I read Allnurses every day, rarely do I post. Over the past year or so I've been reading more and more about how hard "that first year of nursing" is and how many new nurses just can't handle it and are looking to get out. I understand.
As an old, seasoned nurse, now retired I have watched nursing get harder and harder, working with sicker and sicker patients with less resources. How long can this continue? I've read lately about nurses who need antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds just to be able to come to work each day. And we all nod and say that's just how nursing is now. I read about nurses who cry and dread each day that they have to come to work, working in fear of making a mistake. The horror, a human being might make a mistake. And then I read other nurses who say, "we should never make mistakes, we should triple/quadruple check everything we do because the poor patient should not be harmed in any way, ever." What utopia do they live in? And yet we have to drop everything that we are triple checking to run and get a family member an extra pillow or a soft drink or risk being reprimanded.
What other career puts such a burden on it's members? I can't think of any that routinely have members dreading to come to work and needing medications to get through a shift, maybe airtraffic controllers, or combat soldiers. I don't know.
And then we tell ourselves that we should be happy that we're lucky to have a job. Really? What is so lucky about this?
I started nursing 40 years ago on a busy labor and delivery unit. I was afraid at times. But there was a support system from the top down. Director of nursing, nursing supervisors, head nurses (they weren't called managers back then) and the shift charge nurse, everyone pulled together. I miss that. I left hospital bedside nursing 10 years ago because of the lack of support and teamwork, and the increasing focus on the patient "experience" versus a positive outcome of disease or injury.
I don't have an answer, well I do but for some reason, nurses I have known don't want to talk about solving problems for their profession. We're great at solving everyone else's problems but not our own. How long can this continue? I feel sorry for new nurses and for my older colleagues as well.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
My unit ended up losing quite a few nurses, which prompted management to hold some meetings with us to find out why nurses were so unhappy. Since they've implemented some new changes things have improved drastically. I still have days that are stressful, but that stress is at a manageable level now. I think a lot of it comes down to management, a good manager will find solutions to help improve the work environment.
This is paramount on any unit. If you have a good manager/DON who have "really big Cajones" you will come near getting good changes. They will fight hard for that right. Unfortunately that is far a few between. Most don't have that backbone. They don't want to rock the boat so they half hearted go through the motions. You inform the UM what is wrong and needs fixing. This is continuing 6 mos later with no change. That's how you know what kind of UM you have. I see this all the time You are lucky with yours and their Cojones are showing.....
Unit managers are in a very difficult postion, getting squeezed from above and from below. Management continues to push them to do more with less and less (and make those nurses LIKE it!) and the nursing staff keeps pushing to get the support they need to do their jobs (and make those management bozos UNDERSTAND it.) It's a very difficult position and I am grateful that there are people who honestly want to do that job (and are somewhat proficient at it) because I would have run screaming off into the sunset after about six weeks. Or less.
A good manager is very difficult to find. I've been fortunate enough to work with some very good ones: Ruby, Judy, Sherri and Jenny: you rock.
I just read all 10 pages of this...you know why? Because I just finished my two weeks notice to bedside... and I left for pretty much every reason mentioned throughout this thread. Saying this profession isn't for you is hogwash. The atmosphere is downright abusive to nursing staff in a lot of ways both structurally and sideways.
I've been a nurse a little over 20 years. I've hated it for 20 years. But life happens and you get stuck. If I could find a way out I would. Sorry to say the debate rages on regarding nursing being professional, therefore let's not have a union but I think if the union is good perhaps it would be better for us if there was a natonal nuses union. After 20 years, I can say nursing really isn't a proffession, it is a blue collar service job; no where else in the hospital will you find healthcare professionals getting interrupted in the middle of an important task like nurses. And everyone else (docs, NP, etc.)thinks it is OK to force you to stop what you are doing to help THEM; to go "fetch" something for THEM; to assist THEM. It is constant, never ending, grueling abuse on many levels and god forbid you refuse to drop everything to go do someone else's bidding because if you do, you will get written up.
I am one that has sat in my car crying, telling myself to get in there and get my shift over with after spending the hours prior dreading having to go to work. Heck there were days I wanted to get in a car accident so I wouldn't have to go in to work.
I don't know what the answers are, but I am getting my BSN right now and hoping I can find some other type of position.anyone who prays out there, Please pray for me to figure this out and get off of this ride.
exactly why I got out of bedside nursing target98765! Been there, done that. Your post looks a lot like my journal writings a few years ago.
I am a new grad myself. Started in the ICU new graduate program at my local hospital. I am 5 weeks in and must say, I love it and the support I am receiving from my department and preceptors. Is it hard work? Yes, but I love going there and learning and improving my skills. I am blessed to be in this department and to work within the ICU. Yes, there are stand off'ish nurses, but the doctors have been great and very patient with all of us new grads.
Listen, no place is going to be perfect. You have to decide what works for you. Complaining only sets up negativity, if you don't like nursing or your department, find s different department or maybe a different career. Good luck to all of you new nurses out there. Stay strong and keep going. Brush off the rude comments or bitter nurses and just do you:).
Oh, how I wish there was a way to send you a reminder about 2-3 years and see how your view of nursing has changed. Maybe you're one of those lucky individuals that hits the floor running, and you work at Utopia Healthcare, but boy oh boy time and experience can change things.
I'm a high school senior looking to pursue a career in nursing and health. My two options I have so far is to be a registered nurse or a medical assistant. Now I'm not sure whether or not to change my career interest based on the nerve-wrecking environment. Are there any tips or words of wisdom you guys can give me, especially if you are an RN or MA. Thank you very much for responding and your time
Hi! Medical Assisting sounds attractive because generally you will be working with just 1-3 patients at a time, working under 1 or 2 doctors at most and the procedures are very routine unless you work in a very busy hospital/clinic under more than 1 doctor, but the pay is much lower than what you would earn as a BSN but about the same if you are an LPN/LVN. If you will pursue your BSN, from what I've read from other posters and from friends/relatives who are in Nursing, once you have your 1-5 years in Acute Care or Med-Surg or minimum 3 years in L&D/PP, you have a wealth of opportunities open to you.
From what I researched, a Medical Assistant salary caps out in about 5 years, while a nurse with a BSN has more options to move up or laterally depending on your geographic area or if you are willing to move to another area in your state or even another state. However, if you are going for the RN without plans to move up to get your BSN, I would get an MA certification first instead as 1) not many places are hiring ADN grads anymore as they are going for BSN grads and 2) If you do decide to get a BSN later, you can always fall back on your experience as a MA to work as an MA again if for any reason, you want to leave the nursing field.
This is my second career with little stints in the health field while in the corporate world (worked a desk job in a very toxic office for a highly competitive corporation) which then decided to outsource mostly all our work to other states and countries. Our office has gone through countless rounds of layoffs. I quit many years ago to pursue my prereq's in Nursing and to avoid the stress of having to work in a highly toxic environment at a pay that has been capped for a few years. I have a BSN but am currently working as a Medical Office Receptionist/Optometric Assistant while reviewing for the NCLEX-RN and will be moving to another state. I've worked as a CNA full-time before I enrolled in a Nursing program but at this moment, the hours will not work while I review and I would be too exhausted at the end of the day to study so that's why I am working part-time as a MA. Honestly, the MA work is too routine and becoming boring and I've only been working for 6 months-it might be a different story if I was a specialist, like an Optician but that's another 2 years of training or if I worked in an outpatient surgical clinic. That's not where I'm going though.
After reading the many negative posts on this site, I'm feeling disheartened but as I went this far, I will push through. Right out of high school, I volunteered in a hospital in a Telemetry Unit as a candy striper-basically did simple hospitality-like tasks like refill patient's water pitchers, refill the supply cart with syringes and speak with patients (scary, might I add, to speak to patients who tell you outright they are dying) but as a candy striper in a quiet Telemetry Unit, I did not see what nurses did (only what the Unit Clerk did) and even as a CNA, I could not observe what nurses did as I was busy with my own patients and finish charting before the shift was over.
You will have to find your place in the Nursing world. No one can tell you to not go into the Nursing field if you feel that this is really what you want or you can start out as a CNA or Medical Assistant first, then go into Nursing for a BSN. However, reading your post it says either MA or RN so I want to ask you first, are you able to move to another area/state if you are unable to find work in your area in Nursing? Are Medical Assistants in high demand where you are? Have you thought of being a Diagnostic Medical Sonographer (their higher end salary can be equivalent to a nurse's salary in some areas) and if so, is that in high demand in your area? Check out the employment/career links in the hospitals/medical centers/clinics around you to get an idea of the demand if you cannot move away. Generally, with a BSN (not RN), you have more opportunities open to you than being a MA. Where I live though, there are more opportunities for MA than a new grad BSN. Good luck to you and keep us updated :)
Well, all I can say is that after 35 years I'm finally retired. Most nurses don't last that long and nursing has probably shaved 10 years from my life. I'm really sorry about what new nurses have to face but honestly, I'm too tired to care. I know that comes with a price because what am I going to do, especially a boomer, when I need them? I just don't know and I don't know what the answers are. In some respects I think some feel entitled like they're somehow above direct care. Also, it is totally uncool how nursing has destroyed the diploma programs, arguably the best nurses ever. I saw an article once that said we need to have the BSN because they make fewer mistakes. What? Really? Nursing has also relegated the ASN to the bedside only, another bad move. i have an ASN and I was one of the best workers in my department: Medicare disease management. If we want the BSN as the only entry level, fine, but it must be through a process of attrition, not one of punishment. There are so many things wrong with nursing that are a threat to the survival of the profession that it would fill volumes. Volumes I tell you. The question is whether or not it's fixable and with current leadership I would say no.
I have a BSN, but ASN nurses cannot even find bedside care in the area where I'm located. If you have another Bachelor's in a field other than nursing they still make you bridge to a BSN because of the Almighty Magnet Accreditation.
Wow. I read through all of the posts...and only one word comes to mind...
UNIONIZE.
I get it that there are union busters on this board lurking...and admins and managers lurking...just waiting to hear that word so that they can jump right in there and start with the fear mongering. Unions suck. Unions only steal money and the RNs are forced to "become" lazy and good for nothing...blahblahblah.
Not a shred of truth to it, or else hospitals wouldn't fight TOOTH AND NAIL to keep unions OUT or threaten employees with termination (oh-so-nicely) and even not oh-so-nicely.
Unions would change the dynamic drastically in favor of decent working conditions, and as a direct result, patient care would improve. That IS what everyone here is so concerned about (at least, that is the impression they give).
I've worked in Radiology for 24 years. Trauma and then fMRI. Then got into Paramedic. Now I am finishing RN. I've worked in unionized hospitals and non union. The problems you are talking about are NOT exclusive to Nursing. Radiology is the same in non union shops. Stacks of resumes are saved in top drawers of managers to slam on the desk, in order to emphasize your irrelevance in the grande scheme.
The only power that ANY worker...in ANY profession....in ANY location....is collective bargaining. Power in numbers. If you control the flow of something...anything...money, food, water, LABOR---you control the distribution and ensure equity.
It breaks my heart to read that ANYONE here has had to retire, take meds, talk themselves into getting out of bed---for a JOB. There is absolutely NO REASON that a group of critical thinkers as highly educated and skilled as the folks here---buy into the corporate propaganda that 12:1 without a CNA is acceptable. That unless you bend over and do 30 hours of OT a week...you are terminated.
Baloney. Unionization is NOT a four letter word. This country's downtrodden and enslaved workers fought and died for the right to unionize, to be treated as human beings...for 40 hour workweeks and child labor laws....and what I hear from Master's Level RNs is...."I can't afford to be a trouble maker. But it really is all about patient care."
Nonsense. You teach people how to treat you. And that goes double triple for employers. I will deliberately and methodically apply for and spend my last DIME to get into a union hospital...or at least get into a union friendly one.
And that baloney about being "progressive/liberal"....since when is PROGRESS a bad thing. Sounds like a union buster to me...or maybe Delores Umbridge..."Progress for the sake of progress MUST be discouraged!!!"
Call me anything you like...I happen to ENJOY having progress...you know...progress in my patient's status...progress in my career...progress in my education. I'm all over progressive. Bring it.
Unionize, people. Use that higher education to think this through to it's logical conclusion. The ones with the power are the ones being made (forced/threatened) to believe that they have none.
I work in a unionized facility and it has poorer working conditions than the other hospital that is also a Level I trauma, university affiliated teaching hospital in my city. I worked there as a CNA in nursing school and did all of my clinicals there so I really know what I am talking about. There are lots of reasons for it but being in a union is not the only answer by any stretch.
I see first hand how our current healthcare system leads to non compassionate action and affects directly patients and fellow nurses as well as other co-workers.
One more recent development is that nobody can really die in an acute care hospital anymore. There is huge pressure to transfer a patient out for end of life care and the last days - which is fine if this is what the patient and family wants - but often the patient or family are not on board with it or the patient is already imminent. I have conversations with patients and staff who are disheartened by the pressure the current reimbursement structure puts on everybody. Pressure is high and can lead to behavior that is not desirable or productive.
I work in a union hospital and it's pretty nice..medsurg tele ratios are 4 to 1. Medical or surgical ratios without the tele are 5 to 1.
Postpartum ratios are 4 couplets to 1 (for those that don't know what couplet is, it's a mom and a baby, so that's 4 moms and 4 babies)
I don't know what our ICU or ED ratios are.
However on med surg tele I refuse to work days, I only work nocs. It's easier to not deal with all the politics and drama at night, it's more quiet in more ways than I can say on nights
I work in a union hospital and it's pretty nice..medsurg tele ratios are 4 to 1. Medical or surgical ratios without the tele are 5 to 1.
Postpartum ratios are 4 couplets to 1 (for those that don't know what couplet is, it's a mom and a baby, so that's 4 moms and 4 babies)
I don't know what our ICU or ED ratios are.
However on med surg tele I refuse to work days, I only work nocs. It's easier to not deal with all the politics and drama at night, it's more quiet in more ways than I can say on nights
I'm all for mandated ratios, but I believe they have to be acuity based, not one-size fits all. For example, I work on a "observation" floor, but it isn't at all an observation floor. None of the patients are observation patients; they're immediately admitted to inpatient on arrival to the floor, and usually even before that. Our transfers are usually MICU/SICU transfers that haven't even gone to stepdown because they're using *our* floor as a stepdown. Occasionally we have 1 or 2 observation patients with a short stay (
My first year of nursing, I was a wreck (Med-surg). I was sick throughout the year, pyelonephritis, month-long menstrual bleeding that left me feeling weak. Constant tachycardia and hypertension. Mysteriously, all of this stopped my second year when I finally was accustomed to the job.
I see MANY of our older nurses struggle to keep up. Many end up quitting. This is NOT the same nursing that they've been doing for 20 years.
I feel like now, even though we have safe harbor... we feel that we have to accept an assignment or else we're just a bad nurse who can't handle it. Sure.. if it were ICU, but I had a patient transfer to me my last work day (5th patient, btw) that had a heart rate in the 110s. Charge nurse said take her anyway. I'm sorry, we're not freaking ICU or even PCU. We have more than just 1 patient to take care of... Gah. All of my patient's lived until shift change.
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Ruby Vee, BSN
17 Articles; 14,051 Posts
This is paramount on any unit. If you have a good manager/DON who have "really big Cajones" you will come near getting good changes. They will fight hard for that right. Unfortunately that is far a few between. Most don't have that backbone. They don't want to rock the boat so they half hearted go through the motions. You inform the UM what is wrong and needs fixing. This is continuing 6 mos later with no change. That's how you know what kind of UM you have. I see this all the time You are lucky with yours and their Cojones are showing.....
Unit managers are in a very difficult postion, getting squeezed from above and from below. Management continues to push them to do more with less and less (and make those nurses LIKE it!) and the nursing staff keeps pushing to get the support they need to do their jobs (and make those management bozos UNDERSTAND it.) It's a very difficult position and I am grateful that there are people who honestly want to do that job (and are somewhat proficient at it) because I would have run screaming off into the sunset after about six weeks. Or less.
A good manager is very difficult to find. I've been fortunate enough to work with some very good ones: Ruby, Judy, Sherri and Jenny: you rock.