Nursing burn out.

[1KandyRN]

I've been working on a Med/surg trauma floor for over 12 year. I like the floor I work on, but they leave us short staff most of the time. I work night shift and our floor holds 35 patients, they only have cnas from 7-3 and 3-11 and for 35 patients they only have two on the floor. Then after 11 we don't have a cna for the rest of the shift. So we're passing meds, cleaning, turning, and doing vital signs on our patients. Not to mention we have to cover 1 or 2 of the lvn patients. So instead of us having 5 patients we end up with 6 or 7. Also we dont have a unit secretary. The management is constantly telling us about over time, how can they say anything to us and our staffing is ways screwed up. Like I said before I like the floor I work on and the cases are interesting but a lot of the time these 12 hour shifts are rough to get through. This is really contributing to my burnout. If the hospital would stop being cheap asses and staff us right it would run a lot better.

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

They want to get every last penny they can and do not have ANY problem putting it on the nurses back to do so! You can complain all you want and it rarely changes unless they feel financially secure which is not often! I have listened to this for 34 years and I have learned to weed out what it really important and what I need to listen to and the rest I just discard. I will not even listen to the BS about overtime being about the nurses inability to organize.....ha ha....who are you kidding. Every nurse that lasts more than a few months can juggle so many things at once it can make your head spin! You want a signed overtime slip..OK you got it...but I will decide when my job is done and I refuse to take any crap for it. If I can be trusted with someones life I certainly can determine if I need extra time to complete patent care or the boatloads of charting now required. Listen and ignore the stuff that makes no sense or you will go nuts and pay the price with health problems,high stress levels and burnout..it's just not worth it. Smile :) and add up your check when you feel down or discouraged and never forget how wonderful nurses really are!

[anewsns]

I just can't stand that... I don't know if exploitation is too dramatic of a word but that's what it seems like to me. Some companies truly only care about the bottom line and expect you to be the same way. At the expense of your well being and ideal patient care. "it's not in the budget " doesn't mean "we can't afford it".. It means "somebody didn't include it in the budget." Or that's what it seems like to me