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 
Sometimes I feel that the world forgets about nurses, especially those close to us. Nursing is a hard profession. We don’t get the credit we deserve more than half the time. I love my job but sometimes we do a little more time off.
Thank you for this blog post. You have clearly articulated what other nurses (techs, nursing assistants, and many other health care providers) struggle to. To ignore the many challenges of floor nursing would be a naive and detrimental approach to coping with this intensely demanding calling. Your post in no way belittles other health care professionals, nor other work that may take individuals away from their families. What you have done, is started an energetic discussion, and that deserves praise. If others would like to write about their professional challenges, they might consider writing their own blogs. You have taken the initiative to openly and honestly discuss the full spectrum of nursing (which includes those less attractive qualities). That was a brave post. I am inspired.
“We are college educated, degreed professionals who are often treated like uneducated, lazy servants.” AMEN, SISTER! I’m a nurse as well.
Unfortunately, I think this occurs because of the image the media and even nurses themselves paint of nursing: “holy, angelic, nurturing, loving, caring, hand-holding, tear-wiping, butt-wiping, etc. etc.” Nursing practice is over-simplified…The general public doesn’t see us as educated professionals with scientific degrees that make decisions, intervene, prevent errors, and save lives.. they see us as hand-maidens…Florence Nightingale-like angels with nothing but loving hearts that don’t get tired or pissy and don’t have bad days or get fed up. Angels don’t gripe and complain, so when we do, we are told we should get a new job, we are jaded, etc. If nurses weren’t portrayed to the world as such angelic numb-skulls without brains, but instead as intelligent, educated, real life people that oftentimes save lives by suggesting orders and interventions to the physicians, nursing would get much more respect. All nurses who care to nurture their profession should consider reading “From Silence to Voice”….
I was forced to retire due to an 18 wheeler accident. It’s been 5. Yrs now I’m on my Medicare disability n boy do I miss nursing!!! I miss serving n surviving those long shifts. When I started nursing I started the 3rd shift n at times did a back to back with a 7-3 shift! N boy did that 1st shift kick my but!!! Doctors their orders patients n their families n nurses hiding in any place they could find! Inspite of all the kaos I miss it TREMENDOUSLY! I’ve been thinking of volunteering just to feel I’m making a difference! ;))
I am a nurse. My Wife is a nurse. We work hard and have to struggle just like other people. I have taken mental health days when I was hospital psych RN. I enjoy working in geriatrics right now, and feel comfortable taking the “keys” when I get to work. I cannot picture myself doing anything else for the rest of my life. I am 53, my Wife is 55, and I do not plan on retiring, nor does she.
I quit nursing 10 years ago – i was like a dog let off a chain – best thing I ever did. Shift work is hard on the body…could never sleep well. I was a single mum trying to raise a son on the autistic spectrum who had many challenging behaviours.
Before I left the workload was increasing – staff numbers were limited. If anyone rang in sick we were not to replace them. It was all about the mighty dollar!
One time i had dealings with the local children’s ward – I found staff cold, withdrawn, hard…not a lot of compassion. ( this was not the autistic son)… this child was very ill and I insisted in sticking with him – not be shoved out of sight in the parents accommodation way out back.
Plus the attitude concerned me re. his diagnosis putting it down to gastro when that was just a side effect of the powerful antibiotics.
Like all jobs there are good and bad staff – good workers and lazy; intelligent and not so.
So glad I’m out of the system! Never to return.
Oh and having visited our local Mental Health Unit – I was disgusted – I could have put a bomb under their lazy pathetic arses. Not impressed!
Thanks for posting this blog…
I am not a nurse, but know many! I support all issues that nurses have. My mom was a nurse and once was kicked in the shin. She came home to us crying her eyes out because she couldn’t do it on the job. I love nurses, all of you out there!
So true so true. Everything you speak of I have and still do, feel. I’ve been doing this for a while and it’s not changed. Awesome blog!!
I would just like to make a comment on nursing yes it is a very stressful job. The rewards of it sometimes just don’t add up ,but what i would really like to say is CNA’S work just has hard if not harder .I was a cna for 25yrs at a hospital an nursing home . where do we get any credit or praise. all i see or hear is how hard nurses work . not saying that you dont but there was alot of times I was pulled from pts. to be told go do this an go do that cause its not my job, we are frowned upon and less pay . Don’t get me wrong I have had some great RN’S an LPN’S that worked there way up an was more then glad to step up to help with a bath or cleaning up poop or answering a buzzer . BUT i have had more to tell me that’s not my job . I was tought it was all our jobs to take care of the sick an work as a team but in todays nursing work force its all about whats in front of your name . So to all the of those RN’S an LPN’S that were not above lending a hand to us hard working CNA’S …. THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much for writing down what every nurse has thought or lived through at one time or another!
This is a very demanding profession and we as nurses don’t take the time we need to care for ourselves like we should. Thank you for this blog and I hope you have a terrific day!
There are jobs in Memphis for BSNs. I just graduated (Dec 14th), and at least half of our cohort has jobs.
Great post! I am a respiratory therapist and I understand completely what you are saying. healthcare is taxing on anyone in the profession. Without my amazing coworkers I would never make it through another shift. We all have to rely on each other just to get through it.
Im Voting for you, God Bless all of you who choose to be Nurses!
I feel your pain! Some days it’s hard to care when you are well past spent!
I am a CNA , with over 20 years experience.I think one of the most forgotten things is that nurses and assistants are human , too !!! We get sick , tired , hungry ,etc , just like everyone else.Visitors should also take note that nurses and assistants are not there to wait on YOU .We have patients who need us .I think some people see a nurse and assume they will wait on them ,or listen to their problems.We don’t have time ! If you want your family member to get good care ,try not to ask for things you can take care of for yourself.Yes I’ll give you directions ,or get you a chair , but get or bring your own food and drinks , and please don’t make a mess,then ask a nurse to clean it.We will be happy to provide for the patient , but please don’t be a burden to hospital staff !
Your so wright worked I. Hospital and homes it’s hard and demanding job
Bless every one of you. Something I don’t understand, can’t understand, and refuse to understand is WHY hospitals insist on working doctors and nurses on such inhumane shifts. Frankly I don’t want to be the last patient on a doctor’s or nurse’s 30 hour straight shift. If General Motors, for example, can run on 3 eight hour shifts, with 2 days off per week, the SAME days, so the employees’ bodies know when to work, when to sleep, and when to play, WHY CAN’T a hospital grant the same consideration for those who our lives depend on. Sleep deprivation causes mistakes. Mistakes cost human lives.
What is frustrating is when you really want to help a co-worker with shift trades or doing the first/ last 4 hrs for them. And management will not approve it. This happens on my floor and nurses are burnt out emotionally because they are denied opportunities for life outside outside of work.
I am a new nurse, and I want to say thank you for this post you are absolutely right we are all guilty of putting everybody else ahead of our selves. often working through our break so we can get someone their medications or change bandages, we are only human we are not perfect. we can’t do it all even though we try really hard to.
Kudos to you for writing this!!
I’ve just finished my hsa and I can’t wait to continue my studies in 2014 to become a registered nurse
All I have to say is Thank you! Thank you for writing this amazing post!
If it’s so terrible stop doing it.
I very true. Been a nurse for 17 years a midwife for 13. Love my job but missed many family things over the years. Just missed half of Xmas day with my family of 3 young kids due to sleeping after Xmas eve night duty. Have shared your post know many nurses 🙂
Amen to that sister. As a nurse myself I know for a fact that most of my colleagues put every one else first and themselves last. I must say that I think generally we look after and support each other well within the ranks. You’re correct though, sometimes we do feel “The well is dry, there’s just nothing left emotionally and mentally”. In saying that, I wouldn’t do any other job, I Love nursing. Having improved nurse/patient ratios appeared to be the most important issue on the agenda during our last negotiations for our EB, not money and wages.
I completely agree with this. I’ve been in the hospital setting for over 15yrs and have recently decided to take a break and go in a different direction. My heart goes out to all the great RNs And support staff in the healthcare world. It breaks you down emotionally everyday and you feel you have to give up your life and your dreams for your job.
Suck it up buttercup! Thousands of people do the same kind of job you do, and have the same hours you do, respiratory therapists, CNAs, doctors. If you feel you’d rather get in a fender bender than show up at work you are in the wrong profession. Yes the job can be emotionally draining, especially if you work with sick children, but it comes with the territory and we have to be the strong ones.
I have been a nurse for over forty years. I was lucky to get a masters in nursing under old federal grants right out of nursing school. I have been an administrator, educator, clinician, school and public health nurse. Hospital nursing is very tough. I believe the public should realize that the administrators – CEO’s make unbeliveable money even in non profits and rural states. In Maine where I live, and it is a very poor state, the CEO’s in the large hospitals and even in the mid size hospitals make close to a million dollars a year. To me this is rediculus. There are plenty of MBA’s out there with managerial experience, or lawyers who would take allot less money for this type of work.
Our govenor made a big issue that the state had to pay the hospitals what they owed. No one ever talked about the CEO’s salaries. A supreme court justice in Maine makes 80.000 a year= but we are paying an administrator in a non profit a million.
Suck it up??? We’ve been sucking it up for years which is why our profession is in the shape that it is. Just for the record…we love what we do which is also why our profession is in the shape it is.
Yes, I’ve been there before. I understand how you feel. I was also raised by a Nurse, my mom had a full career as a CRNA. I also watched the effects of her career sometimes get the best of her. Registering Nursing (my career so the only one I can speak to here) is a labor of love. It is difficult beyond measure, and some days we don’t want to go in, but we do! I also agree that nobody can understand unless you’ve been there yourself. It’s not about sucking it up, or getting over ourselves, or not complaining because at least we have a job. It’s emotionally, physically, and mentally draining sometimes. Sure, so are other professions but this is the only one I know. Do I want my daughter to go into Nursing?…probably not! But I also will not quit and do something else because I’m invested. It’s what I have studied and what I have experience doing. Also, I will be 50 next year so I’m going to stick with it and focus on the positive and retirement of course 🙂
Hey Darl – I know a lot of nurses and my Mother-in-law was one for years. I am in awe and greatly respect what you do. I think I really do understand the need for mental health days as I am a teacher in a low socioeconomic area with lots of kids with needs. Mental health days are necessary to children do not die?
I will say a pray for nurses more often.
Thanks
Michelle
Really informative article about the stresses of nursing. My daughter is an RN an recently switched from working at a doctors office to working in an ER. I see her much less now even though she works less and when we get together she seems very stressed out. she has always had a big heart and wanted to help all animals and people who were hurt and in need. I see from the change in her how hard her job is and the toll it takes. Her younger brother almost died earlier this year from MRSA pneumonia. He was in ICU FOR 10wks. Some of the people who took care of him never should have become nurses. They treated him like he was a burden and were very rough with him and ignored him. He is also a diabetic and has kidney failure. Other nurses cared for him like a family member and had a true calling to nursing. Hospital policy should not wear good nurses out and put them on the verge of a breakdown. Patients need better care than they get. People who who have no compassion should be banned from nursing. its a vicious cycle. one that needs to be fixed. I truely appreciate good nurses. They have a very hard job. Thank you from a grateful MOM.!
It’s not just nursing. There are many other healthcare workers that feel the same way and are also working long shifts, weekends, holidays, and missing family time. Unfortunately, since we are not nurses, we are considered “less important.” Not nay by the nursing staff, but the doctors, and hospital administration as well. Our services are just as important and vital to the patient as the nurses’. However, since we are not nurses we have to bear the brunt of the nurses abuse. You want people to be kind to nurses? Try being kind to the X-ray tech, the lab tech, respiratory therapist, and, god forbid, the transporter and housekeeping. If you want kindness and respect trying giving it first. After 24 years in healthcare I am in school getting a new degree so I can get out of healthcare. My main reason for leaving is the complete lack of respect from the doctors, nurses, and yes even patients. I would rather work at another career with less pay than to continue to take abuse from nurses just because they know the hospital will back them.
In 2009 my hospital laid off 422 non-nursing employees. The following month the hospital gave all the nurses muffin baskets for nursing week. One floor got over looked and the nurses complained. They were immediately given muffin baskets. 455 people lose their jobs and all you can think of is muffins? Nurses do not work any harder than the rest of use and not anymore deserving than the rest of us.
This is a great article and I’m a fairly new nurse myself. I appreciate the things you said because many people don’t understand what nurses have to go through on a daily basis.
422 people lost their jobs. Correcting my typo.
i don’t know your situation, or your life, so this may not be relevant, or possible for you, but i can tell you what helped me. i’m a big proponent of loving your career. i have been where i hated my job, and it was so hard to enjoy my off times when i had had such a hard time at work and it was dragging me down and making me in a bad mood outside of work. it was stressful. if you don’t like your job, and it is so bad that you wish an emergency would happen to prevent you from going to work (and i have definitely been there in the past), i would recommend trying a different nursing job. i’ve been a nurse for 7 years and am so happy with my job, but it wasn’t always like that. when i was in school and doing clinicals in medsurg, i thought that maybe i had chosen the wrong career, but then i found the operating room. it’s completely different from floor nursing and far less stressful. my first job trained me very well, but i didn’t like the way they handled the scheduling and there were a lot of people that made work difficult for me. i changed hospitals and like my current workplace much more–in fact, i love it! i chose what shift i wanted to work, i am required to work only two holidays per year, and those are ones that i choose (i usually choose MLK day and president’s day), and hardly any weekends. big hospital ORs have more staff so they can be far more flexible with scheduling.
You have just described teaching. We do, however, get breaks on holidays and summers of which I am constantly reminded by other workers. I am grateful for these breaks, and appreciate that I am lucky to have them. I work 182 days per year. I could not do your jobs. I would also like to add that I have a steelworker husband who works all shifts, doesn’t know his schedule form one week to the next, has layoffs, and then works doubles, and who works in all temperatures. I could not do his job either. We both have unions who charge us together $1731.00 a year in dues which we have to pay. I currently am on a pay freeze. We both are facing healthcare cuts and changes to our retirement plans. I think ALL of us are facing a meltdown of our USA economy. This is not a nursing story, but a story about the USA economy. Unions are not the salvation.
I recently learned first hand that all the above is true. I was recently hospitalized for by pass and valve replacement surgery. I entered the hospital with an attitude due to what I thought was invasion of my privacy because of all female nursing staff. Five days later I was discharged with new respect and admiration for what those female nurses did for me in those five days I was there including intimate procedures. I realized it was any easier for them to perform those procedures as it was for me as the patient to have to have them done. I say God Bless all nurses and that goes for male nurses as well.
My little sister is a nurse on an oncology floor in Florida. She works between 14 to 16 hour shifts because she takes care of 5 patients at a time on some days. I know it is mentally exhausting for her. She is also physically exhausted does not sit down, does not take the time to eat and worries that she is not giving her patients the care they need because she has to hang blood or there is always something! I think the time for Nurses to stand up and fight has arrived. I think you are all entitled to spend time with family. I would stand behind anyone of you!! May God take care of all of you and I pray that you achieve your goals for the union!
I could not agree more. I am a CNA at a hospital and we have a patient on the floor qho is extremely needy. I had a patient who was gwtting blood so the vital signs were ridiculous, every 15 minutes for and hour then 30 for an hour then every hour until the bag is done and he got 2 units. I had a patient hit the light to be repositioned. I quickly grabbed a set of vitals on my patient who was in critical condition then I headed to the next room. He was aggravated that I wasn’t in his room sooner. He then wanted pulled up in bed. No big deal. Ww have slick tube that we use to pull our patients up because one we are understaffed, for CNAS we have 2 aids from 11p to 7a, and rwo the patients are supposed to be doing things for themselves so they can go home. Everyone was very busy so I suggested to use the tube. He decided to tell me that I needed to find spme one to lift, this 300lbs man, up in bed because “it wasy job.” I for one was pissed off. It was my job to take care of this man who had a simple knee replacement. It was NOT my job to strain my back, which is done on a daily basis. I deserve beeter respect than that. What that needy patient didn’t understand was I had several other patients more critical then him. My patient who recieved blood ended up coding later that morning and had to be sent to ICU. I love my.job veryuch. I couldn’t imagine any thing other than the healthcare field. However there are those days were I come to work and it is hard to function. And some of the patients do understand because they used to be in my position. Howecer, many haven’t and they don’t understand.
Thank you for sharing how I feel. I am a new nurse (6 months) and already feel burned out. Nursing IS hard…
Im new to Blogs and found this somehow on FB. Holy shit how I love you, Im a PCT on a Med surge floor in a HUGE hospital. Altho Im not a nurse, I can relate. I try my hardest to help our nurses on the floor. We work elbow to elbow in the “Shittiest” situations. Out siders just dont get it. Keep up the great writing…<3
I have so much respect for nurses after being in the hospital for a week. I saw the Dr. for about 3 or 4 minutes a day and I thank them but the nurses and especially the CNA’s are the true caretaker. I can’t thank each and everyone who cared for me when I couldn’t feed myself, brush my teeth, walk to the bathroom, the nurse who put lotion on her hands to rub my aching back, or the two nurses I hacked all over and they smiled and said its okay, its alright. I am soooo thankful and appreciative. One thing I learned is people NEED people, even when you think, “I Got This”, you really don’t because you’re human. Everyone has a part in total patient care and all plays an important role in healthcare management. The food lady, the cleaning lady, the stranger walking down the hall who I shouted out to help me pick up something, and the Case Manager who squinted more than me when I was getting an I.V, I truly Thank You and God Bless each and everyone.
I am fortunate to work in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), so the biggest complaint (injuries sustained while lifting patients) does not apply, and for that I am truly thankful. The big frustration on my unit right now is that we are severely understaffed for the amount of patients we are receiving. For a period of two years, we were consistently overstaffed due to a 20-patient drop in our census. You would think this would mean better and safer assignments, but no. People were being cancelled and floated to other units, all while the remaining nurses were being given shitty 3-patient assignments because of “the staffing grid.” I had a pt on the oscillator with an insulin drip and q30min blood glucose checks, which we were making changes on (in addition to other q2-4 hour labs, parent education and support, assisting coworkers, etc) and I had TWO patients. When the charge came around for updates, I said “this patient really needs to be a 1-to-1 next shift” she said, “Why? He’s just on the oscillator.” “He’s also on an insulin drip.” “So, it’s just an insulin drip.” Suddenly, eight months ago, we had a spike in census and now are running 40 patients over what we were (20 over normal), are reaching capacity, and being paid “triple adjunct” (which was unheard of when I was hired…the highest was double) which is a set amount extra per hour you can make for working in addition to your 3 shifts a week. I made the comment that had we been given a proper rest and been well-staffed when the times were lean, we wouldn’t all be reaching burnout now, with our census showing no signs of ever going back down. All thanks to the grid which accounts for NOTHING other than they are on a ventilator, or CPAP, or room air and they eat or don’t, and they have an IV or don’t. This does not account for needy parents, angry parents, nitpicking parents, visitors, broken equipment, computer slowdowns, can’t find what you need where it was supposed to be, unhelpful coworkers, crying babies, IV starts, lab draws, meds, dirty linen, line changes, specialty rounds, emergency surgery, etc. Screw the grid!
This also can apply to people who work with animals in shelters or rescue agencies etc… Animals are like people too in some cases. Working long hours because of a huge seizure of animals that were not taken care of,, a dog that is badly injured and suffering, a kitten with chronic diarrhea that is slowly withering away to nothing and you can’t figure out what is wrong, just the fact that you cannot save them all. Many people who work with animals have to overcome compassion fatigue. It’s just another profession that people shouldn’t forget about either.
My wife is a NICU nurse who works graves. She is amazing, and I see how much sleep she sacrifices to be with me and our daughters. I work as a Firefighter/Paramedic on a 48/96 shift, and she works around me with the 12 hour shifts. You RN’s have my respect and support. Keep your chins up.
U just sumed it up great. Love my job but drains u some days and others it best thing ever
for starters. I’m not a nurse. but my wife is. she works hard everyday. it takes a toll on her. mentally and physically. I must admit I’m one of those people who thinks that she has Not got enough time for. but I’m relatively new at Being married to a nurse. but I’m learning. I love her very much. So when she needs a foot or a back rub I try to be there.
this is not for the nurses but for those significant others in their lives. give Them a break
I love my nurse
Not to mention the many days where you don’t have time for a break, or it is spent doing paperwork in the hope that you can leave on time. So after keeping everyone’s fluids up and checking on their bowels- you get home and realise you haven’t had a chance to go to the toilet or hydrate yourself.