Nurses

hiddencatRN, BSN, RN · Sep 2, 2011

....I'm not following you. By coming here to vent we're playing games?

I am confused. You just joined and feel there is too much complaining?

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN · Sep 2, 2011

One of the outlets that we use is this very forum. It is ok to vent, complain and ask our e-peers about a situation that we found difficult.

It is NOT ok, however, to attack another member on this forum. I think we realize that, and sometimes all of us need a gentle reminder to stay on topic.

I get what you are saying. You would like to see more positive posts?

I think this is a great forum and personally have had quite a few 'light bulb moments' when reading threads.

As far as game playing goes...well, sometimes you just have to let it go.

nightengalegoddess · Sep 2, 2011

Hi you all!

Yes, I agree full-heartedly (sp?)......after a long night I usually come to this site to gauge if my craziness is the same as others'. Sometimes we do get fervent.

I somehow assume OP is a male. Maybe I am sexist. But men seem to have more on the ball in R/T getting higher ground, (hey, not universal, just hormonal).

We do need to vent. And when we do, we get hugs here. We also get RNs who don't pull punches, and that is postitive too. Sometimes we need a good sternal rub to knock us out of out infantalities.

I suspect the OP is hearing and seeing the backstabbing side of nursing. It is ugly. We are stressed. When animals are stressed they react in survival mode.....humans are so limited in their survival options. (If we were lions.....geez......just imagine that! : ) We have to just work with our meager verbal skills.

But ya know......I have had the reigns pulled in on me SEVERAL times in my life as a civilian ........and some as a nurse. And the cool mind of the medial.....the middle road.....has always been the prescription. (Not that I oblige to follow it right away).

I get it. Try to inspect the inferior part of others'and our own humanities' before we judge. Spreading rumor and nastiness can ruin an innocent RNs' carreer. If we have a beef.....adress it directly with the "teaching moment"..........if ya suspect more incompetence after that....then do it professionally. Do not ostersize. We are all human. Judge thy neighbor as thyself is judged. Because, as soon as you judge.....won't be long till you &^%$-up in the same way.......yuck.....cause we are all human.

I think the poster is saying......"don't eat your young"........(even if they are physicians......hey, it's stressful to be GOD)......oxoxxoxoo

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Sep 2, 2011

During the first few days I was posting here, I felt a lot of negativity- and voiced it via a thread- and got blasted- LOL..... :chair:

Some kind nurses PMd me and showed me different ways to look at things, and it helped a lot..... One of those has already been touched on- this is a safe place to vent. When there are no other places to go, and nobody IRL who really understands, there will be someone here who "gets it".... sometimes co-workers are horrible. Sometimes docs are a royal pain in the butt to deal with (and some are dangerous). There's nothing wrong with expressing that :) It beats curling up in the fetal position and never going back to work

If people heard nurses at work with the sense of 'humor' we have, they'd be mortified....but I can't think of any nurse I've worked with (even if I didn't like them) who was callous- they just needed to build a callous around all of the sadness some patients carry with them....sort of like that here, with blowing off steam.

But again- already said- that's not the same as picking someone to death personally...but, it's ok to agree to disagree. If we all had the same responses to everything, it'd be like "Zombies"- :eek:

There's a lot of kindness here :) If people couldn't vent the pressure that comes with "saving lives", there would be a lot of "nurse mental breakdown" message boards :twocents: :heartbeat

JosefVernon Hodgkins · Sep 2, 2011

I understand venting. However I feel the need to say 'you're welcome,' because don't you just wonder which nurse executives are reading these posts.

Peace,

Joe

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Sep 2, 2011

I understand venting. However I feel the need to say 'you're welcome,' because don't you just wonder which nurse executives are reading these posts.

Peace,
Joe

Yeah-- that's been covered :)

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Sep 2, 2011

i understand venting. however i feel the need to say 'you're welcome,' because don't you just wonder which nurse executives are reading these posts.
which has recently been challenged in court.....with the boss losing.
amr recently lost a law suit brought by the nlrb and public forums and the employee's rights to complain about their boss in public the national labor relations board has filed an unfair labor practices complaint over the firing of a woman who "bad-mouthed" her boss on facebook.
according to "dawnmarie souza, a union paramedic who worked for connecticut's american medical response ambulance company, was fired in december 2009 after bad-mouthing a man called "frank" on facebook. her boss was named frank filardo, and she'd been in conflict with him for about a month over an incident report he'd asked her to write up on a client's complaint about her work."
an nlrb investigation found that souza's postings, which she did at home on her own computer, constituted protected activities under the national labor relations act, which gives employees the right to discuss their employment conditions with their coworkers.
the nlrb therefore believes that amr's termination of souza's employment was intended to unlawfully interfere with those activities and discourage her and others from engaging in such activities.
under the conditions of the settlement, the company agreed to modify its "overly broad rules" in the employee handbook about how employees can communicate online and talk about their work conditions with their coworkers. amr also consented to not punishing their employees for asking for union representation.
dawnmarie souza's case raised the controversial question of whether employers have the right to discipline their employees for any posts or comments written on social-networking sites.
amr had initially argued that souza's facebook comments were not protected activity on the internet, but the nlrb responded that firing souza from her job actually violated the national labor relations act. the nlra permits workers to discuss the conditions and terms of their job with coworkers and other people.
peace,
joe

which is probably why a major majority don't place our first, middle, and last names for all to see...... :smokin:

yes it can be harsh here....i too have felt the sting of sarcasm and distain....but it mostly is about answering questions sharing information, brain storming and letting our hair down.

ps. there are many that say thank you and you're welcome to me everyday...... :rolleyes:

brandy1017, ASN, RN · Sep 2, 2011

I think its good to be able to talk about how we're feeling, our working conditions and realize we're not alone in the struggle. Most of us aren't going out of our way to identify ourselves by name or mention our boss or hospitals by name so I don't see why we should worry about speaking out! Now if we were publicly running our boss or hospital down then yes look out and that is just plain stupid!

Now if supervisors are secretly looking thru these posts, then good I would hope they would see what problems exist related to working conditions and how to improve them for employee morale and satisfaction and of course for patient safety and satisfaction as well!

Reading thru most posts you find frustration with being overworked, too high staffing ratios, lack of equipment and unsafe conditions, not money, most don't complain I should be paid more, even though its common knowledge that wages are flat in nursing.

I would hope that management would see these issues and respond appropriately to fix what is broken in their facilities to ensure a safe work environment with positive morale. So many of these issues are really not that expensive and its ridiculous to use cost as a reason to not improve working conditions that cause needless stress, danger, infection rates of staff and patients. How much does it cost to put a working computer in every patients room and to have a dash tele monitor in every room. Computers are a few hundred dollars and then volume discount. Equipment in the rooms would save us time and stress and frustration and lower infection rates. It's just common sense!

Likewise we shouldn't need a govt law to get safe needles, but we did! We shouldn't need to wait for a govt law to force hospitals to provide a safe no lift environment. They should be creating bariatric rooms with ceiling lifts to protect us and our increasingly obese patients. It would improve safety and also the dignity of our patients. There is no excuse in my mind for a hospital to fail to provide a sit to stand and to expect the staff to lift patients that can't bear their own weight. The outcome is guaranteed to cause back and neck injuries and lead to a patient fall! The workers comp costs alone are worth having this basic lift equipment. Also where is the compassion and concern for your staff that you would let them needlessly be injured and suffer in chronic pain and possibly become disabled when it could be prevented so easily and wouldn't cost that much. When you think of the millions hospitals don't blink an eye to spend on remodeling and pet projects like the $400,000 Ritz-Carlton PR debacle, how can they in good conscience refuse to provide a safe working environment for their staff and patients!

I would plead that if any managers are reading this, please stand up for your staff and fight for the equipment and lifting equipment they need to do their job safely!

I would be overjoyed if my hospital actually did these things. I would be the first person to let everyone know the good news!

ZippyGBR, BSN, RN · Sep 2, 2011

as others have said Allnurses is a safe place to vent , it's a place where you will find sympathy, empathy and challenge in equal measure , part of what makes good Nurses good at their job is that they recognise the need for a measure of all three ... some of us are better at one than the others - some of us are prepared to go out on a limb with one of the three ( for those that know me - that'll be 'challenge' won't it ... )

papawjohn · Sep 3, 2011

Joe, my friend, I didn't bother to check on all your other posts but would I find something on the order of 'What a great experience I had at work today!' if I looked? I've occasionally put that sorta thing here. Three nights ago I was pulled from my ICU to a med-surg unit. Usually a horrible experience for all concerned! One of my Pt's was a retired Nrsg Instructor. We had a wonderful time together! It was swell! Last night I had a Pt who'd been admitted yesterday with 'water intoxication'; his Na was 107 in the ER. Vent, propofol -- and in our little community hospital, only peripheral IVs. For me he went into acute renal failure, produced no urine for 12hrs! Was 'shocky' all night -- diaphoretic, ventricular arrhythmias, BP down to 70 @ times. I was juggling him with norepinephrine and propofol and getting lab-work and starting IVs and talking to MDs all night long. I s'pose he's not likely to survive but by golly he got everything I had to give. And it was with a great feeling of satisfaction that I reported off to the Day-shift folks this AM.

After 30yrs, I still love my profession. Many times I hate my JOB. But when I'm at work it's usually a great time to be me.

Maybe we should have a special place to go here to say "what a great shift I had!" I'd like to contribute to it.

Yer old PapawJohn

carolmaccas66, BSN, RN · Sep 3, 2011

Joe are you a supervisor?