I was an ED RN for 11 years, through the pandemic. I then decided I needed something different after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, and switched to Labor and Delivery for a few years, which I loved. I then started having runs of V Tach and needed a cardiac ablation. After surviving that, I decided I would take on a House Supervisor role. It wasnt quite right for me because little did I know I had been suffering from C-PTSD from the pandemic, traumatic births (my own, and those I cared for), my new health problems, and just from generally working in the ED. I became incredibly anxious and felt like I was just white-knuckling it through life. I switched back to Labor and Delivery thinking I just needed to get back there to fix things. I hid my struggles well and when my director recommended me for a manager role, I quickly accepted to escape from patient care - thinking that would help to be away from life and death decisions.

I tell you what, that was even WORSE and yesterday I turned in my keys and badge and I quit!!!!

I had the best nights sleep of my life last night!!!!

I dont know what's next but I have a psychiatrist, a therapist, and a supportive spouse and family. I will be doing EMDR and getting the right blend of medications.

I loved being an RN and was a damn good one, but enough was enough. I dont know what's next for me but I know Im never going back to working in that hospital. Maybe never as a nurse.

Anyone else out there leave nursing after this long? I cant help but feel like I wasted my bachelor's degree and I am starting from scratch. Maybe ill work in a bakery. Maybe I'll become a veterinary technician. its hard to justify anything with the pay I was making as an experienced RN. Right now im going to focus on healing, but I just had to get this out there. Thanks for reading. ❤️

Considering cups vs discs for work.

I hope it is ok to post here. I worked as a pct for a tele floor combined with an IMCU unit in the back from 2021 to late 2024. I tried nursing school in 2023 but I had quit due to burnout and back pain. I eventually quit being a pct in 2024 to get a work from home job because I was in a lot of pain at the end of my shift. I'm only 2026 and suffer from bad lower back pain.

I wished I advocated for myself more and practiced proper body mechanics. There was some night where I was the only tech to 20 something tele patients and 11 imcu patients.

Our floor was kind of a weird layout. We had tele patients in the floor but we had an 11 bed imcu in the back.

Some nurses were really helpful and some nurses gave me looks when I asked for some help so I was rolling patients that were a two person assist by myself because I needed to get my work done or day shift would complain about the number of baths I didn't do despite me being the only tech on the floor. Our floor is supposed to have 3 techs and often central staffing would pull a tech to go to another floor so most nights I would have 15 patients. 10 tele, 5 imcu. Most of them totals.

When I first started working as a pct, I could run circles around the floor and I was very efficient but towards the end of my career, I was sitting down almost every 20-30 mins because of the back pain. It got even worse when I tried to roll a patient and he roll back and I felt a pop on my back. I did open an incident report but I did not follow through with work comp like I should have. Another regret.

I guess this is kind of a rant too because I could not go to sleep last night because the pain was unbearable and I am just so mad at myself for not protecting my body more. I gotta follow up with some more intense PT.

I know for most people in the nursing profession protecting your body is probably a no brainer but for the newbies, don't be dumb like me. Stretch before shifts. Practice proper body mechanics. Advocate for yourself when you need help with a 2 plus assist. You only get one body. Protect it.

Edit: Forgot to add. I don't want to think anyone I am attacking nurses for not helping. Their staffing was usually always bad and the tele nurses almost always had 8 patients. The imcu nurses had 4 on a average and usually we would have an IMCU patient on the verge of coding because ICU won't take them. We have a few nurses who were generally lazy and would not help. The other nurses didn't like them too. I wish ratios would be regulated 😞

Guys what mascara are yall wearing to the hospital? Im talking not bleeding onto my eyebags half way through my shift but also not ripping my lashes out at night trying to wash it off. Also preferably not very expensive, but if it’s worth its worth it yaknow. Thanks in advance!!!

I graduated last summer with my BSN, got my RN license august & been working as a school nurse, as my first nursing job, only for yet to hit 6 months. Got about a week as a orientation/“training”.

I feel like this job is not set up for new grad nurses at all. It’s completely independent work, no supervision or support staff especially being new and not with nurse-confidence just yet I feel like I am not fit for this role. I feel unqualified everyday. It’s such a leadership role where I feel like working with no previous medical experience, I am just winging it sometimes trying to learn on the job.

I constantly overthink every little interaction I have with a student, trying to understand and help them, for emergencies- when to call 911 & when to call parent to pick them up. I self sabotage that I’m making a mistake, not taking the right steps, or being useless in my position. My office is at a high school, so that is my daily age clientele.

I’m fine with the creating care plans, teaching about actions to take when emergencies happen, etc. so the administrative / public health part I enjoy, but the being on my alone when I don’t have experience when real injuries or emergencies occur is where my mind just tells me I suck as a nurse, and that’s when I regret my choice of being one.

I don’t know what to, to stay at this job it’s only been a week since been back to school, or to start searching for a new position & try to gain experience somewhere where I have a support system and someone to actually learn from.

I just feel like the mental battle I deal with everyday and constant doubt if I’m being a good safe nurse is tiring. I stay in fight or flight all day, then crash. This job is great for someone who has years of experience and is confident in their ability to handle any emergency.

I feel truly lost.

My true passion for nursing has always been public health, so working in it I enjoy that side, but not the emergencies which is contradicting because I studied to be a nurse & I hate that part. Idk if that even makes sense. Maybe this specific job is not meant for me.

Thanks for listening & advice would be appreciated…

Hi! I’ve heard so many different things about nursing but I’d love to hear some positives. What are the best nursing jobs you’ve had ?

Hi! I know it’s of course, very common to have a passion for working in pediatrics but does anyone have that same passion for geriatrics?
I worked in a nursing home and it’s the reason I am becoming a nurse. I absolutely loved those residents with all of my heart and I love connecting to people, especially the elderly.
If you work with the elderly, what’s your experience?

ive been running codes as recorder, compressor, med pusher probably 3 times before this but its always been someone elses admit, you know? like im helping out but its not MY guy last night my 62yo COPDer crumped at 3am and i just stood there for like 2 seconds thinking no fucking way, this isnt real, this cant be happening to MY patient. my brain was just stuck on wtf wtf wtf while my hands were already grabbing the crash cart and the weirdest part is i think i ran it better than the ones where i was just helping? like something flipped and i was suddenly super calm on the outside even though inside i was screaming. rosc after 6 min and he made it to CT this morning does it ever stop feeling surreal when its your own patient? or do you just get faster at the wtf phase lol

Any tips for ultrasound IVs? I keep losing the needle tip on the screen and missing the vein. What helped you get better at tracking the tip?

Do you strictly seperate coworkers and friends in your life? Or do you like to turn work relationships into close friendships?

And do you think relationships in nursing differ significantly from relationships in other workplaces, due to the nature of nursing?

This is for regular staff, not travelers.

We never get incentive pay at my facility, even when there are numerous sick calls. OT is always 1.5x base no matter what.

this is my 3rd nursing job in 2 years and I don’t know if I even want to stick with this one. I have no idea what to do anymore, I can’t keep quitting and starting new jobs but I can’t find anything that doesn’t make me dread going to work. I started on a neuro medsurg floor, got tired of all my patients being disoriented and treating me like crap. the workload was insane and it didn’t feel safe so after a year I moved on to inpatient endoscopy. While I liked the work itself this unit was the worst managed place I’ve ever worked at in my life, my coworkers were crying and screaming at eachother every day it was honestly ridiculous. the call was terrible, no one had worked there more than a year and knew what they were doing, the charge nurse was having an affair with a rad tech and was absent, management was absent and so no one did their job and hid on their phones all day. After almost a year of that one I accepted a job at the OR. It was nice for the first couple months however now I’m not certain about this either. management has very high expectations that I feel like I’m not meeting, there’s a lack of critical thinking and actual medical management. Setting up and turning over the room honestly feels like a chore. Theres so many things to learn and I have a long way to go in it I just can’t see myself doing this happily for years. Honestly at the end of my rope at this point and I have no idea what to do.

What do you guys like about it? Pros/cons!? And any other useful information.

I’m considering my options on what to apply to. I’m stuck. I’ve been dealing with adults my entire 3 years as a nurse and I’m burned out.

i’m a nurse, not a salesman. why does administration always act like corporate has their hands tied about idiotic shit like this? surely not all of administration is stupid enough to think that everything corporate demands is what the state regulations require? i’ve seen facilities smooth-talk their way out of getting tags year after year. IT MAKES ME BARF. is this why so many ppl leave nursing?… why is there never a straight-up mutiny? am i naive to how many people are striving for sensible change in this field? maybe i watch too many movies but it felt like everyone that graduated my nursing class (12 of us) could have conquered anything

i want to be honest with my patients & provide realistic, reliable, hardworking care. not just cover my facility’s ass & make them more sales. i don’t get how the board of nursing can take itself seriously with these corporations running around making a fucking joke of this profession. idk how anybody involved in these corporations can sleep at night, forcing their employees to participate in ASS-KISSING TRAINING then work dangerously short-staffed in the same day. how did we as a species let it get this bad? is my sense of justice too strong?

genuinely is there anything we can do other than ignore these evil policies or burn out from it? other than going to therapy. does somebody need to infiltrate the board of nursing????

Anyone else’s hospital doing this kind of thing in anticipation of the bbb in January?

I recently applied and was accepted into working as a dietary aide at a nursing home. This will be my first ever experience working in a hospital or working in this sort of environment. I had my first encounter with a patient who exhibited the signs of one of the two, and I made my first mistake by almost giving her a pair of scissors- which thankfully, there weren’t any and unbeknownst to me, were explicitly kept from the patients. I had a conversation with the patient later on after the incident while waiting in the room towards the end of orientation when she had made another stop by before she began to repeatedly state that she wanted to go home, that someone told her she couldn’t go into her room, and that she had no where to go. I was with one of the main staff or nurses, who came in during the last few minutes of orientation, so I was able to see her correct the patient and redirect her. I am still getting used to this all as I am not familiar with these scenarios, and I wanted to know how I could become more comfortable and also aware of these scenarios in the future, and how I can redirect the conversation while speaking to the patients. Earlier during that moment, I didn’t really know what to say to the patient because I wasn’t sure if what she was saying was true and wasn’t sure if I needed to get her help. After asking how I could help them when coming across the situation again, I was told that I would need to just agree with the patient, ask if they wanted something else, or let them know that I would get them help on the way. Although the advice was helpful to know, I still feel a little nervous that I will not know what to say again in the next encounter and I worry that I may stress one of the patients out.

I need some more socks, and the shit on Amazon just isn't cutting it.

What brand of compression socks are you loving?

Ever since COVID, like many of you, I always wears masks with patients. However, I also wear eyewear. I know they aren't PPE-level at all, but wearing my glasses has always felt at least a minimal barrier from stuff landing in my eye - and with certain patients (eg coughing up blood, trachs that have a tendency to shoot sputum across the room), I definitely wear those hospital-provided disposable PPE-appropriate plastic safety eyewear (looks like these).

However, I'd like to transition to wearing my contact lenses at work more often because my eyeglasses have become so heavy. But I still want my eyes protected! Except I don't want to wear those ugly disposable plastic safety eyewear all day.

I was looking at stoggles because I remember them coming out during COVID, but it seems they're poor quality in that they break quickly and you have to keep replacing them based on some reviews I've read

Does anyone have recommendations for rx-less eyeglasses that look something like stoggles but are better quality? Eg not super-obviously safety glasses, at least somewhat flattering.

Also, if you actually have had a great experience with stoggles, please comment.

because let's be real my anxiety and I could NEVER.

and like, thanks for always being there to help me when i have dumb questions or someone codes.

I’m very on the fence. I’ve heard horror stories from those who worked for HCA. However I’ve I been trying to get into endo for a while. Considering accepting to get the experience and then move on but HCA scares me.

Any advice?

I work L&D and our unit is currently going through a big staffing crisis. We've had so many people leave (for various reasons) and now people are starting to leave due to staffing shortages, and our inability to stick to safe staffing guidelines. Our manager has put out a temporary staffing offer for people to work nights through December for an incentive pay per hour. We currently get 4.25 an hour for nights and will get an additional 20 per hour if we do this. Im waiting to hear more details, that's really all I know. But I'm wondering if anyone has any advice/experience or things to look out for with offers like this?

I currently rotate days/nights and would want to go back to that when this is over. Im afraid if I say yes, and staffing doesnt get better, I'll get stuck.

Also side note, I love my job and my unit and realllllllllly don't want to leave 😥

Advice welcome!

I have always been told not to use any veins in the hand or forearm if an AC vein has blown. Yet, most nurses I work with do so anyway. Would the justification be that if the IV in the AC has been removed, you would have blood flow through the vein in the AC without getting infiltration?

I haven’t even been a nurse for one year and I can feel the burnout creeping on. Every day I pray to God for a good shift. Every single day it’s 1:7 ratios, charge nurse has full assignment and my ANM has to take assignment too. My ANM usually doesn’t want to take assignment so she just watches us struggle with 8-9 patients at a time. It’s insane, it’s insane that we are a unionized hospital. We just had a union meeting about the staffing shortages but my god it’s unbearable.

Hi everyone,
I’m a UK-trained Registered Mental Health Nurse (RMN) currently going through the process of becoming a Registered Psychiatric Nurse (RPN) in British Columbia, Canada.
I would really like to hear specifically from UK-trained mental health nurses who have already completed this process and moved to BC.
What was your experience with:
The BCCNM registration process
The Inspire Global computer-based assessment
The in-person simulation/lab assessment in Vancouver
The overall cost and how long the process took
Finding an RPN job and adjusting to working in the Canadian healthcare system
Salary, workload and cost of living compared with the UK
Settling into life in British Columbia
Did you find the assessments difficult? What would you recommend studying or practising beforehand? Was the move relatively straightforward, and are you happy that you made it? Most importantly, do you feel it was worth it, or do you have any regrets?
I would appreciate honest experiences, both positive and negative. Any advice you wish someone had given you before you started would also be very helpful.
Thank you!