groan, getting fired up again about articles in nursing mags

[oramar]

There is section in RN magazine called Helpline. Managers send in questions and advice is given, these questions are located on page 26 of April issue. The first question is from a manager who complains about older workers getting negative and nasty in response to change. The second question is about nurses in ICU refusing to volunteer for precepting, the nurses say they are too overwhelmed to take on new task. The advice given to these managers is the usual garbage. It is automatically assumed that the nurses are at fault and all they need is a change of attitude. Mangers are advised to use a little carrot and maybe a little stick to clear up these bad attitudes. Could somebody please advise these managers to sit down with their nurses and talk to them like adults and find out what it really bothering them. My guess is that these bad attitudes are directly related to very real problems these nursing are experiencing in their working enviroment. Maybe those ICU nurses really do have to much to do to take on precepting duties. Maybe the older nurses are nasty because the lift team was eliminated in order to cut cost. Respectful managment would at least look into the facts behind the complaints. The real danger in this bad advice lies in the fact that these distressed units will soon be short staffed because the real problems are not being addressed.

[liberalrn]

Query: what is ENA? And how does one acquire same?

I stick by my equivalency and do agree about the subtle coercion re: job performance and "the good nurse" myth. Reasonable and prudent, my aunt Fanny--how about I did the best I could given the circumstances? Sorry for the heat of my post, but just finished a fairly stinky shift. The mags only make it worse--d'think they're that way d/t being primarily female prof? Sort of an extension of the "YOU--only better!" nonsense touted by the women's mags.....

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

ENA= Emergency Nurses Association and have their own journal.

Re AJN= ANA sold the magazine to Lippencott several years ago--ANA has control only over a few pages these days---take a second look.

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

What I think we have to do is beocme more vocal emailing the magazines with out opinon of the content - yes keep it professional but keep up the rebuttals - they nearly all have "letters to the editor" pages I am sure you can get at least a hearing. If we all let them know that we, as a profession, have had enough of this sort of writing then they will change - and quickly!

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

I was once passed over for a nurse management position in large part, I believe, because I told the interview committee that I understood the needs and responsibilities of the staff on the floor, and would be responsive to them. What management wanted was a lapdog, someone who would nod and smile while the worst staffing ratios in the hospital were rammed down the throats of the floor staff. They got their lapdog, and she was fired after less than six months for incompetence.

The company that runs the unit (they provide administration under contract while the nurses work for the hospital) has decided that they are saving a bunch of money by not having a nurse manager at all, leaving a MSW in charge of the unit and making nurse staffing decisions. The problem is that the program director believes that she can assess acuity from behind a desk, and she believes that she fully understands what nurses are going through (when, in fact, she could not buy a clue about it).

The place I primarily work now is notorious for sending out condescending memos to staff. The DON writes them as if he is scolding a group of errant teenaqers rather than addressing licensed professionals. His management style smacks of the kind of subliminal coercion that has been alluded to from the nursing management magazines. I subscribed to one for a brief time (it made such a profound impression on me that I don't remember the name of it). I soon dropped it when I found the advice to be total garbage, and I learned not to trust people with too many letters behind their names. It screams, "I haven't touched a patient in years, but I know how you ought to be doing your job!"

[liberalrn]

Hear, hear, Orca!!

Our VP/Nursing does the same thing: quote:"This is not intended to be punitive; these progress notes are not numbered. (followed by 5 other picayune c/o's)" Yes, "they" expect us to number our notes sequentially........

[liberalrn]

Sorry-meant to post that I am taking a complimentary issue of RN to work with me. We in the TICU will exercise strict impartiality in analyzing and critiquing the magazine. As published findings are important to further the knowledge base, I'll be sure to post our conclusions soon......

[karbyr]

.................................................................that would be the sound of my applause, orca

[karbyr]

btw, along the same subject..............staff meetings w/ entire focus on budget..............I once told my manager I would boycott any staff meeting w/ the word budget on the agenda that occured any more frequently than q 3 mos..............that I didn't go into nursing because I wasn't 'smart enough' to be an accountant, had a sister that was an accountant and I was the smart one in the family.................manager actually agreed with me...........needless to say, the powers that be got rid of her within six months

[oramar]

I just love the responses to my original post and I just love you guys. I am going to let this run a few more days and then a copy is going out to RN magazine just like -jt suggested . Don't people who write those "Uncle Tom" articles like Suzannasue describes realize they may one day be used to bludgeon real nurses into submission? My feeling is that these articles are either complete fabrications or are written by someone trying to brown nose their way up the ladder and out of the front lines.

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

Unfortunately a lot of articles are published because of the "publish or perish" push in academia. Often they are the same content altered to fit a new format and published in different magazines.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Originally posted by suzannasue

The last time an article in a nursing mag made me angry was when the unit manager made copies of it and passed it out during a staff meeting...the article was written by a nurse who considered it " an honor " to be required to "wear many hats"...

such as televison repairman, housekeeper, cook, troubleshooter for computer problems, plumber, while working...first of all, I had already been pizzed by reading it in my own copy of the mag, but to have it thrown in our faces as an example of "how we should feel " ...well, I almost went nuclear right there in the meeting !!!!

Needless to say, my comment to the manger was "this is SO VERY CONDESCENDING, I cannot believe you have the nerve to expect us to take this article seriously "...then I ripped it to pieces right in front of her...

My subcriptions to nursing mags have become little more than a tax write off...I read what I feel is pertinent to my performance and blow off the rest...

where is the pukey icon when you need it? THAT is sickening. you manager made a HUGE faux pas if you ask me.

[oramar]

This is just a thought, I don't know how it really works. It seems to me that the bulk of advertisments in nursing magazines are recruitment ads. This probably represents a good part of magazine income. So a nursing shortage would actually be good in a very perverse way for the magazines. What do you think? Also, magazines of all kinds have a history of not liking to offend their REAL customers. Which in this case would be the people buying the ads.