A friend linked your blog on my Facebook. I’m a CNA in an inner city hospital, hopefully starting my nursing classes this spring at the age of 35. I worked for years in the financial services industry before I got so burnt out that I realized if I didn’t change careers I’d likely end up jumping off a bridge.

I love my new career but between my own chronic health issues and the emotional toll of the job, a lot of my family/friends just don’t get it when I have to miss family functions, weddings or other social invitations because I need to sleep. (“You don’t go to work until midnight…I don’t see why you can’t do X Y and Z in the midafternoon!”)

I tend to be really hard on myself for not being able to be all things to everyone. Thanks for the reminder that I’m not a horrible person because of it.

I am a retired RN who specialized in Geriatrics for the large part of my 42 years work life. I retired with some health problems and never looked back – even though I LOVED my work. I don’t believe I ever worked a day that I did not feel good about some part of it. I know that it is very HARD work and not everyone is meant for this career. If I met someone who did not love going to their job at least 1/2 time, it’s time to find something else. We tried to find lots of humour most days and that REALLY puts some situations in perspective. Death is part of living and I felt it a privilege to be able help a patient into the next life. Families became wonderful friends.

So very refreshing to meet another with my similar views…I’m an LPN who is going back to school for my RN and also write poetry and speak my mind freely without bounds….though-as the years continue to etch themselves into me, I am learning appropriate ways to communicate. Swearing is a must – still! So nice to hear your thoughts….thank you.

well said.

Wow! You said it sister! it just seems like cutting unnecessary costs and maybe adding another nurse per shift would help decrease the physical, mental and emotional toll. But who are we to say anything?? Just the caretakers, doctors go-between, family supporters, lifesavers, etc……Nurses need a louder voice. It’s not fair to fear your upcoming shift. We are nurses bc we care about others but our mental, physical and emotional needs are important.. We must stand up for each other and voice our needs. Each shift is new and different, patients and their families leave and new come in… You could have 6 of any type of patient really. Blood transfusions, returning postoperative from sx, nursing home pt with multi wounds, exhausting family members, pain meds, pain meds, pain meds, ng tube insertion and suction, peg tube feeding, dressing changes, at least 3 new IV starts each shift, not to mention charting which takes the longest. So please don’t treat nurses poorly or like they are servants because they know how to prioritize and they are exhausted. Lol and it’s never just 12 hours haha, I wish

Nursing isn’t what it used to be. People have little respect for what we do now a days. I’ve worked as an RN for over 30 years & it seems we are treated like crap!! Not only from some of the patients who expect to be waited on, as if we were running a restaurant. But also from administration. We are used to the max & if we let them, they will use us up until we have health issues of our own, not to mention the emotional drain the work can cause. I love caring for people & helping them through some of the roughest hours of their lives. To me it’s an honor to be there for others, offering support & encouragement. But, it becomes harder to do this when I myself may be going through some of the toughest times in my life. Balancing family life, caring for aging & ill parents, trying to plan wedding and working full time is nearly impossible. Something, or someone has to be left out at times….usually it’s myself. I used to have time to get a massage once in a while, or spend a day relaxing doing something I enjoy, but those days seem to be over for now. I’m longing for a break…and have time off in Feb. in which I had hoped would be a honeymoon, but due to my parents needing so much help I haven’t planned the wedding. Hopefully I will soon get a trip for my fiancé & myself booked. Anyway…..hang in there nurses!!! We are strong or we wouldn’t be nurses! Things will get better!!! Encourage & support your co-workers. Speak up to administration when it’s needed. We are valuable and necessary for hospital to run. It’s up to us to say something when we are put in situations that seem unsafe. Working 16 hours is not safe. Why are there laws limiting hours of work for truck drivers, pilots, air traffic controllers, etc., but none for doctors or nurses?

Thank you so much for your blog it is so true I posted it on my FB ssite I can’t wait to see the responses, I hope someone will read it . But with it being New Year’s and all we’ll see. Thanks again so very well put. Won’t you love to set up a site where only nurses could vent without fear a retaliation. There is a local hospital who employees FB pages are monitored for their content and have being fired for some of their post. No free speech in Jersey.

Saw the posting on facebook…….wow did it resonate with me, I have a wonderful career BUT, THERE IS ALWAYS THE BUT………yes we do give up a lot…..32 years in the profession as an R.N. ….wife, mother, tried to volunteer and ” have a life” around shift work….not easy. Keep up the great work and telling people how it is !!!!!! All the best for 2014. Cheers, Jane

I am a nurse working in a hospital and I too present as straight…..you hit the mark with everything you say….. But you did miss an important ongoing issue that is defeating and destroys confidence. Female white nurses often do not support each other and in fact take pleasure to “report” mistakes to their manager …. These errors made by fellow nurses could be dressing changes, medication errors, charting mistakes, IV tubing changes, expiration dates and more. That is not to say that Patient safety must come first….that goes without saying… But to report an error to the manager is not the way to prevent future errors… It only serves to “get that nurse written up”. The outcome would be far better to speak with that nurse to mentor and support them discussing the circumstance surrounding the error and ways to prevent future errors. Nursing is such an exhausting emotionally difficult job…. Why would we not help each other to learn from mistakes? I guess the reward the “reporter ” gets to their own ego must be a better feeling than knowing you have helped and supported .. Maybe even taught a fellow nurse!

My son died at the Sloan Kettering pediatric unit some 20 years ago, after spending most of his last two years in hospital. My son was not unusual — most of the children in the SK pediatric unit die in hospital, since the kids at SK tend to have the most serious cancers. In a high-stress place like SK, bad stuff tends to happen on a routine basis. Sometimes a nurse loses his or her temper during a shift, or fails to respond in a timely way, It was not unusual for nurses to burn out after only a year or two in the SK pediatric unit. My wife and I saw all this — and more — during our many days and nights at our son’s bedside in the hospital. Still, more than 20 years later, we remain deeply grateful for the extraordinarily professional and, yes, loving care that these nurses provided to our dying son (and to us, his parents, during the ordeal). We thanked each of the nurses at the time. I wish we could find each of those nurses now, two decades later, to thank them again, and let them know how much their service meant — and still means — to us. God bless nurses.

Hi JoAnne,
Thank you for sharing your writing. It is hard to be wrong in public and to admit it. I have had to learn the hard way a couple of times!
I am a blogger and Women’s Studies instructor and I’d like to teach your blog post in , “Leaving White Feminism” on a unit on feminism and blogging. I will only do so with your permission. If you choose not to, I totally understand as well.

~Renina