[abbaking]

I am a night shift RN on a 25-bed med/surg unit and lately I am becomming more and more irritated with the cognitive distortions and ignorance of upper management. Recently, during a staff meeting, a nursing administration representative (nice title, Huh) insisted that night shift nurses become "more involved with patient care" and set standards for nursing blah blah blah. She was under the impression that the night shift is lazy and we do the very basics for the patients we care for. She also went on to say that "the night shift can't be all that bad; all your patients are asleep". When I heard that I didn't know if I was to laugh or cry! Nursing is hard enough by itself and than upper management want to make it that much more difficult! I have finally realized that Upper Nursing Management are the most interesting characters in healthcare. They have the balls to tell me how to be a nurse when they themselves probibly have not set foot on a unit in 20 years. Oy Vay!

[purseOnalityRN]

THAT IS BS! What the heck. Sure some nights are boring & you may find useless things to do... But for the most part - on my gen surg unit anyway - we are constantly on the run. There are three nurses (1 lpn, 2 rn's). Some nights we run like mad doing frequent assessments, admitting from ER, taking off service pts at like 0300. What the heck do they want you to do more of during nights? Do they want you to wake up pts and do bed baths? They really do have balls of steel to speak that way to you.. how appalling!

[christymwinn]

Apparently this nurse has never worked a night shift in her life!
One thing every nigth nurse knows is that you don't come to the hospital to get any rest. PUHLEASE!!!!!
There are nights when I don't even get to go to the bathroom unti I am leaving. I work in the ICU now, but even when I was on Med/Surg with all the patients you have, you are running your tail off-- answering lights, turning pt's, cleaning up incontinent pt's and let's not forget watching the sundowners!!!! I feel for ya!!!

[gitterbug]

Once again this is a sign of just how uncaring and ignorant administration can be towards regular working staff. Night shift is difficult to work anytime, but just have one or two patients that are going down the tubes, or having any type of issue and it can mean trouble for the already overworked, undermanned staff. This representative of the administration needs to get off the soapbox and come out for a few nights to see what really happens, until that time, come up with some good questions, you know the ones that have no really good answer, the ones staff deals with week after week, and lay them on her at her next appearance. This burns me in a very negative way. I hate this type of meeting and I would think after one of these meeting morale hits the bottom of the pit. I wish you a better work week, and I hope the staff gets a pat on the back soon. I know the work you do and I know just how hard it is to do on nights.

[brendamyheart]

Originally Posted by gitterbug

Once again this is a sign of just how uncaring and ignorant administration can be towards regular working staff. Night shift is difficult to work anytime, but just have one or two patients that are going down the tubes, or having any type of issue and it can mean trouble for the already overworked, undermanned staff. This representative of the administration needs to get off the soapbox and come out for a few nights to see what really happens, until that time, come up with some good questions, you know the ones that have no really good answer, the ones staff deals with week after week, and lay them on her at her next appearance. This burns me in a very negative way. I hate this type of meeting and I would think after one of these meeting morale hits the bottom of the pit. I wish you a better work week, and I hope the staff gets a pat on the back soon. I know the work you do and I know just how hard it is to do on nights.

Yep morale would sink. Always not what you do right, it is what you do wrong. I face this everyday

[GoldenLove]

Okkk...I am/was upper management...I am taking a much needed break lol but I have never ever taken the responsibilities of the nurses (night or day) for granted and actually worked the floors with them at times to help them out. I always appreciate the work they do and feel badly when I feel they are not recognized properly. I hope you get the credit you deserve soon! Some admin apparently let that title go to their head.

[Sophie123]

Patient care is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I think someone needs to inform that Nsg. Admin. Rep. that pt's don't say "I think I'd like to code before 7pm." Anything can happen at anytime. I don't work nights now, but I did. You run your butt off no matter what shift you work.

[cisco]

when I was manager of a med/surg floor, if I heard from my staff that this happened, I would be talking to my supervisor and stating clearly that if I have to go through the chain of command, then so do they. As manager of my floor, they should have approached me first and then it would have been my job to explain to them the facts or go to the night staff and explain things there. We had a horrible administration at the hospital where I was manager...thank god the CEO and CFO got canned and all the rest finally have left...it only took a decade for the board of directors to get things in hand. Hang in there, you know what the truth is!!!

[talondora1]

Sounds like the Night nurses need to sit down and have a Pow-Wow with her. Do it as a group, it's more effective.