I am writing this totally heart broken and at my wits end.
I started my career as a nurse receiving compliments on what a good job I did. I felt that I was one of those people that had to do my job well and couldn't settle for any less. I had to chart well and provide the care that patients and families were more than satisfied with. They had to know they could count on me and that I was going to be there for them.
After 15 years and multiple hospital settings I have come to realize that it doesn't matter. Over the years, I have witnessed that many of hte units are run by managers and assistant managers that couldn't handle floor nursing and yet their demands on their employees are unrealistic. The people that they choose to be in charge and manage the floor are picked based on friendship and loyalty rather than hard work.
I have worked side by side with techs who run the unit and force nurses to do their work while they find time to sit on the internet or phone and then get out on time while we are stuck over finishing our work. I have walked into many patients rooms to pass pills only to find they had no water, haven't been turned or need urine emptied from urinals or pans that are overflowing. I can't tell you how many pans I have see stained with urine or feces because they don't get rinsed. How often patients are tied up in lines and cords.
I find myself picking up the slack and doing all of the jobs that countless others do not. Why can't people untangle lines? Why aren't pans rinsed from urine or feces? Why won't the techs do tech jobs and make sure people have water or that other needs are met?
In the end, what you get is punished. Punished because you couldn't get your work done. Punished because you couldn't meet everyone's needs and a patient or family felt you took too long to get to them and there was nothing you could say or do to make it right when you knew in your heart that it wasn't your fault. Instead, the blame is on the fact that there is too much for you to do or there is a major imbalance of productivity amongst workers.
The reason for the nursing shortage? Overworked and not appreciated and abused. You can't stick up for yourself, you can't tell them why you couldn't get things done - you can't say nothing. 15 years and nothing to show for it. I have tried nearly every hospital around and I find the negative complainers and the staff that knows how to socialize are the people that are respected and appreciated. It's not about the people that are out there busting their tails. Everyone knows there is a shortage and why but no one does anything and the biggest culprits are the administrators of the hospitals. The majority of those couldn't handle floor nursing or hardly ever experienced it at all.
I leave behind a lot of families and patients that thought I was a great nurse. But when you can't please one in a hundred or more you are a bad nurse. People don't understand the level of demands on a nurse. It is a downright abusive field with little to no appreciation surrounded by many people who are disappointed with their jobs and their choice in the career.
My final blow: After 3 years of sweating to please my last employer and taking the abuse of never hearing anything good - only bad. I went back to agency and went back to a hospital that I worked at 3 years ago. I knew that this hospital had a bad reputation for poor bedside care. Half the staff of any unit could easily be float and agency. The regular staff on the floor was made up of mostly young girls in tight spandex and inviting clothes working on socializing with doctors and hanging out at the desk all day long. Call lights were on non-stop but these girls would not answer them. The techs were busting their tails here. The agency nurses were working but the in house floats were sitting and socializing too. I ended up with a patient with a very bad attitude that was a complainer and law-suit happy. She was furious that for 4 days not one person followed through with obtaining her records from another hospital. It fell on me. I also had a patient admitted with respiratory distress which she shared a room with and could see I was busy. With her personality, she was angry at the moaning of the elderly lady who couldn't breath and was determined to get me to stop and cater to her to get on those records. When I got my respiratory patient stablized, I did just that. Turns out that the other hospital never received any fax requesting the information. This lady hated every person she had contact with at that hospital and wanted to call an agency to get them shut down. I'm sure you know the type by now. So....guess what. I was told today that I was not welcome back because of her complaint. I would literally pull a chair up and sit next to this lady and let her vent. I gave her my heart and I got booted. The nurse that she had the next day was a guy that sat around socializing and didn't care one bit about her. He was regular staff and he was NOT going to go out of his way. They all get to keep their jobs but the nurse that took the time out to take care of her is out the door.
I need a job or I wouldn't take the abuse. But, I know for a fact that this hospital is never going to get it. They were like that 3 years ago and now they have more floats and more agency staffing them. This is a big and reputable hospital.
The hospital I worked at for 3 years was dumping more and more tasks on the nurses and they were all unhappy and complaining. We lost good hard working techs and they were replaced with people who didn't want to work or nursing students who were tired when they came to work and were kicking their feet up taking it easy. Management loved those people.
I suffer from spinal degeneration and pain and I never get to sit down. My job is harder because they are not pulling their weight.
There is nothing left. I still owe for my loan and I am scared to death to take another nursing job. I know it is not going to be any different. I hurt. I lost my insurance and after all that I worked for I have nothing to show for it but bills and a destroyed ego and heart. I feel as though I am the misfit. I am the one who isn't right. I am wrong. I can't even bring myself to waste time on another application since I don't want anything to do with this career any more. I am going to lose my home, my vehicle and everything else.
I have noticed that the field is being taken over by young graduates who are more worried about looking sexy and socializing than working. Patient satisfaction has gone down the tubes and the senior skilled nurses are getting nowhere in this field. There is nothing anyone can do. We all know it is happening but we can't do anything about it.
I am so sorry for the sudden loss of your brother. My kids are having such a hard time adjusting to their loss as well. Thank you for your compassionate response. I am grateful for it.
This thread is not about me and perhaps in my grief I tend to think most of the world is. I wrote the OP an apology yesterday by private message and offer the same to the rest of you. I am interested in what challenges lie ahead in nursing, thus my having opened the thread in the first place. Coming from a place of despair myself, I have little to offer right now in way of support and probably should have kept quiet. It is hard for me to look at situations that have the potential to be improved still and see them as hopeless. I wasn't what she needed at the time and learning to recognize my skewed view of the world with the loss of my child so fresh is a challenge for me. I sincerely hope she finds what she needs and I am sorry if my replies yesterday increased her level of distress.
Rock on nurses. I'll leave you to it and get back to studying where I belong.
keep plugging away - as someone else said on here - youmaybetheone who makes some big changes for the rest of us that NEED the changes but have been unable to get them in spite of our efforts. you may be the one we have awaited :) many blessings and prayers for strentgh with your loss.
I originally wrote this in response to the "what do you guys think of working with CNA's?" post but it was a bit off topic so I just pasted it into my journal. I'll repost it here because I sometimes feel the same way as you do. And I've only been an RN for a little under a year!! Crap!
imho, It depends on the unit, really. Several of the CNA's on my floor can be hard to work with. I figured everyone was just overworked, but after working on other floors with CNAs having similar patient loads, I realized the problem is really just (some of) the employees on my unit. There are a couple CNAs that I don't really care whether I work with them or not... Once in a while I end up getting a team to myself with no CNA assigned, and to be quite honest I like it that way. For as much work as I end up doing anyways most of the time it is easier just to do it myself than to be constantly after CNAs that roll their eyes when I ask for help and spend as much time as they can talking on the phone/eating/doing homework than helping with the team or doing their charting properly (then using ignorance as an excuse - even though they've worked there for 4-5 years). My floor is very busy, and I can understand that some of them work two jobs to make ends meet (they complain about being tired). Hey bills suck...but they're there to do a job and several of them give a halfhearted effort to it. They complain about how much work they have to do and how much less they make than an RN. Cry me a river. I've found that nursing students that come over to being a CNA from being externs can be the worst offenders.
It's just funny that I have no problem running a team without a CNA, and then they act like they are SOOOOOOOO overworked and life is horrible (and only 1 of them out of 10 even bother to ever pass water on their shift). Ask them to turn a patient q 2h or even when they go to get vitals and it never gets done. I end up doing it. Yet they have time to spend 30 minutes figuring out what they want to order from take-out. I worked for several years as a CNA, I know exactly what it's like. I don't wear it on my shirt, but DAMN get some work ethic, people!!
My favorite CNAs are the ones that actually take care of business, alert me to funky vital signs without me having to hunt them down, and spend more time worrying about patient care then the "AWESOME RN JOB IN THE ICU LINED UP AFTER GRADUATION IN 6 MONTHS" or constantly blabbing about all the problems in school all the while semi-ignoring call lights.
I just have a hard time believing that an aide doesn't have time to do a morning bed bath when they spend the last 30 minutes of their shift sitting behind the nurse station staring at the wall.
A number of you have stated that you do the aides' work. STOP. DO NOT DO IT ANY MORE. I mean it. STOP. You must get hold of the reins. YOU are the nurse. YOU are in charge. And you've got to teach the aides what you expect and require of them. I know it's hard and scary, I know you need Management to back you up. Start by talking with your managers and figuring out just what plays of yours they will back. Then be courageous and go for it. You have to be willing to speak up, do counseling, do the write-ups, stop thinking someone can or will do this for you.
For OP: Please get counseling. I am worried about you. Maybe try summer camp nursing and figure out after that what to do for the longer term? Prayers are being said for you.
I'm learning so much from this thread. Since many of the regular staff aren't good enough, fast enough, perfect enough, etc, etc, then how do agency staff manage in hospitals with even less orientation, working with new computer systems, and staying there only a few weeks? And how do new grads manage with dealing with poorly designed computer systems at the same time as they are learning how to do patient care? I'm already thinking I made a mistake in getting my new job, as their demands/obtascles are even worse than the impossible ones I've had before. Is the situation better in other countries? Is there basically no place in bedside nursing anymore for RNs that actually want to take care of patients vs document that they did it when they didn't? I went into nursing thinking I'd be a travel nurse someday, but now I'm afraid to try that as I would have even less of a clue of what I signed up for than I do now.
As bad as it sounds and really is, it is not "impossible." It can be very stressful and intense and in the long run catch up with you. It is not healthy for a person to go through so many various forms of intense stress. You will find a way, deal with it somehow and you will either stay, hit the revolving door or get out. You won't know until you get in.
If you can afford to make a change in education you might want to. The reality is that there is the potential that you might find yourself regretting it terribly and being stuck owing for it. "Do you feel lucky?" It seems like it has come down to "luck."
I almost hate to be this blunt but it's almost like playing the lottery. The odds are that if there is an open spot (or more) there is someone who left for a reason. Yes, some move or move to another area of nursing or further their education or have children. But the odds are that the person couldn't wait to get out of there or got chased off or fired. Even if they left on good terms, deep down inside they probably weren't happy there.
If I had it to do all over - knowing what I know now - I would have stuck with my legal classes. What a big mistake! I want out - it gives me panic attacks to even think about going back. The nice thing about agency is I don't have to do the searching. I can't bring myself to do an interview or look for another bedside nursing job.
If a person with 15 years have said it, what it is for us with less to say.
Truthfully, I've seen young, fresh graduates - my junior in school actually complaining and already burnt out by the hostility of nursing. One had even gone far my switching jobs three times in less than two years - for c/o stress. Now she is talking to me about doing another shift. I guess turnover and environment hopping is not really new for us. We wish for greener pastures on the other grazing field, but still find pesticides on the leaves.
Yes, there is nursing shortage. Which is puzzling because at the place I am in now, schools - private, universities or the health ministry is churning out nurses like tap water. Yet, we still are short of staff every single month. We do there go? I know most senior nurses (like 2, 3 years of service) left the country and go where the $$$ is. I don't blame them. If we are to be abused, let it be worth it. Of course in the end, there is brain drain locally - and people complain standard of nursing dropped like flies. Well, of course if you have very young ones handling the wards!!! Lack of orientation, having to assume supervisory role just because they have to since nobody else is left!!!
I hope new nurses of fresh graduates reading this post try to emphatize (sorry if that is not a word) with what she said - It's different when you have been through the lot. I have been through some - and it questions my sanity or whether I wanna stick around long. Give yourself some time to re-evaluate your opinion say, 6 months from now. The drain will get to you very fast.
A number of you have stated that you do the aides' work. STOP. DO NOT DO IT ANY MORE. I mean it. STOP. You must get hold of the reins. YOU are the nurse. YOU are in charge. And you've got to teach the aides what you expect and require of them. I know it's hard and scary, I know you need Management to back you up. Start by talking with your managers and figuring out just what plays of yours they will back. Then be courageous and go for it. You have to be willing to speak up, do counseling, do the write-ups, stop thinking someone can or will do this for you.
For OP: Please get counseling. I am worried about you. Maybe try summer camp nursing and figure out after that what to do for the longer term? Prayers are being said for you.
I just found an ad for camp nurse and sent a resume.
I finally decided to send resumes today. Only LTC and homecare. I wanted to try to get a travel job to go to MS to help take care of my aunt. There wasn't anything for the area and it turns out to be one of those things that happens for a reason. She is not doing good and her hours or days are numbered for sure. Being able to face that put me back on track about the job thing.
I sent some resumes out today and decided to be honest that I just can't take floor nursing another day. I will do agency work but I can't bring myself to kid myself that I want another hospital job. Only through agency to get bills paid and to make a change.
My cousin (the one who's mother is dying) has done aid work for years. She is wanting to start up our own business. I think we are going to research this.
So, short term plan is agency while trying to find homecare or something else. Possible LTC or nursing home. Long term is to pursue own business and I am going to try to market myself for the LNC.
For now, I need money. Stuck in rut. But I hope to pick up some agency work and work my tail off to pay off some bills so I can make a big change.
Just wanted to say that I am NOT new to nursing, as 2 responders assumed. I added a post asking how new grads and agency nurses deal with the situations in hospitals, when it is so hard for experienced nurses that work on the unit. I am trying to remain anonymous on this forum, so chose not to add personal information as to how many years I have been a nurse. Just wanted to clear up this.
A number of you have stated that you do the aides' work. STOP. DO NOT DO IT ANY MORE. I mean it. STOP. You must get hold of the reins. YOU are the nurse. YOU are in charge. And you've got to teach the aides what you expect and require of them. I know it's hard and scary, I know you need Management to back you up. Start by talking with your managers and figuring out just what plays of yours they will back. Then be courageous and go for it. You have to be willing to speak up, do counseling, do the write-ups, stop thinking someone can or will do this for you.
For OP: Please get counseling. I am worried about you. Maybe try summer camp nursing and figure out after that what to do for the longer term? Prayers are being said for you.
actually i have to say i think most of the time it isnt due to cna neglecting thier duties-- much fo the time it is due to they are aslo extremely understaffed and i will NOT ( if they are not goofing off ) leave them to fend and notget done when i am perfectly capable of hjelpeing - even if it means i am staying late to get MY charges out on time. you are right we are the bosses ( so to speak) and to sit on our butts regardless of how late we need to stay behind woudl be unaccepytable and to say "its not our job" would be an even bigger tragedy. just myopinion.
:yeah:
twotrees2
913 Posts
keep plugging away - as someone else said on here - youmaybetheone who makes some big changes for the rest of us that NEED the changes but have been unable to get them in spite of our efforts. you may be the one we have awaited :) many blessings and prayers for strentgh with your loss.