PixelRN

nurse + blog = pixelrn
About Me

I'm a part time nurse and a stay at home mom who loves to blog, tweet, and take pictures.


I'm trying out this space for awhile to see if I can live here and break my addiction to wordpress.


My Other Sites
 
Tags
Get Updates
Filed under

hatenursing

See all posts on posterous with this tag ยป

Nurses: Do you have an exit strategy?

A slightly disturbing thing that I noticed this summer was the amount of nurses who have an exit strategy for leaving the bedside. It seemed like the majority of nurses I worked with were planning their exodus from bedside nursing in the form of CRNA school, NP school, or perhaps even just getting a MSN in order to obtain a more administrative role.

It certainly doesn't leave one with much hope for the profession. I wonder if other professions experience this phenomenom (i.e. how is the best way to put in my 2 years of drudgery and then advance?)

On the other hand, one thing I noticed was the advantages of raising a family when one parent is a nurse, because there is such a variety of shifts you can work. Here are some examples - these are all people I know:

  • A nurse who does home health care during the day so she can be home when her kids come home from school.
  • A nurse who works 4 weekend ICU shifts a month and spends the rest of her time staying home with her young children.
  • A nurse manager who works M-F, 9-5 and has her kids in day care.
  • A male nurse who works nights and weekends so his wife (also a nurse) can stay home with the kids
  • A female nurse who works agency so her husband can stay home with the kids
  • A nurse who mostly stays at home with her child but picks up contracts here and there when the family finances call for it (guess who that one is!)
  • And I know a plethora of nurses who do the conventional ICU schedule (every other weekend, rotating days and nights) while raising a family with a spouse who quite often works an opposite schedule.


This last option is hard. Extremely hard. But if planned right, it can work to maximize the time that your family spends together.

I remember reading in one of my nursing theory textbooks that these types of nurses who fall in and out of the profession and will only work full time when it's convenient for them and their family are very bad for nursing. They don't contribute at all to advancing the cause of obtaining more power and respect for the profession.

And yet where would nursing be without them? For the most part they are the ones who aren't working on an exit strategy, because it all works out so well for them.


Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  hatenursing   lovenursing   nursing  
Comments (7)
Posted 3 months ago

Things to remember about nursing

This summer, I came away from my MICU contract with a renewed understanding of why I have this love-hate relationship with nursing. And I've summed it up in 6 simple points so when I'm ready to pick up another contract I can remember what to expect, even if months and months of super intense child rearing washes it all out of my head.

So here goes. The love part...

  1. It's the feeling you get after the shift that is so great. You made it. You got through this grueling, back breaking, nerve wracking day. It's a feeling of accomplishment.
  2. It's the social interaction. The camaraderie. There is definitely a bond there among nurses. No matter how different a fellow nurse is from you they know exactly what it is that you go through. And for many of us, you can't say the same thing about your family, your spouse, or your best friend.  
  3. Then there's just the joy of knowing a difficult job really, really well. Being able to field any curve ball that comes your way in an extremely fast paced environment. Not to mention the fact that people could die if you don't do the right thing. While that may sound like an enormous amount of pressure, it's also a great source of pride to know that you can handle that.


And the hate part...

  1. Night shift - Love, love, love the people who work night shift. But I hate the fact that switching from days to nights makes me feel like a human slug.
  2. Lower back pain. No need to elaborate here.
  3. Cleaning up stool. Sorry. it sucks no matter how you slice it. Some will say "Oh it doesn't bother me at all! You get used to it." Bullshit. You have 2 ICU patients, each stooling 3-4 times during the night in a 12 hour shift. You do the math. That means you are potentially up to your elbows in shit Q 2 hrs. AND trying to get the rest of your work done.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  hatenursing   lovenursing  
Comments (6)
Posted 3 months ago

Why I'll Probably Quit Nursing

There's been a lot of recent discussion about nursing salaries and the nursing shortage. I wanted to chime in because (a) I love to over-simplify things, and (b) I am on the verge of becoming one of those nurses they refer to - the kind who works 2-3 years after school and then quits. The reasons aren't complicated. Here's why I'll probably end up quitting:

  • The money sucks.
  • It takes its toll on you physically.
  • I don't want to work nights, weekends, or holidays.
Sure there are many peripheral issues - nurses dumping on each other, lack of autonomy, lack of time and resources to get the job done right. But other than that it's a personally rewarding, and (at times) intellectually challenging job. It feels good to help people when they are sick. I love being the voice of calm in a storm. I love working as a team and saving lives (sometimes.) I just don't love it enough to get over the three points that I listed above. It's that simple. If I became a nurse when I was 22 I might have gotten a few more good years in, but sadly, I didn't. So if there's any constructive advice springing from this negative view of nursing it would be this: Get 'em in while they're young. The earlier you start your nursing career, the later your burnout will be.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  hatenursing  
Comment (1)
Posted 1 year ago