What makes nursing stressful for you?

Nurses General Nursing

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The "least stressful unit" got me to thinking, which is, as most people who know me would say, a very dangerous thing.

Anyhoo, for me, it's paperwork. While I'm a work, I keep thinking, "I need to chart!", "I need to fill out the forms for QI," "I need to do the audits," "I need to complete the admission paperwork," etc. etc.

All this while I have the smile on my face as I'm fetching water and a blanket. Or toileting someone. Or cleaning up a patient. It's frustrating, because that's basic patient care, and I'm thinking about the paperwork I'm behind on which takes me literally hours to do, as if the paper work is "something better/more important to do." It's NOT!

That's my beef on the stress I experience in nursing. What's yours?

Specializes in Ambulatory Surgery, Ophthalmology, Tele.

It's 20 minutes before the end of the 12 hour shift and just when I think I am going to leave on time (for once), my patient falls, or has a grand mal seizure, or I get a direct admit (and wasn't told I was getting one. Thanks :up:), or my patient comes back from GI/Cath lab and the patient's family wants to ask a bunch of questions. Also, not EVER having enough time to get things done and feeling behind and trying to beat the clock for twelve hours. Well, now I work at an ambulatory surgery center and I have one patient at a time. Walkie talkies. Stress is all gone. ;)

Specializes in PCCN.

the fact that customer service will be the focus , and that the nurse is the one, since they are with the pt for 24 hours a day in the hospital, who will be blamed for everything gone wrong. food sucks, doc wont give pain meds, i want to go out and smoke. etc etc. I fear for my job( although that could be a blessing in disguise) as mgmt will just can anyone who doesnt meet customer service standards- ie they wont be getting paid. with the surplus of RN's , it could be years before they run through everyone.They have nothing to lose by canning people for the smallest infraction. Experience will mean nothing.Just a warm body who supplies customer service- a medical waitress/waiter.

ughhhh.

Specializes in Med Surg, PCU, Travel.

other nurses...lol:yes: ok I'm not a nurse, but that's what i been told.

Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
-having to search for things to do my job (the med isn't here- gotta call pharmacy, have to search the unit for the vital signs machine)

-different disciplines adding work for nursing (nursing now has to pass out boost drinks with medpass, oh now you have to weigh all the pts getting the boost weekly to see if its working etc etc)

-demanding family members who want all things NOW

-being expected to deal with non-nursing tasks (my tv isn`t working, I don`t like the food)

the list goes on and on

My thoughts exactly!

Also, lack of managerial support is a big one. I feel as if my management team works against us rather than with us.

other nurses...lol:yes: ok I'm not a nurse, but that's what i been told.

Well, thing is, there can be a lot of truth in that. Seems to me there is a number of people with issues and insecurity that go into the field--and it has helped to lead to a lot of disunity IMHO. But I think, regardless of the women's movement, women often feel insecure and somehow "less than." They spend so much time comparing themselves to others and trying to get attention. It's like women have been objectified for so long, they can't help but fall prey to the stupid thinking--it starts early you know. Just ask Honey Boo-Boo. LOL. Wow. What a nightmare.

I see the backstabbing and catty, insecure crap, and I want to do the whole Cher seen from Moonstruck. You know, *slap* "Snap out of it." Oh, if were that easy; but people are complicated, and well, since nurses are people . . .

Nurses need to really learn what it means to love themselves in the right way, so that they are then open to love others in the right way. I think as a whole, when women are able to do this, that's when they shine, b/c there is that core nurturing thing in many women. It just gets squelched by society, others, including men, and pop culture.

Rise above it ladies. We need each other already.

Entitlement actually. When I was interrupted by a patient's mother while I was doing chest compressions on another patient asking for a copy of her son's lab results. The whole room turned around to look at her. Thank goodness the ICU doc kicked her out of the room.

So of course she calls the Nurse Sup and I have to actually explain why I didn't cater to her needs. Of course the mother neglected to tell the Nurse Sup she interrupted a code. And the real reason that mean doctor yelled at her.

Or a patient's daughter asking me to call the doctor for her father's roommate to get the roommate discharged because his tv is too loud and he snores. The floor was bursting at the seams so her dad couldn't have a private room. I gave the roommate headphones for his tv. And she even followed up with me to see if I could do her this favor to get the other patient discharged. The other patient was sicker than her father.

So do I save someone's life or please family? It makes for a stressful day. Do I give Nitro to a patient having chest pain or do I take on a waitress role and go get sodas for a patient's niece and nephew? And yes this is an actual example that happened to me.

I'm so glad I'm going back to school.

Specializes in cardiac CVRU/ICU/cardiac rehab/case management.

Dealing with managements latest idea of "quality" care....their latest" script " what to say, "shhhh" or smile campaign .

Please ,please management could you stop wasting my time at these mandatory in services because I actually want to spend this time with my pt if you could just stop nattering on.

Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
Entitlement actually.

I had a patient threatening to leave AMA, and it took a while for the resident to get to him to give her little spiel about "you know if you leave, your condition you could worsen and you could die, blah blah."

Anyway, the patient asked, "what could be more important than this? I am a patient who wants to leave! I don't know what could be more important to the doctor than me!"

Yeah...

Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.

My Manager hands down

Specializes in Public Health, L&D, NICU.

MotherRN, thank you for your kind thoughtful words. Funny all the talk about the inlaws, it sounds a whole lot like my 15 year marriage! Sometimes I wonder if these "nice" people remember some of the things they said to me. But, I really took to heart the verse in the Bible about kindness heaping coals of fire on your enemies head, and so far I've found it to be true.

What your son went through sounds horrible, and I'm glad you got him out of it.

Specializes in Public Health, L&D, NICU.
My Manager hands down

My manager is the reason I gave up 15 years of experience at the bedside. I have a wonderful new job, and I never would have thought about leaving if not for the witch, but I still miss hands-on nursing. I made a point to tell Human Resources that they lost an experienced nurse purely due to poor nurse management.

Constantly having more and more work, with less staffing and resourcesKilling yourself all day everyday to help people who don't show any appreciation and act like you're nothing more than a waitress.Being the "dumping ground" for other departments, and having to constantly beg people to do their jobs so you can do yours (ex: calling pharmacy 20 times for medtar that should have been in the cart hours ago)I could go on...

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