What is the most difficult aspect about being an RN?

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Hello I will be soon going to school to study to be a RN.

I was wondering what was (in your opinion) the most difficult aspect about being an RN?

Also is there anything that you can't stand?

Any reply will be helpful , as I am trying to get a realistic look at the life of an RN.

sincerely

-scott

Specializes in Psych, EMS.

my lazy coworkers

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I think you'll find different people have different hot buttons. Mine is lazy coworkers. One thing you might do is volunteer for a few hours a week in a hospital. That will give you an up front look at what goes on and you can figure out if blood, sputum, feces, anxious patients, anxious families, etc. is difficult for you.

Dear azhiker95,

I can already tell you that lazy coworkers will bother me. I love a team environment that works hard together. The job I have now, most of us bust our butts all day, but there are a few that just drift along and make others pick up the slack. Drives me crazy.

Also thank you so much for the volunteer idea and the reply.

sincerely

-scott

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I would say for me they are:

1. Huge amount of politics with upper mgt.....meaning they want more for less and want more with less. That can include more work for less $$, or more work with less staff, however you want to see it.

Sounds like my previous job in manufacturing. They would want the job completed with half the training and staff to cut costs then complain when it's not finished on time.

2. Teamwork, that can a part of any job but in Nursing I think it is very important, which isn't what other nurses may view as important so it can make for a difficult shift too.

Yup same thing too. I'm sweating my rear off while another supervisor is taking their 8th bathroom break of the hour.

3. Constant demands without the resources to allow you to fulfill those demands.....which can also be tied in with # 1.

Dealt with this constantly. Threats of being written up for not finishing your paperwork on time yet, not being allowed to leave the line to do said paperwork. Then when you make a suggestion on how to fix it they just reject it right out because that idea 'isn't in tune with LEAN'

I guess it won't be such a shock then when I finally do become a nurse and have to deal with all this.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

dealing with family members

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Specializes in ER, Trauma.

Forgive patients and their families. The patients are ill and feeling out of control, needing to know that you'll have their backs. Families feel helpless because there's nothing they can do for the patient. They take this out on you by being demanding. All of this I can roll with. But money has become more important than comforting the sick and injured, and more important than life itself. After 30 years in emergency medicine I became disabled. Believe me, no money = no health-care. I'd be living on the streets now if my daughter hadn't taken me in. Made me a big fan of socialized medicine.

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The number one pet peeve to me is ancillary staff, professional or not. They will grab ANYBODY who looks like a nurse and try to foist thier problems off on you.

The patient does not want to: eat, have blood work drawn, go to P.T., have an x-ray. They immediately suppose that YOU should stop whatever you are doing and deal with it, instead of spending 2 minutes with the pt. to try to uncover the cause. Not to mention the runners who are too *******' lazy to go up to the assignment board to find the nurse and her phone number to talk to them, but instead has to grab every staff member in sight to say, "are you "x's' nurse?"

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Out-of-control family members are a difficult pill for me to swallow. The worst thing is the fact that they are allowed to get away with their behavior, whereas it would not be tolerated in any other setting.

These same people would not be able to act in a threatening manner on a major airline, inside a bank, or at their local restaurant without being approached by security or asked to leave the premises. However, families can engage in menacing behaviors and expect to be coddled by management at healthcare facilities.

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Specializes in neuro/ortho med surge 4.
Out-of-control family members are a difficult pill for me to swallow. The worst thing is the fact that they are allowed to get away with their behavior, whereas it would not be tolerated in any other setting.

These same people would not be able to act in a threatening manner on a major airline, inside a bank, or at their local restaurant without being approached by security or asked to leave the premises. However, families can engage in menacing behaviors and expect to be coddled by management at healthcare facilities.

Exactly my sentiments.

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Specializes in Med-Surg Nursing.
Politics.....

Demanding Patients.....

Demanding Families.....

Politics.....

THIS!

And lazy co-workers

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

While I do agree with some of the other responses, it can also sometimes be hard trying to deal with the loss of a pt. If you end up working somewhere where a part of your pt population is those chronically ill, you make take care of someone for months or even years before they pass on. I suffered such a loss as a fairly new grad (took care of the pt for the first year of my nursing career), and it was an experience that will stay with me forever, but something I hope not to experience often.

Ohh, and employers that think they don't need to staff nurse's aides or secretaries. It can be a juggling match trying to do the work of multiple people.

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Specializes in neuro/ortho med surge 4.

Trying to be in 4 different places at the same time. Having an admit, 2100 and 2200 medications to dispense, Calling Mds, and all the while having confused patients trying to get out of bed. In general for me, it is the multiple demands on you all at the same time.

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Having to be in 2 or three different places at the same time.

Last shift I worked I had an assignment of 7 patients. I was cleaning up a woment you had had a stoke and was paralized on one side. The techs were busy so I was doing it alone. The women was rather large so it took me a good twenty minutes. When I came out of her room I noticed another of my patients had his call light on. I mmediately went into the room. The patient was angry and proceeded to yell at me for making him wait. I tried to explain the situation, but I couldn't get a word in and he did not want to hear what I had to say. It seemed that the patient had gotten light headed when he went to the bathroom. The tech answered the lignt and help him get back into bed. He told her to get his Nurse. The tech did not see me and she got called into another room, so I never got the message.

I told the patient I did not get his message, but he did not believe me. This particular patient was black so he accused me of being prejudice. Iassured him I was not and not wanting to be drawn any further or lhis drama I went about assessing his condition. His vitals, neuros and BG were all normal. I assessed that he might have been orthostatic or vasal vagal. The patient was a renal patient who had had dialysis that day. I instucted his to call for assistance to the bathroom and sincerely said I was sorry that he had to wait.

The tech later went into his room and he ask her if she had given me the message. She was honest and told him she forgot. He told her he had yelled at me because he thought I was ignoring him. The tech apoligized to me for forgeting to give me the message, but the patient never acknowleged the misunderstanding.

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