r/nursing

I spent 6 months this year in a psychiatric ward due to psychosis, depression, and mania. I've had a very positive experience with the nurses there and it made me realise this is a career I want to do myself. However I have a psychotic illness and am worried that this will set me back and I wont be able to work as a nurse. Does anyone have any experience as working as a nurse with severe mental illness?

So, preface that im located in Arkansas. My study buddy in my cohort today told me she is anti-vaccine and anti-medicine and thinks all doctors are trying to profit off their patients. I genuinely just sat there and looked at her like 😦. Out of curiosity I asked a couple of my other classmates and they ALL said they don’t believe in vaccines because they cause autism. I am in true disbelief. Why in the WORLD would you choose a healthcare job that implements the use of medicine and you don’t even believe in it? In my opinion, you are a liability to this profession; go be a conspiracy theory YouTuber or something.

I can agree that big pharma is 100% profiting off our sickness. Americans are obese, stationary, cannot afford healthy groceries, and us in the South are obviously not educated, so, yes we are going to be sick quite often. However, do these people genuinely think ALL doctors are attempting to profit off our illnesses? The doctors that worked and struggled for 10+ years to be where they’re at? Are they just all magically evil now? Meanwhile, all these people are fully vaccinated… yet they aren’t going to vaccinate their kids. Do they think polio disappeared bc it felt like it? Gosh, I just am truly in pure disbelief. I feel like I’m surrounded by a bunch of idiots.

She was like, “I feel like I’m being heavily judged rn.” I just looked at her and said, “you are” and audibly sighed.

60yo man and coming up on my 35th year as an RN. I still work full-time bedside but am quickly coming to the realization, that I just don't want to do it this any more. I am fairly active, exercise often and am healthy but am slowing down and starting to struggle with the physical demands of the job. Add to that the fact that I have really grown to despise my job and have reached maximum burnout. That said, I want to be done with nursing, the stress, responsibility... not just pivot to another nursing specialty. Thinking about a part-time housekeeping job in the hospital; patient transport, laundry or maybe even outside the hospital like Costco or Trader Joe's. Anyone else ever consider that?

I work as an ICU nurse. Recently, my facility switched post- mortem care kits from opaque “bags” to semi- opaque “shroud” kits. The kit’s instructions in summary instruct that a deceased patient gets “wrapped” in this “shroud” that at the end, it is a semi- opaque mummy wrap. I googled the concept of a shroud kit, and it is advertised as a “budget friendly” option for post- mortem care. IMO it’s horrifying. Others agree with similar concerns and reactions. Has anyone else experienced using these kits or have seen their facilities switch over to these?

IMO it further represents the disgusting shift of healthcare that is penny-pinching, and ultimately degrading.

An orientee in the OR had her 60 day review meeting, and they told her they were concerned about her RBF. Now she literally wears a mask everywhere (we have to wear masks a lot of the time, but not in the hallways and such), and it just breaks my heart for her. Not a lot of others know why she wears a mask so much, and honestly others probably dont even notice, bc we mask up a lot anyway, but since she’s opened up to me about it, I just wish there was something I could do about it. I’ve seen her before and after work, about to clock in or out, and she has such a pretty, sweet smile, and I hate that management has made her feel as though she needs to hide her face. Not to mention the blow to her ego about how she’s progressing during her orientation. I’m trying to be really kind to her and support her when I see her, but we have a lot of young “mean girls” type of nurses in our unit and I can’t really combat that, especially since I’m pretty new here myself.

I hope she hangs in there for a year or two, then she can leave and find work in a better environment.

Looks like everyone is quiting my job and I've become one of the eldest nurses on my unit a whole year in and there's still so much I don't know how to do but I'm at a loss for words to say when a pt is getting close to coding. Please give me examples of full code and dnr because I really have no idea what to say

Thinking of moving to Portland, and I am curious what patient populations are like there. Do you have many patients that do not speak English as a first language? If so, what are the most common languages your patients speak? And, how does this vary in different parts of the city?

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I work in urgent care where we often have only two nurses and absolutely no support staff. We handle triage, rooming based on acuity, all nursing duties within our scope, constant verbal medication orders, and all patient follow-up and lab results.
There’s no triage nurse assessing patients on arrival, so we rely on reported chief complaints to determine acuity. I’ve seen patients with aneurysms sit in the waiting room because they thought they just had a “headache.”

I’ve had zero formal training in managing high-acuity emergencies, and we have no protocols in place for seizures, strokes, anaphylaxis, psychotic episodes, overdoses, or MIs. We manage these situations as best we can until EMS arrives.
I’m concerned about patient safety and the responsibility placed on us, especially when I’m making about $5/hour less than nurses at surrounding facilities.

Is this the reality of nursing now with staffing shortages and budget cuts, or is my workplace particularly concerning?

My hospital has recently rolled out a program that uses in-room AI cameras (the ones we normally use for Virtual Nursing and Inpatient Monitoring)... to track us doing our hand hygiene. It says it isn't constantly recording, and only watches for Hand Hygiene... sure, Jan.

It scared me the other day when I poked my head into a room, thought I heard a pump beeping, and the camera snapped towards me. Another patient requested we put a bucket or a pillowcase or something over it-- honestly, I think she's got the right of it.

I didn't sign up for this. Neither did my patients. I'd be furious if I knew this, as a patient, that there was an AI camera watching all the time..

We live in the stupidest timeline.

Curious if there’s any interesting facts or reasons or thoughts. In a world where a lot of careers have a more even mix of workers why aren’t men becoming nurses? Why should they? If more men become nurses would things change

Made a critical error that ended in calling a code for a patient. I’m a new grad and ended up giving the wrong dose of Dilaudid, because I wasn’t paying attention close enough and was rushing due to the patient being in pain/ PT being in the room. Not an excuse but I gave 2x the dose amount and they called a rapid response once the patient stopped responding. Her pulse never stopped but her respirations were down. My preceptor left me basically by myself to take care of one patient. This is only my 3rd week on orientation. Patient was OK after given narcan but I feel terrible about the whole situation and don’t even want to go back to work. Everyday I’ve been having bad anxiety, heart palpitations, can’t sleep, even before this incident. Should I leave the hospital setting for now or any advice on how to move forward. I feel terrible about the entire situation and feel so dumb.

I have been an ER nurse for almost 5 years, with a year of PACU in between and I truly feel like being a nurse is one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made. I have been through a lot in my life, being bullied growing up, abusive relationships and sexually assaulted, family issues/struggles with mental illness- including severe OCD and a suicide attempt when I was 18. I genuinely thought I could help people. I am a good nurse, I pick things up quickly and am thorough, I always try to help my coworkers. I love the critical thinking side of medicine, and always loved to study and enjoyed science/human A&P etc. I used to think people were mostly good, I wasn’t naive per se but now I feel like I automatically assume the worst in people because I constantly see how selfish, entitled and cruel people can be on almost a daily basis. I wake up in panic attacks in the middle of the night, I cry myself to sleep. I barely can take care of myself let alone be a good friend or family member to anyone I love because this job takes everything out of me and then some- and it is still not enough for patients or their horrible family members. I have gained over 60 pounds since I started nursing, I’m now considered obese and I do not recognize the person in the mirror. My hair is falling out. I am constantly overstimulated and quick to anger, when I used to never be an angry person at all. I used to love to go out and see my friends, go to dinner and have a drink or two at the bar and now spend my days off exhausted, my body hurts constantly and I have stomach ulcers/severe reflux from stress. I put my 30 days in and I never want to be a nurse again. I wish I would have never been one. I genuinely think I have PTSD from constantly seeing people die and being cussed out and told how horrible I am every other day for things completely out of my control. I don’t know why i’m posting this here, maybe someone else will see this who feels the same and knows they aren’t alone in it. Thanks for reading this if you made it this far

Let's hear your horror stories, boys, and girls

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