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).

[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.

[TriciaJ, RN]

On 4/24/2019 at 9:04 AM, 10GaugeNeedles said:

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.

The stupid rule is the having to clock in and out. That's another great idea by management, to make it just a little more onerous to take a break. The bottom line is: they begrudge you having any time for rest.

[PediatricMA]

Don't know if anyone has seen this but she has been sent over 1,700 decks of cards in the mail ?

[SmilingBluEyes]

That grin on her face tells me she has learned nothing and does not give a rip. Vote her out.