Yesterday my hospital "celebrated" nurses day. They had vendors from a local scrub store and jewelry outlet with tables in a tiny area off the side of the main conference room, where the managers got to sit at linen-covered tables and got served luncheon. Nurses got pieced of sub sandwich and a wal-mart veggie tray that had only leftover broccoli on it when I got there.
Also, I was the only one there, getting "lunch" at 2pm. The people staffing the area were wondering where all the nurses were, duh, they can't get off the floor!!
Later they announced "hors d'erves (spelling?) and an "awards" ceremony in the conference room. I stopped by about 45 min. later and the DON was still giving out certificates for all the new grads in the hospital. ***??? A co-worker went down after that and said there were NO nurses there, just educators and managemnet type people, and the DON walked right by her without making eye contact, THE ONLY ACTUALLY WORKING NURSE IN THE ROOM!!!! And the "hors d'erves" were dried up and burning in the warmers, apparantly they were served to the awards people and not made available to actual staff. Go figure. Oh, everybody gets a plastic mug, a pint sized version of the ones we give out free to patients.
Over the years I have seen the nurse day presents dwindle down to nothing.
Yep, nothing is what my place gave us. Not even a word that it was nurse's week. Oh, a vendor did bring in donuts for the nurses; but, the docs ate the donuts because then nurses were too busy to get a break.
Icing on the cake, when the NM was off in a meeting, we were short 2 nurses, the **** was hitting the fan, she wasn't there to pitch in and help like she says she would if it got "overwhelming". Well, it was, and she was sitting on her butt in a meeting having snacks!
Nurses Day was never a big deal to any employer around here. Usually cheap pizza, pens, lunch bag, key chains, and tees, all with the facility name on it. Of course, most of the nurses are too busy to pick the stuff up and it was sent to the unit for everyone to get one of each before they left the shift. I was thanked more by patient families than by any facility for my hard work.
My facility cut way back on the snacks and cheap plastic crap, r/t the recession. That's okay. I was off for Nurse's Day, but still had some tequila left over from Cinqo de Mayo, so it all worked out for the best.
This response might make you angry, but oh well...
Rather than complain about how badly you're treated, abused and used, why not do something about it?
If you don't want the typical nurses week recognition of small, useless trinkets and over-spent foods, then tell your VP of Nursing what you would like to see. She/he cannot 'read' your minds. Offer suggestions and ideas, not complaints. Seminars on topics you're interested in (and not necessarily nursing topics), creativity workshops/classes...anything other than complaints.
The above applies to every day, and not just National Nurses' Week. Be proactive, not reactive.
I am a nurse and artist...I appreciate nurses and all that you do, and I am not alone in this...visit my blog by googling 'Creativity in Healthcare' - the search will bring up the Wordpress blog titled Creativity in Healthcare. ~Marti
been there, done that, asked for ongoing, credited inservices, a bullentin board in break room for IMPORTANT information, and some supplies we need but never seem to have, the feed back was the same: we're looking at these requests.
Your post implies nurses are not interested in improving the status quo, I find that statement so untrue. Too many times we just get tired of being ignored, deprived of a voice, treated disrespectfully and poorly paid for all we do. I could say lots more, but I am too tired to expend the effort on an ungoing, unchanging issue in nursing.
loricatus
1,446 Posts
Yep, nothing is what my place gave us. Not even a word that it was nurse's week. Oh, a vendor did bring in donuts for the nurses; but, the docs ate the donuts because then nurses were too busy to get a break.