Awful hospital conditions. Anyone else experience this?

Published Apr 13, 2014

117 Posts

So after getting my RN then finally BSN, I have finally after three years landed a hospital job in a less than desirable facility. But knowing the current economy and job market, I know I really really need to make this work and stick it out. I'm trying to stick it out for a whole year, but each day is like an eternity. I've been wondering if other hospital nurses out there experience anything like what I have experienced.

Every day I dread going in. Every day of work is like a slow painful torturous death. I still work two days a week at my old SAR and find it to be almost like a joyful vacation to go back as the quality of care is nothing but excellence.

I have never worked in a hospital before, but I know the difference between poor conditions and quality work. Here is a list of things I deal with on a regular basis. Can anyone out there relate at all??? Is it the hospital that I work in or is this normal?

- Nobody comes in on time at 7. We never start with report until about 7:30.

- The earliest anyone ever leaves, on a very good day is 8pm. The usual is around 9 or 10. I thought this was a 7-7 shift???

- Doctors don't always call back. Sometimes they call back hours later. This delays the pt care process.

- Doctors will write in progress notes but will not write the order on the POS. Doctors do not communicate new information, so the nurses must search the chart for new notes to stay current with pt treatment since nobody communicates ever.

- The house doctor gets angry when called and calls the nurses incompetent for calling them.

- Phlebotomists don't always do their job. Many times we nurses have to flag them down in the hallways. Many times we have to draw our own blood since they just don;t do it for whatever reason. Sometimes phlebotomists are just nasty, say NO, I'm going home!

- 40% of the time pharmacy does not have the medication stocked in our pyxis for whatever reason, but will deliver the 10am medications around 5pm. Or we have to call them for the unfulfilled order, leave the floor, and wait at the pharmacy window until they retrieve it.

- Angry, stressed out, nasty, disrespectful coworkers. On a daily basis. Starting from when they enter the floor. Everyone is so miserable and constantly full of complaints. I've seen staff walk all over the so called leaders.

- Staffing is non existent. Call outs are not replaced. We have to pull staff from other floors, and sometimes other managers refuse to let go of their staff to help out another floor.

- Nobody gets disciplined for insubordination. Or anything else really. But everyone continues to complain about the problems. This hospital spits alot of BS about quality and theory, yet the resources and follow up are not there.

I've never seen an acute care facility this bad. But for the meantime, I have no choice. Can anybody relate?