The Effects of Nursing on Nurses
Hi, welcome to my blog post. I have never had a blog post get more than 50 comments, so I am a bit overwhelmed. After responding to many comments, here is a note:
Note: I wrote this blog entry at the end of my 3rd 12 hour shift in three days. I was tired and I was emotional. It is a blog post, not an “article.” It is not researched or sourced, it is purely opinion.
The point of this post is that nurses (and many other professions) need to take the time to practice self care and to encourage one another to practice self care.
My biggest mistake in this post (and there are many) was to use “her” or “she” when I should have used “they” or them.” I ignored my male coworkers, and I should not have. You have my apologies, and I have corrected the post. I have left “she” and “her” in place in the portion where I talk about my coworker.
I have read every comment posted and deleted some very nasty comments that were not helpful to conversation. If you feel this is the place to spew your vitriol, it is not.
August 11, 2013
This morning, while I was giving report to the day shift nurse taking over my patients, she burst into tears.
She’s going to miss her children’s hockey play offs due to our strictly enforced every other weekend schedules. You work every other weekend, no more, no less, unless you are going to college (I work every weekend because I’m in college). She’s their hockey coach, and inevitably, each year, their last game falls on a day their mother has to work. I’ve come in early for her before.
So I offered to come in on my night off for an hour and a half so she could get to the game. I’m coming in that early because I know she won’t be done charting.
She turned me down until another day RN got involved. I reminded my coworker I only live a mile from the hospital, and it really wasn’t a big sacrifice for me. She finally agreed, and calmed down. We got permission from the charge nurse.
Nursing is one of the largest professions in the world. If you don’t know a nurse, I’m really surprised. Nurses talk a lot about the rewards of nursing. Catching that vital sign, saving lives, providing comfort, but nurses, by nature, are taught to martyr themselves on the altar of nursing.
When I was a new grad, I hated coming to work so much that I would wish I’d get hit by a car on my way to work just to get out of work. One night, while checking medication sheets, I confessed this to some experienced nurses and found out some of them still felt the same way.
In nursing, it is NORMAL to have days where you wake up and just can’t mentally and emotionally face the day at work. I swear, the only other people who can understand this are nurses.
Nursing is emotionally, physically and mentally taxing, and some days you run too low on what you can give emotionally, physically and mentally. That minor back injury you don’t want to report to HR because you don’t want it on your record. Having a patient with constant diarrhea who can’t get out of bed and needs to be physically rolled and cleaned several times an hour. The cold you got from the two-year old someone brought in. The sorrow that comes from supporting someone who has just found out they were dying, holding in your own tears so you could wipe theirs. In one day, all of those patients could be yours.
I don’t know a nurse who hasn’t taken a mental health day. Some do it by requesting more vacation than others. Some do it by calling in sick, but it’s all time off because we are too drained to give anymore.
So if you know a nurse, and that nurse mentions to you that they feel like calling in because they just can’t take it another day, don’t give them a hard time. Especially if you have an 8-5 job with weekends off or some other really great schedule. The 12 hour shifts nurses work mean we miss the entire holiday we work with our families. Night shift nurses have to choose between holiday dinners or sleep. Often, if a nurse chooses to sleep rather than go to the holiday dinner, guilt ensues. Even though I’ve told my mother-in-law repeatedly that every nurse has to work holidays, she makes a point to say how horrible it is my husband has to be alone for a few hours. What about me? Working my ass off while everyone else celebrates?
We work hard. We are intentionally understaffed by our hospitals to improve profit, even if the hospital is a non-profit. We help people at the worst times of their lives, and often have no way to debrief, to get it off our chests. We don’t just bring warm blankets and pills. We are college educated, degreed professionals who are often treated like uneducated, lazy servants. We get sexually harassed by our patients. We get groped, punched, cut, I even know of a nurse on my floor being strangled (she survived).
Nursing can be rewarding. But nursing is a fucking hard job. If you are afraid of healthcare rationing, you should know it is already happening. Nurses are unable to give everyone the care they need, so patients with smaller problems may not get the same level of care. A nurse may be pressed to only give the minimum amount of care to a patient if they have 5 or more very sick patients. If you don’t want healthcare rationing, talk to your local hospitals about their nurse to patient ratios. Talk to your doctors. If you hear of legislation to support nurse to patient ratios, vote for it. Support it.
So if a nurse needs a day off, you support them. If you’re in a position to help like I was this morning, do so. If you are a nurse, go easier on yourself when you think about the things you didn’t finish, or the things you should have said. It’s a 24-hour a day job and you don’t have to do it alone.
As of January 27, 2014, this post is no longer accepting comments. I am doing this as a practice of self care. Tending to this blog post, several times a day, has become a burden. It has had over 2 million hits, and I am tired. The post has become a platform for people who want to propel their own agendas and are using my space to do so. Thanks to all who said such nice things, and to everyone else, go write your own blog.
Posted on August 11, 2013, in Nursing and tagged Health care, Nursing, registered nurse. Bookmark the permalink. 2,612 Comments.
ofcourseitsaboutyou 
I wish because of the safety reasons for all, they could go to 8 hour shifts. I
ve seen a lot of mistakes on family members because of it. And I sure don’t blame the exhausted nurses. It doesn’t make any sense to me. Safety first hospitals! signed patient!!!!
This was an absolutely wonderful post!! All of it so true. I have been a nurse for 15 years and unable to work for the last 3 because of a back injury I sustained at work requiring surgery. I am currently enrolled in a BSN program that I am required to have if I want to ever be rehired by my previous employer (I was let go because of the back injury). I am constantly asking myself why I’m putting myself back in debt to get this degree because my previous employer won’t give me even an interview for another position that will be easier on my back. I love being a nurse and working in the cardiac cath lab for 11 years I saw many miracles and many tragedies however, the good always made up for the bad, even the terrible amount of call days we took because we were under staffed and the hours we spent away from our loved ones.
My co workers and their spouses and kids did become my family and we looked out and helped eachother so that we missed minimal events with our families.
Thank you for all you do my fellow nurses and I hope you know that there are those of us out here who DO understand and you will find that threshold where you can’t give anymore. Just don’t allow the job to make you so coarse that you find you can’t give to your families because believe me it happens. A person, no matter how strong can only give so much and your family should always come first.
Very well said! It is so important for nurses to support each other! If we don’t have each other’s backs, noone does! Thanks for sharing and I hope your mother-in-law is a little more understanding now.
Unfortunately, I believe the same issues cross over to other fields if nursing and not just hospital nursing. I am a nursing instructor and while my schedule appears to be 8-5 I always out in around 60 hours per week. Work comes home (preparing lectures, grading, doing to online courses, etc). And, we don’t only teach in the classroom anymore, we also reach online and have to do clinicals for many students when clinical sites are hard to find. Plus, we are criticized for not staying current in practice or writing a new curriculum. There is just not enough hours in a day!!
I also believe that the 12 hour shift did us a big disservice. Should have stayed at 8 hour shifts. Look at the research on medication errors. We are safer practitioners when we work 8 hours versus 12 and 16 hours.
Just my thoughts
In 2014 I will begin my 29th year as an RN. I can honestly say ‘ditto’ to everything you wrote and probably to issues you didn’t have time or space to address. Your post brought back memories, one in particular: I worked a night shift on Dec 23, needed to sleep Christmas Eve and my husband kept “checking” on me, and finally got me up at noon – because “my parents are here and waiting to see you.” And then had the audacitiy to ask why I was grumpy.
Nursing has to be one of the most difficult, yet rewarding jobs/careers – one I thought, as a child, I would never be a part of. But I found my priorities changing when I had my daughter. I became more selfish of my time. Last week I had an opportunity to talk with a physician I worked with many years ago. He asked why I still wanted to stay home with my 12 yr old. I laughed – I didn’t have time to go into all of the reasons why I wanted to be available for our daughter. And like many other nurses, have decided to take a slight deviation from nursing – hospital/hospice chaplaincy. I plan to continue to practice nursing, in less stressful environments – church camps.
Kudos to those who continue to practice, working those holidays, night shift, giving up family activities, 12 hour shifts. And to those, like myself, who choose to do something different – may God bless you in your new endeavor. Kudos to GrimalkinRN for fighting for change.
I cried when I read this because it rang so true to my experiences. Thank you for writing this. I don’t think enough people do understand the toll it takes on us.
I am a teacher (special education, 35 years). I believe that any profession that is primarily female, will be over worked, underpaid, and underappreciated. One of my best friends is a nurse. I prayed that my daughter did not go into teaching or nursing. (She is a pharmacist.) This is a great blog. I hope that it goes viral!
Thank you for the blog. I am sitting here this morning after two 12 hour shifts. I am 60 yrs old with 28 yrs of nursing. Believe me, I have seen and heard every patient story in the book. I am tired, sore, and at the same time happy to have been at a patient’s side while they were dying and rubbing their back. You are very right. I worked Christmas Eve for the past two years. I have worked Christmas and Christmas Eve when it fell on the weekend cause I was option. When I speak with my family members they forget hospitals don’t close during the holidays. We work darn hard and to the person who heard the nurses having a good time gossiping……I am glad those nurses had a break!!!! As previously said, lunch in 5 minutes shoved down your throat, bathroom when the pee is coming down your leg, and ordering out cause at least someone will bring the food to your mouth are just some of the many reasons we are tired. Have you ever pulled up a 400 lb patient or turned them and gave them a bath? Have you ever cleaned up their poop? Some jobs may be hard but not as taxing as nursing. My goodness, can’t anyone blog about their job without hearing someone complain back????
Great blog entry. I am a male RN, and if any of my male cohorts gave you a hard time about using feminine pronouns, I am sincerely sorry. It is my opinion that nursing will continue to be viewed as a “woman’s profession” for quite a bit longer, and male nurses just need to relax and accept it. In almost every other career women are forced to come to terms with becoming “one of the guys,” it’s REALLY not that big a deal in this one instance for men to be confronted with what is required to get along with predominantly female co-workers in order to be accepted as “one of the gals.” Again, just my opinion.
I read this just as my reg is due to expire sadly I won’t be renewing it. I nursed for twenty odd years and loved it. Pls if you get a back twinge take care. I just carried on and worked and lifted turned and rolled cos hoists were broken or on ICUs equipment etc made things difficult. Then t home put a tiny piece of paper in bin nd next thing I know I am having spinal surgery. My surgeon said the MRI looked like I had long term damage I have tiny fractures all through my spine. Please please look after yourselves guys I am only just forty and can’t go back to nursing now.
Thanks for the blog.While I know this is not a problem confined to the nursing profession, I can certainly relate to it as I am a retired RN. This is something that happens on a daily basis all over the country. When I read this I was reminded on the time that I could not even get off to go to my only Aunt’s wake because there was no one to work for me. One of my co-workers stayed over two hours so I could go for a little while. Then the day of the funeral I got off at 7 that morning; went home grabbed a couple hours of sleep and went to the funeral. I had to leave immediately after the funeral to get ready for work. My family was hurt that I could not stay with them. So by all means stand up for yourself. God bless you and your co-workers.
I started out in nursing. During clinicals, I was on the renal floor. All the patients I had one day were all extremely ill and needed constant care, the kind of care I was told couldn’t be given because of the number of patients I had. It really bothered me how so many didn’t have family to come see about them. Nursing is draining. I have the utmost respect for nurses, especially the ones who are truly passionate about their job.
This is a wonderful site thank you for forwarding.
At my contingent job last summer..they kept having me do treatments. It was so hot in the building. Sweat was dripping down my back. My nerves were shot that night on even thinking of going to work in the morning. So I called in. And you’re right~ many nurses don’t understand the need for a mental health day!
I’m a float pool nurse, so I work the shifts no one else wants. I’m the one they call when there’s ice on the roads and others call in. The problem I’ve noticed lately is that we are either over staffed to the point of people quitting because they’re getting put on leave without pay, delayed a few hours, or on call (a whopping 12$ a shift). I’ve been called off so many times, one of my checks had 24 hours for an entire two week period. When census is low, they float nurses without the proper training to more acute units, like PCU. They say, If you want your hours, you’ll work wherever we need you.” That leaves no room for float nurses like me when full timers get floated. Not to mention, we don’t have benefits. I get delayed or a day off, I don’t get paid for it. Full – time employees can opt to use their vacation. I’m looking for a full – time job, but there is none currently open in our institution. When census is up, it’s the opposite. People will not work anymore than 36 hours a week, so they call us. We can still say “no” on our days off, but the problem with that is you never know if your next check will be cut short as patients are sent home. I worked 62 hours the week before Christmas, with a Dad in the hospital and a child with the flu because I was so worried my next check wouldn’t be enough to pay the bills. It’s hard because nursing doesn’t have the job security it used to. And if you’re an LPN working on RN school, forget about finding a decent job anywhere else. Small town, so there is basically no turnover whatsoever in clinics.
Didn’t mean other nurses can be picky about their shifts, just that if I want my hours each week, I have to be prepared to work every weekend and shifts when no one else wants to or cannot get to work.
When you blog, you can replace the word “nurse” with other “positions” in the hospital..really?? Its not just you thats emotionally hacked..it happens to all of us..its the place you work in and THEIR rules…not your status…and remember im sure you get paid more than the rest of us so try and feel that same emotion with your pay cut in half,
then let me know how you are feeling…thanx
for your blog….I feel better already..
I completely agree, I also worked 12 hour shifts in the ICU, Missed school events, weekend trips, had patients with multiple high potency drips, unable to get help even turning some hugh patient, pinched, hit spit on, you name it, I’ve experienced it. Go to work and in those 12 hours no bathroom break much less breakfast, lunch or supper, best I could get was the ward secretary grabbing us finger food so we could grab something as we go by, Every money saving idea administration had, the loss personnel was then pushed on the nurses, like no more ward secretaries, nurses handed phones so we can answer them on the run, no one taking off orders so after 12 hours on our feet we spend another 2 hours taking off orders and scheduling test, then getting written warnings because, ” not finishing our work in a timely fashion,” Going home wondering what I forgot to do and praying each morning that I can stay on top of things and not cause or miss something that would hurt someone, But I loved my patients, I loved my work. after 30 years I have a bad back, been treated for TB exposure and testing positive, had to go on disability because of the wear and tear toll that nursing has taken on my body, No, I don’t work in hospitals any longer, I refuse to put myself through this any longer, I salute those that can still do this job, but scares the crap out of me, the new inexperienced nurses being placed in the ICU’s The work load that nurses are now experiencing that multiple mistakes are just waiting for a lawsuit, much less the patients life and the nurses well being. One wonders why there is such a nursing shortage? What has happened to the care that patients use to receive? For myself..I’m done, but I do miss the feeling of helping someone to recover and see them go from deaths door to walking out.
Having worked 9-5 with weekends and holidays off AND after a career change, night shift nursing, I can say because of EXPERIENCE in both situations that I want a 9-5er. Anyone who thinks nurses “make good money” and “only work three days a week” are so off base. A typical week was sat/sun, wed/thurs. Count them: 4 DAYS in a 7 Day span. And all nurses know our 12 hr shift more often than not went into 13 or 14. Let’s do the math 48-56 hrs within 7 days. But I guess everyone is entitled to an opinion no are matter how wrong it may be
This hits the nail on the head! Some tend to walk around and think you are the only one that is feeling this way, but it truly is all of us. I’m not saying its everyday just some days, Thank you for putting I to words what many of us were too scared to say ourselves.
You nailed it. I have been in nursing 40 years. Years ago the patients were so appreciative of what we did for them. With this age of entitlement, it is never enough. Another patient could be coding in the next room and they are demanding a glass of water. If the situations were reversed they would want us working to safe their loved one. The 12 hour shifts are actually killing our nurses. It has been found to be a not so good idea. As we know 12 hours is rarely 12 hours but more like 13+. What management forgets is that at the bottom line of the$$$, there is a human being that needs to be taken care of by another human, namely the nurse. And that is the rub, I love my job and I have worked hard to be good at it.
I love it! So true!!!! Thank you!! Theresa RN in Maryland
BILL: You cannot even begin to know what it is to be a nurse if you are not a nurse — maybe I should amend that to “bedside health care provider.” Don’t take it home with you? Great advice, and a nice trick if you can swing it. Unfortunately for health care providers there is the issue of immediacy — we are THERE — we are focused and intent, we are titrating the drips that support blood pressure, adjusting the ventilator settings to support breathing, washing the blood out of someone’s daughter’s hair, wrapping the destroyed bits of someone’s child in Kerlix to minimize their distress as they say good bye for the final time. We are the ones who bathe the deceased before the funeral director arrives and find written on a little hand “Science test chapter 7-10 Tues.” How do you leave that at work?
Exactly. That says it all.
Beautifully said. I have been in nursing at all levels…yet I would never change what I do. Times are difficult as hospitals challenge each other to stay in business. New grads can’t get jobs…older baby boomers fret over remaining marketable. I believe our success will be in our ability to support each other. Yes we trade family life at times….That unfortunately is a factor for all professionals. We need to remind each other at the end of each shift what good things we have done…not how bad the shift was.
Once I had my own family suggest my husband bring my children to their house, out of state, for Thanksgiving while I had to work. Great, then I get to work ALL day, and come home to an empty house. However, thanks to a wonderful husband, he flat out refused, and our family went to Denny’s when I got off work, and had a wonderful evening. Strange how it is most often the family who treats the nurse the worst during the holidays.
Interesting comments. Nursing is a wonderful profession and it has may ups and downs like life. 43 years of nursing and I am semi retired ARNP. Thank you all for what you do!
I think the hospitals should be required to end double shifting because as a patient it is easy to tell when a nurse is just too tired to be there. It is unfair to nurses and patients, as well as life threatening.
I am not a nurse, but I’ve been under the care of many many nurses due to having several surgeries. I cannot recall having a nurse who was not kind, compassionate, and caring. I knew I’d most likely never see my nurses again, but I loved each one of them, grateful for their kind words and service to me. Nurses have a special gift for being the comforting presence a person needs when going through a stressful situation. A nurse I had could sense my anxiety as others were prepping me for a spinal and surgery, and she just wrapped her arms around me and reassured me. I was tremendously grateful for this compassionate ‘stranger.’ So, THANK YOU to all of the nurses out there. We appreciate all of your hard work and your kind hearts.
Wow, I thought I was the only one that thought it would be nice to get in an accident so I wouldn’t have to go to work!! You are right, some days its just too much.
I worked as a CNA for two and a half years in a nursing home. I know nursing is a very taxing job and its different in hospitals and doc offices however at nursing homes nurses tend to put most of the work on the aides. I’ve done everything that the nurse is supposed to do unless it involved some type if injection. Ontop of doing absolutely everything for our residents that were required to do I’ve bandaged wounds changed foley bags and given mess all of which are nurses jobs. More often than not the nurses would spend most of their day chatting with each other or standing around bitching about all their “hard work” more credit needs to b given to CNAs because most of the time they r the ones doing ALL the dirty work and getting absolutely no recognition!!!
I agree with all of this except the part about if you have a 8-5 job it is awesome! I am a hospice RN case manager and the hours are long, busy, mentally draining and exhausting! Yes, I have weekends off! but am run ragged all week! We still have to work our holidays, just like in the hospital. Great blog, it’s nice to know I’m not alone!
The truth has been spoken!!! Great blog!! I know i have been there.
I am a Nurse and have been such for over 30 years. I was forced out of my position by a back injury sustained from rolling a large person in bed. When a Nurse says she was forced to do this alone because there was no one available, please believe her. As patients get sicker and sicker and short staffing is the norm,Nurses get more and more injuries.Most are reluctant to say anything to administration because they know that their jobs are on the line if they report it. Often times, the powers that be will find another reason to let them go. If one is treated for a back injury, try to get another job..It’s not that easy. This is coming from a former Charge Nurse who wouldn’t ask my staff to do anything that I wouldn’t do. It was a weekend,3-11 and we were very short staffed and I took a full patient load plus my charge duties the night of my injury. NUF SAID
Your use of the common trash mouth word near the end of your post just destroyed most of my sympathy for you. As you analyze your job, why don’t you take a look at yourself to see why you find it necessary to use words that immediately make your IQ appear several points lower.
to bill, i think your post has been addressed adequately but i must comment on the suggestion to organize so you can get breaks and lunch!!! Ha is what i have to say to that! i work in an ED and there are many many days i never get a break or a lunch unless you call stuffing a bite of something in your mouth in the med room lunch, usually that’s done just to keep from passing out from hunger. there is no organization to get these things done when you have a code in one room a chest pain in the other a copd coming in the door with sats in the 50’s so don’t discuss these tactics with nurses unless you’ve been there!!
Thank you for putting into words what so many of us have felt. I have read the differing opinions regarding your message. As nurses we are taught that everyone has their own illness, grief, pain…we can not live that for them nor can we judge the extent of it fully. We can read vitals, watch how the body is reacting, listen and whatever we need to do to assess but we can not live what someone else is going through and we should not judge. Our care is impartial. I have never been able to understand how nurses can turn on nurses so quickly. Maybe if we were to support each other better then the there wouldn’t be stories like the woman’s above that recounts laying in feces and being in pain for hours. We are taught that listening can be the best form of therapy at times. Why can’t we apply that to each other? I am one of those nurses who misses so much while at work. We are short staffed 90% of the time. (yes, this is intentional at times) I work in a small hospital so the person’s hand I am holding as they cross over is likely someone who is near and dear to me. The family that was in a bad car wreck is likely my neighbor or my own family members. I cry with my patients and their families and I am proud of it. We give of ourselves so much while at work. It’s not a 40 hour/week job. You don’t leave it at the door when you go home. You wonder if you could have done better, worked harder or done an intervention faster to help your patient. You relive those moments. I am not complaining by any means. There is no other profession that I would want to be in. I am proud to be a nurse and am fulfilled by it. I leave work every day feeling I did something good for someone. I give 110% to each person I care for. But we are human. We feel pain, we get tired, we get depressed, we get sad, we are happy, we celebrate and we laugh, we have families, we get sick, our families get sick. We often forget to take care of ourselves and don’t realize it until we are emotionally, physically and/or spiritually wounded in some way. It is our nature…Give to others first. Instead of criticizing the words that this fellow nurse poured out for all of us to read (likely as therapy to maintain a healthy attitude), offer support. We are nurses for a reason. We can handle it. But it doesn’t mean we won’t need someone’s help along the way. Thank you for your blog post. I wish you the very best and offer many blessings to you, your coworkers and your family.
I was an RN for 35 years then was forced into retirement because of chronic complications from diabetes.
I remember a number of incidents that involved myself or other nurses.
I remember the single mother co-worker who had a stomach virus. She was forced to come in and work her shift or face being fired. She vomited on her charge nurse’s shoes when she got there. Said charge nurse then gave her an (illegal and unprescribed) shot of Compazine and sent her out on the floor.
I remember when I was in the ER and was being prepped for admission because I was vomiting blood. It was payday and my DON refused to release my paycheck to my husband because she was pissed that I wasn’t there to take my shift and we needed it to pay our rent. The ER staff saline locked my IV and with it still in and with a hospital bracelet on my arm, my husband drove me to work (a nursing home) to get my paycheck. The DON handed it to me with a sneer and said that if I was well enough to come get my check, I was well enough to come to work.
That’s just a couple of incidents. The stories are endless.
I was a hospital chaplain for 15 years. I spent much of my time supporting the nursing staff. Your blog reminded me so much of the ma ny stories I heard. You didn’t mention being asked by interns to give doses of meds that you know are harmful or deadly for the patient. Sometimes doctors make mistakes that you catch and then get chewed out by them for making them look bad. Nurses deserve sainthood.
I just got off my third 12 in a row (night shift) I have a patient load of 48 patients right now…10 of which are vents…it is so draining some nights I wanna walk but and check myself into the psych ward but I couldn’t imagine doing anything else…for all the hard times there is always so many more rewarding times that I cherish
I totally agree. I have been the staff nurse, the charge nurse, worked home infusions, and now I am working for a company that provides CNA’s for elderly or disabled within the home. I thought that getting away from bedside nursing would change my mind about leaving the profession. Well, it has not. And it is extremely hard to change careers. I can’t afford to just quit work to go back to school. And having 2 small kids, I don’t want to work full time and go to school full time. So what am I going to do? Try yet another field of nursing. I also agree with the “barrier” we build around ourselves. I am saddened to say that death does not really affect me anymore. The tears just are not there. Sympathy for most people, yeah right! I have had way too many patients tell me that they are “allergic” to all pain meds except dilaudid. Really? Just tell me you “want” dilaudid. You aren’t fooling any of us nurses. About 3 years ago I was working the night shift leading into Christmas Eve morning. We had a patient that was wandering and becoming aggressive. So we called for the campus police to come up to talk to/ help us with this guy. Well, I ended up getting punched in the face.
My vocabulary has also become much more colorful since starting my nursing career. Some of those words are thanks to my patients. Such as the elderly gentleman who called me a “hussy”. Or the lady that called me a GD possum bitch. Really? MOST patients don’t appreciate what we do for them on a daily basis. There is no “thank you” for going above and beyond. Not even from our managers. Heck, I even had one manager basically tell me that I was supposed to be psychic and know what the patients needed without the patient’s assigned nurse telling me what was going on.
For the last week I have been trying to figure out just how to write something just like this. Thank you.
Everyone here has failed to mention that you get 4 days a week off to spend with your family and kids (and sleep). Sure 12 hour shifts are long, but you save time commuting by only coming in 3 days a week. My friends in nursing absolutely love their mini-vacations they can take just about every week.
You write wonderfully, and this is an excellent post. It’s great that you were able to get the policy changed. Here’s hoping it only gets better.
was in the business for 45 years as both a nursing assistant and a LPN, you hit the problem right on the head. If you do call in sick you are to make up the time or disciplined. Don’t ever let a patient or their family see anything but a smiling face or you are call down for poor customer service. No overtime but don’t leave till all the charting is done even if you are there 1-2 hours unpaid. Yes, we could go on and on.
I agree that nursing is a very hard job. However please think of the EMS personnel that see the pts at their worst on scene. You may think that EMS is easy because it’s only one pt at a time. It isn’t!!! When you have a cardiac arrest and the family is there watching, screaming to save their loved one. You only have yourself and your partner until additional man power comes to help. I’ve seen husbands and wife’s scream and beat on EMS for not being able to same a loved one. There are many more scenarios we encounter. But PLEASE don’t forget the EMS personnel.
Until you work 24 or 48 hour shifts on a high volume ambulance with almost no sleep, you don’t know the meaning of physically and mentally exhausting. Medics have to deal with the same crap, in someone else’s environment which usually includes outside in the worst weather possible, less equipment, usually no backup, and way less respect even though we have college degrees too. Yes, nurses sacrifice a lot, but you’re not the only ones.
Wonderful vent. I loved being a nurse, but hated the nursing environment and my hatred had NOTHING to do with the patients. Whatever the patient has going on, it’s just part of their case and I had the knowledge and skills to nurse them.
The hatred was purely to do with unreasonable demands on the nurses to take orders from all directions and “like it or lump it”. It had to do with having to work without adequate equipment. It had to do with giving up personal time to do everything a good nurse is supposed to do for the helpless patient because my conscience wouldn’t let me just walk off with things un-done.
I should stipulate that the conditions which lent to this hatred were only on routine floor nursing positions, in my experience, and the same did not exist in E.R. or hospice nursing I’ve done. In the E.R., everyone works as a team to treat and release/transfer the patient efficiently and quickly. In hospice, thankfully, there was not the incredible overload of too many patients to care for and there are no crises (like three patients all coding at once). I have heard that mother/baby nursing and OB is also easier and smoother without the same level of pressures as those units are kept posh to attract pregnant mothers.
In routine floor nursing (at least where I came from), the trouble stems from the fact that the nursing budget is lumped in with the supplies budget! Yes! In one hospital I worked at as a medical/surgical nurse, the budget for nurses salaries and benefits was merely part of the supplies budget, and the ***nurse manager’s bonuses were based on how LOW her supplies budget was kept!*** There was no assured patient/nurse ratio (although, where it does exist, that’s no guarantee of reasonable workload either), but you could be assured of having inadequate materials to do your job, and routinely non-operational equipment.
Changes in these conditions can only come, not from balancing male/female, in my view, but in all nurses demanding due respect, and assuming an attitude of not allowing yourself to be abused by management. Realize that if you “camouflage holes” by sacrificing yourself, management will overlook the problems you deal with that are wearing you down. Each work environment develops its own culture. Nurses can work together to be the drivers of the culture in which they work.
Nurses are not lackeys. We are smart, educated, professional people whose skills and intelligence are in demand. Had I my career to do over again, I would take my own advice!
Happy new year, fellow nurses!
You obviously are focusing on RN’s for a reason, but this does extend to Respiratory Therapists (RRT’s, of which I am one), medical technicians of all types, lab workers, housekeeping and others of us who are not as highly paid as RN’s. People in Respiratory have the same amount of education as nurses, have stress, too (we manage life support machines, we interpret results on blood draws we perform ourselves, we deal with physicians and families), and for about half the salary. While I feel your pain, I think it needs to be acknowledged that there is more than enough pain to go around.
I’d love to know what the “every other weekend” policy changed to. I feel we have enough staff where we could be “every third weekend” or some such. May I ask what your unit was able to change the policy to? I’m a CNA on a tele PCU floor, about to graduated with RN in May. I love what I do…but at the same time I see the writing on the wall. I want to have a family, a life, AND be a nurse. Can it be done?
Thank You for this! I am a prison nurse and I feel overwhelmed some days because we can’t change the things that are wrong at our work, I have an hour and a half commute and work 12s I have had to miss so much of my daughters senior year that it breaks my heart, but I also realized this when I became a nurse that I was going to miss so much of my family time, I just never thought it would be so hard (on me or my family) I love being a nurse and it is so rewarding. Me and my co-workers are talked down to by some of the inmates,but not all of them, I try not to take it personally but that gets hard sometimes, especially when your doing the best you can. I think when you work with your co-workers as a team things go so much better, but unfortunately that doesn’t always happen and that is when your job is so much harder.
Amen, sister! You said it quite well. I’ve been a nurse for 25 years and I’ve had several instances of total burn-out in my career. It’s been sheer grit and determination, as well as the love and support of my sisters-in-arms that has kept me going. Reading your blog I feel your pain and a great kinship. No one, NO one understands what we go through but the collective US. Thank you for putting such eloquent voice to our plight.
I have been a nurse for 41 years and worked at a Children’s Hospital for 30 of those years. I did my share of nights and weekends and even missed my daughter’s baptism because no one would come in an hour early. I do know what it is like. I have worked in other healthcare settings since leaving the hospital and found that Home Care is for me. I am semi-retired now and work just enough to pay for my health insurance and love what I do I set my own schedule and take only client’s that fit into my schedule.
I am glad though that I spent that time in the hospital because I think that it made me a better nurse and person.