4 Painful Parts of Being a Nurse

4 Painful Parts of Being a Nurse

4 Painful Parts of Being a Nurse

Parts of being a nurse involve the things ordinary people don’t do. Yes, nursing is exciting, but as exciting as it is, many nurses have seen and experienced things at work but have not discussed them.

It is also true that it’s one of the most stressful jobs in the world. While nursing is rewarding, there are also many life-and-death situations and patient care challenges. 

Nursing is one of the most underappreciated professions, yet, the most regulated. It is because nurses are handling the lives of people every day. Not only their patients but the lives of other nurses too.

It is why there are also the worst parts of nursing. What are the painful parts of nursing? And what can nurses do? 

 

We Can’t Save All Lives

The sad reality is nurses deal with death and dying patients every day. It doesn’t matter what kind of area they specialize in; nurses deal with death. The worst part is that nurses are human beings, and it’s not easy each time they lose a patient.

Many nurses wish they could cry with patients’ families, comfort them, hold their hands, hug them, and grieve with these families, but they can’t. Nurses refrain from crying not because we can’t but because we must stay professional. We need to stay strong for the families left behind.

Nursing is not for the faint of heart. You will see many things that make an ordinary person queasy or heartbroken. Patients’ suffering is part of our daily lives; whether we like it or not, we deal with losing them the best way we know how. 

 

We Handle All the Gross Stuff

Handling the things no one else will touch is part of a nurse’s daily life. From body fluids, mucus, blood, sputum, and phlegm – we handle them. Lucky for us, we were taught earlier about these things in nursing school.

And you must provide nursing care for patients suffering from all kinds of conditions, including those that secrete the grossest things. We don’t shy away from these things because it’s part of the job. 

 

Seeing the Bad and Sad Side of Life

It is a known fact that medical work can expose you to some horrific things that can take an emotional toll on you. And a nurse is one of those healthcare workers that sees these things up close and personal. 

As nurses, we see the terrible things that would make you question life. How can a 5-year-old go through multiple heart operations? A 20-year-old who needs a heart transplant because of drug abuse?

We’ve seen a young mother of four battling cancer. We’ve seen healthy people robbed of a good life because of a botched medical procedure. Let’s not forget those who said goodbye to their loved ones who’ve gone too soon—all of these and more.

Being exposed to these things and seeing them unfold in your eyes makes you wonder why life is unfair to those who need it the most. It can be hard to deal with and sometimes affect your mental health. 

 

You’ll feel unappreciated and overworked

Sometimes, you feel burned out from working too much. As nurses, we work endlessly, and sometimes we feel unappreciated. Long shifts, understaffed units, increased patient ratio, and Covid-19 made this job more demanding than it used to be.

Our sacrifices and compassion go unseen by the public and administrators. Sum all that, and you have an exhausted nurse who is on the brink of giving up. And we cannot avoid this.

It’s there, an ever-present occurrence that many nurses experience. It’s a problem that nurses face, but at the same time, something that we cannot resolve entirely. 

 

In Closing

While we experienced many losses, touched many gross things, and did many overtime hours, nursing is still one of the most rewarding jobs. It is an honor to be called to be a nurse.

And while many nurses are made, only a few are born to be one. If you are one of them, stand up and be proud. Nurses are heaven-sent!

 

Looking for more nursing and travel nursing information? Check out these helpful links!

How Burnout Causes Nurses to Change Their Career Paths

How Burnout Causes Nurses to Change Their Career Paths

How Burnout Causes Nurses to Change Their Career Paths

Nurses are a crucial pillar of the US healthcare system, particularly for their roles in service delivery and patient care. However, recent years have seen the nursing workforce face critical shortages.

In light of a nationwide nurse staffing crisis, there have been strikes to demand an increase in nurse-to-patient ratios in states like New York. When hospitals and health institutions are short-staffed, nurses are routinely put in high-stress environments. Some are even asked to work overtime to compensate for the shortfall.

However, this only exacerbates the staffing problem. As nurses become fatigued and burned out from stressful work environments. Some consider taking on new nursing roles or leaving the field altogether.

In this light, the article looks closely at how burnout causes nurses to leave their jobs and which careers they find themselves in after experiencing burnout.

 

Why do nurses change jobs or professions?

As discussed earlier, nurses play an important role in driving better patient outcomes, but this work is at risk due to burnout. To illustrate, a study on the prevalence and factors of nurse burnout published in the JAMA Network found that more than 400,000 nurses in the US reported leaving their position. Among these nurses, 31.5% cited burnout as the main reason for leaving their job.

The study further nuanced these nurses’ decisions to leave by associating burnout with other aspects of the work environment. These include certain aspects such as increased workloads, lack of good management or leadership, and the need for better pay and/or benefits.

Burnout alone does not cause nurses to reevaluate their career paths.

Rather, true burnout also stems from a lack of control and consistency in the workplace. As outlined in LHH’s post on the difference between burnout and dead ends in professional contexts, those who are burned out tend not to leave the profession altogether.

They only need to recharge and rejuvenate their passion for their work before seeking new jobs with greater freedom and autonomy.

It’s a different case when nurses realize they’ve hit a dead end and are incompatible with their career choice. This happens when nurses’ long-term goals — such as increased pay, career advancement, and learning opportunities — are no longer valued.

They can also feel inadequately supported by their employers and the healthcare system. These nurses thus chart new career paths where they are recognized, challenged, and allowed to grow personally and professionally.

 

Common Career Changes Among Nurses

 

Travel Nurse

As nurses facing burnout consider their next move, travel nursing is a viable option for those who want to stay in the field but with a different nursing role.

The advantages of travel nursing mainly lie in job security and competitive salaries. As the demand for nursing care persists, hospitals are willing to compensate additional staff fairly.

Beyond the countless opportunities to travel and explore different places. Unlike those in permanent positions, they are also given freedom and flexibility over their schedules and days off.

Finally, the lack of workplace politics paves the way for a stress-free experience, as you are only expected to show up and do your work.

 

Online Nurse Practitioner

With the rise of telehealth, becoming an online nurse practitioner (NP) also allows burned-out nurses to take a step back while still being able to provide quality health services. It’s a natural evolution for registered nurses, as the qualifications for NPs include earning a master’s degree in nursing.

They can also obtain specific certifications for pediatric care or women’s health. Among the typical responsibilities of NPs are gathering patients’ medical histories and creating treatment plans. They also collaborate with other healthcare professionals.

 

Health Educator

Lastly, nurses can transition from patient-specific curative care to community-wide preventive health and programming by becoming public health educators. Job career platform Joblist expects the demand for health education to grow by 17% from 2020 to 2030.

This will create job opportunities in healthcare settings, government agencies, nonprofits, and community organizations.

As observed, there are many options for nurses to address burnout and change careers without necessarily starting from scratch. On top of being paid fairly for their work, nurses deserve to be valued personally and professionally across all workplaces.

 

Looking for more nursing and travel nursing information? Check out these helpful links!

 

EP 193: The View From The Abortion Clinic With Patrice D’Amato

EP 193: The View From The Abortion Clinic With Patrice D’Amato

The View From The Abortion Clinic With Patrice D’Amato

The view from the abortion clinic paints a different story. It’s where decisions are made, often for a good cause. But can women have an abortion without being judged? That is the real question.

What is Abortion? 

Abortion is defined as a procedure to end a pregnancy. It is also known as the termination of pregnancy through medications or surgical procedures. All around the world, 73 million induced abortions take place each year.

Among 6 out of 10 or 61% of these abortions, are unintended pregnancies, while the remaining 21% ended as induced abortions. All abortions are 45% unsafe, and 97% occur in developing countries. 

Unsafe abortion is one of the leading but preventable causes of maternal morbidities and deaths. It also affects the physical and mental health and financial and social burdens of many women in many communities. 

As nurses, what can we do to help women who want to go through an abortion? Do we have the right to refuse to take care of patients who went through an abortion based on moral objection? And when will abortion be normalized in our society?

These are the questions we must answer. 

Our Guest for Today’s Episode

In this episode, we would like to introduce you to Patrice D’Amato. Patrice is a nurse, educator, and author of a new book, The View from the Clinic: One Nurse’s Journey in Abortion Care.

She has practiced nursing in various settings in her 38-year nursing career, including med/Surg, critical care, nursing education, and women’s health.

After earning her Master’s degree in Adult Health, she worked as an NP in several abortion clinics and 20 years later returned to the field while writing her book about her experiences.

QUESTIONS FOR OUR GUEST

The questions below are some we’d like to tackle. We often go off-topic, so we don’t expect to hit them all. If you have any ideas, please let us know.

We are looking forward to our conversation!

These are the questions you had in Calendly. We’ll go off your questions and wherever else our conversation goes.

  1. Can you give us a little background about yourself? 
  2. Working in healthcare for over 30 years, what have you seen over time? 
    • How has nursing evolved or changed?
    • Have you seen a more significant connection to the mind/body/spirit approach vs. just medical treatment?
  3. How was it working in an abortion clinic?
    • How has it changed over time?
  4. Did your perspective or opinion change on abortions while working with them?
  5. Was it hard for you to work in that setting? What made you gravitate toward it? 
  6. One of the counterarguments for legalizing abortion has been its potential intent to be used as a contraceptive. Were there any “frequent fliers”?
  7. Did you get the opportunity to find out why women are getting abortions? If so, what was the most common reason?
  8. You wrote a book titled; The View from the Clinic: One Nurse’s Journey in Abortion Care. What made you decide to write it?
    • What do you outline or focus on in the book?

ENDING QUESTIONS

Before we end the show, we have one last question we like to ask all our guests.

If you had the opportunity to have a Cup of coffee with anybody one last time, who would it be & why? 

Links: 

Book: www.theviewfromtheclinic.com 

To watch and learn more about abortion, click here for the entire episode 👇👇👇

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Introduction
01:58 About Patrice D’Amato
04:28 How has nursing evolved or changed?
06:50 How was it working in an abortion clinic?
11:03 Thoughts on abortion
11:47 What is a medical abortion
13:04 How a surgical abortion procedure looks
15:52 Perspective on abortion
18:02 Spirituality and abortion
21:20 How Patrice deals with guilt
24:16 Relief after an abortion
26:41 abortion and the patient’s mental health
29:16 Cases of abuse and unwanted pregnancy
31:21 The future of abortion
34:48 The fetus worship
40:37 Probirth v.s Pro-life
42:12 Generational traumas
46:11 Rewiring your system
48:58 Wrapping up the episode

EP 186: Solving Problems in Leadership with Michelle Troseth and Dr. Tracy Christopherson

EP 186: Solving Problems in Leadership with Michelle Troseth and Dr. Tracy Christopherson

Solving Problems in Leadership with Michelle Troseth and Dr. Tracy Christopherson

Solving problems in leadership is the key to easing the burden of many nurses and healthcare professionals. Burnout is an ongoing issue that many nurses are experiencing. The sad thing is it can happen to anyone’s career.

Long-term stress can cause anyone mental and physical exhaustion. And for the nursing profession, burnout results from their demanding job, nursing shortages, and frequent exposure to human suffering. 

Nurses are witnesses to death and grieving families each day. Add the long work hours, complex patients, workplace drama, and not having effective support or leadership in the workplace can lead to intense burnout.

When you are burnout, you feel helpless, but if you know how to manage it, you can enjoy a successful nursing career. But the question remains, how can we help our healthcare leaders? Is there a way to solve problems in leadership?

Our Guests

In this episode, we would like to introduce you to Michelle Troseth and Dr. Tracy Christopherson, co-founders of MissingLogic. They have more than 60 years of combined healthcare experience.

They also help healthcare organizations and healthcare leaders combat burnout and improve satisfaction through the power of a framework-driven approach founded on Polarity Intelligence.

We talk about how the idea of a single solution to a single problem approach does not always fit the healthcare model and how polarity plays a role in leadership and healthcare dynamics. 

 QUESTIONS FOR GUESTS

The questions below are some we’d like to tackle. We often go off-topic, so we don’t expect to hit them all. If you have any ideas, please let us know.

Looking forward to our conversation!

These are the questions you had in Calendly. We’ll go off your questions and wherever else our conversation goes. 

  1. Can you give us your nursing experience & background
  2. Based on your experience, speak to us about leadership in healthcare 
    • Why do we need new leadership norms in healthcare?
  3. What are some toxic workplace behaviors/environments that lead to burnout?
  4. What is Polarity intelligence? 
    • How does it benefit hospital organizations and nurse leaders?
    • How do you identify tension in the workplace?

5. How do you guys go about consulting organizations in healthcare?

      • What are the three pillars of a healthy healthcare organization?
        • People, Processes, and Performance. 

6. How do you create dynamic balance in our lives – professionally and personally?

ENDING QUESTIONS

Before we end the show, we have one last question we like to ask all our guests. If you had the opportunity to have a Cup of coffee with anybody one last time, who would it be & why? 

Catch up with Michelle and Dr. Tracy to learn more about solving problems in leadership on their Instagram at @missinglogic_llc and follow them on their Facebook at Missing Logic, LLC. You can also connect with them through their LinkedIn profile at missinglogicllc for more information.

Let’s learn the ways to solve problems in leadership by watching the full episode here 👇

 

TIME STAMPS:

00:00 Introduction
02:00 About Michelle and Tracy
05:46 Importance of healthy leadership in healthcare
09:17 Stressors for nurse managers
12:34 Toxic behavior that leads to burnout
17:23 Polarity Intelligence
21:19 Margins and the mission
24:43 Challenges in union vs nonunion hospital
30:18 Is more nurses ever the solution?
36:21 How healthcare organizations solve problems
37:46 Unit satisfaction and culture
42:31 Characteristics of good leaders
50:22 End Remarks

EP 165: Ethics of a Full Code, DNR, Partial Code

EP 165: Ethics of a Full Code, DNR, Partial Code

Ethics of a Full Code, DNR, Partial Code

Full codes and partial codes cannot be avoided whenever there is an emergency. But the question is, should people have the option to be a partial code?

Is there any benefit to partial codes? Many people think there should only be two options; full code or no code.

What is the code status?

Code status is used in all hospital settings. All patients admitted to a hospital or outpatient center are assigned a code status.

A code status essentially means the type of emergent treatment a person would or would not want to receive if their heart or breathing were to stop. 

Your chosen code status describes the type of resuscitation procedures you would like the health care team to do if your heart stopped beating and/or you stopped breathing.

During this medical emergency, resuscitation procedures are provided quickly to keep you alive. This emergency procedure is commonly known as cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR. 

In the same way, there are different treatment options and goals. The expected outcomes after cardiac or respiratory arrest differ depending on the person, the severity of the illness, the cause of the arrest, and other factors.

It is essential to discuss code status before a crisis occurs and as a condition changes.

Outcome of Resuscitation

Cardiac arrest is when the heart stops beating. About 350,000 cases occur each year outside of a hospital, and the survival rate is less than 12 percent. CPR can double or triple the chances of survival.

Even though CPR can restart someone’s heart, it can also cause harm or even prolong the dying process. The success of resuscitative efforts is not like how it is on tv, that stats are low. In 2016, the survival rate for adults after a cardiac arrest was:

  • Out-of-Hospital Arrest: 12%
  • In-Hospital Arrest: Less than 25%
    • The average survival-to-discharge rate for adults who suffer in-hospital arrest is 17% to 20%.
  • Survival rates are lower for patients with advanced age, cancer, sepsis, renal failure, or liver failure. The survival rates for patients with a chronic illness or advanced illness average 5% and less than 1%, respectively.
  • More than 40% of survivors are discharged with a significant decrease in their functional ability. 

Different Types of Code Statuses

Just like there are different treatment modalities, there are different code statuses. There isn’t only 1 route and you can choose different options, however, there is a limit on what we can and can’t do. 

    1. Full Code: We do anything and everything to try and bring you back. This includes CPR, intubation, medications, lines, and procedures. 
    2. DNR: This is a Do Not Resuscitate order. When your heart stops we will not attempt to do anything. We will let you pass without any interventions. 
    3. Partial Code: This one can be a little complicated because there a few measures you can choose to have done or choose not to have done. 
      1. Meds Only: In this situation, if your heart were to stop we would not perform CPR or intubation. What we would do is use medication to bring you back. We can push epinephrine, give bicarbonate, start levophed or other pressors to try and keep your heart beating or start it back up. 
      2. No CPR: Some patients do not want CPR performed but are open to everything else. Defibrillation, intubation, and medication are all used. 
  • DNI – Do not intubate. There are patients that want everything to be done but not get a breathing tube placed

What is the Ethics of Partial Codes?

The main objection to partial code orders is that they are ineffective in sustaining life and can potentially deceive the patient and/or patient’s family into believing that resuscitation is possible when, in fact, the patient’s death is imminent. 

  • The concept is that you need hands on the chest to resuscitate someone. Once a heart stops beating there is no more circulation so there is no oxygen being fed into the tissue. Every second cell dies without any pressure from the heartbeat. 

People always want to make exceptions for everything. But when it comes to life it’s either you’re 2 feet in or 2 feet out. Is there such a thing as partial living? Then why should there be partial codes? Why should we hold back or delay treatment if the person/family is set on them surviving? Why not give them a full opportunity?

Many people would agree that there should only be 2 options; 

  1. Full code as in to do everything
  2. No code as in does nothing but comfort. 

It’s either we try to keep them alive or not. Why do people persistently make partial codes as in they want to “maybe” live? 

Why partial codes?

Many people don’t understand the reasoning behind a partial code. Let’s think about it. 

If you have ever seen a code blue with good chest compressions it is not a pleasant thing to witness. A lot of times a guy pushes on someone’s chest very hard and most of those times it leads to the sternum and other bones being broken. 

We can understand how enduring it is for the family to see. They see their loved ones and want them to at least have some chance. But partial codes give the lowest chance. 

  • Maybe there should be orders that state can intubate for respiratory distress but now when a pulse is lost. But then what if the pt loses a pulse during intubation. 

How much time do we have until brain damage?

  • When cardiac arrest occurs, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) must be started within two minutes. After three minutes, global cerebral ischemia, the lack of blood flow to the entire brain, can lead to brain injury that gets progressively worse.
  • By nine minutes, severe and permanent brain damage is likely. After 10 minutes, the chances of survival are low.
  • Even if a person is resuscitated, eight out of every 10 will be in a coma and sustain some level of brain damage. Simply put, the longer the brain is deprived of oxygen, the worse the damage will be.

TIME STAMPS:

00:00 intro
00:51 Plugs
01:23 Episode Introduction
02:37 What happens in a code status

05:25 A very slim chance of surviving a cardiac arrest
07:25 What is a code status?
09:16 Full Code, No Code, Partial Code
11:58 Family members are not educated well with code status
14:45  Partial Code rarely or does not work at all
17:45 Sad situation of a full code patient
20:12 How much time do we have until brain damage?
21:53 Call for physicians to step up and decide code status in real-time
25:12 Improvements that can be done
27:25 Patient’s family are very reliant on healthcare providers
30:27 Getting clear on what code to choose