What's your reason for putting up with it?

[canigraduate]

Hello, all!

I have been a CNA for a little over a year now as I am transitioning into the health care field. During this time, I have observed the nurses I work with, who happen to be all female so far.

I have noticed nearly every female nurse I have worked with puts up with things that would shock someone not in healthcare. Things that would get you arrested if you tried them outside of a facility. Things that I personally can't tolerate.

What I want to know is, if you are a nurse that puts up with these actions, why do you do it? Is it for job security? Are you a submissive person? Do you feel that you deserve the things that people do to you? Do you think it's lack of education about what is and isn't appropriate behavior? Or maybe it's due to the accepted culture of a workplace?

This isn't for a class or anything, I just really would like to know what the motivation is.

Thanks in advance for your replies!

[Abishag]

I'm starting to think my experience and training have only set me up to keep me opressed. Hmm. Maybe I need to take that course on abuse in the workplace. I wonder if I'm just getting old school info from old school nursing instructors who mean well.

I'm not one to ever let someone abuse me. I wouldn't have any issues having someone charged with assault/battery if they so much as slapped me or shoved me and were A&Ox3. I don't tolerate physical abuse of any sort (with the only exception of the dementia patient...and even then it would be case by case I think...since I've seen my own grandfather with alzheimers with not a mean or violent bone in his body punch my aunt and wet himself...I can't imagine arresting my own grandfather - may he rest in peace- much less someone elses for something they had no idea they did in their final years on this earth).

As for the men that are having issues with their sexual function and getting penile implants saying things they shouldn't to the staff, I guess when you step back and look at it...well you make some very valid points. That is all I will say.

[gypsy626]

most of the time we are not talking about the patient with a head injury, or dementia, we are talking about abusive people and/ or their families

usually disfunctional ones , and then there are the just rude ones, this maybe generalizing however in 18 yrs of nursing this is the norm of what I have seen

the wealthy are usually more demanding but not abusive they may demand more but are cooperative and say thank you

the working class just want to get well and go home normally never any issues

the generational welfare patient is verbally abusive the most demanding and least accepting of any patient education the hospitals never accepted abuse in any form md's and nurse managers would intervene

or security would handle it

in rehab, short and ltc the scene changes, the patient who is a/ox3 is told " what ever they want they can have" as they sign in does it happen of course not they want steak, they get hamburgers, they want pain med in seconds of asking there is one nurse caring for 20 to 41 patients

the cnas are wonderful but their primary role is incontinet care , bed making and meals

the off shifts are the ones who suffer having the least staff they also have the largest med pass, treatments, and the majority of the family issues with little or no support staff

if a pt hits another pt they are sectioned to a psych hosp if a pt hits a staff member they call psyche services who come arrive in a few days and offer to up their medications and get a ua c& s

no one really pays attention to some of the real issues why patients get angry

loss of control, facility foods, not enough staff to meet their needs in a timely manner, changes in their habits

no smoking, no etoh, no fatty sodium laden snacks, one to 3 room mates who may keep them awake,

touch their belongings staff entering rooms for care, personal odors of others who have the right not to bathe or shower and then if for some reason they are not financially ready for ltc after their 100 paid days

their finances drained and sometimes their family homes sold to pay for care

and it's all understandable it's all reasonable anger

it's the for profit homes who make staff more at risk for lateral violence, there is NO other course of action but to make it a police issue once assaulted by staff in a nursing home because administration doesn't want to correct the situation but bury it usually targeting the one assaulted

and I have been told by more than one manager just remember at the end of the day we are just a business to keep a head in the bed

in other words the only thing that matters in the census!

[JacknSweetpea]

Abishag, I'm glad you're seeing that abuse is abuse no matter who dishes it out. Elderly, demented patients do act out, but can be re-directed. As for the others, it is due to other issues they had long before hospitalization, as the other posts have stated. Since I work in a LTC that it's main focus is long-term care of the mentally ill, I like to research psychiatric disorders as well as personality disorders. I've come to realize in my short tenure that there are a ton of people with gross personality disorders. Read up on them; they're interesting. As for acting in a way you were taught by well-meaning instructors.....were they older or middle-aged women? Some of mine were and could tell you in their day they had to give up a seat whenever a male MD came into a room, had things thrown at them, been grabbed at by MDs as well as male patients, etc. etc.. We've come a long way as far as women's rights are concerned, but not it's still not enough. There's still wage discrepancies amongst men and women, some religions teaching/implying women are lesser beings, and sexist attitudes all around. It's too bad. Don't continue the cycle because you been taught that way. Best of Luck*wine

[JacknSweetpea]

makes needs known...your viewpoint is scary, very scary, and masochistic too.

[gypsy626]

jack at least you are honest in your specialty,

what society has become, ah nursing.....

some days it doesn't pay to chew through the leather restraints

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

An image search with the keywords above turned up this guy.

Ha ha! I was feeling down and you gave me a good laugh!

It's funny cos I don't tolerate any abuse in any shape or form (have put up with too much of that in the past),but I admire Jack Nicholson a lot - I think he's tough, brutal and funny. Maybe I'm attracted to the wrong men?!