BrokenRNheart

About lateral violence http://www.jointcommission.org/NewsRoom/NewsReleases/nr_07_09_08.htm However, I don't see this making any changes. As with anything else, what will happen to the employee that tries to enforce this........unemployment?

I don't have time to go through and read or thank any of the posts right now. I will get back to this. For now, I thought you all might find this interesting. I will look for the link and add it later. Recently, JCAHO has finally decided to address lateral violence in the workplace. All nurses here know one of their most recent games involving pain assessments. Now think.....if they can step in and enforce steps to control the lateral violence (which we all know is a joke) and how often we chart to pain, why can't they enforce safe staffing ratios. The truth is that JCAHO can and won't. I think they should be our target for addressing this problem. We should all consider contacting them over and over again and demand to know why they won't and refuse to take any of their silly excuses. They can and they should. Forget the politicians. Our government and economy is so screwed up right now that safe patient ratios are the least of our countries concern. JCAHO is on such an ego trip with accreditting hospitals, make them work for their money. If nurses and people start attacking them for not stepping in, maybe.......just maybe they will. They are the ones that should be addressing this issue. What good are they? They stand over hospitals putting administrators in fear but they don't do the most important thing necessary - address WHAT WILL REALLY PROVIDE GOOD PATIENT CARE! We don't need to be given more work by them. We need more nurses and less patients. If part of being accredited included safe patient ratios, hospitals would have no choice! Doesn't safe ratios mean more appropriate pain control and less stress and less lateral violence?

Sometimes "nurse run" doesn't get it either. Get the wrong nurses to "run" and you are just as screwed. I happen to know of a place with a nurse retention committe that has only two nurses on it. They are limited as to what they can even ask for. Anything that would actually allow nurse retention is not allowed. It is a big joke! Has anyone actually seen any difference with nurse retention committees?

The problem is that there are too many organizations fighting for their own cause. Each of them have the same goal - safe staffing or set ratios. One of the reasons that we can't get any where is because there are too many "little" groups trying to do something and each of them has something different that others don't agree with. Now, if we could get all the "little" groups together as one big group just to address how unsafe it is, we might be heard. When I posted this, it was just to fire up the topic. Many of you do not agree with ANA. Many of you have posted your own links. We all want the same thing. I hope that everyone fired up about this topic will consider signing all the petitions to just get ourselves heard. We can actually create a bunch of much larger groups fighting for this cause if we would all consider taking a few minutes a week to sign each and every petition that has anything to do with it. All these little separated groups are just not being heard. Just a thought. I take this very seriously.

Based on how catty nurses are, I would say that 99% of the nurses in the field are unfit. This is part of our problem. 1) The hospitals are catering to the new young blood regardless of their true dedication to the field and desire to sweat and work hard (not all young fit that) 2) They have no dedication to older seasoned nurses that cost more 3) More often than not, it is the conditions that cause the messes you have to clean up - and YES there are some lazy people in the field, but if the conditions were better, there wouldn't be so many messes to clean up. I am a good nurse. I want to do my job and do it right. I have been tarred and black-balled by vicious brown-nosers so I don't agree with that statement. I have seen many nurses get the same discrimination when they were hard workers and gave good care but maybe forgot things on occasion. I have seen many nurses get slammed for the same thought that weren't worth tossing to the curb and were still worth keeping to get the work done. The truth of the matter is that there are MANY nurses in the field that don't belong there. If we weed them out, all of those perfect nurses that have been so judgmental are going to be working a lot harder because you aren't going to find all those perfect nurses to fill all those spots. It comes back to getting along with eachother and working as a team and accepting that people are different. You never know what is being said about following you. Thing to remember is how vicious women can be and the gossiping and complaining and seems they are never satisfied nor can they just let something alone. Running people down becomes a mission. If we had to start weeding them out.....you may not like what the outcome is and what is left. As a matter of fact, you might get weeded out along with them for something that is wrong with you too. As far as the start of this topic. Trying to bring new nurses in isn't going to fix the problem. Bringing nurses back, nurse retention and changing the work conditions is the only answer. Retention is a joke. Hospitals have no clue that for every nurse they ran off they probably turn about 20 nurses against the place. That doesn't create one opening it creates an opening that in all reality a large number of nurses don't want to fill. They will never get it.

I have been thinking about this topic again. Rather than start a new one, I searched and thought I would kick this up. A recent shift that I worked made me think about this again. We started our shift with call lights going off non-stop for about 5 hours and it started back up in the last 3 hours of our shift (night-twelve). Had 16 wound dressings to do, give blood and all of the patients had been pooping non-stop from receiving laxatives for days. When it came down to charting, the hourly rounding was a joke. There was no way you could have "rounded" and charted in any kind of hourly manner. Hourly rounding is the hospitals way to 1) force you to be accountable for something that they created a road block on and 2) cover their butts because they know it is impossible. When minutes are flying past you faster than the speed of light as you are trying to pass meds, chart, do wound care - READ wound care orders, answer call lights, clean butts, tend to multiple requests of a patient that can keep you in the room for a half hour to an hour, get orders, check charts, draw labs, follow up on orders, find and correct errors.....60 minutes feels like FIVE. Before you know it, it is time to "round" again. I am seeing my patients non-stop but some times a patient or two might not be seen for an unreasonable amount of time.....so.... DO I LIE? Do I chart that I couldn't? Seriously, any one have the guts to admit that their hourly rounding charting isn't truthful? Also, I notice that aides are supposed to do the same and chart turns. I know my patient is not getting turned....not getting the things they chart, but they chart it. We are all struggling to stay on top of call lights for mor than half the shift. When it takes 4 staff members to tend to the care of an obese patient and you are all in there for a half an hour or an hour.....??? Not charting - or charting the truth will get you reprimanded or fired. Are you all getting your hourly rounding done?

No advice but I feel for ya. I am sickened by the job every time I go to it. It doesn't matter what area. I am tired of being rushed beyond the extreme of being able to think safely and act safely and praying all along that you have done just that. I don't feel there is any reason for it when we are dealing with patients lives. I'm leaving the profession. I can't kid myself. I believe the conditions has traumatized me and I can't stomach it any more.

I experienced a similar situation. We didn't know what to do. We did know that in order to call animal control you have to be willing to tell them who you are on the complaint (in that city). That creates a dilemma as far as any anonymous call made. Also, if she really cared, she should have agreed to something. No shots, not registered....who knows what else her lifestyle states. I think registering pets is just another way for a city to make money, but my dog is up to date on shots and treated for heartworm and worms. Responsible pet ownership!

Unfortunately, nurses that speak up or write up get harassed, bad evals, fired - you name it. It does seem like a waste of energy, but I am not giving up. I am giving up on nursing though. Every time I work, I see patients that have suffered in some way from the unsafe staffing levels. That cannot be ignored any more. That is not what I went into this business for! I can't continue to pretend none of this is going on and be a part of the problem. My DAYS are numbered in this field! I am heading back to some other things I have done in the past. I will continue to follow this because I know it is WRONG.

Seems the whole medical atmostphere has gotten sour. From management to co-workers to other departments and patients. It is just not a pleasant place to be at all. How did we end up here?

The labor department takes care of not being paid. Contact your labor department and tell her to get another job. Best advice you could give her is to get out of the medical field. This is the first taste of what really goes on. Good luck.

It is not well known and unfortunately, nurses seem to be the least interested in acting to make a change. As you have seen in this profession, some of the nurses are the reason for the shortage and dissatisfaction with vindictive and dishonest behavior. The profession has gotten bad. It is only going to get worse. There is a shortage for a reason. Many of us are stuck in it trying to figure out a way out. I, personally, don't want any part of what is going on. I thought I found a place to "like" and the backstabbing, hate, misery and vindictiveness just made it another nightmare. They are short on staff and half of their present staff runs everyone off and backstabs. They will continue to hurt for staff and never appreciate good help. They allow two very violent people to work there and do not control them but they run off agency for absolutely NOTHING. There are a lot of sick people in this field that get their jollies off of terrorizing people or lying and getting people in trouble. I can't get over how many nurses are so vicious towards others about mistakes they make or practice and skills. The most critical bunch of people on the earth exist in nursing. I will never understand it. I don't want to be associated with it. I have decided to move on to another field. It isn't about doing a good job or being a nurse, it's about clicks and being evil and dishonest. Hospitals don't give a hoot about what is going on and why there is a shortage. They are every bit to blame for the problem and they allow inappropriate behavior to add to dissatisfaction on the job. Many units entrust the running of the unit to the most unprofessional and miserable people available. If those people don't like your hair, you will be harassed. These same nurses complain about being short staffed or overworking but tend to be the same people that run off other nurses. Let them work overtime and be short staffed. You can't please them.

Obviously, the administrators have some secret to the magic of handling 15 minute checks along with other tasks that keep you away from the room for 15 minutes. Problem is that they are not sharing it with us. Repeating this post: Petition set up so signatures cannot be seen publicly on the web: http://www.petitiononline.com/nurse/petition.html For WhistleBlowers Protection....more for doc's at this point but, hey...what can I say? Nurses won't come forward...they did. It's a start. This group is VERY active and motivated. Supported by $$, docs and lawyers. http://leapforpatientsafety.org/ Their petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/patients/ Some blogs that address this issue: http://thevalueofhumanlife.blogspot.com/ http://donurseshavethetime.blogspot.com/ http://medteam.wordpress.com/

I don't have much faith in union after dealing with it. Things really weren't much different. I guess they can control how many patients you have....that is probably the most important thing to me any way. I will try again. Here is a newer petition.....let someone try. If we do nothing, nothing will happen. People are out there trying to make things change. As long as we sit back and ignore it, they can't do it. The petition is confidential and your name cannot be seen by the public. I, personally believe that the more noise that is made, the more likely something will change. At least educating the public MIGHT force hospitals to use it as a competitive marketing tool......that they changed their ratios so come to them. http://www.petitiononline.com/nurse/petition.html

Exactly...as I said....responsible for our own knowledge, our own license and our own a**