f/u to Dirty Hospital Dealing...

[Chiaramonte]

As you may or may not remember, I started a thread re our hospital layoffs.

I am just sharing with all of you a follow up of current events. Myself and 2 other ER nurses had a meeting with the CEO and Director of Emergency Services of our hospital with the intent to let them know how strongly we felt about the previous events and just what they took away from us. Specifically, that they took away our unit clerk on an already busy and short staffed 3-11 shift which daily sees an average of 35 patients.

We were forewarned by our co-workers that our actions would label us "subversive" and not game players.

Well the upshot is that the layoffs have stayed the same. We made no difference in their game plan. I feel great that we had our say and although we are now labeled "trouble makers", we had "our day in court". We can honestly put our heads on our pillows and know we tried to make a difference in straightening out this mess and save Steve, our unit clerk's job.

Also want to say thanks to those of you that gave me your input in the original thread.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Well, sjoe puts it well....in his sig and read his lips.

Kudos to you! Troublemaker!

[2amigos]

Sorry about your situation. You did what you felt you had to do, and you can look yourself in the mirror. Hope not many reprisals from your action.

CherylM

[SmilingBluEyes]

I wish you well. I am so sorry for all the stress in your work area!

[sjoe]

And if the remaining employees "pick up the slack" left after the discharge of the unit clerk by performing ANY of those duties, you will only undermine yourselves and prove to these honchos that they were correct in downsizing.

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

Originally posted by sjoe

And if the remaining employees "pick up the slack" left after the discharge of the unit clerk by performing ANY of those duties, you will only undermine yourselves and prove to these honchos that they were correct in downsizing.

My thoughts exactly!!!!!!

[mattsmom81]

So sorry you are going through this. You tried your best but sometimes we cannot effect things...hang in there and best wishes to you.

[RNonsense]

Originally posted by sjoe

And if the remaining employees "pick up the slack" left after the discharge of the unit clerk by performing ANY of those duties, you will only undermine yourselves and prove to these honchos that they were correct in downsizing.

Absolutely agree with this as well!!

[shoelace]

I also agree with that statement, about not picking up the slack. But who WILL do what the unit clerk used to do?

You know it's going to take a severe mistake (critical labs sent late/not sent at all/pt has adverse event because of it) to prove to them that you are being expected to take on too much responsibility.

But we as nurses would rather bust our a$$es than let any harm come to our patients.

And why is this? Because we're the ones who end up taking the flak for it.

If anything isn't done, be it labs not sent/not sent on time, paperwork not completed, missing charts, phones going unanswered, etc, it's always the fault of the nurse, because we are supposed to know everything all the time!

So I really would like to know: If nurses aren't going to pick up the slack of this unit clerk, who will?

[sjoe]

"I also agree with that statement, about not picking up the slack. But who WILL do what the unit clerk used to do? "

That is NOT the nurses' problem, it is management's problem. "Tend to your own knittin'," as my mother used to say.

[renerian, BSN, RN]

I just don't know how you manage on 3-11 with no unit clerk.......would be dreadful.

renerian

[-jt]

Let the phones ring off the hook. Let the paperwork get backed up. Dont pick up the slack - just do your own job. When anybody complains that some clerical thing is still not done yet, shrug your shoulders and direct them to go tell it to the CEO. Every hour if they have to. They'll bring Steve back in no time.