After 17 years in her career, this nurse wants out: ‘I’m sick of being a drug pusher’
A case of compassion fatigue.
Tiffany Smith of Broken and Brave Health (@brokenandbravehealth) said that after 17 years of working as a nurse, she wants to leave. She listed several reasons, most of which point to burnout from her profession.
“The patients are getting worse. The pay is not enough for the responsibility,” Smith told TikTok. On top of dealing with patients and low pay, Smith said even the patients’ families can pose a challenge. She claimed that some of these families don’t make the right decisions based on their loved ones’ illness. As a result, Smith claimed the families often blamed healthcare workers for not being able to save their loved ones. She mentioned the example of patients eating things they were told not to, then alleged the families wouldn’t make the proper arrangements to rein their loved one in.
“And I’m sick of the system taking advantage of people and telling people treatments that aren’t going to work, and everybody literally knows it, but nobody’s telling the patient,” she expressed. Smith didn’t elaborate on this point but said she felt censored regarding what can be disclosed to patients. She added, “I’m sick of being a drug pusher, feeling like I’m constantly telling people to take their meds. Do this, do that.”
Essentially, Smith feels burned out with the workload and the daily grind of reminding patients about basic tasks. Nursing, after all, is a grueling job with long hours. Take it from this travel nurse who worked a twelve-hour shift, only for her husband to leave her with his wedding ring and a note on their trailer. On top of the job, some nurses have personal lives to stress over.
A fatigued nurse
“I’ve definitely gotten to the point where, if you don’t care about your health, boy, do I not care about your health,” Smith commented. She feels that, as a nurse, she has been shoving pills in people’s faces.
“The amount of responsibility [expletive] placed on a nurse’s plate, each shift just keeps getting more. Like, the plate is overflowing,” Smith continued. And despite being overworked, she alleged that management often finds more tasks to squeeze onto their overflowing plates. Putting the job and the patients aside, Smith also commented on the inefficiency of nursing management.
“Is it because the good nurses actually don’t want to be managers because that position kind of sucks? Or, what is happening here? That the majority of nursing managers are horrible?” Smith expressed. She doesn’t explain what, in particular, about management makes the job harder. Nevertheless, Smith said she couldn’t imagine being a nurse for 17 more years. After all, some nurses have to deal with patients who do strange things to the toilet. Unfortunately, not everyone has infinite patience to exhaust.
“I don’t know how nurses have been nurses for 40-something years. Actually, I do—it’s because nursing has never been like this before. This is the first time in history that a single person has had this much responsibility, this much stuff to keep track of, and this many people to take full care of. Ever,” Smith said.
A thankless job
Smith wants to quit the profession, and other social media users who claimed to be nurses also chimed in to share their personal struggles as healthcare workers. One nurse said a family bought a patient due for open-heart surgery a McDonald’s meal and Coke for dinner, much to their dismay. Other self-professed nurses in the comments also believe that healthcare has prioritized money over quality care.
Another commenter wrote, “Nursing unfortunately made me lose a lot of hope and compassion for people.” While some are losing hope in the healthcare system, others have been inspired to become nurses after seeing what patients go through.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
Follow The Mary Sue:
