If nurses are thought to be sent out into the field of practice with knowledge enough to help someone get better (and keep them alive), why are they so stressed out? Stress does not help keep their heads straight and maybe that is many of the reasons why there are so many medicinal errors.....?
2007-01-31 13:44:30 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Health ➔ Mental Health
As a nurse, why do you think there is a nursing shortage? Statistically, there would not be a shortage if the people who had the degree and license actually worked as nurses. When I first became a nurse (1981) the average time a nurse stayed in nursing was 2 years....doubt it is that long now. One of the best sayings I've ever heard about nursing is that "Only a nurse knows what a nurse does" Stress in nursing has been a problem since I became a nurse...and it has only gotten worse. Am I still a practicing nurse?.....hell no. You must be new.....you think that 'the powers that be' worry about medication errors or nurses making good decisions. You will finally realize that all they want is a warm body filling necessary positions to meet the laws they have to follow (and not one nurse more...to save money). If you make a mistake they will never say staffing or stress or ANYTHING is at fault...except you. Do I love patient care?...absolutely...so I got a master's in medicine and became a physician assistant. Nursing sucks. Unfortunately. I could talk forever on this issue. My heart is with you. I've been there.
2007-01-31 14:22:04 · answer #1 · answered by tlbrown42000 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Since you don't appear to be a nurse, let me see if I can answer this. Many stressors in nursing are not always knowledge based. There are always problems with understaffing, increased acuity levels(how ill the patient is) rude physicians, even ruder patients, uncaring administrators and increasing reduntant paperwork. Lets say you are the nurse on amedical surgical floor and three of your licensed staff has called in sick and there are no other nurses to call in. You have 14 patients. 3 new hip replacements cases, a diabetic whose blood sugar is 720, a 2 year old boy with pneumonia, RSV, and severe diarreha, and other patients. You have 2 RNs, 2 LPN's and 2 aides. Your normal staff is 3 RNs 3 LPNS 3 Aids. All of a sudden you have a cardiac arrest in room 5 and the Code Blue Team is in the ER with another patient. What do you do? You see, stress is what happens when you get too many things happening at once, then an emergency occurs. You find yourself being pulled everywhere with everyone wanting a piece of you. You want to be all things to your patients, but you can't. Many nurses are leaving the patient care arena for less stressful paperwork jobs. Many have training and education out the wazoo, but it doesn't help, when you were not trained to deal with stress. The lay public has not a clue what nurses have to put up with. Go to a hospital and ask to shadow an RN for a day or two. If you could see, feel and hear what goes on, you might see why stress and nurses go hand in hand.
2007-01-31 14:11:32 · answer #2 · answered by LEG 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Nurses are not the problem with medicinal errors---nurses just follow doctors orders--Doctors who don't spend enough time with a patient or don't review a patient's background thoroughly make medicinal errors... Nurses deal with the brunt of all the chaos in a hospital...seeing dead children , distraught families grieving, seeing people in pain, caring about them all, and still trying to get applesauce to the old cranky man down the hall can get stressful!! And they might deal with all that in an hours time! Imagine hours upon hrs. of that..day in day out, and still trying to be pleasant for your own families. I couldn't do it..
2007-01-31 14:09:41 · answer #3 · answered by jakkibluu 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Yes. Most of the stress I feel at work is due to under staffing which can be dangerous for the patients. And yes am sure it doesn't help with med errors either. As far as caring for the patients I am completely qualified to do just that. No doubt there.
2007-01-31 14:00:50 · answer #4 · answered by bountyhunter101 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
LEG---I couldn't agree more. That coupled with trying to improve the way things are done via policy changes and reporting, it just drives me up the wall. I feel like trying to provide excellent pt care is all but impossible.
And working with a CNA who could care less about her job, that just takes the cake. I used to be a CNA and so I know the jobs are different but both important however, I can't do my job and half of their job too.
Somedays I just get so frustrated!
2007-01-31 14:24:44 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
i have to agree with LEG on this issue.
2007-01-31 17:16:21 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋