Okay, so I have to wonder, I hear nurses on my unit complain about working conditions and new (ridiculous) patient satisfaction directives. However, when they are brought up in a group setting with the manager everyone stays silent. Example: we had an staff energizer on our unit to bring up our "pain scores." Two new directives: if a patient calls for pain medication, the unit secretary will call the patient's room after 5 minutes to ensure that the nurse has made it to the room. Then, they will pull reports and if a patient's charted pain level is more than 2 levels above their pain goal, charge or an ANM will meet with the nurse to see if he/she has a plan to control pain.
Frankly, the first directive is insulting. A nurse needs to be "checked up" on? The second directive is bogus because I KNOW that patients will continuously rate their pain as high so the physician does not take their medications away. Of course there are exceptions to that, but in my experience, I have seen many more incidents which I described.
The nurses grumble, complain and gossip (I won't lie, me too) but say NOTHING to make it better or speak up with suggestions to the manager. I did and I felt all alone and left out to dry. I don't know if it is because Florida is a non-union state? Maybe nurses are scared of losing their jobs. Because in NY, this never would have happened.
Why don't nurses speak up? There's supposed to be power in numbers. But yet, it doesn't seem that anyone wants to challenge the status quo. Thoughts?
An insanely bad policy was implemented a few months ago at my workplace. It was CRAZY bad, it involved a workflow that improved numbers on paper by shuffling patients around in ways that wasted time, angered the patients, overwhelmed the staff, and left critically ill patients without beds while 4s and 5s got beds. It involved things like requiring medical actions to be deferred to the convenience of registration. It was a disaster, and so clearly going to be so that six staff members- SIX- resigned after the first day of implementation, while literally everyone started putting in applications elsewhere.
Losing six experienced staffers at once had zero impact on management's dedication to this process. It stuck around for months, was finally rescinded when we had a documented near-miss with a very bad outcome due to it, and now, just a few weeks later, management is floating trying it again, because sure it was dangerous, exhausting, and miserable for patients and staff alike, but damn didn't their numbers look good?
Speaking up, even to the point of speaking up with your feet and leaving, is not effective in many dysfunctional workplaces. It will put a target on your back, though.
Same here. Saw bad stuff happening at a nursing home. Staffing really bad, no authority over cnas. Got fired. I was unemployed for a month, by in the long run best thing to happen to me
Yes! You are correct. Hemorrhaging of staff is almost universal now!! Managers need to wake up! I've worked 28 years and only seen handful of those that care. So frustrating. They get in their offices and get accustomed to the good life- surfing internet, leaving early, talking about their kids all day....
Does anybody have the answer? Best management I've seen was at UCLA Medical Center. Someone should clone them. Hospitals don't seem to care about the revolving door. No worries! We'll use Travelers and Registry!
At my hospital I can say whatever I want, when I want.
We bleed staff so much, it just doesn't matter. They won't fire you.
There is something to be said about working in a crap area with a bad patient population. If you simply don't quit they will love you for it.
Maybe a move is in order op?
May work now, but if the economy is such that you don't bleed staff, they remember the squeaky wheels. And not in a good way. Saw it in 2008, many dissenters let go...
Love it the Pump and Pearls Brigade! Good one! lol
At one place, it was the clinics shoes, long sleeves, buttoned at the wrists and the white cap (when we were phasing out of caps and wearing more relaxed clothes). DON looked like a magazine advertisement.
They just tell us "this isn't going away." I spoke up in a meeting once and was swiftly dressed down in front of everyone. I was told that my point was invalid and had nothing to do with the issue. The issue being how do we increase staff and patient satisfaction. I said staff appropriately. When the questions are so stupid (how often did you get bathroom assist WHEN YOU WANTED IT) you can't blame the staff for failing when they're at bare bones. Bad news: our scores are up for the first time in 2 years so we're screwed for getting more staff.
Nurses have been marginalized for years. Nothing gets accomplished in staff meetings. They are a joke. They dont even pretend to listen to or care what we think. Their purpose is to pile on more work and that is all.
I truly believe that the delivery of healthcare in the US is one of the biggest scams that has ever been perpetrated upon the American people. Let's stop pretending that hospitals exist to serve the community. They exist for the CSuite to earn 6 or 7 figures and the rest is just hype.
Way, way back in the day, I always had something to say at staff meetings.
Then I noticed that my coworkers, who were very enthusiastic before the meeting about discussing problems, became enthralled with checking out the ceiling or examining their finger nails.
I learned my lesson. Now I keep my mouth shut, avoid making eye contact with anyone, don't get sucked into the vortex of anyone else's life and decide on my own what BS pronouncements are worth following and which ones are going to be forgotten in a week or so.
Much less stressful and helps keep me off the radar. Face it, inept management has been around since time immemorial, and it's going to be around long after we hang up our stethoscopes.
Specializes in Tele/Interventional/Non-Invasive Cardiology.
Well thanks everyone for the comments! As you all could've guessed this hospital is a revolving door. Since so many new grads are desperate for jobs, they just fill positions with the new grads. This was so shocking for me. Seeing most of the floor staff with 3 years or less experience. 2 years nursing and already charge? One year out of school and precepting? I really believe that it is because of unbelievable pressures on the nursing staff.
To update the situation, I have an admission come a couple days ago, and the minute she got there, I literally had four or five different people harassing me, from a rounding RN (yes, we have RNs that ONLY come to do patient experience rounding), my manager, ANM, tech, telling me to call the doctor for pain meds since she was sent up with NO orders from the ED. Of course, I had to step into the mess while the patient was restless, shouting that I wasn't helping her, and refusing all he meds when she finally got them. Her husband came to the nursing station mad at me, mad at the doctor, it was a mess. I was frazzled.
At that point, I just said to myself, "It's time to go." I have found another job at another hospital, but honestly, I am frightened that nursing is like this everywhere and I might just leave the profession
I understand that to an extent, but it has not led to bad policies not sticking around, it has lead to MORE bad policies. Maybe at your facility that is the case. Yes, people continue with their usual habits, but now managers are coming up to patients, checking charting and harassing nurses to make several phone calls a shift to a physician, despite the physician being aware and already made decisions regarding care. These policies are not going anywhere at my facility. And if they don't see the scores they like, it will continue mount. And this has lead to gross entitlement by patients who will have deplorable behavior until they get their pain medication of choice! Condition be damned.
The almighty CMS has spoken. This has trickled down to your management, who will ride you to fulfill GOVERNMENT decree. Of course, with no additional personnel. Big corporate will not allow additional expenditure for that.
Any verbalization of discontent from the WORKERS will not be tolerated.
emmy27
454 Posts
An insanely bad policy was implemented a few months ago at my workplace. It was CRAZY bad, it involved a workflow that improved numbers on paper by shuffling patients around in ways that wasted time, angered the patients, overwhelmed the staff, and left critically ill patients without beds while 4s and 5s got beds. It involved things like requiring medical actions to be deferred to the convenience of registration. It was a disaster, and so clearly going to be so that six staff members- SIX- resigned after the first day of implementation, while literally everyone started putting in applications elsewhere.
Losing six experienced staffers at once had zero impact on management's dedication to this process. It stuck around for months, was finally rescinded when we had a documented near-miss with a very bad outcome due to it, and now, just a few weeks later, management is floating trying it again, because sure it was dangerous, exhausting, and miserable for patients and staff alike, but damn didn't their numbers look good?
Speaking up, even to the point of speaking up with your feet and leaving, is not effective in many dysfunctional workplaces. It will put a target on your back, though.