Is it me? What happened to nursing?

[Burlshoe114]

I am at "year 6" of nursing, and I can't help but notice that nursing jobs seem to be getting worse and worse as time goes by!

When I first entered nursing, there was a big push for appropriate acuity of patients, constructive patient-to-nurse ratios, quality of care, and a big push to ensure nurses had rights in the workplace for things like lunch breaks, no pressure for overtime, and a quality-of-worklife standard.

Now that the economy went sour, it seems like all of these workplace improvements have gone by the wayside, and we are moving back into an "anything goes" mentality, where everything is piled on the nursing staff, and if you don't like it, there is the door.

Is it me? Am I just tired? Or does anyone else notice this?

[neurorn6]

I remember a time when nurses were fighting to become recognized as a profession. They were shouting from the roof tops about how important we were to healthcare. Now we are forced by administration, politicians and the media back into the role of glorified waitress. Once healthcare became a money maker, healthcare went to hell in a hand basket. It is beyond belief that 30% of Medicare reimbursement is based on patient satisfaction. What other industry can say the same. Excuse me, if I go to a restaurant, I don't get 30% off if I don't like the service or the meal. Excuse me, if I have to utilize the skills of an attorney and he loses my case, I don't get 30% off his billable hours. Nurses need to come together under a national union banner. We have so much power because of our numbers but yet all we do is ***** and things keep getting worse. The ANA and state boards of nursing do nothing for us or the profession. I feel sorry for those just going into the industry. I am glad I am on the tail end of my career. Once upon a time I loved going to work, now I just want to get through the day.

[Umbrellacorpnurse]

Nursing now is turning into how factory jobs were in the 1900s. Unsafe conditions, long hours without breaks, and NO RESPECT! We are treated like worse than slaves. Even as a cashier in RETAIL I got more respect! Now instead of being a medical professional I am no more than a **** wiping watress in my blue slave uniform. I'm not a person, I'm just a tool. I'm not an intelegent prefessional with advanced learning and years of experience, I'm just another faceless drone to answer yet another inane call light to fluff a pillow or shove a "failure to thrive" who shouldn't have been admited anyway, back into bed for the 100th time in a night while trying to take care of 7 acute patients in a 12 hour shift with no breaks. We're yelled at for taking breaks but written up if we don't. We get in trouble for coming into work sick but are punished if we call off. Heaven forbid we ACTUALLY take that legal 20 minute break because if we're off the floor for more than 5 minutes all hell breaks loose. If I wanted to be treated this badly I'm sure I could have gotten a job at Foxcon. At least then it would be clean...

[babygirl3374]

I'm in nursing school and doing first clinicals...wow...so scary and dysfunctional. Also all of the patients are always severe dementia, 90, morbidly obese, critically ill or all of the above. I have never realized how fat America has become until this.