Nursing is becoming stupid

[canigraduate]

I have had a horrible week and I have figured something out.

The people who make the rules are stupid.

Yes, my friends, stupid.

I have only been a nurse for four years, but in these four years I have noticed some things that lead me to question the sanity and the IQ of the powers that be.

I am working for an unnamed healthcare system who is a very large employer and the people that run it are morons. The people that work in it aren't much better. And the nurses, well, they have been beaten down to the point that they just put up with it.

We have lots of hospitals in the region, but we don't have specialist coverage consistently. So, I got a patient a couple of weeks ago that had an emergent condition that needed to be treated by a specialist. But, that specialty is only covered every other week. This patient happened to come in during the wrong week. So, what did they do? EMTALA the patient? No, they put the patient in OBS with a BP that was consistently in the 80's over 40's. How is this safe?

Needless to say, I had this patient transferred to the ICU in the first 10 minutes of my shift and put a burr up the butt of the House Supervisor to get this patient transferred somewhere they could actually be treated.

Recently, I had a patient that needed a stat ultrasound. So, I put the order in. Ultrasound calls me back and tells me that I have to call the provider back and get a consult from a more acute specialty, because my doc's order isn't good enough for them to call the night U/S team in. So, I had to call a consult, completely unnecessarily. On the phone, the consultant decided to get a CT Angio instead and we cancelled the U/S. However, thinking that the consult was emergent and not just to satisfy policy, the consultant actually came to see the patient at 10:00 at night and decided the CT Angio was overkill and to do the U/S, but it could wait until morning. He was also super angry that we had called him and I got the "Why did you even call me?" angry spiel and butt-chew.

I was tempted to say, "Because we work for morons." But, I didn't.

Sometimes I really hate what nursing is turning into in the hospital. It's basically throw meds at a patient and try your darnedest to keep the hospital's policies from killing them before you can get them home. I have spent hours on the phone with docs, supervisors, consultants, managers, and family members from these FUBARs, and many more besides.

I really feel like the powers that be are out to kill the patients and make the nurses' lives hell because they are so so focused on turning a profit.

Am I just working in a bad system, or are the powers that be really putting in so many barriers that we can't care for patients anymore?

[divobari]

Yeah, it's unfortunate. It makes me sad for people in the hospital when I tell them that I left my profession as an world-traveled opera singer to become a nurse and they immediately assume that it was time to finally "earn some money"... I am happy to share my enthusiasm for nursing. This conversation happens at least once a week.

[Bob Loblaw]

The new term is not patient care, but patient flow. I work in an ED and I have to document in the EMR when I page a M/S RN to take report about an ADMIT pt. The RN has 15 mins to respond and take report, if not I am required to document that RN for not responding and report to the ED charge who calls the M/S charge to document a disruption in patient flow. Not much team building.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

The new term is not patient care, but patient flow. I work in an ED and I have to document in the EMR when I page a M/S RN to take report about an ADMIT pt. The RN has 15 mins to respond and take report, if not I am required to document that RN for not responding and report to the ED charge who calls the M/S charge to document a disruption in patient flow. Not much team building.

Sounds like a way for management to pit nurses against each other rather than banding together on improved patient care and working conditions.

[No Stars In My Eyes]

The new term is not patient care, but patient flow. I work in an ED and I have to document in the EMR when I page a M/S RN to take report about an ADMIT pt. The RN has 15 mins to respond and take report, if not I am required to document that RN for not responding and report to the ED charge who calls the M/S charge to document a disruption in patient flow. Not much team building.

Sounds like the Trickle-Down-Theory.

There's already plenty of patient 'flowing' of various bodily fluids going on in an Emergency Dept.

Sounds like a relay race!

Remember the old 1950's game show "Beat The Clock!"?.... It was where the contestants had to complete some task before their time was up, and when they couldn't get done on time, they were dunked or dumped-on or get slammed and covered with some disgusting ( but good, clean fun) liquid or semi-liquid....and the audience screamed with laughter.

I can't imagine having to make every disparate and unpredictable situation and patient fit in to an "ideal" framework like that. I mean, essentially the facility's administrator's desire is for the "ED experience" to be more palatable to the patient, I mean CUSTOMER, therefore, once again, the nurses are the ones to conform to the latest twist of the vise.

Sounds like a severe case of Patient Flow, if you get my drift.....which I can't imagine you would miss!

[VANurse2010]

The new term is not patient care, but patient flow. I work in an ED and I have to document in the EMR when I page a M/S RN to take report about an ADMIT pt. The RN has 15 mins to respond and take report, if not I am required to document that RN for not responding and report to the ED charge who calls the M/S charge to document a disruption in patient flow. Not much team building.

15 min is f_____ ridiculous.