It just never ends. For the last year or more, management has been harping about hourly rounds. They have gone as far as to go in to rooms with us and watch us do our hourly rounds, making sure we have hit each key behavior. Also, they will go to each pt daily and ask about our hourly rounds. NOW... they have come up with the idea of call-lights needing to be answered within 2 minutes (it will soon go down to 1 min) and if it is not, at the end of the shift, we have to "sign off" on it. They have also now put up a poster board in the middle of the hall with each nurse's name. We get stars next to our names if none of our call-lights were >2min. It is crap like this that makes me want to leave the bedside. I do not have to be "shamed" to answer my pt's call-lights. I would not mind if it were in the breakroom, locker room, med room, but I have a huge issue with it being in the hallway. Some nurses only work 2 days a week, others 5. If I were a pt or family member and I were to look at that board and my nurse did not have many stars, I think I would assume that generally she/he was not good at answering their pt's call-lights. Also, it is a team effort. There are times we are all "stuck" in a room for a good amount of time. How am I supposed to be both in the hall at all times watching for call-lights and in my pts room doing my job?? Not possible. I also would not have a problem if the poster board was separated in shifts with no names and stars given to each shift for call-lights >2 minutes. I spoke with my director about it and she sounded annoyed with me and said this a positive thing and is supposed to be a fun game. I told her my concerns and why I disagree with it (mostly being where she has displayed it) and I told her not one person I have spoken to is happy about it. She completely did not hear or understand my concerns. I went as far as asking her if she were still on the floor how she would feel, to which I did not get a decent reply.
I am curious how others would feel about this. Am I being ridiculous because that this is really annoying me??
Where I work we have a "reward system" in which each department can acknowledge others from any department for helping each other out. They fill out an award sheet, it is then posted on a board in the department the person works. Again, it is like being in kindergarten. It creates animosity because a lot of people work hard and it seems the person(s) that is well-liked by management, is being acknowledged. What bothers me most is that the people I work with joke about it, they don't seem to like it, but none would stand up with me to management and say something. I guess we largely ignore it and that could be saying a lot.
I don't get it. Don't management remember what it was like at bedside, if they were at bedside?
Of course they remember what is was like and they also know it's a unrealistic demand on the staff, but they are doing what they are told to do by TPTB. (the powers that be) This is where their brain cells become MIA. It's a shame really.
Since they see you as juvenile enough to do a happy-dance when you get a gold star, perhaps you could return the favor by re-arranging the stickers on the down-low, or adding unicorn, Rainbow Brite, and Strawberry Shortcake stickers to make it look cuter.
*** This is the kind of stuff you get when too many nurse managers have masters in nursing instead of real managment training as in other fields. I would have either ignored the whole thing or handed in my notice.
I see your point but respectfully disagree. I had a manager once who was that clueless and she was an ADN. Her bright idea was that the facility would do away with call lights altogether but instead each CNA would carry a pager that would go off instead of a call light. If the pager wasn't answered within a certain amount of time, the nurse's pager would go off and if the pager still wasn't answered within a certain amount of time, the DON would be notified on her pager, yup, even at four in the morning. Her assumption was that the noc staff did nothing but sit around all shift and therefore had no reason not to answer lights in a "reasonable" amount of time. I wonder how many times she has been awakened in the middle of the night now because the noc staff was busy toileting someone, doing rounds or helping with someone who was confused, agitated or who had just fallen and thus could not answer someone else's call light within the required amount of time.
Education doesn't make a bit of difference here but common sense certainly does!
I don't get it. Don't management remember what it was like at bedside, if they were at bedside? I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate the treatment then like we don't appreciate the way they treat us now. Nursing can be such a cruel profession and I don't understand why we put each other through this crap. Tracking call-lights...give me a break. What's going to happen when there's a code and a call-light doesn't get answered for 5 minutes? Are they going to discipline a nurse because of it? Honestly, they should stop coming up with these ridiculous ideas that they think are "fun and positive" and start coming up with ways that really help the nurses and the patients.
Some managers, the good managers, understand what it's like to be in the trenches. Poor managers don't have a clue and come up with these juvenile, cutesy, patronizing ideas like the gold stars or, as another poster suggested, Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake stickers. (BTW, good one!)
The manager about whom I wrote in my previous post once walked onto the floor (something the pearls and pumps set rarely did) and exclaimed, "Is it always this busy?" No, we're just putting on a show for your benefit!
The best managers are those who are not divorced from patient care, who make an effort to see the realities of the floor and actually take patients once in a while to keep their perspective as well as maintain their clinical skills. They don't spend their time coming up with boneheaded schemes that would be considered juvenile and demeaning to kids in kindergarten.
ETA: I'm sorry but this is exactly why I get a bit nervous when nurses come on the AN forums and say they have no experience but they've just gotten a "wonderful" job as a nurse supervisor or manager, usually in a LTC setting. It isn't a question of getting into a micturation contest or "paying their dues" but rather, one of having the clinical background necessary to understand clinical realities and manage other workers in direct care settings---and not come up with ideas that are unrealistic and unsafe.
OMG please don't let my administration see this one. They would definitely do this. Unfortunately, one of our state surveys was about answering call lites. Pt's claiming it would be up 30-1hour before a response. So now we have to do call lite audits. I work noc, have no clerk and one CNA for up to 34. Most of the shift there is no one at the desk, how the he** can that lite be answered in less than a minute? If I had to sign off on a call lite sheet I would put why I wasn't there in the nick of time-pt coded, pt stooled and needed cleaned, (CNA cleaning another patient), I was medicating another patient for pain, giving electrolyte replacement for a patient with ectopy, starting anitbiotics on a patient with fever, giving a fluid bolus to a patient with a low blood pressure. And they are going to audit call lites?
maybe state should edit calls to the powers that be. Recently, I had a situation that i needed guidance from adminstration. NO ON CALLED ME BACK. Not a single administrator called me back despite messages. Thank the Lord I was able to figure this particular problem out.
But the nurse who has been desiganated as Employee of the Year, screwed this transfer up. And no one in administration cares. The CEO recommended him, not sure with all the facts of his med errors, but I think she does, as she has avoided our units when this info was leaked, and firing nruses with fewer errors than this nurse.
Wow. I am a prenursing student, and it is things like this that make me requestion my goals!!
I am not surprised. I worked as an aide for over a year and totally understand managements disconnect from the realities of bedside care.
It is insulting to the nurses on the floor, shows lack of faith in the nurses and really just undermines the nurses, aides, and axillary staff. Not to mention decreases the whole teamwork thing...
Some managers, the good managers, understand what it's like to be in the trenches. Poor managers don't have a clue and come up with these juvenile, cutesy, patronizing ideas like the gold stars or, as another poster suggested, Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake stickers. (BTW, good one!)
The manager about whom I wrote in my previous post once walked onto the floor (something the pearls and pumps set rarely did) and exclaimed, "Is it always this busy?" No, we're just putting on a show for your benefit!
The best managers are those who are not divorced from patient care, who make an effort to see the realities of the floor and actually take patients once in a while to keep their perspective as well as maintain their clinical skills. They don't spend their time coming up with boneheaded schemes that would be considered juvenile and demeaning to kids in kindergarten.
ETA: I'm sorry but this is exactly why I get a bit nervous when nurses come on the AN forums and say they have no experience but they've just gotten a "wonderful" job as a nurse supervisor or manager, usually in a LTC setting. It isn't a question of getting into a micturation contest or "paying their dues" but rather, one of having the clinical background necessary to understand clinical realities and manage other workers in direct care settings---and not come up with ideas that are unrealistic and unsafe.
Was the management at this facility born this stupid or is it something they have to work at on a daily basis?
Programs like this rarely last for long for a good reason - they have the exact opposite effect from what the pointy-haired bosses intended. There have been a few good suggestions for ways you could make a mockery of the whole program. When all else fails, make the ones that came up with this collective idiocy wish they had stayed home the day the idea came up.
Pointy-haired bosses, ROTFL! Have definitely seen a few among the pumps and pearls set.
It's really a shame that the bad bosses all stand out and strike a nerve with so many people here. If only bad managers were the exception and the excellent ones the norm.
I wonder how many of these clueless folks have ever heard of The Peter Principle.
BTW, to WANT2BEANURSESOON and other pre-nursing or nursing students who might be reading this thread---yes, this is an extreme example of how bad it CAN get. It doesn't mean that all managers are awful or clueless or that you will be faced with stupidity of this enormity on a daily basis in your careers. Yes, stupid happens and we all end up suffering. But don't give up; the students of today are the nurses of tomorrow and you CAN make positive changes when you are in practice--if anything, to know what NOT to do and how NOT to behave.
Some of the best lessons I have learned in my nursing education are examples of how not to teach. Painful to go through but lessons well learned nonetheless.
I would immediately quite having just realized my hospital is run by a bunch of people who are even dumber than I always thought they were. I'm actually suprised our dingdong CNO has not done something like this, she is that goofy.
.thumb.jpg.673a970ef5656f84815d95fd288fc9bf.jpg){kind=small}
:up:
massrn116
117 Posts
Where I work we have a "reward system" in which each department can acknowledge others from any department for helping each other out. They fill out an award sheet, it is then posted on a board in the department the person works. Again, it is like being in kindergarten. It creates animosity because a lot of people work hard and it seems the person(s) that is well-liked by management, is being acknowledged. What bothers me most is that the people I work with joke about it, they don't seem to like it, but none would stand up with me to management and say something. I guess we largely ignore it and that could be saying a lot.