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..... :)

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

at the end of the day it doesn't matter to anyone else how many gi bleeds, pe's, dvts, fluid overload you caught or suicidal/psychotic pts you kept safe. what matters is how fast you got the chairs for the visitors. that's what you will get e-mails about. i UNDERSTAND that the public is too ignorant or doesn't understand that we aren't just hospital waitresses, but when your own managment doesn't understand that you didn't run into a room with a chair because you were trying to save someone's life, then it is a issue. and that is the big lack of respect. not the lack of respect from the drug seeker who whines that the q1min dilaudid(exageration) wasn't given on time, but that your own nursing manager doesn't understand that you weren't exactly sitting around reading magazines instead of getting him his prn meds.......

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

i UNDERSTAND that the public is too ignorant or doesn't understand that we aren't just hospital waitresses...

Oh wait. You mean we aren't waitresses?? Well damn. I just had 500 cards printed out with my name, the hospital logo and my title as "Sterile Waitress".

You mean to tell me that I have to throw all 500 cards away now? Dang.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

I actually had a lovely little old man thank all of us for "waiting on me so nice."

[Her Own Catalyst RN]

I forgot to add: I don't encourage young people especially to go into nursing as a first degree, because it can be very traumatic for them seeing trauma for the first time, dealing with psychotic patients. child abuse or death and dying, to name only a few events. It is very hard when ur young to deal with these life-changing events, and the fall out with families and children etc. You need a certain maturity and knowing your place in the world to cope with these types of events - not everyone can do it and many young people drop out of nursing in either the first semester of nursing, or in the first year. We had 20+ drop out in our first year (not all at once) - 7 dropped out after they failed their 3rd year drug calculations, as they couldn't face it all again. Most were young but not all. It is not a nice profession to go into when you don't have maturity and the experience to cope with it.

Why do you think so many people whining & seeking help on here are usually young & they can't cope with nursing.

Nurisng as I said is like a vampire that sucks out your soul instead of your blood.

Thank God for nurses!!!

Now that you mention it, I think that's what happened to me. I was in nursing school at 19, graduated at 21 and working right before my 22nd birthday. OP, I sympathize with you as I feel exactly how you feel after only 3 years of bedside nursing. I'm burnt out - emotionally, physically and psychologically. I got offered a job position in IT, as a "clinical analyst." I jumped on the opportunity, now.. 4 months later, I'm sad and torn once again. I have 0 job satisfication and am having difficulties getting used to the 8-4 M-F schedule. I also feel incomplete without the patient contact. (I'm also 8.5 months pregnant - and this could be taking a huge toll on my emotions). The thought of going back to bedside scares me as well -- ah. I'm losing all hope in nursing. If only we could all just take care of 3-5 patients at a time I think things would be much more manageable..

I hope things get better for you! I too, don't suggest nursing to anyone..

[Poi Dog]

at the end of the day it doesn't matter to anyone else how many gi bleeds, pe's, dvts, fluid overload you caught or suicidal/psychotic pts you kept safe. what matters is how fast you got the chairs for the visitors. that's what you will get e-mails about.

Best post ever for its straight-to-the-heart-of-what-matters

[SoundofMusic]

I just got home from a very wicked shift. I was supported as much as possible by the staff today, but I've still got a pounding headache, my eyes feel like they're going to pop out of my head, my feet and knees and hips are aching, I'm dehydrated, dry, exhausted, and I STINK to high heaven! Tomorrow I will wake up feeling like I have lead in my bones ...I just can't take the exhaustion anymore.

What gets me about the WHOLE thing is the COST of all of this, and how futile so much of it is. We are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in care and man/womanpower on these old folks who aren't going to live another year .. .meanwhile, the families just run us ragged so their lived one will live another 24 hours, and today, I had SO many who were SO mad they had to be kept "so long" at the hospital and continuously made rude and obnoxious comments to ME -- the NURSE -- about it!! (heck, dude, I didn't keep you here ...why are you crabbing to ME?) All were for GOOD reason. Americans in general have so little appreciation for the care they get -- aND I think a lot of it is that they just cannot "see" the costs.

I had a former career and while I was paid half of what I'm paid now, I received 3 times the respect and admiration of my colleagues, and actually never watched the clock a minute. I enjoyed what I did ...I regret letting go of it and pining for "better money." Money isn't worth it when you're utterly miserable and degraded in your job.

Of course, administrators and lawyers have ruined it for us all.

[tishluvnc]

You know I've flirted with the idea of going back to school to become a nurse. I am still contemplating LPN because I've been in school for the last past 4 years thinking I wanted to become a medical and public health social worker. Well being a home health aide (cna), I so many times hated to go to work on hollidays, nights, and weekends. However, I did anyway because it got me through my BA degee program.

But now I'm wondering if I want to continue doing this. You have to deal with BS in any field your dealing with humans expecally people who are ill. But then your expected to not become sick or need time off. Where I work there are no benefits and no time off. I'm also very responsible and never call in, but it seems like everyone else who are attached to my case do and I get called in to fill in.

I'm caught because I do dream of a 9to5 job that does not require me to work on weekends and hollidays. However, I also love health and I can't think of another career in health care that study health. But, it does not require so much of your time and energy, my back is hurting now. I just figured I will take off this summer to actually shadow to decide if I want to go into medical social work or nursing.

I'm jealous of the nurse in public health because thats the type of nurse I would want to become.I love healping people that can't help themself, learning about anatomy, and learning about diseases. However, it seems like the only way anyone can get a 9to5 in nursing would be to be in a clinic, school, office or health department they pay less I hear and are hard to get into, but if you do I hear quality of life gets better.

We all have problems, I agree with the person that say try to find another area and don't give up. One day I would love to get to your status! Take care.