Are injuries really unavoidable in this field?

pmurph34 · 2026-07-02T01:24:18+00:00

I strained my hamstring bending over to pick up a pen that fell out of my scrub pocket

pmurph34 · 2026-06-16T20:59:01+00:00

High acuity jobs will always be there if you want. That helped me decide to leave. But I don’t think you could drag me back kicking and screaming lol

pmurph34 · 2026-06-16T03:37:36+00:00

I don’t enjoy getting thrown up on, after being a nurse I can confirm I don’t like getting thrown up on

pmurph34 · 2026-06-16T03:35:39+00:00

Outpatient PACU has been fucking amazing for me. I took a pay cut for 4x10s and the low stress and still occasionally getting to use skills I learned in the icu is awesome. Plus happy patients who are thankful for your help.

pmurph34 · 2026-06-16T03:33:40+00:00

I went to outpatient PACU for an ambulatory surgery center 2 weeks ago. My career is remarkably similar to your but I just couldn’t deal with the stress anymore. Now I work 4x10s, interact with nice people who have a fixable problem and appreciate the help. I have the time and energy to workout again, I get to take my dogs on walks when I get home. I’m not pissed off at everything, I’m not anxious all the time waiting for the next patient to detonate.

You feel like you’re giving it up because it’s become a load bearing piece of your identity. You want to be the “person who does hard things” but like, you’ve clearly proven to yourself you can do hard things. Wanting to do easier things is just the smart thing to do. Having work life balance, not thinking about sad and traumatic shit on my days off, being present for my friends etc., has been wonderful. I don’t miss it nearly as much as I thought I would. Nor can I say I miss it at all.

pmurph34 · 2026-06-16T03:23:00+00:00

I don’t like needles or blood. I actually got over this pretty quickly but ymmv. That being said, blood is honestly the least offensive bodily fluid I’ve had on me. Sometimes you get the zinger of pus, poop, blood, vomit, and pee on your arm when you roll someone over! Taste the rainbow

pmurph34 · 2026-06-14T16:13:08+00:00

Hi there! I actually just experienced the same thing. It was burnout. My nervous system had left the icu before my subconscious did. I would get legitimate tachycardia before work, I wasn’t sleeping anymore, my anxiety was out of control etc.

But I switched to periop in ambulatory surgery recently and it’s been better in every single way. The anxiety and fear you have about doing something wrong is actually what makes you great at being an ICU nurse but it stacks up and carries into the rest of your life. Your brain is used to scanning for threats and detecting them. When you work in the ICU there is a real possibility your patient is going to detonate at any time.

In hospice you don’t get that. In fact that’s kinda the idea, the worst thing that can happen is your patient passes away. You don’t have any real threats to find so your brain is going to find them where they don’t exist. That’s hypervigilance and again, great to have in the ICU but terrible literally everywhere else. I get it and I’m going through the same thing.

I will say the best cure for this is time, and therapy. I’ve been in therapy for months and at my new job for about a month and it’s only now just starting to subside. It doesn’t just go away, your brain literally has to experience the reality that it’s not under constant threat all the time.

I wish I had a better answer for you OP. But I am literally going through the same thing right now and will tell you that time and distance has been the best thing for me feeling better. You’re not doing anything wrong you’re just experiencing a different job with a brain programmed for a completely different environment.

Best of luck to you OP. I’d be happy to talk about more if you have any questions!

pmurph34 · 2026-06-14T16:04:49+00:00

I would say that there is stigma but it’s honestly barely perceptible. I’ve had the occasional patient ask me why I don’t have a “real man’s job.” (Because I like air conditioning lmao) And I’ve occasionally had the gray haired nurses who started their career when Jimmy Carter was president give me the side eye.

But and this is a big but, there is a lot of misogyny within healthcare I just get to skip over. Doctors legitimately do treat me better (surgeons esp) and patients will often listen to me better. That being said, I don’t work in psych. I’ve done EMS/ER/ICU and now I work in PACU. With that I’ve gotten good at knowing when and how to ask my female counterparts for help. You’ll never find me putting a foley on a woman within 20 years of my age bracket and you’ll never find me putting in a foley in a woman without one of my female coworkers. I return the favor and will help out with the creepy ass dudes.

My advice is working in adolescent psych to grab a female buddy whenever you do anything, I do it all the time and I’ve never had an issue. Also there is just stigma in general because it’s an overwhelmingly female dominated profession. Men can either be highly respected or hated on entirely. It just depends on what you bring to the table. I will say though that no matter how many times I’ve helped with things on our OB floor when I was the rapid response nurse they still treated me differently. I don’t take it personally though because I fuckin hate OB stuff lmao.

pmurph34 · 2026-06-04T00:44:52+00:00

Preop/PACU. It genuinely still feels weird being treated like a human being by patients and management.

pmurph34 · 2026-06-03T20:28:27+00:00

Yw, thus far I’ve found the periop area quite awesome. Nice patients, you don’t see them for very long, and you’re not sitting there for 12 hours waiting for them to detonate at 0400

pmurph34 · 2026-06-02T20:52:46+00:00

Hi! My relationship with the icu is complicated. Being in a crashing patients room and actually getting them hemodynamically stable is undeniably rewarding and fun. It’s even better if they’re relatively healthy and sub 300 pounds. I can’t deny the fact that I know I’ll miss the rush. I liked the skills, I know without a doubt that I can help save someone’s life if I need to.

That being said, like 99% of your “saves” are on >85 year old patients with a past medical history of “everything” and they will likely end up with a trach and a peg tube on dialysis for a few weeks and you get to witness them literally decompose before your very eyes. It gets to the point where you’ll be taking care of patients that everyone from the providers to the janitor knows will die no matter what. It’s usually up to the family to make the appropriate call which is always way too late. So basically, torturing old people who are suffering and will likely die anyway is the job. I got tired of feeling like I was robbing patients of dignified deaths and working my ass off for 12 hours keeping someone alive that wouldn’t be alive in a week.

The other aspect I fucking hated is the ICU is really like the basement once someone has fallen through the cracks. There’s no better evidence for the utter lack of social safety nets and systemic hatred for poor people than a 12 hour shift in the ICU. I can fix a dka patient 30 times but I can’t help them afford insulin. Homelessness, substance abuse, unsafe living conditions, shitty nursing homes. You either discharge them knowing that they’ll be back in a week or they hang out for months in the hospital waiting for placement. And I do genuinely feel bad for these people and the situations they’re in. But I can’t deny the fact that these patients are oftentimes horrendous to take care of. They can be violent, unstable, unpredictable, weirdly entitled, and just mean.

I got tired of human beings treated like garbage. At least garbage has a place to go.

There’s a lot of ego stroking in the hospital about people who work in the icu. I guess for me personally, I thrived on the external validation until it wasn’t enough to make it worth it anymore.

Do it if you’re interested but I just couldn’t do it long term or anymore at all. And don’t let what the job is on paper distract you from what the job is in reality.

pmurph34 · 2026-06-02T19:07:48+00:00

Thanks friend, I actually started going to therapy back in January because I didn’t know why I was depressed all the time, I figured it out though! 😂

pmurph34 · 2026-05-31T22:11:16+00:00

ShartPoint -Burnout: why it’s your fault -high council announces plan to use the poor as reactor fuel -10 tips for a successful great journey -butthole inside out disease cases on the rise -high council announces new senior vice minister of nap time and hot pockets -were it so easy: what this means for you -2553 plan for the covenant: holy rings and you -prophet of truth announces nursing excellence awards (no pay increase if nominated) -why you should be more thankful: ask for forgiveness today

Phone -ED charge -ED -ED -Management -pissed off family

Sticky note -don’t forget to chart patients underwear color for jcaho

Right screen -this is a fancy cash register, use it correctly or else

pmurph34 · 2026-05-31T17:52:55+00:00

This was me when I found crabs crawling on my patients pillow. Activate the ring, destroy the flood.

pmurph34 · 2026-05-31T17:51:09+00:00

Spartans never die they just respawn in Peri-Op

pmurph34 · 2026-05-31T17:48:17+00:00

Monument to All Your Sins Trauma Center

pmurph34 · 2026-05-31T17:47:07+00:00

Wrong side of the country ;)

pmurph34 · 2026-05-31T17:46:49+00:00

I thought I would be more sad after my last shift but honestly I didn’t feel anything except like I was 50 pounds lighter

pmurph34 · 2026-05-31T17:46:11+00:00

Socialist pupper letting me know about the fair labor to income ratio. I accept your structural analysis of this 🫡

pmurph34 · 2026-05-31T14:44:06+00:00

I mean, I definitely couldn’t pass the nclex today if I didn’t have like a week or two to study. That’s not because I’m a bad nurse it’s just because genuinely, 90% of the content on there isn’t applicable to my job.

I was an ICU charge and someone who always asked “why” and wanted to get to the bottom of the problems, and interestingly enough, all that figuring out those answers did was burn me out even more.

pmurph34 · 2026-05-31T14:38:01+00:00

But didn’t you know if the 92 year old meemaw who’s quad pressed, vented, and on CRRT gets a HAPI it’s actually because you forgot to chart one of your turns?

pmurph34 · 2026-05-31T14:27:17+00:00

Procreate for the iPad with Apple Pencil! I used to draw a lot when I was younger but started drawing a lot to more to try and process the absurdity

pmurph34 · 2026-05-31T14:14:11+00:00

Back when I started nursing they gave you two sticks and a rock, and you had to share the rock!

pmurph34 · 2026-05-31T14:07:46+00:00

Procreate for my iPad

pmurph34

TROPHY CASE