The #1 stressful thing about being a nurse, Scrubsmag.com

"So, we all know there are a million things that ‘stress’ us out during our shifts. Do I really need to list them? Here are just a few that come to mind:

Causes of Stress

Inadequate staffing
Nurse-to-staff ratio overload (does the word unsafe come to mind)
Lack of teamwork
Lack of effective and fair management
Coworker strain
Paperwork
Endless charting – repeating information on multiple forms
Miscommunication or the lack of communication
Census overload and strain (revolving door of admissions and discharges)
No time to even use the bathroom"
http://scrubsmag.com/the-1-stressful...being-a-nurse/

Wonder how many we could add to this list?

Sincerely,

Andrew Lopez, RN
Nursefriendly, Inc. A New Jersey Corporation.
38 Tattersall Drive, Mantua New Jersey 08051
http://www.nursefriendly.com info@nursefriendly.com ICQ #6116137
856-415-9617, (fax) 415-9618

Let's Connect! http://www.nursefriendly.com/social/

How about the general misperception by the public about what we do. So many people still look upon us as highly paid housekeepers rather than healthcare professionals. I had to listen for an hour to one of my resident's family members complain about how her laundry was being done.

H

Most patients are more concerned about their food being hot, than how their care is being handled. Guess they figure they are in a hotel or something.

Hate to break it to you but that's not me . . . .. I especially like this group on Facebook:

BE KIND TO NURSES. We keep doctors from accidentally killing you.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/BE-KI...10173628999830

Hate being treated like a waiter . . . .

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.nursefriendly.com/social/

Actually I do not see any of these things mentioned thus far as being stressful, at least not to me. The thing that bothers me the most are staff meetings. Educational meetings, magnet meetings, trauma meetings, trauma grand round meetings. Even on my day off they are interfering with my GOLF. You do not need meetings. Put it all in emails and have people sign off they read it before they delete it. They try to tell me the meetings give voice. Trust me I always have voice. Just ask my 7 kids. They will tell you I never have a loss of voice. Another thing is they expect me to step and do some relief charge work. I did charge full time here for 15 years. There are a 100 reasons I stepped down. Most are do to meetings, and QA and QI and Process improvement, and Balogna. I just want to nurse. Let me nurse and Let me golf. All I need in life.

Bullseye! I wish I had a penny for every nonclinical thing that took me away from my job. Let me add electronic system malfunction or should I say DYSfunction. System upgrades, fragile links, fewer work stations than users, and so on. Electronic charting, electronic med administration, online policy and procedure manual- not user friendly, important notifications given via email, a new one for us in July, electronic physician order entry- can't wait!, and so on. This "improved" process has added about an hour to my day. It's gotten so bad that I've taken to handling email and mandatory continuing ed from home just so I can get out of the place once in ahwile. I'm salaried and won't get paid either way, so I'd just as quickly enjoy the comforts of home.

i totally agree with the above.
But what stresses me most are the paperwork/charting and stressed significant others/relatives of patient.

The problem for me is the Electronic charting and the lousy Cerner system, very difficult to navigate, we have CPOE which is better in some ways but Cerner is hard to use.
QI informed us that they don't want us Charting under Nurse Notes but under a tab in the assessment area , so they can follow problems or resolutions easier.
.Well, I still chart under nurse notes, I think it makes more sense if one ends up in court..........................New nursing is just clicking on the computer,and, audits of your charting, with meetings to discuss all that stuff.
THis job so far has also focused on social skills, at least in my case.............................................. .............which is not important in the Scheme of Things ,
Just want to be an old fashion nurse.

Cerner is one of the most un-user friendly EMR that I think I have ever use! Heard it's one of the cheapest though. I was at one hospital where they had a select group of nurses evaluate several differ EMR programs. Nurses selected the one that they liked the best. But the hospital went with Cerner because they got the cheapest deal. Another example of pretending to give nurses a voice.

Its the same in the UK!

Actually I don’t know how I cope with all those stresses anymore! Maybe I’m just having enough rest and sleep and making everything as balance as possible..I make sure to meet the needs of work, family social life and other “normal” life activities as much as possible and I try to leave issues in the workplace as much as I can! I love nursing, despite the stress!

Electronic documentation is here to stay. I can honestly admit that computer-based records are easier to read and the lab, radiologic, and order-entry interfaces are awesome (when working). What will we do to incorporate this "ball and chain" into our daily routine and still get it all done?

under staffing + forced overtime = 1 foot in the grave for nurses

I agree but the most stressful part for me would be making reports at the end of a very tiring shift

Best time to do reports is right after whatever happened. Things are fresh in your mind.

stress will always be a part of nursing, it is a challenge on how to cope with stress and how to minimize it.

Remember......Stressed is desserts reversed.

Lately I'm finding unrealistic expectations to be the most stressful aspect of nursing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cougarnurse

Remember......Stressed is desserts reversed.

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stressed = ice cream! hahaha

These won't actually stress you out if you can manage your work properly. Just be happy. :)

I agree with you Jamie. If you can balance your personal life and work, stress will never be anymore. But that is too difficult to handle. However, I never said I couldn't. :)

Hi Nursinghumor,

In addition to your "cause of stress" let me add

Underpaid

Financial issue can be the bottomline too...

There are many nurses who are underpaid. They are not motivated. They want to transfer to another hospital or to a different state for a much better wage. They are just persevering for the experience that they can get.

Here is the link on how we can use our licenses and get paid on a different state:

http://www.rnmobility.com/

This is a very informative post. I really like how you stated a website for this post. I totally agree that it is stressful and that sometimes nurses do feel like they are "underpaid." This is why some CNA's keep going up the ladder in order to enhance their chances of getting a higher paying job with benefits. Some nurses even get their masters degrees and they work either in the hospitals or colleges. In order to keep your motivation up, there are ways to decrease your stress and help you overall. Here is the link on how we as nurses can reduce stress and help ourselves in everyday lifestyles:
http://www.cmbm.org/

Thank you for your forum post. Purplespider, CNA

Thank you for the discussion forum post about CNA's and for also talking about their payments. I know that where I live in Virginia, they pay CNA's fairly well, but it depends on where you work and how long you have been working as a CNA to. When I first got my CNA license, the skilled nursing facility paid me $9.20 per hour, but that was a big increase for me because originally when I was hired I was getting $8.00 per hour. To me, the pay increase was good for me as a beginner because it told me that getting my CNA helped me get a higher wage. Here is some information about reducing stress:

http://www.pacificmedicalacls.com/ac...h-running.html

Exercise is important in reducing stress and running is a good way to reduce stress. Thank you.

There are a lot of reasons why nursing is so stressful. It is hard work, long hours, and a tough job to do. The job has some rewarding aspects because you help patients everyday feel better and you also help the community as well. Here is something that you can read:

http://www.pacificmedicalacls.com/ac...ng-longer.html

The number one reason why nursing is so stressful is the fact that there are a lot of nursing tasks to do and very little time to do them in. I know that for a fact because I had to serve breakfast trays, answer the phone, and get coffee or tea, and greet people all at one time. In order to do all of those tasks, I had to prioritize by thinking about which job is the most important at that certain time. If the phone rings, then that is the most important thing at that time. Greeting people and helping them is the second most important thing. Food and coffee are last on the list. Prioritizing is key in nursing as I have found that out in my work environment. Here is an article that will help you:
http://www.pacificmedicalacls.com/ac...-training.html

Nursing is a wonderful career, but you have to prioritize tasks in order to get the nursing tasks done.

The thing that has nurses stressed out is that there are too many things to do and a short amount of time to do them in. I know that I had my own nursing tasks and then other people's nursing tasks as well due to tightening staff. I was overwhelmed with so much to do and I was totally stressed out. What helped me to reduce my stress is to make a list of things that I wanted to do when I got off from work and that seemed to help reduce my stress a lot.

The #1 stressful thing about being a nurse in my view is the unexpected that will happen that day. The unexpected is always a challenge everyday because it happens so suddenly; even though we are always ready for emergencies. I can remember one thing when I was working in the adult day care center and we had just finished serving lunch when all of a sudden one of the participants went to the floor and was having stroke symptoms. All of us went into action as the director who was a nurse herself gave nursing orders to people. My job was to wait for the ambulance and make sure that they entered in the back of the building which we were located at. After that incident, it made me realize that whenever you have a calm day as a nurse, it is a huge blessing.

[QUOTE=duaneconnell;143137]The #1 stressful thing about being a nurse in my view is the unexpected that will happen that day. The unexpected is always a challenge everyday because it happens so suddenly; even though we are always ready for emergencies. I can remember one thing when I was working in the adult day care center and we had just finished serving lunch when all of a sudden one of the participants went to the floor and was having stroke symptoms. All of us went into action as the director who was a nurse herself gave nursing orders to people. My job was to wait for the ambulance and make sure that they entered in the back of the building which we were located at. After that incident, it made me realize that whenever you have a calm day as a nurse, it is a huge blessing.[/QUOTE)

The one stressful thing that I have noticed is when the environment gets to be suddenly stressful and when I have the environment suddenly change. For example when somebody falls due to having a stroke or a seizure and your attention needs to be on them 100 percent. In those situations, my addrenoline goes up and I am on overdrive. That is what I call a very stressful situation.

Stress can cause a lot of problems; especially in the workplace. Here are some things that you can do to help relieve your stress:

1. Take a nice hot shower or a bubble bath.

2. Do some meditating and deep breathing.

3. Do a yoga class.

4. Talk about your stress to someone that you trust.