LUCKY! to have a job

I can tell you what I am... I am an autonomous competent health care professional, a NURSE! And I save lives.

And yes, this sad state of affairs you describe will continue ad nauseum until... we gain control of our profession! Others now control us and our professional practice environments.

I have been a nurse a mere 3 years, but I am learning how true it is that we don't have control over our own professions or environments...for example...I work in the nursery at my hospital where an RN is required to be present at all times. We are not allowed to have any food or drink in our area because we might "confuse it with lab samples" or some bogus excuse like that. We are "stuck" in the nursery, in a high-paced environment and it is hard to leave our area to go get a sip of water. Working a 12 hour shift with little access to essential things like that can be tough on the body.

Just this week they started actually writing people up if they are caught with a drink in the nursery. Are we in kindergarten??? Obviously the people who made this rule do not actually do our job and have no idea what the lived experience is like. Sometimes I feel like they are trying to take away our last few comforts we have as nurses.

Also, it's a little demeaning when you are sent an email telling you not to clock in even one minute early or late. Come on! We are working our tails off, expected to provide a high degree of quality care and we get a slap on the wrist for not staying within our time boundaries.

How many times have we heard, patients come to the hospital for nursing care..and yet we feel under-appreciated and are bossed around all the time.

Just my opinion...I am sure I am not alone.

so very true . Our freedom of speech is being taking away from us each day. Nurses need to support each other
stop the backstabbing... fight for safe patient care ratios .. We can do it

I Feel your pain. It's as though all managers were given the same montra handbook letting us know how lucky we are to have jobs... then bully us into working longer hours... and in my case, without pay. And if management hear us grumbling, we are pulled into their office for a write up...and if we get 3 write ups, then we are let go. So now, everyone is walking on eggshells. And the funny thing is, we do telephonic case management, so If we all walked at once, the company would tank within a day. Now I can see why there is such a shortage.

I am so tired of being told "At least you have a job." I work weekends only meaning Friday, Saturday, and Sunday....anyway on Tuesday a fellow nurse (we are not sure who, this is the problem) left a flush in the breakroom. Management found out and and on Friday when I came in I found that all licensed personal had been written up. They said since they could not figure out who had done it and we have all been several times we would all be held responsible. Yeah, I'm happy to have a job.......

I was the fat that got trimmed

I love to turn this comment around and tell them they are lucky to have prudent compentant nurses, or you wouldn't have a hospital. I have also come to the conclusion that its all about numbers. I work in an ICU in a smaller community hospital. Its funny, because they keep preaching that since we are a small town community, we need to take care of our patients and treat our patients with respect a little more. This makes no sense at all. I take care of all my patients the same way. Just because you are the owner of a big business and give our hospital lots of money doesn't mean that I will treat you any different than somene else who is having the same medical problems. I thought it was funny the other day, I was charge. our one nursing supervisor gives patients a patient to nurse ratio of 1 to 1 to 4 to 1. The magic number was 6. We had 6 nurses that day. I looked at the supervisor and told her, I guess we can't take any admissions or transfers, because we would be over our nurse to patient ratio. She didn't say anything. Yes, I am one of those who tells you that I don't like what your doing under no particular circumstances. I just graduated with my BSN and am tired of the politics of upper managment. Anyways, are we lucky to have a job? I say no. I say, your lucky to have nurses who fight for great care and treatment of your patients!

I am on the same boat. The hospital I worked at until this week, has been using the same rethoric to control, even more, the saff, and not only that, they did cut a lot of the benefits, blaming it on the economy. Of course, all the benefits that the employees had, such as, USP differential (a $5/hr extra for working unscheduled shifts, so that, they could save by not using too much agency), 100% tuition reimbursement, and not allowing the per diem nurses to schedule in advance, besides that, they will not give merit raises, let alone, cost of living raises this year, then, all sacrifices are for the employees.
My case is very common, I voiced my dissagreement with all this, and said it openly. It did cost me the position. They forced me to resign. The "nurse manager," if you can call such an arbitrary, autocratic person, a manager, suddenly gave me a final warnig for unnaceptable behavior, such as, complaining during shift change that the pt was a pain in the butt, or saying that I was going to have a bad night, or because someone heard me gossiping, or a CNA said I was not quick enough responding to a pt's request.
In the end, I was forced to resign. Fortunately, I found job with an agency, making more money, but with less benefits, but I hope it will work better.
The morals of the lesson is: learn to submit yourself to a communist style system, where voicing your thoughts, is punished. Then, you have not rights to disagree, Do not complain of being understaff and picking up more patient load, Do not say you are unhappy with not getting a raise, Do not say you disagree with not getting your extra pay when working OT, Do not complain for loosing the tuition help, .DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT.
In the meantime, management did not cut their bonuses, the institution did not cut the expenses on remodeling and building a new pavillion, and the CEO got a 25% raise.
I, also, can't wait for things to return to normal, and see what they will do when the struggle to hire nurses, which still is a problem even in this down economy becuase I still see it, and the competition to hire a nurse is all over again.

Lucky to have a job? I am so sick of hearing this. Although jobs are not as plentiful as they were a mere 5 years ago, there are many jobs available for competent, compassionate and flexible nurses. When told by the vice president of nursing that we were "lucky to have our jobs", I replied, "as you are VERY lucky to have us". I am a clinical leader in the PACU at an moderate sized community hospital, and not only a patient advocate, but also a nursing advocate.
We need to stand strong and united as nurses. We ARE the epitome of healthcare and we need to remember that. It is time we stand up for ourselves as a TEAM and demand the repect we show all other professions as well as our patients.
I worked 17hours yesterday, due to being on call after my regular shift... how is that lucky? Im exhausted today. I think the patient is lucky that I can function after so many hours. What other profession does that?
Laney