5 yr Nurse Burnout

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I have been a nurse for almost 5 yrs now in a cardiac step-down unit/progressive care unit. This year, i feel like I am in a rut. I love being a nurse but lately at work, I am more grumpy and just feeling lost in my purpose. I don't know where to go or begin if I need to move on to a different nursing field? I don't want to come to work grumpy at my co-workers. That is the main thing. I still do my job with hard work and compassion to my patients and their family members. Maybe this is just a phase where I feel in a rut? Has anybody experience the same feeling?

4 hours ago, ambersky004 said:

The topic of workplace incivility calls to mind. Our beloved profession can be taxing on the body and spirit. With all of the pressures we face in our units every day as we take care of patients with increasingly complex comorbidities, there is no room for the added stress of lateral violence. Some co-workers are not really aware of how to communicate well. They feel insecure and jealous and started bullying you. What we permit, we promote, and it is incumbent on all of us to draw a line in the sand and say “enough” when it comes to workplace incivility.

^^^Agree with this 110%^^^. I have been an RN for a lot of years and worked in many hospitals and different practice areas. With few exceptions, there are almost always the same types everywhere it seems; the pot-stirrer, the gossip, the anal retentive tyrant, the slacker, the ones who chronically call off, the micromanager, the savior, the 'know it all', and then your garden variety toxic personalites. I also have never understood the power trips that nurses play-the hoarding (and not sharing) of information is so passive-aggressive, but also another common behavior of nurses that I have observed!

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On 4/13/2019 at 10:07 PM, ambersky004 said:

I feel the no tolerance sometimes on their unrealistic expectations. I am trying to use some of my PTO hours for some break away from work.

Seriously folks, they expect perfection from fallible people. Trying to live up to those expectations is chasing a lot of nurses away. I haven't counted how many scales, assessments and checklists I have to do on each patient each shift, but it's ALOT! I hear ya. I'm pretty tired of it all. I wish I could be a nurse like I used to be, when there weren't all these restrictions and time consuming lists. I used to be able to take care of people.

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On 4/12/2019 at 10:15 AM, ambersky004 said:

I have been a nurse for almost 5 yrs now in a cardiac step-down unit/progressive care unit. This year, i feel like I am in a rut. I love being a nurse but lately at work, I am more grumpy and just feeling lost in my purpose. I don't know where to go or begin if I need to move on to a different nursing field? I don't want to come to work grumpy at my co-workers. That is the main thing. I still do my job with hard work and compassion to my patients and their family members. Maybe this is just a phase where I feel in a rut? Has anybody experience the same feeling?

A friend left the kind of unit you are currently on. She said she got tired of taking care of people who were so sick. She is on rehab now and likes it. I think a change of pace might help you. At least look around and see what is out there. No one said you had to stay forever.

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23 hours ago, KalipsoRed21 said:

I am looking into being a phlebotomist and opening an RV park.

Love this. I completely understand how you feel. I find myself dreaming of such things when I'm frustrated and burnt out.

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On 4/14/2019 at 10:53 PM, KalipsoRed21 said:

I have been an RN for 11 years and trying to find a balance in nursing for 10. I have had a different job every two years or less, travel nursed, changed specialties....I have yet to find a job where most of time I see any ‘good’ (like patient improvement) in what I do. Most of the stories are heart breaking due to the diagnosis or the lack of social support for the patient. I rarely go home on time, I mostly do not feel well compensated for the work I do (travel nursing was the closest I ever got to decent pay), I now do Home Health, which is better because I can be at home with my husband, but I spend HOURS and HOURS at home charting. Do not let the 8-4:30 pm time frame of home health fool you, that is very rare as far as completed work, but I do usually get home by 4:30-5pm....Then chart until 9pm or 10pm. I don’t have an answer for you....I am looking into being a phlebotomist and opening an RV park.

I tried home health and did not like the idea of having to do go back out after getting home to do a patient visit. It felt like I was working all day. Like you said, the charting is insane. I think the better option is a remote position with no travel.

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Specializes in NICU.

If everyone is not pulling their weight it can make work very dicey and unrewarding.We had a co worker that went and chatted with patients,sat in their rooms,oh how they loved her,giving her gifts,glowing praise,...meanwhile the rest of us were running around answering all the call bells while she was no where to be found.When confronted she got very angry,arrogant and downright nasty, that sweet face was gone,just a *** with gnarled teeth barking back at us.

So glad she left.

Take a break aholiday or a sick day.

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Yes and more Yeeeees! This is going to sound like an immature story from childhood. I will preface it with, I was always destined to be in medicine. I will always be in some shape or form in medicine. What you need to do is punch back harder in a strategic way (as to not get you fired) so that they learn to stop. I had a big butch, ugly, bully in elementary school. I simply couldn't understand why this person even cared about me. One day she pushed me. And none of my friends stuck up for me, likely because they were scared too. I went home and told my dad about it. It sounds so silly but it was really a moment in my life that I will never forget. My father told me, "Next time she pushes you, you push her back harder." I said, "But dad, shes huge!?" I told me, "I promise, push her back and she will fall to the ground like a little cry baby" Sure enough it happened about a week or two later. I wasn't proud of what I did, because the entire playground was laughing at her. But I did not apologize and she never touched or looked at me the same way again.

My point is, push back. Obviously, you can not literally push them back as an adult without likely losing your job. But learn to use your words and actions to be strategically a morally better person than they are. mostly it's about how you deal with jealous women. Strong women see another woman struggling and try to give support and constructive criticism. Weak women bully and break them down. Don't worry I won't give some cliche analogy... I think I've rattled on long enough.

My advice to you is to do your best to stand tall and stand up to them. Let them know you are not going to put up with their ***, you actually have a backbone and that you didn't go through hell and back to be a nurse just to deal with that sort of behavior. You must also learn to realize that people who behave that way are usually jealous and unhappy with themselves.

Bullies have no place in this world. It doesn't create a healthy learning environment for you and your life outside of your career, or new nurses and more importantly, it doesn't create a healthy overall environment for the patient.

My advice to you is to always be the bigger person, YET do not ever let yourself be bullied. Speak direct and look them straight in the eye. Believe me, most people only test me one time, then they learn they messed with the wrong women. It never happens again. Learn to do what you love in nursing, and then second learn how to address people who are passive aggressive, snotty, rude, narcissistic, you name it. Learn to be a better person while still doing your job.

When you perhaps one day might be in charge of running a nursing unit, discipline people like, and have a no tolerance agenda for that sort of behavior. Nursing is not the only place bullies lurk in the world. they are everywhere. again my advice is to learn to put them in their place IMMEDIATELY in a tactful way. Address it head-on, to ask them what the hell their problem is. It might be just a bad day. But it could also be they are just a bully.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
On 4/13/2019 at 2:42 PM, NightNerd said:

And my life at home has become all about recovering from work or preparing for it; I don't feel like a human being outside of this job. It feels like my whole life is being held hostage by this job all of a sudden.

There have been times in my life where therapy, mending personal relationships, focusing on eating well and exercising, etc. all helped me readjust to work. This time, these things aren't cutting it for me.

This is what the Work-Life Balance Pollyannas aren't getting. When ALL of your home life is spent recovering from work or preparing for it, there is literally no time or energy for anything else. Your job is eating your life. It is not sustainable.

I feel for everyone on this thread because that used to be me. Sending everyone hugs.

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Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.

You have five years in a specialty that's known to be a beat-down and as challenging as the medical ICU I started in.

You are a well-trained nurse, and you can go anywhere! ANYWHERE! Don't sit and stew a minute more. Best of luck to you.

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