Change, Change, Change: Where's the forethought?

[JPnewACNP, BSN]

Hello everybody!

I'm currently working as an ICU Float nurse going to multiple facilities across the system. I'm also about to graduate as an Adult-Gero Acute Care Nurse Practitioner and planning to complete my DNP in the next year or two. This company was a merger with another and a lot of changes have occurred over many years before I began working there. Since starting here, I cannot begin to understand how this system is run, how they can justify their processes that DO NOT work at the bedside, and where the leadership is. There is a new EHR being rolled-out and that is incredibly disorganized wasting not only my time (many of the support people are sitting around chatting), my patience, and their money. At the bedside, policies and protocols that should be easily and quickly accessible are non-existent and not a soul in the hospitals know what is actually suppose to be going on. Leadership cannot even produce a policy to back what they say.

To say I am concerned and exasperated, I am a bit worried about my license and the well being of my colleagues at the bedside. Why is it feeling like we are trying to recreate the wheel everyday? There's plenty of resources and evidence to guide us and help easy these types of transitions. As middle management or executive management, why would you not include bedside staff and research into their decisions and implementation of these changes? Why would you opt to not support your staff or decrease ratios during times of large transitions? Why would you teach one thing in class only to do the opposite in practice?

Granted, I am not in management or even a charge nurse, but things really shouldn't be that complicated.

[SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN]

OP: I work in a similar environment. I can tell you from experience that unless the senior leadership within your facility understands microsystems and EBP and knows how to strategically plan, support frontline staff, and implement changes your work environment will not change. You should start looking at another position outside of that facility or organization. Good luck!