Crappy Nurses Day

LandDRN · May 8, 2009

We don't even have a Nurses Day at our hospital.....we have Hospital Employee Day ( management stated that the former title made other workers feel "left out.":lol2:

MassED, BSN, RN · May 9, 2009

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.
Yeah, crappy nurses day to you too.

haaaa!! crappy nurse's day. Hilarious. Totally what I would expect, which is why I would never attend something like that. They should be BRINGING food and items to the working nurses on their unit. Going to them rather than the other way around. What's wrong with management everywhere, anyway? When will they get it right that to have a happy nurse is to treat them well???

MassED, BSN, RN · May 9, 2009

So far we have had a very nice Nurses' Week!
Yesterday we had a Popcorn and Coke party ay 2 and again at 9 for all nursing staff (RNs, LPNs, CNAs) including non-clinical nurses like me!
We were given a very nice key chain with the hospital name and logo on it.
Friday we will have a catered lunch and night shift will have a supper about 9 pm.
Next Wednesday we will have a breakfast where both shifts can attend.
Staff who only work weekends are also included in activites.
The administrative nurses "relieve" the staff nurses so that they can attend these functions.
In fact, at the popcorn party, the staff nurses were all sitting around gabbing and I had to grab my popcorn and eat it at my desk !

I want to work where you work!

MassED, BSN, RN · May 9, 2009

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?
usually voicing a complaint or change with management will backfire. it always does. even if it's useful, you are still (even if in a nice way) saying that you think their nurse's day celebration stank and needs to be improved upon.
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 worked in a place where if you voiced change, you were ignored. period. this has been the norm wherever i have worked. i have seen coworkers squashed down for making reasonable, smart, and team-oriented suggestions. however valid, it depends on management, who for the most part, are not welcome to the idea of change.
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

there was a poster here who wrote of having management relieve their staff so they could enjoy the nurse week festivities. that is a great example of how management can show their appreciation. even if it was for 5 minutes, the thought is there. this is definitely not the norm, in my experience. :twocents:

nicu4me · May 9, 2009

Got nothing. However, the sign says 1 in 5 people have a mental health disorder alas, it's mental health awareness week. Next to this banner is Happy Nurse's Week.!!

3boysmom3 · May 9, 2009

I guess that I'm fortunate to work where I do. I have plenty of frustrations day to day, and get exhausted and have too much to do, but I was satisfied with our nurse's day gift, which was a nice tote bag with the hospital name and logo on it, and these are the other things I am grateful for:

*A couple of times a year, management, including the administrator and DON, serve breakfast to the staff.

*Once a year there is a free steak lunch served to the staff, again by admin. and managers.

*I can't imagine our DON walking past a nurse without acknowledging her, as one poster mentioned.

*We get frequent e-mails from our DON about things that are going on in the hospital, including a lot of positive feedback for our efforts;

*My NM consistently thanks everyone in our department for what they do, and frequently sends little personal cards to individuals at home in the mail, thanking us for something specific that we did.

*Nurse managers aren't usually found in their offices, they're found on the floors.

*Our DON and ADON are visible on the floors and have been known to answer a call bell or start an IV.

*We are given lots of education opportunities.

*In general, most of us feel acknowledged most of the time.

*There is a nursing leadership meeting in our hospital, I think they meet quarterly, where all staff nurses are invited, it is run by staff nurses, and DON and usually MD chief of staff are present, and the purpose of this group is to allow staff nurses, as well as managers, to come up with creative ideas and solutions, and many of them are implemented.

*When each of my parents were in the hospital where I work, each one very ill at the time (not the same time), nursing supervisors and the DON stopped by a couple of times to check on us and see if we needed anything.

Not to mention, I've worked there long enough now that if I got really sick or had to have some really big surgery, I've accrued enough sick time to receive my full paycheck for about 3 1/2 months straight... :up:

I may sound like a pollyanna, but I'm not. I do realize that I am fortunate to be in a facility like this. Of course, corporate and budgetary constraints certainly create a lot of limitations that our managers are powerless to overcome, but at least they do let us know that they appreciate their staff and care what we think.

Not_A_Hat_Person, RN · May 9, 2009

Next week, the DON at my job is taking the nurses to lunch or dinner (nurses can sign up for one or the other) at the restaurant next door. I'm doing lunch.

diane227, LPN, RN · May 9, 2009

The doctors in our hospital gave us this weird drinking container with a compass attached to it. I laughed my A-- off. Was the compass there to help us find our patients?

Magsulfate, BSN, RN · May 9, 2009

We got nothing.. not even a mention of nurses day/week. I actually forgot about it for a minute.. until I read it on here.

jackson145 · May 9, 2009

I don't like all the "____ week"s that my hospital always had.

I never expected a party & a gift for doing a job that I was hired to do. They paid me for my time & offered me insurance - that's all the compensation that I agreed to when I took the job.

Also, it never seemed fair to have a day or week for some positions & completely ignore others.

I've never met anyone who works as hard or does as nasty a job as the housekeeping staff & no one ever honors or appreciates them.

APRN., DNP, RN, APRN, NP · May 9, 2009

Your post makes me think that you've spent more time doing housekeeping than being a nurse...........

I've had housekeeping walk in on me and give that "look", you know, the one that says "You wouldn't catch me me doing that for a ton of money....and then walk out of the room". LOL.

I don't like all the "____ week"s that my hospital always had.
I never expected a party & a gift for doing a job that I was hired to do. They paid me for my time & offered me insurance - that's all the compensation that I agreed to when I took the job.
Also, it never seemed fair to have a day or week for some positions & completely ignore others.
I've never met anyone who works as hard or does as nasty a job as the housekeeping staff & no one ever honors or appreciates them.

3boysmom3 · May 9, 2009

Good point. That would be a great thing to suggest- a day to honor housekeepers, or whatever they are called in your hospital- ours are Environmental Services. You're right, pretty much all the thanks they get is when a patient loses something in his room and blames them!!!