So, I picked up a new position on the medsurg floor at the hospital where I work.. Started like 4 weeks ago..
I soon realized that that their shifts are ALWAYS short of staff... 30 beds with 4 nurses, 3 and 1 charge... then when I came we became total of 5--- 4 with 1 charge. Our charge also takes up pts to help us out. We work as a team to get our job done. This passed week we had the whole floor full of patients.. not just simple cases, but patients with high acuity. So, you know how tasking our shift was.. Most times we hit 26-27 patients.. post-op, pre-op patients, Cancer pts who get 2-3 units of blood transfusion every other day... Geriatric pts.. just name them...
EVERY WEEK and I mean EVERY week the house supervisor calls or texts for me to come in for extra shifts and help out others. Honestly, Im already worked up during my shift this last week that I was looking forward to my days off this weekend.. So, when I get these calls or texts, I feel, "these people are somewhat heartless, how do they expect me to come back during my days off, when I am trying to spend time with my family, rest and refresh myself"... And guess what, 1hr before I wrote this comment, I got a text asking if I can come in tonight.. meanwhile I worked last night and Im barely starting to get my rest... I replied that Im sorry, but that I cannot come.. say 45mins later they texted again and asked if I can come tomorrow for day shift... I was like REALLY?!!! ... Havent they done enough?? I just felt like... who ever is house sup today must be heartless.. Cant they see?? I just felt like , at least last week I picked up extra to come help.. so this week they should just let me rest...In my mind, I was like, "I have a life, you know, and I have the right to ENJOY my days off without getting disturbing texts and calls asking me to come to work....
Most of the staff are leaving their full time and heading for PRN.... everyday people call in.. Why? they are just so tired...Theres just SOOOO much to do and so little human resources to do them...
Im just looking for a way to vent my feelings....
I don't know, may be Im getting it wrong or something.. Just want to hear form those of you that may have gone through similar situation..
Specializes in ER, Med Surg, Ob/Gyn, Clinical teaching.
Nope, not to me anymore. When I first started out, I was more eager to pick up the extra shifts. But, the last few months have been hell on my floor. No aides, playing multiple roles. I am a charge nurse but one day I had to do charge/unit secretary (never trained on the desk, btw), and help patients get to the bathroom, etc, because all of my nurses were busy with their patients and multiple admits. I am not the only one that is fed up with the way things are going - many other nurses have been declining extra shifts. I sleep almost all day on my days off just to recuperate. It is especially hard now because I am 7 months pregnant.
Oo yeah!! I forgot to mention we NEVER have a secretary and we're ALWAYS short of aides... sometimes just one of them or two at the maximum....
Last night I heard, that the manager had wanted to take me off orientation, prematurely, just because they needed more 'stable' hands that can take more patients, according to her.... But, the house sup. told her No! That just because the unit is short doesn't mean she should bend the policy....
It's just Craaaazzzyyy!!!
In my opinion, if everyone will decline coming in for extra shifts. . The management will then know how serious this is. .
Did you know that our hospital had to cancel all administrative trainings for the month, just because there are not enough staffing....they almost cancelled the upcoming ACLS training too....I mean seriously, Are they for real!!??
I love my job on the med-surg floor and can honestly say it's the best job I've ever had. It's challenging yet rewarding and I feel like I learn something new all the time. But yesxamillion! I agree that it's incredibly tiring. We too take care of high acuity patients on our floor and are responsible for multiple (very sick) people at a time. I also get a call almost every single week asking me to come in to work extra shifts. Our hospital is consistently in "peak census". But I agree with RN403 and Nola009, take care of yourself first! I've learned the hard way that I can't work 16-17 hours a day 6 days a week and still expect to be the best nurse I can be (I learned that while working as an RN in a nursing home). We have to take care of ourselves first in order to take care of other people to our best abilities.
My former unit used to find ways to keep staff from using their accrued holiday and annual time because of short staffing. The only time off we used to be able to use without fail was our 40 personal hours a year for vacation. I left there with a huge payout of my time not taken only because I could never use it. Sometimes staff would retaliate denied requests for time off by calling in sick instead. Good for them, karma! Management there sucked!
As for extra shifts, there are always staff that will always jump on them for their own personal gain or need. So in essence the message to management that we are short staffed will never sink in this way. I used to use the passive-aggressive approach and do overtime on other units instead of my own, despite one manager stating that if we do overtime it has to be done on our home unit (I know where she pulled that rule out of!!)
You have to learn to say the word "NO". The more you help out, the more you are enabling the unit. We had a unit secretary that was knocking herself out by coming in extra shifts. Working nights and then coming in for days with no sleep. I told her to start saying "no". The sooner she does, the sooner mgt will hire a new unit secretary. Sure enough, she started saying "no", she got her life back, feeling more refreshed from more sleep, and.......we got a new secretary within a week.
When the core staff work extra to cover the holes, not a call out, but an open FTE position, they are enabling the hospital management to not hire more FTEs or travel nurses. This sends the message that we can work even harder and pretty soon that higher ratio is your new ratio. I have seen this tactic used in several hospitals. It is deliberate, manipulative and just wrong.
There was a thread similar to this one here several months ago and the poster said that he somehow had all calls to his cell from the hospital staffing office forwarded to the nurse recruiter, which I thought was brilliant.
It was always healthier for me to take a per diem position at another facility in order to avoid burnout, spread my wings and make a little extra money.
One more thing. Never ever work overtime on a holiday no matter how tempting it may sound. Believe me, you will most certainly be extremely busy and with very thin staffing. It's not worth it.
I wanted to come back and comment on this again, after icumaggieRN's post. Several months ago we entered a "staffing crisis" and never really came out of it. Our contract states that, on my med/surg floor, we would have a 1:5 ratio. We constantly have 6, 7, sometimes even 8 patients and are chronically having only 1-2 PCTs vs. our normal 3. It's like this almost every single shift.
Last week I was in our ED overflow, which is actually on my floor and holds 13 patients right now. It was me and one other nurse from the float pool, with one PCT, for 12 patients, all of whom were total care. I went about my business initially rounding on my patients, came back from initial rounds, and found her rifling through the desk. When I asked her what she was doing, she frowned at me and said she was looking for safe harbor sheets to fill out (we fill these out whenever we consider staffing to be unsafe). She said she was horrified at these working conditions, of how many patients we each had, how we only had one PCT, how heavy the floor was and how disconnected we were from everyone else. How the manager blew her off when she complained.
She was horrified at how desensitized I was to the situation, because it happens every single day. We barely bat an eye when we have 6 or 7 patients anymore. It has become the new ratio.
We barely bat an eye when we have 6 or 7 patients anymore. It has become the new ratio.
That's sad, and this is why things need to change. It's like gas prices, they had gone so high and stayed that way for so long that we thought $3/gal was a bargain.
Our night shift ratio is higher (you work nights, right? or am I mistaking you for someone else?), their norm is also 6 or 7. Having a 1:6, 1:7, or 1:8 ratio on days/eves usually means our night shifters have 8, 9, or 10. A few weeks ago we had one nurse for a section of hallway with 12 patients just by herself overnight.
I have a different reason to not pick up shifts. I worked quite a few extra shifts last year. Forward to tax time this year & I got my butt kicked by the Feds, being single with no dependents. Years I didn't pick up many extra shifts, made less money but got refunds. I would bet you all know what I won't be doing this year.
Our night shift ratio is higher (you work nights, right? or am I mistaking you for someone else?), their norm is also 6 or 7. Having a 1:6, 1:7, or 1:8 ratio on days/eves usually means our night shifters have 8, 9, or 10. A few weeks ago we had one nurse for a section of hallway with 12 patients just by herself overnight.
I work nights, but we're a surgical floor with stepdown overflow/ICU downgrades (and a few medical patients thrown in the mix, depending on how many surgical cases there were that day) so the ratios are supposed to be a little lower because of the acuity of the patients. But...it never is. I know our medical floors have ratios closer to 10 - terrible, since they get so many sundowners.
Most times we hit 26-27 patients.. post-op, pre-op patients, Cancer pts who get 2-3 units of blood transfusion every other day... Geriatric pts.. just name them...
... Havent they done enough?? I just felt like... who ever is house sup today must be heartless.. Cant they see?? I just felt like , at least last week I picked up extra to come help.. so this week they should just let me rest...In my mind, I was like, "I have a life, you know, and I have the right to ENJOY my days off without getting disturbing texts and calls asking me to come to work....
:unsure:
NGYSUN, BSN, MSN, RN
180 Posts
Oo yeah!! I forgot to mention we NEVER have a secretary and we're ALWAYS short of aides... sometimes just one of them or two at the maximum....
Last night I heard, that the manager had wanted to take me off orientation, prematurely, just because they needed more 'stable' hands that can take more patients, according to her.... But, the house sup. told her No! That just because the unit is short doesn't mean she should bend the policy....
It's just Craaaazzzyyy!!!
In my opinion, if everyone will decline coming in for extra shifts. . The management will then know how serious this is. .
Did you know that our hospital had to cancel all administrative trainings for the month, just because there are not enough staffing....they almost cancelled the upcoming ACLS training too....I mean seriously, Are they for real!!??