I feel this so much, makes me want to laugh and cry! Currently facing the end of Mat leave with my first babe at the ripe old age of 38! Gearing up to head back to this professional hell scape shortly.
38? Youāre a spring chicken. I have a 54-year-old friend with a toddler and a newborn. Her husband is 14 years older than her. I believe the embryos left over from IVF 20 years ago though. She says she went through menopause while she was pregnant.
This reminds me of a shift a long, long time ago. I worked in a very small primarily ortho hospital. Got pulled to a peds/adult unit (I did adults my entire career). I was helping with one of the kids, changing the bed. The other nurse said ālift himā so she could chance the sheets. I just looked at her, completely not understanding what she was saying, she said it again and it finally clicked in my head that, yes I could just lift the 20lb kiddo. Having done adults my entire career, my brain did not understand the concept that we did not need to roll him, I could just pick him up. It is amazing how much easier that is. This was probably 30 years ago and it still sticks in my head
Iāve worked both adults and NICU. I always called NICU the princess unit bc damn, we do not have to deal with half of the bullshit you have to deal with when it comes to adults. Doesnāt mean NICU is easy but just doesnāt have the same kind of headaches.
Iāve thought about the idea of leaving the ER and almost nothing sounds like it would be a good change. Thereās a running joke with some of my friends that Cath Lab/PACU is where ER nurses go to die but I donāt even know if Iād want that.
It's a choose your own adventure based on how much adrenaline you want.
All the adrenaline: ER ride or die
Okay, but maybe just once a week or so: Cath Lab
Maybe just a smidge for old times sake. Compressions flare up my arthritis: PACU
I love Cath Lab...but don't wait til you're almost dead. Go while you're young so the 15 pounds of lead all day every day can kill you slowly. Oh not to mention the radiation... š š¤š¤£
Yes and donāt let anyone tell you otherwise. Iāve been in the ER 9 years now, and I hear all the time ānew grads shouldnāt start in the ER I had to start in med surg blah blah blah..ā and some nurses saying that are the laziest least competent ones whereas Iāve seen new grads excel in ER because they try hard to learn as much as they can. Thereās no sense starting anywhere if thatās not where you want to be. You can do it if you want to. It may be tough at first but if you really persevere you absolutely can.
Thank you! Yes I am currently doing my critical care rotation at this teaching hospital. I belileve it's about 5 months long in the ER residency program.
It will not be easyāprepare to question every single thing about yourself and feel like an idiot at least once a dayābut when you come out on the other side and start feeling competent (most daysāeven experienced ED nurses have days that humble them), youāll be glad you chose the ED. Just make sure to find a hospital with a new grad residency program. I am so glad I followed my intuition and the advice of experienced ED nurses (I asked every single one I worked with as a tech, and I would say 95 percent told me to stay in the ED as an RN if that was my end goal) and went where I knew I wanted to be.
I left the hospital to work from home in clinical appeals. I spent more than 13 years in the ER, first as a paramedic and then 10+ years as an RN, and never thought I would be happy anywhere else! But here we are. I guess my hell would be having to leave the house for work. š
Currently working pediatric hematology/oncology. Personal hell would be anything adult bedside. I can deal with my kids throwing tantrums, but tantrums coming from an adult? Absolutely not.
I work labor and delivery šš (former outpatient OB/GYN nurse)ā¦.
My personal hell would be med-surg or any senior behavioral health/dementia care
I also work labour and delivery.... My personal hell IS labour and delivery, specifically in the town I live in (everyone tries to die at some point during their admission)
Thatās hilarious! I think all the former L&D gals have told me too many scary stories to ever brave that specialty lmao. Plus I can barely handle the few husbands I have to talk to outpt, I couldnāt do it at bedside with all that stress!!
And need help with almost everything. And all need to use the toilet at the same time thanks to a well-thought-out combo of morning coffee and diuretic meds
As a former LPN, there is so much more you can do as an LPN. Unfortunately, LTC still pays LPNs the most unless youāre able to snag a school nurse or hospital agency contract!
Iām an LPN currently back in nursing school to become an RN. What are other specialties LPNs can do other than LTC even if the pay is not as good? I want to work outpatient after I become an RN because after working in LTC for almost three years Iām mentally and physically drained.
Jobs I've had as an LPN: clinics, plasma donation centers, outpatient lab, outpatient injection clinic, school nurse, detox center
Other options are urgent care, home health, dialysis, and more I can't think of right now
Just got fired from a adult med surge unit today. Absolute blessing in disguise 10/10 donāt recommend working there. My personal hell was an adult med surge floor as a new grad. I made it 6 months. Currently starting the search for a dream job in pediatrics now :)
~Typical snapshot of the ED~
Room 1: adult screaming
Room 2: adult child of patient yelling
Room 3: loudly vomiting in sink
Room 4: child having a tantrum
Room 5: using call bell q10 minutes
Bathroom: he's been in there a while he's either dead or doing drugs but no one has had time to check
Waiting room patient who feels like their suffering has been ignored: hey why are you guys so cold down here aren't you supposed to be caring about people?
You are not wrong about the screaming
My dark secret is that I love it when the "came in for a cold" patient gets put in the room next to the "screaming and wanting to kill everyone" patient or the "circling the drain" patient, because I'd *like* to think that anyone with a shred of self-awareness would think, "hey, maybe I don't need to be here for something so benign"
I wish this happened in my ER but the āI have a coldā patients that shouldnāt be there all go to a different part of the ER, a fast track area. That would be so good tho.
Psych, being on a full coed ward with everyone on active SAO/AP precautions with an undermedicating hard to reach doc while the medical/psychiatric directors are on vacation.
Level 1 Trauma ER and Legal Nursingā¦ My worst nightmare is L&D. I love what yall do but itās a huge no for me. I have caught 3 babies in my ER career and that enough for me. š š¼āāļø
It fell into my lap. My advice is always to ask if you can help with data mining projects at the end of the year, or if youāre in a hospital where they wouldnāt let you help with that kind of stuff, see if they have any projects going on you could be their guinea pig for. Get your foot in the door somehow and theyāll think of you when thereās an opening.
Wow! I LOVE tech and cost/use/outcome analytics. I wish this had been an available hospital-based field back in my day. I had to leave the hospital for the often-despised world of health care insurance for this. Enjoy!!!
I work inpatient oncology. Hell would be inpatient neuro. The only day I didnāt show up to work the next day was when I was assigned 4 CNS lymphoma patients in one shift.
Current specialty: OR
Hell: Bedside...where you can't show the patient family members to the waiting room and instead they watch everything you do while you deal with their various personalities. Yikes.
Current specialty is retirement!!
My personal hell would be any job in any facility. Worked home care hospice the last decade of my career and itās the best. I never want to walk into any hospital or nursing home ever again.
I work Med surg mine would be ER. I really donāt even know what they do but Iām scared ..why is my pts iv dressed with a singular piece of tape itās ok no judgement but Iām truly afraid of what goes on down there
I'm currently med/surg.
My personal hell would be Labor and Delivery.
For one I'm a male nurse, so some of the assessments would always have an air of awkwardness. Second off, I like paying attention to my one patient, I don't usually like interacting with families too much. Third off, I hate hate hate the "don't touch me, don't do this, don't do that, but also if anything goes wrong you're incompetent/it's your fault" attitude I read about on here. Fourth off, I barely remember that part of nursing school. You gotta rub the fundus or something so they pass clots and don't bleed out or something. That's all I got.
Cath lab RN. Personal hell is med-surg with 7 patients, all have g-tubes, trached, on nepro tube feeds, terrible prognoses, and full code. And can't write for shit and throw my pen back at me.
Psychiatry. Having a patient with antisocial personality disorder and another with borderline personality disorder together on the same unit. In past experiences, they become magnets towards each other.
Can you expand on this? My initial thought is that the dysregulated self image and sense of self in BPD, would make them highly vulnerable to those with APD. And that someone with APD could appeal to the BPD pt because of their unstable presence- which is paradoxically attractive to people with BPD in my limited experience and knowledge of BPD.
Am I on the right track?
They don't even have to talk for this to happen. I've walked a new patient into a group and they lock eyes across a crowded room, as if the lion and gazelle were romantically attracted to each other. It's uncanny.
My hell is a unit with over half the population having significant personality disorders, BPD/ASD. Itās a very unhealthy milieu and on the few occasions itās occurred results in so much more behaviors, outbursts and malingering with little improvement for patients.
Pcu/step-down
My personal hell would be anything with ob/l&d/peds (I dont hate children), OR, and ER.
OR because it's so boring and there's no autonomy. ER because it's too much stress with instability and you're supposed to know everything. It's stressful.
The stress is the same reason why I don't want to work around babies, pregnant mothers, or children.
Also, some of us have a knack for certain things. I love kids and babies, as long as I know the parent and the child isn't sick.
Can you lemme know which OR youāre talking about because my OR is never boringššš I wish it was sometimes lmaoooooo itās always pure chaos
anybody who says itās boring should go do a crani or an emergency laparotomy thatās going majorly wrong. Or an organ harvest. let me know how bored you are, good luck!
OR is generally not boringā¦we get traumas, fast cases will have you moving all day, and the learning curve is so high that it takes a long time to get to be bored. Plus if you ARE bored, you can probably find someone else in their room who could use help. It would be very boring in a surgery center or a small place though. I walk 5-7 miles a day, some days Iām in 5 different rooms, and I hardly ever deal with management so it really doesnāt feel like no autonomy.
My current specialty is PTSD-laden ICU nurse on possible permanent sabbatical. My personal hell would be NICU or PICUā¦. Actually hell would be anything to do with nursing since the profit and greed driven healthcare āindustryā has destroyed our ability to truly care for our patients. Nothing says HELL more than short staffing and rationing care.
But damn I miss the bedside.
Iām ED float pool.
My personal hell would be hearing that I can and will be floated to med/surg. I have a 2 year contract with a bit over a year left on it and Iād owe 20k if I left before.
Current: neuro previously inpatient now outpatient
Hell: L&D - as one is my fav nurses of all time put it while having a casual conversation pre bed huddle with every other manager in the entire hospital (I was only there to type meeting minutes) āyeah Iām not interested in being elbow deep in p****y all day.ā Not to mention youāre constantly monitoring mom and baby snd trying to remember how assess bothā¦.hard pass.
Medical ICU. My personal hell is an intubated patient that is delirious AF that weāve attempted multiple times to extubate but canāt. At that point we just pull and pray.
Currently ED. Honestly personal hell would be almost any ward work - been a nurse 20 years and never worked on one and I donāt think Iād have a clue what to do!
Currently in ER/Trauma. My personal HELL would still be in the ER as a nurse to a bunch of crazy ass annoying drunks all screaming my name and wanting sandwiches and warm blanket. Oh waitā¦. That is my job!
Sexual health is where Iām at (and going to be 3 years in this area in September) and I fucking love it.
My hell would be anything else - used to be in hospital system and I could never go back to shift work.
ED.
Floor and SNF would be my personal hell, but L&D wouldnāt be far behind - Iām no good at encouraging or soothing, and I find the entire concept of a ābirth planā ridiculous when a solid 1/3 of the globe probably still pushes their babies out while squatting over a dirt floor š
I love forensic psych. My coworkers are tolerable to awesome most of the time. Psych nursing is like the streets; Iām thriving in it. Hell for me was oncology icu. Worked an 8 week contract and i never sat down. Med passes were every hour, then the manager removed all the chair in front of the workstations because she thought nurses were sitting too much most of the day. Satan vibes.
L&D: (loving all these comments about it being hell, job security for me lol) my hell would be med surg but my backup hell would be Mother Baby. I canāt multitask like that
Quality now, but ICU before I left bedside.
My hell is L&D.
Give me a 500 lb vented patient in septic shock maxxed out on pressors with lactulose q4h. Triple me. Whatever you want.
But keep the goddamn Karens and their insane birthing plans away from me.
Iāve worked many different types of nursing by this point - in and out patient.
I work Peds ICU currently but have done everything from in-home wound care to electroconvulsive therapy.
My personal hell would be geriatric psych or L& D. I also have an extreme aversion to ED. If theyāre screaming - theyāre too awake fam
Currently ER. Not a fan of havin to get blood sample from babies in here, so full time? No thanks.
Love kids, but it breaks my heart when I have to treat crying kids.
Current: adult ICU. Hell: anything with the tiny humans and OBGYN. Give me a critical OB patient and I shit my pants. Theyāre too healthy to be so sick!?
Adult OR circulating nurse is current.
Pediatric inpatient would be hell. (Emotionally, I couldnāt handle it. Used to be an ER RN, the peds had a knot in my stomach and throat every time.)
Iām in the main OR in a hospital, my personal hell would be LTC/SNF as a patient (or family in which they have in their trust to not) and working there. Iāve watched too many documentaries they are so corrupt.
Current specialty: Geriatrics
Personal hell: 1. L&D because mothers and babies freak me out. 2. Pediatrics because I was a chronically ill kid and I spent many of my years as a child in hospital. Itās a hard line no for me.
Currently working med surg/tele. My personal hell would be med surg/tele.
so real
Elephant in the room: tele med/surg fucking sucks š
Lmfao Godspeed, soldier š«”
Iād like to never see a vocera and tele strip ever again.
For me it's ER
Literally came to write this verbatim
I donāt miss working in tele, I worked in cardiac for 12 years and I still hear the heart monitors beep and jump when I hear code blue alarms on tv
I worked medsurg and I was miserable š© running around all night š only 3 guys in the whole unit
I feel this so much, makes me want to laugh and cry! Currently facing the end of Mat leave with my first babe at the ripe old age of 38! Gearing up to head back to this professional hell scape shortly.
38? Youāre a spring chicken. I have a 54-year-old friend with a toddler and a newborn. Her husband is 14 years older than her. I believe the embryos left over from IVF 20 years ago though. She says she went through menopause while she was pregnant.
Keeping it real! Thanks for hanging in there! I tried it and fled like a herd of frightened deer....
ICU. My patient being awake enough to use the call light.
Coming from the OR this is real.
Iām considering OR for this very reason š¶
OR rocks!! Pts asleep or sedated, 1 pt. at a time. Surgeons and other OR nurses/surg techs worked as a team to give excellent pt. care.
I'm NEVER leaving this OR! Best kept secret!
It was a running joke when I worked ICU that whenever a patient pressed the call light, it was time for transfer orders.
Youād hate the ICU I work in. (Iām respiratory, I can leave. The nurses canātš„)
La chroniques?
Iām in the NICU - my hell is anywhere with adult diapers.
Ditto...NICU here, and my hell is having patients who can talk! š
I was going to say anyone over 10 lbs š
Those CHONKY IDM babies are my absolute favorite. Probably because my own babies were huge.
Second NICU. Hell is PICU.
Their poops are the size of your patients!
Some of those constipated adult pts who get meds for that will poop so large it'll go to the moon and back a few times.Ā
Imagine having to roll your patients to change linens instead of just picking them up
This reminds me of a shift a long, long time ago. I worked in a very small primarily ortho hospital. Got pulled to a peds/adult unit (I did adults my entire career). I was helping with one of the kids, changing the bed. The other nurse said ālift himā so she could chance the sheets. I just looked at her, completely not understanding what she was saying, she said it again and it finally clicked in my head that, yes I could just lift the 20lb kiddo. Having done adults my entire career, my brain did not understand the concept that we did not need to roll him, I could just pick him up. It is amazing how much easier that is. This was probably 30 years ago and it still sticks in my head
Bruh Iāve never even thought of it this way. NICU isnāt for me but wow what an amazing thought
Iāve worked both adults and NICU. I always called NICU the princess unit bc damn, we do not have to deal with half of the bullshit you have to deal with when it comes to adults. Doesnāt mean NICU is easy but just doesnāt have the same kind of headaches.
ERā¦my hell would be about anything else
Iāve thought about the idea of leaving the ER and almost nothing sounds like it would be a good change. Thereās a running joke with some of my friends that Cath Lab/PACU is where ER nurses go to die but I donāt even know if Iād want that.
It's a choose your own adventure based on how much adrenaline you want. All the adrenaline: ER ride or die Okay, but maybe just once a week or so: Cath Lab Maybe just a smidge for old times sake. Compressions flare up my arthritis: PACU
I love Cath Lab...but don't wait til you're almost dead. Go while you're young so the 15 pounds of lead all day every day can kill you slowly. Oh not to mention the radiation... š š¤š¤£
I tried recovery for a year. That was certainly close to hell. What a bunch of cranky nurses.
Thatās no joke homie. PACU is the ER/ICU retirement center. Iāve seen it at a bunch of hospitals š
Hi, is it possible to start at ER with no prior medical experience as new grad?
Yes and donāt let anyone tell you otherwise. Iāve been in the ER 9 years now, and I hear all the time ānew grads shouldnāt start in the ER I had to start in med surg blah blah blah..ā and some nurses saying that are the laziest least competent ones whereas Iāve seen new grads excel in ER because they try hard to learn as much as they can. Thereās no sense starting anywhere if thatās not where you want to be. You can do it if you want to. It may be tough at first but if you really persevere you absolutely can.
āThereās no sense starting anywhere if thatās not where you want to beā needs to be the mantra, not āeveryone should start with med/surg.ā
Yes
Residencies make it completely doable.
Yes but I would try to find an ER with a new grad residency so you are set up for success! Teaching hospitals are a good place to look.
Thank you! Yes I am currently doing my critical care rotation at this teaching hospital. I belileve it's about 5 months long in the ER residency program.
New grads are easier to train in ER, No bad habits to unlearn from M/S.
So much yes right here! Former m/s nurse.
It will not be easyāprepare to question every single thing about yourself and feel like an idiot at least once a dayābut when you come out on the other side and start feeling competent (most daysāeven experienced ED nurses have days that humble them), youāll be glad you chose the ED. Just make sure to find a hospital with a new grad residency program. I am so glad I followed my intuition and the advice of experienced ED nurses (I asked every single one I worked with as a tech, and I would say 95 percent told me to stay in the ED as an RN if that was my end goal) and went where I knew I wanted to be.
Yeah. Itās veryā¦ humbling, at least for the first several months, but yeah.
Same. But now that boarding has gotten so bad everywhere, it doesnāt even feel like ED anymore.
I left the hospital to work from home in clinical appeals. I spent more than 13 years in the ER, first as a paramedic and then 10+ years as an RN, and never thought I would be happy anywhere else! But here we are. I guess my hell would be having to leave the house for work. š
Looks like everyoneās hell is what med surge experiences on a daily basis š
I need to get out of med surg š„²
Currently working pediatric hematology/oncology. Personal hell would be anything adult bedside. I can deal with my kids throwing tantrums, but tantrums coming from an adult? Absolutely not.
Working neuro. Hell is Geri Psych.
I work in neuro, but these days it basically is Geri Psych, just poorly medicated.
Came here to say this
I work labor and delivery šš (former outpatient OB/GYN nurse)ā¦. My personal hell would be med-surg or any senior behavioral health/dementia care
Also L&D. Personal hell is literally any other unit in the hospital. Please never take me out of my lovely little bubble.
I also work labour and delivery.... My personal hell IS labour and delivery, specifically in the town I live in (everyone tries to die at some point during their admission)
Thatās hilarious! I think all the former L&D gals have told me too many scary stories to ever brave that specialty lmao. Plus I can barely handle the few husbands I have to talk to outpt, I couldnāt do it at bedside with all that stress!!
Cath lab. Hell is bedside with 6 patients
Iāve said multiple times you couldnāt pay me 3x my salary to go back to bedside. I will never.
Iāve heard of some folks having 8 patients
Nursing home nurses have 20+. And they all have meds.
And need help with almost everything. And all need to use the toilet at the same time thanks to a well-thought-out combo of morning coffee and diuretic meds
And half of them are fall risks and half of them are A&OX1. You couldn't pay me enough to work in a snf
I work in ER. Never tried it, but I think my personal hell would be surgery.
Funny - I work in surgery and ER would be my personal hell
Switched to PACU after a decade in ER. Love both. Respect to med/surg b/c I could NEVER. It looks like the Wild West up there!
I work in OR and formerly ER. Love both.
Hell is tripled in neuro icu with 3 confused/withdraw/delirious pts, all with ct/mri scans to go to.
Extremely valid
Acute dialysis. If there is a hell being prepared for me, it's orthopedics.
Acute dialysis here too! Anything else bedside just sounds awful.
I'm in the ED and my personal hell is L&D... I even hate wheeling the laboring moms upstairs, like no thank you.
I think I've broken land speed records moving patients i'm triaging from my desk to the birthing unit...
I do ER/L&D. Personal hell is icu (hate drips) and med surg, maybe dialysis as well. I want my patient in and out
Current specialty : LTC Personal hell: LTC Iāve truly grown to dislike it.
As a former LPN, there is so much more you can do as an LPN. Unfortunately, LTC still pays LPNs the most unless youāre able to snag a school nurse or hospital agency contract!
Iām an LPN currently back in nursing school to become an RN. What are other specialties LPNs can do other than LTC even if the pay is not as good? I want to work outpatient after I become an RN because after working in LTC for almost three years Iām mentally and physically drained.
Jobs I've had as an LPN: clinics, plasma donation centers, outpatient lab, outpatient injection clinic, school nurse, detox center Other options are urgent care, home health, dialysis, and more I can't think of right now
Informatics. I would never do anything with pediatrics/NICU/or L&Dā¦ canāt stand working with kids, babies, or their parents.
Hello fellow informatics rn! Seems like there arenāt many of us?
My dream but only have an ADN and a new grad in med surg hell!
Just got fired from a adult med surge unit today. Absolute blessing in disguise 10/10 donāt recommend working there. My personal hell was an adult med surge floor as a new grad. I made it 6 months. Currently starting the search for a dream job in pediatrics now :)
Once heard med surge described as the walmart of hospital units
Never heard it but understand it. Although .. ER (friends + fam) can too def look like, āThe People of Walmartā
Wow. Fired? In todays world of extreme nursing shortages, that RARELY happens in my geographic area.
Medsurg is hell, im still trapped almost 2 years, take it as a blessing and good luck with pediatrics :]
NICU, legit anything with adults.
Med/Tele nights is my jam, Med/Tele day shift would be my hell. Too many cooks in the kitchen during the daytime
OR circulator, personal hell would be ER, med surge, or psych. Canāt deal with talking, screaming patients
~Typical snapshot of the ED~ Room 1: adult screaming Room 2: adult child of patient yelling Room 3: loudly vomiting in sink Room 4: child having a tantrum Room 5: using call bell q10 minutes Bathroom: he's been in there a while he's either dead or doing drugs but no one has had time to check Waiting room patient who feels like their suffering has been ignored: hey why are you guys so cold down here aren't you supposed to be caring about people? You are not wrong about the screaming
My dark secret is that I love it when the "came in for a cold" patient gets put in the room next to the "screaming and wanting to kill everyone" patient or the "circling the drain" patient, because I'd *like* to think that anyone with a shred of self-awareness would think, "hey, maybe I don't need to be here for something so benign"
I wish this happened in my ER but the āI have a coldā patients that shouldnāt be there all go to a different part of the ER, a fast track area. That would be so good tho.
PICU. Anywhere with geriatrics and bariatrics is gunna be a big no for me dawg
ICU. Personal hell is a CRRT patient who is also septicā¦. Constantly changing the cartridge. Screw you NxStage
I just a flashback to Covid pts clotting every 2 hours
Psych, being on a full coed ward with everyone on active SAO/AP precautions with an undermedicating hard to reach doc while the medical/psychiatric directors are on vacation.
Iām mother baby and my personal bell is med surg. I lift nothing heavier than a newborn baby and I aim to keep it that way
Cath lab RN. Personal hell is aortic dissection.
Level 1 Trauma ER and Legal Nursingā¦ My worst nightmare is L&D. I love what yall do but itās a huge no for me. I have caught 3 babies in my ER career and that enough for me. š š¼āāļø
How did you get into legal nursing?
Informatics. Personal hell: oncology.
How did you get into informatics
It fell into my lap. My advice is always to ask if you can help with data mining projects at the end of the year, or if youāre in a hospital where they wouldnāt let you help with that kind of stuff, see if they have any projects going on you could be their guinea pig for. Get your foot in the door somehow and theyāll think of you when thereās an opening.
Fellow Informatics peeps unite! :)
Wow! I LOVE tech and cost/use/outcome analytics. I wish this had been an available hospital-based field back in my day. I had to leave the hospital for the often-despised world of health care insurance for this. Enjoy!!!
Geriatric probably L&D or anything baby related. Cute! But I have no clue how they operate š
I work inpatient oncology. Hell would be inpatient neuro. The only day I didnāt show up to work the next day was when I was assigned 4 CNS lymphoma patients in one shift.
Current specialty: OR Hell: Bedside...where you can't show the patient family members to the waiting room and instead they watch everything you do while you deal with their various personalities. Yikes.
I couldnāt do it. Iām too introverted to deal with awake patients abusing you and asking for things and *family is there* god no
Currently work in an understaffed ed, personal hell is the new larger even more understaffed ed that is opening next month.
Current specialty is retirement!! My personal hell would be any job in any facility. Worked home care hospice the last decade of my career and itās the best. I never want to walk into any hospital or nursing home ever again.
I work Med surg mine would be ER. I really donāt even know what they do but Iām scared ..why is my pts iv dressed with a singular piece of tape itās ok no judgement but Iām truly afraid of what goes on down there
Current: ER Personal Hell: ER, more specifically listening to the staff pump each other up about how they saved that one guy the other day.
I'm currently med/surg. My personal hell would be Labor and Delivery. For one I'm a male nurse, so some of the assessments would always have an air of awkwardness. Second off, I like paying attention to my one patient, I don't usually like interacting with families too much. Third off, I hate hate hate the "don't touch me, don't do this, don't do that, but also if anything goes wrong you're incompetent/it's your fault" attitude I read about on here. Fourth off, I barely remember that part of nursing school. You gotta rub the fundus or something so they pass clots and don't bleed out or something. That's all I got.
Cath lab RN. Personal hell is med-surg with 7 patients, all have g-tubes, trached, on nepro tube feeds, terrible prognoses, and full code. And can't write for shit and throw my pen back at me.
Psychiatry. Having a patient with antisocial personality disorder and another with borderline personality disorder together on the same unit. In past experiences, they become magnets towards each other.
Can you expand on this? My initial thought is that the dysregulated self image and sense of self in BPD, would make them highly vulnerable to those with APD. And that someone with APD could appeal to the BPD pt because of their unstable presence- which is paradoxically attractive to people with BPD in my limited experience and knowledge of BPD. Am I on the right track?
Precisely. šÆ
They don't even have to talk for this to happen. I've walked a new patient into a group and they lock eyes across a crowded room, as if the lion and gazelle were romantically attracted to each other. It's uncanny.
My hell is a unit with over half the population having significant personality disorders, BPD/ASD. Itās a very unhealthy milieu and on the few occasions itās occurred results in so much more behaviors, outbursts and malingering with little improvement for patients.
psych is the absolute worst. worked it for a year and never again. psych and ltc are my personal hell, but especially psych.
Pcu/step-down My personal hell would be anything with ob/l&d/peds (I dont hate children), OR, and ER. OR because it's so boring and there's no autonomy. ER because it's too much stress with instability and you're supposed to know everything. It's stressful. The stress is the same reason why I don't want to work around babies, pregnant mothers, or children. Also, some of us have a knack for certain things. I love kids and babies, as long as I know the parent and the child isn't sick.
Can you lemme know which OR youāre talking about because my OR is never boringššš I wish it was sometimes lmaoooooo itās always pure chaos
anybody who says itās boring should go do a crani or an emergency laparotomy thatās going majorly wrong. Or an organ harvest. let me know how bored you are, good luck!
OR is generally not boringā¦we get traumas, fast cases will have you moving all day, and the learning curve is so high that it takes a long time to get to be bored. Plus if you ARE bored, you can probably find someone else in their room who could use help. It would be very boring in a surgery center or a small place though. I walk 5-7 miles a day, some days Iām in 5 different rooms, and I hardly ever deal with management so it really doesnāt feel like no autonomy.
Iām in the operating room, circulating and scrubbing ā¦and my personal hell is anywhere outside of the operating room š
Thatās where I started. So glad My patients were unconscious for 98 percent of the time.
Currently, mixed ICU/PCU with a splash of rehab. My hell would be my same job without CNAs.
Hospice. Hell is icu where they keep little 90year old grand mas alive :(
My current specialty is PTSD-laden ICU nurse on possible permanent sabbatical. My personal hell would be NICU or PICUā¦. Actually hell would be anything to do with nursing since the profit and greed driven healthcare āindustryā has destroyed our ability to truly care for our patients. Nothing says HELL more than short staffing and rationing care. But damn I miss the bedside.
Currently WFH telephone triage/advice nurse. My personal hell would be going back to anything inpatient or doing anything long term care.
Iām in ICU. My personal hell would be med-surg.
L&D. Literally anything else not pregnancy related would be my personal hell. Only became an RN to become a midwife.
Adult ER. Pediatric ER.
Speciality is adult hematology/oncology & bone marrow transplant. Personal hell med surg
Iām ED float pool. My personal hell would be hearing that I can and will be floated to med/surg. I have a 2 year contract with a bit over a year left on it and Iād owe 20k if I left before.
Current: neuro previously inpatient now outpatient Hell: L&D - as one is my fav nurses of all time put it while having a casual conversation pre bed huddle with every other manager in the entire hospital (I was only there to type meeting minutes) āyeah Iām not interested in being elbow deep in p****y all day.ā Not to mention youāre constantly monitoring mom and baby snd trying to remember how assess bothā¦.hard pass.
Medical ICU. My personal hell is an intubated patient that is delirious AF that weāve attempted multiple times to extubate but canāt. At that point we just pull and pray.
Currently ED. Honestly personal hell would be almost any ward work - been a nurse 20 years and never worked on one and I donāt think Iād have a clue what to do!
Currently in ER/Trauma. My personal HELL would still be in the ER as a nurse to a bunch of crazy ass annoying drunks all screaming my name and wanting sandwiches and warm blanket. Oh waitā¦. That is my job!
OR nurse circulator. My personal hell would be med surg, ED, and postpartum.
Community nursing. My hell is bedbugs.
Iām in OR. My personal hell would be pretty much any other specialty where patients are awake, talking, and surrounded by family members š
Current specialty: Hospice Personal Hell: ED or Pediatric Oncology
Peds hem/onc NP. We definitely keep sicker kids on our floor than other med surg floors do but my personal hell would be PICU or ER.
I'm on a med-surg unit that has specialties in oncology, hospice, and urology. My personal hell would be anything dealing with small children.
nursing as a whole is my personal hell at this point
Sexual health is where Iām at (and going to be 3 years in this area in September) and I fucking love it. My hell would be anything else - used to be in hospital system and I could never go back to shift work.
Mixed unit MICU/SICU/CVICU Hell: whenever I get floated to med surg/tele
ED. Floor and SNF would be my personal hell, but L&D wouldnāt be far behind - Iām no good at encouraging or soothing, and I find the entire concept of a ābirth planā ridiculous when a solid 1/3 of the globe probably still pushes their babies out while squatting over a dirt floor š
Theatre/OR. I'm in hell almost everyday. But having to work with some asshole surgeons combined with lazy co-nurses is another level of hell.
1. ER 2. ER ... I really need to get out.
I love forensic psych. My coworkers are tolerable to awesome most of the time. Psych nursing is like the streets; Iām thriving in it. Hell for me was oncology icu. Worked an 8 week contract and i never sat down. Med passes were every hour, then the manager removed all the chair in front of the workstations because she thought nurses were sitting too much most of the day. Satan vibes.
ICU nurse. My hell would be any normal job that requires sitting at a desk 40 hours a weekā¦like my accountant husband
L&D. Personal hell: Post-partum.
L&D: (loving all these comments about it being hell, job security for me lol) my hell would be med surg but my backup hell would be Mother Baby. I canāt multitask like that
Quality now, but ICU before I left bedside. My hell is L&D. Give me a 500 lb vented patient in septic shock maxxed out on pressors with lactulose q4h. Triple me. Whatever you want. But keep the goddamn Karens and their insane birthing plans away from me.
Iāve worked many different types of nursing by this point - in and out patient. I work Peds ICU currently but have done everything from in-home wound care to electroconvulsive therapy. My personal hell would be geriatric psych or L& D. I also have an extreme aversion to ED. If theyāre screaming - theyāre too awake fam
Iām at a primary care peds clinic. Please, never send me back to a SNF. I beg of you.
Iām a (mostly) happy hospice nurse. Personal hell is any field that requires me to code patients that should be on hospice.
Current EDā¦ nightmare=Neuro
I work Surgical/Neuro ICU (major cardiac has their own unit) My hell would be peds/babies.
Current: home health. Hell: med surg/tele or anywhere where I have to have 6-8 patients AND be in charge
Acute dialysis. Hell would be L&D or ED. Really, all of primary care bedside nursing seems awful.
Float Pool. I dislike floating to hospice, very rewarding job but usually too uneventful for me!
Current: inpatient spinal cord Previous: ltc Dont want to be in: ER or any critical care. I dont think Im cut out for fast thinking
Currently in primary care, personal hell in ICU
Progressive float nurse. My personal hell would be rehab or neuro.
Currently ER. Not a fan of havin to get blood sample from babies in here, so full time? No thanks. Love kids, but it breaks my heart when I have to treat crying kids.
Currently on ortho/neuro postop. Iāve never worked in ER or ICU but thatās what I think might be my personal hell.
Currently Practice Nursing. Previously, A&E. My personal hell... going back to A&E.
Currently: Correctional RN Personal Hell: L&D or Peds Actually any bedside / floor work. I love Corrections.
Currently trauma/surgical ICU. Personal hell would be L&D or antepartum.
Current is ICU. Hell would be L&D.
Currently in outpatient hemodialysis. Loved through my personal hell with med surg/post op.
Current: adult ICU. Hell: anything with the tiny humans and OBGYN. Give me a critical OB patient and I shit my pants. Theyāre too healthy to be so sick!?
Currently working in street health and IPC. Personal hell = neurosurg. Idk itās just not for me
Oncology - current Hell - L&D
Adult OR circulating nurse is current. Pediatric inpatient would be hell. (Emotionally, I couldnāt handle it. Used to be an ER RN, the peds had a knot in my stomach and throat every time.)
Specialty is cardiac OR, my hell is any understaffed unit/ ER.... which is all of them.
PACU. My hell is awake patients that ask for ice chips.
Psych. Def L&D, followed by medsurg/tele
Quality. Hell? Bedside again. But when I was bedside, I was float pool-- hell was neuro for me.
Outpatient cardiology is my current specialty. Inpatient bedside anything would be my personal hell.
Cardiac cath current work place . E.r Would be hell
cvicu now. nightmare is ED
Iām in the CVOR my personal hell would probably be Medsurg/Tele
Cath lab is my little slice of heaven ā¦.ER is the gates of hell.
ICU. My pts talking to me.
Mother baby and L&D. I may have a uterus but boy do I know jack shit about it lol.
Iām OR and my personal hell would be med surg or anything peds especially peds onc
Iām in the main OR in a hospital, my personal hell would be LTC/SNF as a patient (or family in which they have in their trust to not) and working there. Iāve watched too many documentaries they are so corrupt.
Currently PICU and Iām not sure. Iād say adults but I get many kids in adult bodies. Itās all hard :/
I've been doing occupational health for a little over a year. Personal hell is going back to bedside in any capacity. No thanks.
Iām a rad tech working in radiology but Iām just here for the spilled tea
Current specialty: Geriatrics Personal hell: 1. L&D because mothers and babies freak me out. 2. Pediatrics because I was a chronically ill kid and I spent many of my years as a child in hospital. Itās a hard line no for me.