12 years a Slave (called nursing)

Nurses Stress 101

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Specializes in Ortho, Med/Surg, ED, CCU- Agency.

I don't know how to start with this post, before I begin I'd like to have a full disclosure

I am a stubborn person, ambitious, inquisitive and I don't settle for not knowing. At work, I don't get into the politics of it all because my goal is to learn everything there is to learn, not to aim for the highest position there is out there. I am generally a happy easy going workmate, more than happy to help out.

Been doing this for 12years +, from acute, subacute, community, did bit of aged care, went into critical care and I have recently started in ICU. In my mind, its a hard area hence why I want to conquer it. I want to learn and thrive..~~

Lately, I have anxiety ++ going to work, I have nightmares that I fall asleep at work and patients die. I am tiptoeing and second guessing myself with every clinical decision no matter how solid. The people I work with, 15% are nice, kind and humble. The rest are egoistic, harsh, love to criticise and love to see fresh face crash and burn. I enjoy the learning aspect but I don't enjoy being made to feel this way.

I have 2 little kids at home and this is taking a toll on family life. I am so stressed, so burned out that I don't enjoy thing else anymore. May I add, its a bad habit but I smoke( going from 1cig once a blue moon to a pack every 2 weeks), I drink more

Is this the point that someone would consider a change of career or do I need to grow a pair and adapt to this crude workplace culture. I have heard of people sharing their stories and they all begin with "it was a bold choice" and ends with "I have not looked back and I have never been happier"..I envy those, how do I get there? I want to achieve the level of happiness and contentment at work. I don't go to work to be anxious and stressed !

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Nurse for 7 yrs and I still get anxiety days before my shift. Sometimes I even hate my job(depsite how grateful I am for it) theres just somethin about it. I get you %100.

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Hello, I feel like your post reminds me of what I have been going through. I have been an RN for 14 years and I recently just put my 2 weeks in last week. I don't have another job lined up. I plan on taking a break for 2 or 3 months and finding an RN job outside of the med/surg setting, that I have will do next. I was getting sick ALOT (I was so sick I had all the covid19 symptoms but I tested negative-never been sick like that before in my life-it could have been a false negative who knows). I also had the lack of sleep/anxiety. I was barely sleeping before shifts since the panendemic. The whole panendemic, mask wearing for 12 hours, some snotty coworkers. It was just all getting to me. I have 2 little kids at home and I was constantly worried I was bringing it home to them. I could barely functions for about 2 days after working. There were some nights I didn't sleep at all from worry. My Dr. prescribed me some hydroxyzine which I take here and there for sleep. What was also a turning point for me was that I had floated to the ICU as an nurse extender. It was such an awful shift seeing patient's suffering and then I had to put someone in a body bag after they passed. I probably had to do that about 5 times total since being a nurse. I thought geez I don't do that often but I hate hate hate it. I said to myself I don't want to have to put anybody in a body bag ever again. I had been burned out a long time at my job, but I made alot of money just being part time. That's why I know it was so hard for me to leave for the longest time and I didn't have the support from family, because they thought I was lucky making all kinds of money. I am looking into maybe medical transcribing or remote RN work at home type stuff. I understand the pain your going through right now. Maybe consider a different RN job or something else temporarily?

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

This type of hyperbole is what diminishes the plight of marginalized populations. Nurses are not slaves. We are free people who choose to stay in this career (or leave) for our own personal reasons. The say being a nurse is like being a slaves means that you understand being captured sold transported and working in Chains. You are free to quit your job any time, find a new one or leave nursing altogether. No one will hunt you down with dogs and hang you from a tree,

Hppy

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Specializes in Stepdown . Telemetry.
On 6/19/2020 at 7:08 PM, hppygr8ful said:

This type of hyperbole is what diminishes the plight of marginalized populations. Nurses are not slaves. We are free people who choose to stay in this career (or leave) for our own personal reasons. The say being a nurse is like being a slaves means that you understand being captured sold transported and working in Chains. You are free to quit your job any time, find a new one or leave nursing altogether. No one will hunt you down with dogs and hang you from a tree,

Hppy

OK perhaps the OP’s title was a questionable one, as I don’t find it appropriate to equate pretty much anything to slavery. However, despite the title, the main content of the post was not using nursing is like slavery as a thesis. It's not comparable obviously to slavery, rather the plight of many nurses struggling with the conditions of inpatient nursing today is uniquely troubling. I related to the OPs struggles.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Life is too short to be miserable in your job. Let go of the fallacy that you have to be good at -- and enjoy-- all nursing work environments. You have enough experience to know whether of not this job is a good fit for you or not. If not (and that sounds like the case) ... start job hunting.

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On 6/10/2020 at 3:01 PM, Colleen8080 said:

Hello, I feel like your post reminds me of what I have been going through. I have been an RN for 14 years and I recently just put my 2 weeks in last week. I don't have another job lined up. I plan on taking a break for 2 or 3 months and finding an RN job outside of the med/surg setting, that I have will do next. I was getting sick ALOT (I was so sick I had all the covid19 symptoms but I tested negative-never been sick like that before in my life-it could have been a false negative who knows). I also had the lack of sleep/anxiety. I was barely sleeping before shifts since the panendemic. The whole panendemic, mask wearing for 12 hours, some snotty coworkers. It was just all getting to me. I have 2 little kids at home and I was constantly worried I was bringing it home to them. I could barely functions for about 2 days after working. There were some nights I didn't sleep at all from worry. My Dr. prescribed me some hydroxyzine which I take here and there for sleep. What was also a turning point for me was that I had floated to the ICU as an nurse extender. It was such an awful shift seeing patient's suffering and then I had to put someone in a body bag after they passed. I probably had to do that about 5 times total since being a nurse. I thought geez I don't do that often but I hate hate hate it. I said to myself I don't want to have to put anybody in a body bag ever again. I had been burned out a long time at my job, but I made alot of money just being part time. That's why I know it was so hard for me to leave for the longest time and I didn't have the support from family, because they thought I was lucky making all kinds of money. I am looking into maybe medical transcribing or remote RN work at home type stuff. I understand the pain your going through right now. Maybe consider a different RN job or something else temporarily?

OH my goodness, I feel like I really relate to this. Anxiety, feeling ill, unable to recuperate. My doctor also prescribed me hydroxizine but I am on the brink of quitting. It's hard to feel like a failure, which is how I feel after doing this work for a while, but I agree I feel like I can't function for a couple days after work and then feel ill frequently. Why does it seem like some people can just do this stuff for years and years?? I have been at it for 5 years. 3.5 of those years part time. Does anyone else feel like its hard to quit or think of doing something else(potentially lower paid) because they feel like it will be hard to advance in the career later on, like people will look down on it?

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