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 
how are these posting on dec 31 2013…today is the 30th
Not a nurse but have been a CNA MA for years it’s trying… I’ve been hit kicked spit on and choked out…. I still love my job cuz I know why I’m there… There is no better feeling than knowing you were the one that stood by em when he’ll arrived!! God bless you for all you do Hun!!!
This is just like care giving! I took care of my husband for 19 yrs 24/7 and it was exhausting! When you get a few hours to do something, you don’t know which direction to go!!
I have been a nurse 30 years- there is no such thing as a “cushy job” in Nursing. We deal with people and care for them while
they are most vunerable. I was a Nursing instructor at one point in my career- and I instilled in my students_If nurses don’ take care of each other no one else will”. I try to live that motto- I believe in helping my co-workers/fellow nurses. Nursing is the only profession were you can comfort a dying patient and enter the next patients room and be criticized for not smiling enough. We need down-time and peer support to survive in this great profession.
Well said ! Iv been a nurse for 30 years, 20 in critical care 10 tel triage in a large pediatrician office . I have had 3 back injuries , torn rotator cuff and plantar faciatis, have been bitten and punched , I’ve missed count lees meets , games , cookouts and holidays, I presently have been diagnosed with hi BP and rheumatoid arthritis … While I was saving lives I have been slowly being destroyed….
I can tell by the comments who is a nurse and who is not. Your right… Only nurses understand. It’s like a secret society. People think they know what nurses do but they have no idea. I’ve done many different jobs. Nursing is not my first career. It is, however, the hardest job I’ve ever had. I don’t think I could ever do anything else though. Thank you for the post. It touched me.
Why are all these blogs dated in the future? Are they coming from Australia?
p.s. It’s 5:15 on 12/30 as I write this in California.
pm
I feel real pity for people like Anne that have no idea the mental strain on all nurses even more in the ED/CCU areas where critical meds are given more often ,the critical thinking we do to give the correct dose the correct medicines and the wisdom to know the difference I’ve been in nursing for 25 years I now work 12 hr shifts in an ED as an RN it seems we ( nursing staff) get pushed harder each year to keep costs down and productivity up, it’s hard for me when I hear we have to tighten our belts to make up for short falls of others ( like e dr office that never work holidays of weekends or a full 8 hour day) if the dr offices took all the patients they should it would help the wait times in the ED for the Emergencys !
I’m a recent grad and even though I’ve only been in the profession for a few months I already know how this feels. My first month as a nurse I cried every single day for no real reason other than the fact that the job was so overwhelming. I also work in a very large inner city hospital which probably makes it worse. In the past month and a half I switched to working straight nights and I can’t even begin to explain the feeling of exhaustion and not to mention the toll it takes on your relationships. My family and friends are upset that I always tend to fall asleep at gatherings and I know they mean well but until you work nights you just dont understand. In my short six or so months as a nurse I find that almost all of my patients have been very appreciative about the care that I have given and some have even been surprised to find out that I’m a new RN with very little experience. Those things make you feel good about yourself and your job for sure. The author is right though. Sometimes no matter how nice your patients are or how good a team of nurses you work with sometimes you just need a mental health day! Or at least a sleep day!
I have been a bedside RN for 31 years, the last 10 spent in the emergency room. Six months ago I took a job in a Cardiology Clinic. I also have worked eves, nights, and 12 hour shifts. Dealt with co-workers that are condescending and mean.
I missed birthdays, holidays, anniversary’s. I had moments I wanted to cry when someone needed to use the toilet and they need 2 people to transfer and I just did this 15 minutes ago. I have been called every cuss word by patients and family.
The clinic job has changed my attitude. It is a day job, no weekends, closed holidays. Patients say thank-you!
Try and find a new job– it will change your life.
I worked 12 hour day and nights shifts. I took a big pay cut for an office job so I could spend the holidays with family and not someone else’s. Weekends with my baby and not watching some crackhead’s kids waiting for DHS to pick them up. I am glad I did. All the money in the world couldn’t keep me from watching my baby’s T-ball game. Tired of all the ungrateful people who don’t understand nursing career.
While I am not a nurse I work in an ER as a Paramedic. I work side by side with the nurses on the same schedule. I worked as a Medic on the streets for years and now I am in the ER trying to go to nursing school(silly me). My husband is a Firefighter/EMT. HERE is my point nurses do have hard jobs BUT medic and FF do the same job, same hours, same stress except we do it out in the streets, rain, snow, while getting shot at, stabbed, and attacked…..BUT we do it for half your pay!!!!!!Nurses get paid a lot more…hence why I am going back to school after 15 years in EMS. Everyone of us deserve the credit and appreciation AND the pay.
You describe nursing to a T, it is hard, it is rewarding and it takes a toll on a person. Sometimes you give just too much and have no more to give. I retired 1 1/2 years ago after 38 years in a profession I loved. I was burnt out and could not give any more, I came to this realisation after another assault and the death of a close friend, life is too short. I’m luck I was in the position to retire however, I am the full time carer for my husband who has multiple health problems. The sad thing about retiring is I don’t miss nursing.
I have been married to a nurse for 32 years and know (from first hand observation) the emotional and physical effect of this profession on even a very, very strong woman. Do not apologize to anyone what you’ve blogged herein. You are right on the money. Thanks for the great service work you do and for sharing your heart with us.
I love love this and thank you! I’ve been a nurse for 10 yrs and I love it and wouldn’t do anything else but it is draining!
If you have never been a nurse, you have NO clue. That is all there is to it. To compare it to anything else…..you just really have no clue. Honey, you deserve a special spot in heaven for every single bedpan and emesis basin you empty. You deserve at least double the salary you make. You deserve patients that say “THANK YOU” instead of “F YOU”. You deserve one moment of one day that you can turn around and say “F YOU” back. I am a nurse too and no, this is not my first occupation. Keep doing what you do and cry those tears because you deserve every one that falls. You are BEAUTIFUL because you are a nurse. You are the salt of the earth. God bless!
As an RN I say thank you for telling it the way it is. I work with nurses and auxiliary staff who work their extremely stressful and exhausting shifts while fighting cancer , heart disease ,debilitating joint disease ,etc….not to mention the regular rounds of flu, stomach virus , colds, sore throats etc, etc…. and yes I do realize we signed up for this !
Oh wow,
I was in tears after reading this blog -posted by a friend on facebook. I am currently on stress leave, my first after 22 years as a nurse. I can sooo empathize! While I am lucky enough to be in a mon to fri job, I worked 17 years of shift work, still do long hours and come in nights and weekends as needed for on call. It was my choice to move to this area and schedule but let me tell you, the effects are no less grueling than tne 12 hr day/nights I did in ICU. I love my job as a nurse, but going through a burn out is a terrible thing. I am ashamed that I was no longer able to hold my stress in; I am embarassed that tears ran down my face when I felt I was not working up to par with everyone, I am exhausted physically and mentally. I love my job but I am frustrated by what it has done to me and my family. I knew I needed to do something about how I was feeling when my teenage daughter expressed interest in becoming a nurse and I said “it’s not always like this honey” as I came home in tears again!
A much needed rest has helped tremendously as has some caring counseling. I am hoping to return to my job soon and will see if I can manage in this position or if a return to (sigh) shift work will help. We have come to accept that to run for hours at a time, day after day is normal. We swallow the hospital mandated balogna of to fight for better is to fight against your job. We believe that the daily sacrifices we give are just part of the career we have chosen. This must change! I will happily clean patients as always; I will sit beside you and talk about your devastating cancer diagnosis; I will call family that you want beside you; and I will do all the other special tasks that I trained long and hard for -but I will do it with a measure of safety and positivity. I will give my coworkers smiles and try to remember that management is not the judge of my worth as a person. I will use your suggestion to try and trade someone a shift or start time, so we can look after each other, if even in a small way.
I thank you for the opportunity to share and for starting this dialogue.
Beats being a CNA and getting treating like crap. Our nurses don’t appreciate us. We’re told only what we do wrong. If we got every other weekend off id shit a brick. We work most weekends. Our nurses and residents take turns yelling at us. We work short 95% of the time. We’re told we’re the heart of the facility but get treated like we’re bottom feeders. Working as a CNA has made me change my mind of going to school to be a nurse. I love my residents but the nurses make it look like the most stressful job ever. I’d rather just not.
I am a chronically ill patient who has also worked in a variety of hospitals over the years in varying capacities. I’m writing to suggest you (and 80% of your co-workers) need to get another job.
My experience of nurses as a patient has been very different from hospital to hospital. One local hospital was pure hell. Most are so so. My current hospital is almost always excellent.
I follow the local labor struggles closely. One contract met the nurses’ demands for 3 16 hr shifts followed by 4 days off. None have asked for shorter hours or lighter loads, though we have had nursing strikes several times, and th demands have been for more money. Comparatively speaking, a whole lot of money.
The happiest hospital, the RNs have patient contact and work 8 hr days, 5 days/wk. The worst hospital has an RN supervising a fleet of non RNs, most of whom don’t speak English.
I have been at the receiving end of RNs who wished they’d been hit by a truck on the way to work. I wished they had been, too.
IMHO, if you aren’t eager to get to work you need a change. In my experience, asking for a lot of money, as the striking nurses did, is what people do when they’re feeling injured. If you’re feeling injured, you need to make some changes in your life and hope to hell you haven’t set up a mortgage payment based on killing yourself.
If you don’t feel like taking care of me, please go away and let my family and friends do your job, so you don’t ever have to talk to me, listen to me, or touch me. You can bring me meds, but I’m going to check them out before taking them because of the 25% of the time you’ve appeared at my bedside with the wrong meds. Sincere apologies doesn’t quite cut it.
Or how about the night nurse who spent her entire watch proselytizing me.
One last thing: The last time I was in you gave me the norovirus, you realized it, and then you tried to make a mad dash to get me discharged before the first bowel movement hit.
I just realized. I’m really angry and hope to hell I get in a fatal car wreck before I ever have to end up on your floor again.
Thank you, Susan J. O’Shea. You’ve just provided an excellent example of a patient with a bad attitude—-the kind of disrespect many of us have to put up with when we walk into a patient’s room for the first time.
I’m sorry if you feel you’ve had poor nurses in the past, but starting out by insulting the nurse assigned to you, just because s/he’s also a nurse, is NOT the best way to get what you want, or to get a sympathetic response to your complaints. We nurses aren’t widgets, and it’s unreasonable for you to blame all of us for your (perceived) mistreatment at the hands of another nurse, in another hospital, at another time.
If you were my patient, I’d have to be pleasant and courteous to you, and I would be, because that’s what I do, even when the patient is displacing his/her own anger (at being ill? At being in pain? at those striking nurses for asking for better compensation? at nurses in general for being healthy?) on me. But it’s just one more stressor added to an already stressful job—-and a stressor that serves no useful purpose, not even to the patient creating it.
I burned out and quit eventually. It drained me bec I didn’t know then how to care for myself better. Live and learn. Your mother-in-law needs to be told by her son to mind her own business. Just saying.
Maybe you shouldn’t be a nurse. I didn’t hear much about caring in that post. It is the essence of being a nurse.
Jeanne, you weren’t there with Grimalkin while she was working, so how can you be so sure that she doesn’t care?
In fact, the nurses who don’t care tend not to complain much. They’re the ones who sit at the desk and let somebody else answer their call lights. They’re the ones who take frequent breaks, even if it creates a hardship for the rest of the staff. They’re the ones who spare themselves much of the legwork that good nurses do, because they DON’T care if your sick grandmother gets a bed sore, or if your husband’s pain medication isn’t working that well, or if your elderly uncle is lying in his own urine for an hour or two.
Those nurses do exist, unfortunately, but they seldom post on blogs or talk about the stress of their jobs—-because they’ve got other priorities. Grimalkin, on the other hand, spoke from the heart, on a subject that clearly matters to her very much. I think anyone who wasn’t searching for reasons to disagree with her would have recognized that right off.
I just started as a CNA at a nursing home, and this blog made me cry too. I know I will get faster at what I do, but right now I feel so stupid and slow and unprepared. And overwhelmed. I had a week of orientation and just finished my 4th shift on the floor by myself – last night was the first night I didn’t cry at some point during the shift. But I sure did when I got home.
I love some parts of my job and absolutely hate others. I’ve never felt so polarized by any other work I’ve done in my life, and I’m 45. I was planning on going to nursing school to become a hospice RN (I have a lot of hospice volunteer experience), but I’m not so certain now.
Mel, I think you would be a good nurse – just by gut feeling. It’s hard work, but anything worth doing is. Hang in there!! You can do this!!
Nursing is the most overrated profession. Almost nonexistent career path, individualality inhibited, nursing dominated by other professions, and nurse’s knowledge treated as inferior to others.
I strongly recommend any other profession if you are going to uni. Find something that gives u pleasure and study it.
Nursing offers good employment opportunities but after 25 years of turtoring myself I’m moving on. My only regret is the patients and my nursing colleagues.
I can appreciate your frustration with nursing. As a nurse of 27 yrs I to have missed special events, holidays and family time, but I would not change a thing. I love nursing, I love being a nurse. I now work with hospice (a path I never thought I would choose) and find it to be the most rewarding of any job I have ever had. Something does need to done to fix the problems & challenges faced by nurses. Administration at hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies need to step up to the plate. It would be nice to see them present during the holidays, answering phones, volunteering to hold someone’s hand, running to get supplies, meals, meds etc. You don’t have to be a nurse to help a nurse. One of my administrators always says of the manager “we all have RN behind our name, and need to be available when times are tough” Unfortunately, this isn’t enforced enough though. I hope don’t know how long you have been a nurse but if you are that discouraged, find a different position, or setting to practice. We need nurses. Our frustrations show to our patients. Mental health days are needed to regroup and get back on track. I hope you can find happiness in nursing. It can be and is a very rewarding profession. I would never “turn back the clock” to myu nonnursing days.
Ok, you know what people………this is a blog, written by a person who is nurse, and she’s writing about being a nurse, for crying out loud!!! This person is NOT intentionally leaving out any other profession; in fact, if you weren’t spending so much time complaining, “but what about me, but what about MY profession, you didn’t include ME”, you would realize that at the very top of this blog, she did include “many other professions”!!! This blog isn’t about YOU, it’s about her, and her thoughts, feelings and frusterations about being a fricken’ nurse!!!! If she were a cashier, perhaps she would have wrote a blog about her thoughts, feelings and frusterations about being a cashier, but she’s not, she’s a NURSE!! I was a paramedic for 10 years before I became a nurse, and even though I worked in healthcare, had I not gone into nursing, I would not truly be able to understand what the job of nursing is about. If you’re not a nurse, you cannot understand what it’s like to be a nurse!! I’ve also been a waitress, cashier and housekeeper, and yes, those jobs all have their own frusterations, but that is not what this blog is about – it’s about NURSING!!! And for some of your information, nursing doesn’t necessarily pay as great as you think it does. Yes, there are jobs in nursing that pay very well, and those nurses absolutely deserve every cent; however, many, many places don’t want to hire nurses full time because they don’t want to pay for insurance. In fact, MANY places only want to hire casual/on call nurses, meaning you have no gaurantee of any set hours, as well as no gaurantee of any hours at all.
Also, just because there are frusterations with job, it doesn’t mean we hate our job and need to get out of it; it means that some days are more frusterating than others. There are days that are emotionally and physically draining; it’s the nature of the beast, and since you can’t really understand if you’re not a nurse, she is “venting” to fellow nurses, who will understand. If people who are not nurses read this blog, and have a little better understanding of the job, than that’s all the better.
If you don’t like her blog, then don’t read it!! It’s pretty simple. If you want a blog about being a cashier, server/waitstaff, or housekeeper, linesman, truck driver or whatever else, than go find one, or write your own.
Sorry, GrimalkinRN, I’m very certain you can speak for yourself, but I just felt I had to speak up. 🙂
And you spoke up very well, too!
I give a huge amount of credit to policemen and firemen – they have such incredibly demanding jobs. However, I get upset when people compare nursing and teaching, or make comments stating that nursing is “mindless.” As an RN, I am responsible for assessing my patients and making judgements on when things are concerning. I have to know lab values and what they mean. I have to be able to communicate with all members of my team, plus families. I do medication dosing and am responsible for knowing medications, side effects, interactions. I have helped save lives during codes and held hands with people who died. This, plus much more, is what I do.
Asking others to understand and respect what I do is not meant to demean other professions. Please don’t compare nurses to others. The reason, I think, that you hear so much from nurses is because we do not seem to get a lot of praise and support. All it takes is a simple “thank you” at the end of a shift.
I worked as an RN in surgery. We had an ophthalmologist that would schedule 20 + cataract surgeries every Friday. This dr was notorious for screaming hissy fits for the pt not being high enough in bed, the mattress being slightly askew or even because when he sat to do surgery, he sat on his balls! (Not kidding).. He one time hit the wall beside my head when I refused ( anesthesiologist told me NO) to get an elderly, heavy & sedated pt up out of gurney to adjust the mattress. One Friday I was scheduled in an ortho room & a co worker called in sick so that I had to work with the eye dr 2 weeks in a row.. I lost it! Broke down crying and shaking..I had to calm myself and carry on.. But working with him was terrible. And he was ugly to pt’s also but, they were sedated, so they didn’t know!
Hohoho…not mentally challenging! I will forgive that ludicrous comment because the person who wrote it obviously doesn’t have a clue. Nursing is challenging in every way, shape and form! This original poster never once insulted or “talked down” to any other profession. She posted only what all of us who have been nurses for awhile already know-it’s a damn hard job. And I want to know where all this big money is other ignorant posters are talking about? I have been a nurse for 25 years and my 22 year old son who is an assistant manager in the meat department in a large supermarket chain makes almost as much as I do. Cutting meat or keeping people alive……………………hmm…………that seems pretty equal!
I’m a 41 years nurse’s aide. and boy do I relate to this. And whenever someone asks me why I don’t become a nurse – I tell them “I’m happy where I’m at.” If I know the person will understand, I tell them “are you f’ing crazy? I don’t want all that pressure and responsibility.”
My job is full of responsibilities and pressures too – the long hours on your feet, the grueling schedule, missing weekends and holidays, the verbal and physical abuse from patients (those who are not mentally responsible for their actions and those that are) – low pay, and lack of support from administration. lack of understanding from the general public – with comments like “yeah, go ahead and strike – shows how much you care about your patients.”
We union members vote for strike when necessary BECAUSE we care for our patients – as well as ourselves.
At least I know at the end of my shift, I have done something to help another human being – my patient. And I’ve done something for myself too – I’ve nourished my soul.
Ruth, thank you for your comments. I want you to know that your attitude about your job makes you (and others like you) the kind of person that patients LOVE and that RNs love to work with. It is obvious that your primary concern at work is the proper care of patients and that you are a team player. I am an RN of 16 years and would be proud to work with you because you “get it”. All members of the team must respect, first and foremost, the patient and also each other!!!!
Have been a nurse for 54 years and still love it. I do home care and it’s very rewarding. Don’t think I have the stamina at my age for hospital nursing but loved it when I did it. Of course, things are very different in hospitals now—-no time for REAL nursing care–to much paper work or should I say computer work. Keep up the good work—we are the eyes and ears of the doctors!
I am a nurse and 2 of my daughters as well. We have each other to vent to and this makes coping with a bad day so much easier. We all need to decompress, have someone to talk with, if there is no such person create a place to come together and help each other, we can’t do it alone. There are thousands of us, help each other.
I tried looking up your Code of Ethics recently. I’m a PT in an acute care hospital where I know I can never give a patient what they need without depriving another. Then my code of ethics dares tell me I should put the needs of patients above my own. It angers me to read it knowing I routinely put my health at risk, deprive my family of my time and attention and then am told by my own profession there is no point where I should say no this is enough!!!
Try being a fucking patient seriously, you are lucky
Matt, this isn’t a contest between nurses and patients and which group has the harder job. It’s a dialogue among nurses, venting about the difficulties of a very difficult (albeit rewarding) profession.
You know, after reading a couple of hundred posts here yesterday, I discussed this conversation with my husband. I asked him, “Why are there so many people scolding the nurses on that blog for complaining about their job?” His answer: “Because most nurses are women, and women’s complaints aren’t always taken seriously.”
I think he made a good point. The two professions being bashed here most frequently are nursing and teaching, both still dominated by women. Think about it: if this blog featured an air traffic controller, or a policeman, or a lineman complaining about the stress of his job, would there be a flurry of posters jumping in to accuse them of self pity or self indulgence, or arguing with them that people in other jobs have it worse than they do?
Bingo, Olivia! Nurses aren’t supposed to complain about our jobs. We’re supposed to be angels with tired eyes and sweet smiles, always available and never cross. When a nurse steps up to say “this is wrong with my job,” people say we should quit. It’s the same with teaching. Yes, we knew we were getting into a hard profession, but we also are as deserving as anyone in any other field to have a space to vent, to discuss what is wrong with our profession, and to improve our profession. Without dialogue, nothing will improve.
I agree with some of the points made, but also think our professions as bed side RN’s continue to be treated very fairly. Twelve hours straight of work and working with the types of patients we do is a challenge, but that’s why we only are required to work three days a week. We’re provided full time benefits even though we don’t work a traditional 40 hour work week. We are also paid overtime versus salaried employees who work 50-60 hour work weeks. The blog mentioned 8-5 Monday through Friday hours…..you show me a salaried employee that works exactly 40 hrs a week and I’ll show you a nurse who has zero call outs in a one year period; they don’t exist. We have RN’s coming out of school with Associates Degress making $10-$12 more per hour than traditional Bachelors Degrees with thousands of dollars in debt. Why, because the industry realizes the sacrifices we make on a daily basis and just how “hard” it is to be an RN. Can you explain to me how we aren’t compensated appropriately?
The writer also mentions short staffing, has any of us ever stopped to think the reason we’re so short staffed is due to the ridiculous amount of call outs that plague our profession? When a nurse calls out, they don’t stop and think, or care, about the strains it puts on their co-workers that are left with higher patient ratios.
Working as an RN and working is a hospital setting is a profession we choose. We know there are weekend requirements, we know that healthcare reform is putting unnecessary fiscal restraints on hospitals, we know day in and day out our patients are going to push us to the limits. If you don’t want to work weekends, there’s a doctors office or a lazer hair center right down the road who would love to have one of us on staff because of the experience we have gained working in a hospital. The bottom line is the profession of nursing isn’t suffering because of the hospitals, it’s suffering because of the culture of nurses have forgotten what it means to be a team player, but more importantly they have forgotten just how well we are treated for what we do on a daily basis.
Bill, don’t kid yourself: If you’re paid well as a nurse, it’s not because upper management realizes how important you are. They’re not there to reward perceived importance. They’re there to get the best and hardest working nursing staff possible for the lowest pay possible. That’s how businesses work. They pay nurses well because (1) a good, (preferably) experienced nurse saves the hospital money in the long run, and (2) the state requires that license, so they can’t hire unlicensed personnel for peanuts, as businesses can in some other areas.
As for your observation that salaried employees rarely work just 40 hours: not necessarily true. Some do; some don’t. It depends on the job. What’s more, salaried employees in some (not all) jobs have a bit more flexibility with their schedules: they can leave early, or come in late, if they have a personal emergency, and make it up at another time.
I am very sick by some of the responses on here from NON-NURSING people but not surprised!!!! These are our patients who come into the hospital for strep throat or colds because they are to busy during the day getting to see their family and friends living lifes to go to their doctors (PCP if they have one) and get upset with us because they had their nurse light on for 2 minutes because they are cold/hot hungry/thirsty and you couldn’t be there any quicker because you were in the next room with a patient/family being told that they have cancer and there is nothing that can be done, or accessing someone who is having chest pain, resp of 40 a bp of 220/122 hr of 147!!!! Or the patient they are the patient who is wanting pain medication but is allergic to Tylenol codeine Motrin and everything thing else except morphine or Dilaudid (most nurse will understand that) the one who is in so much pain that they are going to die till you get them narcotic’s and if it is less then that they are threating you, assaulting you (I have been attacked and sent to the ER while on duty many of time by drug seekers!!!!! they sleep or demand food and drinks till the next dose is due then they are back in a 15 out of 10 pain scale! Yet they refuse testing and get pissed off when the doctors order testing and then even more pissed off when they cut off the pain medication! Who get it the nurses and NA’s!!! They are the patients who are non compliant but yet when they have not been taking their medication for 2 years and they are in a crisis who’s fault is it that they are going through all this testing and that we have to wake them up? Or they are the family members who have ignored their parents and then when their health starts failing and are to ill/age related to live alone and they are bothered then who’s fault is it the nursing/na staff who take the abuse from the family! Nursing is a hard job but its also rewarding! Also for most nurse its not a job choice its a calling!! Though with the changes in healthcare by the government at least in the state live in they have changed the way Medicaid/medicare pays by the patient satisfaction so now not only do we have more patients to care for but we also have to except the abuse so the satisfaction surveys are high!!! Then there is some postings that say you go to school for 2-4 and you get great pay, sick days lots of vacation days and well taken care off really I have been working in hospitals for 28 years and have to say I have 12 sick days/vacation days a year so if I don’t get sick then I can take a vacation! I pay little over 300 out of my check every 2 weeks for my shitty health insurance that barely covers my medical bills!!! I rarely get a lunch or even get to go to the bathroom in a 12 hour shift which usually turns into a 14-15 hour shift to get charting wrapped up or you get written up but yet you can’t get it down during your shift because someone always needs something and if you do get a second to eat something or go to the bathroom then someone is coming to get your for something or a doctor is calling you or another department is calling you regarding testing or a family member is calling you wanting information (then we are getting yelled at by a family member because we BY LAW we can not give out information over the phone you know that HIPPA law that I know everyone has signed when they go to any medical or pharmacy but yet no nothing about)!
I totally agree with her or them as they are the center of patient care. It is on our shoulders as nurses to get that patient through the noc. Yes I’m a nurse and I have been at it 37 years plus. I was burnt out by a hospital in the Midwest that only wanted you there for your “blood” work. Nurses that sit on their butts and play with computers are a determent to the patient and the reputation of the Nursing history. Yes I’m an old nurse and I have went in early helped others to get to family gathering, but what you civilians don’t understand that we take our “jobs” home with us it is very hard to let it go just as the other high stressed careers are. This nurse is expressing her feelings as we are not to express them in front of the patient, give her a break.
Well said. Hospital I work for does a rotation for holidays and you work every other weekend. You are given one free weekend a year. You work every other holiday. If you work it one year you have it off the next. If you call in on the weekend then you make it up. Nursing is very hard. Regardless of the shift or hours of a shift.
To the woman who said that we chose this career and we should just “suck it up”, way to be a supportive mom. No wonder your daughter doesn’t tell you about her day. We all (no matter what our profession is) need to and have a right to vent sometimes. The person who wrote this blog needed to vent. You don’t have to read it. To the person who said that a nurse can simply move around, change shifts, etc, I don’t know what it’s like where you are but where I live and work, it’s not that easy. Places simply are not hiring! It doesn’t matter what your experience is, there’s a total hiring freeze. You’re lucky if you are able to move around and attend all of your kids functions. I think that’s awesome! But a lot of us are not able to do that through no fault of our own.
I agree with everything you said!!! I am tired of hearing people justify how nurses get treated and tell us to suck it up. I love this profession and only want to see it get better.
Thank you…….every word is true……been a nurse for many years and even thought about either driving into a bridge or just driving to canada or mexico just so I could miss work and relax……
God bless all of the health professionals and may all of you take care as you all are in my thoughts and prayers
To Connie who wanted to tell her daughter to “Suck it up.”
Words can not express how awful/horrific that statement is.
I have been a nurse for over 29 years. Have seen miracles and horrific tragedies. I have laughed and cried with my patients and their families. I have stayed into the wee hours of the night to care for patients requiring life saving procedures. I have stayed with patients as they die, supporting their families. I have enjoyed seeing patient come in for follow visits who are doing well and enjoying life after critical illness.
I had no idea what I was in for when I was a young nursing student. I had no idea how hard the job would be. I have given up weekends, holidays, family events to care for others. I have made lifestyles changes to make myself available at a moments notice for a perfect strange who has an life threatening emergency.
I could not have done all I have as a nurse without the support of my family and my coworkers. To them I do not thank enough.
I do realize it is a choice to work in health care.
But Connie to tell nurses to suck it up is wrong. We are the ones that care for all.
Your daughter deserves more respect. All nurses deserve respect. We are the ones that care for your most precious items- your loved ones, both young and old.
Amen, from another nurse.
How did those post a day ahead?
I can certainly relate.. spent many years earning my wings. Nursing is an innate, caregiver role; blessings beyond words. Reach down inside and find your core, your inner strength. We all find a passion and hopefully a career we devour. Life is too short and without balance you will be on the other side of that wash cloth. Take care of you, write your stories-happy and sad… reflecting and venting. Slow down and take a deep breath and know when you look up and feel the warmth of the sun, you are not alone. Nurses bind together; Continue to reach out to one another so you can calmly step back and find your inner desires.
For years my family couldn’t understand my drive, pushing too hard; I almost lost myself. Hearing again, you’re just a nurse…
I refocused, striving for new goals and excelled. Now I’m managing, without losing my nursing (without the 12 hrs); I feel reward as I continue to embed my passion in others while I’ve learned how to take care of me.
you can have both…
Warm regards,
Meredith
I used to work in NICU with very critical patients, tons of critical medications, and equipment. I STILL have periodic nightmares that I FORGOT to do something and got SO FAR BEHIND that I cannot finish. I stopped nursing about 15 years ago.
Teri, I can relate to those dreams! As a night shift ER nurse, I sleep before going in to work, and I often dream that I’ve been assigned to a patient and have been neglecting him by sleeping.
Often it takes several minutes, after I wake up, to realize that there is no patient assigned to me; that they can’t very well hold me responsible for an ER patient while I’m sleeping at home; and that I’m not in any trouble for failing to assess or chart on the dream patient.
Afterwards, I can laugh it off, but it says something about the stress of nursing that I have such dreams regularly.
Hello Grimalkin. I believe and agree 110% with what you said about nurses and the nursing profession. I have never been a nurse, but have numerous friends and family who are. I have told them several times: “I don’t know how you do it.” The thing that is especially ironic to me is, these healthcare professionals have to work 12-hour plus shifts….and they are in charge of people’s lives for crying out loud!! Doesn’t anyone see anything wrong with this picture?!? I digress; that’s a whole other subject that could take up a whole blog in and of itself! 😛 Hang in there and thanks to you and all nurses out there!
Beautifully worded. This is why I don’t work on the floor anymore. When my girls told me I was turning into an angry person I knew it was time to leave. I do home health nursing now. Much harder job in some ways but very rewarding. Good luck to you!