Nursing Supervisors=Telemarketers

Nurses General Nursing

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Heh, heh, fortunately I have the nrsg supervisor office phone programmed into my cellphone caller ID, and also the supervisor cellphone I, of course, know by heart. As soon as I got that call today, I ignored it, and proceeded to temporarily disconnect our landline, which is my secondery number they are to call, thereby totally bypassing even talking to the nursing supervisor who was looking for a last minute shift replacement.

I would hate to be a nursing supervisor. They have to be like telemarketers. They have to make nice to everyone in the hospital in order to seduce them to pick up extra shifts.

The first place I worked - and the first place that fired me - actually sent an aide to my house to bang on my door to get me to pick up a shift.

I wasn't home.

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Specializes in OB.

[quote

I also want to mention that when the floors run short staffed it hurts your coworkers the most. If no one can come in to work I'm not going to work the floor, I have my own work to do, so it's your peers that suffer. Administration doesn't care, they wont come in to work the floor.

This part of your post is exactly why many of us don't want to talk to those trying to call us in - trying to guilt someone about how their coworkers will suffer if they don't come in is not productive. The hospital's poor planning, short staffing and/or unwillingness to pay for agency staff are not my problem or my fault. A supervisor who says "I'm not going to work the floor" has immediately lost my respect. If you are a nurse, on duty and the patients need care you need to put on a pair of scrubs and help out for a few hours. Paperwork can wait and you'll find the staff willing to go a lot further for you if you do this.

I know this sounds harsh, but if you ask you'll find this is why many let the machine do the answering for them.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

I also want to mention that when the floors run short staffed it hurts your coworkers the most. If no one can come in to work I'm not going to work the floor, I have my own work to do, so it's your peers that suffer. Administration doesn't care, they wont come in to work the floor.

This part of your post is exactly why many of us don't want to talk to those trying to call us in - trying to guilt someone about how their coworkers will suffer if they don't come in is not productive. The hospital's poor planning, short staffing and/or unwillingness to pay for agency staff are not my problem or my fault. A supervisor who says "I'm not going to work the floor" has immediately lost my respect. If you are a nurse, on duty and the patients need care you need to put on a pair of scrubs and help out for a few hours. Paperwork can wait and you'll find the staff willing to go a lot further for you if you do this.

I know this sounds harsh, but if you ask you'll find this is why many let the machine do the answering for them.

[EVIL]

BINGO

[/EVIL]

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My colleagues on the unit know I will answer if the charge nurse or another coworker calls.

NOT for the nursing office because they have played "bait & switch" one time too many. I've come in only to float. Once because a nurse had called in at 5:00 am for nights. I start at 7:00 pm.

And registry was willing to work. They told us the next day.

You would think they could assume that just maybe a nurse may get sick and have a plan to replace that nurse with 14 hours, or even 2 hours notice,

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Administration doesn't care, they wont come in to work the floor.

if they don't care, why should anyone else?

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Specializes in SICU.

Some mangers do work the floor when they are needed, and people still aren't happy. My mom never wears a "skirt". She goes to work everyday in her scrubs. My mom is an ANM and she has picked up numerous night shifts and still worked her DAY ANM position (which is 50 plus hours a week). She even called to see if I could come in and work a shift on her unit (We work the same Hosp... I am SICU and her unit is CPCU). I gladly did it for her. She had 7 people leave within a month secondary to position switching, educational leaves, and husbands relocating. The staff was well aware of the situation with staffing. They were already down 3 nurses Halloween night, and low and behold 3 people decided they were "sick". She worked a 16 hour day the night of Halloween BECAUSE SHE FELT BAD FOR HER STAFF. One of the nights I picked up some a-hole that didn't realize I was a managers daughter had the nerve to say "Management doesn't care about us, all they do is sit in their offices and eat doughnuts at meetings". I had to bite my tongue hard A. Not to scream at the guy and B. Not to say anything to my mom that works her behind off...

Nursing isn't a job it is a commitment and career. If you want a job where you are held to low expectations and staffing doesn't matter, be your own boss.

You should feel guilty because your coworkers, patients, and managers suffer when there are staffing issues. Everyone suffers. I am so sick and tired of people that go into nursing and do not have the ability to sympathize or empathize. Are people really so close minded that they can't see the big picture... I probably don't want an answer to that one.

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Nursing isn't a job it is a commitment and career. If you want a job where you are held to low expectations and staffing doesn't matter, be your own boss.

You should feel guilty because your coworkers, patients, and managers suffer when there are staffing issues. Everyone suffers. I am so sick and tired of people that go into nursing and do not have the ability to sympathize or empathize. Are people really so close minded that they can't see the big picture... I probably don't want an answer to that one.

First of all, I don't expect a NM to work the floor. That is not their job.

Second, I'll be damned if I will feel "guilty" for refusing to work on my days off. As long as administration knows that they can play on our guilt and martyr complexes, they have no incentive for providing for adequate staffing or improving our work environment.

I learned this lesson many times over. They will work you to the bone if you allow them to do so, but when the shoe is on the other foot and it is YOU who needs their "sympathy and empathy", you quickly find you are entirely dispensable in their eyes and you're left out in the cold.

I don't play this game anymore. Sorry.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

Sorry, my time with my family is more important than my co-workers needs. I refuse to have a misguided sense of loyalty and be guilt tripped into compromising my family life for an organization that ultimately views me as an FTE and expendable.

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[quote

I also want to mention that when the floors run short staffed it hurts your coworkers the most. If no one can come in to work I'm not going to work the floor, I have my own work to do, so it's your peers that suffer. Administration doesn't care, they wont come in to work the floor.

This part of your post is exactly why many of us don't want to talk to those trying to call us in - trying to guilt someone about how their coworkers will suffer if they don't come in is not productive. The hospital's poor planning, short staffing and/or unwillingness to pay for agency staff are not my problem or my fault. A supervisor who says "I'm not going to work the floor" has immediately lost my respect. If you are a nurse, on duty and the patients need care you need to put on a pair of scrubs and help out for a few hours. Paperwork can wait and you'll find the staff willing to go a lot further for you if you do this.

I know this sounds harsh, but if you ask you'll find this is why many let the machine do the answering for them.

Actually, in my post I said I prefer it when people don't answer the phone. Usually when there is an open hole I have around 20-30 phone calls to make for open hole, so I don't need to hear reasons people can't come in, a simple no is totally fine. I certainly understand that people have other commitments, I get calls at home just like everyone else does. And I screen the calls and usually let the machine get them. I don't know how other supervisors have time to lecture and guilt staff to come in, because I certainly don't.

In the past we have offered so many incentive programs for people to pick up extra shifts that if one was willing they could make a killing off of picking up extra, but it never seems to be enough incentive. IMHO we work in a field where almost all of us do not work full time. We all call in sick once in a while-- it's our right. But, part of that means that when a co worker is sick we should come in to help out periodically. Not every time of course, but once in a while.

As for loosing respect because I'm not going to work the floor-- We get this all the time, and I would welcome anyone that wants to shadow me. I don't work the floor because I have my own work to do. As I said for each open hole on a shift I might have 20-30 phone calls to make, and there are many departments that each have their own open holes at my hospital. Besides filling in for staffing I also have to fill in for pharmacy, medical records, materials management, sterile processing, and any other department that is not in house on the evening, nights, or weekends. Some shifts I do have down time and I am happy to help out on the floors, but I can't commit to taking a patient load because my pager is going off constantly with each department needing this or that or having a question. On top of all this I have to manage every unforseen issue that arises in the entire hospital. One thing people on the floor often have a hard time understanding is that when the floors get busier, the amount of work that falls onto me increases. So it often comes down to -- I can help you turn and clean that pt up, but then you wont get your new medications you ordered until I finish with this--and, oh, wait I just got paged because ER has a trauma coming in and I have to counsel the family until the chaplin arrives, but maybe on my way down to ER I can stop and page maintenance at home because the call light just broke on 3rd floor and the pt and nurse want it fixed now. But, before I can do any of that OB just had a walk in and they need the OR crew called in for a c-section...

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First of all, I don't expect a NM to work the floor. That is not their job.

Second, I'll be damned if I will feel "guilty" for refusing to work on my days off. As long as administration knows that they can play on our guilt and martyr complexes, they have no incentive for providing for adequate staffing or improving our work environment.

I learned this lesson many times over. They will work you to the bone if you allow them to do so, but when the shoe is on the other foot and it is YOU who needs their "sympathy and empathy", you quickly find you are entirely dispensable in their eyes and you're left out in the cold.

I don't play this game anymore. Sorry.

Amen!!!!!!!!!!

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Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.
Hey, I'm polite. My cellphone has a voicemail, I promise!

lol... i had the floor, nurse manager and nursing supervisor's numbers programmed to the theme song to halloween. :lol2: that way i could hit the straight to voicemail button and not freak out thinking there was a family emergency or something at 3am.

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Specializes in OB.
Some mangers do work the floor when they are needed, and people still aren't happy. My mom never wears a "skirt". She goes to work everyday in her scrubs. My mom is an ANM and she has picked up numerous night shifts and still worked her DAY ANM position (which is 50 plus hours a week). She even called to see if I could come in and work a shift on her unit (We work the same Hosp... I am SICU and her unit is CPCU). I gladly did it for her. She had 7 people leave within a month secondary to position switching, educational leaves, and husbands relocating. The staff was well aware of the situation with staffing. They were already down 3 nurses Halloween night, and low and behold 3 people decided they were "sick". She worked a 16 hour day the night of Halloween BECAUSE SHE FELT BAD FOR HER STAFF. One of the nights I picked up some a-hole that didn't realize I was a managers daughter had the nerve to say "Management doesn't care about us, all they do is sit in their offices and eat doughnuts at meetings". I had to bite my tongue hard A. Not to scream at the guy and B. Not to say anything to my mom that works her behind off...

Nursing isn't a job it is a commitment and career. If you want a job where you are held to low expectations and staffing doesn't matter, be your own boss.

You should feel guilty because your coworkers, patients, and managers suffer when there are staffing issues. Everyone suffers. I am so sick and tired of people that go into nursing and do not have the ability to sympathize or empathize. Are people really so close minded that they can't see the big picture... I probably don't want an answer to that one.

Supervisors like your mom are the ones that I will gladly go the extra mile for and come in even if I don't really feel up to it! I will even offer them " I haven't slept today and can't work a whole shift, but if it will help I'll gladly come in for (4 or 6) hours and help you over the hump.

I still feel that nursing, while a career, is not my whole life. If I wanted a "vocation" where my whole life revolved around one facet, I would have joined a religious order! When I am at work it gets my total attention, when I am off, the other areas of my life deserve the same.

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