Its official! I am leaving nursing.........

[Kashia]

I found the great Allnurses forum when I was a student, before I graduated. It helped me so much! And has helped me throughout the years.

But here I am posting this....I am leaving nursing. I am a LVN.

Shortly after graduating, I landed a full time job, not once but twice!

First on acute care ortho/surg floor full time then I moved and received the gift of a great job on a med-surg acute care floor, float to ob/gyn, ICU and ER. The experience I was getting was awesome.

I enrolled in the RN step up program, but for various reasons, I dropped out. No, it was not that I was incapable....my GPA in school was 3.85 which is do-able. And I really like studying.

It was due to reasons (then) that have grown into being even stronger in me to the point of I am done.

Simply put............I decided I can no longer work against my conscience.

As a nurse there have been to many occasions where I have been "required for the sake of employment" to perform, participate in things that are just so wrong. Its not

relativism that should be guiding us .....for whats that? A guideline made up in your head, "whatever works", "whatever you decide is right, is right?" "whatever the popular consensus is, oh, then it must be ok?".......no, I see just so much wrong in this thinking. It is wrong.

To have a medical system that is driven by profit and greed, where we can see, for instance- in long term care, the elderly have become a commodity. Where in acute care patients are sometimes sent home way before they should be, where drug companies are handing out and FDA approving drugs that are doing more harm than good in way to many cases................and the worst is that the very systems put in place at the beginning of our US history are no longer, due to government restrictions, able to perform works of charity.

Well, maybe one more reason I am done is I am older. The new nurses have the energy and drive to work in environments that will demand all of you.

And perhaps my contribution now can be to write. So I will end with this.........for new nurses...........

1) know history. there is one, you may have to dig a bit, but it is still there. you will find so much wisdom and truth.

2) foster your compassion and find what helps you know there is a right and a wrong.

Think of a river, whose sides are high and firm and how the water rushes past, because it is contained by edges. then think of the water flowing into a lake where there is no edge, it moves wherever it will and eventually weakens into shallow nothing.

We must regain our moral edges.

[inspiredbynavy]

This was really deep. I'm a pre-nursing student and don't really know what to expect yet. Thank you for sharing.

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

There are a lot of problems in hospital nursing, high patient ratios, high stress, mandatory overtime; but I don't think all the problems are related to greed. Hospitals don't keep patients as long as they used to due to the decreasing reimbursements that started back with DRG's as medicare sought to save money, so patients many times need to go to rehab or home care if they are not able to live independently. Again medicare doesn't pay for long time care when a person is no longer able to live and care for themselves. It only offers short term rehab up to 100 days a year with only the first 20 or 30 at full coverage and decreasing from there. Patients sometimes refuse to go to rehab and stubbornly cling to their independence and then end up back in the ER shortly after being discharged, sometimes the next day. Other times patients have chronic diseases that are truly difficult to treat like CHF, CRF without dialysis, COPD, or liver failure and even if everyone does everything right they are prone to frequent admissions because their health is simply very brittle.

What troubles me most is seeing patients suffering seemingly needlessly, trying to keep patients alive who are slowly but surely dying, who can't swallow, have frequent pneumonia, contracted with bedsores and g-tubes. There is a refusal to accept death on the part of the patients and families, again I don't think this is a case of medical greed. I see futile situations where palliative care and hospice would seem to be appropriate, but it is not our place to make that decision, although I think it is something that should be offered to patients and then they could make their own choice.

At least we are providing care, not denying it like some insurance companies who have workers who get bonuses for finding a way to deny coverage thru recission that so many people with individual insurance policies have faced when they came down with cancer or other expensive life threatening illnesses! But there is also a double standard because when an insurance company denies treatment we here all about it, but look at the state govt like Arizona that have refused transplants for instance to save money. If an insurance company had done this there would be an uproar, but somehow its ok to do these same things when its being done by the govt, usually republicans trying to save money for the wealthy so they can get more tax breaks they don't need at the expense of people's lives! The democrats too have plenty of blood on their hands, the most innocent unborn! When the govt is so corrupt and evil should we be surprised that companies are no better!

[ashbeth78]

I've seen the corruption of health care in all kinds of facilities for years now. I've only been a nurse for a few years but my mother, aunts, & dads mom are all nurses. It's a lot of things that cause the poor patient care. The good nurses get burnt out and end up leaving because they can't handle fighting against everyone and everything everyday they are at work. That is something that a lot of nursing schools don't teach students.

[ricksy]

Well, I see your point. But, I will say the same thing about health care as I do the education system. I am a conservative and not really fond or proud of our national educational system, yet am aware that while blaming teachers is convenient, I KNOW that it starts with PARENTS. Therefore, I would argue that the healthcare system in American begins at the bottom, with jobs like CNAs and nurses. There are many who don't care and take short cuts, so yea, IT BEGINS AND ENDS WITH THOSE TOUCHING THE PATINET. Last night I instructed a YOUNG CNA to assist a 95 year old resident to "lie down" around 6pm after supper. She is a spunky little thing and propels around with her little legs in a wheel chair. She was groaning and saying she was tired. I was TOLD by the CNA to keep her up because "she would be wanting out of bed in 5 minutes." Yea, so what is your point, little CNA?????????????? I brought her to her bed, assisted her to lay on top of her covers to rest...it took one minute. THE LAZINESS CONTINUES AND WORKS FROM THE BOTTOM UP!

[Ashes172, BSN, RN]

I have a hard time buying that lazy CNAs are the biggest it starting point of all problems in the health care system. If they are on the bottom maybe they need better leadership then, someone to teach them right from wrong....?

As far as the leaving to stand up for your beliefs, I get it, but what if everyone who saw those problems like you decided to stand up and fight instead of leave? My instructors always tell me that the healthcare field is 90% nurses and if they all stood together and fought for what was right they could move mountains.... But nurses being the caring types they are tend not to be fighters

[NJnewRN]

Finally, finally someone understands how I feel! I could just bawl my eyes out. Yes, there are somethings in healthcare that are down right wrong! It has nothing to do with age. I started at 24 and was ready to leave by 26. No sir! I don't have all the energy to run around like a mad person. I've been told by many that I'm young and that's where I belong. It is so offensive. Not because I'm in my twenties, it doesn't mean that I have the energy and vigor to constantly tolerate abuse and do things that goes against all my beliefs. I wish that people would understand this before they get into the profession. Every where I go, people are constantly telling me that I make a lot of money. I've learn to stop arguing with them. I shake my head thinking you have no idea what I have to do to make this kind of money. Honestly, the reason why I'm still in nursing now is because I've found an area of nursing that is the exception to nursing. Anyway, good luck!

[SoldierNurse22, BSN, RN]

Last night I instructed a YOUNG CNA

Yea, so what is your point, little CNA??????????????

I understand the point you're making, but there is a much more respectful way to teach this new CNA how to behave in this situation. As a bonus, in the process of teaching her how to behave and doing so respectfully, you also teach her a respectful way to correct people instead of being confrontational.

If you really responded to her like this in person, you were disrespectful. If you didn't, your tone here is disrespectful, between the verbally belittingling language ("YOUNG CNA", "little CNA") and the all caps writing style.

I think most RNs/LPNs have dealt with CNAs who didn't want to do their jobs. I think most CNAs have dealt with RNs/LPNs who don't want to do their jobs. And there are certainly physicians who don't want to do anything and try to pass off their responsibilites to the RNs, LPNs and CNAs. To try to pinpoint one group of people as the "problem" is ridiculous because a hospital isn't a family or a school system--it's a group of professionals working together. If the doc refuses to write orders, you're stuck. If the RN/LPN refuses to carry out orders, you're stuck. If the CNA isn't there to help turn, bathe and walk the patient, you're really, really busy (and stuck). If at any point any piece of the system stops working, the entire thing comes to a screeching halt.

And ironically, that kind of attitude contributes to the problems the OP described in her original post.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Very interesting and insightful thread. The OP's distress is palpable.

I am fortunate to work in a faith-based organization. We have a very strong ethics infrastructure with ethicists available 24X7 to respond to requests for assistance. Our ethics case consultants have the authority to "stop the line" when necessary to delay/prevent clinical actions that fall into a 'gray area'. Our resource for assistance with non-clinical issues is our "integrity line" - operated by a 3rd party - whereby any employee can report issues that s/he feels are questionable or wrong; this can be anonymous if desired.

I do realize that sometimes we are just too exhausted to keep on fighting - especially if we are trying to do it alone with no support from the higher-ups. But I also strongly believe that we need to continue to make sure that our 'nursing voice' is heard.

[SilkyKRN]

I have been hearing a lot of complaining (I get it), but no ways to 'fix it' or make it better. I get the fact that the job of nursing takes a lot out of a person, but if we say we are there for the clients (patients), then we are there for the clients. And if that means being the whistle-blower, then so be it. Get some like-minded people together, not just nurses, but other professions and the public, and see what all of us together can do together.

Remember fighting for our rights (or our clients' rights) is an ongoing battle. There is no end to this battle. If we stop even for a minute, we'll become lazy and because of that, we end up harming a person.

And there are lessons us new nurses need from the experienced nurses. Sure we know newer things and are able to use technology better than the older generation, but at the end, it is the experienced nurses that seen it all, fought it all, and know it all. Those experiences will make us new nurses become better and better and hopefully, will help us continue the good fight and later give up the torch to the next generation of new nurses.

[Apedro]

SoldierNurse22, very well said, I wish I could articulate like you because I feel exactly the same. :)

[Centeno]

I am a fresh new grad and have yet to see what this is all about. Good luck to the OP.

[mellster, LPN]

The problem is if you stand up for what's right administration will find a way to get rid of you. I have seen it happen too many times. Our job is one in which we have too much work piled onto us. No matter how hard you try to do things right, you will make a mistake. If you make waves, administration will find a way to get rid of you. Most nurses are too afraid for their jobs to stand up for what is right.