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Christmas break...



Christmas is over but I am still basking in the break and the fact that I have no school until January 18th. Sometimes I feel so burnt out, like if I were to just stop going to school tomorrow I would be ok with that...but then I get floated to Med/Surg and I'm like "HELL TO THE NAW!!"
I seriously don't understand how floor nurses, especially Med/Surg floor nurses do it. I just couldn't see myself being a floor nurse for 30 years. There is NO way. Not too long ago I read a statistic that said the majority of new nurses were burning out and changing careers within THREE years of becoming nurses. That's crazy! Three years just barely gives you enough time to be wet behind the ears! But I can believe it. In my hospital alone I have seen almost a complete nurse turnover of the whole hospital. That means that every unit in my hospital has had major turnover, and that's not just older nurses, I'm talking even brand new nurses have left within a year of being hired. What's the problem? Well from what I see there are several things. First and foremost is STAFFING. Staffing is SUCH a huge problem. With no national nurse/patient ratio the nurses are at the mercy of the hospital administration, and you would think with the majority of them being former nurses they would make sure that we were staffed sufficiently but you would be way wrong. At my particular hospital we try to stay 5/1 on Med/Surg, but of course that doesn't always happen, and we all know from experience, the more you accept, the more they expect. Second is help!! Not only do they expect nurses to see more patients, but they expect you to see more patients with less help! I'm sorry but one CNA to 20-30 patients is NOT help. Shoot, that's if you're lucky enough to even have a CNA, and don't even get me started on what they get paid! Talk about a thankless job!! Then there's pay. To say nurses aren't paid enough is a huge understatement, especially at my hospital. I'm sorry but when a new nurse starts out at $18.00 an hour, THAT'S a problem!! I was making $18.00 an hour as an office manager 10 years ago!! I guess after all of that I can see why nurses burn out within 3 years....
So, anyhoo!! December 18th is the start of my 3rd semester, hard to believe that in January I'll only have 1 1/2 years left of school and then I'll be DONESVILLE FOREVER!! I mean a year and a half, that hardly seems possible that it's that close. I seriously can't wait though. Everyone always asks what type of nurse practitioner I want to be. Of course how can I know? That's just like with nursing, I couldn't know until I actually did it. More than likely I'll just take the first job I get and go from there. Hey, it worked with nursing :D
Well, anyhoo, just wanted to stop in & jot a little something down. I'll try to update again when it gets closer to school starting.
Have a Happy New Year!!


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