Do you think you are a "hero"?

[jive turkey]

"Heroes work here"

How do you feel about this slogan and its display outside of medical facilities?

Do you consider yourself a hero? Your coworkers?

[ComeTogether, LPN]

Absolutely not. 

[Guest1171160]

On 9/5/2021 at 1:24 AM, jive turkey said:

This is where the old man in church goes

"Welllll, mmmhmmm"?

I agree. I remember when I saw the Times article about heroes of the front line. 

[Guest219794]

A nurse who pulls a victim out of a burning car is a hero.  A firefighter who does the same is not.

A nurse who shows up to work during a pandemic is an employee.  

Sure the risk level is higher than normal, but still much lower than loggers, commercial fishermen and other professions.  While appreciate fisherman, I don't consider them heroic.

[toomuchbaloney]

Commercial fishermen are working in an industry that is devastating subsistence fishing in the villages of rural Alaska. The by-catch is unsustainable...

[speedynurse, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

I think this title was used short term and has now gone away in my opinion. I don’t think our profession ever needed that title - what we did need was compensation, decent insurance, and not having to essentially work double shifts with is not even compatible with the human body. I don’t need or want that title - instead I need people (administration) to understand what we go through and actually try to meet us in the middle with what I mentioned above.
 

Instead, it is now seen OK to work all day and all night, not get a raise for years, have very substandard insurance so we can’t afford healthcare when we need it ourselves, etc. (Oh and by the way - we are supposed to keep going to school to get our BSN for magnet status even though we are already burning the candle at both ends). Ironically, I actually do like my job - I just don’t like the way things are being twisted - the word hero means nothing to me. 

[jive turkey]

1 hour ago, speedynurse said:

I think this title was used short term and has now gone away in my opinion. I don’t think our profession ever needed that title - what we did need was compensation, decent insurance, and not having to essentially work double shifts with is not even compatible with the human body. I don’t need or want that title - instead I need people (administration) to understand what we go through and actually try to meet us in the middle with what I mentioned above.
 

Instead, it is now seen OK to work all day and all night, not get a raise for years, have very substandard insurance so we can’t afford healthcare when we need it ourselves, etc. (Oh and by the way - we are supposed to keep going to school to get our BSN for magnet status even though we are already burning the candle at both ends). Ironically, I actually do like my job - I just don’t like the way things are being twisted - the word hero means nothing to me. 

In other words:

"Over worked, under insured, understaffed and under paid people work here"

In place of

"Heroes work here"

[amoLucia]

1 hour ago, jive turkey said:

In other words:

"Over worked, under insured, understaffed and under paid people work here"

In place of

"Heroes work here"

"Victims work here." (Am supporting the staff here - not trying to make light of them.)

[CommunityRNBSN, BSN, RN]

There’s one of those signs near my home, but it is placed in front of the corporate offices of a big medical conglomerate chain. No patients go in there. Administrative work is certainly important but *facepalm* I’m not sure who authorized putting it there. 

[speedynurse, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

5 hours ago, amoLucia said:

"Victims work here." (Am supporting the staff here - not trying to make light of them.)

In all honesty, I generally try to be positive but I also think sometimes it’s needed to see things as they really are - here is the reality: nurses are working shifts that are impossible, patient safety has fallen by the wayside because there is no one to take care of them, and yet nothing changes. I think I have reached a point of: it’s time to set the record straight and just tell the truth. 

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

21 hours ago, speedynurse said:

Instead, it is now seen OK to work all day and all night, not get a raise for years, have very substandard insurance so we can’t afford healthcare when we need it ourselves, etc. (Oh and by the way - we are supposed to keep going to school to get our BSN for magnet status even though we are already burning the candle at both ends). Ironically, I actually do like my job - I just don’t like the way things are being twisted - the word hero means nothing to me. 

This is so true I am going to copy/paste a response I wrote in a different thread that also applies here.  It doesn't even touch on the long hours, stagnant wages and degree requirements to maintain the hospital's magnet status you brought up but it's long enough just complaining about the substandard insurance we have to deal with:

We work in the Health care field for God's sake. We shouldn't ever be put in the position of calling the DOL to push to get a medical claim paid. We shouldn't have to scour medication discount apps to get the best deal.  We should never have to price compare for prescription meds because those discounted prices are often way less than the price our insurer's pay. 

We shouldn't have to pay astronomical premiums for health care that honestly many of us don't fully utilize because barring a catastrophic event we'll never meet the sky high deductibles. 

Right now I do have what I consider decent insurance however my daughter who works at a bank has better insurance coverage with a lower premium and  deductible than I pay. 

[anewsns]

I agree with everyone and when they started calling us heroes, I felt like people just started seeing us as cartoon characters instead of humans. 

[valandria75, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN, NP]

No hero feeling here.  I’m not in the least bit swayed by the American advertising game: the rope a dope, tell them their heroes and they won’t see the things going on in plain site, because the nursing staff is drunk and high off the hero title.  Meanwhile…..anyone want to stay over or work extra or come in on their day off because just like pre-covid, we’re still understaffed and underpaid