I am officially broken. Vent. - Page 2

you just answered your own question. it's not can't hire- it's WONT hire.

misslady rn- ive been in this same predicament too. i sympathize. time for an attempt at a new job. this is BS. hugs

At one facility, we had a box that went directly to the DON. I have had those nights and was always the charge nurse. Even though I would try to assist, my own patients would go wacky on me. After numerous times of sending messages to the DON, I met a Clinical Nurse Specialist who actually came to the floor to see what needed to be changed. It took the CNS and I about two weeks to come up with solutions. One was based on patient acuity. If the day shift needed the extra people, the night shift needed someone extra as well. Another was to tell the house supervisor that they could send new patients to other floors that had plenty of nurses and not enough patients. Or to float one of the nurses from another floor. We also came up with a floating nursing pool where nurses would work different floors. A lot of nurses applied for these positions and it helped alleviate some of the frustration. However, if you feel that you need a break, take it. We all need a time out just to relax and not come home feeling frustrated and undervalued. It will make you feel better.

I feel for you, the confused, agitated, altered mental status drive all of us crazy. It is impossible to be everywhere at once. Where I work they are finally getting sitters because they don't want to have to pay for the medical complications when a person falls and injures himself. Even still patients get up fall and hurt themselves as we can't be everywhere at once.

I suggest you take a well deserved and well needed mental health day!

I'm feeling your pain, too, and I don't work on a floor, I work in the ER now. Last night, I had a patient come in with a possible CVA--which turned out to be a major bleed-- who needed to be flown out, and about 20 minutes later (While my head bleed was still there) got a working code in one of my other rooms. We are ALWAYS short of nurses AND techs. It just doesn't seem safe, and although management says they are "working on it", not much has been done. To top it off, they are not wanting to grant vacation time because we don't have enough staff and are asking people to work extra days. HOW is that going to make us actually want to come to work??

I completly understand. I took a mental health day this week and got docuumentation from my doctor. MHD are needed every once in a while...

How is it that all these posts about working short, being so short staffed, and not having enough nurses on a shift occur simultaneously with so many posts about new grads being unable to find jobs? Nurses that wanted to work that night shift with you last night!! Arrrgh. It's ridiculous. Yes, there is a nursing shortage- it's happening all over right now. It's just, they're not hiring nurses.

Hello-

All I can say is...hang in there. 7 months is 7 months. If you DO NOT take the time to take care of your self FIRST, then you cannot take care of your patients. I honestly think it is time to search for a different position, and maybe a different specialty. I work in Pediatrics/PICU, and I can say where I have my bad days, they are NOTHING like you all have been describing! It depends on where you live how bad this nursing shortage truly is. I live in Phoenix, and while there are areas that are short nurses, these are the same hospitals that are not hiring due to budget cuts, preventing new nurses from ever finding work after they graduate. The claims are that is just costs too much to train a new nurse. Its a vicious cycle, really, but hopefully one that will be fixed soon. Hang in there! Take the night off, have a glass of wine, and just take a mental health day to regroup and possibly reevaluate your career.

Shame on that supervisor....I would have called the MD myself and gotten some meds for those patients or fouind a way to dig up a tech from somehwere to help and hung out there myself to helop out, may be do your paper work or chart checks. But I konw many supervisors don't do this.

By the way you are looking pale to me...... Maybe you should call in sick.

That sucks in every way. So unfair. Take the sick day as medicine for your stress headache!