Burnout!

[krwrnbsn]

I absolutely love the OR. It has been "my place" for years. I love my patients. What I don't love is the toxic environment of the OR in which I work. It is full of negativity, hostility & favoritism. The hard workers (such as myself) who aren't complainers do the majority of the work. While the rest bask in our glory. I am sad to say that I plan on leaving at some point this year. Just sad.

[kguill975, MSN, APRN, NP]

Sorry to hear you're leaving, but have you considered trying a different shift (i.e. lunch relief, evenings, nights, weekends, or changing your hours to 3-12s, or 4-10s. I found that only working 3 days a week did wonders for my disposition, because that was 2 less days I had to deal with the BS. When I moved to nights, I knew there was no way in hell I'd ever work a day shift again. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[SASS3589]

I absolutely agree. With the changes in healthcare, hospitals are catering to surgeon's and managers are fearing for their jobs. All of this comes together to create a very negative situation for staff nurses in the operating room. Surgeon's have returned to their abusive ways and the hospital does nothing but spout rhetoric about supporting staff. I write this just minutes after a surgeon threw a debakey pickup at me missing me by about 3 feet as I sat charting. He said the tips did not meet. I would write an incident report except there isn't anything the hospital will do and I can't afford to be without a job. There are no measure taken to support the nurse who holds up a case because the surgeon hasn't charted the required history and physical or even met the patient before surgery. We are nothing but an assembly line. I am so done. I count the seconds until retirement. ( I'd take a vacation but, they have taken most of our PTO away except for what we HAVE to use on holidays---no paid holidays---except for PTO so the holidays eat up all of what would be our vacation) So sad, I used to be passionate about my job!

[chrisclark]

You probably already know this: It will never change and will only get worse as your current OR condition is a result of management tolerating the negative social cancer that permeates many operating rooms. There is no profit to be made by addressing negativity and catty behavior in the OR. To change the system requires excision of the cancerous employees which results in low staffing causing more initial stress on existing employees. You will find that many of these negative employees are allowed to exist and often are the favorites of a manager.. Having worked in a toxic environment, I saw numerous new grads get pushed out and backstabbed, and unless you were in "the clic", your future was sketchy at best. I'd say quit and if you're able, look up hospitals with a "no gossip policy". Theses institutions fire people for negativity and have a high employee retention rate.

You can not change the current system short of marrying the administrator of the facility and effecting change from atop. Good job performance is not enough to save you from the constant negative environment. Its a popularity contest. If you can become that negative person you hate and be MORE negative than anyone else, you'll be the alpha dog in the OR and rule the place. If you complain, they'll force you out seeing you as an instigator. Yes there are policies written regarding these negative employees, but they are unenforceable. They don't want to enforce them as it costs money. They don't see that having to frequently train new employees to replace the others who quit as an expense. Actually, new employees are usually acquired at a lower rate of pay.

Nursing is a great profession, yet plagued with insecure negative nurses who are not held to a higher professional ethic.

Good luck in your decision whether to stay or quit.