Am I experiencing nurse burn out?

Taken from this website
Could I be experiencing job burnout?

Ask yourself the following questions:

Have you become cynical or critical at work? Yes, so much so that if something goes wrong I've gotten to the point where I laugh and say 'yeah, figures." Nothing surprises me anymore. Patient pulls their IV out. Figured that idiot would. Pt family has a complaint about something that happened on day shift? Yeah, well get over it. Nothing I can do about it. I wasn't here. I'm snappy, I'm mean. I'm not that nice nurse I was 12 months ago. Nursing is changing me. 

Do you drag yourself to work and have trouble getting started once you arrive? Yes, and almost throw up in the car before I get out. I used to be so quick to get started working. Now I can give two shits about starting on time. Pt will still complain that I haven't served them fast enough. Who really gives a fuck anymore.

Have you become irritable or impatient with co-workers, customers or clients? Yes, to the point when I vent when I get home. More about patients than co workers. I know my co workers are going through the same hell as me. Patients, not the really sick ones, need to grow a pair and go the fuck home.

Do you lack the energy to be consistently productive? Yes. I take mini breaks during my shift. It helps since I never take my full thirty min. one. Guess it adds up.

Do you lack satisfaction from your achievements? Yes, but then when I think I've done something right I get told I did something wrong. I don't see the point anymore.

Do you feel disillusioned about your job? Yes, by all the lies I was told when I was hired.

Are you using food, drugs or alcohol to feel better or to simply not feel? Yes, wine on my days off. Yay for that warm sleepy feeling. Food not so much. I don't eat as much as I should I think.

Have your sleep habits or appetite changed? Yes, I sleep okay, I guess, but I'm always tired no matter how much sleep I get.

Are you troubled by unexplained headaches, backaches or other physical complaints? Yes, reflux, head aches, muscle aches, pain, and dizziness. YES, YES YES

Switch to Royal Blue

So, my work place has decided to change all RN scrubs from navy to royal blue in an attempt to make us appear more professional and 'uniform.' Okay, so this wouldn't be such a huge pain in the ass if the higher ups actually fixed the 'real' problems within the hospital.

Patients do not care what nurses are wearing. They could care less that a nurse's outfit is off gray instead of a crisp navy blue. I've never heard a patient or their family complain that a nurse wasn't wearing the right color and that they didn't look 'professional' enough. They care more about the care they are receiving versus how fashionable their nurse's scrubs are.

In addition to scrub colors, my work place has spent thousands of dollars painting and redecorating the floors within the hospital. This money could have gone to hiring sitters to sit with hostile patients in the ED. This money could have been spent fixing the computers that nurses use and physicians use. They could have also hired techs for floors that are continuously short staffed or paying for another nurse or two to work on the floor so that our nurse to patient ratio could decrease to 5 like we were all promised when we were hired.

But no. Now our walls are blue instead of beige and the floors are fake wood instead of carpet. And nurses, and other professionals, are now being asked to buy new scrubs in an attempt to impress. I bet the people who are quitting left and right are so glad that their place of work is changing their scrub colors. THAT will make them want to stick around and work in a place so horribly managed that they can't even take a break to piss and eat within a 12 hr shift.

And I just love the pretty painted bathrooms. As if I get to see them at all during my entire, bloody shift.

The first thing you learn in nursing school is to prioritize your care. Did management skip this class or were they too busy deciding whether to wear a blue or black suit to class that day?

This is yet another reason why I'll be happy to leave this hospital. I'll be glad to work for a place that cares more about their workers than what they look like on the outside.

Sums up my hate of call lights

Oh in a perfect world.... (found on allnurses.com)

A selective call bell system..for example,when the call bell rings, they have an automated choice....

Enter 1 if you are calling to say you have to crap AGAIN.

Enter 2 if you are calling to say you have already s**t (this a totally different problem).

Enter 3 if you are a drug seeking a$hole and are requesting morphine.

Enter 4 if your crazy family is here and they want to speak with me.

Enter 5 if you feel like complaining and think I give a damn.

Enter 6 if you dropped your tissue box again and think I am coming in anytime soon to pick it up.

Enter 7 if you think I am a damn waitress and will get you the meal you actually ordered.

Enter 8 if your IV is beeping again because you just can't seem to remember to keep your ******* arm straight no matter how many times we tell you.

Enter 9 if you think Nurses walk on water, you haven't called since you have come in, you hate to bother me, your family is normal, you ARE having crushing chest pain and think you are going to die....I'll be right there.

Do not hit 9 when you meant to hit 2. You will wish you did die!

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If only we really had this!

So....

Tonight was a good night. No real complaints.