choo choo...

oramar · Jul 23, 2001

I have personally seen that. People at maximum pay and benefits tormented until they quit. It is not happening so much lately on kind of the severity of the shortage. I remember 4 years ago when we were called into a meeting and told outright that the hospital had far to many full timers. The harrassment started in ernest after that. Other nurses have told me tales about facilities that I know nothing about first hand. One of the RNs at the LTC facility tell how she came to be there. She had a total of 22 years in the OR as a tech then an RN. She had never worked anywhere else. She said the problems started when they got a new manager. She was singled out for all kinds of weird mental torture. Finally she quit. I believe what she says because she is a fine nurse and a fine person. I have know her a year now she is not the type of person who would make stuff like this up. About the only thing I am not sure about is whether these managers were carrying out specific cost cutting measure as per their bosses instructions or if they were just give instructions to cut and made the choice as to how to go about it on an individual basis.

Mijourney · Jul 23, 2001

Hi. I've not only witnessed this in nursing but in other areas as well. I've got family and friends that are not nurses but have been abused by management. I think that with the sign of the times, it's bound to get worse. It's a sport for some managers and companies. In other situations, like oramar indicates, a company is simply making "business" decisions.

fiestynurse · Jul 23, 2001

A few years back we had a clinical ladder program that consisted of staff nurse levels I, II, III, and IV. Well, a new VP of nursing came on board and decided we needed to eliminate some of these higher paid nurses (mainly IIIs and IVs) She developed this program, where we had to reapply for our upper level positions every year. It was mainly a lot paperwork and documentation of what committees you were on, what projects you worked on, etc. You were given points for each thing that you did. You had to have a certain amt of points at the end of the year to keep your position. It was mainly a lot of B.S.!

Needless to say many nurses were demoted over the next couple of years. Saved the hospital lots of money, but it sure hurt nursing morale. On my unit alone, we went from having 5 staff nurse IIIs and 2 staff nurse IVs to having 2 staff nurse IIIs and 1 staff nurse IV. Most of the upper level nurses were the really exceptional nurses and after they were demoted they really lost that willingness to go the extra mile. Of course the hospital denied that any such thing ever took place!! Many felt railroaded out of their jobs (just as you so eloquently put it) and out of a higher pay scale that many had worked hard to obtain. Royally screwed!