Note: I'm not trying to downplay a nurses job...I'm just confused. So, don't tear me to shreds. :chuckle
Ok, now that I got that out of the way, what's so stressful about working 3, 12hr shifts? I keep reading how nursing is sooo stressful and you guys are pooped when you get home...but you're only working 3 days out of the week? Yes, I know some of you guys work more than that but, for the most part, I keep reading how you guys have 3, 12hr shifts. That's not even 40hrs/wk. Most people work well over 40hrs/wk so what am I missing?
As a college athlete, working 3, 12hr shifts doesn't seem like it would be exhausting so...please...enlighten me. Lay it on me thick! I'd like to know what I'm in for (if I choose nursing over PA or MD). Examples work best. Thanks!
No troll...truthful thoughts. I just have a blunt way of asking questions; no need to beat around the bush. That's what I was thinking and wanted to get some answers. Answers...I definitely got so now I totally understand. Nothing more to it...
Think of how stressful it is, both phsyically and mentally, for a waiter or waitress serving multiple tables in a crowded, busy restaurant during the dinner rush on a weekend. From maybe 5pm to 11pm, it's go-go-go... non-stop requests, demands, questions, problems. Everyone wants everything *now* and as soon as one party is finished, another is quickly ushered in and it starts all over again, and you still have all of your other parties to juggle.
Bedside acute care nursing can be kind of that for 12 hours straight. However, the repercussions of any mistake, of temporarily losing track of something, of keeping a patient waiting can be *MUCH* worse than in restaurant work.
A nurse is responsible for several acutely ill patients at the same time. They all have a slew of medications at various times. They all have various eating & fluid restrictions. They need to have labs drawn at different times. They each have different tests scheduled at various times that require specific prep in a certain timeframe by the nurse. They all have various physicians coming by and writing new orders throughout the day. They all have concerned family members coming in and out and making calls to the floor. Any time attention is being given to one patient's case (trying to contact a physician to report a change in status, checking if another department is ready for a transfer, doing a complex dressing change), other patient needs aren't being attended to. Nursing assistants help with basic care and are a second set of eyes for the nurse to catch problems, but they too can only be in one place at a time. Nurse colleagues will jump in to help when they can; but they all have a full workload of their own to juggle.
So it's not uncommon for nurses to miss lunchbreaks and hold off using the bathroom for hours on end because there's always "just one more thing." At the end of those 12 non-stop hours, you also can't just drop everything and walk out the door. There may be some task or paperwork that you're responsible for that you haven't been able to get to yet and that you can't just leave for tomorrow. So maybe it's a good day, you get out quickly and are driving out of the hospital lot by 7:45 pm... you'll be driving back into the lot at 6:30am to start another non-stop 12 hours from 7a-7p.
No matter how physically strong and active you are, I'm sure you will find it tough working 12 hour+ shifts without being able to find enough time to eat properly.
I read the post; however, as another person stated there are ways of asking a question to receive a positive or negative response. The fact that you emphasized the nurses day is "sooo stressful" speaks of sarcasm regarding the 36 hour work week. If the question was phrased a little differently, in perhaps a more respectful manner, some of us would not have been as harsh....
Very, very true. I can understand where you are coming from. I'm really dramatic (i.e. saying "sooooooo" or "reeeaally!?") and speak like this in my daily life (perhaps I should be an actress? :chuckle). But yeah, I can see how it may come across as one being sarcastic or negative (on a forum)...especially over a sensitive issue as such.
You've just taken report on 12 patients (I work subacute) half way during report a family member tells you to take their mother off the toilet as the call light has been on and nobody answers it. You go down the hall to find a CNA already doing it, but that's about two minutes gone.
You finish visual report, do a narc count. You're on the way down the hall to fit in the 30 - 45 minute wound vac dressing on patient A as you know this is the only down time you'll have. Ten minutes into the dressing you have a CNA come in to tell you patient B wants a percocet. You tell them they'll have to wait 20 minutes or so. As you're finishing off the dressing on patient A and going out the door, patient C in the next bed can't find their remote, so you eventually find it somewhere in the blankets. You go to the nurses station to get percocet for patient B, but patient D's family member is waiting for you there already and asking when their family member is seeing the cardiologist. You don't know and have to find out from the chart. You still don't know even after going through the chart, you tell patient D's family member that you'll give them a call after you've found out. Patient D's family member walks away unsatisfied. You finally get to patient B and their percocet 45 minutes after they asked for it and they're in pain and mad. Patient B is unsatisfied. You realize you're 20 minutes late in hanging IV ATB for patient E and when you get there, they're unsatisfied, but before you start you need to take patient E to the bathroom as they say "as you're here anyway". Meanwhile, you haven't even seen patient F yet who is now running a low grade fever as the CNA just reported that to you. You didn't get in report that patient F was unstable but now he is. When you get back to the nurses station to look at patient F's chart, a family member wants to know if you can run some juice up to patient G, because, you know, you're just standing there reading a chart.
This sums it up! And yes, that is in the first hour or so while expecting an admit!
Do NOT tell a nurse to "get over yourself". If you didn't want these kinds of replies then you shouldn't have put up this thread. You are very rude...maybe nursing, MD or PA is not for you! Obviously, your bedside manner would stink!
"Do NOT tell a nurse to..."...really? Are you serious? :chuckle I'm sorry but that's pretty hilarious. You just reminded me of a Kindergarten teacher yelling at her student for trying to eat glue or something. Ex) "Do NOT put that in your mouth!"
Anyway, we've gotten over the mix up; see above post.
Oh, and you may be correct about my future bedside manner. Not that I think I'm rude but I'd be lying if I didn't say I've heard that before ("...RN/NP, PA or MD may not be for you."). Lol. Perhaps I have something to think about...
I will try to phrase what I have to say with the hope that it will not come across as offensive. So here goes!
I have just scanned through most of your posts and it seems to me that your interest in this profession (health) is for the wrong reasons. Most of your posts seem very self serving which is contradictory to the health profession itself. If you are in it for the money, or the idea that nursing school is a breeze or unable to make sacrfices for the good or the "call to service", then I am thinking the health field in general is not for you. Again, I am only speaking from what has been implied from your previous posts-all of them!
Nursing is more than a job really...I use to say its a noun, an adjective and a verb. You can't come with an attitude of selfishness/selfcenteredness and to h...with the rest of it! There is a lot of give and take in this profession; mostly give. I do hope that you really consider all of the responses you have received in all your posts including this one and that you will truly give it much thought before venturing into this field.
You are a very rude person. I also agree with above that you are definetly looking into this for the wrong reasons. Nursing is a blessing. I love my job. Yes it is stressful, but I wouldn't want to do anything else. As far as your analogies, I'm sorry you feel that way. All I was implying was that you seem to be making assumptions of things you don't understand. Being rude to someone who was replying to something that YOU said is wrong. Please, if this is something that you REALLY want to pursue, think of the people who you will be caring for. You CANNOT be like this with people who are sick and dying. Compassion.....it is a must have for this profession. Doesn't seem like you have this capability.
I will try to phrase what I have to say with the hope that it will not come across as offensive. So here goes!
I have just scanned through most of your posts and it seems to me that your interest in this profession (health) is for the wrong reasons. Most of your posts seem very self serving which is contradictory to the health profession itself. If we are in it for the money, or the idea that nursing school is a breeze or unable to make sacrfices for the good or the "call to service", then I am thinking the health field in general is not for you. Again, I am only speaking from what has been implied from your previous posts-all of them!
...
Hi,
Thank you for your post and no, I don't think it was offensive; you made some good points. Maybe the healthcare profession really isn't for me (like some of my friends have told me Lol), but I like science/healthcare (especially disease and the human body) and that's just an avenue I thought I'd always pursue. Hm...maybe I should consider research? We'll see...
Health care could be likened to a vocation. Whether you're a nurse, PA or MD, you are in a job that is dedicated to looking after the needs of the patient. In what capacity you are catering for these needs, is defined by the role that you play. There are degrees of autonomy in each role. These are subject to the regulatory practices of the organisation within which you work and to the national standards that you are expected to conform to. In the process, health care of the patient is complicated by hospital procedures, protocols, working practices and medicare, insurance demands.
It is not simply that you are a nurse, PA or MD. The role of the job rarely considers the job in it's pure form. As a nurse I routinely experience getting overwhelmed. The hospital fails to consider my personal workload, delineated by the individual needs of the patients that I have. It is keen to 'slam' me with additional patients - new admissions, as the hospital's need arises. It is commonly understood that this is a part of the job and reluctantly accepted by nurses in general as their 'lot in life'. The hospital meanwhile expects that all the patients that you look after receive all the interventions that they should and that each health care need that is identified, be followed up on. The hospital requires that you complete all the paperwork or computer charting that you are supposed to, whether or not there is time to. Ultimately, the hospital does not have your interests at heart and whereas it claims to have the patient's needs at heart, these can only be met in so far as time, practices, or insurance will allow.
It seems that, particularly in certain areas, the hospital strives to meet patient health care needs by fitting the diagnosis to the medicare need and insurance definitions. Even after such efforts, some people that may have benefitted from Rehab or Psychiatry for example, may yet be denied.
Healthcare occupations are viewed by the public in glowing terms. There is a lot of respect shown for nurses, PAs or MDs, without really understanding anything of the real dimensions of these jobs. Young people coming into the healthcare professions are feeding their idealisms. There is a certain naievity, that although inevitable, helps to 'rose tint' the view of these jobs.
After a 12 hour shift I am physically and mentally worn out. If I work 2 on the trot, then I feel exhausted for half of the day after. I am not alone. Most of my co-workers express the same sentiments. With all the constraints and expectations placed upon the nurse, the job becomes a vocation. Because to endure the system, you must have a vocation to keep doing the job!
There are the same types of pressure in most areas of each of these jobs. Whether you're a nurse, PA or MD, working in a clinic, inpatient care, ER, OR etc, etc, you will be often, if not continuosly, be subject to working practices that pressurize you and consistently make demands of you. It is not the job of being a nurse, PA or MD that you should consider, but where it is that you are thinking about practicing.
If you are a manic, frantic person that thrives on hysteria, with a short attention span and not subject to thinking too deeply about the job - then you will probably be well suited to a hospital environment. The job expects you to flit from one thing to another at a fast pace, without getting too hung up on the details. Only of course when it suits them for you to. If you want a slower paced environment, 'possibly' a nursing home, where 'theoretically' you have more time to think, if the boredom and trudge of the same routine, day in and day out doesn't bother you, then maybe that's the place.
It's not an easy decision for anyone entering the healthcare 'professions' to make and often people try several different areas before finally settling, or succombing, to one area in particular.
If I appear cynical, then it has been nurtured by 30 years experience in nursing, and lets just say that my eyes have been opened.
My parting advice is, try to go into whatever you eventually decide to pursue, with your eyes open. Talk to people working in healthcare, maybe volunteer in different healthcare settings, get a feel for what it's all about.
Most people work well over 40hrs/wk so what am I missing?
What you are missing is that "most people" do not have jobs like we do.
Most people do not see death everyday, don't see suffering, abuse, the absolute HORRORS of life. I see the things you only read about in the papers (I work at a level 1 trauma center PICU).
When most people see someone shot or dying or some other trauma on the street it gives them a story for a life time, I see things like that everyday --children being hit in the stomach so hard that their guts are hanging out, children who have fallen from a 2 story apartment and their brain matter is laying on the pillow, most people don't see and deal with a firework going off inside someone because things didn't go right, most people don't have to tell a parent that their child might not make it and watch the father literally fall to the floor, most people don't have to wrap a 6 year old in a shroud and warm the baby blanket in the microwave so the mother doesn't have to hold their cold dead baby while they walk her down to the morgue. I could go on and on about what I see and deal with everyday in "only" 12 hrs a day, it's not what "most people" see and do, ever.
So that is what is so hard. It has *nothing* to do with your physical shape.
We'll see...
ArtisticAthlete
37 Posts
Well I guess you're missing one of your senses.
No troll...truthful thoughts. I just have a blunt way of asking questions; no need to beat around the bush. That's what I was thinking and wanted to get some answers. Answers...I definitely got so now I totally understand. Nothing more to it...