Nursing Job Satisfaction

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losbozos

63 Posts

Specializes in women/children, pacu, or.

I have to say that mclennan said it succinctly & articulately. We are our own worst enemies. I could enumerate all the examples but I am just plain tired of doing that. We are not a cohesive, supportive group & go about finding a scapegoat for whatever BS is going around at the time. The constant doctor "brown nosing" & little whisper campaigns are getting old (for me). I used to pride myself on my principals & ethics. But, now it only brings on trouble. I don't see a firm, professional stand for adequate staffing (& I mean at the time, on the floor!), calling mgt on their punitive, labor-busting ways, & docs (not all, mind you, but they could advocate for nursing more) for their passive-aggressive, backhanded ways. I once worked w/ a doc that groused at me a few times but at least he had the "stones" to say it to my face.

Look at this forum! It's all about the same issue for the most part. Nothing will change unless we do and mean it! When I was a new nurse (>30 years ago), a more experienced nurse told me, "I don't get mad; I get even!" and she was proud! I was appalled but now believe that attitude is embedded in our culture & there is no changing @ this point. I'm about to give up and go on welfare. Please don't flame.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
I have to say that mclennan said it succinctly & articulately. We are our own worst enemies. I could enumerate all the examples but I am just plain tired of doing that. We are not a cohesive, supportive group & go about finding a scapegoat for whatever BS is going around at the time. The constant doctor "brown nosing" & little whisper campaigns are getting old (for me). I used to pride myself on my principals & ethics. But, now it only brings on trouble. I don't see a firm, professional stand for adequate staffing (& I mean at the time, on the floor!), calling mgt on their punitive, labor-busting ways, & docs (not all, mind you, but they could advocate for nursing more) for their passive-aggressive, backhanded ways. I once worked w/ a doc that groused at me a few times but at least he had the "stones" to say it to my face.

Look at this forum! It's all about the same issue for the most part. Nothing will change unless we do and mean it! When I was a new nurse (>30 years ago), a more experienced nurse told me, "I don't get mad; I get even!" and she was proud! I was appalled but now believe that attitude is embedded in our culture & there is no changing @ this point. I'm about to give up and go on welfare. Please don't flame.

I applaud you!! :yes:

13 years ago, a nurse told me those same words, and plenty of sage advice.

I wonder how many people feel empowered as a nurse...I do, despite it all...I still do.

Hope I don't get flamed...

choshockrn

5 Posts

Specializes in ER, Critical Care.
Please do not blame the patients for the health system that they must use and DID NOT CREATE.

I am not necessarily blaming the single patient, but more blaming society as a whole and how entitled it has become, and how accepting we are of that idea now.

monkeybug

716 Posts

Specializes in Public Health, L&D, NICU.
Please do not blame the patients for the health system that they must use and DID NOT CREATE.

I'm sorry, but sometimes there's no one else to blame. When someone acts in an appalling fashion just because they can, who should we blame? Maybe their mothers, I suppose. I don't blame patients when they have legitimate needs and wants, I blame them when I'm expected to serve an entire family with cans of soda, pillows, blankets, sandwich boxes because they have somehow mistaken a hospital stay for a mini vacation.

Mulan

2,228 Posts

Being expected to do the work of 2 (or is it 3?) people.

Editorial Team / Admin

Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN

6 Articles; 11,663 Posts

Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Expected to do more with less:

-not filling vacated positions

-adding on more duties (many of them non-nursing)

Seeing executives get obscene raises while those who do the work that makes the hospital money (AKA nurses) get a pittance

-execs at my facility saw a 200%+ raise in the last three years

-nurses, if they really kissed management butt for reviews, got maybe 3%

Customer service focus

-what's in the best interest of the patient will probably not make them happy

-Press-Gainey/HCAHPS/whatever were invented by someone who has absolutely no clue what healthcare is really (should be) about

In order to cut costs, hospitals are bringing in consultants to "make us better"

-these people have absolutely no experience in healthcare

-the suggestions they make may work in business, but they have no place in healthcare

-we have one in my OR right now who has no freaking idea about what should happen in the OR- ideas consist of cutting X% of full-time employees- and as it is, we are hurting to have enough staff to do the scheduled cases so how on earth is cutting staff going to make that better?

I work in a care home for those with mental disabilities, so I may/may not have come to the right place, but it all ties in with care at the end of the day.

In our home...

- clients get away with absolutely everything

- there are no rules for clients (oh, we have to call them clients btw it's a synonym for patients)

- one of our clients is making staff leave again and again because she can (we have had a complete staff team change, apart from just me and 2 other original members of staff left)

- when this one client goes outside the home shouting and crying outside the front of the home, the neighbour asks 'is she being abused' in total ignorance(and, because that's how society have been made to see any disagreement between staff member and patient/client these days) - thanks media

- one client sits around drinking bottles of coke all day and shouting at staff 'because its her right' and to take this 'right' away or challenge it would be seen as a 'deprivation of liberty'

- deprivation of liberty is shoved in staffs faces so as a result most days are spent letting the clients walk around bare footed, stuffing their faces, dictating to the staff what they want and when they want, at our expense

- lots of days are spent with one single client because the rest of the clients have no wish to do anything but sit around listening to music channels on tv all day for 10 months, and deprivation of "liberty" says we can't do f all about it.

- there has been 4 sacked staff members because one client is abusing the complaints system

Need I go on?

BlueLightRN

150 Posts

These are the problems I've seen in the field

- RIDICULOUS workloads, more work than any person could do safely and correctly. No one can do 15 jobs and take care of 30-50 patients.

- Low pay. I get tired of hearing people say nurses make a lot of money. I sometimes and struggling to pay bills on my nurse salary.

-Long hours, forced overtime, no breaks, no lunches- sometimes because the workload, sometimes because of....

UNDERSTAFFING - There is never enough nursing staff for what they want

Poor benefits- medicaid patients have better benefits than I do

Bullying- by older nurses in my case, or by LPNs who don't want to listen to a young RN. Also by staff like MA, STNA, CNA who are lazy and resent being delegated any task.

PATIENT ABUSE- Patients treat nurses like garbage. NEWSFLASH we don't owe you anything and we are NOT your servants.

Senseless work- double charting, being assigned things anyone could do (like cleaning up the rooms, being asked to do tasks someone without a license is able to do, especially since I don't have time because of the ridiculous understaffing and high patient/work load

Being treated like we're open targets for complaints- I don't care if you want pretzels and mustard, we have none, too bad! I also don't decide what your insurance company covers, how long a pre-auth takes, or how long you're waiting when you show up late and still expect to be seen. We didn't even have to offer to work you in!

Basically, patients expect us to solve all their problems (Sorry that your meds are 10 dollars but I can't control that and there's nothing I can do about it) and I can't help you find a new apartment because your boyfriend cheated on you. If you didn't come in drinking a 2 liter of pepsi your diabetes might not be so bad, I'm pretty sure it's not the "medicine's fault" or my fault for not "getting your sugar down"

Rude doctors - No, I won't pull the cath from your patient, then straight cath them, then un-cath, then re-cath and no I can't actually check the patient's blood pressure every 5 minutes for the next 3 hours, ain't nobody got time for that ridiculousness!

I really don't give a CRAP about patient satisfaction, all I care about is patient safety and not killing myself doing the job!

mlbluvr

171 Posts

While most everything I have read hits the nail on the head, my biggest beef is society and everyone's expectations with healthcare. I work and ER setting and I am really stuck in a rut lately. We see the same patients, usually on medicaid or no insurance, walk in with their set of demands, and we cater to their every need!!!! Just because we don't want to get bad reviews. Here let me get you a warm blanket, TV remote, turkey sandwich with a side if IM/IV narcotic.....and then I will see you tomorrow and we'll do it all again.....something NEEDS to change. Next comes the patient who wants STD testing done.....maybe if this wasn't a service that is offered through the ER, when the patient can come in at his/her convenience, and not have to pay anything for it, it would make the patient think twice about things, even if for just a split second....I know, I can go on an on and on, but I think we, as a society, need to really take a look at what healthcare really should be about, and not go in and expect to be waited on hand and foot!
I'll offer to the OP that nursing is female dominated, therefore will always remain second class, even if nurses in general didn't attack themselves, and also their patients, as in this poster- one who berates the Medicaid population and those that lack health insurance as the reason he or she... has a job. It never ends.

amygarside

1,026 Posts

a nurse's job is very noble and is very fulfilling

Specializes in ICU, BURNS, TRAUMA, TRANSPORT, HH.

For those posters who need to blame their job dissatisfaction on your patients;

That suggests to me that you are experiencing compassion fatigue.

The patients may make your life difficult for a shift or two,

they do not write your paycheck,

they do not tell you when you may and may not pee,

they do not tell you how many patients you MUST care for,

they don't make you pee in a cup to prove you are okay to work,

they don't squeeze your benefits to save a few $$ for administrative bonuses,

they don't kick you to the curb or throw you under the bus when their bad ideas turn into a practice nightmare for you.

We could go on and on and on about what patients can't do but employers can that creates horrible work environments for nurses.

Your patients may be an annoyance, but seriously, if we are not there for the patients, who are we nursing?

NurseGuyBri

308 Posts

Specializes in LTC, Education, Management, QAPI.

I see so many responses and agree with many of them. For me, it comes down to being overwhelmed. It seems that we ask more and more of nurses without giving better tools and resources. Of course, driven by medicare and medicaid as long term care is, it seems like we have to have 150% from a human who can at best give 95%. The high costs of healthcare have caused every corner to be cut. It leaves myself feeling empty at times. As a DON, how can I expect my wonderful, excellent nurses to not miss anything when i know that I would make the same mistakes? It's too much. But it has to be asked, because if it isn't, someone else who doesn't care would swoop in and take over. Nurses need more support, more recognition. Problem is that there isn't any money to do it. We're taking a 10 foot bridge and expecting to make it across a 100 foot chasm. I do not see a solution that will conquer the mountain, but we can all just do our best. I know personally that this drives my own feelings of inadequacy- knowing that I would not do a better job than the nurses on the floor but still expecting it because that's what has to be asked. Where does it end? Less than stellar care, cutting corners, and just barely keeping their nose above water to breathe. I am asking for miracles, here- satisfaction of caring for people is no longer there. The families yell about things you cannot change, the shifting census and population expects everything, and for what? Doing your best is not enough. If this reply describes powerlessness, then I suppose that's the truth.

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