Hospice...hostile and toxic work environment!

[RENnurse4/17]

After almost 2 years as a hospice case manager, I'm finding the work environment to be increasingly toxic. My coworkers are backstabbing and gossipy. The sad part is that administration and management are in on it too. I'm pretty much getting in "trouble" every other week over what they "heard" was said or done. On top of that on call is killing me and although the day is 8 to 5, we are obligated to the job from 7a to 7p....which means if a patient passes at 4:59, we go, even if we are not the person on call. No overtime. Call is one day a week and one weekend a month...sometimes more. Is this normal or is it just me? I love my patients and families and they love me...but I'm now in tears on Monday mornings before work. Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.

[softrbreeze]

I've been in hospice 8 years with 2 different companies, a large national company and a small local company, and everyone met in the office first thing in the morning to get their paperwork and administrative duties out of the way before going out to see patients. The larger company was actually much worse with required office time- there were literally meetings EVERY DAY M-F, sometimes 2 or 3. The management was ******* awful, with definite favorites. The CMs were supportive with each other, but we were so overextended, working 55-80 hrs a week constantly, that we were too burned out to actually HELP anybody else. SO glad I got out of there. I've never heard of a hospice where you "never see your coworkers". Also, I run into them out in the field all the time.

[TammyG]

We meet every two weeks for IDG meetings, but there is no time to chat and certainly not to gossip. Other than that, I will not see my colleagues or my boss. We have no paperwork -- all online. If we had to go into the office everyday, that would add another 10-15 hours to our work week. I never run into coworkers in the field. The population of our county is over 1 million, very unlikely you'd just run into someone.

[Kabin]

Hospice is getting more and more challenging these day. There's more layoffs, more employee turn over, and likely more cost-driven Medicare changes. I long for the good old days when Medicare was more worried about patient goals.

[NC29mom, ASN, LPN, RN]

Sounds like the problem is that your employer is not providing you with a cell phone or device like a Blackberry so you have to use your own private cell phone. This is dangerous for your patients besides keeping you potentially tied to your job 24/7. Do you have a triage nurse and on call nurses? That is who should be called after hours otherwise you have no boundaries and you will burn out.

Oh sure we have on call nurses. ....US! I work for a huge company, but our office only has about 40 pts. So, we work our regular week, and then take call a few nights a week, and every other weekend (here lately due to staffing shortage). We need probably 4 full time nurses, but only have 2 currently. I do this job bc I truly feel it's my calling. At times I get very frustrated, as I'm sure we all do. Then there are the awesome totally rewarding days...

[jschut, BSN, RN]

Oh wow...

I worked for two years in a small hospice where I was the "target" by the clinical director. Other nurses saw it, I was written up because she said, "I wasn't where I said I was." (She said she called the facility where I had patients, and the nurses said my car wasn't there... they didn't even know what I drove, much less go look!) There were numerous other things she did to me... like making me be the ONLY nurse on Thanksgiving day that was required to work, I had to knock o her office door every morning to prove I was there since she "never saw me"... It was a never ending vicious cycle.

Gossip was everywhere... the other CM's called each other daily and would talk, talk, talk...

know that NONE of my patients complained about me...

I was fired at the end of it all. Best thing that EVER happened to me. And while I was down for awhile, and lost everything I had, I ended up on top.

I am now working at another hospice, making less, but am at least respected and trusted and treated like a human. Yea, the other nurses still gossip and complain, but I am happier. And if I am happier, then that's all that matters to me...