Time to open the can of worms...I am sure it has been opened several times...but maybe I am not seeing this topic addressed enough. Am I crazy or is the world of nursing crazy and I am just in the mix?
Why did no one tell me in nursing school? Why did I not listen to my mother who is a RN. But now my complaints are met with a common phrase "Welcome to nursing." W*T*H. This is it? The field of nursing nursing seems like a patchy grassland with some good here...nice and green...some barren dry areas...and many muddy waters (aka hospital nursing).
What are we going to do? Blame society, our polity, or the economy? Why am I so hallow on the floor?...when did I turn into a robot...who must finish her tasks and keep it moving. Little time for emotions or connections...even if a patient and family are tearful in the room because of a new life changing diagnosis. I see and hear their tears but my mind is focused on the meds I need to pass, my manager who is breathing down my neck, or whatever can of worms I must deal with in my other patient's rooms. The only reason I give a warm pat on the shoulder is because it seemed appropriate for the situation. The patient seemed to need it...and it works and the patient is reassured and more calm...but inside I feel nothing as I think of the other tasks at hand.
When I get home from work...I often reflect on my patients and how emotionally disconnected I was even when their lives were being turned upside down. I feel sympathy for them at home...disgust towards myself for my coldness on the floor...and loathing that I have to go back to that place. On the floor I have no time for sympathy. My goals are to keep my patients stable and safe and complete my tasks....so many tasks.
I knew nursing was going to be hard but I did not realize how much I would become cold. I give great customer service and give warm smiles to my patients and their families...but mostly inside I feel nothing for them. I just do my job and keep it moving. The fact I am this way brings self loathing. When did my smiles turn into a robotic tool to do my job rather than have genuine connection with an other being?
When the nursing school admissions council asked me 'why do you want to become a nurse?' My genuine answer was I want to help people and feel good about what I do. I do help people...but feeling good about helping my patients...that feeling has very much faded. I feel like a robot that must complete my tasks and keep it moving. I am even annoyed when they want to connect with me, in my mind "I have tasks to complete...I don't have time for this conversation, I don't want to get to know you better, I have tasks to complete.' And those are the nice ones. The unsavory patients, docs, and managers that leave a sour taste in my mouth, makes it all the more easier to be cold.
Weird...if I had known I would end up this way as a nurse inside...maybe I would have taken a different path.
The reason I say abuse culture...is because I have come to find in nursing that there is A LOT nurses will put up with at the expense of themselves. Stress, anxiety, depression, prescription medication, weight gain, insomnia, etc. Some realize it, some don't, and some just don't care. Any hospital nurse will lave a laundry list of the BS we have to put up with...but it is like there is a resolve that this is just nursing...it is what it is. Hospital nurses all know what's up.
This culture is so strong, that what is unreasonable in other professions...is not unreasonable in nursing. It is accepted. If a new nurse can't get with the program then she is told hospital nursing is not for you. Instead, maybe hospital nursing is not for nurses. How about that?
I hardly find people say this...nurses complain about how bad it is, how we are stretched so thin, how we don't get our breaks, how we never have a chance to eat or urinate, poor staffing, understaffing, the list goes on and on but people don't say...
Hey maybe it's not that this nurse is not fit to be a hospital nurse...forget about the 3-4 years she/he spent specifically training for nursing and proving herself/himself...but if she/he can't take crazy patient loads, poor staffing, etc...she is not a good fit? Why not the other way around?
I know it is not likely to change...these nursing conditions...but to accept it does not sit well with me. (by accept I mean: the vibe of hospital nursing is not for all nurses...no...it is...but not under the current conditions). I know there are unions and all that but very little is being done especially considering our numbers. Maybe it is not the new nurse who is struggling in the hospital...maybe it is the hospital that is dropping the ball. Maybe it is the culture of the hospital to abuse nurses and maybe it is nursing culture to accept it.
This abuse culture is so rampant you have nurses like me who are losing their souls at the expense of being good at my job. i can do my job and keep my patients safe but there is something so wrong. I am a med surg nurse. I am sure it may be waaaaaaaaaaaay better on other floors.
How far does it go that the abused don't even realize they are being abused? The ones who don't make it in the hospital are pushed to other fields of nursing. Fine...but I dare say it is not because the the nurse is not competent or can't manage patient care in the hospital conditions. Rather not every nurse can handle the hospital conditions that make it not condusive for success. Then people wonder 20% of nurses in their first year drop out of the profession completely. That is pretty high considering the time and money invested.
I am entitled to 4 breaks each 12 hour shift, 2 paid, 2 unpaid. I have missed a break once or twice in the last 3 years, and it was payed out at double time. We do team nursing and I have no qualms stepping away to take my breaks.
I do not feel like I am abused or a victim. I enjoy my job, and am protected from any abusive tendencies that my employer may have by our contract.
The further I move away from all of this ...I understand that many nurses faced with what the profession has become, reach some kind of crossroad where they must decide to either work on getting out of nursing, or disassociate themselves mentally from the mess that is their reality, in order to survive.
Those that are still in reality and objectivity, try and see if there is any logical reason to keep beating the dead horse (the OP), and will take concrete steps to get out of Waco if their attempts to improve things don't pan out.
Those that have no way out must become someone else. These are the posters who chime: you want rainbows, you aren't tough, you can't hack it, it's the same in all work, etc..... I guarantee that the psychiatric conversion to #slavelifeiswhereIfeelmostfulfilled means you've flown over the cuckoo's nest, peeps.
What really blows, is that the clinically awesome and mentally intact often execute departure from this profession (or are "let go") - leaving the ...well you know.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
New grads disillusioned..? Of course but the reality was not what they were selling when they were applying. They were sold on those billboards the old smiling lady who appreciatively looks into her nurse's eyes. The nurse is beautiful, clean cut (like a halo was about to shoot out of her butt) returns her smile with a bucket of sunshine. They gladly took our checks and free labor as we were given the idealist view of nursing.
If new nurses went into nursing sold on the billboards with smiling elderly ladies appreciatively looking into her nurse's eyes, those new nurses went into the profession without doing their homework. That is the fault of the new nurse in question, not the nursing school, not the advertising executive who conceived of the billboard and not the profession.
And if you truly believe that you provided any "free labor" while you were in nursing school, I'd invite you to think again. Every time nursing students are on the unit, someone has to be there to "mentor" them, which often means to keep them from doing something so incredibly WRONG that patients are harmed, catastrophic messes are made or complaints are generated. Once you've been on the floor long enough to mentor a nursing student on your own, you'll see what an incredible amount of work it is. (Or, at least it is if you're doing it right!)
If in nursing school were given a course on the reality of nursing, the business aspect...which basically is the main controlling factor, the legal risks, the industry of health care. I dare say we would not be having this conversation. Nursing we are taught about looking at the patient as a whole and that should guide our care. But in reality deadlines, tasks, and CYA is most important. The only reason patient outcomes is an issue to big investors is because it effects their profit in the long run...not necessarily helping the community.
When I went to school, we were given classes on the legal aspects of nursing. A course on the "reality"? Your reality is evidently different from mine.
Perhaps when you gain a bit more experience, you'll be able to actually look at the patient as a whole as I do, and as many of the senior nurses do. Perhaps not -- not everyone gains that part of nursing expertise and not everyone actually WANTS to. There are, after all, nurses who are in the profession for reasons other than patient care and caring for patients. Perhaps when you gain more experience, deadlines and tasks will come more easily for you and you'll have the ability to consider the whole patient instead of just chasing tasks. At this point, I don't think you have the level of experience to be able to judge the whole profession or to condemn it.
Some posters have actually proved my point. Every one sees the BS and all they can say is well new grads are disillusioned. What is wrong with wanting to go to work and actually be able to do what you were paid and trained for....I am disillusioned. Thank God for pointing out that it was all an illusion, what we were sold. I think some people are delusional. It's like there is a wall...they just don't get what is so wrong about this situation.
A nurse going on the floor should ALWAYS be entitled to his/her breaks, safe working conditions, hospitals should ALWAYS have adequate staffing to meet the needs of the patients on the floor. If they don't, then they should hold off on admitting patients onto the floor without adequate staffing. Not enough staffing....how about they hire enough nurses...everyone knows new grads are a dime a dozen in this field.
Disillusionment seems to be a phase that new nurses go through as they struggle to become competent at their jobs. As you become more competent and able to sift through the minutia of your job to get to the meat, disillusionment may pass.
A nurse should be entitled to breaks, I agree. And as you progress in your practice, you'll see how you can TAKE your breaks. There isn't much that cannot wait 15 minutes for you to take a quick break. I wouldn't put off CPR, but most else can be delayed or delegated. You just have to learn how to organize your work so that you can take breaks. Safe working conditions are also a given, but I don't understand how most hospital positions are unsafe. Short staffing is miserable, but it doesn't mean your working conditions are unsafe. Walls are not likely to collapse upon you, drug addicts are unlikely to pop up from the street and take you hostage for the unit's morphine supply and you're certainly safe from lightning strikes and hail storms.
As for hiring new grads to alleviate staffing shortages -- that could work -- IF the new grads stayed in their positions for more than a few months. Constantly hiring and replacing new grads wears down the core staff of seasoned nurses who are tasked with training them. It's easier, especially in this economy, to hire an experienced nurse who requires less training and is less likely to cut and run as soon as things get difficult.
When sh*t goes down the first person they want to treat like a criminal is the nurse. Forget all the sacrifices this nurse made on the floor for patients and management. CYA people. That is what it has come down to. Because at the end of the day no one has got out backs.
Oh what about about the cost of training a new nurse and turn over rates?...the time and money invested....the MONEY:devil: invested?!
How about management looks at the big picture...the long run. Invest now save later, save more lives, save more money, improve quality of care. Lower the nurse patient ratio depending on level of care. Lower health care costs. But hospitals are big business. How about more resource nurses on the floor? How about actually giving sh*t about nurses' concerns...instead of justing lying and saying you do.
It is not absurd for nurses to expect adequate staffing, safe working conditions, adequate resources. All nurses know this...but for reason people still want you to drink the cool aide. New grads have too much expectations?! W*T*F? If that is too much to ask...then let me stay forever in my ideals. Something is not right in the waters and everyone knows it. Even in the top notch hospitals.
As for bullying...nah I feel there are a lot of bizniches in management but not bullies. You have a lot of bizniches in every job. I just think that money is the bottom line and they will not hesitate to throw you away if you don't get with the program. If you are meeting the deadlines and don't complain hey love you. They don't care how you do it, just get it done...but don't whine about missing your breaks or being over loaded with patients. Bullying...No.
I haven't found hospital management treating nurses like criminals. Even when I was involved in a sentinel event, management, risk management and everyone else treated me like the professional that I am. If you find yourself frequently being treated like a criminal perhaps you should look to your practice and your behavior rather than generalizing about the entire profession. Management, I have found, has my back, as long as I put in the hard work and follow the policies.
I'm happy with my job and my life, proud of my hospital and my profession and get along well with management. I hope these things will come to you one day as well.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
GrnTea
That is because I don't need years of this to figure out what is up. I worked in an out patient setting for a year and it was a great experience with low stress. It was a conducive environment. I left because my goal was to become a critical care nurse. So I started in med surg. I am 28, I have vast working experiences outside of healthcare. I know what is reasonable...even if I never worked in another setting...I know that the current working conditions for most hospital nurses is not conducive.
I don't get you...if I am trolling...why bother posting on my threads. You are more than welcome not to participate. Did you come on this thread to criticize me or join the discussion? If it is the former then I would kindly ask that you refrain from posting. As mentioned in my other thread about bees.
This is an open discussion for those who wish to put in their input. I feel through positive arguments one can learn more and expand their perspective. Just because I posted this thread does not mean I have all the answers. Maybe there is something I am missing.
Other posters on this thread who have brought their opinions on management and what needs to be done to rectify this situation. I would not have brought this up if I did not want solutions.
Oh my. My popcorn is still popping, but I couldn't resist. If this is an open discussion, then why are you inviting people NOT to post? But I have yet to see you put forth a POSITIVE argument. You're all about the negative.
You are too young to have had a "vast amount of experience" in anything, and evidently to immature to know what you don't know. Dismissing people whose arguments and opinions you disagree with isn't going to help you out in the long run. But it will increase my enjoyment in watching what you post in months in years to come . . . I anticipate years of great entertainment!
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Nurses have far more responsibility and duties than any previous generation of nurses. There was a day og the hand holding back rub nurses, but look at the mortality rates of those days compared to today. we do more to get the patient better than any previous generation but the schools are still stuck in the old mode of thinking.
I'd like to know how you came to the conclusion that nurses have far more responsibility and duties than previous generations of nurses. Were you there in previous generations? Yes, mortality rates were higher in previous years -- that has a lot to do with the sciences of medicine, pharmacology and surgery as well as in the science of nursing. When I started as a nurse, it was not uncommon to have 15-20 patients on the day shift with the help of an aide or two. This is on a standard Med/Surg unit in the hospital, not in long term care. Yes, we took time to hold hands -- when we had our work organized. And yes there were back rubs -- again, if there was time. Those were additional responsibilities, not break time. Patients are sicker now, but I haven't heard of a lot of Med/Surg nurses having 20 patients on the day shift.
Specializes in Management, Med/Surg, Clinical Trainer.
We can all bring leadership, no matter what our role, whether that is providing preceptorship, improving the culture where we work or more formalised activism or academic writing.
Totally agree. A person does not have to have an official leadership title to support, nurture and help grow our profession.
It is obvious, HoneyBeGood, that you're disillusioned and angry. I empathize with you and I really hope you will find a better place soon. It wasn't that long ago that I wrote a long rant venting out similar frustrations against a particular LTC environment I was working in at the time. There are better places. You just have to find them.
Many points were brought up and discussed already, but let me just say this one thing. There are idealized notions that outsiders have in any profession, and disillusionment is part of growing up in your chosen field. For example, I always had this romantic idea of academia -- pursuit of knowledge, teaching young, bright scholars in research institutions... But reality is, any academic department is fraught with politics just like any other. Why would it be any different for nursing? Outsiders may have the idea of a nurse with an angelic smile holding their hands. We know better.
Whether you become successful in this field now that you're in it depends on freeing yourself from the despair that comes with disillusionment and strive forward. So your idealized notion of a nurse is shattered by the harrowing med-surg experience. You can now either find some other aspects of the job that is rewarding to you, or look for a different environment where you can live closer to your ideal.
Specializes in Management, Med/Surg, Clinical Trainer.
You do this job for 27 plus years you do realize you are just a cog in the machine and you are replaceable, skilled or not.
I think that is true for any profession, not just nursing.
If we do not continue to grow as a nurse we can be left behind in the job world. Look at all of the EMR changes, Meaningful Use, the ACA etc. All of these things will directly impact care delivery.
It states that a nurses prime directive is that of patient advocate. We are to advocate for the patient even if it means violating facility policy and even if it means losing our job...
Give it a read, it really says that.
So I create my own little world. Some people choose to inhabit my world and we work together and all is well. Primarily my allies are OT and PT people. other nurses? bah they never help.
My boss is always calling me into the office to whine about this and that that I did or did not do....my response is always the same.
"Well, boss regardless of what you might think, I feel I do a great job. When I lay my head on my pillow I feel good about every shift. I am sorry you feel the way you do. I realize you are the boss and I am am at will employee. All I can say to you is, when you have had enough of me, FIRE ME.
Until then I will care for my patients. Its my practice. its my license. I am a professional.
Each shift I will have 100 things to do and 70 may get done. I will choose which 70....if you want to hear my rationale, come ask.
The steady stream of patients marching to the CEO office to say how they were happy with their care shields me......
The Peter Principle is alive and well at hospitals......people are promoted to the next level of incompetence.
My boss, my god, she is well, she is who she is. I nod like a bobblehead when she is yammering on, wait till she leaves, then i go do my own thing.
My fellow RNs who constantly backstab me? I look through them. i do not even see them.....if the need a boost up or specifically ask me for help I will help but I do my best to avoid the drama and BS.....99 percent of my time is spent in patient rooms.......even when the patient is not there LMAO....
Specializes in GI,Telemetry, Trauma ICU, Endoscopy.
It really saddens me that the OP is met with such vitriol when expressing his/her opinions. I understand that the opinions expressed could have been more eloquently stated, or with less anger, but the point is well taken.
I am by no means a veteran nurse, but after five years as an RN I too have felt like the OP. Yes nursing is hard. Yes I knew this going into it. But the external forces that are often put upon hospital nurses could turn a coal into a diamond. It takes great team work, an understanding manager who will go to bat for the staff, and a supportive hospital to have effective nurses. I am not saying that as nurses we don't need to step up our game or work hard. I am saying that we should be given the resources and support to succeed, because when that does not happen the biggest loser is the patient. I don't understand why nurses participate in such horizontal violence. Is it nursing culture? Is it hospital culture? Is it something else? I don't know. I had to get out of the hospital and off night shift, and now my professional life is so much better. I drive 40 min each way to get to my job, but I don't care because my supervisor is great, the people I work with are awesome, and we provide excellent care to our patients! Not to mention I work for a company that truly values their employees.
HoneyBeGood, I understand where you are coming from and I hope it gets better. It sounds like you are in a bad situation for your physical and mental well being. It took me a couple tries, but I found a place that I finally feel at home. I hope that you are able to do the same.
CodeteamB
473 Posts
I shall sing you my little song.
Hem, hem.
Uuuuunioniiiiiiiiize!
I am entitled to 4 breaks each 12 hour shift, 2 paid, 2 unpaid. I have missed a break once or twice in the last 3 years, and it was payed out at double time. We do team nursing and I have no qualms stepping away to take my breaks.
I do not feel like I am abused or a victim. I enjoy my job, and am protected from any abusive tendencies that my employer may have by our contract.