Jaded

I'm realizing more and more how hard it is to be a nurse and work in the hospital. It's difficult balancing between the patient's needs, the physician's orders (and sleep schedules), and getting all the necessary charting done. I don't mean to complain about my job, but it is hard trying to please and help my patients, not pissing off the doctor's by calling them at 3am, and handling confused, complicated, or just plain difficult patients. I am understanding more and more how easy it is for nurses to become jaded and burnt out on their work. I find myself getting really frustrated with my confused patients, patents that ask for pain medicine ALL the time (and don't really appear to be in a lot of pain), or want me to just call up the doctor all the time and try and get everything figured out to make them better at 2am. I get frustrated when there are no orders for me to give them an as needed medication and I have to call the doctor for something as simple as a sleeping pill or Tylenol. Maybe some of this comes from the fact that I hate feeling powerless to meet my patients' needs and get rid of their pain or other problems. I really do my best to not let the patients see that frustration though. Please don't think I'm a terrible, evil person. I'm really not. It's just difficult. But maybe every unit is different...I hope. Maybe it's just my floor and that once I get a year or two of experience in I can move to a different area and it will be better. But who knows...

I don't want to be that nurse that I've come into contact with that just goes through the motions of work and gets frustrated if something throws that off or that doesn't seem to really care about my patients. I know there will be times after work that I will just have to let it all out and vent for a second, but I'm going to try and focus on the positive things I am doing and not let those frustrations get me down. I'm going to try and see things more from my patient's point of view and how this affects their life. I hope it helps....but I may need you guys to remind me of that every once in a while ;)