bad mgmt + bad decisions=burnout?

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Specializes in LTC.

i am just wondering....is there some unseen rule in ltc that says the don or other mgmt personnel can just let shifts run short? we were short aides, severely short, the don came in to "decorate" a room in the facility....didnt help the nurses with anything, nor the aides who are already burned out to the max from months of working short...when a nurse told her the aides were short and needed help she said "i cant make anybody stay over" ...yet....she has told me herself several times in the past that i had no choice but to stay over....even though im not an aide...ive had to stay over many many many times due to call ins for nurses on third before. ....i counted the call ins...the ones that are actually written down....for jan and feb combined there have been 93 call ins...all but 7 are aides, the remaining are nurses. yet, nothings been done..not one thing. can a don not mandate that people stay over at least to get the next shift halfway through? why cant she just say ok...i need 1 or 2 volunteers to stay for 3 more hours to get the next crew through...prns are a joke...we have them on paper but not in reality...both for aides and nurses. they rarely come in when needed, then if they are scheduled they call in. again, nothing done...yet those of us that are there all the time...and are reliable have to get all the brunt work put on us plus picking up slack. its not fair. its been brought up in many many meetings...and nothing has changed..going on 4 yrs now of this. mgmt needs to beef it up get some balls and clean house i think....if i had the title and authority to get rid of these slacker staff members, id do it all in one day....what gives????????? if it werent for the fact that the nurses like working with each other it would be guaranteed that nobody would ever stay there. thats why we've all stuck with it...for each other.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.

hospitals run this way too. i have noticed that if management gets away with staffing shifts short, they do it all the time!!! why fully staff shifts if nurses complain but continue to work short? on one floor i worked one of the charge nurses would tell the rest of us all night that she was going to call so-and-so in because that nurse was put on call. the floor was full. there was no reason a nurse should have been put on-call. anyway, her pep talk was always the same "i believe in my team and we will get through this..." every night she worked as charge we never got back up. not even from her!!! she spent the night giving us admits back-to-back without helping in anyway with nursing tasks while having the audacity to text message family and friends all night and leave early when some of us left late! i no longer work for that floor or that hospital; however i noticed the same drama in my new hospital as well. ltc is not alone.

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oops... i forgot to answer your question... yes, your equation is correct.... working in this fashion leads to burn out. i know i was burned out by the last med surg floor i worked. six months later, i am still disgusted when i think about what i went through working on that floor!

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Specializes in Med/surg/tele/OR.

Absolutely true. I worked med surg for three years day shift and night shift and eventually lost it. I was ready to quit nursing all together. Then I got a job in the OR it was my dream job. Scheduled breaks, going home on time, no weekends or holidays unless on call. I loved it then with the economy came the layoffs. I lost my job two weeks before Christmas and where did that leave me? Lucky to get my old job back on the same floor that I left. This time I am on midnights as the charge nurse and yes I take a full team sometimes when we are required to take on extra patient I am the one to do it because I CAN handle it without having a complete meltdown. I work with mostly brand new nurses and nightly I am helping out my fellow nurses and still doing my charge responsibilities and taking a full team. To top it all off we have a new director who is a micro manager from hell. He does nothing about nurses who do stupid stupid dangerous things but is quick to suspend you for attendance but it is okay to almost kill a patient with your stupidity. I just don't get it. I am pregnant right now so no chance of leaving this job anytime soon. I am not sure how long I can hold on for.

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Same problem in my hospital. 75% of the time we lose an aide to float. That leaves 1 aide on 3-11 with 15 or so incontinent, immobile, confused, very sick people. Of course the 2 nurses have to function as CNA and RN and get it all done. On the rare occasion that we have full staff it is like a night off, I am not exhausted, sore, my back is not screaming at me. All of our patients have to be lifted, turned, repo, oob to commode, most are morbidly obese. I don't mind lending a hand, but I am not a FORKLIFT, I am a RN who is burning out quickly.

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Try working in a doctor's office. It may be less stressful. I don't think things will change until nurses stand up and we don't. When we get into management we seem to forget the plight of the nurses at the bedside. I am on a mission to leave hospital nursing all together. They will try to suck the life out of you and then revive you just to do it all again.

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Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Case Management.

I can not reply to the post as it is just to difficult to read!

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

Ditto to the previous post. It is painful to read.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, WCC.

For one thing, don't lump ALL management in the same pot. I staff very well, if the staff call in, don't blame myself... blame your co-workers. I have a very strict attendance policy... it is adhered to and if you have a problem.... there's the door.

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

If a floor/ward/hall/facility reguires X amount of people to run it, X amount of people should be on the floor. If one person calls in, don't just work short and blame it on the call in, FILL THE SPOT. Sometimes there simply is no one to fill the spot, I understand that. Then hire more people. Look on this site, people are unable to find jobs. What a lot of us here are upset about, is the deliberate, chronic shortage of nurses or cnas on the floor. When nurses or cnas are put on call, when the work load demands additional staff. Also I've been a staff nurse for many years. Management does not think like the nurse walking the halls and answering the call lights. The very nature of our jobs conflict at a fundamental level.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, WCC.

This management person answers call lights, toilets, feeds , etc. I have plenty of people employed and many who what there name written on the side of the schedule to be called for hours if someone calls in sick. There are days (very few) that there is no one else to call. the problems do not exist in "all" facilities.

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

Who said "all"?

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Specializes in Geriatrics, WCC.

read the previous posts... implied.

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