nursing that when you don't conform to this, especially loudly, it puts a target on your back.

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

I always wonder would a note from my mother suffice?

Here's why a doctor note is stupid for a nurse:

If you don't trust me to know if *I* am sick, you shouldn't be paying me to know if other people are sick.

hahahahahahahahahahaha. exactly

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

OK, now it's MY TURN to rant uncontrollably!

Holy shiz. That was one long depressing bashing message about nurses and their profession. How long have you been a nurse?

No offense, but I hope people do not listen to all of that bc it is not true at all. I LOVE my career as a nurse and I hope more people go into nursing because it is a very good career choice. YEs there are some cons, but there are cons to everything. My sis and I are both nurses and we love our jobs....so many other people we know and are friends with are not fond of their jobs or hate their jobs...they have non-nursing jobs.

Nursing is a very respected profession.

respected by who? not where i work. maybe in the icu they are moe respected or in different parts of the country? i don't really need their respect. but the op is the reality in many places. you are expected to GIVE EVERYTHING and when some 243lb pt pulls on you, it's your fault for following poor "body mechanics"

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

I actually work at a pretty well respected place. One of those places that's supposed to be great to work at. One of those places that supposedly has great benefits. (Of course, I've yet to work in a healthcare facility that has better insurance than my husband's, and he works in trucking, which has notoriously crappy benefits, they don't even get time and half for overtime, and yes it's legal in trucking to require overtime and only pay straight time for it.)

It's not so much the particular facility anymore. It's what nursing has become, and has gotten worse over the past few years and shows no sign of turning around. We're personal servants. Nobody gives a flying rat's petoot how smart we are, how many patients we've saved from a newly minted resident or the old codger MD that needs to retire before EVERYONE sees his dementia.

Our worth is summed up in Press Gainey mentions. And you know who gets those? The sweetest nurse on the floor. Who's oh so wonderfully nice. But won't notice you've been crumping since 8am, but if you're lucky, you'll make it to 8pm when the crotchety night nurse comes in and sees you're near death. And transfers you to the ICU. Of course, a bolus and some med changes would have fixed it all at 8am. But your sweet nurse was too busy getting you an extra chair for your cousin to notice that your cap refill sucked and your color was pale and your BP was a bit lower than your norm. But she got that chair, and you'll mention how nice she was on your PG survey. While the nurse that kept you from dying? You'll probably complain that they were abrupt with you when they saved your life.

or that she didn't call you by your nickname while the gen surg resident tried to slam an ij in your neck.............................

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

OMG you guys are sooooo incredibly WHINY!!!! I love my job and can't bear to listen to you peeps whine and complain anymore!!! Please just quit your jobs you claim to HATE and let a new grad get the job. Do yourself a favor, your patients, your co-workers, and new graduate RNs a favor....everyone a favor and just quit :) Done with this thread. ENOUGH SAID! Peace out :)

b lah blah blah. i appreciate the complainers, they are who get things changed. the new grads leave in droves. believe it. isn't 1/5 doesn't even last a year?