Nurses are Pathetic!!

[lorster]

I have been reading thread after thread on this forum and I have come to one conclusion. We are all a pathetic bunch. We take abuse that most other human beings would not put up with. We are physically, mentally and emotionally abused by doctors, managers, patients, and families. We work ungodly hours, skip our much needed breaks without pay for months and years on end. And this goes on and on and on. The stories are endless. Then we are all shocked when a nurse who has had enough finally cracks and administers 32 vials of Dilantin and kills a patient. Is this so different than any other human being who finally after years and years of this abuse, just cannot take it anymore? I think not. When are we all going to stand up and demand decent pay, decent working conditions, and respect? Well, the answer is never because we are not a solid group. We have no autonomy or solidarity because we are a weak profession. We pit one against another. We ***** and backstab. We deserve all the abuse that is dealt to us. In nursing school, we are taught to make beds, empty bedpans and clean dentures. Instead we should get vast lessons in how to deal with some of the real issues that face us today. We are understaffed, overworked, pushed to the breaking point. But yet, the martyr instinct kicks in, we get up and go back and endure more of the same. When is enough, enough? When are we all going to come together and and start shouting about our working conditions and wages? We make less than a crew on road construction or a plumber. And look what we do. We are responsible for peoples lives. I went to work down the road as my current employer is union and I felt that maybe the non union hospital down the road would be a better place. Well, it is not, it is worse. 13 nurses have quit in the 6 weeks I have worked there. I won't renew my contract. It is just too unsafe. The hospital is all about profit at the expense of some great nurses. They even charge for an individual bandaid. It is ridiculous. I have decided that as soon as I can afford to, I'm getting out. I will no longer be a member of a profession that eats its young while at the same time, taking unwarrented abuse from unapreciative doctors that we bend over backwards for. Its not about making a living any more, it is about retaining some self respect, free of abuse by doctors, managers and other nurses who have nothing better to do than put a knife in your back the minute you turn around. At least at walmart I won't have to worry about making a life threatening mistake because I'm overwhelmed by what is required of me each day.

[annie4747]

I agree. I have been taking this sort of abuse for 25 years and am still doing it...however, a nurse is what I am. I do love my job and I realize that this sort of thing goes on. The key to all of this is HOW WE DEAL WITH IT. Sure, we can let it bother us, we can flip out and take it all home with us at the end of the work day, but we can also choose NOT TO. I have learned, somewhat, how to do this over the years. It is not easy, believe me, as you well know.

Whenever I start feeling so burned out from my job, I leave it and go and do something entirely different...like waitressing, delivering pizza, retail, anything other than nursing...of course not everyone can do this because none of these types of jobs pays the bills we've made for ourselves over the years.

I can understand your frustration...nursing school does NOTHING to prepare you for this.

Things have changed drastically over the years in nursing.

Hang in there and remember, when you are at your job and you make just one person smile, it is all worth it.

I Am not unhappy, I know what time it is. my post is in response to a post by Lorster, who is having a hard time you will have to go back to page one to read the original letter. But, thank you anyway for your concern.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Let's not attack the original poster of "nurses are pathetic" message. Let's be honest, we are. We do take abuse. We are mistreated. We are underpaid. I joke with people and tell them I had to go to college to be treated like dirt. I used to work as a stocker/cashier for Fry's Food and Drug. If a customer mistreated me, they were asked to leave. In an 8 hour shift, I was given two 15 minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch break. If a manager mistreated an employee in front of a customer, he was taken upstairs to a private office, talked to, and then written up. Our benefits were cheap and wonderful. The company put aside 50 cents out of every dollar an employee earned and put it towards a 20 year retirement. We were protected by a UNION called UFCW Local 99. The UNION represented the workers. The UNION made sure we had retirement, affordable and excellent benefits, good pay, and wonderful working conditions. I left that job to become a nurse. Yup. Nurses have NO IDEA how other jobs treat their people because many of them haven't done much else in the way of work, especially corporate or union work. Now how is it that a Cashier/Stocker with a high school education or less can have such a great opportunity but nurses do not? Answer: Nurses are pathetic. Nurses have not learned how to get along, like we did in kindergarten and grade school, so that they could demand things like a real pension plan (not a 401K), affordable and excellent benefits, safe patient ratios, actual breaks throughout a 12 hour day, and respect from managers and physicians who are held accountable for their behavior. Can you imagine a physician or manager being told,"If you don't start treating our staff with respect or dignity, we will revoke your privileges at this hospital or fire you?" It is possible, but nurses will not do it.

You may all attack me as much as you want. Deep down, you have all felt the way the original poster did, and using synonyms like "apathetic", "codependent" or "weak" really doesn't cut it. Pathetic is a correct term. I tried to start a union once, but the nurse "rats" ran to management and "told on me" like kindergartners do, and I was asked to resign, which ultimately I did. They griped every day for a year about the deplorable working conditions, so I offered a solution. And what did they do? They did nothing as usual, except get me "fired" so-to-speak.

Band together, and the hospitals will have little choice but to meet your demands. Keep doing what you are doing as a profession...oops, I meant occupation, and everything will remain the same. Including the term "occupation"...because we do not behave as true professionals do.

Like the OP's first post on this thread, this post does not speak for all of us.

[annie4747]

I, think you misunderstood what you read. I was not speaking for you i was talking to another nurse who was feeling downhearted. I was attempting to show some understanding and compassion for her feeling.I am not having a bad day, I don't know how if you had read my post; could come up with that idea.

Sorry Sharon; I got my massages mixed up, carry on Apparently I misunderstood what i was reading.

[TXNurseBSN]

This post scares me. I am in my second semester of nursing school with two left after this. I have been doing clinicals both semesters, at two hospitals, and at both places it has been the same...too many patients per nurse, and the nurse unable to do much "nursing" at all. The nurses seem to see very little of their patients during their shift, less than 1.5 hr/patient/12 hr shift, it seems! And yet they are insanely busy the whole day on the computer. Is this really how nursing is? And does it have to be this way?

Pretty much, get used to it. Clinicals were an eye opening experience for me. This is when I started my disillusionment with the nursing profession. When I graduated last May, I tried the hospital thing for about 5 months. I felt like vomiting before every shift and being newly pregnant almost miscarried. This is what I worked 4 years in school for?? No thanks! I am a school nurse now and very happy...though many do not consider me a "real nurse."

Many have attacked the original poster, I only see truth to her harsh words! Sometimes people are attacked for bringing the truth to light.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Lorester,

This whole thread kind of illistrates your point huh? So many nurses willing to tolerate the way things are rather than band together and force change. It is my least favorite thing about the profession. They cannot run a hospital without the nurses. Conditions could be different if nurses stuck together and fought for safe staffing and respect.

As long as it is "good on my floor" then no one is willing to fight for change and who cares if 100 other nurses are caring for too many patients with too few resources and being verbally abused.

Although the intensity of your original message was somewhat alienating to many I think martyr and pathetic are a pretty realistic summation of the state of nursing currently.

I sure hope these new graduates can rise up and demand change.

[gasguy1960]

Nothing is ever as good as it seems or as bad as it seems, it is only thinking that makes it so!

God gave you the ability to be someone that not many people can be, a nurse. Lead by example, dust yourself off, keep your head high and go on.

[spirit11]

I think I felt like this at many times during my career. It gets better. Let it out!! All jobs have issues you will soon find out. Hang in there hold on to your essence until you find the people and situations that match. (M Golden)

Feel free to vent anytime you wish.

Spirit11

[darrell]

...but most nurses will admit that there are changes that should be made, and would be made if we'd stick together. Nurses as a whole should stick together, and nurses on our individual units and floors. We can make changes happen...I've seen a floor get appropriate staffing just by threatening to walk out. Actually, they did walk out...or refused to clock in. But there are those few nurses who forget that management and "the system" need us more than we need them in most cases.

Although I agree collective representation will usually help a given group, I am not sure unionizing and walk-outs are appropriate routes to improving the nursing workplace:

- Walking out must be done in a manner that supports patient safety...which may require not walking out!

- While one nurse may have an issue with a doctor's/patient's/coworker's attitude, not every nurse will have that problem with that person. It's as much a personality thing as a matter of professional courtesy.

- Staffing continues to be an issue as much because of available reinforcements as because of profit considerations. I think there are many people who would be happy to step up to present nursing compensation levels if they could get into the classes and pass them.

- All the rules and protections in the world are of no use in a situation where the worker is too intimidated to use them. Quite often, a courtesy or scheduling abuse can be stopped in its tracks by simply saying, "Stop!". There is no protocol or policy that will protect you from the need to stand up for yourself.

Of course, I am not saying we shouldn't try to improve things so that more professionally-inclinded undergrads will chose nursing. Nor am I saying that we shouldn't look for a central voice when appropriate. I am saying, however, that attitude counts.

For myself, a tech and SN, I will flex in personal interactions to a reasonable range of personalities and job-related mood swings. I won't tolerate blatant disrespect from any coworker, however, and I'm willing to change job locations if the situation is not salvagable. Nor will I allow overwork to discolor my sunny days, especially to the point where safety is at issue. I have refused many doubles because I would not have been rested enough to do the shift safely.

In short, look for collective solutions but don't forget that doormats get stepped on. Courtesy counts in both directions and no job is worth your emotional health. Quit. I think Hawaii is looking for good nurses...:).

[carlarn, BSN, RN]

i chose this color to post because i am seeing red. of course we are a pathetic bunch. i agree with so much of what the original poster has written. my colleagues and i were discussing something similar over the weekend. why do we put up with all the disrespect? because when we have stood up for ourselves (and when was the last time any of us stood up for someone else?) against a physician or another nurse what good did it do?

my colleagues have gone to management about some of the issues they have with the doctors. me, i go straight to the doctor and tell him/her in no uncertain terms i will not be treated in that manner. i have done this with some of the other nurses as well. what good has it done me? i am treated with a little more respect. i don't expect management to do anything for me, i am an adult and prefer to be treated as such.

once we stop behaving like we are all stuck in junior high or younger, then we will start being treated like the adults we are all supposed to be.

so the next time any of us witness bad behavior by an attending physician, resident or another nurse, by god, we need to get off our complacent assess and defend one another against the perpetrator. this is the only way we are ever going to get the respect of anyone.

now if any of you want to blast me because i had the audacity to group all nurses in this category, have at it. i have worked with enough nurses to know that as a majority, we are indeed pathetic---apathetic, dysfunctional, codependent, weak, immature, mousy---whatever. we need to grow up and act like the professionals we are.

[Gromit]

I'm firmly convinced that my employer wants me to be a happy and productive employee. In general, they make a reasonable effort to keep me happy, and I make a reasonable effort to be productive. It's not a perfect arrangement, but it works reasonably well.

Hehehe. Sounds REASONABLE!

[annie4747]

i chose this color to post because i am seeing red. of course we are a pathetic bunch. i agree with so much of what the original poster has written. my colleagues and i were discussing somthing similar over the weekend. why do we put up with all the disrespect? because when we have stood up for ourselves (and when was the last time any of us stood up for someone else?) against a physician or another nurse what good did it do?

my colleagues have gone to management about some of the issues they have with the doctors. me, i go straight to the doctor and tell him/her in no uncertain terms i will not be treated in that manner. i have done this with some of the other nurses as well. what good has it done me? i am treated with a little more respect. i don't expect management to do anything for me, i am an adult and prefer to be treated as such.

once we stop behaving like we are all stuck in junior high or younger, then we will start being treated like the adults we are all supposed to be.

so the next time any of us witness bad behavior by an attending physician, resident or another nurse, by god, we need to get off our complacent assess and defend one another against the perpetrator. this is the only way we are ever going to get the respect of anyone.

now if any of you want to blast me because i had the audacity to group all nurses in this category, have at it. i have worked with enough nurses to know that as a majority, we are indeed pathetic---apathetic, dysfunctional, codependent, weak, immature, mousy---whatever. we need to grow up and act like the professionals we are.

amen!!

[US-RN]

I am an BSN, RN on a Medicine telemetry floor since June 06. Prior to that I did Utilization Review for 5 years. Prior to that I was on a surgical floor for 8 years. All within that same hospital. On April 1st, will go back to the surgical floor.

I don't particularly care for my facility. Fact is that I DO make a lot of money since graduating in 1993. I have a son now in his 1st year of college. I have been divorced since 91. I HAVE to have a certain amount of job security, so I stay.

Fact also, is that I NEVER wanted to work on a ward. I wanted to be a clinic or doctor's office nurse. I listened to people tell me out of college that I should get experience on the floor. Instead I should have gone directly into a clinic or doctor's office. I feel then I would have been happier. NO, I would not make the money that I do now, but perhaps I would not have needed as much.

I would love to be HAPPY in my job.

PLEASE, try to go into the area that YOU want. As a new grad, they will train you in what ever you want to do. After you've been in the profession a while, you get pigeon hold into a certain job and those around you tend to either think that you can't do something else, or they just don't want to take the time to train you in that other area.

Good luck to you.