Calling all RNs who have had bad work experiences

[Blue Roses]

Hello readers,

I am a nurse working on a busy medsurg/rehab floor of asmallish downtown hospital. Before thisjob (which I ADORE) I had a bad experience with a past work environment thatled me to have severe anxiety and panic attacks before I finally found a newjob. I also had to go on medication tobe able to function without having the attacks. Contributing factors to the problems at this job included understaffing,little opportunity to take lunch breaks, toxic gossip, very complicatedpatients (fresh post-ops and traumas not bad enough for ICU), and a boss thatwas very condescending and unprofessional.

I've become very passionate about hospital staff jobsatisfaction and safety, beyond the ergonomic and needle sticks, such hasemotional and mental trauma. From this Ihave had a couple ideas that I am looking for feedback on.

My first idea came when State came to inspect my currentworkplace. What if there was a Stateinspector specifically for evaluating how well the staff is being treated? Good idea? How would this work? Or is this asilly idea? I have an open mind.

Second, I have some experience writing research articles forcollege that ended up getting published in minor student work magazines andwhatnot. I was interested in possiblywriting a real-world research paper about bad experiences nurses have had with employers. I am looking for three specific things:

1) What was thesituation at work?

2) How did it affectyou?

3) What wouldyou have changed about the work environment, if you could go back?

Don't worry I won't be including any responses from thisthread in any writing piece. This isjust to see if I have something to work with or if I'm just being a dreamer(again). In the meantime I'll be hopingsomebody reads this and can relate. Please feel free to say anything you want, call me crazy or call me inspired, just call me (or comment i guess)! Like I said, I have an open mind.

[amoLucia]

IMHO - the problem I see is that you seek SUBJECTIVE responses. That kind of situation is viewed negatively by the respondent, but that is only one side of the story. I've read a lot of 'poor lil ole me' type posts here on AN when I'd really like to hear the other side of the story. Oh, to be a fly on the wall...

I'd venture that many of those posts might NOT be justified when all the facts are revealed. How would you go about learning all the details? And re the State surveyor - what could that State surveyor ask; what objective info could be measured - there's no regulations that require a facility to have 'satisfied' employees'.

What measures satisfaction - breaks/ lunch time, gifts for Nurses Week, 1:1 ratios, etc? Does the employer NOT allow breaks/lunch time? It's not enough for the employee to say "not enough time". A fresh postop or trauma pt CANNOT stay in Recovery or ER. They have to go somewhere - a regular floor's bed. That floor you're on may be very busy, but that's not admission criteria for bed availability. You think the manager is unprofessional and condescending; I think she's focused & no-nonsense. And I'm not part of the in-group's birthday bash plans, so what?

What you'll get are anecdotes - a bunch of 'he said, she said, I think' stories. That kind of reporting is interesting reading. We all have our own stories with our own opinions. I think that's partly why AN is interesting.

If you could objectify something - I don't know. Just my thoughts.

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

I think that's really interesting. I would like to read a paper like that!

I don't think it would be a problem not to have objective responses. Subjective responses are fine - it would just be a qualitative study instead of a quantitative one. I do agree with amoLucia in that it may be a little challenging to separate "complainer's" responses from people in legitimately bad work environments. I hate to say it, but some nurses are little princesses who want everything exactly their way and if their work environment is not perfect they throw fits. It's kind of hard to tell who those people are from a brief survey!

[Good Morning, Gil]

I would probably guess that most RN's have had bad experiences with employment at one point or another; this is because not all employers are created equal, and some environments are bad in every way, like the one you described. Sometimes an environment can just have 1 piece of the pie, a toxic work environment, with all other things being good about the job, and that's enough to send people packing. Who wants to work with back-biting people? This would be hard to quantify by a survey because most RN's aren't going to feel comfortable telling a random survey person how they really feel.

What you'll find is that the most satisfied nurses are those that are not working at the bedside in any capacity. I have talked with many RN's in many different environments, so this isn't a true study lol, but the most satisfied RN's are those working outside the hospital. This is not because these RN's can't handle the stress of the hospital (most worked there for several years), but most of the time, even in the best of environments, RN's get tired of not being able to take a true lunch break consistently or non-genuine team-work (other RN's sitting around while 1 person is running the whole shift, only coming to help if you ask them). RN's that leave the bedside, not only find their jobs rewarding, but they are usually most excited that they can eat a meal every day, and eat it in peace.

This is not to say that I don't enjoy the bedside (please don't confuse me for the many I am speaking about). I enjoy the ICU, the acuity, and the reward of helping save a life or helping someone die with dignity; however, I also know that I won't be a full time ICU nurse my whole career. I think I will stay PRN in the future, but would like to explore other areas in nursing at some point, research (is virtually impossible to get into lol), hospice, or hyperbarics. Hyperbarics is so fascinating, and it just so happens that I'm not claustrophobic, so that works well :). Thank you for your concern! This shows that you'd likely be a valuable team member on any unit, with your concern for other RN's :).

[Altra, BSN, RN]

Have you done a literature search to see what's already out there? (hint: there is a fair amount of scholarly literature on both job satisfaction among nurses and other workplace issues)

[Blue Roses]

I guess instead of asking what went wrong, I could ask what went right. Like instead of asking out bad experiences I could request good work expreiences and the reasons why it was good. That way I could filter the "complainers" out.

[Akashamother]

I was hired as a new nurse in a supervisor position but I could not shake the feeling that I needed more experience. I wanted to be a more knowledgeable resource for my staff. So I started school to get my BSN and got a job in a local hospital. Leaving a very good job behind. I loved it, I was learning so much! To my dismay It didn't work out, after only four months 2 co-workers went behind my back to the manager and put complaints against me for talking to much about my personal life and added a few non-truths about med pass and documentation to make me look like I couldn't do the job. The manager never investigated my notes to see if the claims were true, or she would have seen the lies for what they were. I was told I would fail probation or I could choose to resign. I took the option to resign. I was lucky enough to get a job in another local hospital right away, but I was still depressed over what happened at the first hospital. Because I was too depressed about the situation didn't want t have to discuss it in future interviews, I made a huge mistake, I left the first hospital off my job history, so when HR got wind of it I was terminated for omission. Now I have no job, and I'm so frustrated. Now I think my career as a nurse may be over.

[Blue Roses]

Akashamother, don't give up! There must be a graceful way to explain the situation with the old job. When I got my new job, my supervisor asked me about the old job a little, but didn't ask on what terms I left (it wasn't good terms). I know there are alot of internet resources out there that offer helpful ways to make a bad job situation look good in your favor. Just google "job interview tips". I hope things work out for you.