I have hesitated to post this at all for fear of retaliation in a small town.
I work in rural America, I have my BSN, CCRN, CEN. I work in a cardiac cath lab and have taken up to 24 days a month of on call time.
Our staff consists of me (now cut back to part time since I am doing full time clinicals), one full time nurse, and one nurse that is split between ICU and cath lab. We have one CV tech who scrubs.
1 1/2 years ago I started back to school for my NP. I advised administration what I was doing and was told I had their full support "Whatever I needed"....
The lab is not yet staffed 24/7 but we are pushing towards it. The current A3 plan they have for 26 days of call/month included the addition of 4 staff members. We are no where near that.
We are being told to suck it up and do it. Our clinical coordinator/boss does not take call and has no plans to do it. Our CNO went to the rest of the cath lab staff and told them all that I refuse to take call because I am at ball games. Every weekend we have been on call - I am on. I take call 2 nights a week and every other weekend (and this is the part time schedule). She has been stirring the pot and talking badly about other team members behind everyone's backs.
I drive 50 miles one way to do clinicals yet still manage to take call and work and raise 2 teenagers. I am being told I am not a team player. I have never called in sick the entire 4 years I have worked there. I have worked other places, and have not seen such a toxic culture. I hate to leave as I really love the interventional cardiologist I work with, he is amazing and is counting on me to be his NP when I am done, but I just cannot stomach this anymore. Everyone else feels the same way, yet we are told we are a bunch of entitled nurses because we don't want to take call 24 days out of 30 with a 20 minute response time to the hospital.
There are other instances I don't want to mention as I could be readily identified in this post. But I have constantly put my life on hold and set my family life aside ~ putting my blood, sweat, and tears into this program we have built over the last 4 years. There is nothing more gratifying than opening arteries of patients experiencing heart attacks, especially when the nearest urban center was 50 miles away. But I fear that in itself is losing luster over my sanity and my desire to spend time with my family.
Am I whiny and just burned out? Thanks in advance for honest feedback.
