Things I enjoy about my job:
1. The pay.
2. Yep, that's it.
Things I dislike about my job:
1. Needy patients and their even needier family members.
2. The sense of entitlement most patients have when they enter the hospital. No, we don't have a private room right now. Stop acting like a spoiled child because you can't have one right now. Fucking babies.
3. Being yelled at by doctors for informing them about their patient's needs.
4. Bipolar doctors who are nice one day and mean as hell the next.
5. Giving report to people who ask twelve thousand questions about things they could look up themselves.
5. Being responsible for things not being done by lab, physical therapy, xray, pharmacy, etc.
6. My coworkers
7. The paperwork
8. Working with alcoholics and extremely mean psych patients.
9. Passing medications to people who take forever to take them.
10. Being a narcotic drug pusher. Feeling like all I do all shift is pass pain medications.
11. Lifting overweight people up in the bed who can't seem to comprehend that they should try to assist in some way.
12. Having kids run around on the floor during the entire shift.
13. Family members who insist on remaining on the floor all night and don't seem to understand that they should move out the way when I enter the room. Especially those who block the door with recliners and get irritated when I ask them to move so I can open the fucking door.
14. My manager. Bless her heart.
15. Being called on my days off about stupid shit I can fix when I get to work.
16. Staff meetings that last 2 hours after a long night shift.
17. Working night shift.
18. Patients who ask for stupid things at 3 am in the morning. Example: I haven't had a BM ALL DAY. Suddenly they need a stool softener at 3 in the morning. No, I'm not calling the doctor about that. Sorry.
19. Day shift nurses who miss very important orders all day and claim to have only seen orders such as transfuse 2 units of blood at shift change even though the order was written at 9 am that morning.
20. Feeling anxious about the team of patients I'll have to take care of because I'm not comfortable with most of the comordities on the floor.
21. Feeling like I have no support on the floor most days.
22. Never getting the chance to take a break.
23. How sick to my stomach I get before each shift.
24. Open visiting hours. Yes, please come visit your family member at 2 in the morning. They don't need to sleep. And yes, bring your kids as well.
25. Family who call for updates on their family members at 9 pm. No, I can't give you any information over the phone. Why didn't you just come to the hospital during the day?
26. Being swung at, having ice thrown at me, being called a bitch by patients.
27. Damn. I hate everything...
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Monday, December 31, 2012
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
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
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
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.
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.
Friday, December 21, 2012
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$hole and are requesting morphine.
Enter 4 if your crazy family is here and they want to speak with me.
Enter 5 if you feel like complaining and think I give a damn.
Enter 6 if you dropped your tissue box again and think I am coming in anytime soon to pick it up.
Enter 7 if you think I am a damn waitress and will get you the meal you actually ordered.
Enter 8 if your IV is beeping again because you just can't seem to remember to keep your ******* arm straight no matter how many times we tell you.
Enter 9 if you think Nurses walk on water, you haven't called since you have come in, you hate to bother me, your family is normal, you ARE having crushing chest pain and think you are going to die....I'll be right there.
Do not hit 9 when you meant to hit 2. You will wish you did die!
A selective call bell system..for example,when the call bell rings, they have an automated choice....
Enter 1 if you are calling to say you have to crap AGAIN.
Enter 2 if you are calling to say you have already s**t (this a totally different problem).
Enter 3 if you are a drug seeking a$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!
----
If only we really had this!
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Sometimes I wonder
If nursing is really for me. It's hard to remember the good days when the bad days stand out so prominently in my mind. I know I've grown as a nurse since I started working in August 2011. My confidence in my skills have far surpassed what I thought I could ever accomplish yet, each day I feel like I take one step forward and two steps back. Three steps back on those days where I do something that makes me question my future as a nurse. It's the tiny things that bog me down. Not calling the doctor about things that I probably should have. Not important things like blood sugars, elevated bp, critical labs, but small things that in retrospect I should have known to call about but didn't even think about. I feel incompetent sometimes. I've been doing this nursing thing for 15 months and yet I still feel like a newbie.
Everyone talks about this miracle 'ah ha' moment after your first year and I have to say I haven't had that moment yet. Sure, I know more about what's going on than the new GEMS on the floor. I know procedures, paperwork, who to call about what (sometimes...). I know how to handle family members to a degree. I've had my fair share of unruly patients and I think I've handled them to the best of my ability. Nursing school doesn't teach you about paperwork, mean doctors, the fact that if anything isn't done by another department it's the nurse's fault. They don't show you the 'mean side' of nursing. I wish they would. I very much doubt students would continue the course if they were repeatedly yelled at my doctors during preceptorship, had to deal with alcoholics hitting them spitting and cursing at them, rude family members who think they deserve all of your attention and who treat you like a waitress rather than a professional.
Had the rose colored glasses of nursing school been taken off prior to my senior year I would have changed majors. Yet, here I am. Stuck in a profession that I'm beginning to hate. I've spent more time looking for a job, any job, to take me away from the hospital or nursing in general. If I had more good days than bad I would like my job. I wouldn't mind waking up and going in to take care of patients. I'd actually enjoy my job. Thing is, I've had more bad days and those days have made me regret wasting 5 years of my life studying late into the night to pass an exam to get into nursing school. It has made me regret walking in the freezing cold to catch a bus to go to class to take classes that would ultimately lead me to where I am now.
Had I known what I know now about nursing I wouldn't have gone down this path. I'd be free of this gray cloud that hovers over my head an hour before I have to go to work. I wouldn't cry every day just thinking about how I absolutely hate taking care of people who don't appreciate it.
Nursing really isn't for me and I think I've finally figured that out. I may return to school to pursue something less stressful. The only thing that's keeping me at my current job is the pay and my coworkers. I didn't have any money before I started working and I'm sure I will find nice coworkers elsewhere.
Nursing isn't meant to for everyone. It's definitely not meant for me. I'm happy to finally admit that.
Everyone talks about this miracle 'ah ha' moment after your first year and I have to say I haven't had that moment yet. Sure, I know more about what's going on than the new GEMS on the floor. I know procedures, paperwork, who to call about what (sometimes...). I know how to handle family members to a degree. I've had my fair share of unruly patients and I think I've handled them to the best of my ability. Nursing school doesn't teach you about paperwork, mean doctors, the fact that if anything isn't done by another department it's the nurse's fault. They don't show you the 'mean side' of nursing. I wish they would. I very much doubt students would continue the course if they were repeatedly yelled at my doctors during preceptorship, had to deal with alcoholics hitting them spitting and cursing at them, rude family members who think they deserve all of your attention and who treat you like a waitress rather than a professional.
Had the rose colored glasses of nursing school been taken off prior to my senior year I would have changed majors. Yet, here I am. Stuck in a profession that I'm beginning to hate. I've spent more time looking for a job, any job, to take me away from the hospital or nursing in general. If I had more good days than bad I would like my job. I wouldn't mind waking up and going in to take care of patients. I'd actually enjoy my job. Thing is, I've had more bad days and those days have made me regret wasting 5 years of my life studying late into the night to pass an exam to get into nursing school. It has made me regret walking in the freezing cold to catch a bus to go to class to take classes that would ultimately lead me to where I am now.
Had I known what I know now about nursing I wouldn't have gone down this path. I'd be free of this gray cloud that hovers over my head an hour before I have to go to work. I wouldn't cry every day just thinking about how I absolutely hate taking care of people who don't appreciate it.
Nursing really isn't for me and I think I've finally figured that out. I may return to school to pursue something less stressful. The only thing that's keeping me at my current job is the pay and my coworkers. I didn't have any money before I started working and I'm sure I will find nice coworkers elsewhere.
Nursing isn't meant to for everyone. It's definitely not meant for me. I'm happy to finally admit that.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
3 days in a row
I can quite honestly say, working 3 days in a row on nights is NOT gonna work. I feel like a zombie. THANK HEAVENS this is the third day. I'll be sure to let who ever makes the schedule know that I hate it. If they put me down for another 3 days in a row I'm seriously going to call out one of those days.
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