This "suit" has just lost it!

Nurses General Nursing

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Normally I can express myself on this forum with humor, but not this time, at least not as usual. I just came out of a meeting (you know; one of those meetings where we sip cognac and eat bonbons and devise plans on how to abuse the staff). I sat down at my desk to get back to my grant proposal on back safety equipment. I'm doing a Capital Equipment Request Form. I'm sure brilliant financial minds created this form, but my gifts, to put it mildly, don't lie in this direction, so filling out this form is like having my nose hairs extracted without anesthesia. But nurses and transporters are getting hurt and hey, this is one of those cushy administrative jobs, better than slogging away at the bedside, right???

This is my fourth 10-12 hour day this week. I will be here tomorrow. I do not make overtime. I also do not make $36/hr, with shift differential, critical care differential, travel pay and housing, like the Winter staffing package I just saw at the meeting. I still remember how to work at the bedside and I loved it. I could be earning twice what I am earning now with substantially fewer hours. I am stupid.

I clicked on Allnurse to clear my brain before I went back to having my nosehairs removed. Instead, I found three consecutive threads on suit-bashing. On how working short is lousy and mandatory overtime sucks and management just doesn't care about the lousy quality of those crummy nurses who make those awful mistakes.

Get a freakin clue!!! So you're working short and you call your manager? Where in the heck is he supposed to get the nurses, if he's called everyone on the call list and all of your peers and every agency in town???? Out of his butt??? If he comes in to help you after working in his office all day (painting his toenails, of course), how useful do you think he's going to be? You'll just bi*** that he doesn't know what he's doing--and you'll probably be right (after all; he hasn't been at the bedside since 1492). And yes, you needed that mental health day and no, you sure as heck weren't going to work that unfair mandatory overtime. And I'm the first to say that a life-saving profession deserves every penny it gets, but unfortunately sometimes, when large sums of money are offered, the people attracted are people who are attracted only to money.

And that selfsame manager is dealing with your substance-diverting "peer" and your unsafe "peer", along with regulatory agencies that can put us all out of a job. I heard that manager behind closed doors wishing she'd caught things sooner, wondering if she was being too critical, questioning and doubting and hurting and wishing she could do a better job and feeling nothing she does can ever be right. I felt her pain, just like I feel yours in this forum.

And I'm dead tired, and I'm crying right now, and I'm wondering why in the hell I don't just forget what I'm doing and go back to the bedside because I was happy there and bedside nurses don't know or understand or appreciate or value what I'm trying to do or their managers are trying to do or their administrators are trying to do. Somewhere, there is a factory that manufacturers us, kind of like the battery-operated All-nurse one, but this is an Ice-water Suit one (maybe that will be a humorous thread when I'm in a better mood). And when I hit this submit button, I'll probably regret doing it, especially when the slingshots and cannons and loogy-spewing machines are aimed at me. Well---let it rip. I may regret this tomorrow, but tonight I'm too fed up myself to care. :p

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I hope this was catharsis for you. As you know, our "venting " is for us oftentimes. I will reserve the commentary forming in my mind for you. You deserve a vent and a break now and again, like anyone else and I won't slam you when you are down. I hope this helped. Nothing more I will add.:o

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Specializes in CV-ICU.

Jeannie, your point is well taken. :imbar

We do lump all "suits" together here quite often; but I think that we all do know (or have heard of) decent nurse managers who do give a s#^@ about their staff. My own NM is really trying her best to keep her staff, administration, and the pts. happy; all the while involved with TPTB in planning and building a new "hospital within a hospital." (Geez, I HATE that term!!!!) And yet, I blew up at her and reamed her a new one when something I'd been working on for 1 1/2 years was thrown out by someone else. AND I LIKE MY NM; AND SHE WASN'T AT FAULT HERE!!! As a matter of fact, this is the 2nd time I've worked under this NM (1st time was in another city) and I even talked her into applying for this job!

But what happens is once we get frustrated, we blame ALL of the anonymous "suits" in the world for every problem we have!

(I really NEED to apologise to my NM for my behavior last week!) :uhoh21:

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Whew! You're right, SmilingBluEyes, I did need to vent. And I was right; I did regret this, and it didn't even take until tomorrow. I'm chilled now. This was a REALLY awful day. Peace, everybody.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Well you have the right, like anyone to vent, jeannie. I am sorry for your horrible day and I am sorry when you see us attack "suits" in a lump, like Jenny says. We all can use the reminder sometimes that you are "human" and have your deadlines, commitments,and aches and pains, too. You also bleed red.

They say all the time, "stuff" rolls downhill. You are just taking a huge lump of it from WAY up all the way down. I think the ole snowball landed square on your head, and you could not handle any more. I hope this helped. I know I have felt better when I vented here in the past. Good luck in what you do to TRY to maintain. It is hard, I can see.

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kudos to you jennie for doing your best. i think we all know that all of management is not alike. i have had good managers in the past that i loved . anytime they asked me for something extra i was there! but now, i've had my first taste of a poor manager and i don't feel obligated to put forth any extra effort to make things easier for her. of course, all nurse managers have to answer to a higher up and i understand that but the good managers know how to treat the staff and still do their job. we had a good team on our unit until our old manager left. now we only have bad attitudes and low morale for the most part. my co-workers and i still work together and do a good job but my feeling is we are the team. the manager is their for herself.ps. don't feel bad for venting.:kiss

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Specializes in MDS Coordinator, CWS.

Amen, jennie. I too am considered part of the management team and find it hard to bite my tongue at times. I am fortunate to work with the team I do. My thoughts are with you.

dawn

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Jeannie, if my remark on the thread about handwriting anaylsis was one of the remarks that upset you I am sorry. It was meant to be a joke at my own expense. If you read between the lines of my post over the years you can pick up on the fact that I have trouble with authority. I was amused that the handwriting analysis zeroed in on this fact. I was trying to say, "why it can't be me, it must be the other guy." The nurse in me does not like the fact that I upset an exhausted person. In the flesh I would have sensed your fatigue and tread softly. It was one of the reasons I was a good nurse.

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Wear all the suits you want. You're still a nurse and you have a tough job -- maybe an impossible job -- supervising nurses is like herding cats and dealing with the bureaucrats above you is more frustrating than herding cats!

:)

PS My sister has a job like yours and I get to hear her rants all the time...I don't know how she does it.

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Jeannie, with all due respect, it was your choice to go into management.

Everything you have described comes with the territory. That's why most of us DON'T want to go into management.

Life is all about choices. If management is so frustrating, do something else.

Now, where do I sign up for that Winter package you just saw? I'm up for it!! I have CHOSEN to do travel nursing, when I CHOOSE to work in an operating room; at other times I CHOOSE to free-lance as an LNC or CHOOSE to do IV teaching--you will never hear me complain about ANY of the hats I wear--I think I might even train with a plastic surgeon I know so that I can do botox injections when I am bored with those other forms of nursing--

I might like to CHOOSE to do a travel assignment this winter-- your package sounds pretty good--feel free to have your colleagues e-mail me if they need an O.R. nurse who can do whatever, whenever, wherever, without complaining, because to me it's just 8 hours, and not my life--

Anyway, I, too, have worked with good nurse managers, however, they were few and far between. You may be one of the few rare ones who truly empathizes with her staff and doesn't talk "Managementspeak" at them.

As the others said, this is a good place to vent. We are all non-judementally supportive. Have yourself a good cry; sounds like it was long overdue. Put your feet up and have a glass of wine. things will look better in the morning. They always do.

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I truly do appreciate you guys. When I was driving home today with my mascara running off of my chin and a lump in my throat the size of one of those Texas moles, I really thought I'd probably cut off one of my few sanity-keeping lifelines. I really appreciate the kindness and understanding with which you've met my frustrated rant. :kiss

You're right; I've chosen to do what I do, and a lot of the time, I do love it. The irony is, guys, I'M NOT A MANAGER, for which I fall on my knees and thank God daily. I would be terrible at that job. I straddle a bizarre line between management and staff, and as a result I truly want to help both sides. And as anybody who has seen my crazy Poor Prudence and other sick humor knows, I can poke fun at whacked-out management as much as anyone. Indeed, when I see some of the regulatory hoops we have to jump through and hear the content of some of our meetings, I seriously question what's been pumped into our water supply! :eek: :eek:

Thanks for your understanding. I will be back to my normal state of insanity as soon as I am done with this freaking grant. :confused: JeannieM

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Specializes in Corrections, Psych, Med-Surg.

jeannieM: So you got roped into a position with many worries and headaches and stresses and supervisory responsibilities and unpaid overtime--without the authority or power to do what needs to be done or change what needs to be changed? So your manager did not provide you with adequate training, and does not provide you with adequate support/services/supplies/personnel? So you loved direct patient care and could return to doing it?

So...? What is the problem?

Your options seem clear enough, but meanwhile passing the crap "down," (as your manager has to you) while widespread in nursing and in other places, only demonstrates a singular lack of leadership from above and demoralizes the troops with problems THEY certainly don't have the power/authority to solve. This kind of crap only deserves to be passed "up," and I encourage you to do so (until you decide to get back to what you love to do, that is). Best wishes.

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