the DOC is not our DOC, she's interim. No we don't have admin or an ED either.

Having a chronic illness this seems... extreme? Yea we're short staffed and getting mandated every shift every day (hello burnout), but this is not the answer.

To start with, I work on a med surg floor that takes progressive care patients. I was assigned 3 fairly sick and busy progressive and one general care patient. From 7:30-10 AM today, the wife of my general care patient called the nurses station twice asking for an update from the nurse. I was obviously busy doing meds/assessments and my coworker related such and told her I would call back. She was rude to my coworker about it but I literally had my hands full and could not come to the phone.

Around 10, I’m all caught up and get to sit down, the phone rings and I pick up, it’s the patients daughter now. I give her the update and while I’m speaking to her, the wife calls AGAIN. When I’m done talking about patient, I ask her if she can pass along this update to the wife who has called multiple times, and in the future if just one of them could call because I’m busy working with my patients during my shift.

Manager comes up to me later and tells me the daughter reported me for this to the “patient advocacy line” and said I was “rude”. I was kind and professional, I say the same thing every time multiple family members are calling. My manager didn’t care, I’m just stressed and annoyed now about who else hears about this.

i like hanging IV meds, priming the line and flushing everything and setting up the pump is a fantastic way to just go on autopilot for a minute :>

“Physicians…we’re the brains and the doers. Nurses, you’re the feelers and the supporters.”

-Some VP medical director of whatever, trying to express how great and caring nurses are. Missed the mark just a little. 🤦🏼‍♀️

From brand new, fresh outta high school techs trying to micromanage the nurses to grizzled middle-aged RNs trying to tell me he and his 25 year old protégé could've handled a belligerent patient better than I did, I'm already sick of the egos in the ED. Is it like this everywhere? I was excited about working in a team but was not expecting to work with the corniest people on the planet.

Working med surg was terrible but at least my coworkers were chill. In ED I can't even talk to someone about how the norepi drip they handed off to me was underdosed and mis-documented without being completely brushed off with a DGAF/"the ED is the Wild West" attitude. Why's everyone think they are too cool for school down here. Please throw out your trash, we didn't even code anyone in this room.

ED people please don't come at me 😅 I thought I was down with the chaos but I really wanna know if the sloppiness and egotistical BS are across the board. Even EMS wasn't this bad on those fronts. Funny thing is everyone in this ED complains about nurses on the floor as if the floor nurses are talking equal shit about the ED, when in my experience the floor nurses have just accepted their lot in life and gotten used to getting zero report or communication from the ED.

I’m currently an LPN and I’m in school working toward my RN. Lately, balancing work and school has been really overwhelming. I truly enjoy being an LPN, and I know becoming an RN will open more doors for me, but I’ve been struggling with self-doubt and have even thought about taking a break from school.
I guess I’m looking for some motivation from those of you who have already made it through. Was it worth pushing through the hard days?
If you’re comfortable sharing, about how much do you take home each month after taxes as an RN (and what state/specialty do you work in)? I’m not becoming an RN just for the money! I genuinely love nursing …but I’d be lying if I said financial stability wasn’t a motivator too. I’m a single mom, and it helps to picture how my life could improve once I reach that goal.
I’d really appreciate any advice, encouragement, or stories from your own journey. Thank you!

I’ve been seeing a lot of people asking if they can be a nurse at 40 and up. I was wondering why the career switch now? Did the job you had before not make much money, or do you think nursing will be easier? Just curious what people did before

I’m a pca and I am getting asked to sleep over night but I won’t be clocked in all night. Basically I work for this in home agency and the wife sleeps with the person I take care for (her husband) and she is going out of town and needs someone to sleepover with him but they don’t want to pay. I have a relationship with them or will I say it’s just for work they are very nice I don’t wanna seem Heartless and not sleepover because she can’t go out of town but dude I would still be working if I sleepover and he would disturb my sleep and I would not be in my comfy home and bed and that’s still working in some way 😭I help him out of his wheel chair to his bed and in the mornings out of his bed to his wheelchair and I deal with his fecus it’s hard working with him already on my regular shifts(I would not be doing this for overnights ) , he’s very nice but it’s work for me am I wrong for asking 50 per night ?

I work in outpatient oncology. Our pharmacy frequently makes mistakes on chemo/immunotherapy drugs. For example, today they sent my drug out mixed in a 100ml bag instead of a 250ml bag. The medication label on the bag stated it was 260ml to be infused over 1 hour. So if I hadn’t noticed the error, I would have programmed the drug according to the pharmacy label and it would have infused in 20 minutes instead of an hour because the volume was incorrect.

This is not the first or second or third time this has happened. I’ve reported it on an incident report each time and nothing happens.

Who can I report this to? State Board of Pharmacy?

I have quite a few sickle cell patients who have insisted their 4mg IV Dilaudid be a rapid push (the other nurses do it). I understand that they have a crazy high tolerance, but it honestly scares me considering they get this amount every 2 hours. I just don't want to be on the business end of a malpractice lawsuit. Any words of wisdom?

I recently switched to a clinic role where I am on my feet for most of a 10-hour shift. By the time I get home, my arches and heels feel wrecked, but I also have almost no energy left to do anything complicated. I tried foot soaks a few times, but carrying warm water around and cleaning up afterward was enough friction that I stopped.

A coworker suggested rolling my feet on a frozen bottle or keeping a small heated foot massager near the couch, but I am mainly looking for habits that are easy enough to actually repeat. If you work long shifts on hard floors, what is your realistic evening routine for tired feet?

Title pretty much sums it up. I left LTC to work at a doctors office/clinic and figured I would love it. The job itself? Great. The workload and schedule? So much better. It’s even closer to home for me (I was driving an hour, now only 25 ish minutes.)

Problem? I feel like the biggest idiot in the room. I work with two other nurses, who are also new to the job but a couple weeks ahead of me. It seems like I’m just making mistake after mistake. Little things that just add up. I’m not exactly amazing at drawing blood/labs either considering I just didn’t do it a lot at my last job, which is a whole problem in itself.

These girls are so frustrated with me when I’m truly trying my best. I’ve noticed it in the tones of voice when speaking to me and how they act around me vs each other. I’ve seen all the little head shakes and eye rolls they give each other when I truly have no idea what I did wrong, and I know it’s directed towards me. Even when I’m trying to help with simple things I know I can’t mess up, like screening or cleaning rooms, if I ask if they need help, I can hear the attitude in their tones.

I’m slower than them, I’m making mistakes because I’m constantly on edge, I don’t even talk throughout the day because I can tell they don’t like me. I’m genuinely miserable right now. I’m trying so hard and it’s like I’m just making everything worse. I really wanted this job for the schedule and being closer to home, and I was incredibly happy when I got the position, but I don’t know if I can take this.

After having a breakdown in the bathroom, one of our secretary’s pulled me aside today and told me, quote, “don’t let those girls push you out, you deserve this job as much as them”— so now I can’t even tell if I’m genuinely the problem or if the other two nurses I work with are finding every little thing to tear into me and dislike me over.

It’s not the job, it’s the people I’m working with. Usually I can just ignore that, but where I work with so few people in such a small building, I can’t just distance myself. I don’t know what to do. Thinking of going back to my LTC job because at least I liked the people there.

I honestly don’t know what to do anymore. I’ve been applying to so many jobs trying to find something outside of bedside, but I’m not having much luck. I feel trapped because I can’t just quit without having another job lined up and I need the income. I’ve been applying for months even had someone look over my resume .

I look around and see so many nurses thriving in the ICU and loving critical care, but something in me just doesn’t click. I feel like I’m constantly struggling while everyone else makes it look so easy. I’m miserable, my anxiety keeps getting worse, and every shift feels like I’m forcing myself through something that is becoming unbearable.

What makes it even harder is that I’m already on anxiety medications and still struggling. I feel like I’ve tried everything, but I wake up dreading work and feeling like I’m losing myself.

Has anyone else been in this position? Did you eventually find a nursing job that worked for you? I really need to hear that there is something better on the other side because right now I feel completely stuck.

So my hospital will pay entirely for my RN to BSN program. Which is completely online. It will take between 12-16 months. As soon as the hospital pays its first tuition payment, I’ll be committed to another two years.
I’m in NICU with 3.5 years at my current hospital. I don’t really want to start school again, but also I feel I should take advantage. My husband and I talk often about relocating, but I don’t really think we will go anywhere/sell our house before 2 years.

Is it worth it to get the BSN? I feel maybe “someday” I’ll want something other than bedside. Or perhaps NP. What are your thoughts? I don’t believe I’ll get a raise once I get the degree.

I just need someone tell me how they would feel if this happened to them or if I’m just being dramatic lol. For context, I (23 f) am a new grad nurse working in the ED, and my longtime friend (23 f) is in PA school (about to graduate). The other night, while at work, I was on my phone during a mere moment of downtime and saw she had sent me a tiktok. I opened it and it was basically a (supposed to be) funny tiktok about nurses just clean up poop and that’s the hardest part of our job. When I saw she sent me this, as a joke, i honestly got offended. I know we as nurses often make similar jokes like that to each other and ourselves, but when someone outside the profession does it it often feels more derogatory than anything (to me anyway). And I also can’t believe that she, as my good friend, would send me something like that thinking I’d think it was funny. Her sense of humor has always been a little questionable, but cmon. I think i also took it more personally than i normally would bc that night I was particularly having a bad shift and managing a young girl who was around my age who came in as a trauma, and an assault victim. It was just a bad night for me. And then to open a tiktok that basically says I only clean up shit…like gee thanks. Nurses deal with enough disrespect as is, I don’t need my FRIEND sending me crap like that. Especially a friend I know is also going into the medical field. It bothers me thinking that when she’s finally a PA, that’s how she’ll view nurses. Anyway, am I being dramatic?

A youngish pt, with a potentially life threatening diagnosis, recently asked me how many people I’ve seen die. They were clearly asking from a place of personal fear, and I didn’t want to give a flip or joking answer, so I said something about how COVID was a blur and I don’t really know.
But I’ve been thinking about that interaction, and the question, and I guess I’ve never really thought about it. I’m not sure I even accurately could guess to the nearest fifty or hundred 🤷‍♂️
I don’t really have a question, and this is certainly not a contest, it’s just the way they asked me that somehow is nagging me. I think they were envisioning me or one of my coworkers eventually bagging them up as they cool down.

Patient was discharged 3 days ago with new onset aflutter and UTI. Readmitted with chest pain (work up negative so far) a weakness.

I spoke with the male nurse that had them prior and documented that our director spoke with the family because they were "upset with the communication" aka were mad they had to board in the ER and that everything didn't happen at lightning speed once they were on the floor. Seem like a pain.

I go in the room, smiley and friendly to get them settled.

Wife asks that patient stay on the bed he came on from the ER on because that bed seems bigger. Annoying, but explain they are the exact same bed and same size.

Here's what got me. Daughter says "yeah, my son said of course he wanted to come back and be admitted again! All the nurses are just too pretty!" I felt my face fall. Male nurse walks by the room on his way to the med room. Family says "oh there's johnny. Our nurse today is definitely prettier than Johnny".

I feel like I was already a little annoyed since the nurse before said the family could be a pain. But when they started making comments about looks my smile dropped and I just stared at them. I'm so tired of these stupid comments made on the basis of sex.

How did you handle your first patient death? I’ve gone over the situation so many times. I don’t think anything I did was wrong and I acted when I should have, but it just breaks my heart!

I’ve been a nurse for less than 6 months and i really hate my current nursing job. I was so excited to become a nurse, after my preceptorship I just hate going to work now. I feel inadequate as a nurse, i don’t feel supported as a new nurse and going to work makes me feel anxious and sad because I don’t feel like I know what i’m doing, and when I ask for help from more experienced nurses they treat me as if i’m a bother, or if i should know all of these things even though i’ve been a nurse for a couple of months. My last day of preceptorship, i asked my preceptor to go in the patients room with me just to make sure i was performing a skill correctly and she refused and stated i need to be more independent. I just feel stressed and find myself wanting to escape whenever i’m not at work. Is there easier during jobs than being bedside for new nurses?

I started a residency program in march so i’ve only been a nurse for 4 months, but i’m already feeling really exhausted and overwhelmed. i work in a cardiac med surg (but we pretty much get anyone) that is short staffed on day shift. i tried nights and liked it but i have health issues that made it difficult to adjust. i usually get 6 patients each shift, 5 if im lucky.

i’ve only been on my own for 2 weeks and i am getting a lot of anxiety before my shift bc idk what i’m gonna have to deal with. i’ve barely been able to sit down during my shifts and it feels like i can’t do anything without a million interruptions, phone calls, new orders. i hate not having a guaranteed lunch break. i barely drink, barely eat. we have telemetry so im getting phone calls all day to fix leads. doctors putting in new orders and i feel like i can’t get anything done. i try to do my morning med passes and boom my pt needs a new IV, doctor put in stat blood draw, new order for discharge, not enough supplies in the storage room so i can’t hook up pt to IV box or do wound care or set up feeding pump.

i barely even have time to look into my patients charts and know what’s going on. family asking me questions, other doctors coming by to ask questions and idk the answers. it’s too much. waiting on techs to get sugars done soon enough so i can start med pass.

my unit does turn teams so twice a day at a selected time (usually 11am, 1pm or 3pm) i end up having to turn half the unit with someone else. and it’s always interfering with when i have time to eat or take a break. my assignments also always suck. they gave me 4 wound care patients one day. i got 4 discharges at the same time another day with 3 admissions at the same time later that same day. i had 2 wound care, pt who insisted on pain meds q4h on the dot, an ostomy, someone who needed a sitter all in one shift. one shift i had to fill out 2 3008 forms for SNF with rushed discharges by case management. its just all too much for me. i can’t get through any shift without multiple things going wrong. it feels like every inconvenience possible just has to happen during my shifts.

i want to cry just thinking about work now. idk what to do, i know this is what nursing is and maybe i should’ve done more research before pursuing it. it’s just so exhausting and stressful. doesn’t help that i have depression and anxiety so this job is fueling it. any advice??

Been a nurse forever and my employer asked me if I wanted to become a certified CPR for healthcare workers teacher so I can run the BLS class when needed.

This is something I never thought about or had interest in doing, but I thought I'd ask you all

Is it worth it? My company will pay for me to get certified. I don't know if it's something I want to do in my current position, but I wonder if it is silly to turn down an extra skill or certification.

Have you done it? What was it like?

Is my suspicion that this will be just another thing I have to balance on my plate with no real benefit on point?

hi! I’m in my second year of my MPH program and 6 months interning. I have had some bedside experience volunteering at nursing homes throughout college and high school — i would say just enough to barely understand work flows and barriers. Im interning at a large trauma hospital have a group of 4 IPs on the team, including a manager. I have shadowed and trained with a great IP that has an extensive nursing background, and shadowed nurses during my internship.

I really try to develop a great relationship, and I really like this job and career so moving forward i want to know what else I can do to be a better IP?

what I do currently to reduce barriers and build relationships:

- frequently check sanitizers, soap, and towels and let EVS know when they are out

- restock isolation carts with all necessary supplies

- if there is no isolation sign, I place one and let the nurse know instead of telling them to this

- when doing device rounding, I always make sure to compliment complaint work (if I don’t have to actively seek the RN out and bother them)

- I always try to talk to RNs face to face and always review the chart before reaching out with any questions or concerns

- I pass out candy and give RNs the opportunities to rant about what the IPs can do better

- Answer any questions promptly

i realize that not everyone will like me, but I always try to get to know everyone and be kind.

With that, what more can I do to help nurses and foster the relationship with nurses and IPs? thanks!

Though I gotta say, male nurses are already pretty well represented at UAB. But the more the merrier!

https://www.npr.org/2026/07/21/nx-s1-5869813/nursing-men-jobs-male-nurses

there are a lot of reasons why I am so fed up of this schedule

1. patients, as soon as they receive their breakfast trays around 0745, they would start pressing calls and because the nurses are busy with other patients, now they’re mad that no one has come helped set them up for breakfast. sometimes they would be so mad that they do not want to take their morning pills unless you set up their tray for them or unless they’re done eating which I totally get.. you probably don’t take pills with the breakfast when you’re at home, but it is so annoying because now I have to chart why the medication was given late. all that “education provided” and all.

2. sometimes setting patients up for breakfast takes 10 to 15 minutes of your time and by this time you have not done their assessment, you have not given their medications. Everything is focussed on just eating and treatment can wait. While I agree that eating is part of being healthy and improving health, but It doesn’t have to be an epicentre of everything you do in the hospital. This is so worse they would want their doctors to come back later just because they want to eat first.

3. By 0730 when you have all the medications prepared, and you see patients (5 patients); spending at least 15 minutes with them; thats around 0845. when at least 2 of patients ask to be sit on chair or “set them up” for breakfast, it adds another 30 minutes.

I just had the worst meltdown (in private, of course) because three of my such patients were asking to sit in chair for breakfast, read them their menu and won’t take pills before I get them set up.

I believe trays should be schedule for 0830 and meds at 0900. It’s always the hospital messing up the nurses.