I just feel lost

Re: I just feel lost

Sal the 1st — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:51:45 GMT

[quote user="Anon10"]

Hello,

I just need some help / advice as I'm unsure what to do.

I currently work full time in a veterinary practice and have been for a couple of years now. I am also currently studying a correspondance course that is due to end soon and also started a course in september.

that is a lot to be taking on starting another course before finishing the first course if you are so busy at work - any chance you could put the second course on hold while you sort a few things out?

We do not have many staff members at our work and we are all feeling at the moment quite stressed and overworked. We not getting time to do all of our duties, even staying later / coming in earlier to 'clear up' (not getting paid as we have to take it in leiu, which then causes more problems as someone is off). all of us work really hard all the time to do things but this all seems to get unnoticed by the boss and even when we mentioned the problems we have nothing seems to change.At times we all feel unappreciated as certain things get sent in messages of things that he thinks we arent doing (which we usually are or haven't got time to do) he seems to be in his own little bubble and thinks we stand around all day waiting for something to do.

Maybe your boss has noticed - maybe your boss has problems and worries and stresses of their own and their priority is just to keep the practice running. Sometimes taking on somebody elses problems (ie staff problems) when too much else is going on is just too much. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own woes we dont notice how life is for other people.

It has got worse over the last 6 months and I personally feel I'm bottom of 'the food chain' so to speak. We all have are own responsibilities to do certain things but everyone else seems to get priority over me and when I try to do the things I need to do I get told I can't do them know, or were too busy for me to be able to do them.

if this refers to training and practical tasks this might well be the case if the practice is so busy - and sometimes you just have to bite your tongue and maybe arrange a time when it is least likely to cause a problem. I appreciate you need the time - but also the practice needs to be able to work too and sometimes if people are up to their ears in work they just dont want to hear about what somebody else is needing to do their priority is getting through their workload. Have you mentioned this at college at all they may be able to help you?

I also sometimes feel as though the boss and some other members of staff treat me as thou i'm standing around doing nothing (which I never do) and just get told to do this, do that even if I already really busy in the middle of something.

maybe speak to your HVN or senior nurse about this

I'm find that most days I feel like crying or nearly do (have to hold back the tears or pop to the loo to 'freshen up' as it makes me feel unappreciated, useless and run down and that no matter what I do or how hard I try it's just not good enough and i try and also give 100%. I also find I haven't got anyone I can talk to about it, as I'm not really an open person and find it hard to talk about how I feel and usually end up just bottling it up. The trouble is when I start to feel stressed and run down I start to become ill having regular headaches/ migranes and also at the moment finding it hard to sleep.

My advice would be to talk to somebody about this - and in all honesty your GP would be my first choice

There is also a receptionist who drives most of use crazy but I find it very hard to tolerate her sometimes. In her eyes she 'never' does anything wrong and always places the blame on someone else or says 'no one told me that', even if she was caught doing it or we knew she did it. It has caused a huge atmosphere at work as she regularly causes arguements and does things wrong, she has even had a few complaints from clients.

So who 'directs' your reception staff?

She is also quite lazy and slow (I know that people take longer to do things than others) but she doesn't prioritise she spends the 'quiet' periods when we have no appointments filling out vaccination booklets, microchip forms and stamping the insurance books when there is more important things to be doing and when anyone every mentions if she could do something she says shes too busy.

well at least she is doing something and has found something to do - Has anybody ever told her exactly what else she should be doing or devised a list of things she could do. I have come across this a lot - some members of the practice team are busier than others at different times of the day, week or month and if they see somebody else who is seemingly not busy then they become an easy target for being called lazy. It doesnt always mean they are lazy - sometimes it means that they have been very efficient and have done their work (their busy period may not coincide with yours?) People in different areas of the practice often have different priorities. Dont forget her job is a receptionist.

There have been occassions where at the end of the day she has come out and said that it was a quiet evening and that shes had not much to do when I've had a busy evening where I've been non stop and she can see the mess around me but doesn't offer to ever help out (our other receptionists are very helpful and if there not busy they come out and ask is there anything they can do).

What is in her contract ? - if other receptionists choose to help out then that is their choice unless it is in their contract to do so, if it isnt then she may just be exercising her choice and certainly if there is an atmosphere because of her real or perceived laziness she is hardly likely to want to spend more time than she has to helping people who dont like her? She may well have had a quiet evening if there were no appointments - that doesnt make her a bad person

I'm also struggling to do my college work with how busy I am at work and if I start feeling ill it causes problems. Practically every night I doing college work, homework or revision up till 11 o'clock / 12 o'clock and spend most of my days off trying to catch up. I tend to have little help in work as we are too busy for anyone to go through things with me, check some work or for me to be able to find things out, I feel that I'm going to fail these courses. It was talked about when I started my first course that I would have time to do the work either at work or go home early on a day, thats never happen and that was a year ago.

So knowing this was it wise to take on a second course? - please see if you can put the second one on hold till you get sorted

I've had experience previous to this job working in a vets and have always enjoyed it but from my experience now I feel like I want to leave the industry.

not all practices are the same

My trouble / worry is that this is the only job I feel that I'm good at and the animal side I enjoy and I do get on with all bar one of my collagues but I'm fed up of feeling like this and feeling like someones skivey. But I don't want to leave without having another job as I would not be able to afford to survive bringing any money in. I also don't know what I could do, I have worked in retail before but didn't really enjoy that either but I also extremely shy, self-concious and anxious person and don't know what would suit me.

try seeing a careers advisor they may be able to help you on this by doing a work style questionnaire with you

I feel if I stay in this job too long I will break down but don't want to leave and throw away the opportunity I have at the moment and regret it especially as I've just started a new course and it lasts 2 years.

sounds to me that you have pretty much made up your mind to move on, only you can make that decision - try doing a list of pros and cons and break it down into smaller chunks - it makes it easier to understand a complex problem. It might be that a different practice may help ? it might be that discussing this now with you HVN might help. Dont forget the way we see things isnt always the way things are or the way others see them

Sorry about the long message i've just needed to get it off my chest as I have spoken to anyone about this and it's slowly starting to controll my whole life. I'm hoping people may have some advice.

Many Thanks,

Extremely Stressed, emotional person

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Re: I just feel lost

Sue Cox — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 22:13:14 GMT

aw anon don't feel lost! If you had asked me a year and a half ago, how i was feeling i think in many ways it would have echoed your story :( i have to say that now i am really happy and surprisingly in the same practice with much the same people!!

It does sound like if you can, perhaps to move on but how about trying to change things for the better where you are now? could you write a list of all the day to day problems in the practice? not just the bad points but ideas on how you can make it work better?you could do this then ask to have a quiet word with your head nurse or boss and go through it. I did something similar, and i'm not sure how much they took on but i think if anything it made them perhaps realise that things weren't as rosey as they thoughtand that people including myself, weren't happy. *thats the point where i get those angry tears, hate that!* i know that this can be a scarey thing to do but its worth a shot and then if they still don't listen, at least you have had a go, and can leave without feeling like you gave up.

it sounds like you do love vet nursing,its just where you are now- so really there are only 2 choices- try and change it or change to a new practice. i know it sucks to have this stress on top of college and everything,maybe take some time off then you could try and relax a bit and then get proactive on that list i was on about. i hope i works ot for you, and i hope you can talk to someone at work. good luck

Re: I just feel lost

Sammyannieantha — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 21:53:18 GMT

ps anon- i also suffered from stress migraines and panic attack that I havent had since i was a kid-please take into account hun that your health is more important and you must must must put that first,lots hugs xxx

Re: I just feel lost

Sammyannieantha — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 21:49:14 GMT

Hey - this post helped me so much-I am feeling totally awful at the mo and have just been signed off sick by my doc due to severe stress and anxiety-I started a new job last week (yes last week) and I have totally totally made a massive mistake. I cannot knock the staff because they tried to help me but were very straight. I literally could not face going there-although they were nice enough i didnt feel part of the team and i did not have the training eg protocols etc so constantly felt like i was doing things wrong -i was trying so hard to get in there but felt restricted somehow and felt very nervy and uncapable of doing the job that i love and am so good at (if i do say so myself without blowing my own trumpet).Im newly qualified and thought new experiences would do me good but really feeling right now that I was wrong.It has affected me that much I am thinking of maybe getting out of the profession. It was very alien and not for me and I also underestimated the amount of travelling i had to do-i do feel awful and like I have wasted the boss's time but if id have carried on i would have had a breakdown.Its very strange how certain things can get you so low. I came from a practice which was so so supportive and very organised and was also very different and you were friends rather than colleagues and if one person was down or having a bad time wed all try and help-you also had your role clearly mapped out. People may think i didnt give it enough time but thats enough time for me to know whether something is right or not and this just wasnt at all.I didnt want to waste anymore of theirs time or mine.Just hope I can get into somekind of locum work where it will feel right and I will fit in.......any suggestions/comments/advice greatly appreciated

Re: I just feel lost

Dippy — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 22:33:29 GMT

Although you probably don't feel in the right frame of mind right now if you're tired, stressed and down on yourself, I also think you've possibly answered your own question when you say that you enjoyed time you spent in practice previously and don't really want to do anything else so my advice would be to try another practice before giving up completely. Are there many other practices in your area or do you live somewhere with few choices? I wouldn't mind betting that the right practice and right people might just change your mind about your chosen career and if they didn't, well at least you'd know for sure as there's nothing worse than walking away from a vocation you love, only to realise that it was the right job, just in the wrong place. I hope you make whatever is the right decision for you at the end of the day but as someone who has worked in the good, the bad and the plain ugly as a locum, I know what a massive difference a friendly and supportive team of colleagues can make, in any industry. Good luck, whatever you decide.

Re: I just feel lost

carrie ball — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 22:18:16 GMT

Hi, hope you feel better now you got it down and out. I used to feel the same, i.e 101 things to do and not enough time to do it, My colleagues would ask what i had been doing, as if i ad been sat twiddling my thumbs, But sometimes your just so busy that you can't recall everything you have done. I left my last practice because altough the girls were lovely, i didn't gel well in that particular practice, and hating the vet didn't help matters. I decided that after being signed off work with stress and anxiety it was not worth the personal stress. I got a job in a larger much busier practice and i am aving the time of my life. There are more staff members, everyone knows their place, and i have never laughed so much in all my life! I would suggest that you take a breather, time away can let you work out whether its the job that is bothering you or the place itself. I hope that things work out for you. When i read the message it echoed how i felt not long ago. Take Care, Hugs.