I feel like a glorified maid

[CaffeinePOQ4HPRN]

I first entered this profession because I wanted to help people and make a positive contribution to society. I have tried to make the most of my job/clinical setting but the demands are ever-increasing, as are the nurse-to-patient ratios and we're operating with a skeleton crew. Also the exorbitant amount of time spent on non-nursing tasks is self-imploding and managers consistently lecture us on "patient/client satisfaction" although our managers spend ZERO time on the floor... and it usually has to deal with things we nurses have no control over, for example a popular one is Patient X, Patient Y and Patient Z aren't satisfied with what they ordered from the menu of hospital food and are trying to find ways to blame the nurses. Never-mind that I successfully administered a blood transfusion or noticed early signs of stroke and arranged a speedy transfer/referral... because patient's are complaining about the food, or the thread-count of their sheets and "patient satisfaction is everything". I understand that the corporate entities that have demoralized the work force in this country do it across the board. To that end, I would gladly take a pay-cut for a nursing job that offers working conditions that are more ethical and tolerable for nurses but I am having no luck in my Job Search and am on the verge of giving up. As it stands, I can no longer tolerate bedside nursing and am desperately seeking a way out into teaching or a desk job (oh sweet Jesus please!!)... but those jobs require BScN and I am just a diploma nurse. Most days, I feel more like a glorified maid than a highly skilled and educated professional. I get that this is the big BUSINE$$ of healthcare, but I sometimes feel like I work in a hotel and it feels like conditions are worsening for nurses.

At this point, it's all the ******** that's making me question whether I should even bother completing my BScN or whether I should just leave the profession altogether. I am losing hope. Unless you're lucky enough to work in upper management, the only other options are hands-on Nursing Jobs where we nurses break our backs and are treated very badly.

I am so exhausted and run-down, and I don't know what to do or where to go from here.

Hope and/or advice needed.

[puricandy]

I am also a diploma grad with a masters in nursing management and business, unless you fit the criteria that upper management has established you will never get away from bedside. People less qualified or educated than I have gotten positions because they fit the image that management perceives it projects. The rest of us are expendable, interchangeable servants. Hospitals are not hotels. We do painful, humiliating things to people, with outcomes which may not be to their liking. Then we make things worse by trying to present ourselves as 5 star hotels. At one hospital I worked at, the housekeeper made ducks out of a wash rag and put them on the bedside table. Why not just leave a mint on the pillow? I would love to have the time just to chat with my patients or give a back rub, not caught up in serving coffee to the visitors. I shouldn't have to worry that I am going to get written up because I told a family member of another patient to please wait in their family members room, I was in the middle of cleaning up a bm. And then have her stand there, hands on hips, telling me, this is terrible service. I am retired, but still need to work to make ends meet. This isn't the profession I went into 45 years ago. There is no respect by the visitor and especially not the managers.

[lapresleyBSNRN]

Having your BSN makes no difference with this... RN no longer stands for Registered Nurse but Refreshments and Narcotics. I've only been a nurse for three years and I'm already burnt out on med/surg patients and their families. I've recently transferred to Mother/baby and I'm happier but that's if I get to stay on my home unit and not made to float back to med/surg. I have two Bachelors degrees, experience in hospital, home health and case review but can not find a job outside of direct patient care without additional certifications or degrees (neither of which I really have money for at this point). Thanks to HCAHPS and Obamacare plus governmental regulations, there seems as though this is just the beginning of the devolution of nurses into waitresses and maids.

[lapresleyBSNRN]

How many times have you had a doctor yell at you for doing what was best for your patient? I, personally, have had that happen too many times to count. Nurses are treated like crap regardless of what we do or how much we know and especially on med/surg floors. Doctors may have had the fortune of attending medical school, but that does not mean they have the right to treat nurses like second class citizens. As far as "you get what you put into it"... If you can take the abuse from patients, management and doctors alike and still give more; good for you! You are evidently super nurse. As for me, I'm just human and want/deserve the respect any human wants/deserves.

[gigi_bsn_rn, BSN, RN]

It's extremely frustrating. Families complain because you told them NO about something that would be detrimental to the patient. I love my current job, but my previous job was hostile and demeaning. I was a supervisor and could no longer enforce what my manager wanted...tried to talk to him about better morale and better outcomes, accused of trying to undermine him. The advice I would give is to learn as much as you can, making yourself more marketable. For me, ICU is where I belong, I'm never happy very long anywhere else.

[sarose611]

Initially, nurses WERE gloridfied maids. Hence the caps etc. Ver maid-like. Over the last 60 years or so, nursing preparation,.duties and responsibilities have increased exponentially, bit pretty much no one has noticed. Hospitals andpatients still vie nursing as so many blue collar workers with preparation that allows for moving the pawns wherever the hospital sees fit. That has not been tru e for some 30 years but that is how our services afe viewed, and more.importantly, billed. We are part of the room and board charge. Nurses need to.bill separately, like PT, OT, Respiratory therapy etc. As far as the complaints, if the nurse has to.field complaints from patients, families, doctors lab, dietary, xray, housekeeping, nursing managemnt, hospital administration and more, we need to.be paid at a reasonable level and should be giventhe authority to change things in response to the complaints. I favor a patient satisfaction team to hear and deal with these issues, so they impinge less on nurses. You will find some of this no matter whete you work, but jobs like home health, geriatric care, air flight, midwifery and others give you a little more personal control. Take a hreak, then consider.what you should do next. I would bet you are too exhaustef to think straight right now!

[Trueblessings]

I was a CNA instructor the last 3 years before I retired. Absolutely loved it and best decision in my nursing career.

[freesia29, ASN, RN]

I am in ambulatory care and feel burnt out as well. 12 hr days, running around, not enough staff, constant phone calls, med refill, prior auths. I think I am going to take a break. Feeling too much compassion fatigue, anxiety and depression.

[melevine]

The lack of patient/nurse partnership as the basis of the relationship is part of the reason why I got away from the acute care scene. With pressures of organizations to comply with changes in reimbursement, in my opinion this partnership is headed down a slippery slope to never land and never happening. Nurses have to be stronger a professional than ever. Sadly, we are so wrapped up in our own practice, that the profession as a whole is not seeking respect. Yes, we are trusted, but are we respected? Our patients are so much sicker that it is easy to imagine why the focus is on the environmental aspects rather than themselves. Not sure how the ACA can ever be successful. Thanks.