What is your favorite and least favorite parts of your job?

[SilverBells, BSN]

We all have things we like and don't like about our jobs. 

For me, favorites include:

1. Adding orders to the TAR.  I love entering orders, especially if they're entertaining, such as no scuba diving.  Sometimes, adding orders is the only highlight of my day.  I am thankful to the TAR for bringing forth joy and happiness to my life. 

2. Any sort of documentation, whether it be progress notes, assessments, signing off on orders on the TAR, etc.  

Honestly, I would love nothing more than to spend an entire day working on the TAR without any interruptions of any kind

Least favorites include: 

1. Care Conferences.  Too many times they turn into 30-1 hour long or more sessions allowing families to bash the nursing department.   Social worker and family members expect you to somehow be a miracle worker and have answers to everything.  

2.  Any interactions to do with family members.  We've had quite a few lately that are very good at making our lives a living hell.  I generally avoid family members if at all possible, as most of them seem to be enemies of the nursing department in general and have a knack for getting me and others  riled up. 

3. As a manager, patients and families expect you to be available 24/7.  You must bend over backwards to accommodate their schedule.  Also, I might be getting ready to leave for the day, and a patient/family member has other ideas.   If I get involved with their issues, I end up staying longer than I intended (sometimes hours).  If I don't stay, they will  potentially complain that I couldn't make time for them.  My entire life, after all, completely revolves around them.  

4. Staffing drama. There is always an issue.  Every. Single. Day.  

How about you? What do your favorite and least favorite parts of your job entail? 

[Davey Do]

A good topic, SilverBells, that didn't get much traffic, but it seems that there's not as much traffic anywhere these days. Probably due to the price of gasoline, or the fact that there's really not much interesting going on around here.

I'd like to expand on your concept a bit, from my last job to my nursing career.

Patient interaction was always my favorite part of working as a nurse. From the one-on-one contact to running groups or giving lectures. Spending time with patients, talking, gaining baseline knowledge, giving verbal feedback, asking questions, relaying information, giving support, guiding them to understanding, talking them through procedures, and even dealing with behaviors was my point fort.

My least favorite chore as a nurse was meetings and inservices.  Administrators and coworkers who droned on and on, repeating themselves, beating dead horses to a pulp, immersed in and loving the sound of their own voice and endlessly rambling made a root canal procedure a joyous experience in comparison.

There. Thank you.

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

My favorite part of my job working in the TB program in local public health is interacting with patients and their families. For the most part, the families make sure a lot of my patient's needs are met: transporting to appointments, preparing food, assuring med compliance, noticing changes that need to be reported. 

Parts I dislike are online meetings that do not seem relevant and being blamed in the community for COVID restrictions ordered by the state Department of Health. 

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

My two different jobs have some very different opportunities:

My hospitalist job:

I love being able to support my nurses. From seeing patients and explaining the plan of care, to addressing more emergent changes in condition, being there for my nurses and the patients is a great feeling.

I dislike- dealing with stupid policies and politics of a teaching hospital. Clearly our APRN role is viewed as quite a bit lower than the MDs with similar jobs, but as long I do what's best for the patients and nurses I don't let it bother me much.

My ICU job:

I love being able to navigate emergent situations as a resource for my patients and my coworkers. Knowing that I'm relied upon to bring my skill set to keep patients safe and help, especially my many newer coworkers, when faced with challenges, is something I really find gratifying. I can run a great code.

I dislike- charting and BS. 

[klone, MSN, RN]

Favorite part of my job:

The people I work with. I genuinely enjoy them. I also do get positive feelings for my job when I'm able to put out fires and answer questions for people. I like to feel needed, I guess. I like that people come to me as a resource. It shows I've gained their trust as a leader.

Least favorite part:

Delivering disciplinary actions and performance feedback. Writing annual performance evaluations.