Are we not asked to give to much?

[KalipsoRed21]

Nurse over a decade here. I have yet had a job where I actually leave ‘on time’. I hear it is all my fault that this is the case. That I need to let others do more and say no more often. However when I try to say no and do less one of two things happen. 1) Something for a patient gets messed up. 2) My boss tells me that it wasn’t ‘this’ particular thing that I can say no to.

Is there any winning really? I love people, but not more than my own life. There is a very bad lack of work life balance in healthcare. One that makes me regret that I ever chose this as a profession. Yes, I love to help people, but not at the CONSTANT deprivation of my own personal life and family....no to mention the constant lack standards of quality of care healthcare has for it’s patients in the USA. I am ready to lead a revolution. This *** is whack.

Why do you stay?

And don’t say because you love your patients, I love my patients too. Don’t be a martyr.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

On 7/6/2019 at 9:57 AM, KalipsoRed21 said:

Example? I just had to watch a video for my organization that showed us how to make a ‘caring and trusting bond’ with our patients in 56 seconds. This is the education I am getting from my organization.....does no one else see the concern here?

It's sad that some idiot in an office somewhere actually believes that you can build that bond in less than a minute. I know you can sure as fire break the bond by actions and words, but that is ridiculous and laughable

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

I agree it is hard to find good jobs in nursing and personally believe getting free labor out of doctors and nurses is a deliberate plan by the corporate bean counters who have no conscience and are fine with overworking staff in order to keep their excessive pay and bonuses going strong!

In the current state of corporate healthcare, you have to determine what you are willing to put up with, and if not, you have to vote with your feet by quitting your present job and getting a different job, hopefully better. Ideally not quitting your old job till you have a new one secured!

While I haven't jumped around, I've talked to other nurses and some found themselves forced to get different jobs because of ridiculous and insane demands. From the endless unpaid hours of charting in homecare to hospitals where nurses are being mandated daily due to constant short staffing to dialysis nursing where nurses are expected to work even into the middle of night to finish the last hospital dialysis, only to get up in the morning and do it all over again. To the OR and PACU nurses that get low censused half their shift, put on call and then have enormous on-call responsibilities on their days off. Unfortunately, these ridiculous expectations are everywhere in healthcare. Even if you have a great job, it can change in a heartbeat! A new manager, a corporate merger and the next thing you know your great job has turned to *** or is gone entirely due to layoffs!

If you stay where you are things are unlikely to get any better. You have to decide what you are willing to put up with and when you decide enough is enough you'll quit. There really isn't anything any of us can do to help change the situation. It is baked into the current healthcare system.

Where I work we've probably lost around two dozen nurses since the corporate takeover leaving us chronically short staffed. They refuse to hire enough nurses to replace all that left and the majority voted with their feet due to the terrible corporate mismanagement driven only by greed!

There still are alot of us oldtimers that are still there trying to make it to retirement. I know things aren't going to get better. I'm not willing to get my BSN at my age so that leaves me stuck with this hospital system. I'm not willing to do homecare due to the wear and tear on my car and the bad pay and long unpaid hours. I have no stars in my eyes and don't like the situation, but I'm choosing to stay and save all the money I can looking for early retirement to get off the treadmill!

[klone, MSN, RN]

2 minutes ago, brandy1017 said:

I agree it is hard to find good jobs in nursing and personally believe getting free labor out of doctors and nurses is a deliberate plan by the corporate bean counters who have no conscience and are fine with overworking staff in order to keep their excessive pay and bonuses going strong!

How are they getting free labor out of nurses? If you're working, you should be clocked in. If you're not clocked in, you should not be working.

[KalipsoRed21, BSN, RN]

4 minutes ago, klone said:

How are they getting free labor out of nurses? If you're working, you should be clocked in. If you're not clocked in, you should not be working.

Well in instances like home care there are two different ways they get you. 1) You are salaried, often you get an assignment that you can complete in 8.5 hours if you do minimal charting. So then you have 2-3 hours of charting to do at home on your own time. 2) You are paid per visit. Meaning the agency gives you a lump sum for each visit. So if you can get in and out of the house and be all charted in 30-45 min you get paid the same if you have to spend 1.5 hours changing a wound vac.

In the hospital they always got me with ‘if you are working you have to stay on the clock’ but when I would do that then I would get called in because I had ‘to many hours’. But no one could show me how to do the kind of care I was doing for my patients and get the charting done.....except to tell me that I was spending to much time with the patient. But I’m also the one who got the patient safety star award several times due to catching errors. Errors that could have been caught earlier but didn’t....and in my opinion because those people were not spending ‘too much time’ with their patients. Yes most new grads spend to much time talking to the patient and not managing their time, but that was 8 years ago for me.

Not to mention most floors tell you to take a lunch but how often have you worked through lunch? I can count on my two hands the number of times that I actually got to sit and take a lunch in the last 10 years. But try clocking out ‘no lunch’ every day and see what happens.

4 minutes ago, klone said:

[Workitinurfava, BSN, RN]

I don't think you are playing the victim. I feel you are voicing the truth. I feel as nurses we tend to think their is an issue with the nurse for complaining or saying something is not right here because sometimes there is only so much you can do or say to to help the hurting nurse, other than saying quit. You may have to take short cuts sometimes (safe ones), only respond to people to a point, cluster your care, than get to your charting. Work smarter not harder.

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

3 hours ago, klone said:

How are they getting free labor out of nurses? If you're working, you should be clocked in. If you're not clocked in, you should not be working.

By understaffing and overworking the nurses while they are there. By getting rid of all the resources such as CNA's, HUC's, educators, working supervisors, IV team etc, etc. In that instance, while you are paid, you are being stressed out and overworked. Many work without lunch breaks, that is common knowledge, and some are intimidated to work off the clock and not record the no lunch. We actually received a couple memo's claiming they will not pay a no lunch unless we have a supervisor's approval, but legally they must pay no lunch regardless. So right there what is being implied is not legal! Sure they can discipline you and they will if you take no lunches often. Just like people who stay late are disciplined for overtime. These examples alone happen so frequently you hear about the govt making large hospitals pay back pay so it is common operating procedure!

The biggest way they get free labor is by those working salary where the work is impossible to get done in 40 hours. As far as home health, some places pay a flat fee by the visit and not even hourly, talk about a rip off! That reason alone is why I would not do homecare.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

7 hours ago, brandy1017 said:

The biggest way they get free labor is by those working salary where the work is impossible to get done in 40 hours.

Unforturnately, those who are salaried, know this going in. It's why I won't take a salaried position anymore, no matter how good it looks on paper. Burnt once, learned my lesson

[OUxPhys, BSN, RN]

If you work in an inpatient setting the answer is no, its always a lose-lose situation. You can say no to things and then run the risk of having someone else to do it.....which will end up being your fault, or you can stay and do it yourself but leave late and again it will be your fault.

That is one of the biggest issues with nursing today. No matter what you do, no matter how great of a nurse and employee you are.....it will always be your fault.

I have never seen a career field that was responsible for the actions/inactions of other career fields.

If you truly want to win you should find a position in an outpatient or procedural setting.

[Interpolfan89]

I agree that our healthcare system is horrible, and that a good number of the people working in it are abused. There are many days I have literally given blood, sweat, and tears during my only 5 year nursing career. I have worked in a variety of settings and they all cost me something. What keeps me going? Bills and hope. Currently, I make a good living wage as a nurse that enables me to pay my bills and do the little things I enjoy doing on my time off. My hope is to develop my creative outlets so much so as to someday make a good living wage off of them so I can exit healthcare stage left hahaha

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

Another perfect example of why I have always, and will always, work inpatient pediatrics at a ranked stand-alone pediatric hospital. 95% of the problems I hear and read about in adult world are pretty much non-existant in my pediatric world.

[KalipsoRed21, BSN, RN]

On 7/8/2019 at 9:51 AM, JadedCPN said:

Another perfect example of why I have always, and will always, work inpatient pediatrics at a ranked stand-alone pediatric hospital. 95% of the problems I hear and read about in adult world are pretty much non-existant in my pediatric world.

I find this true. Pediatrics is a far more resourced sector of healthcare. I loved the kids, the parents I could not handle. And unfortunately I think my heart is just pulled towards geriatrics.