Playing Cards

[Nurse Beth]

Any WA nurses out there who can explain Senator Maureen Walsh's diatribe about nurses in critical care access hospitals "playing cards a considerable amount of time?"

What was that about? https://www.wsna.org/news/2019/senator-states-that-nurses-probably-play-cards-for-a-considerable-amount-of-the-day-in-amending-rest-breaks-bill

If any WA nurses are playing cards on duty, please shape up. It makes us all look bad.

(that's a joke, btw).

[Apple-Core, ASN, BSN, RN]

Thanks MunoRN - that makes sense. I agree with you - in reality it would barely make an indent, and personally I think that many shift changes in a day would result in poorer patient outcomes, which would ultimately cost more $$ over potentially saving a bit upfront.

Ms. Walsh needs to spend a week as an RN and then make her comments.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

An open letter addressed to Senator Walsh was posted on Facebook along with this picture.... so far she's received over 650 decks of cards. Per news report below, Sen. Walsh agreed to shadow a nurse for 12hr shift. Kudos to all the nurses for your advocacy. Karen

From KomoNews

April 23,2019

UPS receives 667 packs of playing cards for Walsh after open letter circulates

Quote

UMWATER, Wash. -- The Tumwater UPS says they received 667 packages of playing cards Tuesday addressed to state Senator Maureen Walsh (R-Walla Walla), who came under fire when she opposed a bill mandating uninterrupted lunch breaks and rest periods for hospital nurses....

...On Tuesday, Walsh said she agreed to shadow a nurse for 12 hours after taking heat for the controversial remark on the Senate floor....

[JKL33]

On 4/23/2019 at 1:34 AM, 10GaugeNeedles said:

She was saying nurses aren’t running their tails off like at bigger hospitals.

Yes, that is what she was saying. Pretty ignorant.

What she wants, apparently, is to begrudge a worker any moment of not working at a frenzied and frenetic pace - without acknowledging a few basic truths, namely the fact that CAHs are staffed like CAHs to begin with. They aren't staffed like a huge or even a medium hospital but then only have a handful of patients. They are staffed at or below a predicted or actual census *just like every other hospital.* Running your tail off has always been a matter that is relative to the amount of help available. Everywhere.

On 4/23/2019 at 1:34 AM, 10GaugeNeedles said:

The point as I understand it is that at critical access hospitals, mandatory breaks are actually more of a burden and she wanted to exclude these hospitals because of their lower census. Not to mention having only 2nurses on a unit means you can’t really have a break since you can’t leave the unit with only one nurse for safety reasons so, mandatory breaks require higher staffing which doesn’t make sense when your census is very low. 

Mandatory breaks are a burden anywhere, depending on whom you ask. Speaking of criers and complainers (different thread), appropriate breaks are the ultimate employer "woe is me"/cry-baby issue. [Okay, I take that back. The "nursing shortage" is #1, having to pay for breaks is probably #2 or something). Ridiculous either way.

Quote

Not to mention having only 2 nurses on a unit means you can’t really have a break since you can’t leave the unit with only one nurse for safety reasons so, mandatory breaks require higher staffing which doesn’t make sense when your census is very low.

You know, it used to be that both employees and employers were a lot more cooperative with creative ways to work this out. The single solitary thing that has changed (or that changed first) was the greedy attempts to not pay for working breaks/missed breaks; that punitive crap where an employer knows that the worker can't take a bona fide break but then uses various means of threatening and bullying them into punching out anyway.

Now we are supposed to feel sorry that abject greed occasionally puts business owners in difficult situations?

Are there many nurses who would not make a huge deal about not getting a true uninterrupted break? YES, actually, there are. They might however, demand to be paid and treated with a modicum of respect in return. There isn't one single justifiable reason why a business of any caliber or size should be able to command free services from entry-level workers (or anyone for that matter).

This might seem off topic a little, but it really isn't, because begrudging workers for the fact that they could not take a bona fide break due to the employer's own staffing decisions is what started all animosity about the break issue, IMObs.

If someone thinks that a nurse eating by the phones/radios/monitors and answering a call light here and there should be considered to have taken an (unpaid) break just because it's a CAH, then what they are saying is that they feel that they should be able to command free services from another. Funny, since no business gives away free anything when it is to their own detriment.

[10GaugeNeedles, BSN]

1 hour ago, JKL33 said:

Yes, that is what she was saying. Pretty ignorant.

What she wants, apparently, is to begrudge a worker any moment of not working at a frenzied and frenetic pace - without acknowledging a few basic truths, namely the fact that CAHs are staffed like CAHs to begin with. They aren't staffed like a huge or even a medium hospital but then only have a handful of patients. They are staffed at or below a predicted or actual census *just like every other hospital.* Running your tail off has always been a matter that is relative to the amount of help available. Everywhere.

Mandatory breaks are a burden anywhere, depending on whom you ask. Speaking of criers and complainers (different thread), appropriate breaks are the ultimate employer "woe is me"/cry-baby issue. [Okay, I take that back. The "nursing shortage" is #1, having to pay for breaks is probably #2 or something). Ridiculous either way.

You know, it used to be that both employees and employers were a lot more cooperative with creative ways to work this out. The single solitary thing that has changed (or that changed first) was the greedy attempts to not pay for working breaks/missed breaks; that punitive crap where an employer knows that the worker can't take a bona fide break but then uses various means of threatening and bullying them into punching out anyway.

Now we are supposed to feel sorry that abject greed occasionally puts business owners in difficult situations?

Are there many nurses who would not make a huge deal about not getting a true uninterrupted break? YES, actually, there are. They might however, demand to be paid and treated with a modicum of respect in return. There isn't one single justifiable reason why a business of any caliber or size should be able to command free services from entry-level workers (or anyone for that matter).

This might seem off topic a little, but it really isn't, because begrudging workers for the fact that they could not take a bona fide break due to the employer's own staffing decisions is what started all animosity about the break issue, IMObs.

If someone thinks that a nurse eating by the phones/radios/monitors and answering a call light here and there should be considered to have taken an (unpaid) break just because it's a CAH, then what they are saying is that they feel that they should be able to command free services from another. Funny, since no business gives away free anything when it is to their own detriment.

I can't disagree with you. I don't really have a dog in the fight so, I don't have a strong opinion either way. As an acute dialysis nurse, we work non stop till the job is done, usually 14-18hr shifts (and no I'm not being hyperbolic; its just the way things are on this side of a dialysis machine). breaks just aren't a thing for us. when I worked bedside, I found the clocking in and out and making a huge deal about the 30 minutes out of 12 hours to be annoying. often when me or my colleagues forgot to clock back in it was a huge deal of tracking down correct hours and often, some of our hours would get lost in the shuffle. it was a PITA. and again, when it was just two of us on the unit, breaks simply COULDN'T happen. So, I understand people fighting for mandatory breaks like its a guarantee of some kind but, personally, I found it to be more of a hassle than it was worth. I'd rather clock in for a solid 12 hours than have to clock out, clock in and risk losing hours because of a stupid rule. just one man's opinion.

[Tomascz, ASN, RN]

So, #1, I'm glad I don't work in WA.

I work in a "small" hospital where our "Med Surg" floor w/ 20 beds sometimes resembles a NICU in a Memory Unit in a Psych Ward in a Drunk Tank in a nursing home.
Today we have 6 RN's taking care of 13 pt's. Yawn. So far no flyouts, although, in our opinion, those should be cleared in the ER, but whatever.

We have no ICU and we have no RT's. Up until recently we had no "sitters" for the 1:1's. I've worked weekends (FSS) with 3 RNs and 18 pts , all acute, at a minimum.
Probably the worst part about this is the inconsistency.
Small hospitals can be as bad or worse than big ones, but I don't think the GP gets it anyway.

We can usually take lunch somewhere in the day. We don't play cards. We do OK, except when the Unit Clerks don't show up. Then we're pretty screwed.

[RuralRN07]

I did work in critical access for a number of years. Although we did not play cards, we did max out the levels on Bejeweled and Mahjong. One RN took naps in the chapel. This is not a joke nor am I being sarcastic. There weren’t any critical patients. No ICU. Occasionally the ED would get busy and occasionally we would not get breaks. But a good deal of the time, it was exactly as she has described. However, that does not mean I agree with what she said.

[beemrdon]

Wow, card games in CC. I am going to quit my hospice job immediately.

[jb2lb2]

Can I just say even though I have made comments in other forums about this topic, that the true crux of the problem is the nursing shortage. We have a nation wide nursing shortage that prevents us from getting our breaks, whether it to go to the bathroom, eat or play cards, because what we do on our break time is our own business, unless of course it is illegal. Since we do not have enough nurses, we run short and we don't have the luxury of always taking the break we are allowed. Yes, we are busy even if we are fully staffed and again still may not get a break but the reality is we don't have enough nurses and the shortage is not going to get better any time soon.

I too challenge this senator to put on her roller skates and in her scrubs to follow a nurse for the 8-12 hours without the break and see where she stands on this bill then. Have the cameras ready.

[Wuzzie]

2 hours ago, jb2lb2 said:

We have a nation wide nursing shortage that prevents us from getting our breaks,

There is not a nation-wide nursing shortage. What there is is greedy hospital systems that post openings they have no intention to fill and cut staffing to the bone because, historically, nurses have bent over and taken it.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

2 hours ago, jb2lb2 said:

Can I just say even though I have made comments in other forums about this topic, that the true crux of the problem is the nursing shortage. We have a nation wide nursing shortage that prevents us from getting our breaks, whether it to go to the bathroom, eat or play cards, because what we do on our break time is our own business, unless of course it is illegal.

What we actually have is a shortage of administrators willing to hire enough nurses to properly staff units. There always pockets of places actually facing a nursing shortage (think rural or other "less desirable" areas), but "nation wide," the only reason a unit could ever be short is that the facility refuses to staff properly. Nurses have watched their nurse to patient ratios rise for years and have continued to do nothing more than grumble under their breaths, vent on AN, or get out of the industry. Corporate greed is alive and well, and the suits are all too happy when others perpetuate the lie that they can't find enough nurses.

[beemrdon]

The nursing shortage is as phony as your favorite politician.

[TriciaJ, RN]

On 4/22/2019 at 10:34 PM, 10GaugeNeedles said:

She was saying nurses aren’t running their tails off like at bigger hospitals. The point as I understand it is that at critical access hospitals, mandatory breaks are actually more of a burden and she wanted to exclude these hospitals because of their lower census. And I kind of agree. I hate having to clock in and out. Not to mention having only 2nurses on a unit means you can’t really have a break since you can’t leave the unit with only one nurse for safety reasons so, mandatory breaks require higher staffing which doesn’t make sense when your census is very low.

Before I commented on this, I would want to shadow a hospital administrator for a shift. After I got an idea what that person's day is like, I'd have a better idea for what kind of staffing "makes sense" on a nursing unit.

The point I'm making is, they don't mind having "down time" built into their workday. They don't seem to think it a waste of their salary if they're not pedal to the metal their entire day.