Nurses: Oppression Can Stop With You - Page 5

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  1. Sep 12, '12 by
    Quote from JMBnurse
    I agree with you completely and for years I worked in hospitals where I wished that all of the nurses would unite and stand up together against administration and demand better conditions for our work and for our patients. However, most of the nurses I worked with were not at all interested in this. They would complain and agree that something should be done, but none were willing to do anything about it. They seemed to worry that if they said or did anything, they would lose their job. Finally, I got out of the hospital environment and into a better one. Now I am respected where I work, treated fairly, encouraged to be independent and think outside the box, supported, praised, paid well, given freedom in my schedule and the list goes on and on. I will never return to working in a hospital. Never. I would not have been offered this job without the experience of 13 years I toiled in hospitals and I am glad that I have that experience, but I have never been so happy in my career. It's a shame because I am a good nurse and loved taking care of patients and I am surrounded now every day by other good nurses who will also unlikely return to a hospital. It's sad that some nurses feel they have to leave and give up direct patient care to enter other areas in order to be treated decently. I have some friends and family members who have left the profession completely because of this.

    We have lost 4 nurses from our unit in the last 2 1/2 months because of the poor conditions in which we are forced to work. All of them were newer nurses, 3 of them worked less than a year. One thing about the younger nurses that I have observed, they are less willing to put up with what they deem as unsafe conditions , pathetic scheduling and just overall bad working environment. JMBnurse, I think what you're saying is very accurate. I am not sure what they're going to use for nurses in the future? So many are just saying NO to the crazy bedside nursing scenario because of understaffing and so much stress. I am only going to work for another 8 years (till I'm 60 years old and not a day longer!) and I'm hoping I make it that long, it is so bad some days I wonder if I can actually even do that? Would love to find a position, such as you speak of. I am sure jobs like yours are not a dime a dozen? I have a friend that recently left our unit and was fortunate enough to get on at an Outpatient Endoscopy facility and says that she loves it and she is treated so much better than she was in the hospital setting on our unit. We nurses mean almost nothing to a hospital viewed merely as numbers and warm bodies, hence the reason we are treated the way we are, undervalued and sorely appreciated.
  2. Sep 12, '12 by
    Quote from gcupid
    As a black man that happens to be a Registered nurse, I do find the two comparisons to be offensive. Granted,there is oppression in the nursing profession but it does not hold the same weight..... And if you do believe that the two issues are on the same level there's nothing more I can say (outside of I wish I had a d%#^ time machine I could let you borrow)

    This is ridiculous, nit picking on Commuter's excellent article/topic! Give her a break! Obviously, she didn't intentionally mean to offend anyone. I think it's absurd that certain people had to find any offense in what she wrote!
    TheCommuter likes this.
  3. Sep 17, '12 by
    Quote from GadgetRN71
    Excellent article. Sadly, those who try to fight for change often end up discouraged, tired, beaten down. I'm not ready to give up quite yet, but I'm getting there.
    I am there already. I am horrendously sick of this profession and I have made the decision to turn my back on it - Its not what it used to be (even 10 years ago was better than how it is now). Like you said, being a champion for change is a set up for failure. Am I crabby? Yes - 10 years of drama, name calling, insults, petty write ups, verbal and physical abuse, unsafe working conditions and unsupportive management have led me to believe that being a Champion for Change is a fantasy.
    Is change possible? Yes. How do we change? Sad truth is - we quit and move on to do something else.
  4. Asst. Admin
    Sep 17, '12 by
    Quote from abbaking
    Is change possible? Yes. How do we change? Sad truth is - we quit and move on to do something else.
    This mechanism for change is also known as 'voting with your feet' (read: leaving nursing altogether). When enough people do this, it can actually be effective enough to get TPTB to take notice of the problems that are occurring in the nursing profession.
  5. Sep 19, '12 by
    High paid CEO's do not improve patient outcomes in the acute care setting, adequate numbers of professional nurses properly trained and supported in providing nursing care to patients improves outcomes.

    Until hospital systems acknowledge and embrace this fact there will continue to be struggles to maintain the bottom line of the facility at the expense of nurses. And when the outcomes suffer the nurses will still be blamed and asked to do more with less and the CEO will collect a bonus for continuing to put bandaids on the problems.
    wooh and abbaking like this.