What do you hate most about your job?

emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B · May 27, 2016

Having to work every other weekend.

Not being able to sit down & eat a meal.

allnurses Guide · May 27, 2016

And like others have said, the whole customer service thing is out of control. .

This is the crux of the issue right here. :sniff:

pwetmore · May 27, 2016

I saw your other comments...yes computer charting. Because......the company did not properly set up training for us Supervisors and there is no IT assistance after hours. My biggest complaint... is the lack of training and the lack of support from Admin. ....that is why I'm opening up my own business. 42 years of nursing...whew....I've seen a lot. The nursing homes...need a lot of help in a lot of areas. I'm really surprised I haven't heard anything from any political candidate on the subject of our elderly and the nursing home.

Irish_Mist, BSN, RN · May 27, 2016

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 nursesâ€¦.and would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks!

Family members who refuse to consider hospice for their 90 year old septic, completely obtunded, tube fed, bed bound mother and insist on their dying mom being a full code and pursuing "aggressive" medical treatment. Oh and when said mom codes, they refuse to take mom off the ventilator.

PancakeSaturdays · May 27, 2016

Short staffed seems to be in first place here....

Short staffed!!!

PancakeSaturdays · May 27, 2016

I do not hate anything about my job.
What I do not like about the healthcare system is that the amount of work for floor/bedside nurses and the pressure to perform tasks for more and more acute patients. In a lot of cases it is a punitive environment and since there are already new graduates waiting an employer does not have much problems to replace those that do not "perform" 100%.
Also, I do not like that management in a lot of places will still guilt trip nurses into working more, "extra" and so on (the reason I left home hospice and home palliative care).

Hi Nutella,

I'm really curious about the guilt-tripping....

What kinds of things does the management say when they attempt to guilt-trip nurses into working "extra"?

How do most people respond when asked?

Thanks for your input!

PancakeSaturdays · May 27, 2016

What she said.

Hey Simbawicz,

I'd love to be able to picture what you mean.

Can you give me an example of a time when you experienced terrible communication, bad attitudes, or inaccessible management?

Thanks for any input you've got!

QuarterLife88, MSN, RN, NP · May 27, 2016

Rude and overbearing family members that think they can do our job better than we can. Entitled, pushy, condescending messes, who need to be cussed out and kicked out of the room, but have to be catered to because, "customer service."

I also despise the all the ways my facility tries to cut costs and staff in other departments, thus adding more work on the nurse to pick up the slack. And you sit there and wonder why your staff are leaving in mass exodus. OK...

The raging stupidity and ignorance of the general public.

I love my patients, I really do. That's why the above pisses me off.

PancakeSaturdays · May 27, 2016

crappy software, so you have to go through 15 screens just to answer a few questions, for every single triage and initial assessment

Hi JBudd,

My computer-savvy webdeveloper husband would groan -- just GROAN -- hearing this. Software doesn't *need* to function in such a clunky way! How annoying.

This might sound weird, but how do you cope with the crappy software issue?

Chrissygraduatenurse, LPN · May 27, 2016

Not enough support

PancakeSaturdays · May 27, 2016

I hate that more often than not, I feel pretty powerless. In general, it feels as though the staff nurses are unwelcome or ignored when it comes to collaborating/participating in devising the plan of care for our patients.

Hi Julius Seizure (!hee hee!),

Thank you for your input!

What you said is really insightful. As in, you understand the *feeling* not having a part in decisions has on you.

I'm curious, how often would you say you experience feeling powerless on the job? Like, is it always there, just when a decision's made that you had no input in, etc.?

By the way, not being able to have any input in decisions about one's work (powerlessness) is a major source of job stress, more so than the stress of making all the decisions as a CEO. Here's a quote from the American Psychological Association: A feeling of powerlessness is a universal cause of job stress. When you feel powerless, you're prey to depression's traveling companions, helplessness and hopelessness. You don't alter or avoid the situation because you feel nothing can be done.

PancakeSaturdays · May 27, 2016

The "customer is always right" attitude.
No-- they're not always right.

Thanks, Scrubs_n_sirens!

True dat! They ain't always right.

How do you feel about that "customer's always right" attitude? (i.e., annoyed, resigned, angry, resentful, etc.)