Just a Cog

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

Recently, the department I work for at my hospital received a significant national award for excellent patient outcomes. The email was sent out to the entire hospital announcing that we had received this award. The director of patient care replied all saying what wonderful medical care the physicians have provided to get us to this point. The medical director replied all that obviously the head physician of this department gets most of the credit, but the patient care director also receives credit for "providing ancillary resources to support the physicians in their excellent care." Guess nurses are too insignificant to even mention? The director that sits in an office allocating resources is definitely way above the nurses at the bedside monitoring assessments, accurately administering all of the hundreds of meds, maintaining the drips, forcing even the most unmotivated patient out of bed to ambulate, turning at positioning the septic patient to prevent further injury while they recover. We're just cogs in their transplant machine.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Bingo! In this day and age, the bedside nurse is viewed as a largely invisible cog in the profit-generating machine better known as the healthcare corporation.

It's a travesty of the worst kind. After all, hospitals exist solely for the provision of nursing care. No hospital would survive with just a medical director and some patient care director. Without competent nursing care, no excellent patient outcomes would ever come to fruition.

[Aurora77]

How offensive! I'm appalled at that attitude. While i have complaints about my facility, nurses are at least recognized as part of the team. Not as valuable as though Docs, of course but still valuable.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

hey, the Docs bring in the $$. That is why Admin flirts with them

[been there,done it]

This is just another example of how nurses do the hard work, and remain unappreciated.

[OldDude]

Bingo! In this day and age, the bedside nurse is viewed as a largely invisible cog in the profit-generating machine better known as the healthcare corporation.

It's a travesty of the worst kind. After all, hospitals exist solely for the provision of nursing care. No hospital would survive with just a medical director and some patient care director. Without competent nursing care, no excellent patient outcomes would ever come to fruition.

I second that Bingo! The hospitals complain they have a nursing shortage; they don't. The NURSES have a nursing shortage. The hospitals haven't turned away the first patient because of "their" nursing shortage because the "invisible cogs" keep digging deeper and working harder. Nurses doing more with less.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

If you come here to complain, you're preaching to the choir. Take your original post, stop by TruthAboutNursing.com and pick up some stats, and send your thoughts to the local news desk and the health reporter at your nearest big-city newspaper. CC your hospital PR office unsigned. Bet you'll get a call, especially if your note includes the idea that you'd like to be anonymous because you fear retribution.

[SubSippi]

I second that Bingo! The hospitals complain they have a nursing shortage; they don't. The NURSES have a nursing shortage.

Haha, that's a great way to put it. The patients also might be experiencing a nursing shortage. But the hospital most definitely doesn't have a nursing shortage.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Bingo! In this day and age, the bedside nurse is viewed as a largely invisible cog in the profit-generating machine better known as the healthcare corporation.

Oh, I have to disagree with being invisible. Rather, we are seen as an expense that needs to be cut and the person to blame for anything that goes wrong.

[Emergent, RN]

Yes, we are cogs. Nothing is new under the Sun. This is basically the way the world has worked ever since the first caveman accrued status and got the other cavemen to make his arrowheads for him. He showed them to the chief of the tribe in the next valley and took all the credit.

My answer might seem trite but, happiness comes from within.

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

Nah, not trite. Very true. I think part of the reason this annoys me is that we're actively in the process of renewing magnet. Our site visit is this winter. Makes me insane the level of bull involved in it. Before magnet ever got involved, nurses would have been recognized. Now, more than ever, it's as if we're at war with the physicians. At least my nurse manager sent us (but not the whole hospital) an email thanking us for the care we provide and telling us we should be proud.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

And one can bet that if the outcomes were lower and different, the only one who would be blamed with a whole giant re-education would be the nurses.

Magnet is a expensive marketing ploy to create illusion. Now that any number of nurses are realizing this, they are grooming the providers to jump on the train (or unfortunately the bus.....)