kokopelli

I work in an ICU and when I am elderly, I would not want my last days on earth being put through the torture I see. It's one thing when there is a sudden illness in a basically healthy person and they are expected to be able to go back to years of living, but why prolong a fact of life. We all die, and it doesn't have to be filled with fear and pain, bright lights and alarms. Why would you want to die with tubes coming out of everywhere, and lines poking into everywhere else. I prefer to be kept comfortable, soft music and my family around talking about the good times and telling jokes

Being the person on the other end, I sometimes ask to get a sense of how many days they might be out. If they call in with a headache or with a case of chicken pox means two different things as far as future staffing problems go. It also gives us an idea about other problems such as an outbreak of flu. I agree that privacy is a concern, and if someone just says I'm sick I don't press it other than to ask if they think they are going to be out any length of time.

We had a patient come into the ER with a vibrator all the way up his rectum, still vibrating. Another time a man had a crystal vase stuck up there.

I'm afraid this problem is only going to get worse. Remember the nursing shortage? I spent all my time last week trying to get enough staff for the weekend. In the last year I have gone from spending a few hours a week on staffing, to almost all my time. I don't get other things done such as following up on incident reports and planning new improvements. I work in middle management and am ready to quit. There just are not enough nurses out there. The nurses we are interviewing are getting worse and worse, is it better to put any warm body in a position, or hold out for someone good? A bad hire just demoralizes the staff more. I was glad to hear that some nurses still try to mentor new staff and keep them coming back.

I totally agree with your post and frequently wonder why I got into management. As a staff nurse I had the honor of being with patients and their families during the best of time and worst of times. There was a satisfaction in that and I miss it every day. As a manager I need to remember to praise the wonderful star performers every day while not getting dragged down by those who under perform. I need to deal with those employees who bring the whole unit down. Getting rid of a toxic employee is not easy, and takes an emotional toal belive it or not. We are nurses too and are by nature caregivers, but now we need to care for the unit as a whole. Good employees don't want to confront these under performers so they complain to the manager, who then needs to deal with the problem. It is hard to find out what is the real story, is it a substance abuse problem, depression, or just plain laziness. How long do you try to mentor this employee before the whole unit suffers? What do you do about employees who never go to unit meetings, read the minutes or anything you put in their mailbox and then say they didn't know about the new policy that has been in effect for a year? How do you answer your director when there is a lawsuit for IV site that is 9 days old and infected because nobody bothered to change it? What do you say to the family whose family member was given an overdose because one of your nurses didn't use the safety devices in place to prevent med errors. How do you answer the questions when a patients ends up with a major bedsore, when you saw the staff spending plenty of time on meal breaks and talking at the nurses station. The workload is a problem, but so is the constant battle to hire more nurses. There isn't a magic closet to pull extra nurses out of when there are three sick calls. How are the rest of the staff supposed to feel when someone calls in "sick" after they have spent the last few days trying to get someone to work for them so they could go to a concert. Why is it the managers fault? Why doesn't the staff hold each other accountable? Why doesn't the staff tell the manager what is going on until after the fact but be upset that there isn't enough staffing? Dealing with the constant game playing and power struggles is enough to make you want to quit!!!! You all have worked with those types, the nurse who complains all day how busy she is and can't possibly take another patient but is the first one out the door at the end of the shift. The one who critizes everyone else about any little oversite but leaves a major mess behind. The one who plays the FMLA games. The one who's pager or phone always has a "dead battery" when you try to call them. The one who will never help out anyone else. I'm sure this will be an unpopular post but until you walk in someone else's shoes hold some of the criticism. I know there are bad managers, believe me, but there are also bad employees.

I have also interviewed many candidates and a nice pair of pants, dress shirt, tie and jacket optional in my area (Chicago) seems to be what most guys are wearing. The most important thing is to be personable and confident. Admit if you don't know something and don't be afraid to ask questions. As a new RN ask about education opportunities, orientation and training. Depending on the type of unit there should be a fairly long orientation for a new grad, 6-8 weeks. If not you many want to look elsewhere.