Truly sad- please read and consider

Marilou26RN · Jan 14, 2001

[Lita1857- I remember you.... you were one of those nurses that "ate their young" when I started my career back then. Almost quit my profession before I even started!! However, thanks to you, I hung on & became a compassionate, caring, devoted & skillful nurse!

Again, I thank you!!!!

soundsLikesirens · Jan 14, 2001

Shannon: I didn't direct any anger toward you - I said that this BB IS FOR VENTING. Yes I agree...we mustn't vent on our patients...or each other. We must have a safe, nonjudgmental place we can come and vent our frustrations. It's important. If someone comes here and doesn't like the way it sounds then they are going to have to rethink how badly they want to be a nurse. I'm sure it isn't this bad everywhere...everyone knows med/surg is the most frantic. But it's important that we have a place to vent. Because, if you've noticed, people who don't vent bottle it up and then it spews out just anywhere....there's a nurse at work who totally cannot handle stress...she blows up at other nurses, the ward clerk, etc. To me, this is unacceptable - I may get stressed but I DON'T take it out on people. That isn't how you do it.

iris · Jan 14, 2001

ShannonB25...Sorry your bubble was busted. But in all honesty...what everyone here is venting is pretty much what they are experincing in their particular dept. Would you rather they sugar coat it and pretend as if this situation never existed. This is why we are experincing so much promblems in the nursing field. Everyone needs to know across the globe that this problem exist. We all became nurses because we love what we do...not how we're treated. We come to this

BB to gripe and it allows us to unload. We return to work the following day and give our patients the best care we can, knowing there's no relief to come. This BB allows us to see that we're not in this alone. That are feeling are true and justified. We walk around feeling guilty for the way we feel as if we're bad nurses and not team players. And in all honesty, we're just over worked and under staffed. And being totally ignored by management. So please don't confuse nursing with reality. Because we all love being nurses--just don't like where it took us. To be a great nurse may be difficult, because in your heart it's there, but time does not allow for it. So you do your best, walk away totally exhausted, sacrifice your own life and still feel like you're a rotten nurse. Despite all this.. I still love being a nurse. So this must mean something?? It's not all bad. Good luck..I'm sure you will find joy in this field.

lita1857 · Jan 14, 2001

Well Marilou26 you made an assumption after reading a few posts by me but so be it...for your patients sake glad you hung in there and are now the nurse you discribe.Your absolutely right though in your assumption of me, I am not a coddler or an enabler...guess that could be seen as "eating the young".There is a conference by a company called "Triage First" Taming of the Beast and a nurse(male) speaks on practicing nursing w/ mercy....an outstanding conference, an outstanding nurse! By the way Marilou, your welcome...see ya in the trenches

KatieD · Jan 15, 2001

Sounds to me like Shannon is doing something very noble... she wanted more of a challenge, and decided that she'd find it in nursing. I think Shannon will end up being the type of nurse that people like me, who've had their critically-ill child cared for months at a time in hospitals, will later call her admins and make sure that something is done to positively recognize her hard work and dedication.

Prmenrs sounds like yet another of those (only my son has a heart problem, he was not a premie). In fact, we came across many like her in my son's first (almost) 8 months of life. We still are in doctor offices and hospitals regularly. I have made it a point to ask admins to recognize persons who do good (even wrote to the newspaper once, and mentioned persons again when we made the front page of the paper).

HOWEVER, I think some people here ought to know, that people like me also make it a point to let admins know when they are treated like yet another headache for the nurse. I think we all know that nurses do 99% of the work with the patients, so I expect the very best. If we don't get it, I don't sit back and take it.

Prmenrs said some very important things in her posting. She said "my babies" and "our families". She refers to them as if they were her own. THIS is what makes a good nurse, and what makes people like me ask that they be positively recognized for their hard work and dedication. The folks who detest their patients and take it out on them, the people are out there who will speak up about this, also. Just keep that in mind as you work in the profession that you chose!

letmeletme · Jan 15, 2001

I have been an RN for 11 years and I still love what I do. I believe that it is definitely a calling. Of course, there are days that I don't want to go to work, I don't want to wipe someone's bottom, etc. But, I knew when I went into nursing that all that is part of it. I would do it all over again. No matter how horrible your patient or family is, there is always that one that will say something that makes it all worthwhile. I have learned that the most satisfaction I get from my job comes from my coworkers. A compliment from one of them means so much more. I try to encourage and stand behind my coworkers as much as I can. I try to remember to thank them for helping me, supporting me, and just listening to me. I just wanted everyone to know that I LOVE being a NURSE!!!

LORELLELPN · Jan 15, 2001

Shannon,

I love nursing! I love my job. I feel good about myself every night when I come home. I used to work for a very large corporation of long term care facilities in Maryland. I now live in North Carolina, and went to work for a NON-PROFIT home. It's very large and beautiful and the best feeling in the world is coming home at night and knowing that I went out to work that day, and I earned money to help support my family while delivering care to those in need and nobody's getting fat off of it. I always said that the grass was not greener anywhere and I was wrong. I better than anyone know about long hours and hard days without going into a list of past history I will simply say I had a hard job. The facility where I work is the smoothest run, most friendly environment I have ever been in, and I plan to stay until I retire about 40 years from now. It is difficult being a nurse, but it is also very rewarding, even in setting that are not ideal. There is always that one patient who says, thank you and really means it. There's always that family that needs you to help them understand and to vent to you. There is laughter and tears, and anger and heartbreak, there are ethical challenges that you face, every spectum of emotion and then some goes into being a nurse over the course of your career. You will love it, and you will hate it everyday is different. But when you really "feel" it is when, somehow in some way no matter how big or how small you find out that you have touched someone elses life and that is what it's all about. For the record, I encourage every young person who is interested to go for it. I took my Practical Nursing Training while I was in High School we also had adult students, it was 2 years and it was hard, and when I graduated from it I was 17, there is nothing wrong with being a young nurse so long as who ever you are you maintain a professional attitude. Which is all I have to say about the statement someone else posted here about a 19 year old. there are a lot of things to learn from people who are that critical of others-like how not to be! Good Luck with your schooling, your boards and your future career as a nurse, you sound very intelligent and have a willingness to hear others point of view which will make you a great assest to our profession!

leslie :-D · Jan 15, 2001

Dear Soundslikesirens,

After reading more of your posts, you do sound like a very decent person and I hope that we can correspond through further bb's. This past weekend I did 2 doubles, lost 4 patients and was grossly understaffed. This facility is rehab/hospice/long term care/level I Medicare. My floor runs as an ER for the elderly for the most part. Today I will say there is nothing natural about it. My 2 hospice pts. died alone and without pain mgmt. because the covering MD would not fax a script and the 3 cna's and 2 nurses were covering 40 pts., 30 total care and/or sick. There are central lines,vents,trachs,g-tubes galore. I was busy transfusing blood and fluid replacements to a 97 y.o. pt. with metatstatic prostate ca because his dtr. was unable to let go. Anyway, he died gurgling, convulsing then bottoming out right in front of me. Our existing staff did not freak out but just worked in deafening silence as we trudged through this nightmare. This morning I can't stop crying. Lita, take off your combat boots. Too much is out of our control. And don't even try retorting with one of your snippy comments... the weekend I just went through everyone of us has gone through. And you can't fight it. You just grieve it and continue until you can't continue anymore. Thank God for the most part, we make a huge difference. Love always, Pollyanna

prmenrs, RN · Jan 15, 2001

{{{{{{{EARLE58}}}}}}} That's an electronic hug!! Wish I could give you the real thing, but I'll say a prayer that some one else does.

nursejanedough · Jan 16, 2001

I have read all of these posts. First of all, I did not feel like SoundsLikeSirens was attacking anyone, just venting her/his own frustrations. I have read other posts by SLS and sounds like a hell of a job. I have admired him/her for sticking with it. And to earle, wow, I have seen and had some horrible LTC (short staffing) situations, but that sounds like hell. I still feel guilty I bailed out. I am doing legal chart reviews for a relative attorney. I have no experience in legal nurse consulting, just reviewing LTC charts of nursing home that this attorney represents. I am trying very hard to be objectionable. But I do know that a lot of times, we, good nurses, do take care of patients but don't have time to chart everything. But sadly, if it's not charted, it's not done. I have done three chart reviews. All I can say, is document, document, document. (It's not been a year since I left LTC, so I am still sweatin it out on being called up in a legal case.)

goldilocksrn · Jan 16, 2001

I want to stay positive, so I thought I would give you some hard learned advice: 1) Do not think you can go to administration and they will listen to YOU. If you have any hope of them listening to you, your entire UNIT must call a meeting with them and discuss issues with more than one voice stressing what is important. 2)Do not try and make things better by sticking your head on the chopping block for the sake of the unit. Chances are, your fellow nursing staff will not back you, but insist you are the instigator. 3) Do not say ANYTHING to anyone about anyone else that you do not expect to get back to the person you are talking about. 4) Listen to that little annoying voice inside you that says, "something just doesn't feel right." 5) Say no if a task or assignment is just too much for you no matter how you feel others will view you. I could think of many more, but you get the point. These are some things I've learned by being burned. Hope it doesn't happen to you.

SlinkRN · Jan 16, 2001

Originally posted by KatieD:
Shannon,

I'm not a nurse, thinking about going into nursing, though, and I thought I might answer your original question, about how you could become a good nurse. I read some of the other posts here, and they remind me of the one negative experience I had while dealing with my son's heart condition. The nurse who posed that problem was reported, and action was taken, believe me! Our family has been in and out so many times, that we are well respected where we've been, especially by the higher ups and the nurses who are in supervisory positions. So, persons who behave in that manner, maybe they can also learn from what I am going to say about what made a good nurse in our eyes.

Our nurses while my son was hospitalized (many lengthy, times in his not-quite 8 months of life), were (all but one) wonderful!!! Yes, they were overworked, they were tired, and they were very busy. No, they were not at our beck and call, but they did apologize if something took an awfully long time, they truly seemed to care for my son, and they were respectful when we had a request (such as holding him, despite the fact that he was on the ventilator, but it had been a week and a half at that point).

The good nurses did not treat you like an idiot, they helped you to become informed about what the equipment in the room was, what it was there for, and how to read all the #s. They didn't assume that you didn't care, or assume that you already knew. They asked on about EVERY visit to the room if there was anything they could do for us, get for us, etc.

They treated my son as if he was their own. They would talk to us as humans, and not just another person taking up their time. They made sure if we had questions they could not answer, that they paged a doc. or wrote it in my son's file for someone to answer later.

I truly felt comfortable letting my son stay overnight with the nurses, and us going back to the Ronald McDonald House. The only time this didn't happen, was with the negative experience, and then, I wouldn't even leave his room to go to the bathroom or eat, unless someone else from my family was on watch. My only son's life was in their hands, and if someone had the attitude like the ones I've seen here... I asked to have them removed from my son's room and not to be returned.

In less than 8 months, we've racked up over $200,000 in medical expenses... with that kind of money going out, he ought to have the best care, and most times, that's exactly what we got. The only thing else I can say, is treat these patients (and their families) as if they're people you know. Treat them as you'd hope your own family would be treated if put in that predicament, and you'll be one of the nurses whom people like me call the big boss' and say "You know Nurse ______....he/she was absolutely INCREDIBLE!!!!! Let me tell you what he/she did for my child......I hope that you can find some way to positively recognize his/her work."