PumaAngel

I love this and have been thinking about it for a long time. I actually left a message somewhat like this on the facebook page only to have it removed. I think the reason this took off the way it did is that this is something nurses can take their growing frustration out on and it is relatively safe with no potential retribution. Let's face it, if we do stand up and try to get better working condition and actually expect to (gasp) be treated with respect there will be a push back and it will not be pleasant.

Part of the problem with nursing today is that everyone expects nurses to give up their rights just because they are a nurse. I should have the right to not be videotaped or recorded by lord knows who for lord knows what purpose. I have no control over my voice or image after they record this and it could go anywhere and be part of any negative or nasty post. It could be altered after the fact or attract lord knows what kind of weirdo and cause problems for me in my personal life. No one has the right to do that to me just because I am a nurse. I do not give up my right to personal privacy and safety and it should never be asked of me or be considered "just part of the job". I may be a nurse but that does not negate the fact that I am a human being who should be treated with respect and dignity.

I currently receive a salary and work in management. This was the worst move I ever made in my career. My experience is that they work you nonstop. I'm getting married soon and the expectation is that I continue to take call on my wedding day and through my honeymoon. I am currently looking to go back to being a floor nurse where I will get appropriately compensated for my time and effort. Just counting the hours I spend actually in the building working if you figured it out I make less an hour now than I did working as a new graduate in the hospital. If they are going to force a salary I would RUN!!!!!!

I work in hospice and also have a love/hate relationship with it. I absolutely love love love the relationships that I build with patients and their families. This is the main thing that keeps me hanging in there. However, I do have to admit that the time requirements are difficult. I oftentimes end up working 50-60 hours a week with all the on call requirements which makes it difficult to have a life outside of work. I turn my phone off when I am off the clock. I used to answer, but I now turn it off and don't even have my work phone with me on days off or after work. I have a difficult time with the comments about wear and tear on your car being covered by mileage. I'm lucky if my mileage reimbursement covers my gas costs let alone increased frequency of maintenance on my car. It especially doesn't come close to making up for the fact that I am going to have to trade my vehicle in 2 years earlier than I had planned. That is 2 years I would have had without a car payment which is substantial. I'm still hanging in there but I have to say I don't know that I will be able to finish my career out in hospice because the time requirements are just too much.

I left my hospital position for sort of the same reason. I wanted a more regular schedule in order to have more time at home for my family. While I love my hospice/home health job in general (the patients and families and what I do from M-F 8-4:30 are incredible) the on call hours can be horrific. I found that the 40 hour work week is actually a joke and I am working 55 to 65 hours a week. I am also really irritated by how much I am expected to do off the clock. I am putting in about 5 hours a week on my own time which is just expected of everyone. So if your expectation is that you will be working 40 and then done this is a pipe dream in home health if you are expected to do call in the position. I am currently looking for something else and still seeking that more regular schedule for my family. I don't want to talk you out of it because there are some really great aspects of it, but if I had known how many hours I was expected to put in I would not have gone in this direction. Wish I had asked some more specific questions in my interview. Good luck.

Guilt is not a powerful motivator to make good life changes for yourself. As a matter of fact there has been a lot of research out there that suggests making someone feel bad about themselves does nothing more than push them back towards the behavior you would like them to quit. Face it - if smoking, eating, using drugs whatever that behavior is makes them feel better, than to make them feel bad just makes them want to do it more. I don't believe that it is a nurses job to make judgements about a person and why they do the things they do. We need to focus on trying to help them do better without causing harm - and causing harm is exactly what we will be doing if every time these people try to receive healthcare we give them a good talking to and make them feel like crud. Then you will have a bunch of people who don't even wish to get any healthcare at all.

I agree that the patients have the right to disregard the physicians orders, however I am not a maid they hired to do their bidding either. I have the right not to bring in additional fluids if it will cause the patient harm. This is part of being a nurse also. I can't stop them if they don't want to listen, but I don't have to participate in it either.

We have programs at the hospital where they can shadow a nurse for the day. I would definitely recommend something like that. It may change their mind, but it will at least give them a good idea of what exactly the job entails.

This reminds me of something that happened to me not that long ago. I had a patient who was extremely confused and flipped back and forth between being the sweetest little lady and an aggressive and extremely abusive patient. She had a sitter and the sitter came to me during one of the few times she was sleeping quietly and told me all about the horrible nurse the patient had the night before. She told me how that nurse had yelled at her and tied her down and caused horrible bruises on her body by pinching and hitting her. The sitter asked me what I was going to do about it and I just had to laugh. I said nothing because I was her nurse last night and not one of those things happened. She had actually had a quiet night that night and blessedly slept through most of it. If a patient has a sitter, chances are they are confused. This lady took turns hating you one minute and loving you the next the whole time she was on the floor. If those things seemed real in the patient's mind, there is not a thing we can do about that. Just remember to get the facts before you start running to people with accusations or reporting your coworkers.

When I read your post I had to smile. I used to be you. When I graduated with my BSN a little over a year ago I was going to go full steam ahead and move forward with my career. I planned on applying for masters programs early on and being an APN at a young age. Then I actually hit the floor and found out just how little I really knew. It's one thing to have the education, it is an entirely different story to be able to apply the knowledge and know what to do in the plentiful times that patient care does not fit under the umbrella of the perfect scenario we are so often taught about in school. I have been a floor nurse for over a year now in a stepdown unit and I am still learning nearly every time I step on the floor. Luckily I have more experienced nurses to help me down my path. I still want to pursue something more in nursing, but I have a much better idea how education is only a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to nursing. In time you will learn to appreciate and respect the importance of experience - especially when you are getting your butt saved by an experienced associates prepared nurse (god bless them because they have gotten me through many hard times)

This happens all too frequently. But as long as the hospital puts such a huge emphasis on patient satisfaction surveys we will continue to see patients put unrealistic demands out there...and we will continue to see them met if for no other reason than to get a piece of paper back that says positive things. As long as we keep telling patients that they can have any and everything they want to make sure they are satisfied, they will keep asking for it and think its perfectly OK to do so.

OK - I don't know which nursing school this was, but I just graduated and was never sitting behind the nurses station. We were grilled about every single detail regarding our patient and if we weren't busy caring for our patient directly, we were required to answer any call lights and offer our assistance to the RNs (and we were happy to do so by the way). I can't imagine not doing everything to increase your experience level.