Hospital Profits Over Patient Safety: The reasons you should not be a nurse

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I saw this and it just spoke to me in a thousand ways. I want hospitals to be profitable enough to be stable, and to expand services, but the goals for profit are FAR beyond those meager goals. Your healthcare sucks because of capitalism. And the reason you shouldn’t be a nurse: capitalism = nurse abuse and poor patient outcomes. 

13 hours ago, KalipsoRed21 said:

Yeah, I posted it on my professional facebook (which is just 300-400 previous co-workers) and no response at all. When are others going to be as angry as I am?

is there any chance fb is filtering?

2 Votes
Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

All the above mentioned problems are why I finally had to walk away after 2 decades, to save my mental health.  I have encountered every single issue that was mentioned.  

One of the nice things about being retired is I can now speak the truth and not be worried about being fired.  People aren't posting on your FB post because they are afraid of losing their jobs.. That's the way I lived too, until now.  

5 Votes
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

(sorry for such a long post but...)

I'm an old nurse, too... and here are my observations and impressions of changes in the healthcare industry from around the 1970s to the present day.

I'll preface this by saying that  arguments about "central planning" and the wholesame demonizing of "socialism" in my opinion reflect a lack of understanding of healthcare delivery in the US, Canada and Europe and very often are extracted from political arguments and opinion pieces derived from biased media sources on both sides.

We have never not had capitalism (sorry for double negatives) in the United States broadly speaking despite the socialism of Social Security and Medicare which repesent a huge chunk of federal spending here.

The difference was the advent of corporate-centered profit-based healthcare.  In the early 1980s I worked for a small, partnership based prepaid healthcare company whose value system put the doctors and nurses at the top of the list in terms of raises, benefits and attitudes toward family emergencies before an FMLA law forced them to comply.

Then came the day this company was purchased by an insurance corporation.  Then came the day that corporation was purchased by an even larger insurance corporation, and things went downhill from there.

The most insulting thing I suppose was when they had us fill out a questionairre detailing how we spent every minute of our working day, while assuring us "nothing will change" and then fired 20% of our staff.

In short, the above process continues to unfold to this day, and it is extemely disheartening.

My last comment has to do with another very important reason there is such a widespread lack of support for adequate staffing, and that is the not just the "hospital lobby", but the "nurses lobby" in the form of the American Nurses Association.  I would encourage anyone to research their active opposition to safe staffing laws across the country.  Here in California it took the creation of a new union to get the job done.

7 Votes
Specializes in Cardiology.

I wouldn't encourage anyone to be a nurse now because you are not properly compensated and you don't work in a safe environment.

2 Votes
Specializes in Nurse Anesthesia Critical Care.

I think there are so many factors that have shifted to this chronic under staffing.  I think the corporate-ness of hospitals is definitely the leading factoring.  I think one reason is hospitals are run by hotel CEO's and finance professionals and not medical professionals.  Hospital money is shifted to marketing, non-care related budgets like cosmetics, and growing the non-medical salaries.  Non-medical salaries are the fastest growing salaries in many hospitals.  To be honest though a socialized health system scares me though increased workloads, mediocre care, and depressed salaries.  I don't know the answer though.  What I do try to do though is to work for non-for-profit hospitals with integrity but that seems harder to do and some would argue they are corrupt too.

0 Votes
On 1/29/2022 at 12:54 PM, TheIntelligentRN said:

I think there are so many factors that have shifted to this chronic under staffing.  I think the corporate-ness of hospitals is definitely the leading factoring.  I think one reason is hospitals are run by hotel CEO's and finance professionals and not medical professionals.  Hospital money is shifted to marketing, non-care related budgets like cosmetics, and growing the non-medical salaries.  Non-medical salaries are the fastest growing salaries in many hospitals.  To be honest though a socialized health system scares me though increased workloads, mediocre care, and depressed salaries.  I don't know the answer though.  What I do try to do though is to work for non-for-profit hospitals with integrity but that seems harder to do and some would argue they are corrupt too.

You just described our current health system except you left out the parts about millions of Americans not even able to access most care, millions bankrupted by the cost of the care, and millions experiencing poor outcomes and preventable complications because prevention costs money on the front side. 

6 Votes
Specializes in Home health.

I'm glad I'm in home health.  Hospital just seems full of drama

0 Votes
Specializes in Home health.
5 hours ago, OUxPhys said:

I wouldn't encourage anyone to be a nurse now because you are not properly compensated and you don't work in a safe environment.

Agree, that's why I just stick to private duty nursing.  1 patient thats it

0 Votes
6 hours ago, TheIntelligentRN said:

To be honest though a socialized health system scares me though increased workloads, mediocre care, and depressed salaries. 

Have you noticed that a large number of countries that have universal healthcare have higher life expectancy, lower maternal, infant and under five mortality than the US? 

Why do you think that is considering the ”mediocre care” they provide?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_maternal_mortality_ratio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_and_under-five_mortality_rates

 

 

5 Votes
On 1/24/2022 at 1:10 PM, KalipsoRed21 said:

I saw this and it just spoke to me in a thousand ways.


Hearing those nurses tell their stories was both sad and painful. But it’s a story that needs to be told. And heard. Thank you for posting the clip OP.

3 Votes
On 1/24/2022 at 11:01 PM, DavidFR said:

Hospitals are a public service, they're not here to make money. That ethos is deeply entrenched in most European countries.

Hear, hear! 
 

On 1/24/2022 at 11:01 PM, DavidFR said:

Here in France our strong unions ensure our pay and conditions never hit rock bottom. And if I feel unsafe on a shift I can sound the alarm bell without fearing repercussions. There is actually a system in place exactly for highlighting your concerns about safety or undesirable situations. I shudder when I read posts here about nurses scared to speak up.

I can’t imagine working in an environment where I couldn’t speak freely and voice any concerns I might have regarding the quality of care that we deliver and patient safety. 

I, like my coworkers, will of course write incident reports if something negative has happened. But we are also actively encouraged to write reports when we identify any kind of risks that could threaten patient safety or employee safety. Nothing needs to have actually happened, but if I observe something that could possibly lead to a negative outcome, I will make a report. You describe the problem or risk observed and suggest solutions if you have any. Our manager will remind us at staff meetings if there haven’t been many reports recently and encourage us to write more of them.

It’s a non-punitive system designed to safeguard patient safety and improve/protect our work environment. I probably write two or three every week. 
 

 

 

3 Votes
10 minutes ago, macawake said:

Hear, hear! 
 

I can’t imagine working in an environment where I couldn’t speak freely and voice any concerns I might have regarding the quality of care that we deliver and patient safety. 

I, like my coworkers, will of course write incident reports if something negative has happened. But we are also actively encouraged to write reports when we identify any kind of risks that could threaten patient safety or employee safety. Nothing needs to have actually happened, but if I observe something that could possibly lead to a negative outcome, I will make a report. You describe the problem or risk observed and suggest solutions if you have any. Our manager will remind us at staff meetings if there haven’t been many reports recently and encourage us to write more of them.

It’s a non-punitive system designed to safeguard patient safety and improve/protect our work environment. I probably write two or three every week. 
 

 

 

Our hospital administration is trying to improve their reputation as it relates to surveys and hospital certifications. Do they actually do anything when we write things up? Doesn't seem like it.

They are completely out of touch with the experience of those of us on the patient care front. They encourage us to write things up, because it makes the hospital LOOK better.

Seriously... I used to write things up when we had a manager that would actually follow up and ask questions about the submitted reports. When no one asks a single question about what you submit in a report? Well, you know they are not reading them or don't intend to do anything. 

1 Votes
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