As an RN, your day-to-day is loaded with commitments and responsibilities that the rest of the working world can only imagine. Pushing yourself to a breaking point day in and day out for your career is enough to make even the most energetic of nurses feel stressed out. Believe me, I’ve been there, done that, and have the unfortunate grey hair or two to prove it! Thanks to my hair stylist you’ll never see it 🙂 . That’s why I’m launching this stress study – to get to the root of the nursing industry’s stress epidemic…and you can help! Scroll down to take this 12-question survey: Are You Way Too Stressed Out?
In today’s fast-paced world we all have enough to contend with. Add the stress of a nursing career and it’s a wonder that we make it through the week! Whether you’re sleep deprived, surviving on takeout, undercompensated, feeling underappreciated at work, or are completely happy and satisfied with your RN job, I urge you to take the survey today. Through your participation, together we can uncover valuable industry data to better understand the stresses that affect nurses.
The aim of this survey is to determine the cause and effect of stress, with the hope of revealing tips for combatting stress inside and outside the hospital. Our findings will be revealed right here in my blog on Monday, June 30 – so remember to check back!
2 thoughts on “Nurses, Are You Waaaaaay Too Stressed Out?”
Thank you for the survey Vickie. If I would have taken this survey a year ago, my stress level would have been the waaaaaay too stressed level. I am happy as a clam running my very own CLNC® business.
I think this is a very important topic in nursing. I am curious though as to how the shift work and special considerations of nursing factor in. I know a lot of nurses, like myself, that burn the candle at both ends. Working nights and taking care of the family/house/life all day. Years of napping on the couch while the kids would play around me turned into years of shuttling the kids around and juggling even more complicated schedules. As nurses we like to do it all ourselves, but some of us have also have no choice. I would love to have someone else take over but don’t have anyone to delegate to. Mother’s around the world and in multiple careers have done what it takes to get things done. As nurses, I find the stressful part being the high demand jobs. My parent’s rely on me not having a bad night. You can only live on coffee for so long. And now days I find myself working longer and longer shifts with limited staff and breaks. It is more and more common to not get a break at all. That is why we all developed the 12-hour bladder in the first place. Hospitals are discouraging staff to share their feelings of frustration stating that it shows the hospital in a bad light. I have known nurses that were disciplined for venting frustrations in the staff lounge. But with sicker and more demanding patients, how do you vent frustrations? Back in the 80’s, we use to have decompression meetings once a month to talk about concerns and feelings. Our feelings were valued as much as our skills. No one wants a robot as a nurse. We used to be valued for holding hands, sharing tears and having time to listen to our patients. I was a patient myself a year ago and was shocked how little time any staff was in my room. Even more, I was shocked that the INTERN was the only one who actually talked to me and answered my questions. I suppose my long rant is more of a thought. How can we as nurses be everything to everyone? If you don’t end a shift with the faces and voices of your patients lingering in our thoughts, are you just going through the motions? Better yet, how can we as nurses learn to start supporting ourselves and our profession? I have long stated to my coworkers over the years that we deserve a cape for what we do. (Of course it would need to be autoclaved after every shift.) We are the silent heroes. I have seen the Avengers. In the end they all looked a little stressed as well. That doesn’t mean that the next time the call goes out, they won’t be there to save the day. We all save the day in the end – stressed or not.
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Thank you for the survey Vickie. If I would have taken this survey a year ago, my stress level would have been the waaaaaay too stressed level. I am happy as a clam running my very own CLNC® business.
I think this is a very important topic in nursing. I am curious though as to how the shift work and special considerations of nursing factor in. I know a lot of nurses, like myself, that burn the candle at both ends. Working nights and taking care of the family/house/life all day. Years of napping on the couch while the kids would play around me turned into years of shuttling the kids around and juggling even more complicated schedules. As nurses we like to do it all ourselves, but some of us have also have no choice. I would love to have someone else take over but don’t have anyone to delegate to. Mother’s around the world and in multiple careers have done what it takes to get things done. As nurses, I find the stressful part being the high demand jobs. My parent’s rely on me not having a bad night. You can only live on coffee for so long. And now days I find myself working longer and longer shifts with limited staff and breaks. It is more and more common to not get a break at all. That is why we all developed the 12-hour bladder in the first place. Hospitals are discouraging staff to share their feelings of frustration stating that it shows the hospital in a bad light. I have known nurses that were disciplined for venting frustrations in the staff lounge. But with sicker and more demanding patients, how do you vent frustrations? Back in the 80’s, we use to have decompression meetings once a month to talk about concerns and feelings. Our feelings were valued as much as our skills. No one wants a robot as a nurse. We used to be valued for holding hands, sharing tears and having time to listen to our patients. I was a patient myself a year ago and was shocked how little time any staff was in my room. Even more, I was shocked that the INTERN was the only one who actually talked to me and answered my questions. I suppose my long rant is more of a thought. How can we as nurses be everything to everyone? If you don’t end a shift with the faces and voices of your patients lingering in our thoughts, are you just going through the motions? Better yet, how can we as nurses learn to start supporting ourselves and our profession? I have long stated to my coworkers over the years that we deserve a cape for what we do. (Of course it would need to be autoclaved after every shift.) We are the silent heroes. I have seen the Avengers. In the end they all looked a little stressed as well. That doesn’t mean that the next time the call goes out, they won’t be there to save the day. We all save the day in the end – stressed or not.