Which Area Has the Most Compassionate Nurses

[RNite]

I'm a new nurse (less than one year) and I'm thinking of switching units. There's a lot of trash talking and moral holier-than-thou hype directed at patients where I'm at. It's just not what I want to become and I'm getting the reputation of being a bleeding heart. Before I start shadowing other areas, I was wondering where people have found the more tender hearted nurses at? And yes, I speak up my opinion and the manager has addressed these issues before and after I was here. It's just the culture.

[Reyn04, MSN, RN]

I've worked in 6 hospitals. Med surg, icu, pcu, procedural... I've never seen things like that. Sounds possibly specific to that unit/ staff. I mean - not everyone you meet will be the "super nurse" with the heart of gold. But even in a worst case scenario... who has time (or if time, desire) to research patients online?! Who cares about the sexual orientation of the patient?! And anyone who knowingly mocks a sexual assult victim is just slime.

My advice is to figure out what you love & bring your best to it. If you love the type of nursing you're doing find a better place to do it. I think you'll find all facilities are not created equal but its the people that make it unique, not so much the place. When I look back on rhe places I've worked, its not the policies and procedures that stand out - its the type of people I've worked with.

Good luck.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Well that's easy. The "area" where nurses are treated and compensated fairly. It's a known fact in places where nurses are unfairly overworked, understaffed, or stressed-out, they will become compassion-fatigued and burnt out.

So rather than look for a specialty, I would look at unit culture, norms, core values, and behaviors. They should have a clear mission statement and equitable treatment for their nurses, decent staffing ratios and responsive and caring management.

I have worked many places across several specialties. I have learned the above is what it takes to keep compassionate nurses just that----compassionate.

[nurseluckett, MSN]

I saw this all the time in ICU with our suicide attempts and mental health patients. Instead of leaving I choose to embrace those patients to protect them from the nurses who I felt were not empathic and/Or down right judgmental of those patients. I would volunteer to take those patients. Stating that I had family who have had serious issues in these area and that I feel I connect well with them. This gave the patients a nurse that was more suited to handle their care. It also put the other nurses on notice that they are speaking ill of patients who others may see as extensions of their own family and friends.

[CaffeinePOQ4HPRN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN]

Any area that is well staffed and has an ethical nurse manager will have the most compassionate nurses, and lower incidence of burnout. Ta da!