at my internship this summer, i attended a staff meeting held by our nurse manager. she said the nurses shouldn't complain because they should be happy to have a job. she also said the nursing staff may be getting a raise of 1 or 2 percent, if they get a raise at all. the hospital is no longer matching their contributions to their 401k's indefinitely. staff shouldn't complain about not getting a break, and it's the nurse's responsibility to make sure he/she gets a break. at the end of the meeting she had the nerve to say management is sacrificing because even they are not giving themselves a raise. i am only a student, but nurses can and should have more say over their working conditions than this. not to say that they shouldn't be happy to have a job but that doesn't mean that you should be treated like children. especially when nurses are the backbone of a hospital. it's not going to take one nurse to bring about change but if nurses are willing to take jobs in bad working conditions, then no one will see the need for change. until the culture of nursing change and conditions improve vastly, there will always be a shortage of bedside nurses. because honestly, who wants to take that crap? a lot of people graduate, see how the conditions are, and then go right back into school to get far away from bedside nursing. this is especially true when people only go through clinicals and have not had an internship in a hospital like i have.
