Threats from Management

grandee3 · Jan 15, 2006

Before my hospital floated away with Katrina, my manager had this thing about posting unit meetings and always, in large bold letters "manditory" and usually at 7:45am. I worked night shift. How can you make a meeting manditory when only one time is offered? If I was off the night before but had to work the night (12hr shift) of the meeting I was not going to get up and go to that meeting then have to go back home and sleep. I usually stay up the night before a shift and sleep until around 1pm on the day I have to work. Most of my co workers felt the same way.

We got together and talked to her about this. She did not have a lot to say about the subject. Another thing, the meetings did not start until after 8am. Our shift ended at 7:10am so we had to sit around almost an hour and then sit thru an hour or two of the same thing over and over.

Why does mgt ever thing about night shift people? It's almost as if we don't exist. I wonder who they think keeps the place running at night and keep things running smooth so we don't have to call them in the middle of the night. :lol2:

kat911 · Jan 15, 2006

This post really worries me. I was an NDE inspector for 20 years and left the profession over these EXACT same practices. When my company was aquired in '90 I made roughly 30/hr, managed a department, traveled the world on per diem and a first rate compensation package. After my company left I was offered many jobs at less than 1/2 my former pay. I took a position with a high tech ceramics manufacturer and was surprised to find my boss was a punk kid who didn't know JACK about the business and constantly threatened those of us with the knowledge about attending his little sappy meetings. He kept loading more and more work on while cutting back on the hours. After a couple of years of looking for a suitable replacement ( now armed with pertinant questions designed to reveal the TRUTH about an employer from an interviewer ) I decided to go where the money is: Health care.
I thought surely they won't treat their skilled help like dirt. There won't be a bunch of additional work heaped on every week. There won't be any cost saving measures...surely not when were talking about human beings LIVES.
I'm almost through with LPN school and I can see skeleton crews working mandatory overtime while patients pay the price. My potential co workers mostly fall into one of two catagories: Veteran; not happy about the situation, glad to throw off all the really crappy jobs on someone else.OR Gullible young woman who have been raised and trained in this client hostile environ. They're mostly happy in thier naievete because they have yet to attempt to raise a family and juggle a life where other humans depend upon you for things.- Thats OK someone has to be satisfied.
I'm seriously dissapointed and not feeling very secure in my decission.
One thing this board KEEPS reinforcing: I will NOT work in any hospital or nursing home... I just wouldn't last

What a negative view of a profession you have yet to practice. I don't fall into either of your two catagories. I am a "veteran" of 27 years. I don't have a family and I am quite content about my job. I enjoy taking care of patients and I enjoy the people I work with. Everything is not rosy, we are short staffed, some days staffing is horrible, there is little I can do about it except try to help out as best I can. Being dedicated and caring about people regardless of experience is not being "gullible" or "Naive". It's called hope and optimism. This profession needs a lot more of it, that and patience! Why have you decided on being an LVN? LVN's are literally the worker bees of the profession. Lord, where would we be without them! Have I overreacted here???:imbar

Town & Country · Jan 15, 2006

I thing mandatory meetings or any meeting are a crashing bore, and a total waste of time. When they start actually discussing the ISSUES ON THE UNIT I will come. Until then, they can kiss my ***.

LOL

I mean, how many meetings have you been to where the actual problems on the unit were the subject of discussion?

Usually it's the "who left the cap off the toothpaste" type deals.....

...yawn.

:rolleyes:

casi, ASN, RN · Jan 15, 2006

First off I have to say thank you to all the managers who are accomodating to their night staff!

Where I work they are still trying to work out mandatory monlthly nursing department meetings. Most of the time none of the night shift shows up. The meetings are at 2pm and lasting 1-2hours, no matter what time I go to bed those days, there's no possible way to get 8 hours straight of sleep which I so desperately want and as a student the meeting time gets even worse. Their ways of trying to get everyone there is by making the staff that didn't attend write an essay on what happened during the meeting, now I think that they are writing staff up for missing a meeting without valid excuse.

We had tried talking to our boss, they could tell that night shift was having a rough time with it. We all looked exhausted. We begged and pleaded, because those that did come to the meeting only had 1-3 hours of sleep. Our answer was. "I worked nights for ___ many years, and I know how hard it is, but these meetings are mandatory and you have to be here."

Thankfully we have a new DON who is willing to work with her employees and hold the nursing department meetings more than once a day.

mobileRN · Jan 16, 2006

While I understand and agree that inservices are a vital part of nursing, I don't understand why inservices are not scheduled on 2 different days and at 3 different times. Perhaps administration needs to act like responsible adults when scheduling inservices.

.

I agree! And are you getting paid to attend this meeting ?

kimmie1224, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN, EMT-B, APN, APRN, NP · Jan 16, 2006

I have done travel nursing for the past 3 years and during orientation at each facility I could almost immediatly figure out what types of problems they had had in the past by the amount of time they spent on a particular subject. For instance, "mandatory meetings", be there or get written up...apparently they have a problem with people showing up at meetings.

One hospital spent alot of time discussing call outs and "points" for missing work.

One hospital spent 2 hours on sexual harrassment.

Another spent most of their time on "playing nicely with your coworkers".

Kim

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Jan 16, 2006

Our unit staff meetings are mandatory in the sense that they're held in our break room over the supper hour. If you're working and want to have your supper in the break room, you are then in attendance at the meeting. The only people paid to attend are those on their supper breaks. The meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month, and the agenda is posted a week ahead, with space for staff to write in agenda items. Usually on the day of the meeting, the agenda is blank except for management's topics. I've been stuck attending a number of these meetings because I need to eat before I make my half-hour drive home... The issues addressed are always the same, and the solutions are always the same. Nothing changes. The last few times I've been working on meeting day, I've arranged my supper break for before the meeting starts, so that I can be done and out of the room before they get going. Of course, availability of minutes from these meetings is hit-and-miss, so I don't get the rationale of even having them.

Much of our communication is via e-mail, which is fine if you're someone who reads theirs. Our clinical instructor prefers to educate staff with Power-Point posters and memos, which are in essence useless. Our contract stipulates 23 hours a year of inservice time, not including mandatory recertifications which are scheduled into our rotation. How much actual inservice time do we get? About none. I'd love to see an audit of our unit... Boy would they have some 'splainin' to do!

noc4senuf · Jan 17, 2006

I am one of those terrible management people that have mandatory meetings. THere are several reasons we do post them that way: to make sure ANYone shows up; to ensure everyone gets the info; and mainly d/t state survey or consultants giving us "very" short deadlines that ALL staff have to be inserviced and haveing the proof to show them. I for one certainly don't like trying to arrange meetings 24 hours a day to "accomdate" each individual. I usually try for 6AM & 2PM meetings hoping they can get to one of the time frames. The only time I don't give optional times is when i have scheduled a speaker. Right now I have multiple items that all nurses and CNA's need to know and be observed for before Jan 31st and several new policies written also. So, if I am putting in all those extra hours to ensure their job, they can accomodate my meetings.

worldtraveler · Jan 17, 2006

Hey, I just wanted to know if anyone else has had threats from management for stupid stuff, like not showing up for "Mandantory Meetings". I just started this job and have noticed that at the bottom of all the flyers it states "if you do not show up disiplinary action will be taken". I've worked for 40 years (15 in nursing) and have NEVER NEVER NEVER once been told that I would have disiplinary action for not showing up for one of their meetings that was scheduled on my day off. Is this standard practice in healthcare now or are these people just predatory violence seekers. And isn't this considered "horizontal violence" (or maybe lateral, lol)

I ran into this problem at the last facility I worked at but spoke to the Nurse Manager and we agreed I would be allowed to attend VIA SpeakerPhone. Each meeting she would place the Telephone on the large conference Table where meetings were conducted and it worked like a charm. Many other industries use this medium and BTW, it is legal. You may want to try this approach. It is mindboggling in this day and age of High Tech such as Video Conferencing and WebCams, many hospitals have not put this technology to work as far as staff meetings. I reminded one unreceptive nurse manager that Docs in many areas perform daily video rounds on their patients, why not allow nurses to participate in staff meetings in the same medium? :rolleyes: Case Closed..

anichols · Jan 17, 2006

have to share my favorite madatory meeting story...once worked weekend doubles at a ltf and was in school full-time during week. d.o.n. knew this and was willing to leave paperwork for me to complete. then came the new administrator. since i had it worked out with the d.o.n, i didn't go to the mandatory meetings during classes. but no paperwork was ever left--new admin didn't do that, be there or be written up. these meetings included such highlights as watching a fast-food training video about giving the cusomer an extra pickle to improve satisfaction and we were all told to give 'em the pickle--it was even posted in every hallway. he also enjoyed reading the list of who he'd fired that week and reminding us our state doesn't need a reason to fire. oh yeah, and his trip to the zoo with his kids or how he bossed around the workers at a drive-thru burger joint because his order wasn't right and made them *deliver* a new one. these lasted roughly 1-2 hours apeice. plus regular inservices and i ended up dropping out of school because i could never make class and missed tests...one week we had 4 mandatory meetings/inservices, all one time only and during dayshift! the place i work now leaves minutes and knows i'll have a problem making meetings. it's my responsibility to learn new info but i love them for trying to accomadate me!

SmilingBluEyes · Jan 17, 2006

I like the idea of writing up minutes and having everyone held responsible for the information. So many of these meetings are held at impossible times on days off------and so much of it is the same old same old......just write up minutes and make them accountable as adults. Another alternative is having a NOC shift POC (a senior charge nurse, for instance) who could pass this info along to NOC shift employees at a time that works for them.

All of this Makes sense to me.

islandhopper · Jan 18, 2006

I checked with the Labor Board and was told that if a meeting is mandatory it must be offered on each shift. I don't respond well to threats. If its an informative meeting great I am all for it...if its a ***** session I prefer to sleep in thank you very much.