Step away from the crazies and give me some advice!! (long)

Brandi Bee

I'm in hell. I need a different job until nursing school is over.  But I think I am pretty much screwed and can't do that.

First, it's the level of care the patients need vs how many of us there are.  At night, there are two of us and usually 35+ of them.  On any given night, a third or so are going to be heavy completes.  They are confused, they are on bed rest, in restraints, incontinent, need to be turned every 2 hours, etc.  Every night we have people hopping out of bed, getting naked, and roaming the halls.  People who crap their bed every half hour and fight us while we clean them up because it hurts.  Trying to get combative people back into their rooms.  On top of that, we have people who can do for themselves easily and will not-they want you to brush their hair, come in their room every five minutes with ice cream (mind you, they are on our floor because of the way they eat a lot of times!), fluff pillows, etc.  It's the nature of the beast, but it is really more than you can take when you have other people who need you more but there just aren't enough of you at night to make everyone happy.

Second, it is the ungrateful lazy nurses who treat you like crap if you aren't available for every single aide duty.  Nurses whose patients are laying in crap and they walk away and spend enough time hunting us down to do it that they could have done it themselves.  I'm so tired of that.  Last week, we had a code.  Lung cancer.  The man threw up bile (actual feces) all over the room.  They worked on him, but he died.  They come get me and tell me I have to clean him up and I mean quick because the family is on the way and they cannot view the body like that.  So I run in and try to make him look presentable.  His eyes are totally bugged out and won't stay closed.  The room was a total chaotic mess because the family said "do everything" to revive him.  The entire time I was cleaning him up, the tech was calling me to take someone to the bathroom.  I come out and nurses are sitting all over charting.  Really?  No one could get up and take someone to the bathroom for me?  I was pissed.  It was over a week and I am still hot about that.

Third, it is the shift.  I hate to say it because I love third shift.  But I am so sleep deprived right now because my schedule was bad.  I worked two, off one, worked two, off one, worked one.  It was insane.  I felt like I forgot what it was like to even be home because when I am home I am sleeping and I only get two hours a day with Isla when my schedule is like that.  Thing is, I need the shift diff.

So, if you made it through that, thanks.  I just have no idea what I can do.  I was supposed to transfer to L&D last year, but it ended up not being approved.  Next month I'm eligible to transfer again and I am praying something comes up over there.  I really don't want to lose my benefits, PTO, etc and start all over again somewhere.  But my floor is sucking me dry.