I wouldn't wish a nursing career on my worst enemy

My job has become overwhelming.  It used to be there were days when it wasn't that busy, when there was time to talk to my co workers, relax a little bit.  Those days seem to be gone.  There is not a day that goes by that it is not busy from morning til night. The waiting room is full.

The patients have become sicker.  I think most people think of ERs as places where people go for broken bones, appendicitis, car accidents, etc. Maybe that was the way it used to be.  Not any more. ERs have become high tech nursing homes.  Our patients are the elderly, the chronically ill, the mentally ill.

People are living into their 80's and 90's routinely these days.  Their health inevitably deteriorates the older they get.  They are the majority of our patients.  The next group is the chronically ill, those with heart disease, diabetes, cancer, the disabled,etc. Naturally they are in the ER more than most. Last but most certainly not least are the mentally ill.  There has been an explosion of mental health patients in the last five years, especially adolescent psych patients.  Due to lack of psych beds, they sometimes stay days in the ER waiting for a bed to open up.  They can be violent.

One other group I didn't mention are those who live at the bottom of society:  drug addicts, criminals, drunks, people whose lives are a pile of shit.  They make up a percentage of the ER traffic too.

When the patients are sick, they get more tests, procedures. Everybody gets an IV and IV meds.  They are complicated, a lot of work.

Add this to the fact that there every time I come to work I have about ten emails telling me the changes that have happened since the last time I was at work. 

Charting has become a nightmare.  We spend about half our time filling in blanks to make accrediting organizations happy.

Everything has become a protocol these days with many steps and lots of charting involved.

All this in the middle of dealing with patients and families fears, anger, demands.  Throw in short staffing and you have an overwhelming job that I wouldn't want my worst enemy to have. 

Duh, hey, Dr, maybe ya ought stop giving out narcs like candy...

At last, a well known doctor, Sanjay Gupta, is acknowledging that doctors are the ones who need to: read here on cnn

1) Finally acknowledge their MAJOR ROLE in the prescription drug epidemic. Ain't nobody else writin' those scripts...

2) Acknowledge that they need to stop giving out narcs like candy.

3) Stop using excuses about why they continue to foster the epidemic: The patients complaints will bring down patient satisfaction scores. Who cares?  Patents expect it. And they will continue to expect it until you stop. It's easier to do it and avoid confrontation. Why are you a doctor? Seriously.  Etc etc etc

Excuse me while I shed a tear..

My old pal ZDoggMD brought a tear to this cynical bitch's eye.....it's nurses week folks...I didn't realize..I'm in the middle of some days off....guess I'll miss the package of gum...

Wasting away in frequent flyerville

Death can be funny