simply_precious

Hey everybody!!! I'm sorry but I just have to vent on this issue. Recently my hospital decided that we were not allowed to put chairs in the hallway to sit while we document, instead we were suppose to sit at the nurse's station (aka the "you'll be lucky to find somewhere to stand" because it's all occupied by the MD's, interns, PA's, and NP's). Their reasoning behind this is to remove clutter in the hallway, but mind you, our med carts, hallway patients, rolling computers, extra stretchers/wheelchairs and even our code blue cart exceeds the width of the chairs, but yet they are not considered "clutter" and are perfectly fine in the hallway. Despite the effort of explaining to our manager, director of nursing, and union representative how tiring it is to stand for 12 hours & properly documenting on 6 patients and abiding by the rule of "if it's not documented, it's not done" and managing to have enough strength and energy to do this 3 days in a row without a sick call, nothing changed, everything went in one ear and back out the other. My poor excuse of a manager simply said "just sit at the nurses' station and document." Uhh hello? Have you seen the nurses' station around 11AM, it's nearly impossible to grab a chair to document, unless I'm standing there staring at everyone like a hawk and making a dash for the chair the minute someone gets up. Even if I do get a chair, the minute my patients call bell goes off and I go and answer it, that chair of mine is being occupied by someone else. So than it comes down to should I go answer that call bell? Or finish documenting and go check on the patient in 5 minutes which will ultimately decrease our ever so precious Press Ganey score. It's a no win situation. I have on stockings & comfortable nursing shoes, but can't escape going home feeling 50% more exhausted and drained. Do they really expect us to stand on our feet for 12 hours straight? Hello varicose veins! Now I haven't been a RN for too long but I'm so frustrated! These people have no consideration for us nurses, we're expected to be super hero's to manage and juggle everything with perfection. To provide excellent nursing care, to connect with our patients, to teach preventive measures and perform superb documentation but yet we can't properly be given the right tools (i.e.: chairs) to perform adequately. Does this make sense to you guys? Cause I've been thinking about it for a long time and it just doesn't make sense. :thnkg: