Be honest: do you feel valued by your employer?

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Every company I have worked for since becoming an RN has made few to zero effort(s) to make their employees feel valued. I only have 5 years experience. Is this really what I have to look forward to for the rest of my 40+ year career? Are there any companies out there that still maintain their integrity? All I can say is thank God for outstanding coworkers.

Specializes in Psychiatry.
Nope. I'm a warm body who provides the work, but am seen as a drain on profits because I'm lumped in with the cost of everything else. Our executives actually get bonuses based on how much they've saved on staffing costs.

This is my experience also.

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Specializes in Float Pool - A Little Bit of Everything.

My employer sucks!

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

Yeah, I do. My current employer, I feel, does a good job of making

the nurses and other staff feel important and valued. Now, how do they

REALLY look at us? Who knows? But, so far I feel like it is a really

good company and I'm very pleased at how I've been treated so far.

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Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.

No, I do not. We are just warm bodies, with a pulse and an active RN license. They don't care about anything except the bottom dollar. That's the truth.

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I think it really depends on your manager and facility. I worked for a private hospital in Monterey, CA and in general I felt they valued nurses. I also had a job at a small outpatient surgery center that was like working for a family business. Those experiences aside, I more or less have had the same impression as you. In fact my first nursing job of about 5 years the hospital fought tooth and nail against the union (and I wasn't a union member) for raises every year. My impression about this was: we're all numbers and there's no reward for performance or loyalty. Having worked at a couple other hospitals, I feel most of them have that attitude. Almost every nursing orientation I've been through has a video about a mistake a nurse makes with medications (though the orientation has people from all professions). You have to understand that nurses are the biggest population and expense in healthcare and so generally little effort is put to quality of work environment. Plus advancement opportunities are seldom desirable or resulting in significant pay increases. I also felt like every meeting/huddle/email I got in the hospital focused on something nurses were doing wrong. Your schedule and vacation are also always in someone else's control (in the hospital). I've seen nurses of 30 years still complaining about not getting time off or the schedule they want.

It gets tiring and exhausting to bust your butt and bet told your not doing enough or not doing something correctly. I had a career before nursing (working in corporate education/HR) and I was told on a routine basis how excellent my work was. And I also had performance reviews that resulted in pay raises. I got a lot more respect and gratitude. This is one, of the many, reasons I've started to make an exit from nursing. First was leaving clinical work, but the plan is within 2 years to be out of it altogether. I'm not saying you can't have a rewarding career in nursing or advance or be in a positive work environment (because those things do exist). But I would say that for the majority of the profession there is little reward for being an excellent employee. You really have to look out for yourself in nursing. Find the best facility to work at, find a unit/specialty with good management, and remember it is just a job and you deserve to be treated well at work.

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My job only values the fact that I have a pulse, an active license, and a desire to pick up shifts. But I know that if I mess up, even once, they would have no reservations about cutting me loose. If they really valued any employee they would attempt to improve these sh*t staffing ratios, but since facilities and hospitals are run by business people in nice suits with no conscience, they try and squeeze every bit of work they can get out of anyone. It's all about the green, merciless god (money).

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Specializes in med-surg, IMC, school nursing, NICU.

I felt about as valuable as a discarded enema at my last hospital job. The hospital was SO big and had a nursing school associated with it so it really seemed like they saw nurses as expendable, replaceable, and a dime-a-dozen. On my second day, I called my mom on the way home and said "I am not a person to them. I am a cog in their machine" and that statement rang true throughout me entire tenure there. I learned a ton and got some great experience but the pay was the lowest I had ever seen in the hospital and the staffing was unsafe as was the acuity. The numerous complaints filed by nurses were ignored by the heels and pearls brigade. It was very disheartening.

I don't feel valued at my current job, either. I used to, under old management, but as many of you know I have a new principal who doesn't think very highly of me. The pay is lower than the hospital and I get very little respect from teachers and administrators who think they can do/dictate my job. I keep to myself, however, and am still pretty happy where I am. The hours and benefits are great which make me feel good. I have decided that nursing as a profession doesn't get nearly as much respect as it used to, which is pretty sad!

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.

I had worked at the same hospital for my whole time, saw 5 parent company transfers and have seen the devaluation of human resources. When life happened in the 90's, people were given time off with no penalty. Fast forward to now and the current state owners told a widow to come back 1 week after burying her husband because " you had a lot of time off during his illness". I have come to hate hospital nursing. Experience means nothing and a definite us vs. them antagonism has evolved with administration. For the first time in decades experienced nurses have little security in their position. This is a very negative atmosphere and I can now appreciate where unions may have their place.

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I think it really depends on your manager and facility. I worked for a private hospital in Monterey, CA and in general I felt they valued nurses. I also had a job at a small outpatient surgery center that was like working for a family business. Those experiences aside, I more or less have had the same impression as you. In fact my first nursing job of about 5 years the hospital fought tooth and nail against the union (and I wasn't a union member) for raises every year. My impression about this was: we're all numbers and there's no reward for performance or loyalty. Having worked at a couple other hospitals, I feel most of them have that attitude. Almost every nursing orientation I've been through has a video about a mistake a nurse makes with medications (though the orientation has people from all professions). You have to understand that nurses are the biggest population and expense in healthcare and so generally little effort is put to quality of work environment. Plus advancement opportunities are seldom desirable or resulting in significant pay increases. I also felt like every meeting/huddle/email I got in the hospital focused on something nurses were doing wrong. Your schedule and vacation are also always in someone else's control (in the hospital). I've seen nurses of 30 years still complaining about not getting time off or the schedule they want.

It gets tiring and exhausting to bust your butt and bet told your not doing enough or not doing something correctly. I had a career before nursing (working in corporate education/HR) and I was told on a routine basis how excellent my work was. And I also had performance reviews that resulted in pay raises. I got a lot more respect and gratitude. This is one, of the many, reasons I've started to make an exit from nursing. First was leaving clinical work, but the plan is within 2 years to be out of it altogether. I'm not saying you can't have a rewarding career in nursing or advance or be in a positive work environment (because those things do exist). But I would say that for the majority of the profession there is little reward for being an excellent employee. You really have to look out for yourself in nursing. Find the best facility to work at, find a unit/specialty with good management, and remember it is just a job and you deserve to be treated well at work.

I'm glad you chimed in because I've wondered if the work environment is better in CA because of the unions. I am totally pro-union, especially when it comes to our profession where we constantly and consistently get crapped on.

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Do I feel valued by my employer?

Are there any companies out there that maintain their intergrity?

*laughs hysterically*

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Specializes in PCCN.
That would be a "Nope."

haha- I was going to say the exact same thing....Nope.

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Specializes in Educator.
JFC will you all stop with the poor downtrodden woman crap?!

I don't care what your profession is, just grow a backbone or go the frock home. Applies to both genders. All this "we need more men" stuff...... look, I think more men should join nursing because they want to and to improve the diversity of the profession, not so they can be knights in shining armor riding to the rescue of the poor weak females. Stand up for yourself or shut up.

Is there a love button?

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