If you work for NHS do you ever feel like giving up?

[Pileonsally]

I work for NHS and have always felt its a rewarding job, supporting people in crisis, making a difference.
However last 18mths I feel like giving up. I have no resources to help. No staff. Massive workload. Feel im constantly letting patients down and surrounded by poor care (due to lack of resources, not the wonderful staff).
Feel like getting out but then feel so sad giving up.
Also no idea what else I can do?

Does anyone else feel like this ?

I left the NHS for a career change and im going back to it. I think it really depends what area you work in. The grass isn’t always greener.

I work in the NHS and I 100% get where you are coming from but I don’t ever think of leaving. For me it’s a vocation (although I’m not medical). I’m a hated NHS manager!

I work in the NHS and have only been employed at my trust for 3 months, I don't feel like giving up. But day to day, some of the things we have to deal with are truly heart wrenching and I wonder if I'm cut out for it. I cried several times last week as a result of being in multiple complaint meetings with patient families.. It's really harrowing.

Yes - I've been a dr for 14 years and so close to packing it all in

I honestly have never felt so burnt out. And the staff were the backbone of the NHS but I’m seeing so many of my wonderful colleagues leave or go sick or just perform at about half their usual capacity because we’re all done . And all you ever hear about is fucking resilience as though the whole shitstorm we’ve been through and are still going through is in some way a failing that a “ resilience training “ session will fix.
I’ve never had to take sick leave but I think I have to. Spent all day today trying not to cry at work. The fact I didn’t feels like a success . But if I go on leave ( I’m in a senior position) there isn’t anyone to cover that so there’s the guilt…

The best thing you can do is persuade people to vote differently. I worked in the nhs in the past, a long time ago! I can remember when Labour got in after a long Tory govt (1997) and the feeling of hope. It did get considerable better but its going back to how it was (I now provide services to the nhs).

I see most are nurses on here. I’m a junior doctor but so demoralised. Nursing staffing levels where I work are genuinely appalling. This is an emergency. The govt should be paying people to train as nurses!

I’m so concerned about poor patient care. I just don’t see how the nhs can continue when we have so few nurses/doctors.

I’ve been on call all week and one of the few British born staff, if it wasn’t for doctors/nurses coming from other countries the nhs would collapse tomorrow. But what about the countries we actively poach staff from? Can’t be good for them either.

It was bad before covid. Now it's worse. People are burnt out. The public really don't understand what goes into seeing patients not the sheer volume of those wanting to be seen. If I hear ‘tiktok one more time I swear!! My DH is also NHS and he is wrecked, I've never seen him like this. Meanwhile, the expectation is we wave a magic wand and see people ‘quickly’. Yet little about medicine is quick. No revolving door to walkthrough ill and out the other cured. Just more people angry people who think they should walk ok and out. So many staff have left, it's femoralising to say the least.

I side stepped into teaching in a teaching hospital.
I have no nurses to teach. There are no nurses.

The ones that are on shift are so short handed, so stressed, so overwhelmed with no staff and work load that they cannot be released for training.

And so the incidents keep coming.
And so the blame of lack of training keeps coming.
And so on it goes.

I’m actively looking for another job.

This is so distressing to read.

Medical care isn’t Woolies, we need it to function.

to you all.

My colleagues and l actually fear for our registration as staffing is dangerous.

I have been in my Trust nearly 20yrs and I'm quite happy to say no to unsafe requests. I told my manager last week that if l consider a shift unsafe that l will be submitting datex's.... for all the good they do admittedly. But at least I have some protection then, if there is an incident

@MichelleScarn I believe that was me. If I may I shall correct you. A bad fall onto wet concrete where I stayed in the rain waiting for an ambulance, followed by 12 hours in A&E, waiting 6 hours before I was seen by a Dr, hearing nurses lay into other patients and their carers in a disgusting way, zero communication, zero empathy, a procedure under sedation that was I gather now Ihave spoken to a specialist consultant, not a very good job either. There were more staff than patients when we got to cubicles. It was a third world experience and wholly disorganised.

If you wish to snark as you have, please don't cherry pick, misinterpret and spin for effect. It was disgraceful and sadly if those working in it can't see how disgraceful it is and be objective, then it will never improve.

I’ve worked in mental health since 1997.
I’m so fortunate I will retire soon.
I can see long term full timers burnt out.
We have loads of new enthusiastic staff who have come from the ward to the community. It’s great, but there is little support, 3 managers in one year.
The job I do should be 100 percent patient led - not a chance - it’s 75% admin and 25% nursing.
Tap tap tap - that’s me - tapping in the patients name, what time I saw them, what i did with them when I saw them, don’t forget to outcome the contact. Oh, what about the progress notes, check the risk assessment and update the care plan. The patient needs supported accommodation oh fill out a 20 page form, present it to the council and justify why the need supported accommodation. They need a cleaner,/medication management package or help with shopping -fill in a 10 page form, find an agencyf, complete a financial assessment on the client and present to panel. Justify why they need a cleaner etc etc etc.
I won’t bore you with sequencing - basically the trusts gets paid for carrying out physical health checks on clients and this is more documentation.
Sorry for the moan. - it’s the paperwork that’s the issue and they keep adding more.
I think the difficulty is - nursing is caring - the NHS is a business - the two don’t marry well together.

I left the NHS after 14 years as an AHP, and now work in the third sector, still using my professional skills (and retaining registration) but much more rewarding. My husband has worked for the NHS all his life, and is looking forwards to retiring very much. When he does, and our kids are older, I may go back, or if my wage becomes more important.

They can have one or another of us, but not both, because the stress and pressure of us both being in the NHS is just not sustainable for us. We both have experienced physical and mental ill health directly as a result, and it's just not worth it.

During covid I did have a pang of conscience about whether I should go back to do vaccines or bank work etc, but it family unit could not have kept going if we had.

@PostMenPatWithACat it was your post, and had you posted as here I would have shown more sympathy. I didn't name you as its not good etiquette, your thread concentrated on the lazy staff not offering you a drink and how rude this was of them.

@MichelleScarn my thread was made in real time when I was tanked on morphine and mentioned that on the thread - of course I may be writing more articulately now. I don’t know how busy staff were but I can tell you the way we heard patients yelled out was completely shocking and very upsetting particularly when one was in a great deal of pain. It is not conduct that garners sympathy for nhs staff I’m sad to say.

Community mental health secretarial - as a flip argument, ready to quit as I have never worked with such lazy colleagues. All nhs for years, all do minimal work and moan all day long. Over staffed, too many managers who choose to turn a blind eye as they wouldn't be in a job etc etc. It's frustrating beyond belief.
And as for the sick leave...

I got out a few years ago, took a big pay cut but it was worth it.
Dh is a Consultant he wishes he could retire tomorrow, he used to literally love his job. The last 10 years have extinguished that love quite effectively.

I work with conscientious committed experienced colleagues who value patient experience. It's dire right now and I anticipate it getting worse as we lose those staff

I left. It wasn’t the right job for me. I thought it was just my personality - being an anxious person, but a lot of people on this thread have echoed how I felt. I think there is not much awareness about the effect of understaffing and the vicious cycle it cements - people leave, the people who are left are under more pressure, then they leave. Retention is a bigger problem than recruitment. Young, new staff are good and valuable, but experienced staff need to be able to dedicate time to training and supporting them.

@Isitbedtimeyet10

Community mental health secretarial - as a flip argument, ready to quit as I have never worked with such lazy colleagues. All nhs for years, all do minimal work and moan all day long. Over staffed, too many managers who choose to turn a blind eye as they wouldn't be in a job etc etc. It's frustrating beyond belief. And as for the sick leave...

I have literally never heard of an overstaffed community mental health team. When I trained the average community caseload was 20-30 but now it is more like 60-80. I suppose it is heartening to hear that there is one team in the country that has been able to fill all it's roles despite the nursing crisis, but being overstaffed seems really unusual.

I’m an AHP, been in the NHS 13 years or so, currently B7 clinical/managerial role in mental health.

We are stretched beyond belief, people are leaving in droves and morale is awful.
I have to deal with complaints/enquiries a lot and and have really struggled not to be short and snappy when perfectly well functioning people get pissed off that no we don’t offer long term free psychotherapy for their trust issues or whatever, sorry that’s not NHS territory, we’re struggling to treat people who are really unwell.

I’m a single parent so no option to quit as no one else is going to pay my mortgage for me, and unfortunately I’m not qualified to do anything else so looks like I’ll be hanging in there a while yet.

Actively looking for a way out of the NHS. I’m so sad as I love our nhs and feel it should be protected but I’m no longer proud to wear my uniform. The nhs was once a beacon, a shining example to other countries but now It’s stretched and going to break and I don’t want to work in an acute environment when it finally caves

@Stompythedinosaur same here, I'm very sure the staff in other nhs teams would love some help! The psych liaison teams that come in to see our patients on the acute wards are understaffed and broken.