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.
I dunno. Corporate America wasn't so different. The meetings Tweety just described - whenever my last (big) firm did those it was because some department that was being sold off - with unemployment looming - had low morale and bad performance so we'd have a YEE-HAW! happiness consultant brought in.
Oy.
One has to remember, too, that it's the rare poster who comes in here because things are going fabulously. A few months ago I was unjustly fired and my posting and ranting-to-raving ratios were a perfect reflection of this. I like my new spot and we are well staffed and supported and, wow! I'm not posting nearly as much. To use this website as an accurate reflection of nursing's pulse might be a tad bit skewed.
I'm sure you couldn't tell that I'm just in it for the paycheck. I'm a very compassionate, hard working, efficient nurse. I take care of oncology pt's. for goodness sake!! I'm just tired of all the disrespect, o.k? You shouldn't judge people--you're a nurse.
Oh My God!!! Finally some brave,honest soul who expresses total honesty about this "profession." I totally agree with you, Lorster. I've been a staff nurse on an oncology/med-surg floor for almost 9 years, and I feel that RN's are basically treated like "poop" by Md's, Nurse managers, fellow nurses, pt's, family members, etc., etc. the only thing keeping me there is the paycheck.
I also second that motion. Nurses ARE pathetic. Nurses DO just bend over and take it. I have been a nurse for 31 years, and I have seen time after time when nurses were handed more crap than any one should or would take. And we just bend over and accept it with a "Weell, that is just the ways things are. It is the 'wave' of the future".
When a nurse comes along with a vision to make things better, do other nurses support this nurse? No way! The other nurses are shaking in their boots at the very thought of defying managent. Or taking a stand on an important issue, under the guise of, "well who will take care of MY patients, if I am not there to do it?"
Nursing continues to recruit what becomes the "martyr marys", who think that patient care begins and ends with them. Who refuse to acknowledge that it is the hospitals' responsibility to provide care givers for the patients. And who would refuse to take a stand. Hospitals are who the patients have contracted with, not the individual nurse.
These nurses who do try to change the system and make it better, are "socialized out", and end up leaving in disgust, leaving the "martry marys" to "carry on" their holy mission. And nothing ever changes. And this goes for nursing school as well.
Nurses SHOULD be taught in nursing school how to deal with administration, by taking classes in Employment Law, and Administrative Law. And "role play" speaking to "nurse managers", "adminstration" to be able to "win". The knowledge, and skills that these classes would give to nurses would go along way to improving things at the bedside. Knowledge is Power! Along with business classes on starting a business. PTs and OTs take classes like this while they are in school. There is not enough time in a Diploma program or an ADN program to include these "quality of life" classes. And nurses are, and will, continue to suffer, because of it.
Including these kinds of classes would go along way to eliminating or minimizing the effects of the "marty marys", who are preventing nursing from going a step further to becoming a profession, that is should be.
I have toyed with the idea of starting a class in colleges, and in local seminars, with these ideas in mind. Partner with an Employment Lawyer, and go on a national tour, like Laura Gasparis did with "Revolution Magazine", and classes. I could reach nurses all over the country, and empower them with the skills to take control of their nursing profession. Unfortunately I think that I would be shut down by the local "powers that be", who the schools of nursing are beholdened to. They certainly would not want "their" nurses minds' "poisoned", would they? JMHO.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
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One of the posters wrote, "everyone in their perspective professions eats a fair a mount of sh*t, regardless of what you do for a living."
AMEN!!!! Take it from someone who left a dog-eat-dog job in corproate finance to go to nursing school, there isn't a field that exists where people escape feeling abused, frustrated and undercompensated. When I started sounding like the original poster of this message, my father told me to "learn to deal with it" or "get out of it." I knew deep down that corporate wasn't for me, so I got out of it.
TO THE POSTER OF THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE: There's no shame in admitting that you have had enough. It seems like no matter where you go, you're going to run in to the same problems. I can emphathize with your rantings, and I know what it's like to be in your place! But the fact is, if nothing else is going to change, for the sake of your own sanity, YOU have to change. If you can't change your attitude (I couldn't!!!!), then you have to find another way to survive. The great thing about the field of nursing is that you can take your wealth of knowledge and apply it in other areas. If you aren't opposed to leaving the clinical aspects of nursing behind, you can make a great living applying what you've learned in a corporate setting. (I know, it sounds funny that I am recommending a shift to corporate, but a lot of people love it - I just don't happen to be one of them.) Working for an insurance company or as a legal nurse consultant takes away most of the concerns of patient care and frustration of interaction with doctors. Plus, you'll have regular hours and weekends off! :-)
Not to go off on a tangent, but while it might be true that at Wal-Mart you won't have the responsibilities of being a nurse, you also won't have the benefits and pay, either. And don't be fooled into thinking that working in retail isn't free of stress and abuse - just ask anyone who has had to work a register the day after Thanksgiving! OK, I know this is not the point of the post, but EVERYONE thinks they're overworked, underpaid and unappreciated! Ask the shoe salespeople at department stores, whose pay is reduced from $10 to $6 if they don't make their sales quotas, in spite of the fact that the number of employees in the store often outnumber the shoppers! Or how about the TEACHERS who work FAR more hours than those spent in the classroom, and have to deal with being disciplinarians in addition to educators, and who are routinely abused verbally by parents and students! But I ramble.
I don't expect the field of nursing to be free of the politics/double standards/outrageous expectations/lack of support or general abuse from supervisors/other miscellaneous sh*t I had to put up with in my corporate positions, but at least I will have the satisfaction of knowing that, at the end of the day, no matter how frustrated I might get with my boss or co-workers, I will still have helped people, every day. AND I will have the luxury of working a schedule where I will be able to spend time with my family.
I know I am lucky and blessed to have the opportunity to start over. Good luck.
Nursing, like many other professions has many of the same fallbacks, backstabbers, lazyiness, unprofessionalism, groupies/cliques, department wars, competition and the list goes on.
It is not just Nursing, it happens everywhere, so would it be more accurate to say society is "Pathetic"?. I think in general, our society is heading in the wrong direction. However, as individuals, we have the power to change and may influence others around us to do so as well. Many of our undesired actions stems from negativity. With a positive attitude, we can all make a difference.
I agree with a lot of what lorster posted. And I see no problem with working for the money. For crying out loud, if you gave most administrations their druthers, you'd be paying them. Fortunately I think most people are drawn to doing what they are good at doing; nurses included. Not so much a calling, but just going where you are drawn by some invisible line. And we should be paid more, we should be supported more and we should have more ancillary help.
When a doc gets to that screaming stage at our place, and we have one who is guilty (but getting better!) we all go to stand around the nurse who is being yelled at. It's pretty obvious that there are going to be witnesses to the rant and if the nurse says absolutely nothing, the doc still gets the picture, pretty darned quick. And if it's a phone rant, I will say in a voice loud enough so others can come quick or pick up, "You want me to do what?" Or "are you asking me to go against the protocol?" I even asked one doc if he was calling me a liar because after I'd called his home and beeper several times with no response I gave report to one of his colleagues and he was po'd that I hadn't called him. Well, I did call him and he didn't answer.
There's a lot of truth in what lorster posted. I also do not agree that just letting people walk all over us puts us into angel status. More like doormat status.
One of the posters wrote, "everyone in their perspective professions eats a fair a mount of sh*t, regardless of what you do for a living."
AMEN!!!! Take it from someone who left a job in dog-eat-dog job in corproate finance to go to nursing school, there isn't a field that exists where people escape feeling abused, frustrated and undercompensated. When I started sounding like the original poster of this message, my father told me to "learn to deal with it" or "get out of it." I knew deep down that corporate wasn't for me, so I got out of it.
TO THE POSTER OF THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE: There's no shame in admitting that you have had enough. It seems like no matter where you go, you're going to run in to the same problems. I can emphathize with your rantings, and I know what it's like to be in your place! But the fact is, if nothing else is going to change, for the sake of your own sanity, YOU have to change. If you can't change your attitude (I couldn't!!!!), then you have to find another way to survive. The great thing about the field of nursing is that you can take your wealth of knowledge and apply it in other areas. If you aren't opposed to leaving the clinical aspects of nursing behind, you can make a great living applying what you've learned in a corporate setting. (I know, it sounds funny that I am recommending a shift to corporate, but a lot of people love it - I just don't happen to be one of them.) Working for an insurance company, or as a telephonic nurse, or as a legal nurse consultant, takes away the concerns of patient care and interaction with doctors. Plus, you'll have regular hours and weekends off! :-)
Not to go off on a tangent, but while it might be true that at Wal-Mart you won't have the responsibilities of being a nurse, you also won't have the benefits and pay, either. And don't be fooled into thinking that working in retail isn't free of stress and abuse - just ask anyone who has had to work a register the day after Thanksgiving! OK, I know this is not the point of the post, but EVERYONE thinks they're overworked, underpaid and unappreciated! Ask the shoe salespeople at department stores, whose pay is reduced from $10 to $6 if they don't make their sales quotas, in spite of the fact that the number of employees in the store often outnumber the shoppers! Or how about the TEACHERS who work FAR more hours than those spent in the classroom, and have to deal with being disciplinarians in addition to educators, and who are routinely abused verbally by parents and students! But I ramble.
I don't expect the field of nursing to be free of the politics/double standards/outrageous expectations/lack of support or general abuse from supervisors/other miscellaneous sh*t I had to put up with in my corporate positions, but at least I will have the satisfaction of knowing that, at the end of the day, no matter how frustrated I might get with my boss or co-workers, I will still have helped people, every day. AND I will have the luxury of working a schedule where I will be able to spend time with my family.
I know I am lucky and blessed to have the opportunity to start over.
I'm having a hard time reconciling why you're mad at everyone else in the profession for your own lack of action. If you were upset at how the doc treated the newbie, you as an 18 year veteran in nursing should have felt comfortable enough- traveler or not- in stepping up and saying something.
If you want input in the policies of the facility you are working in, work there as permanent staff. If you don't want to charge for band-aids, rescind your yearly raise, because like it or not, taking things like that out of the room charge, can help redirect that money to your paycheck at times. Maybe they have to do that to be able to afford all the travelers they have. If they have old computers, maybe they also have financial dificulties.
Yelling docs- we can handle that with a little assertiveness, and with support from our co-workers.
Charging for bandaids- we have bigger fish to fry. Now, if you were talking about MOT or ratios, you might have a point.
Autonomy- it isn't handed out freely. We have to be vocal and advocate for that.
And I'm sorry, but I don't buy the argument that you couldn't say anything because you're a traveler. I'm a 10 year veteran, new on my unit, but still gave a doc "The Look," square in the eye after he started griping at one of the new nurses. He slunk back and shut up. I didn't have to say a word- just let him know I was witnessing his behavior and didn't appreciate it. He knew he was wrong, and apologized to her.
Change begins at home. I'm all for supporting someone who is burned out- been there myself. But, starting out with calling all of us pathetic is not the way to garner that support. By doing so, you're asking us to take being disrespected as professionals- just like your new coworker.
I couldn't agree more. I deffinately am not pathetic, dysfunctional, co dependent or whatever you want to call it. I think if you are so burnt out then take a break a vacation or something.
My husband had to take just as much veral abuse if not more than we nurses do over the phone. He had irate customers during a massive power outage mad because he couldn't get their cable back on immediately. So nursing isn't the only profession who takes verbal abuse. I have had experience working outside nursing and realize that some posters are burnt out and venting. If you are really that burnt out then take a break or vacation. Good luck to you.
I Have Been A Nursr(lvn) Since 1968 And Truly Love My Job. I Work In The Mental Health Filed. I Try To Go To Work With A Positive Attitude Everyday. We Have Nurses Whre I Work That Don"t Carry Their Full Load And I Used Top Gripe And Complain But I Have Come To Realize There Arre Some That Give 110 Percent And Some Are Onl;y Going To Do The Minimum Required. We Have A Very Real Shortage Of Jobs At The State School Where I Work And Are Not Getting Paid What We Deserve And My Philopshy Is He You Don"t Like Your Job Go Into Another Fiekld That You Do Like. I Have Been At This Job Over 34 Years.. The Nurses Here Do The Same Complaining And Back Stabbing.
SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN
10,263 Posts
I dunno. Corporate America wasn't so different. The meetings Tweety just described - whenever my last (big) firm did those it was because some department that was being sold off - with unemployment looming - had low morale and bad performance so we'd have a YEE-HAW! happiness consultant brought in.
Oy.
One has to remember, too, that it's the rare poster who comes in here because things are going fabulously. A few months ago I was unjustly fired and my posting and ranting-to-raving ratios were a perfect reflection of this. I like my new spot and we are well staffed and supported and, wow! I'm not posting nearly as much. To use this website as an accurate reflection of nursing's pulse might be a tad bit skewed.