What do you hate most about your job?

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Hey lovely (or studly) nurses,

Upcoming strong word advisory.

What do you *hate* the most about your job? Like over the past week or so --

what have you been most stressed, angry, hurt, or annoyed about?

I'm doing some informal research to help me understand the needs of nurses….and would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks!

I never worked in a grocery store. I think of myself as more than a head of lettuce.

LOL! Love the analogy, Paulthenurse!

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Sorry, I lied. The thing I hate most about my job is this one MA we have. I CANNOT STAND the sound of their voice, or their laugh. Most obnoxious voice/laugh EVER. I know this is terrible, but it's the truth. :facepalm:

This made me smile out loud.

Shoot. Nothing you can do about that one. Nothing.

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....Third the lazy CNA's that actually mouth off and tell you to do their job for them when you gently prod them to do their duties such as stocking! Then management doesn't stand up to their insubordination, but tells you to be a team player and get along.

Hi brandy1017,

"Be a team player" -- the go-to line that sounds great but mostly serves to sweep real issues under the rug.

What do you do when management says this to you about the CNA issue?

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I hate pts that think the rules don't apply to them and they are somehow special. I don't mind getting ice, fluffing pillows, closing blinds, reasonable requests from family but honestly I can't selectively follow state law or facility policy

Hi Cmanursestudenta,

Thanks for sharing!

So, how do you handle it when patients ask you to do something that violates state law or facility policy?

Were you a natural with stating boundaries, or was it something you had to learn?

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I didn't read the whole thread, so skip me if I'm repeating somebody else's thought.

I hate the feeling of being powerless. I'm under the thumb of Drs, administration, patients, and ancillary staff. I have enormous amounts of responsibility, but no real power to change the course of my patient's condition, or my own.

I think the word "powerless" puts a word to what many have described in this thread.

Thanks for addressing the emotional level, imintrouble!

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Imintrouble!

i can relate to how you feel and have felt this way in the past. However, I want you to know something....you ABSOLUTELY have power to change the course of your patients' condition. You may not have the cure for their disease. You may not change the fact that they will die. You may not have the influence you would like in their treatment plans overall, but you most certainly can effect the course of their treatment. You have no idea how you may be making a difference in how they feel nor how important what you do is to them. You don't need to be the super CPR responder, algorithms perfectly memorized with nerves of steel who catches the near death arrhythmia no one else saw, who can start an IV on a hummingbird, and catches the near miss lethal dose ordered of a medication no one else has heard of...to be IMPORTANT...As long as you treat your patients with compassion, respect, kindness and provide competant Nursing care, then no matter what happens in the end, you have helped them. I don't know if you have ever been a patient. I have many times and often have had experiences with my nurses that, in some cases, were profound. We don't always react outwardly in the moment...sometimes we are too ill, in pain, worried, or just preoccupied. Sometimes it takes years before we even realize what a significant difference someone had made for us.

Here is an example most can relate to...Have you ever say, been walking down the street, preoccupied with something on your mind and a person who passes by gives you a sweet, genuine, loving smile? And by the time it registers in your mind, they have already passed and you didn't have a chance to respond? That smile may have lifted your spirit, taken your mind off something troubling, or simply just felt good in the moment. That good feeling in you carries through and may effect how you treat someone that day, or how you handle something potentially negative.

There is NO way ANY nurse does NOT make a difference for their patients. Hopefully, it is a positive one, but a difference just the same. With the stress of our work and frustrations we endure, we often forget how important our work is....even when we are not enjoying it. You as a nurse are impacting a person's life when they are vulnerable, sometimes helpless and hopeless, fearful, sad, and sometimes all alone. Our patients are not things. They are not "the task". Even when comatose or sedated they are sensate beings who we effect in sometimes the simplest ways. We are responsible for the energy we bring to them. Please never forget this. And I do so hope you realize how important and special you are to so many...even if you feel insignificant or powerless, you actually are much more powerful than you know.

Hey Pchaballa, ADN,

So encouraging and optimistic! I bet your co-workers love it when they get to work with you!

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Unfair treatment, there are a lot of biased and favoritism at my work and really hard to work in such environment.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, LTACH, LTC, Home Health.

What do I hate about my job(s)....let me see...

Regulatory position: there is no regulation to forbid lying.

Med/Surg:....................................no comment...................;)

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Silly thing that others me, I work in the ED, when women want to be so modest and tie their gown so that I practically have to rip it open to put the ekg monitors on. Or when they get up to go to the bathroom and their leads are in places I shouldn't have to go with someone AAOX4

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Specializes in Adult MICU/SICU.

I despise computer programs that crash at critical moments, or otherwise just behave like a poorly trained puppy at the worst possible times.

I work as a telephone triage nurse from home: in order to be able to operate safely in all potential medical scenarios and situations with ever changing pt variables, ALL of my programs have to be functional and running at optimal performance speed.

The first and most obvious thing that can go seriously wrong is my high speed internet connection. I pay for the fastest possible internet speed, but that doesn't mean it always delivers for whatever reason that may be. On my first week home S/P on site orientation I was scheduled to cover some night shifts (i.e., MN - 0800) when I logged in I had no internet connection! I must have called and texted my supervisor 10 times in a 2 hr time span (crashed out, and dead to the world) without getting a hold of her. Hmmm … what to do? I next called my internet provider: it was down for scheduled maintenance! I thought I would blow a head gasket on the spot! I read them the riot act, and eventually service was restored (as was peace) but connection was spotty all shift.

Immediate access/entry to a pt's EMR s absolutely crucial to a successful triage outcome when a pt is calling in need of assistance RIGHT NOW with potentially life or death problems playing out literally right under your theoretical nose. It is a veritable gold mine of knowledge, and all the applicable necessary information regarding a pt's Rx Meds, Dx's, lab results, radiology reports, immunizations, health maintenance needs, and all provider's notes. Having the EMR program crap the bed in this instance is like a waking nightmare wadding through the bog ... I place it in the #2 position of necessary things during any given shift. Nextgen is rumored to have been so customized and tweaked for our particular clinical needs that the system seems to crash in a waxing/waning fashion for at the very least a week S/P upgrades to this program. It's too expensive and time consuming to scrap it completely in order to start over from scratch, and supposedly cost effective enough to continue to use despite it's annoyances.

We (my organization) are the proud buyer's of an online protocol program that never seems to work right. Ever (cough, cough: Triage Logic). It's absolutely maddening to receive a blank screen pop up when you are counting on all the applicable protocol(s) you just selected to appear instead. Or even worse: to simply have the system crash - as has been it's wont of late - approximately once every hour. In addition, it now takes 2 complete sign in sequelas in order to open the program back up to be ready for use. There's a saying: time is money … however time also equals viable heart muscle versus irreparable cardiac damage (or even death) in situations such as R/O AMI. Waiting around for the protocol program to feel like working - as well as cooperating (a whole nother story) is not a feasible option. :(

We also use a secure online text messaging program as an adjunct to reach out PRN to the various providers on call, which I'll call "TT". At times TT doesn't do it's job as intended: delivering urgent messages to individual on call providers. Instead, when it acts up the result is pure pandemonium, effectively keeping a triage nurse out of the call queue until matter X is resolved. It's the equivalent of heaping a bunch of burning coals on your head. This in turn creates a domino effect of stacked up triage calls - systematically crushing the life out of the remaining triage nurse co-workers (if you're lucky enough to be working with at least one, or more partners) or even triage calls just plain going unanswered (if you are unlucky enough to be working alone - which can, and may occur for a myriad of reasons). Alternatively, other times TT will almost seem to evolve an eerie artificial intelligence with a really bad sense of humor, sending out not just 1, but 12-15 duplicate messages, many times hr's too late. Trust me, few things tick off an on call doctor (whom may be in surgery, or merely just trying to squeeze in a few minutes well deserved power nap at 0300) more than receiving 10+ duplicate TT messages. There are times we simply must admit defeat, therefore resorting to actually calling said on call provider in order to resolve whatever issue it is that's causing the problem du jour (or du minute). When TT works well it's amazing: it's fast, easy and secure, however in those odd moments when it doesn't (i.e., a full moon, the chance alignment of the stars, solar spots, or the earth's gravitational pull cubed, et al.) you may as well be sending smoke signals, or just go ahead and grab 2 empty cans attached with one heck of a long string to communicate.

Last (but not least) is our online computer based telephone system: Interaction Client. For the most part I have very few complaints about working with this program, however on occasion it has flares of what I call bouts of sympathy misbehavior (i.e., BSM) that seems to pop up when one or more of the other programs have circled the drain and taken a nose dive. The connection is intermittently variable (mostly depending upon the pt's phone - ranging from crystal clear to fuzzy pops and clicks) however for the past few weeks it has been disconnecting when a triage nurse attempts to create a 3 way conference call between 911, a pt, and the nurse. IT told us dialing 9 first would correct the problem, but that's just a big bunch of hogwash. It never happens when conference calling a language interpreter or transportation, and quite honestly it's embarrassing - making us seem like a bunch of jokers and clowns. Because it's an internet telephone connection it is subjected to whims of Mother Nature too: during monsoon season the connection can be compromised - even lost all together. The contingency plan for working off station (i.e., rerouting all incoming calls to one's cellphone) sounds complicated, potentially painful for one's neck, and fraught with possible disasters. It's like spying a spike filled pit smack dab in the middle of the road a few miles away but being incapable of diverting one's travel route for something safer.

Technology has become a huge part of our daily lives, and even I (a child of the MTV generation) owe it a virtual tip of the hat for allowing me the freedom to work in a nursing job from home. However, I think most of us would agree that when the bugs in the system surface and become evident in a big way that it can have profound affects on the ability to do our jobs comfortably, securely and safely for the pt.

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Being split between days and nights. One day and two nights is the roughest schedule I've ever worked.

How far away it is. Which is totally not their fault.

Mandatory meetings, especially when available times to attend are very limited. I have multiple jobs, and have had mandatory meetings at least once a week (frequently more) every week for the past two months. If it were once a month, or even once a month for each job, that would be ok, but it's getting to be a major drain on my days off. And especially when the announce the meeting on short notice.

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Specializes in PCCN.
Silly thing that others me, I work in the ED, when women want to be so modest and tie their gown so that I practically have to rip it open to put the ekg monitors on. Or when they get up to go to the bathroom and their leads are in places I shouldn't have to go with someone AAOX4

could be worse. had an etoh er who was in her 50's . not currently drunk. kept leaving her shirt down for all to see. she didnt care.

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