What do you hate most about your job?

vanessaem, BSN, RN · May 26, 2016

Lady? What does Lady mean?

I think he or she meant lazy.

DeeAngel · May 26, 2016

I love computer charting but hate the attitude of "its easy and quick to do on the computer", management thinking that doubles the mandatory things that must be charted every 6 months.

XNavyCorpsman · May 27, 2016

Doing assignments by acuity and having to work 4 straight 12 hour shifts and only having one day off before having to return and doing a stretch of 8's.

rpsychnurse · May 27, 2016

I hate the amount of repetitive documentation. Chart a PRN on the MAR? Better chart it in the nursing notes too! Complete a post fall assessment? Better document everything and more in the nursing notes, fall prevention care plan, and fall tracking record too! It's like someone comes up with a new tool without considering what we already have. So something that could lessen our workload just adds to it.

Lack of training is my other big complaint. I'm a charge nurse in long term care and I received 3 days of training before being on my own. It was ridiculous. I also feel like we aren't adequately trained in school for everything we are expected to know. I'm sure this varies school to school and job to job but I just feel like my knowledge is lacking. I struggle to find the time to do a ton of continuing education as well.

KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN · May 27, 2016

Policies' kissing to the point of losing common sense. That documenting "call light within reach" q4 because there is policy for that, and not doing anything when the same patient (a half-century old cutie with mental development of 1 y/o) drops blood sugar from 500 to 80, because there is no policy about either number or combination. It did not end good, on any terms.

Who ever wrote a policy prohibiting THINKING??

Innocent2021, ADN, BSN · May 27, 2016

The worst part of my job is how I feel trying to sleep in the daytime. I have been working night shift for many years. it has never been easy, but it is so hard now that I am older. I still love my work, love helping people recover.

PancakeSaturdays · May 27, 2016

My pet peeve is when other departments make changes for us to implement without getting our input. Or they ask for input after the decision has been made, obviously it's all just for show. I went in to a meeting to provide nursing input about the layout of the new med room. Unfortunately they had already done the plumbing and ordered the counters. There was nothing left to decide.
Any nurse has had policies change that give nursing something extra to do because another department prefers it their way. For example, patients getting a CT need IV access with a minimum #20 in the AC. We try to keep this in mind, and will start a new site if there is time. They prefer a particular extension on their saline locks too. All our rad techs can start IVs, so when they start sending patients back to the ER because their preferred IV isn't in, it gets frustrating. If we complain, we're told that we are all part of a team,(but so is everyone else).

Hey canoehead,

What you wrote in the first paragraph would be laughable if it weren't so....annoying? inauthentic?

Regarding the patients getting sent back to the ER to get the preferred IV, what specific things have you (or the other ER nurses) tried for remedying the situation (i.e., saying nothing, bringing it up in a meeting, explaining to manager why it's a problem, etc.)?

(You mentioned "complain[ing]", but somehow I don't totally buy that everyone just plain-old complained. Details! I want details! :)

Thanks so much for your input!

PancakeSaturdays · May 27, 2016

The worst part of my job is how I feel trying to sleep in the daytime. I have been working night shift for many years. it has never been easy, but it is so hard now that I am older. I still love my work, love helping people recover.

You are a gem and what the nursing profession is about!

Out of curiosity, what strategies have you tried for sleeping during the days? Like, what's helped and what hasn't?

Thanks much!

BSN-to-MSN, ADN, BSN, RN · May 27, 2016

This week I struggled to stay positive while training a new person, while dealing with increased patient load due to short staffing. Management just goes home at 6 PM, no help; it's called "figure it out". I made it though, stayed positive for the new nurse's sake.

Double Dunker · May 27, 2016

I hate that night shift is treated like the redheaded stepchild. Shared governance harps that we are never there, but they hold meetings at 11:00 on Wednesdays. I've suggested a couple different options, ie 8:00 or 17:00, but those just "aren't convenient." I suggested alternating meeting times every month, but that wasn't acceptable either. The manager does "associate rounding" but heaven forbid she be there at a time that I can stop in.

And like others have said, the whole customer service thing is out of control. I'm sorry you don't like it when your IV pump beeps every 45 minutes because the physician has ordered a different antibiotic to be hung every 2 hours, but I'm a little too busy to hang out outside your room and watch the clock to catch it before it is finsished.

Conqueror+, BSN, RN · May 27, 2016

That I need it. It's like an ugly boyfriend with bad breath that pays your bills.

nrsang97, BSN, RN · May 27, 2016

I don't mind learning something new. In fact, learning new things is why I moved to the OR. What has made it the bane of my existence is that we got poor instruction on it before hand in our department (i.e. In another department they were allowed to go to another hospital in our system who already used this system and see what it was like and practice with it in an actual live environment, not a practice environment). There were a lot of things that when we asked how would we chart x, y, and z, we were told, "we're not sure, that's being built, we'll see it go live day." Overall it hasn't been terrible, I guess. I moved departments two weeks after go live and I like the OR side of things a heck of a lot better than I like the charting in the other department I was in so that's a plus, but it's still been very frustrating.

I work rapid response and our form wasn't even ready to practice. It was finally done for go live. I had to figure it out on my own. Although I still really like computer charting. Definitely frustrating.