ZEBRA57

With ALL of the cutbacks & nurses in the system accepting this as the new normal, why would anyone go into nursing. Here they are moving nurses around like pieces on a checkerboard. There is little acknowledgement of the need for maintaining experienced nurses with highly specialized training & expertise. When a nurse steps forward to document these facts, she risks being morally shot down by management or a colleague who can't or won't resist the existing trends. The nurse perceives it as a personal attack rather than an attack on the system which is already creating problems in the delivery of patient care. Depressing.

Many years ago, when I was a new grad out of university, I was head-hunted by a Director of Nursing, interviewing for nurses, in my case --- to come to work in a "state-of-the -art"Med-Surg ICU. She told many lies about the set up of the unit & educational opportunities with options to rotate through CCU and learn more. It was a permanent evening shift. It was out of state, so it was a major move for me. The contract was signed & I was supposed to be locked in for one year. If I broke the contract there were penalties to be paid. NB I kept all documentation in a file. When I arrived at my new job the unit was NOTHING like what had been described. In fact the Med-Surg ICU was archaic. If you stood at the nurse's desk you couldn't even see a patient. There were 2 private rooms & 4 semi-private behind doors. By the end of 4 weeks I was second nurse in charge, meaning that when the evening charge nurse was on her day off, I was it! I was dedicated & learned a lot, but the stress was beyond reason. In the interests of partial disclosure this was in 1971, NY state. If a patient died on evening shift the nurse had to wash the bed to prepare for a new admission from Emerg. We all worked as a team --that was the best part. Most of us lived in a residence on the hospital grounds. And yes there were occasional demands to work overtime on night shift. (total 16 hrs) There are many stories, including nurses who just packed up & left in the middle of the night, but I will not bore you with details. In the end I made the acquaintance of a woman whose husband was a lawyer. I shared my story with her. She took my file & her husband kindly wrote a legal letter to the Director demanding my release from my contract. The hospital had clearly misrepresented themselves & let me go with my pay in hand. I had spent 8 months there, but never regretted leaving. I returned home to work in a CVT-ICU in more equitable circumstances. My career progressed from that point on. Each of us must make our own choices regarding what it acceptable in our work environment. There is compromise & hard work, but then there are a myriad of other potential issues we may face that will require some serious soul-searching & choice to be made. I am sorry for your circumstances. Just know that you can choose the path that is best for your needs without feeling like a failure. There are other nursing positions out there. Best of luck as your career progresses.

Beautiful --- uplifting --- a reminder of the work & spirit we bring to our profession.

It is amazing how many nurses working in acute care hospitals feel like this. There was a time that nurses were taught the immeasurable value of their place at the bedside of the patient. The bath was seen as an opportunity to develop rapport & trust with your patient & do a multi-systems evaluation through observation and questions. The registered Nurse had the necessary education to assess the patient: body/mind/spirit – a holistic approach that goes as far back as Florence” & the origins of nursing. Today the academically inclined professors demean bedside nursing & the TAB” role of the professional nurse. Administrators focused on budget see the nursing force as the rat in the python” – the largest cost factor in patient care. Nurses are their own worst enemy: failing to report overtime; missing coffee break & sometimes sacrificing all or part of their lunch time in order to complete the ever mounting demands of paperwork & charting records. Nurses are experts at coping with stressful situations and doing their best to meet patient needs. However, the better you cope the more the institution demands. Someone calls sick & they are not replaced……you manage somehow. I am an older nurse. When I comment on this situation & encourage a colleague to report her time & needs, my counsel goes unheeded. I see nurse after nurse either on the verge of burnout, already burned out, or working their way out of bedside nursing into administration or leaving the profession altogether. I am in Canada (Montreal) – my acute care hospital had recently frozen new hires. They are not replacing retiring nurses. They are cutting back wherever possible & treating nurses like interchangeable entities; denying the need for expertise in specialized disciplines from ENT to Plastics to Cardiology to Ophthalmology to Endocrinology, etc. The list goes on. As for myself after a decade in ICU/Emergency units (where nurses do seem to be valued), including time in nursing management, I left to study alternative/holistic studies, eventually opening a private practice in Holistic Health Nursing for over 11 years. Closing the practice to marry & move to the USA. I am back in nursing after a bad divorce & am grateful I had a career to fall back on in hard times. There are nurses out there. The hospitals refuse to maintain a reasonable nurse to patient ratio. Can't wait to retire.