Whenever I experienced problems in my life, my father used to say, "To solve this problem, start by looking in the mirror."
Nursing is a great profession and we should all be very proud of what we do. Nursing is the backbone of healthcare, try running a hospital without them--doesn't happen. Nursing is the largest, single profession in healthcare and has more power than we realize, like a "sleeping giant."
When I reflect on my experiences as a staff nurse and in hospital administration, there are some things that stand out. The old phrase "nurses eat their young" is very true in many ways. How many of us have worked on oppressive, negative nursing floors or units? The gossip, character assassination, complaining, whining, refusing to help each other out, lack of teamwork, more patients than you can handle, nurses writing each other up, etc., etc. What new nurse would want to work under such conditions?
As I have said before in many posts, the culture and atmosphere of a nursing unit and department starts with the nursing leadership. I can tell you that hospital administration depends on the nursing leadership to tell them what is needed. If the nursing leadership lacks the skill, knowledge, or general where-with-all to EFFECTIVELY communicate nursing needs then we will get what we have now. The old "bleeding heart" soap box just does not work. Hospital administration looks at numbers, you have to communicate your needs in numbers and show how nursing contributes to making the numbers. Nursing does in fact contribute to making the numbers but "nursing" has failed miserably to portray itself as a generator of revenue and not a mere consumer of resources.
It all starts with the nursing leadership. Staff nurses are generally just too busy and exhausted to jump into doing things of substance, on the job, to advance the profession. This responsibility rests on the nursing leadership--that is the nurse managers and DONs. Improving nursing and advancing the profession has to start at a grass roots level, one hospital at a time, right in your own backyard. The ANA is not doing it for us, no one will do it for us--we must do it ourselves.
If you are a burned out, tired, walk around with a cup of coffee, complaining about management and complaining about the new nurses who just don't want to work kind of manager--please do us all a favor and resign. Likewise, if you are the kind of nurse manager that insists on everyone knowing that you are in charge and create an oppressive, intimidating, negative culture--please do us all a favor and resign. If you are a nurse manager that really cares and is passionate about what you do then help your staff succeed and create an atmosphere that is positive, energetic, professional, and will ATTRACT people, not run them off!!
DONs--please learn how to communicate effectively with administration--know the overall numbers and your numbers, know what drives those numbers, know how to make operational changes that will change the numbers, know how to engage in effective financial management. Demonstrate your nursing department's financial contribution to the hospital. Administrators know numbers not clinical issues. Stand up for your staff effectively. Help your nurse managers learn how to make their staff nurses successful, your success depends on their success.
We should all be more positive and proud of what we do. Our attitudes speak volumes to new nurses and people that are considering nursing. If we are negative and come across as a down-trodden, powerless, victimized bunch of people--who in their right mind would want to go into nursing?!?!
Greedy administrators run over nursing because nursing allows them too. Same with arrogant doctors. Think about what usually happens when there are not enough nurses in a hospital, they either bring in very expensive agency or close beds. Neither option is appealing and an administrator will be in very hot water with their board or corporate boss if they don't straighten it out. Creating an adversarial "us versus them" situation with your administration is counterproductive and will not help nursing, it only perpetuates the negativity that is so common in nursing departments today.
So has nursing created the nursing shortage?? I think nurses have been the MAJOR contributor to the shortage. Let's be positive and help each other succeed so we can attract people, not run them off.
I do believe that this thinking (I refrain from the word "attitude") is exactly what the wise Ainz, is speaking about.
She speaks directly to morale and its importance, but nurses behaving like blue-collared workers (that is bald, sorry) and not taking ownership of their profession, is exactly what she is talking about! The above post personifies this.
I am not at work as some "charity service" or "volunteer". I work to get paid. I work hard and do a good job but I am there for money. I want working conditions improved and instead of actually DOING something about it they buy stupid little morale boosting pieces of junk and a pep talk to pacify. It may be enough for you.....or maybe you are a nurse manager that does that type of thing...but I want results and if I don't get them...I'm outta there.
Thankfully my husband makes enough money I CAN quit a job if the managers behave in this manner. I feel really bad for those who are more stuck in that type of environment.
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU. I AM A NEW RN AND JUST HAD MY YEAR ANNIVERSARY. TO BE HONEST WE DO SOMETIMES EAT OUR YOUNG. I HAVE ENCOUNTERED A FEW NURSES WHO WERE VERY MUCH EXPERIENCED BUT WERE NOT VERY HELPFUL DURING MY ORIENTATION. BUT THAT JUST MADE ME WORK HARDER. THAT ACTUALLY MADE ME GO THE EXTRA MILE AND GO OUT OF MY WAY FOR NEW NURSES NOW. I TRY NOT TO BE NEGATIVE ON THE JOB EITHER. WHO WANTS TO COME IN A WORK PLACE WHERE EVERYONE IS MISERABLE AND COMPLAINING. I HATE TO WORK SHORT ALSO. BUT SOMETIMES IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN. THE TIME WE TAKE TO WHINE AND COMPLAIN AND GO OUT FOR CIGARETTE BREAKS AND COFFEE BREAKS WE COULD ACTUALLY HAVE HAD A LOT OF WORK DONE. COME ON NURSES LET'S SHOW THE NEW NURSES HOW WONDERFUL OUR PROFESSION TRULY IS.
You have a good point. I can't tell you how many times I hear nurses moan and groan and when the opportunity arises for change no one is up for it!!!!! I am the same way I will not be dumped on I will speak up and make it clear that abuse doesn't spell nurse!! Unfortunately you will stand alone in the fight! I see new grads get screwed around by seasoned nurses, back biting and pety antics. Until nurses stand up for one another and address issues that are pertinent to their work area you can believe nursing will be set back another million years....... I know some nures don't want to hear when reality is slapped in their face. I admire the fact you took the time to express your point of view. :-)2 cents.
Agnes wrote: "We talk about it here. That is as far as it ever goes. Personally I prefer to quietly go out and clean my little corner of things and do something. It ain't big and sweeping in and of itself but it is better than talk. ACTION is the ONLY thing that creates change. We can talk about it forever."
I think part of the reason we talk about it over and over is trying to determine what actions CAN make a difference. We feel something needs changing, but what can we do right now in our current positions?
However nurses define themselves, determine minimum education for entry, and act "professionally," hospitals will still hire them and them treat them as wage laborers. And hospital administrators will still have to worry about the bottom line. So what can we really do improve the situation?
I'm the first to encourage a good, helpful attitude of teamwork on the floors, but even the friendliest of co-workers can only compensate so much for conditions that work against giving quality care.
So, does anyone have any suggestions about what we can do to influence change institutionally?
Renae: Please don't post in all caps...it's like screaming.
It did bug me when I worked 7p-7a to be expected to wait around until 0900 for a mandatory staff meeting. Never was night shift accommodated, and then we were given the standard line about needing to be "professionals"...WITW does that have to do with anything?
Some good points, but this profession always was, always will be the low rung on the ladder. I don't think things will change until the "shortage" seriously affects the general public.
Let's start with someone who has money to invest in the stock market, it could be anyone. Part of their portfolio will probably include some healthcare stocks. This investor expects a return on their investment, they expect the stock to increase in value. In the for-profit hospitals, the corporate CEO must answer to the Wall Street analysts who ask some difficult questions and point out things that are troublesome. These comments, questions, and how the CEO addresses them makes the stock price per share fluctuate. If it goes up then the stock holder and the CEO are happy, if it goes down they are not happy and expect more. Even if it goes up the happiness is only for a short period and then they want more, and more, and more, and more.
Ainz,
Very interesting and informative post. A question came to mind after reading your post "Why should investors be making money off of people's demises?" Maybe the greed needs to be clipped at the top, as a start. One would think that after thousands of years on this planet, we would have learned about the inhumanity of betting on people's lives.
Many good ideas here! I'm discouraged that in our profession we are not valued enough to be able to go to the bathroom when we need to, have to work mandatory double shifts or lose our jobs, do not get breaks for meals are expected to rotate shifts, work weekends and holidays etc. We earn terrible money compared to other professions, and have lost control of making our own decisions about our profession. We have to be doctor watchdogs, and can be sued over anything.We have to have the hospital budget balanced on our backs. It doesn't make any difference if you don't feel qualified to accept an assignment or or floated to an unknown floor, if you refuse you are insubordinate or can be fired. If you refuse to take a verbal order, you can be fired or it can be make tough for you. You MUST work a double shif even though you have no babysitter, or be fired. If you wake up a doctor at night because he is covering, and he choses to, you must listen to his rants. If you have too many patients, too bad. Yo can't refuse-or if you do you can be fired. Kind of makes it seem as though one is not valued. If you take the patienet load and something happens, well, see you in court there too. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Talk about helplessness! How about hopelessness? How did we ever let ourselves get to this point? I know of no other profession that has lost so much control. We are even strugging to BE a profession. Look up the word, we are not fitting the desription as everyone has their hand in makine decisions for us! It sounds like a sweatshop in the early 1900s. What about kids and a husband.? I refused to be an absentee mother or irritated exhausted wife, so I quit the hospital a long time ago. Caring for MY loved ones is my priority-not everyone else's relative while mine go lacking. I want my children to remember me having a part in their lives, not resenting it due to the fact that someone else's kid always needed my attention. I don't have the answers, but I can guess that many fewer students are going into nursing for the above reasons. Yeah, it's nice to want to care for others, etc, and have lofty ideas about doing your part etc, but it comes down to you and your family. Today's kids want alot-they've been given alot, and nursing doesn't provide any of the perks that other jobs do for which people are similarly qualified. My son has the education I have and started out at 45k not counting commision. Perks out the kazoo.. if I was in the hospital, I would still be putting up with the above conditions. Sad? yes, but realistic, lets face it. Yes I became discouraged early on-I am a professional person and want to be treated and accepted as such. I am working in a school and have been for 21 years. I am looked on as a professional nurse and as a teacher, not ONLY as a nurse. Teachers had terrible working conditions early in the century, but they will not tolerate them in this century. Why do we????????????????
BlueNurse........... Imagine if at the next mandatory staff meeting there were representatives from your nurse Union. The HR manager can say "GO TEAM". Everyone will know that it is bollox what he/she says. Then just as they think that they have applied the quarterly band-aid the union rep can stand up and say "our members aren't going to put up with this Cr4p anymore, here are our demands, here is what our members are entitled to and here are the applications for membership for everyone else here". and oh yeah.. here is a reporter from the local paper ready to record your response.
INHO it seems that far to many nurses play the martyr role.
These are just a few of the other contributors to the nursing shortage.
Sorry if this is perceived as slightly off topic but, actually, it isn't. I mention it only because it's never mentioned in these discussions. Which is: the average age for nurses is 46.
One major reason is that students flunk out of pre-req courses and nursing schools in large numbers. That, combined with the schools only being to take limited numbers of applicants, is certainly another reason.
This has to be a major contributing factor to the shortage, yet nobody talks about it. I guess people prefer to complain about working conditions, which I'm sure is a factor too, but certainly NOT the only one.
Yes---- the old saying "nurses eat their young" is true.
My concern is- millions of soon to be retired baby boomers will be needing around-the-clock nursing care-----are we going to have enough nurses or facilities to care for them?
And-----are there too many administrative nurses and not enough floor nurses?
I AM A NEW RN AND JUST HAD MY YEAR ANNIVERSARY. TO BE HONEST WE DO SOMETIMES EAT OUR YOUNG. I HAVE ENCOUNTERED A FEW NURSES WHO WERE VERY MUCH EXPERIENCED BUT WERE NOT VERY HELPFUL DURING MY ORIENTATION. BUT THAT JUST MADE ME WORK HARDER. THAT ACTUALLY MADE ME GO THE EXTRA MILE AND GO OUT OF MY WAY FOR NEW NURSES NOW. I TRY NOT TO BE NEGATIVE ON THE JOB EITHER. WHO WANTS TO COME IN A WORK PLACE WHERE EVERYONE IS MISERABLE AND COMPLAINING. I HATE TO WORK SHORT ALSO. BUT SOMETIMES IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN. THE TIME WE TAKE TO WHINE AND COMPLAIN AND GO OUT FOR CIGARETTE BREAKS AND COFFEE BREAKS WE COULD ACTUALLY HAVE HAD A LOT OF WORK DONE. COME ON NURSES LET'S SHOW THE NEW NURSES HOW WONDERFUL OUR PROFESSION TRULY IS. 
bluenurse
37 Posts
I am not at work as some "charity service" or "volunteer". I work to get paid. I work hard and do a good job but I am there for money. I want working conditions improved and instead of actually DOING something about it they buy stupid little morale boosting pieces of junk and a pep talk to pacify. It may be enough for you.....or maybe you are a nurse manager that does that type of thing...but I want results and if I don't get them...I'm outta there.
Thankfully my husband makes enough money I CAN quit a job if the managers behave in this manner. I feel really bad for those who are more stuck in that type of environment.