The Effects of Nursing on Nurses
Hi, welcome to my blog post. I have never had a blog post get more than 50 comments, so I am a bit overwhelmed. After responding to many comments, here is a note:
Note: I wrote this blog entry at the end of my 3rd 12 hour shift in three days. I was tired and I was emotional. It is a blog post, not an “article.” It is not researched or sourced, it is purely opinion.
The point of this post is that nurses (and many other professions) need to take the time to practice self care and to encourage one another to practice self care.
My biggest mistake in this post (and there are many) was to use “her” or “she” when I should have used “they” or them.” I ignored my male coworkers, and I should not have. You have my apologies, and I have corrected the post. I have left “she” and “her” in place in the portion where I talk about my coworker.
I have read every comment posted and deleted some very nasty comments that were not helpful to conversation. If you feel this is the place to spew your vitriol, it is not.
August 11, 2013
This morning, while I was giving report to the day shift nurse taking over my patients, she burst into tears.
She’s going to miss her children’s hockey play offs due to our strictly enforced every other weekend schedules. You work every other weekend, no more, no less, unless you are going to college (I work every weekend because I’m in college). She’s their hockey coach, and inevitably, each year, their last game falls on a day their mother has to work. I’ve come in early for her before.
So I offered to come in on my night off for an hour and a half so she could get to the game. I’m coming in that early because I know she won’t be done charting.
She turned me down until another day RN got involved. I reminded my coworker I only live a mile from the hospital, and it really wasn’t a big sacrifice for me. She finally agreed, and calmed down. We got permission from the charge nurse.
Nursing is one of the largest professions in the world. If you don’t know a nurse, I’m really surprised. Nurses talk a lot about the rewards of nursing. Catching that vital sign, saving lives, providing comfort, but nurses, by nature, are taught to martyr themselves on the altar of nursing.
When I was a new grad, I hated coming to work so much that I would wish I’d get hit by a car on my way to work just to get out of work. One night, while checking medication sheets, I confessed this to some experienced nurses and found out some of them still felt the same way.
In nursing, it is NORMAL to have days where you wake up and just can’t mentally and emotionally face the day at work. I swear, the only other people who can understand this are nurses.
Nursing is emotionally, physically and mentally taxing, and some days you run too low on what you can give emotionally, physically and mentally. That minor back injury you don’t want to report to HR because you don’t want it on your record. Having a patient with constant diarrhea who can’t get out of bed and needs to be physically rolled and cleaned several times an hour. The cold you got from the two-year old someone brought in. The sorrow that comes from supporting someone who has just found out they were dying, holding in your own tears so you could wipe theirs. In one day, all of those patients could be yours.
I don’t know a nurse who hasn’t taken a mental health day. Some do it by requesting more vacation than others. Some do it by calling in sick, but it’s all time off because we are too drained to give anymore.
So if you know a nurse, and that nurse mentions to you that they feel like calling in because they just can’t take it another day, don’t give them a hard time. Especially if you have an 8-5 job with weekends off or some other really great schedule. The 12 hour shifts nurses work mean we miss the entire holiday we work with our families. Night shift nurses have to choose between holiday dinners or sleep. Often, if a nurse chooses to sleep rather than go to the holiday dinner, guilt ensues. Even though I’ve told my mother-in-law repeatedly that every nurse has to work holidays, she makes a point to say how horrible it is my husband has to be alone for a few hours. What about me? Working my ass off while everyone else celebrates?
We work hard. We are intentionally understaffed by our hospitals to improve profit, even if the hospital is a non-profit. We help people at the worst times of their lives, and often have no way to debrief, to get it off our chests. We don’t just bring warm blankets and pills. We are college educated, degreed professionals who are often treated like uneducated, lazy servants. We get sexually harassed by our patients. We get groped, punched, cut, I even know of a nurse on my floor being strangled (she survived).
Nursing can be rewarding. But nursing is a fucking hard job. If you are afraid of healthcare rationing, you should know it is already happening. Nurses are unable to give everyone the care they need, so patients with smaller problems may not get the same level of care. A nurse may be pressed to only give the minimum amount of care to a patient if they have 5 or more very sick patients. If you don’t want healthcare rationing, talk to your local hospitals about their nurse to patient ratios. Talk to your doctors. If you hear of legislation to support nurse to patient ratios, vote for it. Support it.
So if a nurse needs a day off, you support them. If you’re in a position to help like I was this morning, do so. If you are a nurse, go easier on yourself when you think about the things you didn’t finish, or the things you should have said. It’s a 24-hour a day job and you don’t have to do it alone.
As of January 27, 2014, this post is no longer accepting comments. I am doing this as a practice of self care. Tending to this blog post, several times a day, has become a burden. It has had over 2 million hits, and I am tired. The post has become a platform for people who want to propel their own agendas and are using my space to do so. Thanks to all who said such nice things, and to everyone else, go write your own blog.
Posted on August 11, 2013, in Nursing and tagged Health care, Nursing, registered nurse. Bookmark the permalink. 2,612 Comments.
ofcourseitsaboutyou 
I so empathize with you. I have been a paramedic for the past 28 years and so much of what you write also applies to my profession. You are also right when you wrote that no one else but another nurse understands how you feel. Unless you do a particular job, you have no idea what the every day or night shift is like. I hope your strength to write about it will open others eyes a bit. Thank you!
My husband use to sell cars and worked 80 hours a week. He missed almost everything our children did, in fact the first time he finally got to come to one of our son’s baseball games after he got a new job I had a woman tell me that they all thought I was a single mother. Don’t complain about your job because there are just as many people that have the same problem and they may not make very much money.
Are you really comparing a car salesman to a nurse?!!!! Wow!!!!!!!
I dont work 12 hour shifts but I’m a Rca and work 8 hour shifts but I look after up to 15 residents. We are considered nurses as well and this post was well written I couldn’t say it any better. It sucks when u can be there xmas morning so ur kids can open their gifts they choose to wait till u come home. Or sports activities. There isn’t enough support staff but I can say I work with an amazing team and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world
My sister worked as a nurse for years as an ER supervisor, night shift supervisor, Critical care, hospice, orthorecovery room nurse, etc. and I know that she has worked many hours in her time. She is 72 now and just now decided to retire. I know that she has had to work no matter what. She loved her job. Then my parents moved to her town so that she could look after them while she was working nights. I went out for 18 months to help her out with our parents so that she could sleep during the day. There were many a day when she would go for stretches without sleep and would work 3-4 12 hour shifts in a row. If I was in the hospital and needed a nurse, she is the one that I would want, because she is so caring. She is a lot older than I am. My Mother was a nurse also and worked many hours and even volunteered for 10 weeks at a new hospital on the 3-11 shift while I was a toddler. My older sister was home from boarding school and would take care of me and my brother who we were both under 3 years of age. They were the best nurses and they had to give up a lot of things that they would have liked to do with the family, but had to work. I admire nurses and respect them very much. I commend nurses and think that even though some of it is thankful, there are patients that are thankless and I know that it had to be hard on my sister and my mother. They have a job that if they weren’t there, they are the ones who really take care of the patients. The doctors(my father was an anesthesiologist) just right orders and maybe spend 15 minutes with the patient every morning on his rounds. It is the nurse who does all the work and I have to say that I admire nurses more than any other occupation.
I am not a nurse but have spent many times in the hospital….just recently two surgeries in the last 5 months! So I have been on the receiving end. First, thank you, thank you for doing what you do. It’s you all who know what’s going on, who deal with sometimes impossible patients, and the ones who make the doctors look good. A great nurse makes your stay in the hospital bearable. After 18 surgeries …..I know! Again, thank you for everything and know there are people who do appreciate you!
I just retired after 41 years as a registered nurse. I was promoted “up the administrative ladder” . I soon realized after days filled with meetings, budgets etc that this was not for me but having w/e and holidays off was such an incentive to stay in the position. I demoted myself to staff nurse after being a pencil pusher for 13 yrs. I loved being a nurse plain and simple. It was my co-workers who made life at work bearable. If you don’t have the support of good team work it can be a very frustrating experience. Only a nurse can understand our frustrations….it is a foreign world to others. Breaks, meal times, getting out late….getting out at all! Thank God mandating was outlawed. Nothing like going to work not sure when you are going home….. I a sk all of you great experienced nurses to support one another so you can continue giving great care.
Well said
I am a mother in law, my sons wife is a nurse. I know how hard my daughter-in-law works, and her 12 hour shifts, are never just 12hrs. I watch my granddaughter sometimes while my nurse d-i-l works, her shift doesn’t end there, she has charts to go over with the next shift of angels, th en drive time its more like 14-15m houmrglass shifts my angel puts in, You are all angels in my heart. You all do everything while the doctor makes the big bucks!! So this Mother in law knows, the sacrifices you all make!! Thank you for all that you do. Without you hospital could not run!!
Sorry for the wording mistakes!!
I will be 44 this new year and I finally graduated last May and working towards my BSN currently. I just celebrated my 6 month anniversary of working on a very busy Med Surg Floor. My previous job was medical assisting for the last 20 some years. I started reading this post because I enjoy all aspects of the medical arena and shared stories. I have learned so much in my life and I would not do anything less. With that being said, I understand this blog too. With only six months on the floor, I have not felt exhausted YET. The “newbie” feeling has receded and I am feeling more confident in my abilities. This also took place with a group of nurses that do NOT sit on their butts. The charge nurse is always asking if anyone needs help. I chose thirds shift because of them! They are amazing group of people. The hospital I work at is in a low income part of town. We do get a lot of “bug bites”, alcohol abuse and severe vascular problems due to poorly managed diabetes. I hear stories of my floor being worse a few years ago than now. We get maximum 6-7 pts per shift, though I have only gotten 6. The older nurses used to get 9 per person. I love my job. I have a lot of stories to tell and laugh. sometimes cry. No matter what the day, I come home tired, frustrated with my knowledge (I am improving daily- I like to be already seasoned!! LOL) This year I experienced issues with the holiday schedule with my in-laws. It was very frustrating when they do not understand. They try to help, only making things worse. I get it. I just smile and roll with it. You cannot change anyone but you. I applaud the nurses on this blog. Stay strong! Nursing is not for everyone. Even if you are a nurse and you feel like you don’t like it…it may not be for you. However, know this, you are not alone and with the changes in society (every growing changes) things ARE going to get worse. They only person that you can and must help before you help others, is yourself. If you are not centered within, your focus will not be dead on. I thank all of you that expressed your concerns, blogged your stories and shared your negatives. All of these things are helpful as long as you do not take them too seriously. I try to take the negative comments, put them in my back pocket for a rainy day. I pull them out later and think…That’s stupid. The positive only Brings more health to the spirit and mind! Think on those. If you need to vent….VENT! That is healthy. This is what we tell our patients to do, don’t hold it in… The reader….don’t get your panties in knot…read, then put it in your pocket for a different day, then get over it! Enjoy life and what God put in it just for you!
I’ve been an RN for 33+ years, having graduated with an ASN at age 19. I joke about being able to carry narcotic keys but not legally drink alcohol.
I also hold a degree in Biology /Pre-Med, obtaining it while my 6 children were ages 2 to 10. I’ve worked NICU, cath lab, ER and been a flight nurse. I now work in Occupational Med which, compared to the previous, is a cakewalk. I took a salary cut but this is the first time in 33 years that I didn’t have to worry about missing a holiday.
Ironically, one of my sons and his wife have recently become RN’s despite my son listening to years of complaint about lack of sleep, stressful days, etc.
I still give out free advice when someone discovers I’m a nurse, joke about the “Walmart greeter”, and routinely wonder how I would’ve been different had I chosen a different profession.
Yes, I would’ve slept more, attended more family events and probably had a cleaner house but then I would never witnessed life starting, ending or preventing it from prematurely ending.
I hope I’ve made a difference in at least a few lives.
Amen Sister!
Found your blog on Facebook and couldn’t agree with you more. What other “Professional” endures so much physical and mental stress in their job? It’s no wonder most of us are over weight; it’s one comfort we have lol. Besides, stress causes weight gain!
Hang in there Sister and Happy New Year!
Joy
I’ve been a nurse almost 29 years and I can relate to most of the issues discussed. For those who say don’t take your job home, try working in a busy Emergency room when 4 little kids are brought in dead from a house fire and trying unsuccessfully to be part of the teams who tried to save them. That’s been several years and I still think about them, and many others over the years. We are talking about living breathing people here. There’s no way to leave that at work. Yes other jobs are stressful, no doubt about it. But nursing is one job that is difficult to leave behind.
I’ve been a nurse for 4 years, 2 of those working in cardiovascular surgery and 2 working in a high intensity 16 bed cardiovascular ICU. I absolutely love what you posted, and I want to say “shame on you” to those who posted negative feedback- mainly comprised of people who don’t directly work with patients every time they go into work. It’s amazing how people think they know “how it really is” and give steps for better emotional, spiritual, and physical well being. Easy words to say when you don’t do the job you’re giving advice about. Do us a favor and keep doing the useless and mindless behind the scenes paperwork.
oh yes….bring the mefs..change the dressings..make the beds AND comfort a dying pt….get punched…puked on…spit on…play waitress..concierge
AND referee to drunk barflys… get stabbed….sexually harassed and short staffed..work hurt tired and depleted emotionally! AND God forbid YOU BEST SMILE because pt surveys BETTER be perfect
spit
I am a tech (cna) in nursing school. We have to deal with all of the same things-and a lot of the time, with a much bigger patient load. Please remember us! 🙂
This is not a phenomenon relegated to nurses. I spent 20 years in the U.S.. Navy as a medical professional and 18 years at a large hospital chain, and I can assure you, endured the same as any other person in the medical profession. I think that the most irritating thing I encountered was the fact women (I was the minority) always had an excuse to get time off for the children’s appointments, sick days, or just baby-sit while the males picked up the slack at work (we did not enjoy the same privileges). While I didn’t enjoy the absence of breaks, lunch and at times, toilet breaks as well, and on-call call in’s, I enjoyed my work until I became a human robot. Administration was more interested in touraround times than proper patient care. While I am retired now and don’t miss all the inconveniences and frustrating aspects of the job, I do miss the patient involvement and human interaction of the job.
I could have written a similar account back in 1996 when I quit nursing. I have never regretted leaving the profession.
I was a nurse in an inner city hospital for many years. Everything said in the blog “article” is true. I knew I was stressed out to the max when I was taking my uniform off at home and found a “stat digoxin” push in my pocket that I should have given before I left the hospital. Fortunately an intern discovered it (and he knew that if I hadn’t signed it off, I hadn’t given it) and gave it to the pt. So I decided I would go back to school, get my masters and become a teacher. 20 years later, after dealing with the same kind of admin. that were running the hospitals, emotionally, physically and mentally drained, I retired 2 years earlier than I had planned. I’m wondering if nurses and teachers, the large majority of us being females, are drawn to these two professions because we are natural caretakers and maybe it’s easier to bully us, overwork us and underpay us.
For the first time in 34 years, I sleep at night without Ambien, I get through the day without Xanax.
I would still encourage any one to become a nurse or teacher but to get off the floor or out of the classroom as soon as possible. Much better for your mental and physical health.
WOW! I am a night shift nurse who works full time 12 hour shifts and have for the past 16 years. This really hit home for me. Anyone who leaves negative comments and ISN’T a nurse should try volunteering at a hospital or nursing home 8-12 hours a day just as you would a full time job and just for fun do it during the night for at least a year. Then come back and let us all know what you think. How many of us have had to take care of a sick crying child or an elderly parent or spouse that needs total care. Try doing it all the time. Not just until the child or person gets well but for years on end. Yes the profession does have many up sides and experiences but most of the time you are giving medications, taking people to the bathroom and cleaning them up, or cleaning up patients that can’t get out of bed and are incontinent of bowel and bladder, poking needles in people who are trying to hit you or are crying and in severe pain. Nursing is a very rewarding profession and I don’t regret becoming a nurse but it does stand out among other jobs and has responsibilities not many others have.People come into your life at some the worst times in theirs. We have to smile and hold their hand sometimes knowing the next news their Dr. is going to tell them is not going to be good. We can’t let on that we just got some terrible health news of our own or that a family member is very ill or dying. I have co-workers who are undergoing cancer treatments of their own who can’t take time off from work because they are the ones paying the bills and working for insurance to cover their own medical costs.It breaks my heart to see them taking care of others not nearly as ill as themselves but they do it with a smile on their faces and in their hearts. Nurses are a special breed and I am proud to be one. I just wish others would understand the amount of stress it takes to be a good one.
I really didn’t agree with this post. You make triple the salary of a lot of human service workers, most of are who far exceed the two year AS degree you need to become an RN. Please don’t tell me you do bed changes because that is what your LNA’s/CNA’s do. If anything this post should be for them, as the majority of them go unappreciated. As someone else commented, you chose your profession. There are a lot of great nurses but there are A LOT of terrible ones. If you dislike your job that much or can’t handle the stress I am sure you can be replaced by the thousands of new graduates looking to take your place.
As someone in the field, the entire mentality of “sticking together”should be applied to every single one of your colleagues, not just the nurses you work with but your superiors and inferiors.
Your ignorance is showing. Many of have several degrees and a B.S. is now the entry level. Total patient care – is now done more routinely than having an aide to help. Don’t worry though. You will get your experience in the hospital. Wether it be you or a family member your time will come. You may even get to experience about 10% of what a nurse does of you have the honor to take care of a family member wen they are at the end of their life and need the care of family. Clueless is an understatement.
Uh….E? Believe it or not, a good paycheck doesn’t always make up for frustrations, injustices and overwork. And, no, it’s not true that “LNA’s/CNA’S” always “do bed changes.” I can’t recall the last time I had a job where I didn’t have to change beds—-or ambulate patients, or take them to the bathroom, or fetch drinks of water and pillows and extra blankets, or answer call lights, draw blood, do EKGs, or take vitals, or do the 1001 other tasks that non-nurses usually assume that RNs never do.
Again, those of you who have never worked as nurses really aren’t qualified to tell us we’re complaining too much. Nursing is an art, and, like any art, a skilled professional makes it look much easier than it is. Walk a mile or two in our well worn shoes, and then come back and tell us how unreasonable we’re being to complain about it.
Sorry, should have commented that I worked 15 years as a nurse. I have worked MS, Mom baby, NICU, and ICU and did one year as an LPN in a rehab center before getting my RN. I have been in the trenches and do speak from first hand experience.
I am a cna. This same thing goes for being a cna. We work hard and morenoften than not want to pull our hair out atvthe wnd of the day. Always working short and taking care of more people that supposed to and still expected to give the same quality of care. Its stressful and sometimes a few days off is just needed to get a breath.
Do work with clear frank mind to avoid fatigued conditions. Leave work on your work place return home with imagination to celebrate week end you will never feel fatigue rather feel fresh.
I know as a pharmacist what coming home drained feels like.. And I only take a 100th of the emotional crap you guys do, and less (most of the time) te frequent bodily fluids you all deal with..you guys are amazing … But behaysus some of you scare the crap out of me! Keep up the hard work your amazing and ill support you all the way xxx
Your post made me giggle! I appreciate our group of pharmacists very much. They really put in a lot of extra work too!
I agree with all that you have said; however, most do not include Nursing Assistants in this group. We experience many of the same stressors, although we do not have a nursing degree. I am fully aware, that nurses have far more charting, handle medications, etc… That being said, NA’s/STNA’s have direct care responsibilities, chores, and unfortunately there are some nurses, that will demand we handle some of their responsibilities (even though, we legally and ethically are not allowed).
After knowing all that, spending over a decade as a STNA, I returned to school and began working on my BSN, while still working as a STNA. Early in my schooling, I had an epiphany and changed my major (yes, I was excelling in school). Less than a year later, I left the medical field and have been far less stressed since.
My hat is off, to ALL that do the leg-work and are on the floor, with patients/residents and families. I just ask that, since most people do not consider NA’s/STNA’s to be in nursing, to remember we clean, bathe, feed, dress, hold hands, sometimes pray, etc… with these folks as well. Also, we are beat upon and abused, not only by patients/residents, but also are verbally/mentally abused by some nurses as well. Many of my friends are still NA’s/STNA’s, I just would like for people not to forget them either. Again, my hat is of to ALL in the nursing field, and many things need to change, or everyone will suffer.
Good luck, and thank you for all that you do for others.
Wow…the only people who complain more than nurses are teachers. No one picked this profession for you. If I drove to work everyday wishing I got hit by a car to not have to work, I think I’d be changing my profession pretty fast. What a crappy attitude from someone who is paid well to do their job and chose this career path voluntarily! I too am in the health care profession and I love my patients and my job. Try another career path if this one brings you such fatique and misery honey!
I have been a nurse for 16 years and after being hit, beaten, kicked, bit, spit on, yelled at by family members and also patients, oh and let us not forget the administration who says do this, do that, but then they have no idea what really happens on the floor with the patients and are too afraid to get their hands dirty and assist. Anyways, after 16 years working as a nurse, I finally decided to get some more education and now I teach medical classes to adult students who want to enter the medical field as MA’s. And yes I am one teacher who always tells them how it is out there, no BS, just the honest truth when they ask me what I have seen, done, be through the 16 years I worked as a nurse. I am lucky, I got out of nursing before I went nuts, I love teaching and my schedule is Monday through Thursday 8am to 3:30pm, off every Friday, no weekends, no holidays. I finally have a normal life!!!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for saying this out loud. We’ve all thought it, but most of us have been afraid to say it. We are afraid of tarnishing the nursing image of the angel in scrubs with the bottomless well of compassion and energy.
I have been a Nurse for almost 30 years. 26 years spent in a very busy CICU. I have watched so many people die , it can be absolutely overwhelming. The suffering we watch and sometimes are asked to ” inflict” on patients can only be understood by another nurse, and I agree there is nowhere to go with these emotions , no debriefing! It does take a toll on all of us so yes, we do need to be supportive of one another!!!!!!
I have been a nurse since 1976. I love the cardiac nursing I do when I got to do it. At the age of 54, I have started working 12 night shifts 36 hours every other weekend and one to two during the week because I can’t take the stress of a day shift any longer. I am lucky that since my husband retired from the military and he works full-time I only have to work 48 to 60 hours in a two week period. Nursing is a rough job that those that are not nurses can never fully understand.
Thank you so much for this article!!! It has really opened my eyes even more!!!!;)
Thank-you GrimalkinRN. I liked your blog + replies very much.Yes, I’m a nurse for 20+ years and have seen the changes management and the State have implied on this career choice. Many years I have missed family events due to having to work. Have worked long hours, short-handed. For anyone that says “you choice this career or find another job”… be thankful a Nurse didn’t take your advice. I was there when you needed me or with your loved one when you were not able to be.
I went to nursing school after a bitter divorce at 47…scared shitless. then worked 16 years at a V. A….good salary and great benefits. One night a co-workers live in boyfriend called the night supervisor to complain that I hadn’t conveyed a message. After 3 unveiled threats, she explained to him that he had just threatened a federal employee. This all came about when I had had “b—- ” enough to write her up for not tending her patients, I had always made a habit of not writing a co-worker up unless by not doing so I would get into trouble. Everything I wrote up about her could be documented or witnessed. She left her patients in ICU unattended while she slept in the break room. She came to work, wrote a pt assessment before laying wyes on the pt. She had no business being near patients. She finally left the hospital and things went back to normal. the person who wrote this article (opinion) is spot on. One of the main things is that we must take care of ourselves. Part of my journey through a really rough divorce was to enter into therapy. This really helped. the other thing that was essential was that God and I got to be really good friends. He seemed to understand my quirky humor…at least it felt that way. I’m retired 7 years now. …still dream about coding pts sometimes.
I can sympothize with nurses, I’m a Paramedic, I work 24 on and when lucky 48 off. I’ve been a Paramedic for 23years. I love my profession but it does come with a high price. We too work long shifts and are at times under staffed. We answer all kinds of calls from “I stumped by toe 2 weeks ago” to car accidents, heart attacks, CVA’s, the list goes on and on. We go into bad areas that other wise you would never go into. I’ve been punched, pinched, spit on. I’ve had guns pulled on me. I also missed a lot of family functions. I raised four children and missed a lot of their important functions. So I just want to thank everyone who works in health care for their hard work, dedication and caring. Hats off to all Nurses, EMT’s and Paramedics!
Nurses are Angels on earth. I have had a few that were nasty but maybe they were tired or having a bad day. Just put yourself in their shoes and be patient!!! Don’t yell at them because they didn’t come when you turned your light on you are not the only one they are caring for. Kindness may be what they need when it’s your turn.
I cant sleep the night before I go in because I am so worried about what madness I am walking in to! Sometimes I have have thought of donating organs I didnt need to get a break from work!
My biggest problem is the fact that my small town and friends call me to take them to the doctor and procedures. They call me when they have a medicine question or cut themselves. They call me to dress their surgical wounds. I work more when Im off duty than I do days at work! Now our hospital is requiring more certifications to keep the pay they have already been giving you! The pay that you worked hard to reach. Im 53 years old and going BACK to school so I can get the same pay I WAS getting! It is a thankless job and I agree that no one understands!
you are doing a great job, keep it up and take your mental heath day, you deserve it.
You said it very well and it is all so true. At one point in our ED we had 12 staff members out due to.injuries. the new mgr they hired staffed us properly after this and the hospital for her care of her staff fired her. So we are now backto bare bones staffing, its dangerous and not fair to nurses or patients. I have missed almost 6 months of work over this year due ti 2 separte injuries. My income has taken a large hit bc of it and as many of us are im a single parent with a son in college.
I also work 12 hr nights and now they are trying to change our schedules which would leave me on and off almost daily some weeks. Ill quit first, a sched like that leaves a nurse working and sleeping with no time for anything else.
Thank you for your post its nice to know its not just us, well not nice bc I wish none of us had over loaded under staffed schedules. I don’t think things will b getting any better in the near future unfortunately.
Talk about being overworked and under appreciated, try being an aide.
We make a third (maybe) of what a nurse makes and have to deal with nasty things too.
Being an aide means feeling like you have run on a tread mill all night answering lights while the cranky, over worked, twelve hour shift nurses take their frustration out on you. To the pile of frustration rants, you can add drs., charge nurses, rts..I’ve even been scolded by housekeeping. But I put on a happy face and move on.
It is a job, the one that you chose and being able to disassociate yourself should be one of your biggest priorities. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t have an emotional connection with people, but leave it at the door.
You know, in the end, we have all CHOSEN to be where we are. No one made you go to nursing school. No one is asking you to be a martyr. No one asks me to be an aide, but I come to work because there is something so wonderful about helping someone else. The dementia patient who is spitting at you and telling you they wish you were dead, the three hundred pound patient with cdiff who is incontinent or the bowel prep patient (super fun for us). I have experienced this too while having anywhere from twelve to twenty other patients to tend to at the same time.
I while I agree that nurses are over worked and under staffed, consider yourself fortunate that you have employment, that you are paid pretty well for what you do and that there is someone who will always have it worse than you.
And if you still feel suicidal after that, I would suggest a career change ( no one wants a suicidal nurse taking care of their sick loved one, especially at med time) or at least a psych consult.
Ok! Smh! Again if you are are not a nurse you don’t get it! As you stated being a CNA is a job. Being a nurse as a career: and more! Cna’s are quite awesome in “assisting” nurses in task that do not require critical thinking and please do not be offended.But the role of the aide is to assist the nurse with those task that he/she is able to function at a more beneficial role: monitoring patients for changes in condition; collaborating with RT, supervisors, other departments as to the appropriate level of care for the patient and communicating this to the appropriate physician! I have assisted a hit and run victim on my way home from partying, cared for a syncope patient on an international flight. So NO nursing is not a job!!! It’s who we are and what we do! We don’t clock out!
Nursing is such a difficult profession. I have been a RN for 36 years, 20 of them I worked bedside nursing, 12 in a Clinic 9-5 and then 5 years in private industry. I am retiring in March. I have to say that I do agree that Nursing is such a stressful career. The acuity of the patients is getting higher and higher. You are torn in every direction all day. I remember going home at night and reviewing in my head what I did and hoping there was nothing I forgot to do. The responsibility is huge. Dealing with life and death every moment. Being an advocate for your patients is the most important thing we do. How many times do you have to politely suggest that the MD do something that would benefit the patient?! Nobody knows the patients like the RN who is taking care of them. I know what it is like to wait for the Xmas schedule to come out and hold your breath while you look at it and praying you are off Xmas day. Not to have control over your schedule is brutal. Being so happy to be off for the school concert and then a snow storm comes along and it is rescheduled to an evening you are working. Our son played hockey and I too would miss games due to work. But I loved working with the patients, but a back injury and back surgery( due to all of the lifting and tugging as a nurse) made me move from the bedside to a clinic. I still had the pleasure of my patients, they are so important. I too have seen the abusive side, not just from patients, but from their families, an arrogant MD, to name a few. It is sad but i would not recommend Nursing to my children when they were choosing their careers. It is not for the weak of heart. It is not ideal working 5 days a week but i did it full time the last 5 years, and 4 days a week for 12 years before. It was nice to have the weekends. You knew that you would be off for any weekend events, weddings, parties etc. And the majority of people work this schedule so it works well with friends. But despite all the shortcomings I loved my nursing career. But with the budget shortages, working short staffed almost every day, and the pace at which you work, it is difficult to recommend this to anyone as a career. Nurses a rare breed, a wonderful group of human beings but I worry that in the years to come there will not be the number needed to take of our sick.
Oh man, yes I am an RN, others just don’t understand. I told a new RN the other day (who finally landed a job in an outpatients GI lab),” It doesn’t matter what job you do in nursing they are all really really hard, trust me i know.” I have been a nurse for 21 years and I have tried so many different aspects and jobs in nursing all in a quest to find a job that is a little less stressful and less exhausting………………..well they don’t exist. I am now a hospice nurse and have been for about 8 years. Management is as bad or worse than hospital administration. Nursing supervisors seem to loose touch with what it is like to be a field or floor nurse, toeing the line of higher management who have no medical background and are only looking at the bottom line and simply can not understand why we can’t fit 12 hours of work into an 8 hour day!
We are told to never work “off the clock” yet we need to get overtime approved and they do not want to approve the overtime! “Well your load wasn’t that much” (hey right, tell that to the dying patient who’s wife was falling apart, needed adjustment in meds, possibly a UTI, needed to collect urine and take to lab, so spend 2 1/2 hours on just that patient….got no lunch but had to put a lunch down…….well you know what i mean). In, fact many nurses have just given up and just work off that clock, even though we are told me can get fired for this because it is just too demeaning and stressful to beg for OT or try to explain to someone sitting behind a desk.
My husband has said many time, “If nursing were a male dominated profession, much of the crap you put up with just wouldn’t not exist because men quite frankly would NOT put up with it the way women do.” Much truth to that.
I worked on a med-surg floor at a hospital and was ALWAYS given more than we could do, as was the case with every nurse, therefore we didn’t take the time to pee and yes I got constant urinary tract infections (ask any nurse…camel bladders). Therefore we could NEVER get our charting done during our shift (if it wasn’t charted it wasn’t done!), we were told we had to clock out at the end of our shift and then do our charting because obviously we had time management problems!!! This crap goes on in nursing everywhere. If i had the pay for all the unpaid overtime hours i have worked, I could retire today!
Thanks for telling the truth and for this blog. I LOVE the patients, that is what keeps me going. The patients are the BEST part of the job but damn it, why does it have to be this way?
Ive been a nurse for 37 years. It was my calling and I dont regret a minute. However every day now I think about leaving, not because I dont like nursing but all the joint commission rules have made it where we document so much we cant provide the care. Soooo sad that nurses now days cant wait to get away frim bedside nursing who do they think will provide the bedside care these patients need? Nursing can be so much better but only we can make it that way.
TY for your blog. I’ve been a nurse for > 20 years (mostly ER). Lots of changes, some good, some bad. Lots of experiences, some good, some bad…it’s how you look at them. Hearing the screams of mothers, wifes, spouses, children when they hear the news their loved one has died…it’s hard to find good in that one. Embracing a sobbing young teenager (that has grown up with your own son) who’s mother is admitted to hospice for terminal cancer…it’s hard to find good in that one. Comforting/facing the grieving parents everytime you see them around town, church, events who’s 10-year-old son was fatally killed in a tree falling accident, that you where his primary nurse…it’s hard to find the good in that one. The list could go on and on…Missing the first times, holidays, kids events, precious time with family/friends…it’s hard to find the good in that also. BUT if I would of known 20 years ago what I know now about nursing I would of definately chosen a different profession. BUT also knowing what I know now…it’s too late to get out. If your in it this long you are a total asset to everything that nursing is about. Experience, knowledge, understanding, empathy, and yes trying to find the good (even though there may not be any)…but trying and at least knowing that you are trying to see the good. Hang in there and try to find the good. Love to my fellow nurses and the people that surround our lives whom both do or don’t understand the profession!!!
Working as a nurse is a continuous giving up yourself. You have no weekends with your family, no holidays. The summer is cut in two because your every second weekend so instead of having 8 weekends of summer, you work 4, so summer is gone. In our hospital you must choose if you work Christmas or New Years eve. I worked Christmas this year so on the 23 my shift was from 16h to 24h ,the 24th 12h to 24h and on the 25th the ones there already sacrificed we did a shift 8 to 24 so worked 16 hours just to let some colleagues to enjoy Christmas home with their kids. Nurses has no life. Many are divorced because not everyone is made to live near a nurse. Some kids are not turning so good because they miss supervising and counseling when they are in their 14 because mom works and she is so tired, so sometimes I ask myself, is really worth the pay we come home with?
Wow. I’m 50 yrs old and still have a semester left before I become an RN. I appreciate blogs like this that are honest but at the same time this really scares me.
I retired from nursing after 43 years due to the abuse you describe in your blog. Nursing is a career unlike any other the physical, emotional, spiritual drain we experience on a daily basis leads to an exhaustion for the rest of our lives away from work. Nurses are constantly giving a piece of themselves at work and off work. It takes a toll. The lack of support and constant demands and unreasonable polices, lack of flexibility in schedules as well as unaddressed needs of an aging population lead to my retirement. I still care for people through my website http://www.diabetes4adults.com. I hope I continue to help people but on my own terms. Others do not understand the effect of caring for everyone and how it impacts our psyche. Snide comments only add to the fatigue and pile on the guilt while we work to make a home life for ourselves and families.Nurse ro owner of http://www.diabetes4adults.com. gladly retired from the rat race
Damn did I just write this and blog it in my early morning delirium waiting for the same chronically late day shift nurse to give my last patient to. Lady you are spot on and I take my hat off, give you a standing ovation and a gold star. I am a fairly new nurse still just 2 years in the profession but a seasoned manager in business and HR before a career change. Now I see why people say nursing is the hardest job you will ever love. We just got bought out by a for profit so we could build a bigger better hospital in a rural area. In six months more than 50 percent of the nursing staff has quit. It is so bad that one of my friends went to be a prison nurse and another is doing home health which she despises. With just 5 of the many nurses we lost those five represented 110 years of nursing experience. How the hell will we ever be able to hire that knowledge back. Being a nurse is awesome and sucks and often all in the same shift or even in the space of 15 minutes. If you know a nurse give him or her a hug and maybe a Starbucks card or a pedicure gift certificate lol. But a thanks would go a very long way.
Iv been an RN in the er for 3.5 years (and a fireman for 14) and iv heard this same pity-party, bullshit story so many times..stop bitching, its a great schedule, I only work 12 days a month, its not hard, stop fucking whining.. If your having such a hard time at THIS job do one two things..get better (which about half of these slug nurses need to go), or fucking quit and leave..but stop bitching..I read this whole dumbass blog waiting for something real good at the end but it was the same weak-ass shit I hear all the time in the break room…its not me, its you….you just suck.
Will
So, Will, if you’re so eager to hear “something real good” on this blog, why is your own post the most negative and hostile one here?
Your post is touching and all so true, but you failed to mention the backbone of all nurses which is the Certified Nursing Assistants who are the eyes and ears of all patients/residents. We work very long hours, I myself get one weekend off a month and work holidays. Where some people cannot take care of their selves we are taking care of and are responsible for 20 to 28 people. I have worked 12 to 16 hour shifts because there is no coverage and you are not given a choice you are mandated and if you choose to leave you can be charged with abandonment. It does not matter if your child has a ball game, birthday, a school party or play or anything important. You do not have a choice because it is your job and your responsibility to make sure your patients/residents are taken care of. We sacrifice our time, our health, our emotions, our well being and most of all ourselves and our families. When it comes to the ones we take care of their needs to do not get put on hold just because we have an event going on in our personal lives. We never know when we will get a break or if we will even get one because the sick never rest. We are almost always last to be told anything. Though we know our residents/patients like the back of our hands we are often times ignored or treated as though because we do not have a degree we have no idea what we are talking about. No offense to any nurse or anyone in the health care field but we work one on one with these people. We know what they need or want, we recognize their pain or hurt. We know when there is a change in them in their behavior, we know when they are not acting like themselves or recognize their signs and symptoms of distress or sickness. We know their favorite foods, outfits, colors, shoes, socks and so on because we take the time to get to know them so that they feel comfortable or at home where they are being cared for. It is more than just knowing what time and what kind of pill they take. It is getting to know them for the special soul that they are. It isn’t just about the nursing side of them that is important but getting to know them as a PERSON and not a number is what is important. No disrespect to anyone but just trying to point out the ones who often get forgotten but that make a huge impact on others and just how important a job a nursing assistant has. We are not just as many refer to us as an “ASS WIPER” we are the mother that they once knew and recognize us as, or the daughter who may have died in a terrible car accident but they see us as her, or the son who was killed in the war, or perhaps a wife who always brought them their dinner. We play so many roles as a nursing assistant as we care for our patients/residents. I want to end by adding that though we do not get the credit we deserve or the pay we deserve. It is all worth it to see the joy on ones face when you have helped to do a task they can no longer do, or to be recognized by one who does not even know they are in this world but they know you it makes being branded an “ASS WIPER” WELL WORTH IT 🙂
As one fellow “ass wiper” to another you are spot on. I have never worked a more physically or emotionally draining job with no rewards in my life (I am 43). My ability to bring comfort and care and a get a hug is worth more than money some days. I have worked with great nurses and awful nurses but the one thing that grinds on me is when someone assumes you know nothing about the patient or their care needs because you do not have a degree.
I’m a sugreon, recently retired after forty years of work. My daughter is a doc as well, and I have impressed on her the mountains of drudgery, frustrating difficult work nurses have on their plate. The hours are awful, patients seem ever-more demanding, and there certainly is not a reasonable amount of respect given to nurses by physicians or nursing supervisors. Bless you for what you do. I encourage you to continue to strive to improve working conditions so nurses can survive, and come back tomorrow for their next shift!
I loved it so well written I’m a nurse and it’s absolutely true thanks for saying it