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.
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.
QUOTE from original post: [ ... 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.]
And why is it that the most dissatisfied patient/family members want to return to our facility? I feel like we give them the authority to treat us like servants.
QUOTE from original post: [ ... 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.]
And why is it that the most dissatisfied patient/family members want to return to our facility? I feel like we give them the authority to treat us like servants.
Does anyone really want to return to the hospital?
Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
Does anyone really want to return to the hospital?
My guy who likes to repeatedly swallow fish hooks and get a laparotomy to retrieve them?
I've had a few patients who are frequent fliers. And they seem to enjoy the attention they get and the disruption they can cause. Makes me all the happier that they're anesthetized when they're with me. Munchausen syndrome patients, maybe?
My guy who likes to repeatedly swallow fish hooks and get a laparotomy to retrieve them?
I've had a few patients who are frequent fliers. And they seem to enjoy the attention they get and the disruption they can cause. Makes me all the happier that they're anesthetized when they're with me. Munchausen syndrome patients, maybe?
Yes!!!
I'm thinking more of my, um, oncology patients that repeatedly annoyed all of us with their mets!
Specializes in UR/PA, Hematology/Oncology, Med Surg, Psych.
I tend to disagree. No career is perfect. I guess I didn't go into nursing with rose colored glasses on. I've been in healthcare for many years. I didn't like what I used to do, so I left and went down another path. My advise, if you can't stand it and cry in your car, then maybe this isn't the career for you
TBH, I find your two previous posts in this thread condescending and dismissive. You have worked as a nurse for all of 5 weeks and tell nurses that have worked 20-30 years that "maybe this isn't the career for you?" Me thinks you will be eating your words in a year or two.
I tend to disagree. No career is perfect. I guess I didn't go into nursing with rose colored glasses on. I've been in healthcare for many years. I didn't like what I used to do, so I left and went down another path. My advise, if you can't stand it and cry in your car, then maybe this isn't the career for you
Yet again, your 5 weeks of orientation do not allow you to remotely comprehend what this thread is about. Surely the consistency of the posters here (who have many, many years of wide-ranging experience) speaks volumes about the current state of nursing in the US. If you cannot hear what they are saying and continue to consider them as weak or somehow unable to "stand" the current conditions, then it is you who will eventually be one of the most disillusioned.
As it stands, you are coming across as condescending and somewhat delusional.
I am also concerned about nursing as a profession and where we are heading.
The economy and financial implications dictate staffing and responsibilities regardless of nurse concerns unless protected by a law that limits the ratio and productivity. I agree with one of the above writers that unionizing is a valuable tool but at times hard to achieve or impossible.
My experience is that responsibilities and tasks are added to nurses but staffing has not changed for the better, instead worse in some places.
I found that there are many excuses from "no money" to "no qualified candidate" when nurses complain about the work load. It even gets worse when there is serious complaining from branding nurses as "not a team player" to putting them on corrective action for "insubordination".
Even years ago when I nurse would mention "unsafe staffing" there was a willingness to discuss it or start a change. If you mention "unsafe staffing" now you are likely to lose your job unless you are somewhat protected.
Nursing is a high stress career in which you have to be very proficient and at the same time compassionate. The stress level in acute care hospitals in high and for new nurses just huge. The same is true for other settings. While home care advertises itself with the ability to provide one on one care - they do not mention that you also have productivity levels to meet and the amount of your visits and charting leads to stress for a lot of nurses. The times where nurses could finish all their task plus spend time with their patients seem to be gone. The current healthcare system and reimbursement in place supports this kind of work environment. During the last years I got the impression that bedside nursing is for many nurses more like a starter job until they move on.
Roser...something that most people either don't know or don't truly believe...
there are paid trolls who go onto boards such as these to surreptitiously and insidiously gain a modicum of trust by agreeing with or otherwise mimicking the sentiment of true posters. Then they begin with the "just being devil's advocate" or a little blameshifting...as this "Valnave" did here...
It's an abuse tactic,to blameshift onto a victim the responsibility for their own abuse. "If you can't cry in your car, maybe this job isn't for you."
UBT: (universal bull**** translator) "Wow. What a baby. Just can't take the heat with us big dogs. Yeah, maybe you should go and be a cashier or a waitress or a stay at home mom...you never should have thought that you could do THIS job, since, yanno...you are just a wuss."
Don't buy into the malcontents, misanthropes and the oh-so-subtle backhanded comments designed to make big hearted, kind, nurturing and TRUSTING people doubt themselves. Corporations are abusers. If they were not...we would not need ANY worker's protections from them.We would never have needed unions. We would never have had to FORCE corporations not to put 8 year olds on factory floors working 12 hour days. Abusers do not EVER "do the right thing" for the sake of it.
We as healthcare workers know what the right things to do are---unless you somehow got through 2-4-6 years as a psychopath, pretending to be empathetic. The words that I see scattered on this board...the unkind, unfeeling, barracuda type words...I don't believe for a microsecond that they are coming from true RNs. The ones who can criticize and kick an RN while they're down....that's a corporate thing. A management tactic of divide and conquer. You know....abusers.
Don't fall for the trolls.Don't feed them. Don't engage. And Valnave? This is a safe space for RNs to vent and get support. If you've got none...I'm sure there's a IEatMyYoungAndAmProudOfIt.com somewhere just for you.
P.S. There are plenty of personality disordered in any profession...including Nursing. Unfortunately, malignant narcissists are attracted to power positions. Just because someone is in a position of authority doesn't mean they are not mentally unstable. Learn to recognize them, deal with them and if all else fails...get away from them.
I am not going to sit here and say that nursing is ideal in any way. However moving from Florida to the Pacific NW has shown how much respect the profession of nursing gets over here. Salaries for hospital nurses are phenomenal plus benefits that are fitting for what you do.
Nursing is overwhelming as a new grad but if you take advantage of the 4-8 weeks of preventing that many hospitals offer, you can ask the questions you have and build on your skills. I was told it takes 1 year until you come to work without that uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach and feel comfortable in your skills. I see new grads come up to our floor (which is septic shock, DKA, post surgical, post suicide attempt, gen med surge overflow) and they are completely overwhelmed WHICH IS EXPECTED! (Even contract nurses and floats absolutely dread coming because the acuity is so high.)
Instead of asking every question that they have they keep quiet and do what they think they remember doing in clinical or what their instructor said that one time. Reality check! Many clinical instructors are out of practice or work bedside part time (depending on the school... complete respect for instructors). My point is, hospital 'policies differ and the people who hold the most updated information for the floor are the nurses who work that floor on a daily basis. Ask all the questions you have even if its as simple as "where are the hats for the toilet.". Once off preceptorship real nursing hits and it is a shock because they didn't have time to ask about insulin drips, PICC lines, blood admin protocol, when to page the MD for change in status. I was that new grad who asked every hypothetical situation question during preceptor. Half the time my nurse didn't know the answer nut we found out. It made her mire knowledgeable and had me becoming more confident.
Nursing is a wonderful career and I can see why burnout is so high. However, management and sitting behind a desk never sounded appealing. The pain in the butt patients leave you with stories to tell future generations, the. amazing saves remind you of how important nursing is, and the crap days are crap days. They happen when you have a career in general. For working 12s 3-4 days a week with the salaries and benefits that many hospitals offer, we have it pretty good. If you are a nurse in Florida my sincerest gratitude because I cannot say the same. You are underpaid and underappreciated. Lean on your coworkers and don't isolate yourself if you feel overwhelmed. We all have terrible shifts (just had one 2 out of my 3 last shifts). Talk about it with your coworkers, find something funny to laugh about, and come back the next day optimistic. If you are still unhappy and feeling burned out try a different hospital or floor! Don't give up on such an amazing career that quickly.
Specializes in Med/Surg, OR, Peds, Patient Education.
I tend to disagree. No career is perfect. I guess I didn't go into nursing with rose colored glasses on. I've been in healthcare for many years. I didn't like what I used to do, so I left and went down another path. My advise, if you can't stand it and cry in your car, then maybe this isn't the career for you
The tragic part of what you stated is that the "nurse who cried in the car" is not alone. She/he is one of many who feel unsupported by management and, also, sometimes, coworkers and they are leaving the profession for other fields of endeavor. If this trend continues who will be there for the patients? As our population ages, and it often does not "age well," this patient population will only increase as the years go by.
KarmaKia
3 Posts
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.