javajaydon

I have worked with some nurses who did everything in their power to run anyone out of the Nursing Home that were not part of their clique. They had the Administrator in their back pocket, or should I say they were so far up the Administrator's behind, all you could see was their feet kicking. LOL. Seriously, they ran some very good workers out of the facility running. This wasn't just other nurses. It was buisness office/HR staff, dietary staff, activity staff, laundry/housekeeping staff, maintenance staff, and even the DON. These people have/had no heart, compassion, or even an understanding of what their behavior does to people. Driving several of them to the brink of suicide, to the point that they had to find other employment, or even to the point that they couldn't even work in health care anymore. I am just wish that I could have/would have seen what was going on, and done something about it. The resident's are who really paid the price for these bullies nastiness!

Potential for altered tissue perfusion

I have been a nurse for over 20 years, and I have been a DON for the last 3 years. What I am noticing, is it seems staff do not follow a chain of command anymore. I have instructed staff, if they have a concern they need to go to the charge nurse. If the charge nurse is not able to answer or take care of the staff members concern, then they should be directed to me the DON. If I am not able to answer, or take care of the concern, then it should go to the Administrator. What I am seeing, is that many staff members go directly to the Administrator, and then the Charge nurse or me look like we are stupid or incompetent because the Administrator is asking why we didn't take care of whatever the concern was. I'm like how can the Charge nurse or I take care of what the concern is, if we don't know there is a concern? Has any other DON had this same type of thing occur?

In the situations I was talking about, it was never expected that staff were to work every weekend, holiday, rotating shifts. It was every other weekend, every other holiday, and either the evening shift or night shift. these are the positions that were advertised for, interviewed for, and hired for. What I have found is the majority of the persons that I have interviewed, and/or hired for these positions have informed me themselves or made comments to other staff that they feel they should not have to work the evening or night shifts. The one nurse in particular even asked the full-time day nurse why she couldn't have the day position, and the nurse who had already worked for this particular nursing home for 16+ years work the night shift. In this particular situation, it was like she thought she should just automatically get it. Yes, I should not generalize about a whole generation, it is just what type of behaviors/comments etc. that have been brought to my attention from the last "several" applicants/new hires I have encountered. I am sorry if I upset anyone with these comments, I was just curious if anyone else was experiencing these same kind of behaviors/comments that I have been encountering?

These people were informed of what the hours would be when they were interviewed. The one I wrote about, was hired for the night shift, and after she went through our orientation program-which lasted about 6 weeks, stated that she had really gone into nursing for an "Office job". Others start, and after anywhere from 1 day to 6 months they will quit, and when asked for the reasons why, they state that they don't like working nights or weekends etc. When I went into nursing school-the instructors told us to be prepared to miss holidays, weekends ect. with our families. Everyone that we hire is informed of what is expected of them, what hours they will be working. they are put on an every other weekend, and every other holiday schedule. Some will always call in when it is their holiday to work, etc. then they do not understand why others are mad at them--it is because the other staff had worked their holiday, and then ended up working the others too-because they called in. Like I said, it is just like they think that they are entitled to have all the weekends/ holidays etc. off.

I am a DON in along-term care facility, and I am having a difficult time finding both nurses and CNA's who are willing to work the evening night shift/weekends/holidays etc. The new graduates who apply all want a day job with no weekends or holidays. They think that I am crazy to expect them to work these other shifts. I had one girl even ask the day nurse--(who had worked 10 years on nights, and 6 years on the evening shift before finally getting the day position) why she thought she should have the day job, and not her. She had just passed her boards. When I started in nursing 20+ years ago, it was known that we would be working the night shift, weekends, and holidays, etc. It seems that this is the general rule for the younger generation now entering the health care field, or am I the only one who is experiencing this?