Have you ever had a patient who was nice and sweet but demand­ing all of your time? What do you do? Do you help the patient a lit­tle at a time so that you can get to your other patients? Do you try to get it all done at once and move on to the next patient know­ing that he or she will call you because there was still one more thing to do? How do you man­age your time? Know­ing that you have two other patients who have med­ica­tions and treat­ments due and a pend­ing admis­sion, what do you do? Even the best nurses have days when they are stretched to the limit and feel like they could scream if one more patient or staff mem­ber calls their name. Don’t they? Hope­fully these kinds of days are not the norm and you can enjoy your work and your patients most of the time.

I had a chap­lain tell me once when I was a young nurse and fairly new to oncol­ogy, “Becky, some­times you just have to take care of your­self and walk away.” I will always remem­ber that, but it is hard for me to do. After all, I became an oncol­ogy nurse because I wanted to help the patients who needed some­one to be there for them. What I have found over the years is that I am at my best when I take care of myself.

When I am hav­ing the kind of night that makes me want to scream and run from the build­ing because my patients are very needy or very sick, and I can­not get ahead, it is some­times best to ask some­one for help. Then, if at all pos­si­ble, take a walk, get some air, get a drink, or go to the bath­room. Those few min­utes away can help refresh your mind so that you can be the nurse you always wanted to be.