Prince

This might get long and boring, so I won't blame you for clicking the Back button.

I work as a nursing assistant, or nurse's aide. Have been doing this for 8 months now. I work the graveyard shift at a nursing home. On a typical night, I care for about 25 residents, sometimes 30-35 if we're short. Do rounds every 2 hrs, change beds, clean them up, replace/fill water pitchers, wash wheelchairs, take vital signs, wash soiled linen, and get some residents up in the morning after my last round. Almost every single night is a race against time.

I'm not complaining about it, though. I get paid $8.50 an hour, which isn't anything to write to home about, but it's decent, and I always get at least 40 hours a week, sometimes more if I want to pick up shifts.

The place I work for, has gone through a lot of changes. The old DON got escorted out by the cops for stealing narcotic meds, a nurse got fired and the old admin "stepped down". This all within the last couple of months. So we got a new DON and admin, who seemed adamant to make some changes around the place. We had had a lot of staff quitting and were constantly short for a while, because of how shitty things were.

But the changes they have made so far have mostly been bullshit ones, such that do nada but make the job more difficult for those working the floor. And they have not addressed the non-stop gossip and backstabbing among the staff at all. Every shift complains about the previous shift, and tries to nail them for having made a mistake. Except the night shift, we just don't have the time for it, we're a pretty good crowd.

They recently pulled the 2nd nurse from the night shift, replacing her with a med aide, to cut costs. Only one nurse in the whole facility during the night? Not good, if you ask me. The med aide is back in the Alzheimer's unit, there's no nurse there now, and she barks orders at the CNAs.

I'm sure this all seems pretty much nothing to whine about. It's just that they have been increasing the work load so much that it cuts into the resident care. We just simply do not have enough time to provide ample care for these poor people. But for the most part, it is all perfectly legal. The only thing I can accomplish by complaining about it is getting myself fired.

Meanwhile for the past month or two, I've began to like going to work less. I used to love going in, doing my job. But there's all this added bullshit that even has my charge nurse talking about quitting.

I never, ever feel like I did a good enough job when I leave in the early hours of the morning. I never feel like it is good enough. Every single in-service meeting we have, they tell us how we are "not irreplaceable", and that we are not there for the money, we're there for the residents. I understand the idea behind that, but let's be realistic for Christ's sake.

Sometimes I just sit in the car after work and cry. I barely sleep anymore. I went 9 days straight recently with 3-4 hours of sleep between shifts. I could not fall asleep because I was stressing out about the next shift pretty much as soon as I was done with the previous one.

It would be easier if I did not give a shit about the work I do. There are aides that I work with that get caught for not doing their jobs, it happens a lot. I've never been written up, never been late for worked, only called in once because I was sick, never asked for time off. I'm a good worker and take pride in that. I just can't start fucking up at work intentionally in an effort to take things easier because it affects the residents I take care of.

What I don't know, is whether this is what work simply is supposed to be like, nowadays, or whether I am burning out. Maybe it is like this wherever you go and whatever you do. Because I don't see how anyone could be burning out after only 8 months.

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Who is John Galt?

gh0ti

Nope, work is not supposed to be like this.

I am a software developer and in the tech world projects come up that simply burn everyone involved out. Your mind stops working like it should, your tired, ticked off, etc. You don’t even want to work. You really shouldn’t blame yourself over this at all it’s a normal mental reaction to extended stress (8 months is a really long time to feel like this). You need to remember that you need to feel good about your job, if you don’t then find out a way to change that.

We passed out this little link at work a few months back when we had a crazy deadline to meet and everyone felt about the same:

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/burn...s_symptoms.htm

I think you should really address the situation. It seems like changes have been happening that could make things better. Can you talk to your manager about how you feel? It doesn’t sound like you’re the only one who is feeling like this at all. If it looks like things are not going to change, then it might be time to start looking around for another job.

Happiness is underrated. If your not happy, everything else has the tendency to go to well, shit. I understand that you need to provide for yourself (and family?), but you need to put your state of mind high on the list of priorities.

f6twister

My wife worked the same job for six years. It is a very stressful and agonizing job, expecially when your personal feelings become involved.

First, if you feel that the staffing is putting the residents at risk, file an anonomous complaint to the appropriate person whre you work. If that doesn't work, contact whichever government agency where you work investigates/inspects you facility. Add in as many complaints or violations you can think of and ask them to look into all of it. At the very least, having your bosses know that the government is watching them should help keep them from lowering their staffing any lower.

I guess before you do all of that, you need to analyze your ability to continue at this job. I'm guessing that your coworkers are mostly female. As much as I hate to say it, many of my friends, including females, say that the more females you have working together, the more backstabbing and tattling there is. My wife witnessed and experienced the same thing in her job. Burnout can happen in eight months. CNA's run their butts off trying to attend to residents. My wife would come home sweating, complaining that she didn't get a break and that there wasn't enough staff to handle the amount of work.

Yes, you make good money for being a CNA but I don't think the stress is worth the money. It already seems as though you have had enough of this job. If you don't see any improvement for the future, I would get out before you lose more of your sanity.

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A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day. Calvin

denim

If you insist on caring about your work, you should find a different location to do your job in. There's a nursing shortage, no? So your employer is not irreplacable either. Tell them that when you quit.

william

No - work should not be like that. The only ones that need to put in 20-21 hr days are the ones in the combat zone, and trust me - you burn out quick. You're not being paid enough to care about the patients or the job. The medical field isn't in the caring business (haven't been for years) - it's all about the Benjamins. Talk to HR (they may or may not help)and consider a new employer.

Boo

I want to thank you for this link. The information within should be mandatory reading for all. I have been needing this information for a long time. After trying several of the methods to decrease my work related stress and getting nowhere I am seeking a new career.

No one should be in a bad job for long. Life is too short. The health effect is not worth the pay.

Thanks again.

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Back button again, I must be getting old.

*Nikki*

My boyfriends father did this job also.

He would come home and complain that the residents were not getting the proper care and so on and so forth. Instead of doing anything about it, he quit, like those people you worked with..

Sounds like you are the type of person who really cares for people. You know what the right thing to do is. There are people who love those people in that nursing home who think that you and the others who work there treat them very well.

If you think/know there is something that is wrong, find a way to make it right.

gh0ti

You’re quite welcome ;-).

I've thought about the same thing allot lately. I'm 25 and I don't know if I can really picture myself sitting in front of a computer writing code everyday for the rest of my life. This place reminds me allot of Office Space sometimes, and I'm Peter Gibbons.

It’s never too late to rethink what you do. I'm either going to start my own company or go back to school and hopefully work my way up to something medical. I always wanted to be a doctor growing up, I kind of tripped and fell and became a software developer.