Davis1989

My mother has been an RN for over 20 years. She truly loves caring for patients. But she has had increasing problems with her job. It’s the worst at her current hospital. It’s not the hard work or the busyness, she says she can do that. She says it’s the system she has to work with. It is inefficient; coworkers don’t help; nurses’ aids don’t do their job and are entirely disrespectful to the RNs; the managers don’t care about the problems and do little to help the nurses. Even worse, she says she sees numerous violations of codes and acts that are immoral. Patients are getting horrible care; she says she knows that many people have died that didn’t have to as a result of people not doing their jobs. She relishes the days when, though things were busy, there was a cooperative and helpful environment where she could focus and giving patients the best care she could. I know that the industry has certain problems and many nurses are overworked, but what she describes is an outright abusive and inappropriate environment that results in serious maltreatment of patients. Though this is the worst, she has had similar problems at the last couple of institutions she has been at. How can this be? How common is this? Are you familiar with things like this going on? Are there better places to work? Though I know she has to work hard as a nurse, she should not be subject to these “atrocities” and I wish to help her. She is not optimistic about finding a better environment to work in and is reluctant to leave. But I wonder if and how I should advise her to leave because I figure there has to be a place that cares for and respects its nurses. We live in the US in a metropolitan area. I hope some of you can help me gain some insight and perspective on this problem.