If Only All Healthcare Companies Treated Their Employees like Netflix Does

GuEsT78 · Aug 4, 2015

Unfortunately, parental-leave pay isn't the real issue. Career advancement is.

Drop out of a company's workforce for a year in a high-tech, rapidly changing field like that at Netflix, and you may never catch up. A few years down the line, that lack of advancement may become the rationale for a layoff. That's particularly true for the "best talent" Netflix is claims it wants to attract.

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Most hospitals also lack the money for a year-long leave. A better solution lies in how hospital nursing is administered and in finding ways for nursing complaints to be heard and dealt with. In many hospitals, nursing staff fear that if they take their complaints to the higher levels of administration, those in the lower levels of that administration (who are causing the problems) will take revenge on them. This link offers a suggestion for dealing with that.

https://indd.adobe.com/view/c1892142-ecf8-4621-a7a9-eee8f0ce19ab

It's based on my experience at a top-ten children's hospital where the nursing morale got so bad, 20% of the nurses quit in a matter of weeks. And that figure understates the dissatisfaction. Many of the nurses I knew who stayed did so because they wouldn't let sick children suffer for the mistakes of adults.

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There is one stress and burnout response that hospitals might consider that wouldn't cost much. Wars are far more brutal than many people realize, particularly fast-paced modern wars. If I recall correctly, in every extended modern war, more soldiers had to be removed from the fighting because of shell shock and PTSD than were killed in the fighting. Unlike with wounds, many of them never recover.

Apparently, in the Iraqi War, the U.S. military dealt with that by spotting soldiers who'd almost reached their limit, pulling them out of action for a few days of rest and relaxation, and then sending the back in. Caught in time, even a few days can make a big difference.

Hospitals might consider something similar. I know that when I've been under heavy stress, one major factor is that my troubles seem endless. A few days away would make a big difference. It'd break that "this will never end" loop in our heads.

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Aug 5, 2015

I feel like there should be a middle ground somewhere. Nurses shouldn't be worked to the bone for nothing. We are one of the most respected professions out there but for what?