Ladies and Gents... I'm a very new LPN (pinned July '09, licensed since September '09, working all shifts since) and It would just be nice to find out if I'm already suffering from burnout, or if my attitude has just gone south.

I work in a 50 bed LTC facility. We work traditional 8 hour shifts and currently have 14 nurses (BSN to LPN) on our schedule. Of these 14, five never work the day shift; one works as the Restorative Aide; the DON never works on the floor; one works only part-time and only in the office; two others work mostly in the office Monday through Friday and one day shift either Saturday or Sunday, every other weekend; another splits between office, day, and evening shifts; another splits between the office and day shifts; and the other works only days and only 3-4 shifts per week.

First, I realize this must be a scheduling nightmare for the DON: don't get me wrong. However, it does not go without my notice that I am the only nurse that works 5 out of 7 day shifts in any given week. I realize that, with regard to clinical experience, I am the proverbial low man on the totem pole, but it also does not escape my notice that A.) Whenever something isn't right, it seems that it falls to me to be faulted; B.) Office nurses seek me out on the floor to remove and re-apply brand new dressings because they "didn't get to see it because [they were] off yesterday" or they were "not in this morning when it was changed"; and C.) my base pay rate is roughly $2.00/hour LESS than everyone else on the nursing roster.

To make things more... ahem -- challenging -- of our 50 beds, as of today, 45 are occupied. We have two charge nurses on the floor for day shift, and, if we are fully staffed, 6 CNAs plus a Bath Aide. At least 20-25% of our residents have a skin issue that requires daily monitoring and/or dressing change and/or additional treatment. I would guesstimate that 10% of our residents have an active dementia with behaviors, but remain self-mobile (we don't not have a unit). 10% of our residents are also total care. This is in addition to bath time skin checks, two different meal med passes, mid-morning and early afternoon med-passes, meal charting x2, telephoning families, doctors, pharmacies, and specialty clinics, taking and working doctor's orders, and dealing with the unexpected but daily bumps of LTC.

I love my residents as if they were my own family members. We hug, hold hands, have jokes, and have relationships that are about as personal as you could get without being unprofessional. (Does that make sense?) When I smile at them and say "Good Morning", it's genuine and gives me a warm fuzzy when they respond in kind, ask me to bend down for a hug or a kiss on the cheek, or just a squeeze of the hand.

But, between feeling picked on by office nurses (yes, I have spoken up, to no avail), swamped by paperwork, feeling shortchanged by both the schedule and the pay scale, I just don't want to be there anymore. It has become an enormous effort to drag myself from bed each morning to go to work. It doesn't help that I don't feel like I'm helping anyone or making a difference for anyone.

My question to you, Nurses, is: Am I already burned out, or do I have an attitude problem? 

 ~~edited for spelling~~