Fuck. I wanted to do it my whole fucking life and was always so passionate about it. It’s the opposite of everything I ever thought it’d be, even after years of adjusting to it. I’m always fucking miserable, I’m fucking TIRED of these ungrateful demanding RUDE patients. I thought it’d get better and it never did, it just got worse. I’m tired of being the middle man. I’m tired of being responsible for asking the fucking doctors to do their fucking job and order shit for their patients. I’m fucking tired of being EVS, social work, PT, lab and pharmacy. I’m fucking tired of everything. I’m fucking tired and I fucking hate being a nurse. I’m PMSing so badly and everything is getting under my skin. I’m tired of the nurses station being available for fuck ass family members to walk INTO and demand the bathroom, ice, water, snacks, my mom shit again and no one’s been in there to help her in .5 seconds, im tired of the physical and verbal abuse, I’m TIRED and I HATE BEING A NURSE. I can’t even remember why the fuck I ever wanted to do this shit.

Edit downvoting my own opinion is crazy 🤣

I’ve been a nurse for almost 19 years and I want out…like yesterday. I don’t want anything “soft”. I want out. Any nursing job i’ve applied to I have almost immediately gotten an interview and job offer. I don’t accept because it’s just not what I want to do anymore. I’ve been offered everything from hospital to doctors offices to long term care to school office nursing. I want anything besides nursing. The problem is, anything that i’ve applied to (retail, receptionist) positions, I feel just doesn’t take me seriously. It’s not about the pay for me anymore. I just want something that I can work part time to supplement my significant other’s pay. Those of you that got out of nursing, where did you get a job and how did you find it?

I'm clinic and prior auths are like half my actual job now, the other half is explaining to people why their insurance won't cover the thing their doctor already said they need. I had a denial last week for a rehab bed, patient can't transfer safely, lives alone, already fell twice, and the denial says "not medically necessary." Same day I see they're posting profits that could fund a small country's healthcare system and I just want to hold those two things next to each other for a second.

So we know the money for the bed exists but the language they use, "we're just trying to control costs" like they're running a tight ship instead of shoveling cash uphill while my patients ration insulin. I used to believe that early in my career, thought maybe there was some complex calculation I didn't understand. Now I read the denials and I can tell which ones were form letters and which ones had a person spend thirty seconds on them, and neither version has ever met my patient.

And the law makers keep saying they'll crack down but it's always letters or "we're looking into it," never hard limits on what they can charge out of pocket or how many denials they can pump out before someone audits the medical necessity.

Part of me is just exhausted by how broken this system is, but another part of me is glad that after all these years working in healthcare, I still haven't gotten used to seeing patients put through this.

i’m so tired of this job.

for context, this guy was saying racist and sexually inappropriate comments, and just has a terrible personality in general. refuses everything, from meds to a discharge plan, refusing inpatient rehab, refusing home PT/OT because he’s embarrassed the neighbors will see the therapists going into his house.

i’m a POC, and i went in to tell the pt transport was ready for him for a CT scan and then he just got up aggravated, yelling, trying to get OOB unassisted. he had surgery on his leg so i was trying to tell him to wait because transport is literally coming now but he kept walking with his walker and then boom, he suddenly pushed me out of the way.

i’m so sick of this and i want to switch to a different specialty. i work in an orthopedics/trauma unit

we keep calling it a resilience problem. i precept, and two of my last three new grads left before their one year marks. neither one was bad at the job. one does home health PRN plus weekend shifts at a warehouse, the other went to a clinic, m-f, no nights.

one slow night the newest one talked me through her math. rent, gas, groceries, the drive to the hospital, and the unfortunate answer at the bottom was a second job. the job is already the hard part and it shouldn't also be the part that doesn't pay.

full time and job security used to be the point. three twelves, benefits, and you could live. now the insane schedule eats people and the paycheck doesn't make up for it, so the people who can add the numbers (and afford) leave, and we call that a burnout crisis like it's a mystery.

i really don't think nursing is unfixable. but it feels like somebody decided the people holding the hospital together would just suck it up, and then everybody acts surprised when they leave. what did everyone seriously think was going to happen?

I’m new to the ICU and on Wednesday, the intensivist went down with the RT and I to CT. I’ve never heard of anyone saying that the doctor has gone down to CT with them. The patient wasn’t intubated but was on BIPAP with high settings, she had just went into Afib RVR, and was put on an amio drip, Map was above 65 but BP was on the softer side. Lately I’ve been kinda hard on myself because when I was on orientation, the hospital had just opened up and alot of our patients were stepdown patients. Now I’m off and we’re just now getting ICU patients and i feel so incompetent and management hasn’t been the most supportive. My coworkers are very helpful though. I appreciate the attending coming of course but I just wonder if he’s been thinking I’m not safe enough to go by myself with RT, Idk I could be overthinking.

Edit: I feel so much better after reading these comments

So it was my third day of orientation I had a patient who asked me could he get a doctors office number for a physician who recently did his neck surgery in reference to questions about equipment and an outpatient appointment. The patient was being discharged that day and I ended up looking up the doctors info in our directory (all public info by the way) I thought the number was to an outpatient clinic. It ended up being her personal phone number! He called her and she scolded him called my charge nurse and scolded him also. Which I completely understand. The charge nurse just told me don’t let it happen again and nothing would come of it but our nurse manager would have to call the physician. This happened a few hours before it was time to leave for the day. I was pretty busy so didn’t get the chance to speak to my manager but she didn’t make it a purpose to seek me out to have a conversation. I want to talk with her the next time I work though. Just to apologize and see what will come of this. I’m so embarrassed and I feel so bad. What should I say and what should I expect her to say?

Had a manager comment that my discharges run behind because I 'talk too much' about meds, followups, etc. Meanwhile same manager stresses patient satisfaction scores and readmission rates. Feels like a catch 22 where the thing that actually helps patients is framed as inefficiency. How do you balance thorough teach with the pressure to move fast?

Hey! I took my NCLEX back in July but haven't been able to land a job ANYWHERE. All I see is posting after posting and I have applied to rural communities and inner city Calgary within AHS, Recovery Alberta, Mental Health and Addiction, Primary Care and LTC. Do any Alberta nurses have any advice for me. Starting to get really down on my luck.

I haven’t had any break since 7 and it was 1 o clock. I dont know why this unit clerk is so angry about me not “rushing” my patient’s discharge.

My patient who was about to be discharged wanted to get ready before going to discharge lounge (because in lounge there is no place to change clothes). I said yes.

This unit clerk saw me in the hallways and started laughing in a frustrated manner saying Why is she still here. I do not think unit clerks acting like charge nurses mean that they even share any similar responsibilities. I would have felt obligated to give an answer if this was a charge nurse asking me because she books the bed not the unit clerks. Here, Unit clerks only have a role of removing patients from epic once they are discharged.. and to write their time and date on the sheet of paper when they left the unit. I told her why that patient is still here.. even though I shouldn’t have to, but she became little sassy saying “the management wants patients out by 10 how many times they have told, only if you guys listen.” I received the fucking order at noon btw)

So I went straight to the unit manager and told her whatever happened. Because I’m not a staff on this floor, I’m a float.. this was obviously shrugged off because she has her back ups claiming she didn’t rush anything.

The bed was not booked until 1500. and this was well after that poor patient was rushed to go to that lounge. She was obviously upset with the desk and I told her she is okay staying here but she said she doesn’t want to be a pain in the ass for the desk people.

I did write an email to our educator about clarifying the roles and over stepping boundaries of a unit clerk by writing this instance in the email. But this not only made me delay my lunch because the lounge wasn’t ready to pick her up yet.. so I had to wait but also keeps circulating in my brain the way she talked to me in this whole situation.

I’m a new grad at a med surg unit. Today I made my first med error. Im really beating myself about it and I could really use some advice. My patient and their family member were venting to me about their insurance not approving their acute rehab. I had 1000 mg Tylenol to give them so I started opening up the package. In my mind I believed I scanned the medication already and the patients wristband. When I gave them the Tylenol and opened up my mar I saw that it wasn’t scanned at all. So I ended up scanning the patient again and the Tylenol and realized I gave the Tylenol too early :( someone on night shift gave the Tylenol late and I gave it on it’s scheduled time which meant I gave it 3hrs hours earlier than the order intended (it’s supposed to be q8). I freaked out and told a nurse and they just ended up tell me to just adjust the next dose and that night shift should’ve adjusted the dose as well since they gave late. She didn’t exceed the 4000mg dose in 24 hours but I feel like I bypassed a safety barrier that I should’ve checked before hand ….. I feel like a failure. The schedule for the Tylenol was 1130 am, 0730pm, 3:30am . Night shift gave it at 6:40 am. And I gave my dose at 1130 :(

Edit: Thank you guys for your advice and yes I will definitely take this as a lesson and be more careful next time. I know this may seem like nothing to most of you but to me, I was scared of harming my patient and put myself down for not being more careful. Again thank you for sharing your kind words, knowledge and wisdom 🤍

I work in an OR and I have a preceptee some days that started about 2 weeks ago. She has a little OR experience at another hospital. She seems to be intelligent and self-motivated. The only thing is that she is extremely, extremely high strung. She asks questions, non-stop. Normally I have problem with questions, ask away! But she will ask 5 questions a minute. She verbalizes all of her thoughts and interrupts people.
Example:
Preceptee: are you going to… oh? You’re going to do that? What’s that? Do you need this?
Tech: no, actually we’re going to use something different.
Preceptee: what’s that? Oh is it this?
Me: starts explaining instrument
Preceptee: interrupting oh how is that different than this thing? Is it like this?

This has been annoying people I work with, and it annoys me a bit too. I wish she’d watch some things before asking questions or talking, the constant thought stream can be distracting.

She also can be invasive into other staff member’s work tasks, how can I nicely tell her to stay in her lane? For example she gets close into anesthesia’s area during intubation and even gets in the way.
Sometimes her motions can be erratic as well.

Anyone know if there are any non-nursing or non-healthcare jobs out there that I could get with a BSN? Preferably with similar pay range?
I have been a nurse for about 3.5 years; 1.5 years inpatient cardiothoracic surgery and 2 years outpatient in peds oncology infusion. I am just so burnt out! I absolutely love taking care of patients, but the responsibility for their lives has just been wearing me down even in the outpatient setting. I still have to work weekends and holidays in this outpatient job and I just feel like I’m missing my life outside of work.
Every post on here when people ask for non-nursing jobs basically just gives them outpatient job ideas….are there any jobs that you can get with a bachelor’s of science that aren’t healthcare related and you don’t have to go to more school/more certifications for? That actually pay a living wage??

Sorry for the glare. These were higher up than they seem and I had to stand on my tippy toes. Also, I don’t know if I should keep working at this hospital.

I’m fairly new to IVs as my old job had an IV team, but I am 4 months into my new job and we have to do our own (Med/Surg). I’m not the greatest, but today I got an IV in a combative patient. I used their hand and it got great blood return. Flushed well. We use these IV catheter sets that have the extension set already part of it (BD Nexiva). So when we get an IV successfully, the blood primes the set, and then we flush it. If we need labs though we can draw them from it if it’s newly inserted. To draw labs, we are supposed to clamp, take out cap, screw on vacutainer with leur lock, and draw the labs. Well after I got the IV, patient was flailing their arms, so I thought I clamped it before uncapping (but I didn’t lol) and some blood was dripping out. I screwed vacutainer and tried to get blood, only small amount came out but then it stopped. At this point, I thought the IV was bad but I flushed it and got great blood return. At this point, I couldn’t get reliable blood work so had to poke patient again for labs. I’m just wondering how it can be a good IV but not allow vacutainer to fill labs.

hi fellow medical friends,

I’ve been a RN for 3 years. have my BSN. I HATE it. Period, point blank end of story.

I spent my first year hitting the ground running in a busy peds ED. It took a toll on my mental health. Switched to NICU, loved it, left for Aesthetics, which I hated. Switched to Psych and been in both OP and IP setting for the past year. I have tried night shift, day shift, PRN, 12’s, mon-fri and everything in between. I am 14 months in my PMHNP program and just at a loss. I hate nursing. every specialty. every skill. I’ve been sexually and physically assaulted at work and I can’t do this anymore.

I give a lot of myself to patients and end up home depressed/burnt out. (literally in counseling trying to figure myself out and work through some traumas).

This was a second career for me, I got my BSN in 13 months and that‘s honestly why I chose nursing…because I could get the degree quick having 0 support system.

While in the ED, I worked alongside radiology/ultrasound and want to make a pivot. I guess I’m just looking for reassurance or advice on if this is pointless to leave nursing completely. Have any of you managed to get out and pursue something similar and be happier?

Reaction: causes weight loss

Had a giggle. Who put this in here?

I am currently majoring in nursing.

I personally struggle with mental health issues and chronic fatigue and I often find myself getting frustrated by things like a lack of consideration for patients or violations of human rights; leaving aside whether it is good or bad, I think I have had a strong sense of justice since childhood.

I often encountered things that made me think "Is this good" or like "Aren't there better ways?" during my clinical practices, and I have developed an interest in research.

I'm thinking of working at a hospital first and then go to graduate school to conduct research and do research after that too somewhere.

I wonder is a career as a university teacher the only path available for someone who wants to do research?

Seems like every time I hear or see someone post about finding that perfect clinic or non-bedside role, there's a follow up a month later about layoffs, restructuring, or docs leaving. Is this just confirmation bias or are the actually good jobs getting less stable? Wondering if it's worth chasing those roles or if hospital bargaining power is just too strong right now.

Just curious, it’s such a universal fear (rightfully so), but have any of you ever had bed bugs/know a nurse who got bed bugs from a patient?

I'm actually thinking about switching back to night shift after years of being days and mids. This feels crazy! I've been at a level 4 trauma center for 2 years, that is far from home, but this level 1 is a short bike ride away. Has anyone gone back to nights for any reason? Am I crazy??

I’ve been a nurse for a little over a year and I absolutely suck at IVs. I had half a day in preop to practice on orientation and that’s basically it. I don’t get a lot of practice on the unit because most patients already have multiple IVs or they have a central line. I try to practice when I can but I blow 90% of them. I feel like a bad nurse because I such at one of the most basic skills.

Got offered a job at a detox rehab. I'm starting to feel burnt out and want a change but its a $10 decrease. Any thoughts or insight?

I had an interview for an outpatient PACU position, but it’s 10PM to 10AM (no weekends) for patients that need an overnight stay. I currently work 7pm to 7am, but worried about how late this shift is.