I would like to share my experience as a RN for over 20 years. Besides providing patient care, being a nurse in modern times is toxic to your mind, body, and soul! Being the "backbone" of the healthcare industry, nurses are modern day slaves for healthcare administration, physicians, and boards of nursing. Nurses are expected to maintain the highest standards of professionalism both on the clock and in your own personal off time. Any actions less than perfect, on or off the clock, others will judge and criticize you as not being a "good nurse". As a nurse, your not allowed to be human and you will always have this "good nurse" complex hanging over your head. Have any of you nurses ever heard physicians be told a "good doctor" would do this or that? I highly doubt it yet nurses are the ones correcting physicians mistakes on a daily basis. Ha! Yet nurses are the ones most frequently judged. Toxic for your mind, body, and soul.
Lets now talk about this flawed healthcare system. Over the past two decades, light has been shed on the fact that healthcare consumer costs in the USA is the highest in the world, however, favorable patient outcomes are sub-optimal compared to several other countries which has stimulated the need for healthcare reform. Who do you think this has had the greatest impact on? Nurses! We are now expected to provide higher quality of care using less resources. Seriously? This is like a slap in the face. It's like nurses are being punished for a flawed system from the get go and this concept makes it sound like nurses have been lacking in compassion, lazy, and providing poor patient care. Toxic for your mind, body, and soul.
How about this eternal nursing shortage? I just completed a RN to BSN degree and learned one of the methods of mitigating this nursing shortage is to promote teamwork. I am all for teamwork but patient workloads that I am unable to manage on my own puts my patients safety and professional license on the line. Assuming someone else will be available to help me with my workload is no guarantee. This is another situation where nurses are having to bridge another flawed area of the system. It is not the nurses fault that the industry can't recruit and maintain nurses. With the harsh working conditions and low pay in comparison, I am not surprised we can't get more people to join the nursing workforce. Toxic for your mind, body, and soul.
Patient safety. Patient safety only applies when the voice of administration is directed towards the nurse. However, when the nurse's voice regarding patient safety is directed towards administration we are stepped on like cockroaches.
Education requirements for nurses are climbing while the working conditions for nurses are going downhill and no increase in pay. Boards of nursing hover over your head forever just waiting for you to make a mistake so they can rip your license away because they are there to "protect the public". This is such a crock also. They should be more concerned about micromanaging the healthcare industry putting patients at risk due to inadequate staffing resulting in high nurse to patient ratios which has been proved to be a significant cause of mistakes leading to increased morbidity and mortality. Toxic for your mind, body, and soul.
I realize magnet status hospitals are a step in the right direction for those who actually exercise its conceptual components and don't just make themselves look good on paper to achieve the award. But! Magnet status hospitals only account for around 6% of the US hospitals.
I could go on and on especially about how the lack of PPE and nurses lives that are being put at risk over this pandemic. What horrible planning and management by the organizations who have received tons of money to protect us. It's a shame and once more toxic for your mind, body, and soul!
I say I'm "Fired & Retired" but I'm not drawing SS as yet, and I have multiple feelers out for possible positions.
I'm allowing The Fates to lead me.
Thanks for your interest, Jedrnurse!
Well as some people know I'm retired and too young for SS, but getting by on my pension and savings till I can start SS at 62. I worked thru 2020, but walked away and have no plans to come back! Worse case scenario I would sell my plasma rather than go back to being a bedside nurse! Seriously! I'm not kidding!
Just reading my comments from last year, all the bad emotions flooded back; and I'm so thankful not to be trapped in that situation anymore. I finally have peace of mind, no stress or anger, I have time and freedom. I wouldn't trade it for all the money in the world. I've been able to finally take care of my own health, help my family, and walk the dog. I'm looking forward to riding my bike again once the weather warms up! And, of course, planting flowers one of my favorite hobbies!
For the others out there suffering, I hope you can find a way to break free from a bad job. The money isn't worth the damage to your health and life! I hope others can take early retirement or at least find a better job that isn't toxic!
Well as some people know I'm retired and too young for SS, but getting by on my pension and savings till I can start SS at 62. I worked thru 2020, but walked away and have no plans to come back! Worse case scenario I would sell my plasma rather than go back to being a bedside nurse! Seriously! I'm not kidding!
Just reading my comments from last year, all the bad emotions flooded back; and I'm so thankful not to be trapped in that situation anymore. I finally have peace of mind, no stress or anger, I have time and freedom. I wouldn't trade it for all the money in the world. I've been able to finally take care of my own health, help my family, and walk the dog. I'm looking forward to riding my bike again once the weather warms up! And, of course, planting flowers one of my favorite hobbies!
For the others out there suffering, I hope you can find a way to break free from a bad job. The money isn't worth the damage to your health and life! I hope others can take early retirement or at least find a better job that isn't toxic!
Brandy1017, I don't think there have been any comments in AN that have resonated more with me than yours. I am also a career, hospital nurse of almost 30 years and find myself in the exact position that you described in your original post. At 55 yo, I would love to go per diem at my job, working an occasional day, and supplementing my income bagging groceries, stocking shelves, selling plasma.... but there is always the issue of medical insurance. Last year while between jobs, my wife required emergency retinal surgery that would have cost us over $12,000 OOP if I hadn't been able to scramble and bridge with a COBRA policy. Universal Healthcare would be a game changer for me (and I'm sure many others) and I would resign tomorrow if it were in place. Sadly, Nursing is the only career that I have ever had, but I still just can't imagine that there are the sheer number of crazy, toxic, passive aggressive coworkers in other professions and the complete incivility:( Also, like you, I have very little to show monetarily for all those years, weekends, holidays, 3 AM call backs.... Yeah, I have a small pension, a small IRA and some $ in savings, but a pittance for all that toil, frustration, stress, work-related depression, and a bad back. I SO want to walk away, just like you did!!
Specializes in Oncology, ID, Hepatology, Occy Health.
7 minutes ago, morelostthanfound said:
At 55 yo, I would love to go per diem at my job, working an occasional day, and tsupplement my income bagging groceries, stocking shelves, selling plasma.... but there is always the issue of medical insurance. Last year while between jobs, my wife required emergency retinal surgery that would have cost us over $12,000 OOP if I hadn't been able to scramble and bridge with a COBRA policy. Universal Healthcare would be a game changer for me (and I'm sure many others) and I would resign tomorrow if there were.
I find it very sad that in the largest economy in the world, people are scared to leave jobs becasue they couldn't afford healthcare otherwise.
Our system is far from perfect, but every time I read comments like this from Americans I am so grateful to live in a country with universal social security where you don't have to worry about being sick, whatever job you have or even if you're unemployed/retired/non-active.
Specializes in Community Health, Med/Surg, ICU Stepdown.
The fact that fear of bankruptcy if we experience a medical emergency keeps us in jobs we don’t like is crazy. The jobs probably make us need the health insurance more because of the toll they take on our mental and physical health.
I need only one psych med and have absolutely no physical health issues. I could easily pay for the med and prefer to work per diem to have more time to spend with my future adopted children. But the unlikely chance that I may have a $200,000 ICU bill one day controls my employment decisions. I was recently in a car accident where my breaks went out and my car rolled down a huge hill in SF and flipped over but somehow I didn’t even have a scratch. Paramedics were amazed. This made me want to say screw it and be uninsured even more, if l get a big bill pay monthly installments for the rest of my life. But I know that’s a bad choice
Brandy1017, I don't think there have been any comments in AN that have resonated more with me than yours. I am also a career, hospital nurse of almost 30 years and find myself in the exact position that you described in your original post. At 55 yo, I would love to go per diem at my job, working an occasional day, and supplementing my income bagging groceries, stocking shelves, selling plasma.... but there is always the issue of medical insurance. Last year while between jobs, my wife required emergency retinal surgery that would have cost us over $12,000 OOP if I hadn't been able to scramble and bridge with a COBRA policy. Universal Healthcare would be a game changer for me (and I'm sure many others) and I would resign tomorrow if it were in place. Sadly, Nursing is the only career that I have ever had, but I still just can't imagine that there are the sheer number of crazy, toxic, passive aggressive coworkers in other professions and the complete incivility:( Also, like you, I have very little to show monetarily for all those years, weekends, holidays, 3 AM call backs.... Yeah, I have a small pension, a small IRA and some $ in savings, but a pittance for all that toil, frustration, stress, work-related depression, and a bad back. I SO want to walk away, just like you did!!
From LibraNurse27,BSN,RN
The fact that fear of bankruptcy if we experience a medical emergency keeps us in jobs we don’t like is crazy. The jobs probably make us need the health insurance more because of the toll they take on our mental and physical health.
I need only one psych med and have absolutely no physical health issues. I could easily pay for the med and prefer to work per diem to have more time to spend with my future adopted children. But the unlikely chance that I may have a $200,000 ICU bill one day controls my employment decisions. I was recently in a car accident where my breaks went out and my car rolled down a huge hill in SF and flipped over but somehow I didn’t even have a scratch. Paramedics were amazed. This made me want to say screw it and be uninsured even more, if l get a big bill pay monthly installments for the rest of my life. But I know that’s a bad choice
I apologize for how long this is, but it's worth reading. I give in-depth info on both Obamacare, the affordable care insurance and medicare. For anyone interested or in need of either, please read thru!
I totally understand how you guys feel and the health insurance was the reason I held on, but I finally decided I would make due with Obamacare and take my chances. It is really crappy insurance, HMO only, no out of network coverage whatever! It has insanely high deductibles 6,500 to 8,000 plus a year for single coverage. But I felt the stress was killing me and if not causing, at least exacerbating medical problems, especially HTN.
I had already been buying my prescriptions on my own as I had a high deductible insurance. There is some help out there, Walmart has a lot of $4-8 generics and other stores have followed. Also the goodRX discount is very helpful to me and I use it at Kroger grocery stores. There is a gold goodRX discount card was a yearly $35 fee, which I used, but now changed to $6/month single, I think $12/month family. There is another similar discount card called SingleCare, I haven't used it so far, but it's good to know there are other options. Lastly, worse case scenario Costco has a flat fixed mark up on all its meds I think 5% so they are the place to go for expensive meds if goodRX etc won't work.
It's not perfect I take an old fashioned asthma med that had been $4/mo then skyrocketed to $700 a month just because the pharmaceutical companies decided to jack the rate up for no reason! That year I maxed thru my deductible for health issues and my hospital pharmacy asked if I wanted to fill it. You're damn right I wanted to fill it, especially when Wrongway was footing the bill! Thankfully the med's price came back down and is now around $25/month. It is ridiculous and disgusting the way we Americans are at the mercy of these greedy pharmaceutical companies because of political corruption! We are the only country that doesn't have price controls on meds.
I'm purposely waiting on the so called free wellness like mammogram or colonoscopy, which is a joke, they find one polyp, as they most likely will, and then you'll be stuck with a $4,000 bill. Anyway starting next year, out of network surprise bills from ER visits or anesthesiologists are supposed to be outlawed. I had a friend who had surgery for breast cancer and used Obamacare and told me she paid $20,000. You mean for the premiums and deductibles. No and then I realized it was probably because an anesthesiologist was out of network. Next year the insurance company and doctors must negotiate and not leave the public on the hook for the whole surprise bill.
Married couples many times made too much to get subsidies to pay for the ridiculous insurance premiums, but now you are limited to 8.5% of your income for the next two years, no income limit. Currently temporary, but hopefully Congress will make that permanent. Still the insurance is nothing to brag about and the deductibles are too high.
This reality is behind the attempts to expand medicare to 50 and older. But even if that were to pass, you'd still be left with having to pay for a supplement as medicare pays only 80% of the bill. Whether or not you can buy a supplement and how much you'll be charged will depend on the laws of the state you live in. Some don't allow medicare supplements for under 65 or make you pay huge fees if you became disabled. By the way, currently you have to wait two years to be eligible for medicare if you become disabled. That too is a long waiting period as social security usually denies people to discourage them and perhaps hoping they die before they successfully appeal! The waiting periods to be approved for SS disability itself are over two years in some states!
Also when you are 65 and eligible for medicare you have a one time chance to choose any medicare supplement you want regardless of your health, but after that you are subject to medical underwriting and could be unable to change again, except for medicare advantage. They will take all people, but once again you are dealing with an HMO whose sole reason for being is profit. There is actually two open enrollment periods for medicare advantage, in the fall and Jan to March if you want to disenroll!
This is because they make profit by limiting Dr's, limiting your ability to see a specialist and denying care and treatments. I read 75% of appeals are found in favor of the patient so that only goes to show that profit is the real motivator behind these tactics!
Not only that, but they can legally change Dr's in the middle of the year! Too bad if that happens and you lose your Dr or hospital. Sadly it does happen and is a disaster for cancer patients especially!
Another issue for cancer patients is the availability and cost of chemo. They limit specialists and meds to make a profit. Stats are anywhere from one out of two or one out of three people will have cancer in their life time. At exactly that time you are at the mercy of a medicare advantage plan and also subject to medical underwriting which may make it impossible for you to switch to original medicare and a supplement.
You can always switch to original medicare, but the supplements can deny you. Then you are dealing with 20% out of pocket and NO LIMIT to what your share of the cost! This is also the case for original medicare and the Medicare Part D drug coverage, after you spend thru catastrophic you are liable for 5% with no limit! Since this is the case medicare insurance brokers will advise you to try to stay out of catastrophe, by get this, paying cash for your drugs thru goodrx, vs using your medicare part D drug coverage!
Yes medicare advantage may offer dental, vision and hearing (which original medicare doesn't cover), but at the expense of your freedom of choice to see any Dr or specialist. Also the plan can change yearly so even if your Dr is in network, next year they may not be.
You also will be subject to medical underwriting if and when you realize the advantage plan is a trap. Of course, it's lure is it is cheaper, sometimes free, but you no longer have medicare. Ironically the medicare.org will steer you to the advantage plans instead of the original medicare and supplement. Apparently the govt wants to save money by encouraging it's citizens to get off medicare, such a sad state of affairs!
The reality of health insurance in America is very disheartening!
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
On 4/30/2021 at 4:58 PM, brandy1017 said:
Worse case scenario I would sell my plasma rather than go back to being a bedside nurse! Seriously! I'm not kidding!
all the bad emotions flooded back
Brandy, I am 100% behind you and in identifying with you. Being a nurse was a good career choice and blah blah blah, but I miss nothing about being a nurse.
Speaking of bad emotions, I put on a pair of my old scrubs yesterday, figuring I'd wear them while building a motorized bicycle.
I did not even like the feeling of wearing those scrubs.
They were practical and comfortable when I worked as a nurse, but I have no use for them now.
Specializes in Physiology, CM, consulting, nsg edu, LNC, COB.
On 5/1/2021 at 6:43 PM, brandy1017 said:
I'm purposely waiting on the so called free wellness like mammogram or colonoscopy, which is a joke, they find one polyp, as they most likely will, and then you'll be stuck with a $4,000 bill.
Not true. The ACA is still the law of the land, and you can get a screening colonoscopy for nothing by law. If they find something in there that needs further care and assessment, you still do NOT get billed for the screening. That’s what “screening” is all about, there may be an error from the billing department but if they tell you that you have a diagnosis you tell them that’s why it’s called a screen. I can guarantee you that when you report this to your insurance coverage they will take care of it. No copays of any kind for this- prep, surgeon, anes, facility. None. Likewise c mammogram. Advocate for yourself, don’t give up. Billing depts make errors and this is a common one.
There are choices in plans under the ACA. You don’t have to have one c a high deductible.
Specializes in Physiology, CM, consulting, nsg edu, LNC, COB.
On 5/18/2020 at 12:04 PM, brandy1017 said:
I do agree with you that nursing is an unhealthy job, in mind, body and spirit. At least it has been for me and many others. Also that the majority of us are put in impossible situations where we can't give safe, quality care because of a lack of staff and supplies. But click a box and chart and pretend it's all good! So many nurses are working thru lunch unpaid and no breaks trying to do a good job, all the while corporate mgmt uses our compassion against us!
I've become so cynical over the years and just bone tired of it all! I'm preparing for retirement ASAP as I don't know
This reply isn’t specifically to Brandy1017 but to everybody out there who agrees c this sentiment and mindset, and we see there are a lot of you.
Where is it written that you have to work in a hospital or other care situation? I wish I had a nickel for every such posting— “nursing is toxic— admin hates us— my coworkers suck— I wish I’d never gone to nursing school— yadda yadda.” I’d be rich ... but they’d still be stuck complaining.
Get out. Use your nursing for something else. Yes, YOU. There are SOOOOOO MANY nurses in non-hospital jobs loving what they do. Why aren’t you choosing to be one of them?
Sure, it’s scary to step out of your comfort zone. But I don’t hear a lot of evidence of comfort zone in those words. Ever say, “She comes in here beat up all the time, I don’t know why she doesn’t leave him, he’s an abuser”? Well, it’s because people fear the unknown even if the known is terrible. That, and they have no sense of personal agency or internal locus of control. It’s always somebody else’s fault.
Don’t be that person. Why won’t you do this? (Don’t say “can’t,” say “won’t,” because that’s the truth of it.)
I left hospital nursing in my 40s. I’ve been gainfully employed in work that values and is informed by my nursing education and background for more than 20 years. You can do it...if you want it badly enough. Dare ya.
Not true. The ACA is still the law of the land, and you can get a screening colonoscopy for nothing by law. If they find something in there that needs further care and assessment, you still do NOT get billed for the screening. That’s what “screening” is all about, there may be an error from the billing department but if they tell you that you have a diagnosis you tell them that’s why it’s called a screen. I can guarantee you that when you report this to your insurance coverage they will take care of it. No copays of any kind for this- prep, surgeon, anes, facility. None. Likewise c mammogram. Advocate for yourself, don’t give up. Billing depts make errors and this is a common one.
There are choices in plans under the ACA. You don’t have to have one c a high deductible.
Yes the mammograms will be free, but not surgery etc and until next year you could be billed for an out of network anesthesiologist and since all affordable care insurance is HMO there is no out of network coverage.
As to the colonoscopy from what I've read it becomes diagnostic as soon as they find one polyp that they will, of course, remove and than patients are hit with a sky high charge, regardless of Obamacare or an employer insurance plan.
Yes billing departments make many, too many mistakes, always in their favor, hoping you won't fight them. I've had so many fights with employer insurance plans over the years. With Wrongway, they flat out refused to fix it and when I called HR for help they too refused and said it wasn't their problem and not to call again even though we were a self-insured employer health insurance plan! Not only that, but a manager threatened my job and asked who was my manager so she could report me for calling HR and bothering them! I did not let them get away with it I reminded her about HIPAA. Then I reported her to the Corporate Compliance line and within a few weeks I got a call from her manager apologizing, but again refusing to help. I didn't give up though, I filed a complaint with the US Dept of Labor. They told me these problems were very common and I wasn't alone and after several months of dragging their feet, the insurance finally paid my bill once I reminded them the Dept of Labor was involved!
Tip if you have a self-insured employer health plan and can't get bills resolved file a complaint with the Dept of Labor, there are several different offices in the country depending on where you are located. If you still have a commercial insurance plan, which I think is rare in healthcare, you file a complaint with your state's insurance Commissioner.
As to high deductibles both the bronze and silver plans in my state had deductibles in the 6000 to 8000 plus! I found nothing with less than that and the max out of pocket is over $8,000. Even many silver plans had deductibles that started at the max out of pocket which rises every year! The govt subsidy of insurance premiums is based on the cost of a silver plan, yet there was literally no difference in deductibles between bronze and silver.
While I'm not thrilled about the crappy HMO insurance, I am very aware that before Obamacare, many people were simply denied insurance entirely. Others who paid for it, found themselves denied care when they used it for a serious, expensive condition like cancer. They would be retroactively denied insurance on some small technicality like migraines and it was perfectly legal!
It is better than before, but it is not affordable.
This reply isn’t specifically to Brandy1017 but to everybody out there who agrees c this sentiment and mindset, and we see there are a lot of you.
Where is it written that you have to work in a hospital or other care situation? I wish I had a nickel for every such posting— “nursing is toxic— admin hates us— my coworkers suck— I wish I’d never gone to nursing school— yadda yadda.” I’d be rich ... but they’d still be stuck complaining.
Get out. Use your nursing for something else. Yes, YOU. There are SOOOOOO MANY nurses in non-hospital jobs loving what they do. Why aren’t you choosing to be one of them?
Sure, it’s scary to step out of your comfort zone. But I don’t hear a lot of evidence of comfort zone in those words. Ever say, “She comes in here beat up all the time, I don’t know why she doesn’t leave him, he’s an abuser”? Well, it’s because people fear the unknown even if the known is terrible. That, and they have no sense of personal agency or internal locus of control. It’s always somebody else’s fault.
Don’t be that person. Why won’t you do this? (Don’t say “can’t,” say “won’t,” because that’s the truth of it.)
I left hospital nursing in my 40s. I’ve been gainfully employed in work that values and is informed by my nursing education and background for more than 20 years. You can do it...if you want it badly enough. Dare ya.
I agree with you 100% and I advise people to make the hospital a paid residency toward a better job! I also agree that hospital nursing is in many places an abusive relationship. I was certainly aware of this irony that we were working under abusive conditions, the only difference is it was for a paycheck. I saw the light and walked away! Thankfully I have a pension, retirement savings, and I met the Rule of 55 where you can take out money from your 401k/403b without penalty. Also I have a Roth that contributions can be taken out tax free and can keep my income low enough to qualify for Obamacare, affordable care insurance.
Maybe I'll look for a part-time clinic job in the future, but right now I'm enjoying my freedom. I can't tell you how happy I am. I went from a 100% stress to almost none. No more alarms, no more short staffing, threat of mandatory overtime, nightmares and most of all no disrespect.
But the better solution is not to stay bedside, but to get out and find a better job since the shortage of bedside nurses is the hospital's own making of refusing to staff decently. They have created their own shortages and I have no sympathy for them! Let the managers take an assignment which is so fitting when they have literally driven out their staff! LOL As if most could, not!
oldwisetale
3 Posts
I regret ever becoming a nurse.