Nurses leaving in droves...

Published

Seems to be a popular nursing news headliner for awhile...

Curious.

Are you a nurse planning to leave or has left the profession?

Where will/did you go?

New nurse, seasoned nurse?

Do you know many nurses who have left?

Specific reasons why you are leaving or have left?

I think about it frequently....but have made no moves towards a second career. Where are other nurses with this?:uhoh21:

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Wow, I am glad someone always gets breaks. Nowhere I have worked did that happen. Yes, I am fortunate in that I work where USUALLY we do get a break of some sort to eat and to use the restroom. We are staffed fairly well for the most part, but no one can predict in OB when the fertilizer will hit the fan. Thankfully, at least, we are able to punch "no lunch" when we can't take one.

Yes, it does happen: there are days when no one has time to even PEE, let alone break for lunch/dinner. That is not lousy time management, it's called a busy floor where the work never ends. I really do want someone to point me to the place where everyone always consistently gets their breaks on every given shift, and is PAID for them. THAT is likely NOT the place some of these who are posting here work! I would bet on it.

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A 'schedule'; is nice, but I am yet to keep with it...the patients call me, pharmacy, docs call me, the case managers need to speak with me, shyt happens...patients go bad....yada yada...and the schedule goes to heck in a handbasket.

some days very little gets done 'on time' and we just do our best. Minimizing nurses' concerns is a management tactic and it not helpful IMHO. Nurses who downplay the legitimate concerns of other nurses likely work in good facilities with decent managers; their success is not likely due to superior skills at work. Not all nurses have this at their disposal.

I'm lucky to get a bathroom break in my ICU most shifts and it doesn't have anything to do with my 'time management skills'. It has to do with trying to do too much with too little resources. Good hearted people try to 'do it all' but there are only so many hours in the shift and we must prioritize...realistically this means some things won't get done on most days.

So what is the answer?? We find somewhere optimal for us, with likeminded people where we can do the best we can and go home and (hopefully) sleep at night.

We speak out as much as we can to management and still keep our jobs. We prioritize by doing our best for our patients. We play the game and walk the line and pray nobody dies.

This thread is a testimony to why good nurses leave nursing and I can't disagree with the whys...I've been a nurse too long and can relate too well. But I WILL speak against those who downplay our feelings of dissatisfaction with our work environments and imply it is because we are not 'good enough' in some way.

Again as I read these posts I feel truly blessed to be in my current position and lucky to have the staff I work with.

To not taking BR breaks I say you gotta go you gotta go. The 2 minutes(max) will not matter one way or the other.

To my advocacy of time managment I will just say I am not saying anyone is not good enough or trampling feelnigs, I find it works for me. I seem again to be blessed by the nature of how things work out. I tend to find time to do everything that needs to be done. I am not attempting to put anyone else down or say they are not doing thier jobs simply offering suggestions that have been beneficial to me.

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Hi,

I've been doing this for 38 years. LOVE nursing--HATE what it's become!!

All of you have said exactly what I've been feeling for years. I've worked for the same organization for 34 years.I work in a large city. I have excellent salary & good benefits--this is why I have stayed.

With all the changes and the emphasis on "customer Satisfaction", things have gotten almost unbearable. I realize only now that I should have moved on years ago. I was always too "timid"--now I see that I should have taken chances.

Nice to realize this when I'm almost ready to retire. Yes, now I stay only because I feel that I don't want to go to a new place when I only have a couple more years.

We are planning a move South in a year or two. I have checked out the opportunities in some of the southern cities and they seem to pay so much less then I make now!! OH Well!! Hopefully I won't have to actually work down there.

Anyway, you all have made excellent points on why people are leaving.

I wish I had left years ago.

Mary Ann

I don't know where your plans will take you or which hospitals you have investigated but things are pretty good here in South Carolina. Maybe the salaries may not be comparable but the cost of living may not be either. If you would like to hear more about "my" hospital system would love to help.

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Wow, I am glad someone always gets breaks. Nowhere I have worked did that happen. Yes, I am fortunate in that I work where USUALLY we do get a break of some sort to eat and to use the restroom. We are staffed fairly well for the most part, but no one can predict in OB when the fertilizer will hit the fan. Thankfully, at least, we are able to punch "no lunch" when we can't take one.

Yes, it does happen: there are days when no one has time to even PEE, let alone break for lunch/dinner. That is not lousy time management, it's called a busy floor where the work never ends. I really do want someone to point me to the place where everyone always consistently gets their breaks on every given shift, and is PAID for them. THAT is likely NOT the place some of these who are posting here work! I would bet on it.

I think on another thread someone said that nurses that don't take care of their own needs were refered to as Angels which got much disagreement. I do take my breaks, I do work in a busy CCU and I feel that I can trust my co-workers to handle things for 30/min in my abscence.

I am trying to be supportive and helpful lnot argumentative and denegrating. I posted things which help me in my duties. Time managment will not solve all problems, I actually never implied that it would but that it is a necessary tool for nursing care.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I will exit, leaving you the last word, CCU. Good luck everyone.

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Yes, it does happen: there are days when no one has time to even PEE, let alone break for lunch/dinner. That is not lousy time management, it's called a busy floor where the work never ends.

I haven't had a morning break in weeks.....it's impossible because by the time I actually get my 8am meds out they run into the 10's and it starts all over again....by the time I get through the 10's I have to wash up my 2 patients in between answering call lights and everything else that has to be done....then the lunch truck arrives and the rush starts once again...trying to pass trays while getting noon meds out and worrying about patients who need to be fed. It's never-ending. I hate to even take a bathroom break because I don't have the time...I'm perpetually behind as it is. I think I am pretty good at prioritizing and managing time and I go like a madwoman but it's never enough. Not enough hours in the day.

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I will exit, leaving you the last word, CCU. Good luck everyone.

I truly do not know how this got to be about me. It seems that any attempt I make to offer suggestions or support gets turned into some sort of offense to you. I am really not trying to disregard anyone simply offering things that work for me. Perhaps there is just something about my personal style that rubs you wrong. I don't feel I should need to apologize for bveing able to do my job or for offering suggestion to others that I honestly feel may be helpful.

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I do not understand many of the terms you are using. ECU? N nurse? I don't understand the setting you describe a 50:1 ratio is this an LTC?

This is in extended care - one nurse to 50 patients (day and evening shifts with the "contingency plan") and one nurse to 100 patients (with the contingency plan on the night shift)

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I already explained my position.. It's not about any one person here.

I personally support all those whose situations are insufferable. I feel for them. They want to do better, and try, and feel miserable when they fall short. I realize some situations are not of their making or design, but of a larger, sometimes heinous situation created by the greed of administrators in charge, ones who have no concept of what conditions are like at some bedsides.

I would hope each nurse has the ability to change his/her situation as they can. But i also realize each of us may not be as able as the next. It's indeed a shame we cannot seem to unite and stop horrendous working conditions that do exist for some of us. What has worked for me, may not for the next person for so many reasons. I am an excellent time manager, but some days, things still do spin out of my control and I do find myself overwhelmed and behind. If this were a daily occurence for me, it would not be due to my mismanagement of my time. And I would do my best to leave such conditions behind me. But in the end, it would not change the toxicity of some workplaces. This is where uniting and supporting would come in for us.

It would seem we would do better to support, not criticize others' situations--- those we do not suffer ourselves perhaps. And yes, time management is critical, but in some cases, will do nothing to resolve the larger issues at hand, affecting our very future in nursing.

good day now!

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Now I really will go away....smile.

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I just wanted to thank everyone who has posted input on this thread. It really helps to know I am not alone in the way I am feeling, and that others can relate. I'd worry if I WERE the only one feeling this way.......at least I know the problems and issues I'm perceiving are widespread and are not accepted by my fellow nurses as "OK".

What is it going to take to change things? It seems like a problem with such a simple solution.....better staffing.....but how many different ways can we explain our working situations to those in a position of changing things before things get better??? What's it going to take??

You know, I worked as a nursing assistant alongside LPN's and RN's for 8 years before deciding to go to school. Part of the reason I waited so long to go to school was because every nurse I ever worked with HATED nursing with a raging passion and urged me not to pursue the career. From the outside looking in, I didn't and couldn't see what they were so unhappy about and I thought they just had attitudes or they didn't like nursing in general and should have chosen a different career. It took me 3 days on the floor, working as an RN, to see what they were talking about. I love nursing.....I love caring for patients, I love the skills, I love nursing in general but I do NOT like the current atmosphere and work environment in which apparently so many nurses are finding themselves. It's now more understandable to me what those nurses were talking about. And it's also clear to me WHY there is a nursing shortage nationwide. The burnout rates couldn't be anything BUT astronomical considering the conditions nurses are expected to function in these days.

I don't mean to sound negative or whiny and I definitely don't want to be discouraging to current and prospective nursing students. Nursing itself is an awesome profession with so many different positive aspects to it. I am proud to be an RN and I do not regret my decision to follow this career path. I am, however, very disappointed in what I've seen and learned in a very short time related to the REALITY of our roles on a day to day basis. I imagine that a good percentage of nurses who leave the profession did so due to the same disillusionment I am already feeling. This is not what I bargained for. While in school, I was so excited and so determined to provide exceptional, high quality care for my patients. Excrutiatingly thorough physical assessments, interpeting labs daily, therapeutic communication, etc.....these are all things I recognize as being integral parts of quality, competent nursing care and I am more than a little upset that I am not able to do half of what I SHOULD be doing because I don't have the time. The thing that aggrevates me the most about this fact is that the solution is as simple as staffing the floor with another 1 or 2 CNA's to free up the lisenced staff to do their job properly.

Sorry for the rant. I'm feeling at a bit of a crossroads here. It's clear to me I won't be happy at my current job, but I am afraid if I move on I'll find myself in the same situation (or worse). Thanks for listening.

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Some here do not read others' posts closely enough..perhaps too busy trying to get the last word? Obviously I DO take potty breaks when necessary...or would be likely terminated for unkempt/dirty uniforms.

I said I feel fortunate to GET POTTY TIME somedays as they are my ONLY break from the unit/desk/ patients. In my units, rarely do we take 30 min breaks off the unit..we've decided it would be too dangerous. We don't have secs to answer phones or watch monitors, we DON'T have PCT's. YES we speak up to management and they don't CARE...they are making their buck.I don't trust my coworkers will have TIME to watch my patients like I would, and I would feel awful should my patient extubate or deteriorate in my absence, (and this has happened thus our decision to not leave)

Again, I'm glad some here work in a unit where breaks and downtime is possible, but I don't (and I can see by the posts I am not alone.)

Perhaps we should look at our attitudes when we notice others are angered. Just a suggestion.

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