Nurses, is your job stressful? Are you mentally tired?

I was going to study for a nurse but then i heard nurses have ALOT of paperwork to do . I dont' want to do that. But what exactly do you nurses do or if you know any nurses. Are you mentally tired at the end of the day

"Paperwork" is changing into computer documentation at a lot of facilities. But yes, a great deal of the job is documentation - covering your butt, because if you didn't chart it, you didn't do it (in the eyes of the legal system).

All jobs are highly variable in terms of the amount of stress you're under. All jobs are stressful in one aspect or another. It's how you react to stress that makes you tired or not. If you're a flexible person, one who can go with the flow, not get frustrated easily, you will have an easier time adapting when work gets hectic and stressful. If you let yourself get out of control, then obviously the stress will get to you.

I work 12 hour shifts at a hospital in Labor & Delivery, so inherently I am more tired at the end of the day. But the trade off is that I only work 5 shifts in a two week pay period and only work every third weekend (as opposed to every-other weekend when you work 8 hour shifts)- so lots of time off to recover.

It all depends on where you work and how the facility is ran.....

Mentally tired? Sometimes, if the day has been stressful. Physically tired? Always! I find that it is not the paperwork that is stressful, or even the workload or the patients, its the red tape and bureacracy, the staff and management that cause the mental tiredness. You are not allowed to simply get on with your job of nursing, its more complicated than that now, there is such a fear of litigation that everything has to be exactly right and fully documented. That can be very wearing as you feel as though you have to watch your back all the time.

Its still a very rewarding job though and I wouldnt want to do anything else, at the end of the day I do it for my patients, not for anyone else and that is the thought I try to hold on to when I am tearing my hair out!