Hotburnout

I am just seeing this. I was a CCRN in the CVICU for 15 years and have been in PACU for 24 years; yes , I've been around a while and, yes, things in nursing have changed.....dramatically. I completely sympathize with your situation. I will not tell you to go to a different unit until you just can not bear it anymore. I think it is obvious you love what you do but do not love the manner in which you are being treated nor the manner in which you are being coerced into caring for your patients. I am in a somewhat similiar situation. There have been hospital- wide hiring freezes in my facility. Money is now the main focus- I know that sounds like an exaggeration but, trust me, it is not. In our PACU we have actually been told- by our manager- to get our patients in & out of the PACU as quickly as possible because, and I quote," time is money and our numbers are being watched; if we can't validate our numbers and turnover times, charts will be audited and nurses who don't discharge their patients quickly enough will be identified and dealt with." A thinly veiled threat. Continuity and quality of care should "be maintained but in a timely manner so we don't have to put the OR on hold because if we do that, our numbers look bad." Seriously???!!! I have been criticized by my manager for giving "too detailed" of a report on a young 20 y/o trauma patient who was unbelievable and miraculously alive and neurological intact after an extremely horrible and gruesome car accident. "Too detailed" of a report? I suppose I wasn't supposed to mention the drains replaced during surgery, or the crushed hand which the hand surgeon miraculously saved, or the chest tube the surgeons had been safely able to remove. He had surgery on a de-gloved arm and had a skin graft to a leg that was abraded past the dermis. I did not even get to report all of this nor give an account of the emotional state of the young man and his family. That was "too detailed" and I was cut short by my manager who told me I needed to get off the phone because I had a fresh post op arriving soon; this said at 3:30 PM and I was one of 2 nurses out of 5 who still had not had lunch. I am greatly disheartened and fightened by the lower standards of nursing care my facility has adopted all for the power of the mighty dollar and the importance of "numbers". I will not quit- if I do, who will give these patients-and their families the compassionate and competent care and time they need and deserve? Many nurses in my facility feel they are walking on eggshells; we keep our heads down and our mouths closed continuing to care for our patients and their families in the manner we would want our own loved ones cared for willing to take the, (very possible), chance we could be fired for taking care of our patients as individuals, not numbers. We have a clique of whisperers and passive aggresive nurses in the unit who kowtow to this new "style" of nursing - our manager is a part of that group. I am very sympathetic for your situation; I can not suggest to you what action you should take - you must make that decision yourself and it is not an easy one. I am staying and hoping to be to others an example of what nursing should be in hopes others will stop being so scared of administration's incomprehensible and horrific style of "cost efficient" nursing care and stand proud in their profession taking care of the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual aspects of all their patients and their families. If nursing becomes more about money and numbers, well, God help us all.

I've been a nurse for 40 years... critical care..... and I absolutely HATE my job! If could find something else to do and make the same $, I would do it now. Nursing has changed so much; in PACU now and THE most important thing is to get the patients in and out as quickly as possible so we can get another patient in surgery because THATS where the hospital makes the $. The newer RNs I work with are lazy, NEVER do a complete head to toe assessment... they don't even put WHERE the patient is hurting ( its not necessarily where they had their surgery ) and are ALWAYS on their fones & never offer to help those who are slammed. What happened to pride in your work...sick of this. Hate nursing and used to adore it. Sad