Whats happening to the nursing profession?

sjoe · Oct 2, 2003

(duplicate post)

sjoe · Oct 2, 2003

"Whats happening to the nursing profession? "

I first noticed it falling apart in 1993.

"The thing is i love my job but the conditions are so bad at times. I'm sorry to say i am seriosly thinking about going back to uni and doing my degree in Health Visiting. Do any other nurses experience this?"

Well, in the US, there are nearly one-half MILLION licensed nurses who refuse to work in these kinds of conditions and are doing something other than nursing. And a lot more of us, like myself, who work only part time while looking for something better, because of these conditions.

oramar · Oct 2, 2003

I trace the decline to the early 1990s also. The first time I heard the words restructuring and downsizing I did not truely understand what they meant. Now I shudder every time I hear those phrases. I still hear them almost everyday.

purplemania, BSN, RN · Oct 2, 2003

When I worked the floor and we were short we ignored the phone. At some point the House Supervisor would have to come check on us due to a complaint. That usually got us help. Otherwise, we figured the patients were our priority and everybody else will just have to wait.

Gomer · Oct 2, 2003

Decline for me started in the 70's with DRG's.

Patient was no longer the patient but became the customer/client.

Then the doctors who admitted the patients became the customers/clients because we needed their business.

Then as reimbursements got smaller the insurance companies became the customers/clients because they made the deals with the doctors and the hospitals for services.

Nurses? Patients? we are just the impediments which slow down medical commerce.

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Oct 2, 2003

Originally posted by Gomer
Decline for me started in the 70's with DRG's.

Patient was no longer the patient but became the customer/client.

Then the doctors who admitted the patients became the customers/clients because we needed their business.

Then as reimbursements got smaller the insurance companies became the customers/clients because they made the deals with the doctors and the hospitals for services.

Nurses? Patients? we are just the impediments which slow down medical commerce.

WHOOOOOO !!! That's telling it like it is. Kudos.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Oct 2, 2003

When we became expenses rather than assets, our value to the profit-driven health care industry went in the toilet. Regretfully, I don't see that changing until health care goes back to its roots in SERVICE, and that's not gonna happen in my lifetime.

tonchitoRN · Oct 2, 2003

in my bsn course i learned that by definition nursing is a vocation and not a profession. that could be part of the problem.

SmilingBluEyes · Oct 2, 2003

yep that is typical of what they teach in BSN programs.

and they only have it [PARTLY right, if you ask me. (I I know, no one did)------

But to me,nursing is what the NURSE says it is to him/her. Unfortunately, the hospitals, administrators, "customers" and managers don't see it this way and really never have........

I think Gomer said it best here......

we are not seen as assets, but liabilities, and we are a major EXPENSE to the hospitals/institutions for whom we are employed. (one they would LOVE to cut, drastically to the bone). And we are seen as handmaidens, butlers, and gofers, etc, by our "customers".

that is why so many nurses have voted with their FEET----right out of the "profession" "vocation" or "calling" they used to call theirs.

sjoe · Oct 2, 2003

"we are not seen as assets, but liabilities, and we are a major EXPENSE to the hospitals/institutions for whom we are employed. "

We're just one more item of overhead to these people (until THEY are patients themselves).

catz · Oct 3, 2003

yep, these sort of working conditions and a manager who was/is a bully have caused me to seriously consider leaving the profession alltogether. i will not submit myself to the stress of working in those conditions again but i loved my job and i still want to work as a rn child. hv or school nursing here i come hopefully