1. Paper work --- For God's sake people!!! I know that we have to cover ourselves, but really. When there is a new piece of f-ing paperwork coming out every week I can't even keep up! Some one needs to stream line the beast and finally get a freaking computer system that works.
2. Education --- I entered the nursing profession well aware that I would need to continue my education. But hospitals (or at least my hospital) seem to have so many types of education that you "must have" but very little of it co-insides with each other. Example? CEUs and CEs are two different things at my hospital and CEs do not cout as CEUs but they take just as much time. Hence I really end up with like 24 education credits instead of 12. Furthermore there is no directory or written instructions as to where I need to go to get this education, nor is there someone to help me figure out when it is due. I find this frustrating because I can barley keep up with my patients in a 12hr shift. I don't find that I really have time to go around asking my managers if there is some sort of education thingie that I need to do! I also hate that these classes are on line and I end up doing them at home on my own time instead of getting paid for it. Furthermore I find that most people cheat to get their education completed in the given time line making the whole idea of continuing education a joke.
3. Snotty nurses who like to tell me how much they can complete and how they can give complete care of their patients while I'm over here drowning. I am glad that there are people out there that are so organized and wonderful that they can do this very demanding job, find pleasure in it, and still dot all their i's and cross all their t's. Please realize that I don't think most nurses can be that way and get the hell off your high horse.
4. Older nurses that get easily frustrated with me becasue I'm asking questions and just get up and do the task I was asking them about instead of teaching me how to do it OR older nurses who get frustrated/***** with me because I'm drowning in my patient load to the point that I'm unsafe and I'm asking for help.
5. Needy family members and patients who won't give me two freakin' seconds to try to get them what they were asking for before they come find me again OR they have real issues understanding that I am taking care of someone sicker than they are at the moment and will deal with their petty issue when I know my other patient isn't going to crash on me. (Please note that I really do empathize that it sucks to be in the hospital and with as much as patients have to pay...or we pay in taxes for the pateint to be there....they should have all of their wants dealt with within a reasonable time. Like 2 mins or less. However that is not the case.)
6. Other nurses telling me I should ask for help when I need it. I find this frustrating because they usually say it when I'm to my eyeballs with orders and issues and I've been trying to get help all day. I mean really if I'm acting like I'm freaking out and really stressed and comming up to you and telling you how much crap I have to do, why wouldn't you think that I need help?! Furthermore, it is easy to say "just ask for help", but really when you need help there is no one around to come to your aid so really it's a waste of breath for you to say "just ask for help."
Okay I think that is all I have to complain about tonight. I get to go back to work tomorrow and torture myself again. Oh, joy.
I'll begin by saying that I am not a nurse and can't completely empathize. I would like to address two themes, though.
One - I find it very dissapointing that the general consensus seems to be against pt families. My mother (a nurse) struggled with cancer for 2 years and during that time we spent A LOT of time in the hospital. There were some absolute angels that offered care and some nurses that seemed frustrated that I was there. As the person who did her home care, when I got the the hospital, I did have some valuable insight into what works for her and what didn't. Most of the time, it was well received and we built a lot of great relationships. But, I always found it frustrating when the nurses didn't see me as part of the "treatment team." When it is my turn to be the nurse, I hope that I can remember being on the other side of it and not see the families as a nuisance. Granted that doesn't mean I will let them walk all over me and cater to their every need and some people are just jerks - with that being said, start off on the right foot and try to incorporate them when I can.
Second - No career is without it's struggles. I could write a long list of "what I hate about the health insurance brokerage business" too. Try to focus on the part that makes you glad you are a nurse. If that doesn't work, maybe you should reconsider your career. I have done that with mine. There is no shame in that.
Actually there is very little I hate about nursing. I find it wonderful. The people I meet are wonderful. The patients are varied and interesting. I love working, I always have.
There are a lot of things about working at the bedside that I find incredibly frustrating. I'm glad I have people I can vent to who won't lecture me about my "negativity" or tell me I should rethink my career.
Believe it or not, just because I get frustrated and need to vent does not in any way, shape, or form mean I'm just complaining and not trying to make things better. In fact, I recently turned in a proposal addressing my biggest frustrations to my NM, and I recently made the decision to further my education, and I am researching other areas of nursing.
So please, if you see me venting about the frustrations I encounter at work, do not make assumptions about my attitude or my career choice.
I'll begin by saying that I am not a nurse and can't completely empathize. I would like to address two themes, though.
One - I find it very dissapointing that the general consensus seems to be against pt families. My mother (a nurse) struggled with cancer for 2 years and during that time we spent A LOT of time in the hospital. There were some absolute angels that offered care and some nurses that seemed frustrated that I was there. As the person who did her home care, when I got the the hospital, I did have some valuable insight into what works for her and what didn't. Most of the time, it was well received and we built a lot of great relationships. But, I always found it frustrating when the nurses didn't see me as part of the "treatment team." When it is my turn to be the nurse, I hope that I can remember being on the other side of it and not see the families as a nuisance. Granted that doesn't mean I will let them walk all over me and cater to their every need and some people are just jerks - with that being said, start off on the right foot and try to incorporate them when I can.
Second - No career is without it's struggles. I could write a long list of "what I hate about the health insurance brokerage business" too. Try to focus on the part that makes you glad you are a nurse. If that doesn't work, maybe you should reconsider your career. I have done that with mine. There is no shame in that.
Thank you for this post.
I appreciate the family perspective. It helps and I don't see their advice as a nuisance. Of course, there are the exceptions to this nice rule.
And I also agree that no job is perfect. I came into nursing at 40.
I find it very dissapointing that the general consensus seems to be against pt families.
No, the consensus is NOT against pt. families. It is against rude, obnoxious, demanding families who get in the way and interfere with patient care, who make the nurse's shift a living hell. If you are not that kind of family member, then that particular consensus does not apply to you.
Thank you for your feedback. It is never fair to apply generalizations to an individual or make generalizations about a population based on an individual - and so to prevent doing that, I would like to say that meant nothing negative to anyone in particular. It just stung a bit to hear complaints about families after being treated rudely myself. I wanted to offer an alternate viewpoint - not to criticize anyone.
Again, most of the nurses that I have met are wonderful creatures. I grew up around nurses (behind my mother's skirt so to speak) and know that their personalities are as unique as people in general and represent all of the admirable and not so admirable qualities of the same.
I apologize if my post was taken as personal criticism, it was certainly not meant that way.
Thank you for your feedback. It is never fair to apply generalizations to an individual or make generalizations about a population based on an individual - and so to prevent doing that, I would like to say that meant nothing negative to anyone in particular. It just stung a bit to hear complaints about families after being treated rudely myself. I wanted to offer an alternate viewpoint - not to criticize anyone.
Again, most of the nurses that I have met are wonderful creatures. I grew up around nurses (behind my mother's skirt so to speak) and know that their personalities are as unique as people in general and represent all of the admirable and not so admirable qualities of the same.
I apologize if my post was taken as personal criticism, it was certainly not meant that way.
Sometimes when your having a busy shift (pretty much every shift) and there are too many family members present, even if your not obnoxious to the nurse your still creating problems for the nurse. I have found that family members make it hard for the nurse to take vital signs, get meds out of the bedside cabinet (this is where they are kept at my hospital) and it is quite annoying that they don't move to get out of the nurses way. It makes our job more awkward and after a while you get to resent all family members
Also even the nicest family member can be disruptive to other patients. We have 6 bed bays at my hospital and you get families that come in huge groups and keep other patients awake, talk too loudly and yes get in the way. I guess thats my biggest annoyance is family getting in the way.
Another thing family members tend to do is answer a question that is asked of the PATIENT. I used to ask the patient 'what procedure are you going to have today' when they were still with their family. I no longer do this because I'm tired of the relative answering. I know people do it to be helpful but please don't. You are really taking away the patients autonomy by doing this and we need feedback from them not you.
Anyway that's my honest opinion. If you want to make our lives easier, please give us access to the patient and move out of the way, be respectful to other patients and keep the volume down, don't ask silly questions when we are clearly busy.
Oh and as for nurses should look after the patients families I completely disagree with this whole concept. We have enough work to do without having to look after 6 patients and their endless relatives. It may sound great at nursing school that nurses should also care for family members, but how on earth can a nurse with a full patient load, post operative patients etc even begin to help sort out the patients family? I'm not saying that we should just ignore the relatives, but IMHO this is where counselling services and other liason services should step in.
Re: families. Posters who want to chastise us for negative reactions to families, consider this: possibly the only profession that gets more fallout from dysfunctional families is the family therapist. At the bedside, all the dysfunctional, emotionally abusive and unhealthy dynamics of a particular family are dumped on the nurse ... after all, we're there and a safe target.
I, too, try to enlist families as partners ... I also have much insight into the stresses they are under. But when they make our job hard or impossible, treat us like underlings or generally obstruct, then there are going to be hard feelings. Pretending otherwise is both dishonest and unhealthy.
As for what I hate about nursing, it's the revolving door management. It seems to be worse in for-profit facilities, but it's all around. As soon as you learn how to work with (or neutralize) a particular manager, she/he has gone on to other things and you're starting over again with a new one. When those managers are non-nurses, it's even worse.
Seems like we're always re-inventing the wheel!
Bedside staff turnover is almost as wearisome, but I gotta admit, the only way to "fire" a bad boss or facility is to walk.
Just thought of another one: it's the lack of accountability from management. They just don't seem to take much responsibility for their own competence ... and certainly don't hold themselves accountable to their staff for their performance (or lack of same).
I agree that needing to vent does not mean needing to rethink your career choice. You can love nursing and have REALLY bad days. Especially in the healthcare environment of today~increasing patient loads, continuous budget cutbacks...etc etc etc. Getting it off your chest is a much better alternative than bringing all that frustration back to work with you! I know I come off a bad day and crab my head off, it doesn't mean that I shouldn't be, or don't want to be, doing what I'm doing with my life.
My biggest peeve lately is probably the patient accountability. They don't have to be remotely responsible for their own care any more. If they don't know what meds they take, it falls on ME if I can't find out. I have to fax their discharge med list to their follow up physician...they are not capable of bringing it themselves? I have to track down numerous records to find out if/when they've had flu and pneumonia vaccines? Patients should KNOW these things, for heaven's sake...but since they don't, now it's MY job. Rather than try to change the culture (which I know wouldn't be successful anyway), let's just do it all FOR them, giving them even more reason not to.
There are a lot of things about working at the bedside that I find incredibly frustrating. I'm glad I have people I can vent to who won't lecture me about my "negativity" or tell me I should rethink my career.
Believe it or not, just because I get frustrated and need to vent does not in any way, shape, or form mean I'm just complaining and not trying to make things better. In fact, I recently turned in a proposal addressing my biggest frustrations to my NM, and I recently made the decision to further my education, and I am researching other areas of nursing.
So please, if you see me venting about the frustrations I encounter at work, do not make assumptions about my attitude or my career choice.
Virgo_RN, Thank you so much for that!!!!! I tend to need to vent a LOT but I'm still glad to be a nurse. I wanted to be a nurse because I care and the way things are now in the medical industry drive me insane!!!!
I feel like I'm doing 3 (or more) people's jobs all day...not to mention the fact that I need to do my own. I'm so grateful for the very few and inbetween days that I have coworkers that are actually helpful that I keep treats (candy, nice pens, funky clip boads) in a bag and give them to my tech, co-worker, charge nurse, manager, monitor tech, or housekeeper when one has really made a great effort to help me through a bad day. However I am frustrated that I have to bribe my tech to do a decent job or be so humbling grateful for one of my co-workers/managers/charge nurses to help me out.
There is so much of our job that is busy work (charting, five million forms for every kind of bull you can imagine, crazy DOS computer program that makes you go through 5 different menus to chart a medicine) that I don't feel like I'm able to watch my patients close enough and that I'm going to miss something and they will die. I don't want to forever relive a moment where I missed something and my patient died because of it.
I don't hate families. I just hate it when they don't give me 10 minutes to try and get their request completed before they bug me about something else. I think family members, especially close family members, should be treated like a part of the team of care and be educated about the patient's illness. I LOVE it when families come in with people interested to learn and prepared to tell me what has been going on.
In my original post I did not state that I hated continuing education. I realize that it is an important part of nursing, however, when 90% of nurses "cheat" to get their education done and over with all I can see is a requirement that is a waste of time. Why? Because most nurses are cheating to get through it, therefore not getting what they are suppose to be getting out of it in the first place! Yes, nurses have great schedules, but I believe that most people are too busy on their days of LIVING to spend the proper time to get the extra education they are suppose to. I also believe calling meetings in the middle of my 12 hr shift while I'm doing my JOB is ineffective because I'm to concerned with what I need to be doing besides listing to my nurse manager try to educate me on something. All I'm saying is that there has to be a better way. I don't know what it is yet, but if no one espresses disatisfaction of the way things are done then nothing will change. (Yes, I know not everyone will be happy. But there are places that do things better than other places and maybe with every facility working together we could come up with a system that mostly benefits everyone!)
Finally, I don't think that I'm negitive just because I realize that our medical system is shot to hell. I think anyone in their right mind should be frustrated by it and how patients and employees get treated. I understand that all jobs have elements to them that are not pleasent. I feel the medical field has more than it's share and unless someone complaines, vents, discusses the problems nothing will change. Unfortunatly which patient do you spend more time with: the one who is yelling out for the nurse or the one who is not complaining?
My parents both do not have medical insurance and are not capable of getting care unless the use the emergency room as a doctors office. Both of them have fairly big problems such as HTN and Diabetes II. I've see how they've been treated and how I have been treated and how insurance has affected my care. I see how waste full we are as a system for the sake of "safety". I am not an advocate of government health care, but something has to give or we are going to drown and no one will be taken care of. Especially those who are in the middle class or lower class.
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Annieh1315
32 Posts
I'll begin by saying that I am not a nurse and can't completely empathize. I would like to address two themes, though.
One - I find it very dissapointing that the general consensus seems to be against pt families. My mother (a nurse) struggled with cancer for 2 years and during that time we spent A LOT of time in the hospital. There were some absolute angels that offered care and some nurses that seemed frustrated that I was there. As the person who did her home care, when I got the the hospital, I did have some valuable insight into what works for her and what didn't. Most of the time, it was well received and we built a lot of great relationships. But, I always found it frustrating when the nurses didn't see me as part of the "treatment team." When it is my turn to be the nurse, I hope that I can remember being on the other side of it and not see the families as a nuisance. Granted that doesn't mean I will let them walk all over me and cater to their every need and some people are just jerks - with that being said, start off on the right foot and try to incorporate them when I can.
Second - No career is without it's struggles. I could write a long list of "what I hate about the health insurance brokerage business" too. Try to focus on the part that makes you glad you are a nurse. If that doesn't work, maybe you should reconsider your career. I have done that with mine. There is no shame in that.