Anyone concerned about pt. care?

Nurses Safety

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I used to think that Nursing was such a dignified profession...The patients were our first concern....even if we had to fight with a doctor about something concerning a patient, they(meaning the hospital) would listen to us.

Now, I think of my job as being secretarial...I do paperwork and peek in on my patients. I know I'm not the only one...I know most of the hospitals are doing this, making the almighty dollar their concern, not the patients care...

I'm very concerned about this because I don't feel like the patients are getting good care, and one of these days I'll be that patient...Please tell me that I'm not the only one that feels this way:o The hospitals (companies) have slowly but surely taken away every thing that would help us with staffing up....remember catagories...at least that way they would staff for someone who was total care, or whose family was a handful. That way you knew what you were dealing with. We also don't give person to person report anymore, because you found out too much about the patients. Why do we let this go on people. We should have a 100,000 nurse march on Washington and make people listen to us. Would anyone else want to do that? We could do it on Nurses Day.

OK, so what.......you don't like how you, us, nurses, soon to be nurses are being treated. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Every one can talk one hell of a game, but when it comes time to get down and dirty Mr. or Mrs. RN with a family is going to fold about 95% of the time. There are so very few people that will actually stand up and make a difference or are willing to loose their job trying. Nurses keep taking S*&^t from the higher ups. You know what, most will continue to take it and fuss about it everyday till the day they either quit or trasnfer. Nurses need to come together. Everyone should be told why patients are not getting all the attention they need, why their is a high turnover rate of nurses, why some hospitals offer outrageous sign on bonuses. Nurses should be on your local news, in the papers, at the nursing homes, anywhere an audience is telling everyone about the crap that goes on and why their mom, dad, kid, grandparent, or them is not going to gt the full attention they need. Nurses should not ease up on the message. Keep pushing into everyones face. I bet it will never happen.....if it does happen it will not be to the magnitude and lenght that it will need to be. Why, because Mr and Mrs Nurse have to put food on the table for their families and can't walk off the job. And the hospitals know that.

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I agree with the OP and also USouth Al RN2B, when enough of us stand up, recognize our power and demand change, that is when something will start to happen. It ain't happening now.Specially where I am now...in the south, nonunion, employment at will....nurses are afraid to speak up and put up with lousy conditions, IMO.

But if you read some posts, they feel the compensation is sufficient to offset the problem. I wonder about that sometimes. Guess I am different than 'most' nurses, as I DO speak up, but with not enough support from other nurses, it has usually backfired one me honestly. This happens enough and people eventually stop speaking up at all.

We need strong leaders to speak out and enough nurses with backbone who will do the hard work to effect positive change.Will it ever happen? I hope so...California nurses and New York nurses give me hope.

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Specializes in Neuro Critical Care.
Guess I am different than 'most' nurses, as I DO speak up, but with not enough support from other nurses, it has usually backfired one me honestly. This happens enough and people eventually stop speaking up at all.

We need strong leaders to speak out and enough nurses with backbone who will do the hard work to effect positive change.Will it ever happen? I hope so...California nurses and New York nurses give me hope.

I have never had a problem telling the public and management what kind of night I had and where improvement could be made (when they care), what kills me is the nurse who was complaining all night to me telling management "it wasn't THAT bad, we did fine". :(

Eventually you just get frustrated and move on or move out of nursing.

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I have never had a problem telling the public and management what kind of night I had and where improvement could be made (when they care), what kills me is the nurse who was complaining all night to me telling management "it wasn't THAT bad, we did fine". :(

Eventually you just get frustrated and move on or move out of nursing.

You are so right. What they say to US is NOT what they say to the bigwhigs...

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:crying2: Exactly.All you do all day is spin your wheels and you don't have time to even say how are you doing to your patients.I'm sure this is not how nursing was meant to be.
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I work in LTC, weekend opt. The unit I work on is usually run during the week on days with 2 nurses and 5 CNA's. I work the unit alone with 2 CNA's if I'm lucky. On top of the medicare/medicaid charting, MDS, nursing summaries, careplans, and of course any charting in between that might come up. Skin assessments are done on noc shift, usually 8-10 patients a night that must be charted and paperwork submitted. Where's the care? If I stand up and say, which I have, patient care has definitely gone down hill, then all the nurses agree, UNTIL, it's time to face the bigwigs, then it's "well, it's not too bad." Since when is it a crime to state your opinions??? If you lose your job for stating an opinion or offering a suggestion, then it's not that great of a place to work, it won't be a big loss.:angryfire

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You are so right. What they say to US is NOT what they say to the bigwhigs...

You got that right!!!!!

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I agree with the OP and also USouth Al RN2B, when enough of us stand up, recognize our power and demand change, that is when something will start to happen. It ain't happening now.Specially where I am now...in the south, nonunion, employment at will....nurses are afraid to speak up and put up with lousy conditions, IMO.

But if you read some posts, they feel the compensation is sufficient to offset the problem. I wonder about that sometimes. Guess I am different than 'most' nurses, as I DO speak up, but with not enough support from other nurses, it has usually backfired one me honestly. This happens enough and people eventually stop speaking up at all.

We need strong leaders to speak out and enough nurses with backbone who will do the hard work to effect positive change.Will it ever happen? I hope so...California nurses and New York nurses give me hope.

i totally agree. texas has safe harbor but noone uses it. everytime something comes up that they feel enough to gripe about the staffing the rn says it is to much paperwork. but most of the time if you threaten they will find someone. because safe harbor just protects the nurse should harm come to a pt due to a staffing safety issue. i have threatened once and had 4 managers on the floor within an hour because staffing was replacing an lvn with a pca and leaving 2 rn and one of them had an injury but felt she couldn't leave due to what staffing would do. so when do we all stand up and how is it going to be organizied cause i will be there and will bring a few nurses with me.

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i totally agree. texas has safe harbor but noone uses it. everytime something comes up that they feel enough to gripe about the staffing the rn says it is to much paperwork. but most of the time if you threaten they will find someone. because safe harbor just protects the nurse should harm come to a pt due to a staffing safety issue. i have threatened once and had 4 managers on the floor within an hour because staffing was replacing an lvn with a pca and leaving 2 rn and one of them had an injury but felt she couldn't leave due to what staffing would do. so when do we all stand up and how is it going to be organizied cause i will be there and will bring a few nurses with me.

I sure do hear ya..I have always said when I don't need to work anymore I will be a nurse organizer and activist...when I don't need a job anymore in Texas the hospitals and Group One can't hurt me. Right now I have to play their little games and I do the best I can..speak up when necessary. Carefully.

Gotta situation coming up at my new employment where I may have to use the Safe Harbor provision of our NPA and I'm sure I won't be popular with management if I go this route. I will try to get them to listen first but so far not working....

We've tried to unionize 3 times in the last 10 yrs or so in the DFW area but each time we were unable to get enough nurses to stand together...as mentioned, they talk a good game then wimp out when it comes stand up time. Sad.

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Wonderful idea. How to go about coordinating the "all nurse's march" will be the issue. Any ideas?

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