The most difficult thing to do.

[ohbet]

Nursing has its rewards ,its challenges and is a diverse profession in the different settings nurses find themselves.

What makes it difficult? What are the hardest tasks ,the most challenging areas and those things that are hard for you?

I guess for me its floating,having a number of admits during the day and prioritizing

Do you all have the job wired or are there things that are difficult for you also?

[deespoohbear]

I think the hardest thing for me is to have to call a family in when their loved one has taken a turn for the worse. I dread those calls. Even when the family knows that there is no hope it still hard. And telling them that their loved one is gone. We have a lot of DNR's that pass away on our unit, so usually 2 nurses pronouce death in that case. Very emotional for me to look at a family and tell them. The worse case I ever had was a 40 something old that had drunk themselves into oblivion and was dying from cirrhosis. I was one of the nurses who pronouced the pt deceased. The pt had a 7 or 8 year old child. Heartbreaking and such a waste.

[LasVegasRN]

When I was working directly for an insurance company that provided group health coverage, the hardest thing to do was to go in and tell a patient that their insurance didn't cover something, or that their benefits ran out. Nothing illustrates this better than the movie "John Q". I left that job because it made you feel like a cold heartless witch at the end of the day, and it was NOT what I went into nursing for.