I work at a hospital that until the last week or so would close beds once we reached our pt/nurse ratio of 5/1. The unit is a renal tele floor and vented pts/drips/etc are not unusual. 5/1 is pushing the threshold of safe pt care.
Now, the director of nursing for the hospital has decided that she doesn't give a crap about the ratio and that, "we will take more patients"
and it's not her problem we don't have staffing. The other day we had 8 nurses, with the charge nurse, and a census of 40 patients meaning that most nurses had to take 6 pts. Our normal staffing is 10 nurses, as we have 46 beds. Our sister tele unit one floor down has a ratio of 4/1 and does not take vented pts and has a lower pt acuity than us. By the way, I work in MD, so no mandatory ratios.
Basically, if the hospital administration continues this crap, I will be leaving. Our nurse manager refuses to allow us to pull call to cover the unit when we are short nurses, which seems like an easy temporary fix. What can you do when your director of nursing for the hospital has become unsympathetic and is basically forcing you to put your license on the line? Has anyone else encountered a similar situation and what did you do? Really, any suggestions would be helpful.
Specializes in Telemetry, post partum, critical care.
the experience i have had most consistently is that supervisors are in between staff nurses and upper management. if management is not pleased they will be fired. if the nurses are not content they may be fired. most of them can't work the floor anymore - or do not want to. the person above had it right.
i'm sure supervisory work can be tough - patient and doctor complaints, etc. however, most of the supervisors i have seen do not use their managerial skills. they are trying to appease everyone. someone above this person is putting the screws to her (or him). they probably think if the nurses do not like it they will leave. you do need to stand together and if the nurses are not willing to do so they will have no power whatsoever. people will do to you (unfortunately) what you let them. it depends upon the entire nursing staff if there is no union representation.
another thing is that i believe some directors of nursing are power hungry. in my estimation the house supervisors (the ones on duty when these decisions are made) are simply enforcing her or his decisions. they have no real power. hate to say this - but if you dont have a brain it's a pretty good job. this is only what i have observed and may not be universally true. my 2 cents.
[color=#00bfff]the supervisors have the power to write you up though - just not to imporove the working conditions.
barbie90210
46 Posts
the experience i have had most consistently is that supervisors are in between staff nurses and upper management. if management is not pleased they will be fired. if the nurses are not content they may be fired. most of them can't work the floor anymore - or do not want to. the person above had it right.
i'm sure supervisory work can be tough - patient and doctor complaints, etc. however, most of the supervisors i have seen do not use their managerial skills. they are trying to appease everyone. someone above this person is putting the screws to her (or him). they probably think if the nurses do not like it they will leave. you do need to stand together and if the nurses are not willing to do so they will have no power whatsoever. people will do to you (unfortunately) what you let them. it depends upon the entire nursing staff if there is no union representation.
another thing is that i believe some directors of nursing are power hungry. in my estimation the house supervisors (the ones on duty when these decisions are made) are simply enforcing her or his decisions. they have no real power. hate to say this - but if you dont have a brain it's a pretty good job. this is only what i have observed and may not be universally true. my 2 cents.
[color=#00bfff]the supervisors have the power to write you up though - just not to imporove the working conditions.