My so called OR life

[jitan06]

Hello everyone, somehow I found my way back here to the forum after a 2 year absence. Anyway, I've been working as an OR nurse here in Manila for almost a year now and I must say that the past few months have been hell for me. I've just come off from a 48-hour 3-day work week (24 hours first day, off day, 8 the next, 16 the following day) and I have the day off today but tomorrow I must report again for 5 more days. I think my supervisor is trying to kill me, you see I almost went for another 24 hours yesterday.

I'm not sure if you could call it a staffing shortage but for some reason our super decided to allow 4 of our staff to go on vacation leave for 2 weeks all at the same time, leaving us with only 3-5 staff plus 2 head nurses on regular days. What's even more troublesome is the amount of major and minor cases we do in a day, we once had 26 cases using only 5 rooms from 7a-7p with only 7 staff including our HN's.

Now some of our co-staff are beginning to resign, possibly to concentrate on being profs or study for exams. Good for them but they are also compiling an insane amount of AWOLs, leaving us even more under-staffed and over-worked.

I'm almost at the end of my sanity as I dread another 5-day work week and am about to do 16 hours on my 5th day. I just had to vent this out, I'm sure there are much more horror stories out there some even sadder than mine.:uhoh3:

[nrswnabee]

has it ever crossed your mind to apply for work in the land of milk and honey??? you seem to be a conscientious nurse and i'm sure many employers would want you in their team...in the meantime, take it easy...you're doing kababayans honorable service.

[shenling]

hey which hospital are you working??? you may need employees hehehe, can i apply there?

[IseeU_rn]

I'm sorry to hear about your experience, and here I am complaining that I had to work a 12 hour night shift. I hope that you get paid for all your overtimes and for carrying the slack that your other co-workers have left behind. One question, does your hospital have unions or do you have a contract that says that you can only work so much hours in a week? It seems like they are overworking you People get burnt out with nursing that way...