If you speak your mind will you get a bad assignment? Come on..come clean!

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My girlfriend seems to be afraid to speak her mind because of the fact that the management system can always send her to the lesser or busier hospitals as a float pool thing shes in.

"she seems to be afraid"? It hasn't even happened. What does se have to be afraid of?

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Katie.. can you elaborate? Thanks......

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I will Airbrushguy. From your tense use, "she seems to be afraid."

My understanding is that she has not yet spoken up, to truly know whether or not she would indeed receive a bad assignment. And so if none of these has truly occurred, then on what is she basing this- The fear that it would happen?

All she is doing is living in fear for that which has not yet occurred. There is nothing to fear, except fear itself. Have her, go ahead and speak her mind if there is a discontent with something, but as always, let her speak as a professional, disciplined,calm and with respect.

And see what happens.Only then would she have a knowledge base to say, "I spoke my mind and this happened". And one time does not count- it has to be a recurring event. There has to be a relationship with speaking her mind and indeed receiving bad assignments.

"Do the thing your fear most and the death of fear is certain...."

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ok. katie.. cool... she does seem to be afraid, neurotic, or whatever feeling you want to characterise her "approach avoidance" to her particular chain of command.

let me break it down further. the nursing system, coupled with the contrived process of monetary economics is a program. this program is a program that is running, and locks people into a certain frame of reference. anyone whe ever challenges established systems always set themselves up for venomous attacks and i am well aware of this. nurses are in the box of a preexisting indoctrination/ paradigm, and their thought processes can only go so far based upon their own thresholds and fears of status or competition.

if anyone wants to talk about "credentialism".... credentialism is an annotation for the priesthood of "those in the know". obviously there is a gradient of relevence to those who are the "absolutists" of any system, but when it comes to the simple analysis of information and how it relates to society and social well-being, then certainly the tables turn and we discover that what we have learned is- that prexisting systems are not actually a science, but an incumbered, unsolicited state of power and control....especially when it comes to symbiotics and the true need of the human condition. the nursing chain of command seems to become a "catch-all" for whatever works at that given time, and product of a broken system based upon monetary restraint via budgets, power and red tape. nursing is oscillating in very unhealthy ways between the scarcity of funding and the lack of awaresness of the repercussions of the unrealistic workloads implemented..... i'll stop there.

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Original snarky comment deleted.

Upon reflection, I feel the OP is honest and genuine in his thoughts. However, I do not necessarily appreciate being painted with such a broad brush as "blindly submissive" based on the OP's extremely limited knowledge of the nursing environment. Not all of us are dissatisfied with our role, not all of us work in an environment that discourages fresh ideas, not all of us feel powerless and fearful. Because I am satisfied with my position and my facility, it does not somehow follow that I have been beaten into submission, brainwashed, or that I am such a simple-minded lemming that I cannot grasp how awful my situation truly is. That's quite an arrogant assumption, and I don't appreciate it.

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For her question.. yes. :: wink wink::. ;)

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From your original post, you specifically mentioned your girlfriend, and it is that and that alone, I refer to in my posts.

The crux of the matter if your girlfriend's fear- there is no evidence to suggest that the aforementioned situation, would happen. You cannot base all your opinions on her fear, real or imagined.

And it would behove you rather well, to remain on point of discussion without deviating. Your choice of words and decided way of approach, do not make for a very "amicable discussion".

This may be likened to where one is crying more than the bereaved..you for your girlfriend. All your opinions are still based on your girlfriend's Fear.

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If you would re-read the post Katie-bear... I had already told you that I hear her friends ( other nurses ) on the speaker of her cellphone, scared to death to speak up because they will get sent to a hospital that has either #1: high volume/horrible protocol/oversight or #2: get shafted out of overtime for " Standing up for their true reservations. eh? :)

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
the whole point is ....is it complaining... or whining? thats the paradox were trying to narrow down. were talking about unhealthy threshholds in the system itself, and how that threshhold relates to the "best for all concerned".

i know that nursing will never ( like google ) have gourmet meals and massages, but the awareness on how google "takes care of its own", is something that should be modeled...not eat your own, and walk around disgruntled and neurotic about stepping up for your own individual voice without getting indirectly chastised via your assignments or overtime opportunitys. :idea: now sure google has the money to do this, but the principals should apply to all employment systems and i do not think this is utopian...its a starting point on how bad it really is in these hospitals and for nurses to stop walking around when they see the elephant on the couch eh?

the trouble i see is, your observations, which you are projecting on to everyone here, are based on watching one person (your girlfriend), who functions in one facility, in one area, and turning it in to a universal concept.

where i am, we cannot control how administration thinks our assignments should be. speaking up doesn't make one person's assignments harder....they're all hard. obviously your comparison to google's gourmet meals and massages are asinine...when countless patients come in and stay for weeks, rack up millions in bills that will never be paid...we can't pay our staff, and we are forced to cut....resulting in (suprise) harder assignments. they're all hard, it's not one person's, who decides to say something. if i break it down to my unit, when someone makes the observation that patient x and patient y should be split up, because it's too hard to have them on the same team, it happens. if someone says, i've had patient x 3 days in a row, and i need a break, it happens. in that way, we do take care of each other. what has made our overall workload more difficult is economical, we can't control that. our teamwork helps balance that as much as we're able.

i've read some of your posts several times to make them make sense, and it's not the words that make some nearly incomprehensible...it's the fact that the "big words" don't make them not make sense. it's not that they're words i don't understand. it's that you're trying to appear smarter than you are. just talk.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
If you would re-read the post Katie-bear... I had already told you that I hear her friends ( other nurses ) on the speaker of her cellphone, scared to death to speak up because they will get sent to a hospital that has either #1: high volume/horrible protocol/oversight or #2: get shafted out of overtime for " Standing up for their true reservations. eh? :)

If they work for agencies, at least in my area, THAT is the problem, not speaking up. Hospitals that don't have staffing problems don't need agencies.

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to cherry-breezer:

"where i am, we cannot control how administration thinks our assignments should be. speaking up doesn't make one person's assignments harder....they're all hard"

this is my point exactly.... there is this commonwealth of "that's just the way it is" that keeps the system mired in a predictable state of benign comprehension.

p.s. cherry.... i am not trying to impress anyone with any big words. if these are big words to you then we better re-shuffle the deck and ask why? lol.:uhoh3:

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
to cherry-breezer:

"where i am, we cannot control how administration thinks our assignments should be. speaking up doesn't make one person's assignments harder....they're all hard"

this is my point exactly.... there is this commonwealth of "that's just the way it is" that keeps the system mired in a predictable state of benign comprehension.

p.s. cherry.... i am not trying to impress anyone with any big words. if these are big words to you then we better re-shuffle the deck and ask why? lol.:uhoh3:

a, that's not my name.

b, the "way it is" is not because of things that we do. i can think of one patient, out of thousands, that walked away from a half a million dollar bill. please, fix that, and get back to me. i can't make them pay it, sorry. and i can't pay it for them. if the hospital isn't getting paid, we can't afford to pay staff. that's simple math. speaking up doesn't change this fact.

c, i didn't say they were a problem for me, i said your posts don't make sense in spite of them. you come off as trying to appear more intelligent than your points make you out to be, that is my issue. please read and comprehend before replying.

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