I have been overrun, under-supported, and run into the ground. The patient's on my unit are so heavy, and we are so understaffed that my objective each day is to just keep them alive and unharmed. I can't get supplies, administrative support, training, time off, anything. Everywhere I look, the system at my hospital is failing and falling apart.
Management doesn't care about anything. All they do is sing the same old song about the hospital losing money. While the local newspapers document the outrageous pay and benefit packages of Senior Management, the practice of "donating hospital funds to local charities on which their spouses just happen to have paid board positions", the bottomless budget for hiring of Assistant/Associate Administrators (six in the last two years).
Every time there is a failure somewhere further up in the supply chain, which results in less than adequate care being given to a patient, it falls to the bedside nurse to fix it. I have all of the responsibility, with no authority, no power, and no support.
I have fought this battle for more than seven years, and it has left me bereft of hope, and broken in spirit. I'm done.
