How to stand my ground

[Momma1RN, MSN, RN, APRN]

I work at a facility that is constantly over capacity. There are not nearly enough beds in the hospital to handle the massive need in the community. My floor is often the only one with any beds and we are forced to take patients that we do not have the tools, resources, experience or competency to care for. Most of the staff have been nurses <1 year. We attempt to refuse patients from the ER that surpass our level of care and are told they're coming up anyways, or are threatened that if we do not take the patient, they are taking staff from our already short staffed floor and sending them somewhere else. We run out of equipment like telemetry monitors and if we're the only bed available, will discontinue orders for monitoring in order to send them to us (and these are patients who need to be monitored). I am at a loss about what to do as a charge nurse who is attempting to advocate and protect my staff (and my license as I'm forced to take a patient assignment as well). We do not have a union. And I'm wondering if it's time to move on in order to protect my license and livelihood. Thanks in advance for all advice and input.

[Sour Lemon]

It's been time to move on for a while.

[JKL33]

Sounds like leaving will protect your sanity regardless whether anything else is in jeopardy.

[NightNerd, MSN, RN]

I would totally take off. That's insane and sounds like a terrible work environment!

All that said, once you're there for a little while, it becomes a LOT easier to be like, "Nah," when they ask you to do crazy stuff. Not a reason to stay, but every hospital has its moments like that. It will get easier to stand your ground, I promise.

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

I'm voting for leaving that environment as well. You have to experience a facility that values patient safety and quality of patient care...there are no perfect work settings but you can get as close as possible to those ideals in some places.