[brian]

[b]Here are the results of last months survey question
Which of the following factors most negatively influences nurses morale? :



Please feel free to read and post any comments that you have right here in this discussion thread by clicking the "Post Reply" button.

Thanks

[Riverman]

Nurses' Morale:

In my opinion, job-related stress actually pulls the floor together; making it through a difficult shift successfully along with the other nurses gives me a high. Staff recognition comes from one another, and from the patients. I receive a lot of recognition and respect from the patients themselves. But when the staffing is low I can't do my job adequately, and that leaves me with the worst kind of feeling. When I know I have shortchanged my patients and not done the best I could do because management did not staff the floor adequately or safely, my morale plummets. How about yours?

[GI Issue Nurse]

Staffing is a hot topic in the SICU where I work. Lately the issue has been calling people off because of low patient census then the manager crying foul when a nurse will schedule themselves to work an inpatient floor on an off day to make up the hours lost. Since the pay for that nurse working in another unit does NOT come out of the SICU budget and the person is doing it on a regular off day we are scratching our heads in confusion. Scheduling is another hot topic...what is the point of filling out forms to request days off for personal reasons and doing the leg work to have some one else cover the shift(s) only to be told "No, staffing will not allow it."?! Our boss blatently plays favorites and pits nurses against each other then wonders why we quit!

Speaking of quitting....I have two more shifts and I am gone!

[NancyRN]

Poor Management! Just because someone has been a good nurse doesn't make him/her a good manager!

I've seen pettiness and favoritism, a total lack of positve feedback from managers; the pouting if you happen to disagree...all very unprofessional! This type of manager would never make it in the corporate world!

[plumrn]

Poor staffing levels create the worse kind of stress. If staffing is great, I can handle almost any situation that comes up. When it is poor, I can see MY health deteriorating, and my control over what I can accomplish for my patients is taken away. Everyone loses.

[VivaLasViejas]

IMHO, poor staffing and poor management go hand-in-hand, and are the primary reasons for low morale. Poor staffing means management doesn't care that nurses are working like dogs and patient safety is compromised. How does one continue to labor under the burden of knowing every shift is going to be just as hard as the last, that the people in charge aren't listening to her concerns, and that a single mistake--caused not by stupidity or neglect, but by sheer overload--could end up costing her not only her license but her livelihood?

[Nurse89]

It was a toss-up between poor staffing levels and poor management.
I voted poor management.
If you have poor management all the other 3 become a problem, but inadequate staffing most of all.

[canoehead]

Staffing. There is nothing worse than being expected and truely needed in two places at once. I feel like I've let down everyone, plus management always second guesses prioritization- they've had a few days to think about it and I made a split second decision...you can't win.

[cheerfuldoer]

Originally posted by mjlrn97
IMHO, poor staffing and poor management go hand-in-hand, and are the primary reasons for low morale. Poor staffing means management doesn't care that nurses are working like dogs and patient safety is compromised. How does one continue to labor under the burden of knowing every shift is going to be just as hard as the last, that the people in charge aren't listening to her concerns, and that a single mistake--caused not by stupidity or neglect, but by sheer overload--could end up costing her not only her license but her livelihood?

I'm giving your comments a big AMEN!!!

However.......we who think like this.......we are just singing to the choir because nobody's "at home" up there listening among the powers that be. Enough to make one sick, I know.

[cheerfuldoer]

Originally posted by canoehead
Staffing. There is nothing worse than being expected and truely needed in two places at once. I feel like I've let down everyone, plus management always second guesses prioritization- they've had a few days to think about it and I made a split second decision...you can't win.

Two places? Try FIVE!

You are absolutely right about the "split second decision making" versus TPTB who have "days to think about it". We are in a no win situation, and guess who is going to pay the cost of for that split second decision anyway? You got it.........NURSES