the old you is dead, the new you is alive, but tattered

Being a nurse is like going through the stages of grief.

You finally graduate from that Godforsaken nursing school and you passed the boards and you actually have a job! Yippee! So what if its rotating D/N. You begin the grieving process...

Stage one: SHOCK AND DENIAL. You go through orientation and things go OK, you are ready to be on your own. Or at least you thought you were. You quickly figure out that you don't have enough time in the shift to accomplish what needs to be accomplished, espescially if something goes wrong. You go home exhausted, made more so by rotating shifts. You can't believe it, what they told you in nursing school has no practical application to the actual daily work of a nurse. You tell yourself things will get better. They don't

Stage two: PAIN AND GUILT. You realize that you have just spent four years to do a job that is actually impossible to do. Now what? You have all those loans to pay off, you have to pay the bills. You find yourself saying: What have I done?!!!

You begin to feel guilty that you can't do all you are supposed to do for the patients.

Stage three: ANGER. You start to get pissed off that they expect you do all this stuff and you don't have time. There is never enough staff. You start to get a little burned out.

Stage four: BARGAINING.You tell yourself, maybe I can change things, I'll join a unit committee.

Stage five: DEPRESSION, REFLECTION, LONLINESS. You keep complaining to your significant other, family members, friends about how bad it is. They lose sympathy for you. They tell you to buck up, you're making a living, stop complaining.

You start to feel lonely. Nobody understands or they don't care, you tell yourself. You ask yourself, whats the use? I work really hard and I'll never get it all done. By the way, the comittee? Accomplished nothing, they rarely do. You quit it.

Stage six: ACCEPTANCE. You start talking to other nurses. You realize we all feel this way. Its some consolation. You have since got married and a baby is on the way. You can't quit now. You begin drinking (guffaw). You accept that the job is what it is, pretty much out of your control. You do the best you can. You develop a tough exterior. You'll need it in this job. You get onto evening shift, making life a little easier. Pretty soon you've been a nurse ten years and can't believe how time has flown by.