Need to Vent!!

[hoolahan, ASN, RN]

Check this out. Last month at our case managers staff meeting, the director asked each of us to take a slip of paper and write down something positive about your job, and it couldn't be about your supervisor. Huh? It was weird, but I did it. Then we were told to be sure we got there on time b/c we were having a "special speaker."

Well, last week was case management week, and we all had to go in for a mandatory training on a new task we will be doing. When I say we had to go into the office, we cover the state of NJ Eastern PA and NY 5 boroughs, so, some of us travel 2 to 3 hours to get to the office. Stupider yet is the meeting time of 9am, why make us travel through the rush hour traffic, like a parking lot on the garden state pkwy!! I travel 1.5 hrs one-way.

OK, so since we HAD to do mand training that day, I figured at this meeting, they were doing something nice for us for CM week, like a bkft, and a speaker, meaning maybe someone who will do a nursing and humor lecture type of thing.

WRONG!!! We all get there, get told that since referrals are down, we will ALL have to go to NY (I will quit first, I have a life!) That is why the folks who live in NY cover NY!! For me a trip to NY is 2.5 hrs one-way, just to reach the city limits, not o mention the traffic, not to mention I have NO IDEA how the public trans works there, and don't want to learn when it gets dark at 4:30 pm!!

OK, so after that little bit of info, the managers get up, and go down to get the admin staff, to come up for the speaker, and they are going to cover the phones!

OK...so it's definitely NOT a CM thing then. Now I am clueless.

The speaker waits until they leave and shut all the doors, I mean it was so cryptic, and begins by saying, "We all know change is difficult..." OMG, Puh-Leez spare me. I drove all this way for this crap?

Turns out she is from the EAP, Employee assitance program, she is a MSW, and has come at the req of HR b/c there have apparently been multiple c/o about the way the field case managers are treated, and a rapid turnover of staff!

Everyone was silent.

But I coud read the faces, and all were feeling like me. I think I saw steam coming from a few people's ears!

We are not a group of new grads. Most of us are mature women, who have been in nursing for a minimum of ten years, come from a variety of backgrounds, most have had some amount of admin or supervisory exp, and basically, you cannot sugar coat this load of BS to this particular group of people.

Finally, one of our CM stopped the speaker and said flat out, Let me interject, we were not told the purpose of your visit here, and if we had been, we would not have travled this far, b/c most of us have already voiced our c/o to the management clearly, explicitly, and directly, multiple times in the past.

The poor speaker was taken aback, and flustered. Unfortunately, she was just not a very effective speaker either. That or she just was not prepared to handle this group of very strong women!

She kept trying to get back to her agenda, and once people started venting and c/o, it never stopped!! I am new there, so I am getting a real eye opener. Frankly, all I want to do is type a resume and get the hell out of dodge after hearing what I did!

Anyway, the speaker also spent a lot of time giving examples of her own life, or the pat types of examples you read from textbooks or those seminars they give to managers in corporate arena. (Is it Fred Pryer the big name one? Can't remember, was sent once when I was a HH supervisor.)

She finally gave us a break, and we were huddling as we went to get coffee refills, did you know about this? What did you think it was? Etc...

One of the nurses apologized to the speaker when she came back, and explained to her what we had been expecting, and while it is nothing personal, we are a little offended. Oh yeah, remember the papers we were asked to write on? The instructions were not to write something positive about your job at all, it was to write down a statement about your job!!! So, apparently the director manipulated all the statements to show something positive.

If you were in my shoes, would you not find how this was handled insulting? We all assumed the secrecy and cryptic comments were not to spoil the surprise. I mean if you want to have a mandatory inservice about EAP, for crying out loud do that, but don't haul us in under false pretenses, and manipulate our responses!!! I don't care that we didn't have a "fun" speaker, but I do not like feeling like a puppet on a string, or treated like I am naive enough to buy it!!

I am leaving a lot out, like when she spoke about choices, one nurse said we are made to feel like there is no choice, that this is the way it is and if you don't like it, you can leave. One girl made a reference to having to spend so much unsalaried time doing paperwork at night she feels like she is cheating her son. The speaker again brought up choices. This girl's son is a toddler, and if that woman had directed that comment to me, and I had a child that age, I think I would have gotten up and left immediately! Her issue is not about not spending time w her son, it is that those hours are not recognized, nor appreciated. They expect you to do 60 billable hours per week. Our census is really low right now, and one girl who put in 65 billable hours the prior two weeks got admionished b/c this week she only did 35 billable hours. But no one said thanks for going above and beyond your manadatory minimum of 40 the prior 2 weeks.

(In case management, this type, you bill like lawyers do, for phone calls, reports, etc)

Anyway, those are only a few of the many many issues and complaints.

I'm sorry it's so long, but I am just so peeved I could spit.

Forgot to mention a bunch of us went out to lunch, and I learned there is serious financial trouble, so I really NEED to start looking, b/c we may be out of biz in a few months!!

Did I mention we all had to travel in nasty rain and wind of 55-65 mph. Got a VM from the director yesterday to remind us how we really needed to be there on time, so try to leave earlier d/t the bad weather being predicted!! The gall!! Yet our travel time is not considered to be productive time, not to staff meetings anyway, not even if it's manadatory!! I called my sup and said, look, I can't leave one minute earlier than I do due to kids schedule, so I will get there when I get there. I was 10 min late, they hadn't started yet, but were just going to. Grrrrrrrr!!!!!

If you got this far, thanks for listening!!!

[CATHYW]

Wow, Hoolihan! Bummer! I know how you looked forward to this job, and I hate to hear that it is turning into a pig in a poke! What a shame that the company you work for is wasting the talent of so many people!

I teetoally agree-it sounds like a total setup to me, and you nurses have the right to feel slighted! that sounds like something they might do in elementary or middle school. "Write on a slip of paper," bah! Hooey!

Get that brain in high gear, Hools, and give'em the devil, girl! Good luck on the job search. I doubt that it will take long. Just cast a wide net, and only keep the big fish! LOL!:kiss

[hoolahan, ASN, RN]

One thing that did crack me up, one of the CM's referred to nurses as gypsies, meaning we will drop a bad employer like a hot potato and move on. I had to keep from bursting out laughing b/c I am such a gypsy in that way!! Have changed jobs that much in the last few years.

I think i'll stick to telephonic CM, won't have to travel, and my "flexible" hours don't include having to be 1.5 hrs from home for a 6:30 pm appt b/c someone's girlfirend can only drive them to an appt at that time, or be in Phila for an 8 am appt, means I am on the road by 6:45. Just really disappointing, I really wanted this to work out! Guess I'll pack my bags and get ready to move on.

Thanks for commiserating Cathy!

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Well your proving how hard it is to find a decent place to work.

Our management staff is great about having a life OUTSIDE work.

Office work hours for homecare 8AM- 4:30 PM with expectaion everyone off street by 6PM. Lucky to have escaped by previous ----hole.

Sorry to her that the promise of a great job is evaporating. Go Check out St Mary's in Langhourne PA--has home care. Nicest bunch of people I've talked with at meetings.

[KP RN]

Hey Hoolahan, that really sucks!! I don't blame you for being peeved.

It really sounds to me like you enjoy the work you do, but you are dissatisfied with administration and the politics??

Why are YOU going to see patients at 630pm?? Don't you guys have on-call nurses who do visits after 430pm?? Why are they sending you to see patients who live over an hour from where you live?? That just doesn't make sense.

Furthermore, administration shouldn't be pissed with you all that the census is down. Marketing and getting referrals is absolutely an administrative issue, not yours.

For crying out loud!

Get that resume updated!! Keep us posted!

[kids]

{{{hug}}}

I can't say I'm surprised...my employer didn't even acknowledge there was a Case Managers Week...not even a cheesy pen and pack of post-its with the company logo...but hey, they remembered to tell us if we don't clock 40 hrs a week we don't get ANY benefits (used to be full time was 36 hrs/wk...under was part time, they also did away with the part time bene pkg so it is 40 hrs/wk or ZIP).

Husband is proofing my CV as I speak.

[hoolahan, ASN, RN]

You know it's bad in nursing when all the "better" jobs are starting to suck.

You think that admins are figuring out that nurses are leaving the bedside, and making those jobs harder now, like knowing they think they've got us between a rock and a hard place?? Or is it simply that coporate thinking has destroyed nursing as we knew it?

[colleen10]

Hi Hoolihan,

Just commiserating with you. Sounds like typical Corporate Admin. and HR tactics to me. "Lets not look at the real reasons we have high turn over and low morale. We'll bring in a speaker to convince our lowly minions that there is nothing wrong with the working conditions, just their perception of them."

I worked at one place where every Friday they were laying people off. The people that were left had to take up the slack. Of course morale was low. So, HR sent in a motivational speaker with that old adage "Change is never an easy thing......". Made it sound like it was our fault that we were all miserable and that we just didn't want to "change". Of course it had nothing to do with the fact that you didn't know if you would still be there the next day, LOL!!!

Sorry things are working out this way.

Takce care,

Col

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

Hoooo-eeeee

I got sucked into that whirlpool years ago. "Tell us something that makes your job harder..."

Another nurse and I spoke up and said we had no good place to tape report and sometimes had to go to the restroom to do so.

When that got back to the NM and the director we were REAMED OUT....How DARE did we say anything in a group meeting.......

You can be sure that we kept our mouths shut for a LONG time after that.

[CATHYW]

"Corporate thinking" has nearly destroyed nursing as we know it. You are absolutely right, Hools! But-"nearly" is the operative word here. I will share more about the professional state of flux I am in right now when I am able, and it might make you feel a little better to know that there is hope for the profession.

Working from ye olde homeplace sounds pretty idyllic, to me!

[hoolahan, ASN, RN]

It's not all it's cracked up to be. Sure some days it's great, but honestly, sometimes I am so busy on calls I don't do anything but sit in front of the computer or phone all day.

The "flexibility" of the schedule I'm figuring out, means I flex to meet their needs. I am available anywhere from 6am to 10 pm.

Reason I am out at 6:30 pm is b/c w workers comp cm, I attend md appt's w pt's, and so if they schedule their appt at 6:30 pm I have to go. I could go to the md's office the next day to meet and get forms signed etc, but honestly, it is more hassle. I like to lay eyes on the pt, see the wound healing for myself, assess improvements in mobility, etc, so I go, but not happily!