Most Stressful Nursing Jobs | Incredible Health (2024)

Nurse Types / Most Stressful Nursing Jobs

Though many nurses love their jobs, nursing is stressful. Whileless-stressful rolesexist, lots of nurses workinhigh-stress positions.

Stress at work can lead toburnoutandcompassion fatigue.

Fortunately,thereare ways to deal with stressthatdoesn’tincludequittingyourjob.

However, some nurses want to avoid high-stress positions altogether. We have come up with a list of the most stressful nursing jobs to satisfy this need.

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Most Stressful Nursing Positions

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurses

ICU is an extremely high-pressure environment and these nurses work with patients who have significant injuries and disease with added morbidity risks. Unstable patients require lifesaving interventions and once stabilized, are transferred to a different unit.

Datashowsthatmore thanhalf of all critical care nurses experience burnout syndrome. Nurses deal with several ethical dilemmas and traumaeachshift.

Often, patient outcomes are out ofyourhands, which can frustrate anynurse.

EmergencyDepartmentnurses

ER nursesarefirst responderswhen patients enter the hospital.

The fast-paced nature of this position can exhilarate nurses and causethemsignificant stress.Itall depends on thenurse.

Nurses within thisdepartmentmight spend an entire shift ontheirfeet without abreak evento use the restroom.

According toone study, job-related stress related to nursesbecausetheyhad to perform non-nursing activities consistently.

These nurses deal with various patients, andtheyalso struggle to feelincontrolof the patient outcomes.Theydon’t get to see patients heal, soitcan seem abitdeflating attimes.

Neonatal ICU

Within this role, nurses work with newborn infants who have various problems such as congenital disabilities, infection and cardiac issues. Theneonatalperiod involves the first month of life.

Watching newborn babies struggle is stressful. NICU nurses deal with the babies, but often parents sufferbecausetheycan’t even holdthem.

Nurses have to think quickly ontheirtoesinthis positionasNICU babies often develop complications without warning.

However, this role does have some satisfaction when nurses can see a baby go home safe and healthy withtheirfamilies.

OR nursing

OR nurses work in the operating room and deal more one-on-one with patients. In this sense, it deviates from the previous roles discussed. The operation room nurse provides quality care to patients during their surgery.

One of the benefits of this position involves having more regulated hours. However, OR nurses often must work extended hours due to the physician’s demands.OR nurses spend hours on their feet depending on the surgery length and work very closely with surgeons and techs.

Oncology Nursing

Theoncology nurserole can haveitsups and downs. Nurses have a chance to build relationships with patientsovertheirtimeintheircare. However,ithurts seeing patients suffering, especially whentheypassaway.

Another significant stressor for oncology nurses involvestheircontact with toxic chemotherapydrugs.

Ontopofthat,theyface severaldifferentpatients at a time with these acute symptoms.

It’snot an easy job.

Psychiatric Nursing

Psychiatric nursing isn’t just sitting aroundingroups discussing feelings. You have to deal with patients experiencing acute mental and physical health conditions. Unfortunately, sometimes these patients lash out physically at the nurses.

According tostudies, almost all nurses (88.6%) experiencedverbalviolence andmore thanhalf(56.1%) experienced physical violence.

The threat of physical andverbalviolence alone makes this particular job stressful.

Final words on the most stressful nursing jobs

The most stressful nursing jobs is a relative idea. However, these nursing jobs carry a significant amount of stress, buttheyalso provide rewarding opportunities to nurses. Let Incredible Health help you with tips for curbing burnout and incorporating wellness activities into your life. You’ve got this!

Sources

• “Is a Career in Neonatal Nursing Right for You?” nann.org. Accessed Jan. 27, 2021.