[Jeffthenurse]

Originally Posted by SweetSue16

I to have been saying since 1971 ,without nurses patients wouldn't come to the hospital. Without nurses most settings in healthcare would cease to exist. As nurses we could do most of the jobs non-nurses do in a variety of settings. In fact we already do. In the last 37 years I have worked in a variety of settings. I have never worked anywhere that was ideally staffed. We staff to acuity is a lie.I have prepared food when the cook didn't show on the weekend. I have moved furniture. I have answered the phone and taken messages. I have cleaned up mess's that defy description. I put up with constant interuption and still finish a med pass. I am not unique! Nurse's do it all. But non-nurses cannot do what we do.I will never understand why we aren't treated as valuable. There is a shortage of us everywhere! We bring a variety of skills to every healthcare setting there is. We should be paid accordingly. Nurse's are the largest department in most work places and we have the least input. Administrators sometimes with no healthcare experience are making healthcare decisions. Is being burned out a surprise?

I believe that if we don't come up with a solution to the nursing shortage ourselves, we will be replaced by hospital administrators, doctors, Congress, or some other researcher/group who will come up with a name for a new group of health care workers who will do our jobs for less money and with less education. It sounds bleak but I think it will happen.

[VivaLasViejas]

Originally Posted by NurseyBaby'05

This study really hit the nail on the head. It's not nursing that has me doing this: . It's the workplace bs that's slowly sending me over the edge. I often wonder if I will still be at bedside; which I love, by my five year anniversary.

I wasn't. And if I'd had the sense God gave a goose, I wouldn't have gone back to the bedside, but I did. Suffice it to say that it almost cost me my health AND my sanity. Now you literally could not pay me enough to work in a hospital.........I don't make squat working for a non-profit ALF, but I love what I do and I'll be able to do it for a lot longer. That more than makes up for the low pay.

[lindarn]

Originally Posted by SweetSue16

I to have been saying since 1971 ,without nurses patients wouldn't come to the hospital. Without nurses most settings in healthcare would cease to exist. As nurses we could do most of the jobs non-nurses do in a variety of settings. In fact we already do. In the last 37 years I have worked in a variety of settings. I have never worked anywhere that was ideally staffed. We staff to acuity is a lie.I have prepared food when the cook didn't show on the weekend. I have moved furniture. I have answered the phone and taken messages. I have cleaned up mess's that defy description. I put up with constant interuption and still finish a med pass. I am not unique! Nurse's do it all. But non-nurses cannot do what we do.I will never understand why we aren't treated as valuable. There is a shortage of us everywhere! We bring a variety of skills to every healthcare setting there is. We should be paid accordingly. Nurse's are the largest department in most work places and we have the least input. Administrators sometimes with no healthcare experience are making healthcare decisions. Is being burned out a surprise?

As long as nurses do not bill for their services, like other health care professionals, OUR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES will continue to be rolled in with the room rate, and complimentary box of kleenex and roll of toilet paper. At the end of the fiscal year, our names show up on the "negative" side of the balance sheet. THAT us how they control us. As long as we remain invisible, we have no worth. JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington

[Diary/Dairy]

Originally Posted by siggie13

From the first day I started as a nurse, I have been telling anyone who would listen that people come to a hospital to receive nursing care and if nurses weren't there, there would be no hospital!
Management does not want to hear this because then they would have to admit how important nurses are and how under valued we are.

My mom says that too - no one listens to her either!!

And Yes - I am one of those 20-something nurses that travels in order to get the most out of nursing - AND to be able to say, in 13 weeks, I can get out of here too.

[Nurse4years]

It is interesting to read Richard Feynman regarding the explosion of the space shuttle "Challenger", and to compare it to nursing. Engineers, scientist, many others telling those in power that there were safety issues that had to be addressed or there could possibly be disaster. Administration coming to their own conclusions and ignoring these professionals. Challenger went up that day, and we know the consequences.
Many professionals questioned, begged, yelled, and even quit in an effort to change the inevitable, but it was all ineffective.
I think we can compare the two; nursing and an unnecessary, life shattering disaster.

[SweetSue16]

Lindarn, I think your comparison is" right on". Sue

[ksilty]

Another question about the survey would be whether their respondents were somewhat self-selected. In other words, did those who answered tend to be those who "feel" burnout while perhaps those who don't feel it just didn't return the survey?

This is a good point. Same with patient satisfaction surveys. You are much more likely to get a response from a patient who has an axe to grind.