Nurses Humilated - Illinois

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Hmmm I work in n IL though not at this hospital And I would have quit

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The difference being this was not an empathy exercise, but rather a way to punish the nurses and show them what it feels like to not be able to go to the bathroom. It is abusive, shameful and sadly a cruel joke because it is so common for nurses to not go to the bathroom at work because they don't feel they have the time! Management once again blaming the nurse for all the problems. If only the nurses were like Florence Nightingale then everything would be wonderful! No mention or recognition that the problems stem from systemic understaffing and mismanagement!

I grew up in a physically and emotionally abusive environment and sometimes it feels like nursing is similar! The working conditions are coercive and then the physical abuse comes from the patients. It's a sad irony that is not lost on me, but I have to work and can't afford to quit and take early retirement. I've seen alot over the years that has left me bitter, but then even worse things are done such as forcing vaccines on us just to have a job. It leaves me wondering where things will end by the time I can retire! How much worse is it going to get! We are left where we don't have control of our own body, what we put in it and now when we can even go the bathroom! This insanity needs to stop!

Management are the ones that should have had this "empathy" experiment, not the workers in the trenches. They have probably never not taken a break, lunch or gone to the bathroom whenever they wanted! Heck they don't even have to punch a time clock. Maybe if they experienced what it felt like they might wake up and hire more staff! That should be the first solution!

I was a clinical manager and had a administrator above me who did not understand any clinical decisions. And a lot of decisions are based on acuity and needs - both of the patients and the nurses. The administrator had a degree in Healthcare Administration with no clinical experience or the desire to understand the field. Instead, the idea was that I would support her decisions and ideas.

The obsession over scheduling, staffing and ratios combined with productivity just did not stop. It was obvious for every clinical person including physicians that staffing has to meet some standards otherwise patient safety and quality of care suffers but also the health of nurses (emotionally, psychologically and otherwise). And - newsflash- you have to pay people to work competitively unless you want them to wander off.

Anyhow, I thought it would be a good idea for this administrator to shadow a nurse for at least half a day or day and walk with me for a day to get an idea of what the scoop is. Even CEO nowadays spend time with frontline staff to understand their work, workflow, and problems. Transformational leadership...

Guess what - the administrator never shadowed anybody. Was constantly in the office and not stepping out. Always argued about the "numbers" and focused on finances alone.

So I left because I do not want to be associated with management that views nurses not as human beings but just as a commodity to move around regardless of anything else. That is just not right. After all, we are human beings taking care of human beings. Nurses are very compassionate when they become nurses but after a while on the merry go around and the constant pressure and fear of getting reprimanded by management or coworkers even the most compassionate caring nurse distances herself.

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Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.

Hell no....whoever it was in administration that came up with that idea needs to be fired.

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

I honestly thought this was an article from the Onion at first. I would walk off the job. These administrators need to walk a day in our shoes and see how they feel needing to pee, having 5 call lights going off, your phone ringing with report, and it is 3 pm and you haven't even had a sip of water. No way would I allow my employer to treat me this way.

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Appalling. Worse still, that the nurses agreed to participate. Stand up for yourself!

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Specializes in Dialysis.

If you're going to make me wear googles and earplugs to simulate being elderly I need my cane. So I can bop you in the head.

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Did the nurses get to scream abusive invective at random staff, throw food and toiletries at staff, and demand irrational things while threatening poor reviews? No?

Well then this "exercise" was poorly executed.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.
Anyhow, I thought it would be a good idea for this administrator to shadow a nurse for at least half a day or day and walk with me for a day to get an idea of what the scoop is
.

Funny, as soon as I started to read this post, I thought "it should be required course work for healthcare admin students to shadow floor nurses. Maybe then they would learn to lead like Ernest Shackleton rather than like some boy king.

THESE admins, I'll go so far as to make a Dear Leader reference. For the toilet-barring technique. :sarcastic:

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Honestly, I think the boot camp is a great idea.

The whole idea was to put the nurse in the shoes of the patient, to personalize patient complaints, to provide better "patient centered care." One of my mentors told me that back in her day they has to taste some of the medications they dispensed to see how truly awful it was. Obviously that is not safe but it did give her a career long appreciation for how things are on the other side.

The unions complaints were that the hospital violated the agreement in three areas

  • The nursing schedule for a six-week period must be posted two weeks in advance.

  • Nurses shall not be scheduled to work day, evening and night shifts within same pay period unless by mutual agreement or in emergency situations.

  • Nurses will be scheduled to complete mandatory education during scheduled work time.

That being said, I think leadership should be placed the in shoes of their floor nurses too and go through their own boot camp.

This quote is interesting to me because the nurse does not once say anything about their patients and how humiliating and demeaning poor care can be. I am 100% confident that management can do more to improve care but excellent care cannot trickle down, it has to collaborative between all groups.

All this does is shame, humiliate and demean nurses, and I cannot understand how an organization that is actively pursuing Magnet status can find this even remotely dignifying to our profession,” she said.

In my current place of employment "boot camp" style training is becoming more common. We are trying to get those who work with nurses and their patients in their shoes, to feel what they feel so that we better understand their needs and concerns. I do not think this is a bad approach.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.
Honestly, I think the boot camp is a great idea

Here's the thing, though. Visual/hearing impairments are not the RN's fault. Bed flow is not the RN's fault. It stinks for someone be left on a bedpan, but do you really think that happens bc the nurse doesn't realize it's uncomfortable? Of course not -- it's bc she has more pressing matters at that moment.

Besides, it isn't being described as an empathy exercise. It's a punitive approach to things the nurses probably hate themselves, but can'take change without proper staffing.

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Honestly, I think the boot camp is a great idea.

The whole idea was to put the nurse in the shoes of the patient, to personalize patient complaints, to provide better "patient centered care."

I don't agree.

Nurses Humiliated, Demeaned by Hospital Boot Camp: Complaint - Joliet IL Patch

"One nurse who participated in the alleged forced boot camp said the program consisted of having nurses drink a bottle of water and then not being allowed to urinate, lie on a backboard with a c-collar in place while being accidentally” banged into doors and walls by a member of leadership, or sit in a Hall of Reflection” reading insults that patients have said about the staff."

(my bold)

This is in my opinion punitive. It's not reasonable to think that sitting and reading insults against nursing staff will serve as a morale booster or encourage empathy. On the contrary, it's most likely perceived as grossly unfair and might even cause resentment towards the patients since the majority of delays that a patient is subjected to, occur due to inadequate staffing.

If an individual nurse genuinely doesn't give a crap if a patient is forced to sit/lie on a bedpan out in the hallway for a long period of time, this exercise won't teach that nurse empathy. You either have it, or you don't. For those nurses who do have have empathy delivering less than optimal care, oftentimes because of factors outside of their control, causes stress and wears on their conscience. They don't need this ridiculous, demeaning exercise hatched by some suit to realize that a patient both feels and is vulnerable.

As a few posters have pointed out, it really is quite laughable to think that a nurse needs to be taught how it's like to not have access to a bathroom right when needed, they could at least have scrapped that part of the exercise. I think all of it was ill-advised, but the pee part was just plain insulting.

It's not as if nurses are never patients themselves. If the point was solely educational and designed to help nurses realize how it's like to be in the patient's shoes, were all the nurses who'd ever been hospitalized excused?

I doubt it.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

I lived in this area for 1/2 my life. I'm not surprised in the least. Not only is this institution poorly regarded, so is the hospital system to which it belongs. I never considered working there, and never would, even if it meant greeting customers at Wal-Mart instead. My patient care experiences (had to go there based upon insurance at the time) were abysmal.

Like some other posters, I wonder why nurses didn't simply walk out or sit down and refuse to participate, especially given the hospital's well-known and long-standing poor reputation. I know I will ruffle some feathers with this comment, but so be it. Adult professionals who refuse to set (and enforce) limits invite poor treatment by others, and don't have much credibility when complaining after the fact. This was NOT an urgent patient care or critical staffing situation. Nor does it seem to have been a new-employee training session, which might explain some staff members' reluctance to speak up. This "inservice" appears to have been geared towards nurses of all levels of experience and seniority. Shame on them for not refusing to participate right there and then, especially given that they are unionized. What good is union representation if it does not empower employees to object to obvious wrongs in the moment?

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