You will find nursing a rewarding profession, but it does have it sources of stress. The key is to get this stress under control from day one. Start out by identifying what areas of your work are causing you the most stress. Is it something you can change? If so, develop a plan and put it into action. There are various ways you can manage on-the-job stressors, such as:
- Avoiding the stressor (e.g., a nurse who is rude to you)
- Eliminating the stressor (e.g., asking someone else to do a hated chore for you)
- Confronting the stressor (e.g., talking with the person who is making your job more difficult)
- Managing the stressor (e.g., adding something fun to the task, or better yet, rewarding yourself once it’s done)
- Balancing the stressor (e.g., balancing it with a stress-reducing technique)
January 7th, 2012 at 3:22 pm
I have to say, this is not at all what I was expecting. Not only does it seem to be lacking information, the tips aren’t all that realistic. Avoid a nurse who is rude to you? You can’t control who you’ll be on shift with; Ask someone else to do a task you hate??? Really? As a nurse, you have to take the good with the bad… I haven’t met a nurse yet who enjoys digital impaction removals, or enemas, or dealing with emesis, nasty wound changes, etc… Want to alienate yourself and create even more nurses who are rude to you??? Then ask someone else to do that chore for you.
I’m disappointed in these tips. I’ve been a nurse almost a year and a half and am feeling very overwhelmed with nursing. Yesterday I ended up with 7 patients at the LTAC where I work. Most of them are fairly high acuity and the ones who aren’t are either very time consuming (read: needy call-light riders) or their families want me to explain every detail the doctor should have handled… I didn’t even have time to start my AM charting until 1855! I had six patients with orders, one admission, meds to pass, bolus tube feedings, report to give… multiple doctors asking questions about the patients they didn’t bother to assess themselves, not to mention we don’t have a HUC, so I did all of my own lab filing, got more paper for charts because the MDs couldn’t turn their chairs around to get it out of the file drawer right behind them, answered call lights regardless of whose patients they were, answered the constantly ringing phone, had one patient fall, did neurochecks per protocol, got in touch with a doctor who is notorious for not calling back, had a patient rip his NG tube out because he “didn’t want it in anymore!! When it was all said and done, I didn’t even leave until nearly 9 pm! When I woke up this morning, I had a message from my CNO asking if I would come in and work a double today for a $100 bonus!!!! NO, I won’t! I’m exhausted emotionally and physically, and I have a life!
I came to this website hoping for real life advice and it seems all I got is a spoof article.
I’m really questioning whether I made the right decision in making my childhood dream a reality. I always knew nursing would be stressful, but I never imagined that I would be intentionally put in situations that were dangerous for patients simply because the facility wanted to make more money!
Other nurses I work with confuse me at times… if I ask why we do something a certain way, or why things are a certain way, I’m told “It’s not just here it is everywhere”, but then they turn around and complain about the exact same things saying that they can’t believe “this place”… okay… um… if things are that way everywhere, why are you complaining??? Either it isn’t that way everywhere or it wouldn’t shock you or upset you.
I hope I’m either able to find the right specialty for me or that another career option will present itself. Any time I mention leaving nursing, many people tell me I’m a good nurse and my patients need me… but I need my sanity and my family needs me… I can’t continue to give of myself when I’m not able to get anything out of it for me. (And PLEASE don’t say I’m getting a paycheck out of the deal… #1, $ is not my motivation for nursing, or anything else for that matter, and #2, would YOU want to go through all of that above (and YES that was my REAL day in one shift!) for entry level nursing pay??).
You can’t take proper care of patients with things the way they are in nursing. Very disappointing… and this “article” only added insult to injury.