Tired of it all

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I am just so tired of being a nurse. I feel like I am running on fumes trying to take care of everyone and everything, and it seems nothing ever goes right. I am done, cooked and ready to do something else. Does anyone else feel this way? What do you do to overcome it? I am 52 and blessed to be employed, but just don't know that I want to be a nurse anymore.

Unfortunately, I've been thinking the same way lately. After 36 years, and 55 years old, I've finally had enough. I've made it all the way to senior management (and yes, I DO know what it's like on the floors!) and I have to say the thing that's driving me out is the continual cutting of staffing from corporate with the expectation that my clinical outcomes will not be affected like pressure ulcers and falls. Another thing is the lack of clinical experience that new grads have. The health care system has made it so student nurses do not have the opportunities in clinical that I did 36 years ago. As a result, we're graduating hundreds of nurses who have no skills but want jobs in ICU, CCU, and the emergency room. Are you kidding?! You're right-I'm completely burned out and I need a change. I've been doing some legal consulting but nothing enough to pay the bills. It's all riding on that $450 million dollar ticket this week! :yes:

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Specializes in LTC and School Health.

Count me in. Tired of nursing already. I have very few choices being that I only have 7 months of RN experience and my LPN experience does not count as nursing experience. I have no choice but to work the floor for a while. My plan is to get 2-3 years under my belt, get settled in a specialty and earn a MSN so that I can teach or have a desk job.

I love direct patient care but can't stand the attitudes, cattiness, politics, back biting and being worked to death.

I had a family member get upset with me one time because I did hold the hand of her father when he died. Really? I'm so sorry for your loss. I told you your dad was actively dying 10 hours before he passed and advised you to come to the hospital, but you decided not to show up. Don't put your guilt on me lady. I allowed him to die with respect and dignity, sorry if that was not good enough. I have other patients who are still alive that are depending on me to keep them alive.....

My goodness.

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You are not alone. I have felt that way many times. I agree self care is important to combat burnout...time off, less hours (if you can), etc. I also have tried switching specialties. There are many areas of nursing to try, not all in acute care. But I also think sometimes I want to leave nursing entirely due to the responsibilities and stresses. I stay in the field for financial reasons, and because I hate to throw the baby out with the bathwater (having worked to get to this point in my career). Good luck to you! I hope you find some relief from your current unhappy situation.

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I'm finishing up my Bachelor's, and strongly considering heading into veterinary medicine. No kidding. I've been in "people medicine" for a long time, and frankly I don't like what I am seeing for RN's OR practitioners. Even sociologists are studying the current "de-skilling" trend...where autonomy is going out the window.

Was at my vet's today in fact with my horse, and talked at length with him. He thinks even at my age, I should be able to succeed. He's going to let me job shadow this spring. I'm on course for a DNP or Master's level PA... but I've wanted to be a vet since I was a little kid so I'd like to be open to that option. Once I finish my BSN I will have most of the pre-req's needed for vet school anyway.

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Specializes in CDI Supervisor; Formerly NICU.

It's not nursing that I despise. It's people.

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Specializes in ob.

I so hear you loud and clear. I wish I had a solution for both of us.

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Specializes in OB/GYN/Neonatal/Office/Geriatric.

Thanks for sharing everyone. I really like the lottery idea! I am pretty much embedded where I work--like I said, I am blessed to even have a job, so I won't be going anywhere else unless I do something else. Like everyone else, gotta work for a living until I win that lottery! I hope that the future brings better changes for nursing and those joining the profession. Take care everyone!

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Specializes in Ambulatory Surgery, Ophthalmology, Tele.

3 words:

Ambulatory Surgery Center ;)

I love it! I made the change a few months ago. I am doing Pre-op, post-op/recovery, and OR circulating. All the patients are there for an hour or two, most are walkie talkies, they need a pre-op clearance from their doctor prior to surgery, so they have to be healthy enough to be there for an (most times) elective surgery. I am not using all my skills I would be using at the bedside but use alot of them and the stress level has gone down to almost nothing. :up: I don't think I would go back to bedside since going to this area of nursing. We each have our areas where we want to be, hopefully those who are unhappy will find their niche. Hang in there. :hug:

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Specializes in critical care, Med-Surg.
I feel your pain. I too am 52. Nurse for 25 years. ED is my specialty. I haven't worked as a nurse in 7 months but I have an interview tomorrow afternoon for an ED position. It really makes me wanna cringe. I got canned 7 months ago over something trivial, something that should have never cost me my job. I had some money saved so I thought I will take some time , do some soul searching and see what I really wanna do with my life. Only thing is my bills don't care if I feel lost in this new, stupid tedium of never ending patients seen in the ED for NUTHIN! Seriously I've seen people come by ambulance because they had a cold, told they have to wait, go out the front door, go across the street and call 911 again to be taken somewhere else. Our tax dollars at work! Not only do we have to care for the patient now we have to feed everyone, get them coffee, say the magic words "I'm here for you" when I'm really thinking get up and get out of here, I'm sicker than you are. Saw a thing on facebook recently, shows a man in a gown with his IV pole and a nurse standing beside him and the caption reads "I see you're here again for acute hypodilaudidism" Yep I'm burned slap up even after an almost 8 month hiatus but I gotta pay bills and have health insurance.

When you're right, you're right!!!

OMG, "hypodilaudidism"!

I cannot tell you the ridiculous amts of narcotics I spend the great majority of my day pushing.TO PEOPLE WHO CLEARLY sDO NOT NEED IT. Once all the tests are run and the docs can find NOTHING wrong with them, theyare discharged. But this is after 3 or 4 days of IV pushes q 2 hr for mysterious pain, nausea, anxiety, and itching. And they frequently try to find reasons to leave the floor to...smoke!

I just returned to nursing after a 12 yr hiatus, and this is one of the most disturbing things I've seen...the increase in drug seekers, and how they are catered to, and how they DEMAND to be to catered to.

"Get up and get out of here, I'm sicker than you are". I HAD THAT SAME THOUGHT THIS WEEK, when I came to work after eating some spoiled dressing at a restaurant and vomited several times before my shift.

I had a patient who claimed to be in 10/10 pain and nauseated, eating bar b que and recieving Dilaudid, ask me if she could leave the floor to smoke! I wanted to choke her! I WAS NAUSEATED! COULDN'T EVEN EAT LUNCH!

I have seen a couple of these pts discharged with psychiatric consults.

There has to be a better way. Narcotics are given way too freely and indiscriminately, and these pts know how to work the system. While our time is taken away from pts who need and deserve it.What a waste of resources.

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It happened with the housing market, and I feel healthcare's day of reckoning is coming soon. Things can only go the way they are for so long, and I have no idea what to expect when the dust settles- till then don't let 'em get you too down.

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Hospice is not a low key nursing position, just ask any hospice case manager. It is unlike bedside nursing, but just as stressful. I went to hospice thinking it was low key, but found out pretty quickly that it is trading one type of stress for another. Nursing is difficult with any position you choose. Am I happy I chose Hospice? Yes, one of the reasons being the typical age group is that of 80 and 90 y/o's and they are not typically drug seekers or whiners.

Just my 2 cents

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Specializes in Adult/Ped Emergency and Trauma.

Two Words: Customer Service

Two Words: Nursing Service

It's when they chose the first two words, over the second. They went for patient happiness over patient outcomes.

What do we give them at discharge? Teaching, beg them to do accu-cheks, follow that fluid restriction, and don't stop at Churches Chicken right after dialysis,...

like last time!:)

The hospital gives them a "Satisfaction" Questionnaire. It's so hard to make you like me when I am giving you an enema, or taking that cheeseburger from you that your wife snuck in(because you guilt tripped her), or I wouldn't let you go smoke because your oxygen is 90% at rest, and you pulled my hamstring on the way back from the BSC- trust me, cut back!

...oh, and will you fill this form out on my performance and your overall thoughts on the Holiday inn,...... I mean the hospital!! Your concierge,... I mean your patient advocate will pick it up:)

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