Is it just me , or does it seem that soooo many new nurses are posting questions about being stressed and overworked ? I understand that nursing is a stressful job but my goodness. I'm not complaining about them I'm just concerned about why their stress level seems to be to the point many of them want to leave nursing. Is it that they are not getting the proper training for what the job entails.(4 year and 2 year) I know that the nurses I precept come to the unit with little experience with pt care. It seems the little things stress them out because they have never done them. Therefore, somehting like a critical pt, completley discombobulates them. Many times they can't get past a simple procedure let alone critical thinking. I've done ER /ICU/OHRU for almost 30 years now. I'm " Old", and many days I feel busy and overworked but, I can still keep up with the best of them. Nursing is no more stressful now than it was in the 80's. Sometimes I just want to say , put your " I'm a nurse now, panties on" , stop whining and start learning. If you didn't learn it before you got to the hospital, you need to learn it sometime.
I think on some level everyone is right on this topic. Yes, we new nurses/nursing students are stressed and scrambling to keep up. I think valid points have been made regarding the nursing education, good preceptors, actual hands on experience vs. simulation exercises, etc. But, keep in mind that a nurse/student who is worried about doing a good enough job is a nurse/student worth working with. It's the ones who don't worry about whether they are getting it right that need to consider another role, perhaps.
Things were challenging 30 years ago for different reasons but I don't think it makes anyone's personal experience any more or less stressful. It's just different. So, as another nurse posted earlier... it's good to allow all of us nurses - new or seasoned - to air out our concerns, support each other and get through it all whether it's the beginning of our career or pre-retirement. As new nurses, we need your guidance, experience and wisdom to pack into our bag filled with our education, readings, and our own life experiences. As seasoned nurses, we hope that you WANT US to learn from you and carry on in your path when you are ready to do something different. We all need each other, don't we? Here's a shout of encouragement to the new nurses/nursing students and a great shout of thanks to the amazing nurses that we can all learn from!
Specializes in Medical, ortho/neuro, jail, occupational.
What a great topic and great responses.
I am also an "old" nurse and saw much different issues that nurses see today on the floors. I have always thought that nursing was a career of passion and love for the job and when that is not the reason people chose nursing, it is always stressful.
There is more talk of stress today in any field I think so I can't believe that a career that deals with life and death and people who are ill can have any less stress than a realtor or investor advisor. It is a sign of the times and always has been.
Hang in there, find good stress reducing measures that you can use during work and after work. I can only say that in the 39 years I have been in nursing, I have enjoyed even when stress and the career has been good to me.
I am still applying to nursing school so I have no firsthand experience, but my mom has been a nurse for 30 years or so and I've often heard her and her work friends say that their first couple of years were just awful, but it got much better and they mostly love it now. So, I fully expect to have a hard time at first but I think that her perspective will help me. For an older nurse to acknowledge that starting out is really tough while providing encouragement to hang in there seems like a good approach to me.
(Also, she and her friends do complain a lot about having to do more paperwork and constantly learn new computer systems and going to useless meetings where consultants who are paid much more than they are - but who never even talk to the nurses about their work - lecture on "reducing waste" and working more productively to save the hospital money. She says she speaks up to doctors and management a lot more now than she did when she was younger and that she's glad she does, although I'm sure it helps that she has more experience now.)
I have been a nurse only five years now and have worked in many states and year after year I see more responsibilities pilled on nurses combined with less on the job training. I have heard over and over again older nurses tell newbies how they did twice the amount of work that the newbies perform. This may be true and I take the time to figure out how they did all this work in a day. The truth is that the older nurses accepted responsibilities which were not safe and performed functions according to what they decided was priority to them and the patients and thereby performing poor work, putting patients at risk, and putting their licenses at risk. Newbies are being educated about safe job assignments and proper training before accepting assingments because in the end it is them and not their greedy employers that are called before the Nursing Board. It is not enough to say to newbies to refer to policy and procedures if there is something they need to know. Training, training, training,...., patience, and a fair work load makes great nurses.
p.s. I'm male ( needs getting used to?) so no panties
Unfortunately,many of the new nurses I work with prefer to spend their downtime texting friends on their cell phones. talking with each other and shopping on the internet. Unlike the apparent olden days, when a patient crashes they run the other way or ignore the problem rather than at least observing the management of that patient. They don't want to learn how to operate complicated technology and frankly this "old girl" (graduated in 1981) is sick of that behavior.
I have to agree, belle.
The work ethic of many of these new young nurses and young CNAs is horrible! We are at work to do just that...work! not text our friends, talk on our cellphones and stay on a break!
Specializes in Day Surgery, Agency, Cath Lab, LTC/Psych.
I have to agree, belle.
The work ethic of many of these new young nurses and young CNAs is horrible! We are at work to do just that...work! not text our friends, talk on our cellphones and stay on a break!
I may not be a new grad but I am generation Y. I would just like to ask that people not oversimplify this by lumping all people in this generation under such a large umbrella. I never receive personal calls at work. I turn off my cell phone when I clock in. I never check my email on the work computer. I am one of the hardest workers I know.
I think laziness, whining, griping, and gossiping are negative traits that are not exclusive to any age group.
Specializes in psychiatric, UR analyst, fraud, DME,MedB.
It sounded like you are a very efficient nurse.....but you were not when you were a new grad ? There are more factors here involved. #1 a school that intimidates their student instead of helping them w/ their confidence #2 a lousy orientation in any facility will put even the best achiever into a spin, doubts and insecurity. My nurse sister had a very good and understanding preceptor..and she swears that if not for this preceptor, she would not be as confidence and efficient as she is now. #3 our patient population have changed to much older , sicker and multipled diagnosis. I can see some people that goes into nursing for the "money" and really do not have the stomach to go into nursing...I can see as to why they are having problems. But look at it this way... nursing school is not easy specially the non private ones......the community or university nursing is tough to get in. ex. 300 candidates for a community nursing school on the waiting list and only 50 were allowed. Based from some points in how many sciences and general pre requisites you have finished ( to make your life livable) . It was tough!
Specializes in psychiatric, UR analyst, fraud, DME,MedB.
Thank you for the reminder that nursing is not a women-only profession! I hate the word "panties" anyway.
:lol2:Funny you two ! Yes , we are glad that nursing is just not for women only.....but be careful w/ the panties.......majority of us do not wear panties anymore.......:chuckle
I'm sorry that you've had that experience on your floor. I've only been a nurse for a year, and fall completely into the Gen Y group.
I NEVER have my cell phone with me while I'm working. I've Never recieved a personal call while at work. I do talk with coworkers during downtime, but I also clean areas that housekeeping seems to "miss", I research pathophys I'm not familiar with, read the manuals for our machines, do nursing histories on my patients, etc.
Try to remember that not all of us are looking for an easy way out (if i were I would NOT have gone into nursing, lol).
I'm not Gen Y, but I am a yearling in nursing.
I do carry my cell phone as back up to the agency-supplied one, as I make home visits over a large geographic area. I NEVER get or make personal calls during work.
'Course that may have less to do with my personal virtue and work ethic than the fact that I work midnight to 0830.
At the end of the day, there are a group of people far more likely to be stressed than nurses, and with good reason. Who, you ask?
Patients!
They are the ones who are sick/injured/dying. Besides that considerable stress, many of them will be worrying about the bills, how much paid time off work they have, how their loved ones will cope with their absence (permanent or otherwise), whether they'll have a relapse, etc.
A bit of perspective helps. Six decades ago, a polio epidemic raged across this country, striking many kids with a debilitating, often fatal illness. No warning, just finding your life turned upside down and your child desparately sick.
Through most of human history, people have coped with famine, plague and other uncontrolled epidemics, natural disasters, etc. There was no unemployment insurance, antibiotics, or counselors.
Most of our stressors that we talk about here, real as they are, don't rise to the level of what our ancestors lived with all their lives. They managed to make it and beget us. We are all inheritors of the traits that allowed them to cope.
Specializes in Medical, ortho/neuro, jail, occupational.
I have some concerns and probably some defensiveness about calling earlier nursing putting patients at risk , etc. I read about medication errors and judgement errors still occuring and we had them also. Generally, current hospital care has it's own critics and not all of them are nurses.
Acceptance and support are important to nursing in general. Generally doing the best you can and taking care of each other as well as care for our patients is key.
I agree with your comment about knowing hwat your responsibilites and optiosn are prior to taking the job.
If you didn't learn it before you got to the hospital, you need to learn it sometime.
mechai44
7 Posts
I think on some level everyone is right on this topic. Yes, we new nurses/nursing students are stressed and scrambling to keep up. I think valid points have been made regarding the nursing education, good preceptors, actual hands on experience vs. simulation exercises, etc. But, keep in mind that a nurse/student who is worried about doing a good enough job is a nurse/student worth working with. It's the ones who don't worry about whether they are getting it right that need to consider another role, perhaps.
Things were challenging 30 years ago for different reasons but I don't think it makes anyone's personal experience any more or less stressful. It's just different. So, as another nurse posted earlier... it's good to allow all of us nurses - new or seasoned - to air out our concerns, support each other and get through it all whether it's the beginning of our career or pre-retirement. As new nurses, we need your guidance, experience and wisdom to pack into our bag filled with our education, readings, and our own life experiences. As seasoned nurses, we hope that you WANT US to learn from you and carry on in your path when you are ready to do something different. We all need each other, don't we? Here's a shout of encouragement to the new nurses/nursing students and a great shout of thanks to the amazing nurses that we can all learn from!