An open letter to the #NursesUnite movement

[disillusionedrn]

An open letter in response to #NursesUnite:

It is amazing that you have finally found a cause to unite over (#nursesunite), however, I find it hard to jump on board this superficial bandwagon that actually serves the nursing profession no purpose whatsoever.

I have pondered over the last week why it is that so many nurses take such offense to the few words of an ignorant television host, being that Ms. Behar has zero impact or influence on the healthcare profession or the role of nursing, yet they do nothing to end the many real issues plaguing the nursing profession.

The only conclusion that I can come up with is that nurses feel that they can't do much to change the real problems in nursing, so they unite and attack over something that really makes no difference at all to us as a whole.

There are so many other REAL aspects of the nursing profession to unite over to influence change that will actually make a difference to nursing. There are many "dirty secrets" of nursing that go unspoken and ignored, many of which are cultivated by nurses themselves.

Bullying, horizontal violence, inadequate training, nurses "eating their young", 12+ hour shifts, no breaks, high acuities, too many patients per nurse, etc.

I went into nursing because I like to help people. I am empathetic. I am a quick thinker. I am smart. But that isn't actually what makes a nurse successful in this profession, as I have come to find out. As I have come to find out, nursing has less to do with how competent or compassionate you are, and more to do with how much you can, or are willing to, put up with. The nursing culture is full of "suck it ups" and "oh well, it is how it is."

What seems to make a nurse successful is the ability to withstand bullying, intimidation, being talked down to by supervisors, patients, family members, and doctors. The ability to get over inadequate training and support provided by management and your peers and to be okay with unsafe patio to nurse ratios. You'll feel more confident in time, it's just a part of nursing.

To be successful in nursing, you have to be okay with having zero time to take a break (even a bathroom break) and most times, taking your lunch sometimes 8 hours past your start time, or sometimes not even getting a lunch. You have to be okay with being dehydrated while hanging patient's IV bags and shaking from not being able to take a break and eat while you are checking diabetic's blood sugars and teaching the importance of proper urinary hygiene to avoid UTIs while you've been holding your own urine for the past 5 hours. Nurses are expected to just be okay with it. It's just a part of nursing, right?

You have to be okay with coming in early to "get familiar" with your patient load and not getting paid for that time. You have to be okay with staying well past your shift to give report on a regular basis, taking your total time on the clock (and off) well into 14-15 hours, which means that you are so tired driving home that you hope you make it there without crashing because your brain is tired mush. But long shifts are just a part of nursing.

You have to be okay with having to do more with less, even if it affects patient safety and outcomes. You have to be okay with doctors yelling at you and treating you like you're an incompetent idiot rather than a professional colleague in health care. You know that if you call a doctor to clarify orders or to update on your mutual patient, you may be met with disdain and sarcasm. But that's okay too, because it's just a part of nursing.

Nurses know this to be true. Nurses know these are the dirty secrets of nursing. Nurses know that bullying is rampant. Yet, the answer to this problem is "grow a thicker skin" or "you'll just get used to it".

Nurses know that understaffing is a given and that high acuity and high patient loads per nurse is more common than not. Nurses know this isn't safe, they know the care being given isn't what it should or could be, but they do not unite together against it and demand change.

Nurses know that there is often a lack of adequate training and preceptorship for new grads and new employees entering new specialty areas and that too many times nurses get thrown to the wolves and it's a sink or swim mentality. But, this is just a part of nursing we accept.

Nurses know this. They live it. They experience it. It is the culture of nursing. Yet, there is no call to end it. No hash tag. No selfies. No viral campaign on social media. No standing up to it. Just the continued mentality that these things are just a part of nursing that you have to accept or leave.

So, instead of uniting together against something or someone that has no impact on nursing, why not stand up and unite against the things that are killing the nursing profession and demand they change?

Sincerely,

A disillusioned nurse

[disillusionedrn, RN]

Well, the only person coming off as snarky is you. I don't agree with this movement, I don't think anything said by a host on a tv show commands this level of response when there are real issues that need attention. I am yet to see the real issues come forward because of it, so forgive my frustration and dissapointment in something that really is doing nothing at all for the people participating in it. If this momentum continues and real change is effected because of it, I will eat my words, but I am predicting this will fizzle out and the same nurses sharing their selfies and disdain for The View will go back to accepting the status quo of nursing. Feel free to write your own article with the intro exactly how you want it. I stand by what I said and how I said it and know that it was not meant to be divisive, but to shed light on why this movement means nothing when there are real issues at hand.

[SleeepyRN]

Um, I don't "unite" with anyone over the injustices of nursing because I have bills to pay. Let's not forget that nurses are quite replaceable these days and employers can fire anyone without reason in an at-will state.

YOU may not, but I am seeing thousands from social media unite after this. I don't understand why you sound offended.

I'm happily uniting with other nurses, and discussions are developing over action we can take for changes.

[SleeepyRN]

All this "standing up in unity" does is broadcast loudly and clearly to anyone who will listen that there are nurses who are immature and foolish enough to waste their time taking a stand against matters that are of no real importance or consequence to the nursing profession, or to the quality of care patients receive.

God forbid we want our message to be that we are talented, knowledgeable, life changing nurses who want to be viewed by society as such. The people IN society are our patients. I personally want my patients to view me as professional and comforting instead of a servant to fluff pillows, take food orders, and make their room and belongings "just so."

A member of the panel of the view said a certain nurse was funny. THAT was her perception of what a good nurse is. Much of society thinks the same. To be funny and overtly sweet. I want to be viewed as a knowledgeable healthcare provider who is complemented on competence. Not for being "funny" (as stated on The View) or sweet.

A platform has been created for those of us who DO want to unite. By all means, stand by, let the rest of us do the work to get the perception of nurses as knowledgeable and competent. Maybe with more talk we can get administrator's to understand this and get safe ratios, proper equipment...etc.

Therefore it DOES directory affect us us.

[montinurse, BSN]

What's amazing is the salary of these women on The View, for sitting around talking about others, as many talk show hosts do. Not the noblest of professions. I don't get it.

[Susie2310]

Until people like you get it, nurses will continue to be taken advantage of by the public and at work.

How are nurses taken advantage of by the public? Without the public nurses would not have jobs.

If you want to turn the public against nurses, continue in this way. Without the support of the public, which nurses generally enjoy, nurses would really be in a bad position.

[Dragonnurse1, ASN, RN]

Wow! The tone of some of these posts. Talk about one of our biggest problems - Nurses eating their young. We are a contradictory lot. We want respect but are busy disrespecting others with different viewpoints about this subject. Someone once wrote that any publicity is a good thing if you know what to do. Well perhaps the hashtag thing can be turned to good for the nursing profession but it will take strong leadership and groups in all 50 states speaking with the same message. Do not forget we are up against hospitals and others with a different agenda. The hospitals are trying to make money (if you think non-profit means no profit think again but that is a discussion for another place), Doctors' must continue the illusion that they alone are responsible for all healthcare (not all Doctors but many) and both groups are at the mercy of the insurance companies and (now) government.

Remember where our profession started? Remember the times when nurses did bandage changes without gloves or wiped fannies without protection? Have you had to work with a bleeder without PPE? Things have changed over time. We now have excellent schools for nurses, nursing boards to help set standards but what we do not have is united front. Nothing is the same from state to state. Education, job descriptions, what our state boards allow, what the hospitals allow and some states have unions while others others do not. In my state the state board allows us to suture but the hospital I worked in would not because insurance would not pay for an RN to suture. The next state over allows RN's to place PIC lines but not here. Now I know you are wondering where I am going with this - we as nurses need to unite for more than the public's respect - we need our community to respect each other and then go after the true prize; the respect from the rest of the medical community including our hospitals, the doctors, insurance companies, and the federal government too.

We are not "just nurses" we are the backbone of the medical field. How would doctors' be able to care for more than one patient in the hospital at a time if they had to give daily care plus meds plus deal with family members? How would surgeons' get through a simple surgery without the nurses there to pass instruments, assist, close, count instruments, and document everything used in a procedure? Let's see a single ER in this country run without us. We know it cannot but we do not let the world know this. Why? Most of us are too busy working and trying to make sure that our patients are safely cared for without hanging ourselves out to dry and when we are off we do not have the time or energy to take on the rest of the industry.

How do we take the #NursesUnite movement and turn it into the true juggernaut we need it to be for true change. What would that change look like? Instead of attacking each other perhaps we could use this forum to develop a concise list of changes we want nationwide that would work not only for us but be the best for our patients and improve outcomes at every level. I will even throw out one idea to get it started. Lets have all the state boards of nursing provide for all the same skills in all states. And with that said here is number two - insurance companies should be required to pay for things like suturing if done be an RN and not an MD.

[ladedah1, BSN, RN]

AMEN TO THAT!!!

I just had the privilege of finding your article after doing a bit of venting on a post of my own and I must say that I wish I had read yours first... would have saved myself a lot of time typing! Very eloquently and accurately put! I had not heard anything about any comment from The View (as I am not on social media and do not subscribe to cable... very out of the loop, lol), but I really appreciate your having pointed out some of the major issues in need of attention.

[Susie2310]

If a Miss America contestant was a medical student or MD, gave a heartfelt speech about a patient and was ridiculed for reading her emails, wearing a

nurses outfit and a physician's stethoscope, the verbal/online " whooping" would have been ten times worse. Med Students, interns and MDs are a very rough crowd.

I would be surprised if an MD appeared on a Miss America contest in the way you described.

[OCNRN63, RN]

Did anyone watch the clip from The View? I'm only watching it because nurses are posting it on FB. I just thought it was funny that Raven had such a sour look in her face throughout the whole segment. C'mon, at least try.

I really hope that this is the start of change for nursing. I don't know if anyone is part of the "Show me your stethoscope" group, but there is a girl who posted that she is making an appearance on Fox and Friends tomorrow and has 4 minutes on air. She hoped to discuss Senate Bill 864 to establish nationwide ratios.

I watched the clip. She looked like she was trying so hard not to roll her eyes. When they handed out the stethoscope, she didn't even want to take the one handed to her.

Maybe some think this outrage is silly. I see it as having the potential for people learning just what nurses deal with on a day to day basis. Some genuinely don't know what being a nurse entails. If a few people learn from it, that can't be a bad thing.

As far as the poster who was pointing her finger at nurses for not working to make changes, you need to know your audience. Sometimes you can work as hard as you can to effect change, but at the end of the day you're just Sisyphus...doomed to keep pushing that rock up the hill over and over.

[bathrobemom, LPN]

Couldn't have said it better myself! Only 3 months as a nurse and I've experienced everything pointed out in the article. I'm already tired of busting my butt my whole shift, skipping lunch, and staying late so I can hear people complain that I only got 500,000 things done out of a million while hearing them complain about how hard their shifts are.

[kristimarieSC]

I COMPLETELY AGREE. This being said, I'm still VERY new to this world and have not dented the surface of what you all have experienced. But being removed often gives you a different perspective. I dont think nurses are supporting something that "means nothing," in truth, they feel they're defending their reputation. While all of these problems in the workplace drain nurse's sense of autonomy and power, what many nurses cling to as their emotional life support is the public perception and gratitude for their work. "If no one else at work appreciates me, I know the clerk in the checkout line at the grocery store will still verbalized his appreciation for 'all I do' even though he has NO CLUE what I actually do." We can be bullied, belittled, and overworked, but the general sense of awe and thanks by the general public keeps you feeling you've chosen the right path. I'm in no way saying nurses are egotistical, nor in it for the praise and glory (this makes me laugh). Nurses are the most selfless and humble people I know. I just think it's a little hap-Hazard to toss the nurses United movement out as useless. Joy behar just stepped on our last happy place, our safe harbor, which is our well deserved reputation.

[SusanRN82]

Amen, sister!