Nurse advocacy (Rant)

[KalipsoRed]

Does anyone know how to start a revolution? I'd like to know because I think our profession is in serious need of a nationwide strike...quite possibly a global one. Of the 4 hospitals I've worked at 3 of them have awful working conditions....and I've worked in 4 hospitals in several states and different cities so I don't just think its the 'region' I'm in. From the horror stories I've read about nursing in the U.K., I guess I should feel lucky to have an 8:1 ratio, no aids, on a post op ortho floor.

I love caring for people...I became a nurse to care for people, but I'm just darn tired of our 'profession'. We are still treated like waitresses and ****** on severly by upper management and hospital administration in my opinion. There is very little professional respect given to us...there is a lot of talk about giving us respect, but it rarely happens. We mistake all the hot air about respect from our managers/hospital administrators for real respect, just because they talk about it a lot doesn't mean they are doing it.

What is worse is that I feel that it is horribly misleading to encourage ANYONE into our line of work. We talk about being fufilled by helping others and what not in our profession, or at least that's the line of bull I fell for when I decided to become a nurse. Hospitals (75% of them in my experience) don't want us to provide care to patients. You'll be lucky to see your patient again after assessment and med pass. I understand that medicine is a business, BUT here's the kicker: Don't ask me to be compassionate, caring, and customer serivce oriented if your bottom line is more important than my patients. I can't provide good service to 7,8, or 10 people at a time. There's a reason that research is showing that a basice med surg nurse should have no more than 4....you know why? Because that is the number of patients the RESEARCH is showing to be a safe and feesible. And to be frank I'm tired of being the hospital's scapegoat for unmet unreasonable expectations

Why do we allow are selves to put up with being gripped at for staying late but knowing we can't leave until we are done? I've seen nurses clock out on time just to stay for 2 more hours to finish up. THAT IS NOT OKAY! I've seen nurses clock out that they got to have a lunch when I know for certian that they didn't, just because they don't want to get in trouble with management. This is perpetuating false beliefs in what we are capable of!

We brow beat each other when other nurses are not willing to work like a dog and stand up for themselves. It's usually because then we get screwed into taking on the load that that nurse wouldn't take, but really what we should be doing is saying no too. We tell other people who have less loads but still high loads, that they are lucky and should quit complaning about their job. HELLO! We should ALL have reasonable loads and just because you are taking care of 8 people instead of 12 does not mean that either load is good!

We should all be able to go to work and on a regular basis (75% of the time) be able to have 2 breaks and a 30 minute lunch, do a through check of our patient's charts for errors and missed orders, have time to spend with our patients and know their needs, and leave ON TIME!! That shouldn't be a dream! That should be the average day! We should be complaining about missing a break, not missing urinating for 12 hours!

I do not, cannot, understand why there are nurses out there who stab us in the back with the ideal that they took care of 20 people back in the day so we need to shut up and quit complaining about our 8. Well the fact was you were getting screwed back in the day too, I'm sorry they treated you that way, but that doesn't make our current loads right.

We need a revolution. We need to say no, not just for our sakes but for our patients! And it isn't just nurses, this is for most of the people in medicine. 80 - 100 people for a doctor to see in a hospital in a 14 hour shift is crazy unreasonable too. I have a friend who is having to do this right now and I told that to a doctor I worked with and his response is that my friend was 'lucky'. Crazy!!! It's all maddness I tell you and we aren't helping anyone by not be more vocal about it!!!!!!

[DavidFR, BSN, MSN, RN]

Agree with every sentiment here, and I don't think our exploitation is limited to a speific nation, region etc. - it's pretty universal.

I think there are many historic reasons why nurses are badly treated: traditionally female profession much put upon, the goodwill of a "caring" vocation taken advanage of etc. etc. What nurses today are collectively not very good at is getting rid of all these notions once and for all and asserting ourselves as a modern, scientific, graduate profession which demands the salaries and working conditions which should go with that.

My personal view is that we can help advance our cause by:

1) Professional nursing bodies and organisations - be involved, campaign, agitate

2) Unions, again be involved, campaign, agitate

3) Just say no! Refuse unsafe sitations. Call the on-call administrator to highlight unsafe shifts. Document unsafe situations and when you're told to cope with less staff, scream out loud.

All easier said than done, I know, but I think far too many nurses just accept poor working conditions as their lot without uttering a word, I'll do it for the patients etc. Fear of reprisals and even losing your job is a very real concern for some, I appreciate. In the long run, if we accept poor conditions they become "normal" and then patient care suffers all the more. Those who can speak out should.

[misswhitney]

You can also make an anon. complaint with the state. But then again, at my old job, they would make sure we had a "Safe" amount on inspection days.

[mamaxmaria]

In the ICU I work in the RN's are CONSTANTLY tripled. The ratio is supposed to be 2:1... but because the state says it can be 3:1, management does not care...

It's a Trauma center.. so if there is a trauma the RN's are pretty much screwed because of the unsafe staffing.... and the arguments between us and the ER....ICU can't safely accept the pt, ER says we are refusing report... blah blahhhh its bad....

They just created a new "charge nurse" postion. They took some of the staff nurses, made them permanent charge nurses. They do not get assignments.. they respond to all Rapid Responses/Code Blues/Code Stoke/ CODE ANYTHING.. and have to do follow ups.... There is supposed to be one for ICU and one for CCU but I can't tell you the last time that happened because it seems there is always only 1 charge nurse for both units...

oh and when they hired these charges nurses who dont take patients they didnt replace them on staff!

But when JACHO was here a few weeks back we had PERFECT staffing and even an extra RN to help transport....along with the real transport nurse.....

its disgusting....

[lindarn]

The BIGGEST PROBLEM IN NURSING, is that we have refused unionizing from the get go. Hospitals go to great lengths to stroke our egos, and tell us, "you don't need a union. It is SO unprofessional to unionize", blah blah blah.

And nurses, who need to validate their self worth and self importance, buy it hook line and sinker.

Without the protection of a union, nurses have no voice, and certainly, no job protection, if we speak up to administration, or more importantly, the public. Teachers have used parents, and the public for YEARS, to get what they want. And they get away with it, because they have the protection of a strong union.

Nurses need to unionize with the National Nurse United, the arm of the California Nurses Association, and take our profession back. They have made outstanding gains in their union contracts, with pay, work place conditions, benefits, etc.

Folks, you have a CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to unionize. Use that power and right. Hospitals will never bend on staffing ratios, benefits, pensions, etc, on their own. They will fight us until the end. But we have to start the fight, and we need an army to win the war. We cannot do it ourselves. Period. And anyone who believes that, "well, I like to speak for myself, I can make change", is in lah lah land. You cannot do it yourself.

Take the first step. Get together, call the NNOC, and get the ball rolling.

JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Somewhere in the PACNW

[Isabelle49]

Unionize would be the only solution.

Too bad the BON's don't care enough about these problems to do something. I understand they regulate nursing to protect the public. That's a joke, what a waste!

[LPNnowRN]

What a great post to read after the crappiest week I've ever had. Cried in the med room from sheer frustration. Due to low census everything's been cut back-CNA's, nurses (we lost the charge nurse) so no help if anything goes wrong, struggling to cover charge duties as well as regular stuff, cover additional hallway for pill pass, five admits at once (we did get some help there). LOL on the getting a bathroom break--I kept telling myself to go last night and got sidetracked at least four times and almost peed my pants during a dressing change! I got a 15 minute break which I made myself sit for! Sign me up. I'm all for revolution.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

two ideas to throw out here:

1) no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. are you mad enough to unionize? do it. sure, it's hard work. been there, had the tee shirt. but it does a helluva lot for your self-esteem and your paycheck, and your patients.

2) where is it written that you have to work in a hospital? i'll tell ya, the day i lost my hospital job as an icu clinical specialist to budget cuts i felt as if my heart had been cut right out of my thorax. without anesthesia. but after a few weeks in an alternative universe (case management for work comp, working for a third-party claims administration company) i thought i had died and gone to nursing heaven. you could not pay me enough to work a floor again, not ever ever ever. i have so moved on. and best of all...i am still a nurse, first and foremost and forever, and well-valued for what nursing brings to the table in the legal and financial world. think about it.

[PoetryInMotion]

I feel much the same way. I keep thinking to myself...How can I make a difference for all nurses? Why do we take this crap? Because it's always been this way, or worse? I've heard it said time and again. Just seems we are going to lay down and take it.

I'm so sad about this, but as another poster has stated I want out and as soon as my contract is up (well I'm actually looking now) I'm done with the hospital setting. It's so sad because I don't even know where to start. I keep thinking if I make noise and try to change things I'll lose my job, my career. It's just scary.

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

So glad to be union! When I start to think I have it bad, I remember some of the working conditions I've seen described here, and I thank the heavens I am a union member! I cannot imagine how exploited we would be without it.

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

I agree with all posts here, but I'm a realist. In order for a revolution to occur, the first several hundred nurses on the front line will be cut down. (Fired). That's the nature of war. Which one of us is expected to "take one for the team"? Which ones of us can afford it? Does the fear of job loss make us cowards?

[lindarn]

You can also make an anon. complaint with the state. But then again, at my old job, they would make sure we had a "Safe" amount on inspection days.

Could you get ahold of the daily staffing sheets, with the day to day, "REAL STAFFING NUMBERS", to show the inspectors? You could always send them anonymously after they leave, and explain that the staffing, and other unit situations, were, "prettied up" to "prove that you have safe staffing". This is nothing but fraud that they are committing, when the unit is spiffed up to pass the inspections. JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Somewhere in the PACNW