Ready to toss in the towel

5 Over the past couple of years I have come to this site for answers and occasional comfort to know that Im not alone.
Today I feel alone. After 21 years of nursing, both lpn and for the past 3 years rn, Im ready to give up.
I recently started a new job at a local hopital on a tele unit. Im very comfortable with my skills and the nursing isnt the issue. Its the computer! I spend 75% of my time in the computer. Im slow at it for sure, but today i had to use 3 different computers because of malfunctions of some sort with all of them.
Its a tough enough job that we do, taking care of people who seem to not appreciate what we do. I feel like a waitress, a maid and generally the one that gets dumped on most of the time. I understand that patients are hurting and sick, again not a new nurse. I just dont know if the direction that healthcare is going is a good one.
Its always been about the almighty dollar, but now that is all I see. Please is there anyone out there who can cast a positive light in my direction? I hate to give up all these years, but Im not sure I can keep going.
Have you thought about another job in nursing, not in the hospital? I'm on that darn computer on wheels 75-85% of the day it seems. I chart in the hallway where my pts are. There is SO much charting, it's unbelievable... sometimes I don't know how I get it done ( I hope I get it done anyway ). I'm on a med-surg unit, and it's busy.. I get phone calls after phone calls.... have to notify the doctor's about this and that. And I have to chart all of it. Bleh! It's frustrating, and I've only been a nurse at this hospital for 4 months!

I'm afraid I have no words of wisdom. All I can say is that honestly, I am on the fence as well as far as whether or not to stay in nursing. I've been taking classes that are pre-reqs for the RN bridge program in my locality but that are also pre-reqs to other programs and fields of study. I do love nursing, as far as the way that nursing should be and not what it currently is. I don't know how much it will change in the future, but I don't know if it would be wise for me to stay in a career that may only continue to frustrate me even worse as time goes on. Best of luck to you in what you decide to do. Once again I'm sorry I don't have anything more encouraging to share.

hi thereI too have seen a great deal of changes in nursing over the years.. you can bet alot is ruled by the almighty buck.. I suggest you look into a different environment- there are all kinds of nursing jobs outside of the hospital.Yes you may give up senority, vacation time, etc., being an "expert" in one area- however, sometimes change is a very good thing- very exciting actuallysomething to think about...good luck

Be careful on those COWS. We are supposed to chart assessments q 8 hours which means at 2300 to 0700. I worked 12 hour shifts. I did my charting at 2200. They suspended me, and then let me go over this. I was a good nurse and attended to my patients needs. I was always on time. Came in when I did not feel well. NEVER AGAIN!!!!! I have already thrown in the towel for now. I will have to get some kind of job soon but I am just warning be careful with those computerized charts. I swear at the hospital I was working at they sit around and micro manage the charts all the time. Then they wonder why they work short?????Answer to your question: Healthcare is in trouble in the USA. Computerized charting is good if used for its intended purpose. If it takes time away from patient care, what is the point?I am sorry to be so negative but I am reeling from things that went on at my facility.

Vacation time.

Quote from gettingbsn2msn I swear at the hospital I was working at they sit around and micro manage the charts all the time. Then they wonder why they work short?????.

I hear ya sista! Way too much time with glitchy computers. I love spending time doing patient care but too much time is spent on the computer charting. I have to stop and wait until my computer feels like cooperating. Sometimes goes down right in the middle of passing meds and won't scan anything. It stinks and if I reallyy want to devote more time to my patients i just make notes and chart it all towards the end of my night, staying late most of the time. And double checking everything because you don't want to be hit with a lawsuit. Every day I want to quit being a nurse and its only been 8 months. But I have invested too much into it and feel I need to stick it out. I wish things were different,because this isn't what I envisioned nursing to be. Give me strength Lord to perservere!

Thank you to all who replied to me. I feel your pain, all of you. You ALL said it so well. I do think its time to look in another direction. What nursing has become, is not what nursing is suppose to be. I would gladly give a couple dollars of my pay to have more help on the floor. What about the upper heirarchy who get paid so much more for policing us??? It saddens me to feel this way but its all true. I feel badly for the new nurses out there. This is not what it is supposed to be like. Thanks again to all.

I totally HEAR YOU! "Actually where I work they employ several RN's to audit all our charts. These lucky ones get to receive the same salary as us and all their coffee and lunch breaks ....never work a weekend or a nightshift.Perhaps if they spent more money on hiring, satisfying and retaining clinical nurses they wouldn't need to spend so much money on trying to find our mistakes.Or ..wait a minute ... how about more assistants ? How about two nursing assistants for every RN chart reviewer salary ..... I could power through my day a whole lot better if I could have help with hygiene cares"Hello, more help might get it done right the first time!I am right up there on that fence with you all too! And I am thinking I will give it two more weeks..... aaaarrrgggg (or I am just a pirate : )

Sorry you feel so bad. I feel exactly the same. I have struggled and worked my butt off doing long, unpaid clinical hours, tried to pay off study debts quicker, and just feel I am getting absolutely nowhere. I still don't have a permanent nursing position after nearly 3 years. I just renewed my registration for another year, and wonder if it was worth the money. I have to go back to agency work to survive, and have just enrolled in more study, but I just feel completely disheartened re it all. I have to pay MORE money for more checks, ie: police clearance, and to re-do CPR, etc. It seems to get more qualified, you DO have to sit in front of a computer - whatever happened to getting more training with hands on care? I am so sick of all the professional requirements we have to uphold, but people in other professions can talk to and treat customers how they like. I was astounded by how many rude people there were in my own home town when I returned here not long ago, and customer service? What a joke - it's practically non-existant. If the government made shop asssitants and other trades people pay for their licenses and renew CPR every year and pay for it themselves, they might appreciate us a bit more and all the money we have to pay to continue nursing!I don't know what to say - try applying for jobs in other nursing fields. I myself will do a bit more agency work - if that doesn't work out, I am giving up nursing altogether. I always said I would give it one more year - and that year started 2 days ago, so this is it!Hope you feel better.

Wow, I hear what everyone is saying and its like you took the words out of my own mouth. I can't find a job so thought I'd start working towards my BSN. But my heart just isn't in it anymore. I feel like they want nurses to have all these initials behind their name for what?? We are still treated so badly and I think it is going to get worse. Like someone else mentioned--I'm probably going to change my focus and look towards educating myself out of nursing altogether. Kinda sad, isn't it? Wishing you all the best.

I understand the frustration everyone is having, but if I may: computer charting is relatively new. Yes it can be incredibly sucky, but it takes time to get things right. I have to think that the process will get more streamlined as time goes on. In my personal experience, computer charting is WAY easier and faster than paper charting ever was. Granted, the facility I work at now has a computer in every room - I quit my last hospital job after three months, and a good portion of the reasoning was because I couldn't stand the COWs. But back to the point: what is your hospital's IT department doing? They should be keeping things running smoothly, and if they aren't then you need to put in requests for them to work out the kinks. Or use whatever process improvement system your facility has to request changes.I really, really don't want to offend anybody, but it also seems to me that the younger generations, those of us who grew up with computers, are able to fly through the charting while the older nurses are the ones who are slowed down by the process. I work on a busy med/surg unit (no 4 patients per nurse ratio, I can promise you), and yet I am almost always able to get all of my assessments and morning meds passed within the first three hours of my shift. As opposed to some of our older nurses, who frequently find that they have reached the end of their shifts and haven't opened a single chart. I would suggest getting more familiar with your computer system, or just computers in general. Take a computer class. Take a typing class, if you are pecking away at keys. Play around with the computer and see what new things you can find. Our computer program is overwhelmingly big and not very user friendly, but once you've learned all the little ins and outs, you can chart a lot in a very short amount of time. The most time-consuming thing is actually logging on, which they improved by having the computer automatically log on with a tap of the nametag.Sorry for droning on, but I feel like a lot of people get in their own way when it comes to computers. Working with a computer is like training for a sport - if you do the exact same thing every time, you won't ever push your limits and you'll be stuck in a rut going nowhere. Take the initiative and improve your own understanding - I promise it will do nothing but help you.