nursing shortage??

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

Could someone give some feedback on a very troubling trend in my old unit. I recently saw a friend from the old unit I had worked in forever (a MD). I was told by this doctor, that the hospital (which was always understaffed before), has lost ALL of the experienced RN's. The reason? Nursing management has not supported the nurses in an ongoing battle with an abusive "specialist". This doctor is verbally attacking the staff, making harrassing remarks and generally making like a living hell. Since he brings in mega bucks to the hospital, he is allowed to have his way with the nurses and one by one they are leaving. This is a high risk unit. The other doctors have been told by the hospital to get over it. I am very concerned about patient care. This could be a serious problem for the new nurses (can you say lawsuit), but also patients are going to be at serious risk here. What do you all think about this? If the other doctors feel their hands are tied, is there an answer? I know this is compliments of decades of socialized medicine influence and we saw this coming, but WHAT can we do? There were times the dirty word (union) was whispered and little threats were insinuated (sp)? toward anyone who dared bring it up. Could that be an answer? In the meantime, I pray nothing bad happens. It was very hard to keep my head above water with all my years of experience, so an average day, 15 high risk pts, each RN with at least 2 pts, will be impossible for the inexperinced nurse!!! Any ideas???:confused:

SmilingBluEyes

20,964 Posts

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

yours is a high-risk unit in more ways than one. shame and pity. i have no easy answers for you ...if management won't back nursing, they will learn the HARD way, sadly,when something VERY bad happens due to inexperienced staff not recognizing or knowing what to do. very costly it will be.....and so unnecessary....as usual, DOLLAR IS KING.

mark_LD_RN

940 Posts

i have to agree i see that often it was horrible at old hospital i was at that is why i quit, i was only experince rn at night, had new grads or nurses with no ob experience not counting short staffing. I can not count how many times i was alone or it was just me and the doc . or home many times i would have 2 laboring patients and still be doing triage and observation .they would do anything to save money. if someone had overtime they would cancellthem and let an untrained nurse come in in there place. I was requested to be put on call on night leaving just a new grad and a tech there. how safe does that sound to you?

obtnt

39 Posts

Hi all! There is a new twist to this story I originally submitted. It seems there was a situation with a "specialist" and an RN with 19 yrs experience. The MD threw a cussing fit and almost hit the nurse and ob tech and the nurse wrote up the doc for his actions. Well, administration got involved and chose to terminate the NURSE! Also, the doc has let it be known this nurse will NEVER work in OB in this town again, and she has not been able to get a new position and has had to change specialties just to work!! How's that for SUPPORTING your staff? Stay tuned, I'm sure there is more to come!

canoehead, BSN, RN

6,890 Posts

Specializes in ER.

I don't blame the nurses for leaving, the administration needs to get its head out of it's butt, for they will be lucky to have a unit left at all. If all the other docs are also concerned about the abuse it seems like there should be enough drag between nursing and docs to get this guy to toe the line or out of the hospital. I often wonder how these guys attract patients when they are throwing temper tantrums in pt rooms.

valene

44 Posts

the nurse that lost her job needs to consult an attorny as soon as possble to find out if she has any recourse. there are corporate compliance laws against harrassment of any nature.

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