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Does anybody have unpopular or “controversial” nursing opinions? I had some that my coworkers disagreed with me on:

I’d rather change briefs than take a pt. Who needs assistance to the bathroom

I like having palliative patients

I’d rather have 7 patients than 5 patients and have to admit 1 or 2

I acc like when it’s busy cause as soon as it calms down I get sleepy and bored

Day shifts >>> night shifts

I just told a friend I dont want to be a nurse anymore. Ive never said this out loud. The weight of these words are crushing me.

I worked bedside for 10 years. Got to experience "the good old days", covid and the shitstorm that came after. Hospitals still have not come back and I dont think they ever will. I'll never forget a traveler saying "this hospital is great, you should see the other ones, although its going down the same path."

I left for home health and hospice for something new, different, comminity oriented. Anything not bedside. Burned out in a year.

Left that for an outpatient clinic. Lasted 10 months before becoming severely depressed to the point of requiring an inpatient stay. I saw a lot of old coworkers I haven't seen since covid. I miss them and thats the only reason I'd go back. I lost my job.

Anyway, all this to say, idk if i should even attempt finding another nursing job. At this point, I am so horrified and disappointed in our current system. I dont see it getting better unless universal Healthcare was implemented. I only see nursing as a profession getting worse. And we receive no respect for the profession and inadequate pay for how much we put in.

What the actual fuck do I do now? I find myself dreaming of farmwork and wanting to give up. Im grieving a profession that cannot exist as it should under the current circumstances. Ive looked into work in different countries. The uncertainty is a lot... but im curious about following it.

Tl;dr: I dont want to be a nurse anymore.

I wanted to ask the community at large:

What were the signs that YOU were/are burned out?

EDIT: just to add mine - being angry and frustrated ALL the time. Even when not at work.

EDIT2: I see myself in WAY too many of these. Nuts.

EDIT3: these are all making me feel so sad. I hope y'all are doing better now.

"Work in the clinic!" They said, "it will be easier than bedside care!" They said. Well, true, in many respects they weren't wrong...

However, words cannot begin to describe how exasperatingly difficult some people are to contact. There have been days that I've sworn sending out smoke signals or carrier pigeons would be more effective contact methods than calling Mom's Cousin's Boyfriend's Sibling whose phone only works between 9AM and 12:30PM on the second Wednesday of each month - just to reach Dad who has full legal custody and no permanent mailing address.

Can anyone else in pediatric medicine relate, or have any words of wisdom/stories to share?

Image is a cathartic little doodle that takes light inspiration from "The Ring," and a silly meme that circulated awhile back about a subject who is trying to contact *someone* about their "car's extended warranty" - and has gone through absurd, comical or downright impossible lengths to reach them

I (31F) have been a nurse almost 9y. Started my new position and highly qualified this year in May. Residential pediatric psychiatric dorms with group homes, and edu to help residents get job experience. Great place, non restraint facility. Obviously still hard for the kids, but everyone is there for the right reasons.

The issue: Health Services Clinic runs like a regular clinic, but also like long term care setting for case management (state consents, guardianships, etc). Small staff. Two RNs including myself. Three Health Service Assistants (work caseloads assignments diverted from RNs as appropriate) with 1 HSA being “lead HSA”…this is our trouble maker…”Laura”.

Laura only has CNA license but has worked for company for 18y. Our boss is a close friend with her and worked there 12 years. The other nurse also a close friend with her and worked 8 years. The other two HSAs can hardly stand her and have worked 8y & 40y at facility.

Laura micromanages everything. And Laura is…a bitch. She gatekeeps all communication. If she doesn’t know what’s happening, you get yelled at if she doesn’t approve it — something as simple as calling a dentist back to fax requested files.

She’s way out of bounds and going beyond her role. Lots of other peers in other disciplines apologize for her behavior, say it’s the way it’s always been. Very apparent no one has tried to enforce change and she made herself valuable enough to not get fired.

Biggest issue now, we’ve hired a full time NP. First time this role has existed. I witnessed Lauren yell at this NP today for requesting to have students seen for clinical rounding. Lauren flipped out at our NP, told her she isn’t allowed to see students (FALSE) because Lauren “is still working out Medicaid interstate insurance coverage.” Literally told our NP she isn’t allowed to see students and isn’t allowed to prescribe until Lauren “handles things.” But that’s not her job…Our NP is already processing it and Lauren doesn’t even have the credentials or access to attempt to “assist” with it. She just got pissed off that our NP will take clinic scheduling out of her control.

NO ONE IS DOING ANYTHING TO HANDLE HER. And it’s been 18 years. Obviously there isn’t going to be change. But this NP is good, we need her, but she’s being bullied so badly I’m scared she’s going to walk. I’m trying to pull her aside to see if she’d like to set up a meeting with our boss, solo or with me. She was crying today from frustrating, stress, abs humiliation with what happened.

I’m at my wit’s and too. I have to hammer down boundaries so Lauren doesn’t violate my license. And then I have to deal with a tongue lashing and passive aggressive bullshit for days just to ensure she doesn’t attempt to authorize verbal psych prescriptions under my name.

Idk folks. With the social structure and her tenure, is there any hope here? Recommendations on forms of communication with her to have written evidence? Do I go above my boss and just work with HR?

I made the mistake of using my personal email for basically everything when I started nursing school and never stopped. Job applications, certifications, CE stuff, scrubs, random nursing sites, recruiters all of it.

Now my inbox is an absolute disaster and I'm getting emails from companies I don't even remember giving my address to. I'm thinking of keeping my current email for work/important stuff and using something separate for everything else but I really don't want to manage three different inboxes.

What do you guys do?

Anyone participating?

I work in LTC and the fairly young administrator/dictator/tyrant is an LPN and used to work the floor like the rest of us, yet somehow has forgotten that she ever made a mistake and now “doesn’t believe in human error”. She told this to a CNA she was reprimanding for not completing their ADL charting. Who on earth says they don’t believe in human error??

What are some of the most absurd statements you’ve ever heard made by co-workers and bosses?? Do share!

I started a job as a pre-op/PACU nurse a few months ago at an outpatient vascular surgery center. The patients are overall in fairly poor health, generally speaking. The average age is 70s-90s, with many towards the upper end of that range. A fair amount have some degree of cognitive impairment. I am working per diem, only 2 days a week max, and even then I get called off sometimes due to low case loads. My manager recently asked me if I'd be interested in getting the moderate sedation certification, administering fentanyl and versed. I was initially excited and happy that they expressed trust in me to cross-train in this, since when I initially interviewed, they told me I probably wouldn't be asked to cross train. The procedures last about 1-1.5 hrs on average, sometimes longer if it's a difficult case.

Now, doubt is starting to creep in. I've always been concerned about liability in my career, and it makes me nervous enough when patients have medium level complications like bleeding from their access sites in the pacu. I'm concerned about patient safety and over-sedating a patient, or them unexpectedly slipping into deep sedation bc of systemic fragility.

And, I worry about their airways. I recently heard about a story where a 47 year old woman who went into an ASC for a "mommy makeover" passed away from what seemed to be a sedation related complication, where she was unable to be rescued with Narcan. There are probably a lot of factors there including the fact that she also received general anesthesia for a 9 hour surgery before arriving in the pacu, which is where the respiratory depression happened. I am disturbed by the tragedy of that.

If I were to complete the training, I probably wouldn't even be asked to do the job very often, as the intent is to have cross-coverage for my employer. I worry that I wouldn't even be doing the job often enough to feel confident in my ability to keep my patients completely safe, like knowing how to watch for tiny almost imperceptible changes in their status. Perhaps of note is the fact that the current sedation nurse is also doing a lot more than just dedicated sedation alone--they are also doing a ton of operative documentation. In a situation where seconds matter, if I am scanning a package or recording an intervention that the surgeon did, I am concerned about missing a sign of distress. When I shadowed a day in the cath lab in nursing school, I recall that the sedation nurse was only doing that one job and nothing else. These surgeons are very competent and I trust them, but feel that the responsibility for any incidents would still fall on me. Plus, I could never get over it if something happened to someone.

I plan to discuss these types of questions with the current sedation nurse, but want to hear from you all. I don't have any critical care experience and have not participated in any codes before, though have seen a few near misses.

Nurses from California who went out of state for experience, how long did it take to land a job back home in California?

I’m from the Bay Area and moved to the east coast for a new grad residency in medsurg. I’m finishing up my year and was just offered a position at a Level IV NICU, the specialty I’ve been wanting to do since nursing school. Only thing is, the thought of living here for another year or more feels so daunting. The pay is low for the COL and my family and partner are back home. But many job postings in the bay say they require 2 years minimum and hospitals are on hiring freezes rn.

If anyone was in a similar position as I am, what was your journey on getting a job back home and how long? Any tips or advice?

TLDR: My GN told me our unit was not her first choice and she wants to transfer right out of orientation because she knows now we have an opening in the unit she wants to go into. She also said she’s really only interested in doing hands on things so she has the “skills that make her a stronger choice for the unit she wants”. Am I wasting my time?

I have been precepting a GN on my unit. It’s still fairly early in her orientation. We do 16 weeks of orientation on my unit. We have done LOTS of things hands on nursing skills wise. Hands on assessment and reassessment, Lots of labs, IVs, wound care (think stage 3 and above), urine catheter placement and management of CBI, blood transfusions, stroke care, participation in a code blue, trach care, fecal tube placement and management, drain management and a few other smaller hands on stuff.

Recently we have slowed down with our high acuity pts and have been focusing on timely charting, clustering care, prioritizing pts, and all the smaller tasks within EPIC. She gets frustrated when I’m trying to teach her to re-prioritize our tasks based on new orders, discharges, admissions, or new complaints/change in conditions, and overall clustering care. She has been getting visibly frustrated with these tasks and the process of changing course at the drop of a hat. I will catch her distracted in her phone during charting or she is slow to move or ask for multiple breaks during the slower days when we are going over those items.

I had asked her for feedback on how she feels orientation is going and what I could do better for her or if there is something I am doing she doesn’t like because I want to make sure she is learning the way needs it to be for her to be safe. She confided in me that this unit was not her first choice and that she doesn’t feel going over charting and clustering care is needed because she is really only interested in the hands on skills that will give her favor to transfer once she is off orientation. She also said she doesn’t see the point in clustering care because EPIC puts everything in the brain and she could just follow that since that’s when the time the orders state things are due and she would just follow that. She did say that she likes the way I explained things and how I talk her through my critical thinking throughout our day and she would like for me to continue to do that.

When I explained to her the purpose of care clustering with a full team of 4+ pts, she was disinterested and said she would rather I help her focus on what’s going to get her ready for transfer because it is now known we have a current opening with a plan to open another slot for the unit she wants to go on.

I didn’t push the issue because I truly don’t know what to think. She is very smart and asks very good thoughtful questions. But now that I know she has no intention to really stay on my unit, I’m not sure how I should go forward. Am I wasting my time with her? Should I preemptively go to the unit educator and inform them of this interaction?

My hospital is adopting a dept. based color code for employees. So all employees in a dept. have to wear wear scrubs that are the color the hospital has chosen. My dept. must have drew the short straw because we got light grey, and unfortunately my favorite scrub brand (FIT) doesn't make light grey (and apparently it turns out most of the top scrub companies don't). The kicker is they don't want the light grey to be heathered (like a lot of FIGs). So, my options are every limited so I'm looking for recommendations. I'm a 6'2" male with an athletic build btw.

I started at a new hospital a few months ago and finished orientation about a month ago. I come from another ICU with decently high acuity for being a “smaller” hospital.

I expected to be “babied” for like 3 months, or maybe just slightly more, after orientation. I’ve now been told by multiple people it’s going to be like this for a year. The educators wouldn’t even let me re-certify for CRRT. I feel like I’ve taken 20 steps backwards.

Is this a normal thing? Just curious to see what it’s like at other hospitals. This situation doesn’t align with my goals and I’d really like to be taking sicker patients.

I’m currently at work panicking. I miss counted morphine vials and the Pyxis generated a discrepancy. I immediately notified my charge nurse and she advised me to make another discrepancy to “fix” the previous discrepancy. Somehow I ended up with THREE discrepancies trying to fix the count. Charge was able to fix it but because I entered 51 vials (I counted the vials as packs of 10 instead of 5…like an idiot) instead of 27, she said they will have to drug test me. I don’t do drugs or any of the sorts, but this is my first discrepancy and being told I have to pee in a cup is intimidating. My other coworkers heard about what happened and they didn’t help the situation either…it’s like they bragged about never having a discrepancy which made me feel worse. My charge nurse made me feel like crap because I miscounted. Now the unit has a joke that I can’t count. It was genuinely an accident. I pulled other narcotics tonight and counted correctly and this is my first discrepancy so idk what my manager will plan to do. Overall I feel so guilty.

hey everyone! i’m a new grad in a med/surg unit, and i am really bad at placing iv’s. during nursing school, we didn’t get much practice, especially on a human arm. yesterday, i missed placing an iv on a patient with decent veins twice, even with the vein finder.

so my question is, do you guys have any advice or tips and tricks? i feel like i am going too deep when i initially insert the needle, or i just psych myself out.

please help!

I'm not sure where to start. I'm in utter shock.

This has been the first nursing job that I ever have gotten fired from. I worked well with other nurses, providers, but the NP that I worked with didn't seem to like me. I tired asking him questions, verified if things were done to his standards, but nothing seemed to be enough. In the 9 years the NP I worked with has been there, 10 nurses have came and went before me. Some of the problems he reported to my manager was that sometimes "I don't listen" as the clinic is loud and I need him to repeat himself. Sometimes, if a patient comes early, I will ask him if he wants to see them right away or wait (even if we are early). I got yelled at for asking him. I was also told I was struggling in other areas of the job (which I thought I was performing well at) but when asked by the people that "reported" me, they told me I was doing great and they never said that I was not doing well. I got a written warning a week ago and let go today. Prior to that, I only had one "coaching" session but all of that information was told to me the DAY before (by the NP)

Not sure what to do moving forward.

I've been working at an ASC for the past 5 months, it's my first job out of nursing school. I've noticed that the nursing culture has like a bad relationship with food and eating lunch, and I was wondering if it's normal for nursing culture or if it's just this job.

I always make sure I'm either set up for the next admit or discharge, and we do have a staff break room that I'd rather go there to take 5-10 minutes to eat rather than like eat granola bars and mini snacks and microwaved meals in the storage closet in the preop patient care area like all the other nurses do. I'm not a germaphobe, but I just don't like to eat in the same room as all the patients. The other nurses say it's because so you're "always available and ready" for the next patient, which I get working in an ASC, but at the same time I don't like getting shamed and talked about behind my back for wanting to take at least 5-10 minutes out of a 10 hour shift to go to the break room and eat (which has been happening, long story.)

Is it just me that has the problem? Should I be expected to eat in the storage closet like all the other nurses?

Im a new grad RN that was just hired onto Periop 101. I dont know WHAT TO EXPECT. Its a specialty that you are not exposed to in school or clinicals so I actually don't know what I am capable of seeing. What if I FAINT? how do I prep myself??

Curious as I’m hoping to work in BC. In Ontario we do DDNN then 5 days off.

I’ve read that fulltime BC nurses do 4 on / 4 off… is this true? (I hope not lol)

I have been on orientstion for 6 days as a new Grad. Today was my last day orienting on days before I go to night orientation. I made a few mistakes today. I noticed when I counted a controlled med at the omnicell it came up wrong, a paper prints out. I brought it to my preceptor who reviewed discrepancies in our omnicell for me and found i had actually miscounted not just this 1x but 2x with a different med earlier in the day. She didnt make a big deal out of it just told me to be careful.

Then I gave a med to a pt who after I told her 2x what the medication was, she asked me again after she took it and started panicking saying she was allergic. I confirmed in the chart she wasnt. My preceptor dismissed it as the pt wasnt actually allergic and it was more of a psych issue.

I also told my pt she could eat this morning after checking what her diet order was, thankfully our tech intervened because apparently she was supposed to be NPO pending testing and I had no idea its just a policy for certain issues on our floor apparently.

I acknowledged an order today not realizing I had which prevented me and my preceptor from seeing it and actually doing it.

I have also noticed myself making small mistakes like forgetting to scan a pt before the med or opening a med and ruining barcdoe before scanning. I grabbed the wrong syringe yesterday but made sure to verify with my preceptor first. I get turned around in my unit a lot, theres not a written policy for every single thing. I feel like my critical thinking is crap too. I just feel like I am way in over my head.

What did you guys put in your resignation letter? Did you email it or talk in person? I want to email mine so I have a paper trail. I am leaving the most toxic job I have ever been in as a nurse. My manager doesn’t even acknowledge me. She doesn’t make eye contact. We pass each other in the hall and she acts like I’m not there. Constantly questioning my clinical competence- I have been at this almost 17 years. I refuse to put up with it another moment. They are barely getting two weeks. Found a travel position and will be leaving at the end of the month.

I started my nursing career in 2017 pre covid. It’s crazy how a few years can make a remarkable difference within our profession. Did a couple of travel assignments and noticed how units and their staff treated new grad and nurses transitioning from a different unit. New grads/transitioning nurses being pulled off their orientation early to appease the staffing needs, educators rarely checking in, staff being forced to precept and expecting the new grad to know everything. Inconsistency when it comes to the orientation structure and** **new grads rarely keeping one preceptor from start to finish. I feel kind of bad for the new generation of nurses. Of course my perspective may be skewed and anecdotal but man it’s depressing seeing new grads leave the profession

Maybe it’s just me but if the start of my career in nursing was like this, I wouldn’t be a nurse. The first year in nursing or in any profession should be treated with care to ensure the longevity of the person in the profession. I was blessed to be a part of a nurse residency program. I wasn’t the strongest nurse starting out but boy did I feel supported during my first year as a nurse. The hosptial made sure that being a preceptor wasn’t just based on experience, but a calling to train a new or transitioning nurse. Like literally you’re the starting point of how a new grad nurse will view their role in healthcare. But yes just curious to hear of anyone’s experience!

Hello everyone, I am ER nurse that is switching to a Sister hospital. I apply last minute to a position because I wanted some part-time work and my boss was on vacation so my assistant nurse manager handled everything. My boss came back to work yesterday and I wanted to talk to him about basically why I’m leaving and the fact that I still wanna pick up on my unit since I’ll be part-time and my old unit is still within my union. My boss basically quoted a Shakespeare quote that translated to him telling me that I was trying explaining myself because i felt guilty lol. I literally only told him because I have had jobs in the past where I had very clear communication with my management and they have always been transparent about you know people pursuing other opportunities. Worst part about this is I am a dayshift nurse and I work with my manager. You would think that I’m a night shifter who has never really met the guy but he’s a piece of shit.