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 
Pt to nurse ratios really do not work. Hospital bean counters protect their bottom line by eliminating ancillary personnel.
and families accusing you of false things because they are competely dysfunctional, or looking to launch a lawsuit.I like others after 35 yrs. of giving and sacrificing, got too sick to work. and it’s been a Godsend. Do I miss the 12 hr . nights of running on concrete floors, miles and miles, in a new facility that is not worker friendly, the stress, the fear, the dread, of what lies ahead for a shift, the gossip, the crap, no I don’t miss it at all, just wish there was a way I could have got out sooner. It’s all about management making a profit for the facility. sad, but true.
37 years of nursing. I spent 25 of those in the ER. For years it was common to work 8 of my 12 hours without getting any kind of break at all. There were nights I worked 10 hours without getting even a short break. For years, every single weekend I worked 2 to 3 hours overtime after my 12 hour shift–at least one, sometimes two days-because when I went home at 3 AM, staffing changed and there was no one there to take over care of my patients! The beds were supposed to be closed, the patients discharged and the bed empty, only patients were still in them. So I stayed. And never got a thank you from the shift supervisor or the department director. Not once. Of course, the patients aren’t even aware. And the administration–I guess people think you’re getting paid, and that’s why you’re there. They think I’m there for 15 hours with one half-hour break because of the money?
In later years, had patients lining the hallways, with no one assigned to care for them. The stress doesn’t come from life-threatening emergencies. That’s what you’ve trained for, that’s what you’re good at, that’s what’s rewarding. People in severe pain, waiting for their turn to have you start their IV and give them a pain med. This is where the stress comes in–people desperately needing you, but you can only care for one at a time. They wait as you work as fast as you can, prioritize, re-prioritize, and still someone is waiting for an hour before you can get to them.
Staffing was better in later years. My first job as an RN, on a medical floor, I worked night shift, was responsible for 2 stations of patients–34 patients–and had the help of 2 nursing assistants. Didn’t even get out of report for two stations until 12 midnight. Still had to check meds–it was impossible to pass meds on time. Impossible to get your work done and leave on time in the AM. My eyes used to fill with tears when I saw I was assigned the two stations together. And I’d complain to the house super and my manager–every day–that staffing was insufficient and dangerous.
Staffing is now better, but patients are sicker, regulations require a lot more documentation, and technology, while increasing efficiency and safety, also greatly increases the time it takes to do patient care.
You’re constantly shuffling patients. Getting one settled with IV, meds, etc., then an ambulance comes in, and the settled patient is put in the hallway and you get the new one. Because every bed is full. The waiting room is full. This happens time and time again. There’s never any respite. And you’re trying to care for the patients in the hall in addition to your official, assigned patients. This is stress.
Emergency nursing is physically, emotionally, and spiritually challenging. It is incredibly hard work. Yet I’m privileged to have done it. I’ve seen human beings at their best and at their worst and have seen things and done things that the average person can’t imagine. In can be incredibly rewarding. I’m very glad I am a nurse.
I retired three years ago and I adore retirement!
Its not about whether you like the profession but if you like how you’re treated. Nursing has lost respect as a profession. We are not treated with respect and it seems to be getting worse. I love taking care of people that are sick but most patients that I encounter need psychiatric help not medical/physical. We need to start being honest with patients and insisting that their psychological issues are addressed and treated and quit patching their problems with drugs
Amen Shannon. Over the years, I’ve noticed that the way I’m treated has declined dramatically. Calling security over the way a patient or a member of thier family is treating staff is becoming commonplace. I sometimes wonder what would happen if I walked into a restaurant or store and talked to people the way I’m talked to at work.
So very true. Patients have rights and so do we, but ours are rarely enforced.
Agreed!!!
The tone of the article is correct but please understand that this does not only apply to nurses. I am a respiratory therapist and have missed many of my kids plays, games, etc and work on the same weekend/holiday rotation as nurses. I have taken care of emotionally taxing patients and have been with several as they’ve passed. Many occupations in the healthcare field can relate to this.
I’m sorry, nurse, to be asking again but I’m really worried about my daughter. She has cerebral palsy and seizures several times a day and her meds are now 2 hours late. I know you are waiting for them to come up from pharmacy but we’ve been in hospital many times and there was one time when the nurse forgot so now I have to ask. Every time. For my daughter.
Of course I’ll change that dirty diaper myself, nurse, though we’ve been here for days and I haven’t been able to sleep in that rock hard chair and I really like those nurses who say “No, Mom, you’re going through enough right now. I’ll change her.”
I’m sorry, nurse, that I didn’t see you come in. I was lost in thought worrying about my daughter and if we are doing the right thing. And thinking about my other 2 children at home that I miss and who are missing me and their big sister. And worrying about all the money I’m having to spend eating all of my meals here in the hospital and having to buy all of those things you never remember to pack. And missing my husband and worrying about him having to handle the other kids by himself and still get to work every day because we can’t afford for him to take time off. And worrying about the work piling up at home while I’m away for so long. And thinking about trying to find some aspirin because my back is killing me from sitting in this awful hard chair and my body aches from inactivity after being cooped up in this room. And by head is pounding from all of this worrying.
My daughter has special needs and we’ve been in the hospital more times than I can remember. The worst stretch was 15 times in 14 months. I am very aware of how hard nurses work and all the gross things they have to do and how frustrating it is to wait for meds and orders and the long hours. I know I couldn’t do it. Except for my daughter, of course.
I didn’t write this to complain because we’ve mostly had really great nurses who I can tell really care. I wrote this just to give you a look inside a mothers head when she’s sitting in that hospital room for days on end. Adult patients are probably thinking some of the same things. This blog was a really good look for me into a nurses head so I just wanted to return the favor.
Sheri…..It’s not a hotel for the relatives, it’s a hospital for the patients. Nurses are completely aware of what you mothers and relatives are going through but we don’t have the time or resources to nurse you too. We wish we did, god knows we do. We wish we could find you that comfy chair, get you an aspirin, give you left over meals and all those other things you forgot but our budget only stretches to the necessities for the patient. It kills us but it’s the limitations our job. As long as your daughter is looked after to the best of our ability, we have to accept that our job is done.
Emily, I never said I expected a comfy chair or for the nurse to get me an aspirin or do anything else for me. I was simply trying to give a glimpse of what the other side is like. Caring nurses will understand that.
No, unless you have been there with your child, you have no idea. (As a Mom of Special Needs kids too)
Shari,
Your response is the sort of thing that keeps me awake at night. As a nurse, I can only imagine what you must be going through as a mother (and what other family members are going through). I’m very sorry you have to go through this. Your daughter and every other patient in the hospital deserve top quality care. I go home at night knowing that no matter what I did all day, it still wasn’t enough. Hospitals are rated on patient satisfaction scores. Sometimes, I wonder how the scores remain high when I feel my care of the patient was subpar 75% of the time.
Don’t be so hard on yourself. I’ve almost always been happy with the care my daughter has received. We understand better than you think what the nurse is going thru with long hours and hard work to do. I don’t remember having a nurse leave her shift and thinking she should have done more. I wish they would let me get my own ice water and blankets so they wouldn’t have to bother!! You are one if those really great caring nurses and as long as you do your best you’re doing great!!
I absolutely agree with everything GrimalkinRN had to say, but there are times that we need to step back and look at how we come across. Thank you for giving us a respectful, inside look.
I was a floor nurse for many years and loved it (mostly). After my daughter was born, the hours were no longer compatible with my husband’s or a day care facility, so I moved down to the Surgical Services department. That move, for me, was the best career move I’ve ever made. We still get crazy and caught up, but I love it!
We had a patient that had a ruptured AAA come in, and the activity flying around her was insane. I was getting ready to leave and I was on vacation after that. The anesthesiologist, and other nurses were busy putting in A-lines, and doing other invasive procedures. She was being covered with drapes and such. I just happened to glance over at her before I was leaving, and she looked so terrified, that I put my stuff down and went to her. In the course of working to save a life, we sometimes forget that it’s a human being’s life that we’re trying to save. Nobody was talking to her, and her diagnosis was grim to begin with. I stayed with her and held her hand when I could and told her what people were doing. She made it through the surgery and made it a point of making sure that I knew she appreciated me. That’s why I’m a nurse!
I don’t get why so many people here seem to be trying to devalue your post. It’s good to vent and you are right, self care is very important.
I completely agree with this article, but could we do without the “she” and “her” pronouns referring to nurses? 😉 In all seriousness though, a great read. Always nice to hear from someone who really understands.
This is not an article, it’s a personal blog post. I wrote it when I was in a very emotional state and really should have gone back and revised it. I do apologize and will be adding a note to the blog post.
Stop apologising, its awesome :o)
I and many other nurses can relate to this BLOG. I can’t count the number of shifts I’ve come home from with literally nothing left to give. I can’t count the number of shifts I’ve thought that I had nothing more to give but then reached inside and found words of encouragement for patients and peers or took that admit because someone else was too busy. I’ve limped to my car in physical pain after running non stop for 12 hours. I’ve cried on the way home because of that particularly sad case and ive cried in the bathroom because I was just that overwhelmed with the million tasks before me. No nurse wants to give substandard care, but all too often we find ourselves stretched so thin that even an octopus suit wouldn’t provide enough helping hands. And the giving doesn’t stop there, many of us become the on call nurse for our family and friends. The home health nurse for our elderly parents, grandparents, or sick spouses and children. We are trained to sacrifice and do so without thinking most of the time. It is not uncommon for nurses to go untreated or self neglected. I can remember a shift that I thought, man I have a headache, I’ll get some Tylenol out of my bag, three hours later the headache remained and I still hadn’t had time to go the 10 feet to take my own medication. I appreciate your reminder that self care should be a priority! Thank you;)
what a bunch of whiners! you’re all gainfully employed! getta grip and do your jobs without complaint. why the hell did you pick the profession? if you dislike it so much, if it’s broke, then fix it by leaving, getting an education in another field and move on.
Actually, after I made this post, I went to our unit council and as a group, we convinced management to change their overly strict weekend policy to allow nurses to switch weekend shifts or pick up additional weekend shifts if they wanted. This post was written SEVERAL months ago.
Not whiners, but if you should find yourself in a hospital, you will understand. All patients should get great care, and it is getting harder and harder for nurses to ensure that great care. We are standing up for what is right without the help of administration. There is no support. Instead of calling people whiners, understand that this is a huge problem only to get worse. You would want you or a family member to get good care, not to miss a warning sign, keep track of lab values, get medications on time, notify doctors of changes, request orders from physicians, apply our critical thinking, time to document and relay information to other team members, etc. all in a timely fashion? Not complaining because we feel we are due something special, but because bad things will happen and it is not the fault of nursing. We are trying to make it better. It all comes down to finances and the insurance companies not paying enough for the hospital to survive. Corners are cut, and nurses pay for the cuts. It is getting harder and harder to give quality care. So your solutions is to change professions? Do you have any idea how much money and time it takes to go through nursing school? It isn’t easy, and costs a lot of money. So would you like to pay all of our student loans for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and then another career? You do not sound very educated or supportive person to be making statements like that. I bet you never complain about your job, if you have one.
Very nicely said. This comment angered me by this person. I love your response liz!
Excellent response. Marcy sounds like one of our “needy” patients or family members! No other profession puts up with the abuses this profession does. The lack of respect is horrible. We chose this profession because we xare…and you should be thankful so many of us do or you would be answering your own call light! 38 years still hanging out in the halls of a hospital working my butt off
Well said!
If every nurse left bc they felt this way, thered be noone there to care for YOU marcy danford when u needed a nurse. Hospitals and nursing homes would close. Not everyone loves their jobs and we certainly didnt know the reality of nursing when we signed up for nursing school. And another thing, not everyone can afford to go to college more than once. Yes we are employed and grateful for our jobs, that doesnt mean we should have to endure all that we do. Remember the next holiday while u r sitting with ur family, how many nurses and other hospital employees are working. We care for our families and go to work and care for u and urs. We r too tired to care for ourselves…. that is all. Ur rude and clearly complete lack of compassion and sympathy did not deserve a comment… it is clear YOU could not be a nurse, for those are 2 basic essentials for nursing, along with a just as exhausting school to get there. Live in a nurses shoes before u think u can call a nurses venting “whining”
Are you serious….Marcy..After reading your reply….I bet you would be one of the first pain in the ass family or patient who taxes us while we care for someone who really needs needs assistance…you ask why did we seek that profession…. because we wanted to help…not be treated as if we are servants…it has changed. ..the last 15 years have drastically changed…you asked why we don’t change profession…have you ever seen our wages? Compared to college costs…many of us are still paying our undergraduate loans…mortgage…caring for our family…extended family because we are nurses….
? Whiners….This type of intolerance and disrespect is exactly why people are leaving the profession or wish they could….remember, You will be in need at some point in your life and will be begging for someone to help you….I wonder if it will be a compassionate nurse…
Marcy,
The author was posting only one side of nursing. The job can also be rewarding. Where else can you be by someone’s side, holding thier hand, while they’re dying. Where else can you recognize the signs of a heart attack and get the ball rolling with other providers to help save someone’s life. Where else can you give cpr and bring someone back to life. At the same time though, there are your “other” patients. Waiting for thier medicines, their dinner, their coffee while all this is happening and you know they are being neglected.
What an awful thing to say.
Jeez Marcy, you are a real piece of work. You have the empathy of a two day old dead mongoose. The problem is nurses do love their job and that is why they picked the profession. However, many times they are not only doing our jobs, they are also doing one or more other nurses jobs as well. They do this because of inadequate staffing by hospital administrators that don’t have to deal with patient care and will not be held responsible if some tragedy occurs. It isn’t like a normal profession that if you get backlogged you just keep plugging along until the work you catch up. You never catch up and if we don’t get to it now, people may die. It is fine for you to sit on your fat butt and hand out your “sage” advice about quitting, but try shutting your ignorant mouth and actually try to put yourself in another’s place. Oh wait, that’s right, apparently that is an emotional component you are incapable of. I hope and pray you are not a nurse.
Marcy Danford……your the one that needs to get a grip & clearly get educated!!! But hey the next time you are sick or someone you care about doesn’t get timely treatment when sick because of the state of the health profession and the strain health professionals are under…….I’m sure you’ll be the first to whinge!!!
Some don’t have the luxury of just going back to school and getting a new profession and it’s ok to vent dont judge until you have walked a mile in her shoes!
Luckily these “bunch of whiners” are there to take care of your granny.
This is possibly the most offensive thing I have ever read about the heartache I feel over the career path I chose. The reason it’s not being fixed is because people don’t know there’s a problem. This is just one more attempt at creating awareness of a problem that could easily affect YOU someday when your nurse is so overworked she can’t get you your meds in time and YOU’RE the one in pain. Leaving the profession isn’t fixing it. I hope you or a loved one are never the victim of the dangerous understaffing trend in nursing care, which you so ignorantly refuse to recognize.
Wow, what do you do for a living? I’ll bet there are plenty of days you vent like this about your job or worse. If not, good for you that you enjoy your profession so much that you have no stress at the end of the day. If all nurses that have an issue with how things are run in the hospitals & facilities they work in simply left their jobs…you, and your loved ones would simply cease to be treated and, god forbid die if they found themselves in a life threatening situation. So keep your comments to yourself attacking people who are doing their job and performing it in an empathic and professional way. They have the right to vent on a fucking blog post.
Bunch of whiners…really??!! If all nurses changed from the professions because this is what we go through… who would take care of you when you are sick…. you must be that type that is ungrateful and expect us to wait on you hand and foot!!!! Nursing doesn’t get the respect it deserves… I hope you are never truly sick and depend on a nurse to take care of you!!!
Marcy…no one is whining. What a ridiculous comment! Nurses do what they do for many reasons. Gainfully employed? Not really. There is zero job security in this profession. Nurses leave the profession when they experience burn out from the extreme stress we are under, or when our backs give out, from all the damage the unsafe environments of hospitals cause. Scientific studies show we are at high risk for diseases caused by stress, night shift nurses are literally shortening their life spans by 10 years, and are at a higher risk of cancer than other people. We literally sacrifice our life for our work. Go pound sand, Marcy.
I have been a nurse for 20 years and in the last 6 months the hospital I work for has decided they could be more efficient by restructuring the nursing workforce. If patient census is low. they continue to hire. Every full time nurse’s hours are well below full time (daily phone calls saying you’re canceled). So not only are we staffed inadequately but we know we could have been staffed well. Patient nurse ratio is usually 6:1, and these are the sickest (vents, isolation, severe wounds, multiple infections, dialysis). Techs are usually twice that at 12:1. Families that think they have the only patient in the hospital. We try to be supportive and address their feeling and concerns all the while hearing a call light that every patient has been promised, on admission, will be answered within 3 minutes. Administration who is inaccessible. Phoning in orders but not willing to come to the floor. At 56 I’m back in school, making myself more marketable, as almost all the nurses I work with are. Yes, I’m burned out. I can’t take a vacation because I’ve used up all my vacation days covering my cancelled shifts. I work with an awesome group of nurses that support one another. My co-workers and my patients keep me showing up for work. I do love being a nurse. It breaks my heart that profits overshadow patient care.
Great article.
strictly enforced schedules, long hours, some days you don’t think you can handle going to work, have to deal with a lot of bullshit, yep, sounds like a…job.
Big difference between nursing and…….a job……Luke, is that if you make a mistake when you are nursing a patient, you can make them even sicker or even lead to their death.
Its the long hours, the high patient to nurse ratio, the thinking quickly on your feet whilst you are bone weary, the weird shifts that completely muck with your body clock and a myriad of other things that make nursing one of the most stressful occupations around. Its also a very rewarding one, or we wouldnt do it.
But, it is NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, just a…..job.
I was a single parent who raised three daughters that all became nurses, wives and moms. I saw them through missed holidays, burnouts, back problems, always running to keep up with their husbands and children’s schedules, whether it was parent teacher meetings, hockey, dance, soccer, baseball, concerts, and a host of other functions. They slept when they could, often going back in when they were short until someone else could come in early. I helped them study during nursing school to prepare for an exam, while doing my own homework for college. I saw their devoted husbands prepare meals, giving baths, reading stories, and helping with homework just so they could get and extra 30 or so minutes of sleep before a night shift. What I am most proud of none of them would have chosen another career over nursing. So yes, I do understand, and I do appreciate every thing nurses do for their patients. When I was a patient, I tried my very best not to ring the call button, just in case my nurse was trying to finish charting, grabbing a bite to eat or answering her own call to nature. Every nurse out there has a right to be proud of themselves and the career they chose.
while reading this the only thing that runs though my head is “Try being an infantrymen or a combat medic” poor poor nurse having to give up every other weekend missing her kids hockey game. Try missing your son being born, or coming home to your child hating you for leaving in the first place. and lets not forget our Special Forces guys, leaving with 8 hours notice for 6 months barely having time to say goodbye.
At what point did I ever devalue anyone else’s career? My blog post was about nursing. It is what I know. It was a call for nurses to practice better self care and to help their coworkers practice better self care.
Of course I appreciate and respect our armed forces and the sacrifices they make. It would be an improvement if our military made family time and self care a bigger priority.
Yep been in both worlds and for Judah to make such a comment highlights exactly why the military can sometimes get such a bad wrap. How about you engage your brain!!! What a stupid and profoundly ignorant comment!!
You are correct, being an active duty service member is perhaps the most difficult job there is. They miss A LOT and are not nearly compensated adequately. However, please do not undermine what nurses have to go through. I was a nurse for years before staying home to raise my children (which I’m blessed to be able to do), and I am married to one of those Special Forces guys you refer to. In fact, I worked with many nurses (and have known of many more) who were married to active duty guys. Yes, the guys suffer a lot being away and miss even more, but please do not devalue what we go through as well. We raise our children, hold our life together, jump at every unexpected knock on the door or ring of the phone in fear of what is on the other side, all while working 12 hour shifts and giving every inch of our being while doing so. When the guys are home, we still have to work every other weekend and holidays (the only time those guys have off), missing quality time with our husbands or significant others, and we do so without complaint because that is our job. Again, I do not say this to undermine what our service members go through; I see the struggles through my husband every day. I say this in hopes that you will give a little more credit to those “poor nurses”(which my husband would never say with such a condiscending tone since he sees the struggles that nurses endure).
You forgot to add “Him” after “Her”, there are plenty of us male nurses around too!!!!
I am sorry this article was written with “her” instead of “they” or “them.” I will be adding an edit to this effect.
It’s funny to me that people act like “just passing pills and wiping butts” isn’t hard in and of itself! I mean come on people! Even if that was our ONLY job that would be hard, personal and giving meds is not a robotic thing if you are a good nurse. You are the last check, giving the drug could cause an allergic reaction, you need to know what to look for, if the dose, route, time and person is correct. This takes time, critical thinking, and sometimes an argument with the MD if it isn’t. But you’re right this is not even the only thing we do. Sometime I go home and I can’t get the dings out of my head for an hour, or I swear I can still hear the baby coughing and smell the sour milk smell even after showering.
This post sincerely helped me today, because I was so worn out from the night before, and was really down because I got off and couldn’t sleep, too much caffeine and that’s all I wanted to do. So instead of watching football like all my friends and my husband I had to begrudgingly sleep. Anyways it just made me feel better and lifted my mood so I don’t feel like an ungrateful bitch, but a nurse who is human. Thank you
To all those who have commented that this blog is “whiny” or complaining. Or have said, “try putting yourself in the patients or families shoes”, you seem to think we don’t have personal experiences to draw from. We too have been on “the other side” we have had surgeries and chronic as well as acute illnesses and have experienced death and loss not only personally but every day we take these emotional burdens on from our patients. The difference between me as a nurse/any other healthcare provider, I understand that when the nurse/other healthcare provider isn’t walking around smiling incessantly might be because one or more of their patients is dying/just died/is coding/ is otherwise experiencing some critical situation and there is only one of them and several of us. For the most part, these providers try very hard to hang up personal stuff before starting a shift, even if it means we have a family member or friend that is dying or very ill and we can’t be there cuz we are busy taking care of you and your love ones, that’s right, we do as much/or more to address families as patients. We also try very hard to hide the acuity and staffing short comings from our patients and try not to spread the stress of one patient into another’s room, cuz you are all entitled to get us at our best. Just know that we all try very hard to give every patient the best of ourselves, but the reality is that the sickest few patients will get the most attention, cuz we wanna keep them from dying. If you’ve had a bad experience, I am sorry that happened to you. On the whole, those of us who go into these professions are here trying to help, and come back for more every day after being beat down by staffing issues, really sick and complicated patients, and abusive/demanding patients and families. Disclaimer, none of us believe that all patients and family members are abusive/demanding/unreasonable.
Hallelujah someone else understands
You are wrong. The article is on point. It is not whining. Teachers while they spend hours planning their lessons in the beginning, and do have to correct papers at home, Do get evenings, nights, weekends, holidays & snow days off. Oh, not to mention summers! Nurses sometimes never even get a chance to take breaks, get time for meals or even a fast 5 minutes to get any type of nourishment during those 12.5 to up to 14 hours they End up working depending on how busy they are. Some of us are Lucky yo get a pee break toward the end of those 12.5 hours, and it May have been the first chance they have gotten to dit down all day or night. The last 2 weeks of one of my “best” nursing jobs I never wven had the opportunity to get a drink of water, on any of those shifts I worked! I literally used to Run…from room to room to room, in order to get everything accomplished and to try to give excellent nursing care to my beloved patients. And then you know what happens by the administration for all our efforts? If there is One complaint over a nurse taking too long to get to one of her patients rooms, or any kind of complaint (and lets face it, sometimes it is not easy to not have a complaint when someone is not feeling well; and then there are those type of people who never have a good thing to say, and those people one can Never please)…what happens is that we get written up for a complaint, and it may not matter that we were in that patients room tending to them more than a dozen times between midnight and 7 am, or thst we had foregone our one chance to pee all night to take care of them. You get enough of these during your 4 or 5 years of running on concrete floors putting your patients ahead of taking care of yourself, and they terminate you….because now although you are an excellent nurse t hat gives excellent care, you have gotten to where you are making some good money for all your hard work; they terminate you for some wrong reason they fabricate, or No reason, other than for the rate of pay you now make they can hire 2 newer, younger nurses in your place. Then to add insult to injury they file a vomplaint against your license to cover there butts against wringfully letting you go….and we are left w no job, or benefits fighting to defend our license and our only livelihood with no income…bc they have so intimidated us that we resign rather than be fired, and we get no unemployment either. This has happened to nearly a dozen very good nurses that I know, at the hospital where I had the job, and the patients I loved, most of all.How is that for an eye opener? And when you are 60 and unmarried, snd no one else, and nothing else to fall back on bc you devoted yourself to your beloved patients….it is very sad state to have to try to survive. Whom is going to hire that tired, worn out very excellent nurse at this point? It is very scary facing life at this point….
How many teachers do you actually know??? Many of the ones I work with have more then one job they work IN ADDITION to working to educate children full-time. I personally work in special ed where many of the above are required of the staff dealing with severely disable students. I am “lucky” I am a Speech Pathologist and in order to buy my own home and support myself financially I’ve worked at up to 4 on-call positions at one time in addition to working in the school district full-time. Thankfully I have always kept up my medical experience so my on-call positions at the hospital have helped me make ends meet. That meant working 12+ shifts during the week giving up vacations AND weekends. I am by far from being alone in this. The exception being my coworkers tend to work just as hard at lower paying positions as their second or third positions. The only people I know who don’t work 1-2 jobs outside of the district are those whom are married to a spouse who is able to support them or are very high up on the pay scale. I and many others do not have this support. Everyone assumes I must love my position working with children which I do, however my position is about meetings, paperwork and making/saving the school district money. This is not what I went to school for, nor did many of my coworkers. I know only a limited few people who don’t drink or over eat due to the stress, it becomes too much for most people. So when you start making assumptions people who work in a school have it “easy” think again. We come in summers, vacations and many work 12 hour shifts daily with no overtime, because as stated above in the article we are also expected to martyr ourselves, because we are sacrificing for the children of our community.
I worked this schedule for many, many years until I finally started to figure out a balance. I continue to encourage my coworkers to stop over working themselves and I support them as much as I can. On nights when I don’t work my other position I have put up reasonable boundaries in order to keep myself sane. I’ve decided I can only do as much as I can within reasonable boundaries. I’ve decided by taking care of myself and getting a break from the mental, physical and emotional stress you are in turn making it better for the kids and your coworkers. Overworking yourself only makes it worse. This is what this article is about not putting down other occupations, because you THINK it’s easier, it’s NOT!!!!!!! I now have only 1 other position, so I continue to work weekends, vacations and occasional evenings in order to make time to “rest”. You are a monster if you have a life outside work or even suggest you may need to think of yourself for once. The grass is always greener. I’ve seen both sides of it and work both sides of it. Neither is easy, so please don’t assume you know that teachers are lazy and have no right to be stressed. Just because we get allllll that time off only means that’s only the times we get paid for working, not all the early mornings before our workday even begins or the hours we stay well after our after-school mtgs have ended in order to try to give more time to our kids during the day. Pull up to a school parking lot before or after work hours, (not kid school hours), but past the work day hours or vacations look at how many cars are in the lot. I know teachers that spend the majority of their summer in their room or at home planning or doing something work related, even when they are lucky to not have to work a second position. You may know some very lucky teachers who are married, high on the pay scale or just people who are able to make it look easy. Believe me that is not the norm. Give respect to all occupations that require this of their staff. This entire article is how I and most of my coworkers feel. We deal with diapering, showering, unrealistic families, desperate families coping with a diagnosis, lawsuits, paperwork, homelessness, abuse, being attacked by violent students on a daily basis, high caseloads, low aide support for classrooms and specific students that need constant care, administration that pushes and pushes us to cut back and just about everything that was stated above, including dealing with other coworkers. Believe me if I was actually able to work a school schedule as you suggested with all that time off, even with the stress I wouldn’t complain or even comment back to you, but that’s not realistic! I get it from both ends at the hospital and the school. I’ve been yelled at by another SLP when I dared to call in sick when I had the flu. I had to remind her I don’t stay home watching TV all day I work full-time in addition to the hospital. I try to give the nurses and CNAs as much support as I can. I know they have it hard. I help with lifting/positioning and anything else I can do to make their lives easier. We all need to be supportive of each other no one has it easy. Take a walk in someone else shoes, you won’t be so quick to think teachers can’t be stressed. I don’t want to leave my kids to fend for themselves or to be replaced by someone who won’t care as much. I don’t want to give up on my kids. I make it work, but I will do it with making sure I take care of myself and do my best to encourage my coworkers to do the same.
As I read it, I cried!! It feels like me myself could have written this!!! I can identify with everything that is written here!!! I love being a nurse BUT it’s the most thankless job!!!! We hardly get any thank u from the mgmt. They forget we even exist!!!Excep when we make an error n we r summoned to d office right away or we get called at 530 pm even though they know we are asleep coz we r working that nite!!! Do they even check??? Do thry even care?? I am a charge nurse on d nite shift n I can’t remember the lsst time I took a break!!! Coz I want all my staff to take a break!!! Even there is
I dont know what hospital or state everyone works in…but being chronically ill for the pasr 18 years, i have been in more ERs in FL,NJ and CO then i could ever count…and not ALL the time but a good 70/30 split of those times i sit in my bed with my curtain open watching handfuls of nurses sipping their beverages and gossiping more then working! If they are on a break then they shouldnt be on the floor chomping away on their food that i just overheard ALL of them discussing for 20 min on where to order from…or huddling around the desk bitching about this and that! And i know this is not everywhere but when it happens 70% of the time in 3 different states and dozens of hospitals..im sure there are more lazy bitching nurses out there then hard working…try being a manager of a Walgreens!! Open 24 hrs never closed holidays and you have to deal with all those customers and the whiney teen emoloyees AND run thr store knowing if you do ANYTHING wrong…if the money is off even a cent…or if 1 customer sends in a complaint, then your ass is grass… just saying
Meagan… Sorry nurses talk to eachother and hydrate. We can’t just leave the floor to have a glass of water when we want because you never know when an emergency can happen. I was a manager at walgreens while I was going to school to be a nurse and you can NOT compare the two. Making sure your cash out is right at the end of the night is not the same as making sure you start a line, antibiotics, fluids, etc on a patient stat because they are be coming septic. I know for a fact that you talk and drink water at your job.
I love my job and the hard work it is! Please don’t undermined it and say all your nurses “gossip and slurp beverages” you sound like an idiot.
I see how stressful all those missed pennies could be. Me I only have to make sure your two year old daughter keeps breathing after an allergic reaction, or that your husband gets to see tomorrow after a major heart attack, or that your mom retains the ability to walk, speak, and care for herself after a stroke. Your impression that nurses in conversation must be lazy or horrendous. We don’t work in bubbles and regularly consult with other nurses, physicians, and other health professionals in order to optimize your care. We also spend a lot of time with our coworkers, both at work and outside of work. None health care people have a hard time understanding the experiences we have, and the situations we find ourselves facing. We work as a team, especially in the Emergency Room. We also care for each other as a team. We laugh and support each other as individuals not as Nurse A or Nurse B. Without that comraderie and couple minutes of human connection with or coworkers we can’t function. Those minutes discussing our trip, admiring a new engagement ring, or looking at baby pictures are what reminds us why we do what we do. Assuming these moments make us as a profession lazy demonstrate the sense of entitlement and self-absorption in our society that is currently overwhelming our healthcare system.
I LOVED THIS! It was spot on…except for maybe the wanting to get hit by a car to avoid going to work;) In any case, healthcare has gone down the tubes the last few years and is about to get even worse. And it’s the bedside caregiver (RN, PCA, Resp. Therapist)not to mention the patients, who will always suffer from the rules set forth by administration. I’ve often wondered why most hospitals have administrators who have no clue what goes on at the bedside. Yes, the hospitable has to make a profit; but how can you tell me how to do my job when we all damn well know you couldn’t do it??!! And managers don’t take up for nurses either. Administration wants “Yes Men”; and if you don’t agree with what they want you are seen as a troublemaker or a doubt-pusher. But you can bet your butt that if anyone from administration or one of their family members were admitted to the hospital, they would expect VIP treatment. Too bad they’ll get the same kind of care our other patient’s are getting…half-assed and unsafe at best. Bedside caregivers do 99% of the work with less than half of the people need to do it with. Hospitals can preach all they want about the customer and safe care being a priority. But when you set forth rules that make that care impossible to give, you have set your staff up for failure and a loathing to come to back to work ever again.
Yes, we often snack the nurses station because we don’t get an full 30 min uninterrupted meal like other professions. If our patients call out while we are on our break, we get up and we take care of our patients and their wants/needs. I can’t count the times that I have left my overly priced cafeteria food to get cold, so that I can go clean a patient who has used the bathroom on themselves/made some other huge mess or just wants me to go off the floor and get them something else to eat because the three meals they’ve already had today just wasn’t enough. And yes we “bitch” (as you called it)to our coworkers because we can’t/don’t want to take the stress of our job home with us to our families. You call it Bitching…I prefer venting. yes we vent to each other so that we can get the shitty way a patient or their family just spoke to us or treated us, off our chest before we go back in their room or into another patients room. and unlike like your job at Walgreens where the people come in, then the people go home… our patients and their families are there for days if not weeks so once they are unhappy with anything we have/haven’t done guess who gets spoken to and treated like dog shit on the bottom of their shoe for the remainder of their stay? That’s right that would be us. And we have to grin and bare it for 12 or more hours. Day in and day out. I’m just a tech. I have been for 8 years and I love my job but recently I have considered getting out of healthcare because of the stress and the disrespect we get on a daily basis. I know one thing is for sure, I have the most respect for nurses and what they go through. I always thought I wanted to be a nurse. Healthcare is all I know. But after 8 years of seeing the things I have, I don’t want it anymore. You couldn’t pay me enough to be a nurse. In healthcare we are spoken to like children by patients, their families and doctors. we are abused physically and verbally by patients and families. We are constantly understaffed, underpaid and under appreciated for the things we do. But we continue to go back and do it day after day because of those few patients that make it all worth it. you seem to think your job is so hard I would love for you to be in health care for one week.
I’m sorry you’ve had health issues and bad experiences. But nurses aren’t able to sit and gossip and complain about their jobs like everyone else can?! Did you ever think that maybe they don’t have a break room in the ER. Don’t assume that they are being lazy it might be the only time they get to sit and eat. You don’t know what sort of trauma they had to deal with before you came in. But a comparison to a nurses job of taking care of sick patients and dealing with concerned family members to a retail store is not even close. I’ve worked at a 24 hour retail store as a manager and it is stressful but no where near as stressful as nursing. And if nurses do ANYTHING wrong it effects the patients health not just their feelings. Don’t get me wrong I don’t always have bad days/nights but the good ones are few and far between. I love my job but in order to release some of that stress I vent my problems as does every other person that has a job in world. It’s my right as it is everyone else’s too.
Thank you for posting the truth! Like it or not, that’s what has become of the profession and it is sad and scary.
Yes I remember those days so well i was a nurse in New Jersey for many of years ,just like you say working every other weekend and holidays have to be there at 7am to get report to relieve the night nurse it was not easy but I love it .sometime in the winter it would be snowing 5 to 6inches of snow ,my responsibility was to be there.short of staff so you had to work a little bit harder because you are working with sick people I enjoy working with with people .but I am retired now for 9years. In the be gaining in had missed nursing so much. But now I love being retired .
Lizzie haggans
This is amazing, im only a new graduate nurse I have not had the years of experience yet but I was almost in tears reading this. I could not agree more. As nurses we have to stick together and people need to understand the work we do. Thankyou for posting your thoughts
nyone who can’t respect a nurse cannot have my respect. When my sister was sick, I witnessed first hand how awesome they could be from day one. They let me stay the night in her icu room, wvwn though it wasn’t twchnically allowed. They answered all my questions patiently and throughoughly about her labs, and never talked down to me. They, unlike some doctors, always ontrod uced the themselves to us and her, before doing anything new. The gentle veteran night nurses who always tried to keep her fresh and clean, looking like the girl we knew as best they could. On the night the passed, I will never forget the two petite young nurses who became our super heroes, who literally clim bed on the bed to do CPR until I’m sure their arms were screaming. The same ones who hugged us so hard when their best efforts just couldn’t work. And finally, our favorite nurse, Maria, who I ran into on the way out that shitty morning, who was bawling and red faced asking in true bewilderment what happened? I just saw her a few days ago? At that moment when I saw her sincerest grief was my own I knew that nurses really cared. That the burden I carried in my heart all those days worrying about my dear sister was not my own. It made me feel less alone. So ladies and gentlemen, when you feel tired and worn out and defeated, remember you have impacts you probably don’t even know about. ♡
I totally agree with you! My only issue is with you using a feminine tense. My husband is an awesome nurse who has to deal with this as well, but it always tends to feel like male nurses are ignored.
Not once did the writer ever claim that Nursing was the hardest profession in the world. She was talking about the effect of Nursing on Nursing. The article was not about the effect of nursing on the person who works at Walgreens or the combat medic. It’s about taking care of yourself and your fellow nurses. I have been a nurse for 17 years, have had my nose broken by a patient, have been groped more times than I’d like to remember, screamed about more times than I can remember and missed most of my breaks as well as work at least an hour over every day unpaid. I have been on the other side as a patient and mother sitting by bedsides for days on end. The nurses were the ones who sat with me when my daughter died. I love my job and wouldn’t want to do anything else. I can love my job but still say I find it hard when I spend months caring for a patient and their family during the last part of their life. I can feel sad when someone screams at me because their operation has been cancelled for the 3rd time. We are blessed to have such a rewarding profession where we are there through the worst time of a persons life but we are allowed to say that at times we feel overwhelmed and need the support of our colleagues.
Great article!!
You vent all you like! It is a tough job like no other! I have worked MANY other jobs before becoming a nurse and the problems facing most employees are comically petty in comparison. It is true that only other healthcare professionals can understand because the patient and families can only see from their own perspective. And that is as it should be. They should feel like they are the only patient we have. Yet, more and more obstacles are stacking up to make it impossible for us to treat each patient like the only, or most important, one. Patients and their families seldom know how much peril they are actually in because of the decisions made, not by nursing, but by those dictating how we nurse. People who spend their days leisurely walking from meeting to meeting, conference to conference, laptop and snack in hand, to decide how more time or resources can be shaved off our backs. And we are, of course, way too busy and exhausted to put up much of a fuss about it. We are left to try and adapt to all the new mandates thrown at us. And to those asking why we chose this profession if it is so wrongly difficult: It is NOTHING like most of us envisioned, and yet, once in it, you feel compelled to continue, because someone HAS to. If everyone bails for easier digs, who will be left to keep your grandma off the floor when you leave her all alone in our car?. We who are going to try to treat her like she was our own grandma, no matter how hard it gets. The next time you get a “Nurse Ratched” and think he or she is a horrible person and nurse, it may well be that they are just far extended beyond their emotional and physical limits. Again.
I have been feeling mentally and physically stressed at my work lately and I work midnights. Glad not alone.
While all this is true , the same goes for the PCA or Nurse Aid what ever you may call it . They may not have the big college degree symbols behind their name , but they are working most shifts right beside you nurses, and in some cases more than the nurses . It is usually the PCA or 2 PCAs turning and cleaning diarrhea from the patient or bathing them, turning q 2 hrs because they are on comfort care and ready to pass away any day now . I have not worked with to many RNs willing to help with the dirty part . Yes they do other things that are physically and emotionaly draining and I agree we are ALL under staffed but I have some days had 10 patients and on rare occasions when others had called in and situations arose I had the whole floor with very little RN help . I worked in oncology with very sick and dying people every day , I have stayed late “off the clock” to hold the hand of lady while she died so she would not die alone , So in all your nurses complaints don’t forget the ” little people ” going through the same stuff. I always here of the nurses blues and very little about the PCA blues , we are either stronger people or just complain less.
This past year I spent 34 ish days in hospital. God bless all of the nurses who choose to do the job. The ones that I had the privlage to encounter were everything from kind and supportive to actually saving my life and didn’t once show any kind of negative attitude or that I was a burden to them. How you are able to do that I can never understand but I appreciate it all the more.
For the nurses on here, please know what you do is truely appreciated and desperately needed.
Thank you for all that you do.
After I reach it I understand u..my my wife also nursing like u even time together wth me also don’t hve..I’m so sad to hard about it..how suffer u I very understood. ..but u already in this career. .how much hard it going on.
U also need to patients. ..my job also hard to explain unless u r involved by ur self..be strong my friends. .time wll going very fast. .that time u will get the answer…n others people will understand u..
Thank God I can retire soon and I still have most of my sanity. Thats all I can say.
Thank you so much for writing this blog!!!!! People should be enlightened about what it means to be a nurse. It’s not just “a …job” like the fellow posted above. It’s a calling, a vocation, and we are on duty 24/7. We have to put up with a lot of crap, all the while being compassionate and professional. It is very easy to burn out. We all need to be reminded that self care is important so that we can continue to care for people in the best way. Nursing ourselves. It’s just as important.
I’ve been in and out of hospitals quite a few times in the past year. I love my nurses. Don’t freak. I mean, they are almost all wonderful people. As I was checking out again last week, I watched a couple of them walking down the hall to their next task and was thinking that they are so underpaid and unappreciated for all that they do. Two times, when I was mentally ready to give it up and just go to heaven, two different nurses sat on the edge of the bed at 2 am, just talking. Getting me through to the next day. My sister finally retired from nursing last year after more than 40 years. I have a niece in law that’s nursing. A daughter who is and a daughter that will be soon. I write this with tears of gratitude in my eyes. God bless my nurses.
I think this post really reflects how a lot of nurses feel at one time or another. Kudos to you for venting and saying what many of us have thought. As far as the comments, everyone needs to back off. She never devalued any other career! I believe any member of any career could blog about their difficulties and struggles in their given field. That doesn’t mean I would comment and say “try being a nurse”. And for those of you questioning why we choose this profession, I can tell you that most of us went into this field wanting to help people at their worst moments. The frustration comes when we face obstacles to providing that level of care. Again, great post. All of us (no matter the career) have moments where we wonder how we can get through another day.
Thanks for the post. I am the father of a nurse, who has tried to express her reasons for leaving a great paying job. Many family members have problems understanding. She expressed many of the same stresses as you have in your well written blog, When she first discussed her plans to pursue travel and writing as her new career I supported her. This blog makes me glad I did.She expressed what you have but it did not come through with the same clarity and impact. Maybe just reading another perspective helped with the big picture. You have my gratitude. Thanks. Mark Friend
I have been a nurse for over 20 years and I am done. I will no longer work under the conditions we are expected to work. I will no longer take more patients than is safe to take. I will no longer be told to care for my patients yet not be able to take time to eat or pee. I will no longer work for people who do not care about me or my coworkers. I am done. I have left the profession I worked so hard to get into all those years ago. Why? I am sick and tired of being a number on paper. I am sick and tired of being told that I have to be everything to everyone with not enough staff or supplies to do it. I am sick and tired of being told I am worthless for either working or taking off. I am sick and tired of so many people expecting me to do everything with nothing. I am NOT going to give you my license on a silver platter because you think, from your guilded cage where you have never worked my unit and most likely never worked a hospital floor a day in your life, you decide I can take six, seven, eight, nine, ten patients who had surgery today,, who each have to have vital signs every fifteen ;minutes and be walked at least twice before the end of my shift, who cannot stand without assistance, who legitimately hurt and need help, yet with each nurse carrying too many patients no one has time to get there, who bleed out and you go to get a fresh dressing only to find out there are no more dressing supplies and you have to hunt on other units and pray you can find what you need. I do not want a patient to die because you want to make $8 billion PROFIT in a year while your CNA’s have to be on food stamps because you cut their hours. I am sick and tired of being told I make too much money, I don’t do enough, am not available for more hours often enough, and the list goes on and on. I’m sorry fellow nurses. I am done.
And that’s why we never stay too long at one job! Burned out!!!
A good blog! After more busy shifts than I care to remember we are all the same- busy, great expectations from patients and management alike. Can’t find time to have a drink- that’s ok- no time to pee! So many missed Xmas mornings etc!
And to the patients who think that we sit round and drink coffee! We are often writing charts, checking orders, and maybe even debriefing while drinking coffee instead of having a real break away, most nurses drinking coffee on the job are doing it because they can’t leave the ward and need to keep hydrated so they can keep you alive and safe and even getting you home soon!
So much unpaid work is done by many nurses worldwide.
When I was 18, I was tasked by my parents to go to the local community college and pick something. The choice was between nursing and cosmetology. Even at 18, I knew I wanted to be a parent someday. When I looked at the two professions with this in mind, I could not logically pick the nursing career for all of the obvious pitfalls you are having with your kids now. Nights, weekends, very long and stressful hours. How would I be “there” for my future children if I chose the one that would eventually pay me more? I chose cosmetology and never missed anything with my children. But, of course it also had its cons as well. Not great pay, not much room for advancement, no paid days off when sick, no insurance. It’s all in the choices we make.
Wonderfully written article. I’m a physician and I always appreciate a the nursing staff who are there for the patients outpatient and in hospitals. It is a noble job even if it doesn’t feel like it half of the time. Caring for people can’t be more difficult when they are ill and delirious. Thank you for sharing!
Marcy, if every nurse who was frustrated and exhausted by heavy assignments just up and quit, as you suggest, there would be no one left to take care of YOU when you showed up at the hospital.
You need to realize that nurses work under a tremendous amount of pressure, including one type of pressure that I haven’t seen mentioned here: the employer’s expectation that we never, ever reveal to the patient how stressed we are. We’re not allowed to use the word “busy.” We’re not allowed to apologize for not getting back to the patient as quickly as they’d like. Such comments might put it into the patient’s head that the unit is understaffed (as if they didn’t figure that out during their first five minutes there).
That’s why we vent when we can, among other nurses who understand what it’s like. Apparently you DON’T understand that, and that’s okay. But do have the grace not to sit in judgment of us, just because we sometimes like to commiserate with each other about how hard and demanding our jobs can be.
I work in home care nursing and we also don’t get Holidays off and we have to work every other weekend it really is hard to be away from your family on Holidays or you miss a graduation as no one will trade a weekend, it you call in sick on a weekend you have to make it up the next weekend where you are needed regardless if you have plans and the make up shift is during an event. It’s also hard trying to go to school because at the end of your shift if something is going on you cannot just say oh times up I’m leaving, you finish until the issue is complete…Staff has a
lot of per diem nurses but guess what they don’t choose to work the Holidays, and many times Holiday pay isn’t worth it
I am a social worker in a hospital. My department too is understaffed. God bless the nurses who help me do my job by calling me when their patients and families have needs for which I can help. When my husband was at his worst before dying of cancer, it was the nurses in the hospital and rehab facility that took such wonderful care of my husband and emotional support of me. YES….God bless our nurses.
So true sister………we all go through the same thing. and we ask ourselves is it worth it hell yeah.!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love it! Well written. I love the work of nursing. I dislike the politics and abusive treatment. I hope more nurses try to treat each other with kindness rather than throwing each other under the bus.
Meagen, you have missed the point of this entire blog! When you see nurses eating in the nurses station, it is likely their only break in the 12 hours they work. You never see the nurse put down her food to help a patient, and come back to eat it cold, do you? If we don’t vent to each other we couldn’t keep going…..and no one else can begin to understand. Not to demean your chosen position at Walgreen’s,but, don’t you dare compare your responsibilities to ours. There is no comparison to be made. We balance lives in our hands every day. We are nurses by choice…but it is a very stressful profession, so let us eat and vent to each other without judging us. I just retired after 50 years as an RN. I worked into my 70’s because I love nursing.
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