This is my first vent on allnurses, I just had an awful shift where I only got to sit for about 30 minutes out of 14 hours, didn't get to pee, and my feet feel like death and my mind is numb from all the crazy. So here goes:
I am fed up. I'm fed up with meetings telling staff that we need to triple document hourly rounding in many redundant ways. That we need to chart 90 new things every single shift. Oh and make sure you do it by 4 hours into your shift!
Even though ALL of your patients are contact isolation, half are total cares with diarrhea and/or vomiting and pain medication every 2-3 hours, some with all 3. One is coming back from OR, and here's another admission with a critically low K. Oh and we can't get a sitter for your sundowner who jumps out of bed every 2 seconds and screams loud enough to keep all the other patients awake - all night. And oops we only have one tech for the whole floor so don't expect much help. And just for fun we're going to split up your assignment so that you have to walk the length of the entire floor of the hospital building. Oh, and let's also play chasing the docs at home at 0300 for critical lab results as they play hot potato, not wanting to make a decision. Sprinkle on some crazy rhythm changes on a previously stable patient on top, who - wait for it - has apparently gone the entire admission of 5 days without receiving his regular beta-blocker and no one has noticed.
It is so disheartening to run around nonstop trying your best to be superhuman and keep your patients safe, wearing your body down every night and ignoring the pain in your feet and the sheer exhaustion, and still being unable to meet the expectations espoused by management. And to feel like your job is constantly under threat because no matter how hard you try, at every meeting it's hammered in that you're not good enough when you have no support and inadequate resources to meet unrealistic expectations. And no one cares.
We keep losing staff and have had plenty of people fired recently. Now we're expected to come in on our days off to do extra activities, unless we want our annual reviews to be negatively impacted. Acuity is being increased on the unit, while ratios remain the same.
