What do you consider to be nursing's biggest setback?

Katie5 · May 5, 2011

The bunch of females in it!

roser13, ASN, RN · May 5, 2011

in before the lock!

What does that even mean?

TickyRN · May 5, 2011

before the thread gets locked?

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN · May 6, 2011

I think that one of the biggest setbacks in my experience has been the lack of support (across the board) that nurses receive. I have read countless posts on this forum describing horrific orientation and as a result, new nurses feel under prepared and in fear of losing the license that they worked so hard to get.

Nurse managers these days seem more interested in locking their office door at 1700 and making skid marks out of the unit rather than give a hand to their drowning units. (Thankfully I do not have a NM like this, but have worked with MANY like this in the past.) I would like to add that I realize that not ALL nurse managers have this mindset, but I HAVE noticed that the ones that do have high turnover and seem pretty oblivious to problems right under their nose. I think the solution to this problem would be to require nurse managers to take at least 3 shifts a month in order to identify challenges that their staff face.

If we as nurses had a consistent "go-to" person whose primary job was to iron out the issues that we are challenged with on a daily basis, I think we would see much less turnover and more retention. I don't mean the NM, the nurse educator, or the charge nurse; they have their own duties to attend to. I mean a seasoned nurse whose title might be something like "Clinical Nurse Unit Resource Specialist". How wonderful would it be to knock on his/her door, plop down and just unload for a minute? We would feel that someone ACTUALLY cared about the frustrations we endure (afterall, a simple validation of our frustrations tends to go a long way and has a cathartic effect), and we would also get some pointers on how to deal with these frustrations. Then the "resource specialist" would follow up with us at some point during the week. Their job would be to identify problems, discuss a plan, implement a plan of action, and follow up on the implementation. Now THAT would be a GREAT resource for us!

madwife2002, BSN, RN · May 6, 2011

The poor practice habits of some nurses who do not appear to understand the rationale behind policies and procedures.

MommyandRN · May 6, 2011

I am skipping a bunch of posts so I'm not sure if someone said this already: I think the biggest problem may be nurses' portrayal by the media. Nurses are portrayed as sex objects or as physicians' handmaidens on TV and movies and no one understands what we actually do. People do not know that nurses are educated professionals, work independently from physicians, are both men AND women, and are not sex objects. Once people understand health care and what nurses do I think nurses will be treated better and respected more.

No Stars In My Eyes · May 6, 2011

The Healthcare "INDUSTRY". ( Our art is all business now.) And multi-tasking your way through your 12 hour shift could be unsafe for your health and your nursing license. So, we've quit wearing nursing caps, but now we have to wear way too many hats! If you have so many tasks that you barely have time for your patients, it's not nursing. I have never minded working hard , I'm just not a juggler ; and juggling while I'm rollerskating is harder. and answering the phone while I'm rollerskating and juggling is harder still. But hardest of all is trying to sign my initials in those tiny little squares for each med for each patient for each page in the MARS,......WHILE I am rollerskating, answering the phone and juggling ! Can I get an "AMEN"?????????????????????

ErinS, BSN, RN · May 6, 2011

Nurses have allowed everyone else make the decisions about our jobs and what we should do.

Who decided what our education should consist of? Doctors, administrators, and educators without a nursing background.

Who decided what computer systems we use to chart on? Doctors, administrators, and IT guys.

Who decided what care we should be giving? Doctors and administrators.

Who is deciding how nurses are portrayed in public? Cable, media, doctors, and healthcare organizations.

And what are nurses doing about it? Complaining about our education, charting, care demands, and public expectations.

We need to come together, and advocate for ourselves, and nurses should be DRIVING health decisions. Our current health care exists the way it does TO PROVIDE NURSING CARE, and we have to step up to the plate and demand a say in our futures.

RKRobbins · May 6, 2011

I think the customer is always right additude is what is holding nursing back for sure!

It's taking away from all the teaching that we are taught to do because heaven forbid you make someone feel bad for not trying to manage their disease process even if it's killing them.

Altra, BSN, RN · May 6, 2011

OK and a 'nother thaing, I'd like to see the state BON's done away with and go to a national licensing organization like the MT's have. That way we could move across state lines with ease, it would be easier to track the stinkers in our profession, and it would be much more cost effective and I think it would also help to unify us as nurses, one organization for us all.

MTs?

I'm unfamiliar with the acronym. And I'm assuming it's not a typo for "MDs" because they are definitely licensed by individual state boards of medicine.

ZippyGBR, BSN, RN · May 6, 2011

OK and a 'nother thaing, I'd like to see the state BON's done away with and go to a national licensing organization like the MT's have. That way we could move across state lines with ease, it would be easier to track the stinkers in our profession, and it would be much more cost effective and I think it would also help to unify us as nurses, one organization for us all.

waits for the conspiraloons to descend ... unfortunately it's the kind of thing that gets the conspiraloons and militia types all vocal and therefore the politicians will be forced to abandon it ...

almost30 · May 6, 2011

Lots of different things out there. Everyone has a different idea about what needs to be fixed and I guess that is what makes the world go around. I like the idea of coming together as a team and working as a unit. Keep the responses coming in.