I hate what's happening to nursing...

cosmicsun · Mar 18, 2011

We are scripted to say, among other things, that we will round on the patient every hour. Then they pay management to walk around and ask every patient if they knew someone would be rounding on them every hour and if they have any problems with their care. What a joke. I wish I had their job! And, how demeaning...

Over-the-hill-Nurse · Mar 18, 2011

Psychtrish39

I can completely understand how you feel. After 20 years working at one place, I was terminated after having difficulties after a death in my family. I have applied at numerous places only to be turned down. A lot of employers are requesting permission in regards to credit reports. You can get a completely free credit report yourself to see who has inquired about your credit and a copy of your own credit report. When someone, such as an employer, requests this, they must have your signature agreeing to it, and they must inform you if information in your file has been used against you, and must give you the name, address, and phone number of the agency that provided the information. To know your rights in regards to your credit report, check out the Federal Trade Commission. They have a site online but don't know if I am allowed to post it here. You can also check out a site Annual Credit Report online as well to obtain a free credit report which you can obtain once a year. Just make sure that you are on the original site as there are others that have hidden costs.

Good luck on the job hunt. I sympathize with your difficulty. I have been out of work for a year now. And I have officially hung up my cap as well. I don't like the turn of events that has happened in the nursing field. I love nursing, just not willing to put up with all the cutthroat additives, the attitudes, and what it has become today.

NPvampire, MSN, RN, APRN · Mar 18, 2011

Yall with veterinarian goals must live in a state that pays them well. Here, they earn less than teachers with less than the equivalent level of schooling. I advise persons interested in healthcare to do either (with increasing levels of school here)

ultrasound/cardiac imaging

SLP

PT

I've never met an unhappy PT.

The money is so much better and it's gotta be better than nursing.

But the trend i hate almost the most: dumping the acutely mentally ill into the community because the state is too cheap to continue running the hospital. Kick out the sick patients and lay off the nurses & HST that have been there for decades.

To stupid bureaucrats: the community can't handle them or they wouldn't be inpatient. Nobody chooses to get involuntarily committed. Now they'll just be at your local ER having a psychotic breakdown or in your backyard hiding in the trash can to "get away from the FBI." Grrr...and the backstabbing has gotten so much worse in this recession, it's terrible.

allnurses Guide · Mar 18, 2011

I am so with you on that. No way am I getting my BSN. If I have a ust chance to go back to school (probably when my son is in college), it will be to get a degree in a field I will enjoy. I am in an abusive environment going to work as a nurse. Why in the world would I spend a dime to increase my degree, for most likely a pay cut. That's next folks.

It's already happening in certain areas here in the West - and when that downward pull starts to happen I can't think of a single employer who will refuse to do it out of the goodness of their hearts. It really depresses me that we have no effective means of fighting back and no media voice. Those who do have a voice choose to use it saying other things. I've read enough posts here about the plight of nurses in their forty-fifty somethings who've worked for decades in this field pushed out, actually I would put that "thrown out like yesterday's garbage" - some longtime contributors here who freely give of their time to offer advice to newer people will sometimes switch gears and tell of what is going on in their personal lives - the next time I read a post containing the usual complaints directed at them I really have to resist the urge to say to them "do you even know who you're talking to right now?"

There are a lot of people who use victim-status to get their wants rather than their needs - but it should never obscure the fact that there are some real, honest-to-goodness victims who would like nothing more than to grab whatever rope was tossed towards them - no rope is being tossed. : (

nyteshade, BSN · Mar 18, 2011

I have been nursing for a while. I, like many others, find the whole customer-service aspect of hospital nursing ludicrous. All one has to do is Google "medicare reimbursement and patient satisfaction" to get a disturbing preview of the numerous companies and conferences that cater to this real-world concept. I was sickened by the absurd concepts and tricks of the trade to "enhance the patient's satisfaction" or the "Know Me, Serve Me" mantra. Perhaps, even more disturbing is the quote, "and the financial pressure to improve patient experience is nothing short of mission critical." I guess we disagree on exactly what "patient experience" means.
It makes me sad that it is all about money. We are not stupid. We realize that hospital's are a business and they need to make a profit. We know that there needs to be a reasonable amount of customer service involved. But what I don't get is how this spin on comparing hospitals to 5-star hotels came to be?
We are all customers in some shape or form. (Heck, even nurses are customers of the hospital but they seem to forget that). The idea that a customer is a customer doesn't fly with me. Every customer is not created equal. A hospital customer (I prefer the term "patient" but whatever..I'll play along) is different than a restaurant, banking, dry cleaning customer. Apples and oranges.
I have put my foot down refused the scripting lines. I... just..cannot..make..myself...say it. I do say something to that effect before leaving the room, "Let me know if you need anything or push your call light, etc..." I just refuse to regurgitate their words. I am not a stepford nurse. I am not a child. It is bad enough that we have to endure daily emails about "getting your customer service scores up!" complete with annoying bobbing cartoon graphics and loud colors sent out by Administration's secretary. Reminds me of when my daughter was in Kindergarten and was graded on behavior by changing colors. How would mgmt feel if we were allowed to grade them on a daily basis?
It is hard to care for a critically ill patients for 12+ long hours, titrating gtts, drawing labs, calling doctors, and replacing electrolytes. Hard but satisfying. I made a difference. I am part of the reason that patient is still there at shift change. That satisfaction is short-lived, however, when you return to work to find out that "your scores" just weren't good enough.
The patient lived, but so what?

Yes! This is exactly how I feel...

martymoose, BSN, RN · Mar 19, 2011

Floor RN is along the same lines of being a Certified Flight Instructor (generally considered the armpit of flying jobs that pilots leave the first chance they get!)

RN's at the bedside the armpit of nursing

That's for sure.I keep telling myself I hope no one in my family get ill and ever has to deal with this horse (&^(*&%it

I know how I feel- I can guess that my colleagues feel the same way.

Might as well be a trained monkey- probably gets more respect:-(

surferbettycrocker · Mar 19, 2011

take people who are sick probably CHRONICALLY ill, even frequent flyer with some flare up of a terminal/depressing diagnosis and ask them to give you a brilliant review of customer care. i agree its horse $&IT!

i would give everyone negative numbers just for the sake of me being hospitalized! then you tell me what to eat when to eat when not to eat poke me prod me wake me all hours of the night and parade strangers in and out of my room with very little privacy?

yea sure you all get gold stars!!!

come on! and this quality indicator bs all boils down to nursing NO MATTER what it is always the nurses fault!! :down:

Over-the-hill-Nurse · Mar 19, 2011

It's already happening in certain areas here in the West - and when that downward pull starts to happen I can't think of a single employer who will refuse to do it out of the goodness of their hearts. It really depresses me that we have no effective means of fighting back and no media voice. Those who do have a voice choose to use it saying other things. I've read enough posts here about the plight of nurses in their forty-fifty somethings who've worked for decades in this field pushed out, actually I would put that "thrown out like yesterday's garbage" - some longtime contributors here who freely give of their time to offer advice to newer people will sometimes switch gears and tell of what is going on in their personal lives - the next time I read a post containing the usual complaints directed at them I really have to resist the urge to say to them "do you even know who you're talking to right now?"
There are a lot of people who use victim-status to get their wants rather than their needs - but it should never obscure the fact that there are some real, honest-to-goodness victims who would like nothing more than to grab whatever rope was tossed towards them - no rope is being tossed. : (

No there is no effective means of fighting back. Where I live, and worked 20 years for this hospital, and put everything I had into it, above and beyond what their expectations were until My youngest daughter was pregnant with twins; we were excited about their birth and were shocked that they had died (stillborn). :crying2: It was not what we had expected. It was heart wrenching for me and I know for my daughter. I took 2 weeks off from work to help my daughter who had everything ready for these two babies to be born. And not expecting to have to pack it all away, and also plan for burial. We got through it. I did go back to work to turn around and take a few weeks off to care for my mother who was dying. Which was very hard for me emotionally. But I did go back to work. Next thing I know, I was being written up, complained about by the younger nurses that I wasn't pulling my weight, couldn't keep focused, and was making mistakes. I got called down to the nursing office and was told that I was terminated. After 20 years of working there and giving my all. I was shell shocked for a while. Whats even worse is that the nurses I had worked with for most of those years didn't even back me up. I really felt like I was tossed out on my keester for no reason. Not long after that happened to me, there were 4-5 other people who also had been there 20+ years were also tossed out for other reasons. So it wasn't just me. The sad part of it is, that us older nurses were expendable. Sad..Sad...Sad.... :mad:

But that is what is being done in a lot of hospitals today, I was not afraid to say what I felt needed to be said, I also had the speels on "customer approach" . We took on alot of duties over the past 5 years that we not part of job discription-lab draws, ekg's, abg's, supplying linens, answering phones, etc..... none of which was initially part of the job. I was okay with that, then they started on cutting back on time, putting people on call and operating with shorter staffing, next was the customer service thing....I could go on for hours but what the healthcare field has come too is awful. And it will only get worse. And for those of us who have lost that job- it has been even harder getting another job. I have heard too many times that they were looking for younger nurses, not a 55 year old with 20 years of experience. It sucks... :twocents:

sweetnepenthe · Mar 19, 2011

I am a CRNA now, but 25 years ago I was a Med-Surg nurse. It was very different then.

How many nurses now have the time (and energy) to give backrubs and change the drawsheets on every single patient at bedtime every day. Remember mouthcare and full bedbaths with actual basins, soap and towels and washcloths?

Visiting hours were enforced and patients got more rest--yes, it was still difficult as a patient to get sleep in the hospital, but better than it is now.

We actually did hourly rounds and had to, even if it was only to regulate the IVs, we did not have pumps on the floors. Those were mainly for ICU pts.

Pts were a lot thinner and a lot more cooperative and appreciative.

JCAHO didn't have us regulated into the ground. We weren't plugged into computers all the time.

My floor manager was an ex Army nurse--organized, efficient, supportive. No one bullied her staff. Any reprimand, discipline, criticism was done in private. Any praise or commendation was given very publicly.

We had adequate staff until DRGs came in about 1985 or so. When that happened, I went to ICU and from there into anesthesia.

Even there JCAHO has practically paralyzed patient care. Started out as a good idea, maybe, but it has morphed into a monster. I will retire in about six years, praise be.

cosmicsun · Mar 19, 2011

No there is no effective means of fighting back. Next thing I know, I was being written up, complained about by the younger nurses that I wasn't pulling my weight, couldn't keep focused, and was making mistakes. I got called down to the nursing office and was told that I was terminated. After 20 years of working there and giving my all. I was shell shocked for a while. Whats even worse is that the nurses I had worked with for most of those years didn't even back me up. I really felt like I was tossed out on my keester for no reason. ...

You hit something right on the head. There is subtle backstabing going on with nurses, and sometimes not so subtle. It will be a snear, a comment, or eye roll, or downright gossip. A little comment to add fuel to any fire. I think the reason this occurs is due to how expendable we all are (they feel threatened constantly). The morons who do this actually think it makes them look better by putting someone else down. Don't worry, they will be next... I'm sure management was happy to get rid of you because you probably made twiceas much money. They can bring in the new nurses for dirt cheap and they don't know any better. They can shape them into the robots they are trying to create. I bet if you had offered to stay for half the pay, they would have kept you!

I'm very sorry about you and your daughter's losses. And, you gave 20 years to a company that cared nothing about you. How can they really care about patients. Patients are people. Nurses are people. It doesn't make sense there is such a difference in treatment. Where is their compassion?

You should let your local newspaper know of that story.

Psychtrish39, BSN, RN · Mar 19, 2011

It is so sad where we have ended up. 25 years ago you were promoted on you integrity,honesty and how good of a nurse you were. Stellar at your profession. Now, however........you graduate school, work one night shift, have someone puke in your pocket and pee down your leg and go back to school to get your master's degree get hired as my boss and try to tell me how to do bedside nursing by evidence based practice! My question is.....when did they practice to have enough evidence to know how to do it !? I am weary of being criticized because of my lack of "ambition" to further my education and gain no respect for my 32 years as a Registered Nurse. I have a 12 and 13 year old that need college in a very few years! I have been afraid we were going to over educate ourselves away from the bedside and be replaced with cheaper "less educated" personel as LPN's, aides and techs. I am afraid my prophecy my be comming true.
Now I am afraid that if I am ever able to return to nursing.......nursing won't want me. I have suffered a catasrophic illness......I had disability through my employer. (Recently I have recieved SSDI) I trusted them to help me "get through this..... They told me all would be well and they were behind me........they were behind me all right..... when they kicked my butt out the door for "chronic attendence" issues that lead to "poor performance". I trusted them..... Now without disability insurance, unemployment ran out. My illness escalated the bills mounted.....things did not get paid. 32 years of great credit gone.........everything I have done......All I have saved..........gone:crying2:. Wiped from my history
I am 50 (ish), bad credit, no savings, unable to work................The only thing I have ever done for a job is be a nurse......it's the only thing I do well...all I ever wanted to be:o I have bedside nursed for 32 years with only 2 6 month breaks........my children.
Now I am afraid I will never work again:crying2: I feel like the profession I have devoted my life to abandonded me when I needed it most...........
It makes me very sad.........

I am so sorry Esme ... I feel bad for you I still have my health but I agree with everything you say. I am so sorry you have been treated like that. God Bless you for sharing. I was afraid to open me to my fellow nurses on Allnurses.com as well because I feel like a failure because of my financial problems, but for it to cause me to not find work and this was a great full time night shift job with benefits makes me wonder what is happening with nursing. My daughter thinks its discrimination. I don't know maybe it is. I just know me and you are not working doing what we love. Please take care and I wish I could help you as well as help myself. :redpinkhe

Old.Timer · Mar 19, 2011

Wow, not a whole more to add. It's all been beautifully said by the preceeding posters. You can actually feel the emotion contained in the posts. Such a different culture these days.....sad indeed.