Work frustration poll

[adrienurse]

Who is the biggest source of stress and frustration at your workplace?

[Timmie]

My problem is with the sups, nurse managers, DON ect who use the "warm body syndrome" even if they are unqualified for the position. I am so tired of working w/ incompetent, lazy ppl and putting my license in jeapordy. Thank you I feel so much better

[deespoohbear]

the families get my vote!!! some of them are just plain, freaking nuts...

i had a family member complain one time because i hadn't been around to see their mother for 2 hours (aghast!!).. mom was a stable mable...the guy across the hall was trying to die on me. when the son complained about the lack of attention his mother was receiving, i quickly came back with "well, i was trying to save the life of the man across the hall" kind of got a funny look then... what i really wanted to say was "sorry i didn't have time to tuck your mom in with a goodnight story and give her a mint on her pillow"....

lately, i pretty much have decided that i am not there to serve the families and their outrageous requests...i give the best possible care i can to all my patients and i prioritize appropiately...

i hate it when families call constantly...a real mess if their are several children calling to check in on dear old mom or dad....or when they call at 7 am wanting to know how their parent is...excuse me...i just got out of report and haven't even laid eyes on the patient yet...

oh, i better stop now....i could go on forever with this subject...

[Q.]

I voted "other." Right now this job just isn't a good fit and that, in the most weird of ways, can be the most stressful thing around.

[ktwlpn, LPN]

"other" because the majority of our problems are consistently caused either directly or indirectly by the cna's we are supervising....They are either fighting with each other(endlessly caryying tales) acting irresponsibly and causing harm to the residents (leaving them unattended-they fall....rushing through care-skin tears appear) or failing to give proper care-usually just before a loved one visits and comes to the desk wanting to know why their Mom's teeth are still in the nightstand drawer-where her shoes are and why is her radio tuned to the hip hop ,rap music or hard rock station?

[OzNurse69]

Hey adrie, you missed one.....

where's the box that says - ALL OF THE ABOVE!!!

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Families rank right up there near the top of the PITA list, but having worked for a couple of corporate outfits, I'd have to say the worst offenders are the corporate "consultants" who walk into a facility, sniff the air, and then decide we don't have enough paperwork, or think up new ways to expand our job description (without a corresponding expansion of pay, of course). These people have NO concept of what nurses do all day, yet they come in like they own us, body and soul, and issue orders (usually through the DON or administrator, they rarely deign to speak to the underlings), NONE of which benefit us, let alone the patients!

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Anyone that rates care based on paperwork instead of on actual care.

[hapeewendy]

I couldnt really answer the poll, here's why...

families these days are DRIVING ME NUTS!

however, I can on most days anyway ,deal with them ,and quite well actually so despite the fact that some days I want to scream at some family members who just dont "get it" I can see why they are the way they are and cannot blame them ...

next would be politics/management - nuff said there right? wrong, I've seen great management and worked in places with less drama and less politics than I've mentioned here ...... so although at my present workplace the drama and the politics can get a bit hefty sometimes I remain hopeful that I will one day be away from "all the drama"

which would bring us to patients or co workers

and yes there are exceptions to the rule but I find I enjoy this group the most, the patients are why I'm doing what I'm doing , and the people I work with are most often the reason I keep coming back....

so it depends on the day and the situation at hand...

but I agree that some days there just needs to be an "all of the above" button to press, complete with an ejector seat...

[DIPLOMATICRN4HIRE, MSN, RN]

Politics Hate them cant stand them Dont want to deal with them

can deal with anything else but I hate dealing with politics.

Zoe

[lynn1967]

Management-administration has to come in first. A while back, my DON came up to me and talked about how we "have to have a positive attitude around the new nurses so they will stay." He stated that "some of the nurses who are orienting the new ones have a bad attitude." Well--I was the only one who had been orienting anyone recently. I didn't think I had a bad attitude but anyway. Then about a week later we had a nurses meeting. In the meeting he said, "Nursing department sucks." Literally, that is word for word. And --------I----------have a bad attitude????He went on about one evening where there were several nurses working on a certain unit, one nurse was orienting two other nurses and they THOUGHT an insulin didn't get given (it did, just about 15 minutes late) so he talks about "the nursing station where there were three nurses working and it wasnt ____station" (there are only two nursing stations) and went on to bash nursing and talk about how things arent getting done, blah blah blah. Well, I don't think any of us are sitting around on our A****s. Oh, I could go on and on forever but I will spare you the gorey details.

[MissdonditaBsn]

I voted for administration/managment, and sadly to say, I am considered one of them. I find myself so d#@m frustrated with my "co-workers" at times that I could just scream. They call me idealistic and because I feel that in order to make changes to the way that the nurses work, or want to know what it takes to retain the nurses you acutally have to deal with the freakin nurses involved. Some of these admisnistrators have never actually worked on the floor in this hospital, spend most of their days in their offices, and actually try to speak about what is going on, on their floor as if they really know. I really feel sorry for the nurses working for them. The real kicker is that the VP of Patient Care Services thinks that these people hung the moon and is critical of those that actually try and act as an advocate for the nurses. And they all talk about wanting to make things change but when someone makes a suggestion they are all "no that will never work, we have always done it this way, and nobody is going to want to change". It makes me wonder, if we really want to affect change is this the attitude we should have.

And the polictics. Don't get me going on that. There is so much polictics that goes on that it makes me nostalgic for the days of ignorance.

I am actually thinking about going back to floor nursing. You know, the whole, the grass is always greener thing.

[RNforLongTime]

originally posted by deespoohbear

the families get my vote!!! some of them are just plain, freaking nuts...

i had a family member complain one time because i hadn't been around to see their mother for 2 hours (aghast!!).. mom was a stable mable...the guy across the hall was trying to die on me. when the son complained about the lack of attention his mother was receiving, i quickly came back with "well, i was trying to save the life of the man across the hall" kind of got a funny look then... what i really wanted to say was "sorry i didn't have time to tuck your mom in with a goodnight story and give her a mint on her pillow"....

lately, i pretty much have decided that i am not there to serve the families and their outrageous requests...i give the best possible care i can to all my patients and i prioritize appropiately...

i hate it when families call constantly...a real mess if their are several children calling to check in on dear old mom or dad....or when they call at 7 am wanting to know how their parent is...excuse me...i just got out of report and haven't even laid eyes on the patient yet...

oh, i better stop now....i could go on forever with this subject...

this is why i work night shift. visiting hours end at 6:30pm in my icu, a half hour before my shift begins at 7pm. not too many family members are calling at 3 am to chenk on grandma. no pt, ot, speech therapy or md's to deal with, for the most part. i don't see much of administration. i love night shift!