Blarh

pebbles, BSN, RN · Jul 18, 2002

Why do managers always go on vacation when the staff need intervention the most? Grrr... I feel for you indeed, this is a very frustrating situation - and no solution in sight.

A manager at our hospital went on two vacations last summer - one just before they moved the unit to a different floor of the hospital (construction) and one just as they were beginning to introduce LPN's into a staff that had been all-RN for 10 or more years..... The staff had no-one to take issues and concerns too, because the "covering" manager from another unit was swamped with her own work!

RNinICU · Jul 18, 2002

The same thing is happening in every unit in our hospital. Over the past year, we have lost approx 2 RNs a month. Every unit is short staffed and overworked. We are not getting too many new recruits because the other hospital in town is offering a bigger sign on bonus, and a higher wage. The hospital has closed one unit and floated their staff out to the other floors, but these people are unhappy about not having a "home." Our manager recently brought LPNs back into ICU to help with the staffing situation, but it has only made things harder. They are not allowed to give IV pushes, hang blood, hang or titrate many of our drips, take verbal orders from physicians, or do admission assessments. So the RN covering their patients must do all of these things for them, as well as for her own patients. I am not putting these girls down, they are wonderful girls and hard workers, just limited in what they can do. We are trying to come up with different ways to organize care, but it is a difficult adjustment, especially now when we are so overburdened. I have worked at this hospital for a total of 25 years as a CNA, LPN, and the last 18 years as an RN. I have always loved my work and this institution, but I am getting so tired and burned out I don't know what to do. We are lucky that our manager and clinical coordinator both take patient assignments on a regular basis. Not all of the other nursing units are so fortunate. Our new schedule were just posted for next month, and there are days when there are only four people scheduled to cover both ICU and CCU. The sign up sheet for extra days is two pages long. I usually pick up one twelve hour shift a week, but I cannot continue to do this either. I have a life that I want to enjoy.

ERNurse752, RN · Jul 18, 2002

Things went to he** where I was working, many nights spent wondering when someone would die b/c I didn't have time to give them competent care.

So, I transferred...

night owl · Jul 18, 2002

Gosh indeed, are you sure that we don't work at the same facility??? They keep shoving more and more on the night shift who has the least amount of help...How impractical, unsafe and unrealistic is that??? The more we address this to our HN,& AHN, the more work they unload on us. I feel that their actions are saying, "You want to complain? well here's a few other things that you can do!" It's not only frustrating, it hurts too...These two people are supposed to be helping their staff. They know that we work our a$$es off and when you ask (nicely) to please lighten the load and even it up for all three shifts, it's a real kick in the a$$ when they throw more at you. I feel that we are truely being abused!!! They certainly ARE NOT going to back you up God forbid should something go terribly wrong, they'll be looking for someone to blame and in my opinion they're the only ones to blame b/c they keep shoving more and more at you and expect you to do as they say with no questions asked or complaints. I almost want to say, "OK we'll do it, but not until you #1) get us more help, #2) lighten the load altogether and #3) give us a BIG FAT raise!...I AM NO D@MN FOOL, NOT FOR YOU OR FOR ANYONE ELSE!"

This really p!ssed me off this morning...When our 6am nurse came in I needed a U/A from one resident on HER side which by the way, myself and another nurse take care of(besides our own hallways)all night until she comes in at 6 and does the meds. My own hall has the heaviest work load with 22 residents and is truely the hall from h*ll! I, like you, ran like a chicken with no head in my hall, and half of hers all night long. I had a prep for a colonoscopy besides all the treatments, all the freakin millions of meds that we give out, running and giving PRN pain meds in between the prep, the tx's, running and checking a res. who has an illeostomy and emptying his bag every 2 hours so that when she comes in at six it won't have fallen off due to its fullness, the PCx's, turning residents q2h, MAYBE a p!ss break in between somewhere. I got the speciman container, labeled it put he slips in the biohazard plastic speciman bag so she wouldn't have to do any of that and set it on top of her med cart with a note asking her to PLEASE obtain the speciman for me--- PLEASE. (The res. had a foley.) I forgot to change the darn drainage bag...Well she got all bent out of shape b/c I forgot to do this..."Who put this on my cart???" I did..."I'm not getting a speciman from a dirty drainage bag. Why didn't you change it???" Sh!t, maybe b/c I forgot??? I don't know, so kill me... PLEASE! Now I ask you, how long does it take to change a drainage bag? 1...2 minutes tops??? I turned to the CNA and said, "What the hell else do they (day shift) want us to do for them???" I tried to make it easy for her, but in the end I was the bad guy...that's the kind of luck I have trying to be nice. Will I ever do it again??? H*ll no!!! Kiss my a$$ and do it ALL yourself...You can't win for loozin. The kicker is...Where's the team work? If things are to get any better, it has to start with team work. If you don't have the team work, you'll never have a team...I have 18 years left and I hope I find that team someday... :scrying:

fedupnurse · Jul 18, 2002

We also fill out a form if only one nurse has an unsafe assignment and all of us there sign it. I wonder what the hospital's insurer would think about all these forms!!!! Just a thought. If our negitiations go poorly I will let you know what the insurer feels.