Here I am, after taking some of my fellow bloggers' fabulous advice, straight off the treadmill, riding high on workout endorphins (and not a little lactic acid!)... burn out? Me??? Never!
Well, okay. I'm trying.
This nursing thing is a roller coaster. A lot like life in general. Good days, bad days. I try not to carry too much of it with me, but apparently am not completely successful in this endeavor. The work dreams are not a rarity. They happen almost every weekend, and occasionally during the week. I'm hoping they're just my mind's way of decompressing.
On the one hand, nursing is a great career. Talk about job stability. They're practically beating down our doors to offer jobs to qualified nurses! I'll always have multiple avenues of practice available if I become unsatisfied with the work that I do now. And I still look forward to most of my shifts, have a sense of camaraderie with my coworkers, enjoy the way my schedule works with my life (most of the time), and am forever in awe of the breathtaking moments my job allows me to witness.
But there are other moments, too. Anyone who has read my blog before can attest to the heavy amount of skepticism I hold for the hospital establishment and the system in general. Paperwork and charting are significantly overvalued in a legalistic atmosphere that reeks of the fear of liability and malpractice. Night shift is great, but my body does not always agree... I've become accustomed to a certain amount of fatigue and fuzziness that never really goes away. And on... and on...
So what, you say?
Nothin' really... these were just a few of my thoughts while burning calories and trying not to burn out.
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4 comments:
Amen....I love the nursing but the charting and JCAHO crap has gotten so I can hardly nurse. What really burns me is every year JCAHO comes out with new mandates (or whatever they call them) and we add even MORE paperwork and crap to it...won't be long and I'm going to need a secretary per nurse for all the papertrail each pt leaves. After 14 yrs...not only am I becoming more and more cynical (not to mention...there is not too much said or done that shocks me anymore)...I also make the schedule for the nurses (feeling the stab wounds in my back as we speak) and I've never seen so many newbies coming in thinking they only have to work dayshift and gripe over ONE night shift a schedule. I could go on and on....but I won't..
Hang in there ApgaRn. The work dreams can be so disturbing (it's like, I can't get away from work, even while I'm sleeping). I honestly think they are your mind's way of sorting out some of the stress so it doesn't bother you so much during the day.
After 2 yrs in the MICU I am feeling VERY burned out, sometimes wondering if I will make it back there after the baby is born.
Burnout is, unfortunately, ubiquitous across our industry. What can we do about it? There are systemic answers and personal answers. Exercise is always good, and I thank you for the reminder. As for the systemic, how about a (healthcare) revolution?
I hate that fuzziness that never goes away. Amen. To everything you said.
/jo
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