Please be honest with your answer. Do you ever want to escape nursing profession?
When it snows outside, nurses are supposed to drive on the dangerous freeway to the hospital to take care of the patients. This is true story, it happened to me. When I was on the freeway on a snowy day, there were cars sliding left and right, I risked my life to go to work. If I don't, my employer would make me feel bad about myself. That day, I took me a very long time to drive to the hospital. I finally arrived to the hospital safely. Guess what happened next? My charge nurse told me that I got low census and they didn't need me for the day. The staffing office told me that they left me a voice message. My phone did not show any voice message. I never received a voice message from the staffing office.
Do you ever experience something similar? Please share!
I live close enough to actually walk to work if I set my mind to it and have done it many times. I used to get teased about that quite a bit. Many of my coworkers live as far as 60 to 80 miles away. I wouldn't drive that far for a job in bad weather or not. I do not get teased however when we do get snow and ice (thankfully not often here!). Then they all call and make nice so I'll let them come camp out in my living room floor overnight and we all walk to work in the morning!
I would think your question has nothing to do with dangerous driving conditions and more to do with your general dissatisfaction with the profession. I am fortunate to have worked at facilities that never census managed as they were either too busy or federally funded (and the government isn't very cost conscious). However, the act of census managing to me is very much a reflection of the view of nursing: you're an hourly worker that we can work you when we want. Sometimes that means census manage, other times I've seen private facilities have 'mandatory' overtime. Personally, I loved when it snowed and I worked in the ER because generally all the non-important complaints didn't show up and it was slow. I had no qualms about driving to work on the empty snow filled roads!
Now as to your question about the profession: Yes. And I am actively working towards a non-nursing transition or a nursing career that involves no patient care or being under the direction of a physician. Having had a master's degree and successful career before becoming a nurse, I consider the work environment in the hospital to be generally unpleasant, unrewarding, and lacking in dignity. I decided long ago I wouldn't be a 50 year old employee giving enemas, getting bossed by doctors, listening to discontent family members, etc as my career path. There's too much education and experience needed to be a nurse to subsequently be treated like a servant.
Do I ever want to escape the nursing profession? Sure, I think we all do some days. But inclement weather isn't even on my radar as a reason. More aggravating would be getting up, getting ready and getting to work despite any bad weather and expecting a full days pay for working only to be told, sorry we don't need you today. If I go to all the bother to get there I'm working. Every now and then we actually have an extra nurse on the schedule, fortunately with my seniority it's always my choice if I stay or go.
Sometimes! Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to work in, like, a nice little bookstore in the hip part of town during usual business hours where there are few bodily fluids and much less angst. That usually doesn't last more than a few hours or so, though. And I remember that I would in no way be able to support myself on minimum wage.
Sometimes this job is frustrating! That's just how it is. If I hated it enough, I would go work in another area of nursing, but I don't hate it that much, it's just that at times I feel tired of it. I think we all do at some point.
Interesting how the term "essential employees" seems to be a mandate to treat employees badly and with absolute disrespect... such as sending a person home after they have made the effort to be there, not allowing bathroom breaks or meal breaks... understaffing... on and on. I worked as an emergency services dispatcher for years prior to healthcare and we were considered essential employees of course. In one job, that meant we never got a meal break, but the officers did, because their union "negotiated" meal breaks. In another job, we had a more supportive manager, and we did get our (short) meal breaks and adequate staffing. Management who advocates for their staff can make a huge difference.
We were also expected to get there during inclement weather, but in one horrific winter storm, two of the staff lived further out, not that far mileage wise, but a 2 hour drive in the snowy weather. The option was to stay home, or have an officer take 4 hours to go get the staff person, then drive them back. IMO expecting an employee who worked until midnight, then had to take 2 hours to drive home, to show up at 6am for day shift? Unreasonable beyond words.
Many times my employer has said they have called me and I received no call or no message. They have called me when I was on the freeway on my way to work. I never heard the cell phone ringing and would not have answered it anyway. I told them I don't answer the phone while I am driving. This was long before any laws were passed about talking on cell phones while driving. When they balked at paying me reporting time pay, I said, fine, I will file a claim with the labor board and you can tell them that you aren't going to pay me. They paid me but was I surprised when that employer eventually got rid of me? No, I was not. You take abuse from the employer or you don't have a job. Sometimes you take abuse from the employer and still end up with no job. That's life.
it would tick me off to get cancelled like that, but weather has never been a reason that i wanted to change professions. I usually play the if i had to do it over game and realize that no place is shangri-la and then i'm thankful for the job I have. Except if someone offered me the taste tester job at the Edy's factory. that's GOT to be a great job.
What can I say? Do I want to escape the nursing profession? Yeah sure - I will take over one of the sampling carts at Costco instead - they have good benefits. Or perhaps become a barista at starbucks.
I need to say that I do not get the snow and winter panic and "risking my life." At times I had to sleep in the hospital to ensure I am there in am when a storm was moving in or stay overnight with a blizzard. But other than that I always commuted, which includes highway travel. I do not feel that I am risking my life when driving in winter.
Not for weather. I think driving distance and ability to drive in inclement weather is necessary to taken into consideration though when considering job options since we know, as nurses, weather don't mean crap when it means getting to work. Unless the road is complete ice or there is like a foot of snow falling with 2-3 hours I don't quite understand what the fuss is about. You leave with lots if time to spare, drive a safe speed, and make sure you have good tires and your vehicle is safe. Sure people get into accidents in snowy weather but I have also almost been hit head on by a semi on a clear summer day on the way to work so I think the safety risk is all relative really.
sevensonnets
975 Posts
I live close enough to actually walk to work if I set my mind to it and have done it many times. I used to get teased about that quite a bit. Many of my coworkers live as far as 60 to 80 miles away. I wouldn't drive that far for a job in bad weather or not. I do not get teased however when we do get snow and ice (thankfully not often here!). Then they all call and make nice so I'll let them come camp out in my living room floor overnight and we all walk to work in the morning!