POLL: How many nurses are NOT at the bedside due to physical demands or injuries/ill

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  1. Have you left the bedside due to the physical demands?

    • 5
      Yes, I was injured on the job and can't do the bedside work anymore..I do non-bedside nursing work now.
    • 1
      I was injured on the job but continue to try and do the work anyway.
    • 2
      I can't work at all anymore due to my injuries sustained in nursing.
    • 9
      I have left bedside nursing because of the physical dermands and risk of injury.

17 members have participated

On the "Help recycle disabled nurses" thread, we were discussing the high rate of injury of nurses at the bedside and the fact that nursing is a very physically demanding job....(although nobody seems to care much about this besides nurses.) :(

Got to wondering just how many nurses there are out in cyberland who are NOT working at the bedside anymore due to this?? Or how many have changed jobs/careers/ or ??? due to this?

Let's poll and find out. :p

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OK, I'll start. :)

I was injured on the job....low back...15 years ago. My employer (a hospital) treated me very badly and attempted to intimidate me into not filing for workers comp. It was a terrible time for me...I was young and naieve.... had NO idea that should I ever be injured at work, I would be treated so poorly.

But, I got an attorney and he finally got the hospital to do the right thing by me...I had a low back fusion, rehabilitated and went back to bedside critical care nursing. Probably not the smartest decision, but for 15 years I was OK...then a car wreck put me out of commission again...:(....now I'm rehabing after a second spine surgery.

With the poor staffing I see today I really worry about the backs and joints of young nurses just entering the field. I have seen so many coworkers injured on the job and then 'blown off' or intimidated by management, which is SO upsetting to me.... :(

What do the rest of you think about this? Any stories to share? Lessons learned? Need to vent??

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

I've been off nursing for a few years because of a severe shoulder injury I suffered on the job that I have NEVER been awarded any monetary funds for. I pretty much lost my mind at the thought of not being able to work as a nurse again, so I decided to get as much physical therapy as I could, rest the arm, pray a lot for guidance as to what to do NEXT with my life, and hope for the best. Today, I ache to work in nursing again...even with all the bullcrap I've been reading about in nursing today. I am soooooooo determined to return to nursing...maybe med or PA school...Nursing Education...NP...something along that line of thought. Since healing is 90% mental, and 10% physical (my own stats here), I am applying all of my available mental energy to getting well and back on the "force" (of nursing).

So many health care workers have suffered physical injuries on the job that hospitals are reluctant...even afraid...to hire staff who have suffered physical injuries before. They didn't care enough to treat us right when we suffered our initial injury, and they aren't treating us right "post-injury" and healing in giving us a chance to be all we CAN be as a nurse in whatever capacity we are able to help. Nursing is a Business, and Businesses are all about the almighty green buck... :rolleyes: Sad, but so true. :nurse:

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Yep - me too. I suppose I *could* do the bedside work, with a lot more help than is realistically available. I'd pay the price, of course, in pain and re-injury.

I had a low back muscle sprain - a really bad one. I took two days off with back pain and the day I came back, I had an muscle spasm, foot drop and fell and broke my arm. The workers comp nurse changed the injury report from that to "tripped on phone cord." after I'd already signed the form. How legal is that????

Love

Dennie

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Sorry everyone...I shoulda checked...this poll is a bit repetitive and others have polled similarly! Sorry (but it was nice to hear from you ladies! (((HUGS))))

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Our hospital eliminated orderlies in a reorganization about 8 years ago. Now, HR calculates that we spend several million dollars a year paying for time off for nurses' back injuries. The great new idea to deal with this is a 'lift team'. A pair of strong young men will work as a team to do lifting for patients who need help getting out of bed, turning, etc. It should save some back strain on the nurses.

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