Do you feel valued in your current nursing position? - page 4

1. 
   Oct 24, '05

   "Do you feel valued in your current nursing position?"
   
   Absolutely not!!!! So, the nurses at my hospital decided to get pro-active and we unionized our hospital. Tough to do I don't mind telling you. My hospital happens to be a national corporation and they have very deep pockets. They have a new mission, crush the union and anyone and everyone who gets in the way. Not a pleasant or safe work environment for nurses or patients. Why do I stay you might wonder?
   
   I have 28+ years in neonatal nursing, 18 of it at my current workplace. I'm very happy to say I'm just about at the end of my career and hate to go to the bottom of the seniority pile. Secondly and most important I am in a fairly unique position (compared to most of my other younger co-workers) of not using my employers insurance benefits, having my husbands income as a security net, and a deep desire to stick it to administration and management anytime I can as a shop steward.
   
   What effect has this had on patient care at the medical center? Well if you look at patient satisfaction surveys they have dropped significantly. On a personal note I changed all of my doctors and have not used any of the health care services from my hospital. Bottom line, it's not a safe place to recieve health-care services anymore.
   
   Frankly, the baby boomers need to think long and hard about the health care providers they will be needing in the not so distant future. My generation will bankrupt the current system and at the rate things are going health-care as we knew it will not exist.
2. 
   Nov 4, '05

   

   Quote from brian

   Do you feel valued in your current nursing position?
   
   Yes or No?
   
   Please feel free to reply and share your experiences. Thanks

   No I don't . Because I feel like I am being used . I am the ADON , TILE NURSE, I do T.B. Testing , Scheduling , Staffing , I work the floor when a nurse calls in . I do month in Treatment sheets and Flow records . And I don't feel like my job is worth any thing .
3. 
   Nov 5, '05

   Quote from nurseinlimbo

   I'm tired, have a $17,000 Student loan to pay back and no permanent position in sight.

   Where do you live where there is not a permanent nursing position in site? In North and South Carolina, they are BEGGING for nurses!
4. 
   Nov 5, '05

   I live in Alberta, Canada. Our premier has cut health care again and again, and there are few full time positions, those that exist are filled by nurses with at least 10 or more years of seniority. The rest of us work part-time, temporary part-time or casual (call in). I fill in in the summer so everyone else gets their holidays, while I get none. In the winter, last year, I starved, worked half time. This year I've been lucky enough to secure a temporary position that gives me 9 shifts a month guaranteed and I can pick up more. I'm afraid I'll still be down to scheduled shifts once January and february come around.
   
   I know it's not that way in the US but that is our situation here.
5. 
   Nov 5, '05

   yes by pt.s and most teammates-no by managers. The last year has been awful. I was part of a small rural four RN Home Health/Home Infusion and Hospice team, after budget cuts & RN's quitting and no rehireswe ended up with just two of us covering 4 counties,big miles out here. My teammate-great nurse-I've seen her get blood from the proverbial turnip and get lines in just by feel-ICU nurse skills) and great friend had had around of chemo a year before. We split 25 days of call per schedule 50/50-we had to beg just to get the agency to send us help one w/e per schedule. We took all the calls day and night,did our own scheduling,case managed you name it we did it AND increased the referral base,never missed a visit,left a pt. off the schedule,call was covered. Keep in mind this was everything from central lines to end of life pain management,wounds,TPN etc.... sometimes 70+ miles one way to get supplies. Last August my teammate started to cough and was getting tired out with the hours we were putting in. We asked and asked for more help,even asked the Hospice Coordinator to please take the daytime phone calls just one day of the week,but she was too busy. Long story short,my buddy is dead from Ca w/mets, never heard a kind word from the Hospice Coordinator,just got moved from team to team as she declined plus had the territory she had developed given to another team-while she was still well enough and wanting to see pts. After she was too ill to work,most of the managment staff failed to even send a card or call. We are not so urban here for that to be OK. Talk about "eating the young," we are just names on a schedule,or like Ginger in Black Beauty-work 'till we drop in the harness,then just drag us to the edge of the road so we aren't in the way.
   Long,rambling sad vent
6. 
   Nov 10, '05

   What can I say guys? Should I lie? I'm not paid according to my skill, but every single one around me recognizes my proficiency.
   
   My boss called me from home, asking me "please not to leave", after my wife (a Med of my ER) quitted because she found a better paid job. Pts seek me, Meds seek me. My partners come to ER asking me for help or advice.
   
   A very Zen point of view related to martial arts is: "at the beginning a punch is a punch and a kick is just a kick". (Refer to ignorance). On second step "a punch becomes a thing and a kick must be according to such form". (Refer to technicality). At the end of the way a punch becomes a punch and a kick just a kick. (Refer to mastery).
   
   So is the way of Nursing... at the end we're just... Nurses, human beings, helpers, supporters... Dust on the wind...
   
   Vemiliob from Bs.As.
7. 
   Nov 10, '05

   My patients do state that they want me to be their nurse "the next day" and they request me. At my previous place I was valued even as a new grad, however, I am a newer nurse in a different hospital now and I am not valued by other nurses on the floor nor am I valued by my managers. The managers do not take the time to get to know the new ones and opinions about new people are concluded through some of the worst "gossip mills" that I have ever seen.
   ????Why did I change my job???--- My husband is USAF and he needed to complete his duty and serve his country and therefore, we moved.:stone
   
   The thing that I find really sad is that if anyone else knows how hard it is to be a military family you know the emotional toll it can take on the spouse and the children. THEN, to have a job in which you are not valued makes things just that much more unbearable.
8. 
   Nov 11, '05

   Hi! onconurseRT, don't be sad!
   
   I had a co, wife of a military Argentinean army man, born on same date as UKnurse, who I think it is also a military's wife in London. What are you asking for?
   
   Just to be a nurse means a lot enough. Hard to bear. It does not matter what your husband does. What matters is what you do. If you do it well you'll valuated where ever you are. Don't self pity, because you're not the only one. Your heart makes the difference. Do you like the word "Karma"? I don't understand really what it means, I prefer the expression "to do our duty"... Why? "Because you must..."
   
   God bless you!
   Vemliob
9. 
   Nov 24, '05

   Quote from kamara23

   No, I don't. I feel like myself and most of the other nurses I work with are not valued. They give lip service to how valuable we are but then keep us short staffed and continue to ask us to do more and more with less. I just don't understand the thinking.

   Very well said!
10. 
    Nov 27, '05

    I only feel valued by the patients that I care for. Not my co-workers, not the physicians, especially not the administration. It's only those who count on me to keep them clean, comfortable and secure, those are the ones who value me. Maybe we should teach the new nurses that the patients are those who can give us the most reward for our labor.
11. 
    Dec 3, '05

    Not at all the management on the floor I work for is constantly changing policies, threatening with corrective action, and totally unflexible. For example we have a nurse on a floor who does a great job, always a teamplayer, and keeps us laughing during the night. He was rewarded for such a good job with a 49 cent raise after working for over 5 years. Another nurse when unable to work overtime was told I'll remember that when your evaluation comes. When asked for a day off to observe a religious ceremony the manager replied you are going to have to find another time to do things with your church. When the manager came in orignally she was changing times until we wrote to HR and let them know we were going to an attorney regarding this matter. The changing of the time stopped however we never saw any of the money they docked us. I am looking for a new job and would advise anyone NOT to take a job at this South Florida "Magnet" Hospital
12. 
    Dec 6, '05

    Yes. Mostly by my patients. I still think that my co-workers are back stabbing and waiting for drama from me or from other people to give them something to talk about. It's like a soap opera on my floor. I'm not close with anyone on my floor, except one girl and she's leaving for the same reason. She doesn't like our floor or the abuse.
    
    My patients are awesome and tell me how much they appreciate me all the time. If it weren't them, I'd probably still be looking to leave. :wink2:
13. 
    Dec 6, '05

    By my nurses and my residents: YES.:wink2:

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