Deb2

Avoid Alegent Health at all cost. Issues, issues, issues.

OK, now that we have established that this does indeed happen, what does one do? I have gotten two interviews up to the salary offer stage and "something comes up". Although there are several (too many actually) hospitals in my area, my specialty is fairly 'inbred', ie lots of interaction. Is there a diplomatic way to get to the bottom of this? I have not been asked why I left my last employment in either interview. Do we need a new thread for this?

I have experienced and am boggled by the rhetoric hospital and unit managers use. The word perception is on my list of high anxiety terms. Well, no it's not "all about perception" if I decline to follow a patients request when I know it will be harmful. It's really discouraging when managers spout tag lines they don't understand and can't use in an example when the staff asks for an explanation, but they expect us to live up to it?!? It's all about the patients, I agree - so why would a CEO of a large healthcare group write his monthly communication to the staff about how refreshing it was to have the healthcare organization pay for him to take his wife to a conference with him?!? (the staff can barely get a shift off to pay for REQUIRED classes themselves.) Most of the rest of his communications are about pie in the sky philosophies that, as written, have NOTHING to do with patient care. Just once I'd like that person to come on a working unit and demonstrate how their imaginings benefit the patients, the hospital or the staff. As for the yearly "employee satisfaction surveys", they are designed in a 'have you stopped beating your dog' style, so that it sounds like it is the staff's fault if they are unhappy. At the last 'anonymous' survey I participated in the manager sorted through the stack of forms to hand out particular numbered forms to particular people?!? Then we all look at the results, form committees to resolve issues, turn the results into management and go right back to the way it was before. Nothing changes. I don't doubt for one minute that managers are under the gun from administration, that's when managers need to have the integrity to share with the administration how it really is and not just kowtow to misperceptions.

I recently left an organization after a conversation with the OD and manager of my unit (who by the way was mysteriously struck mute during this meeting) in HR that would probably pass as a comedy routine. You all know the one that goes ". . you can't quit because I'm firing you. . " It started almost a year prior with the then new OD (3rd in 5 years) calling me aside to tell me that with the start date of our new manager (also 3rd in 5 years) it would be a clean slate for all . . . except apparently me. She then proceeded to tell me what a horrible person I am, that I am a "major player" (no definition although I asked 3 separate times) and that she would be watching me. OK, forwarned. Why didn't I just look elsewhere then - beats me except that I really liked my coworkers and felt an obligation to my already understaffed unit. Then came the barely recognizable complaints. When I asked for documentation it was VERY slow to come. Since we chart on computers and I don't have access to the archived material I had to ask repeatedly for access. I finally was able to review charting and present my point of view and suggested they talk with coworkers who were present. Needless to say nothing I said was taken as anything near the truth and the coworkers were not consulted. Why confuse the issue with the truth? In the middle of this I was significantly injured by an out of control patient. The manager made inappropriate comments about my ability to work with the injury and then would almost immediately contradict her first statement. The OD who was fully aware of the extent of the injury never so much as said 'stinks to be you' although I saw her almost every shift I worked. While I did wonder if they would take advantage of that situation they did not. When I returned to regular duties full time the same quality of complaints started immediately. Why didn't I just leave then? I truly believed that the quality of their comments to and about me would never stand up. There was never a complaint about the quality of care I provide my patients. In this same time period this OD fired one manager, after she gave her notice, two house supervisors, two RTs (and hired one that reeks of old, haven't bathed in a while cigarette smoke) - after they exposed the fact that the 'smoke detector' in their office space was actually a camera -, a lab tech and two more nurses. Although this hospital is a part of a larger organization it is a relatively small, originally "community" hospital. All this activity was having a very negative effect on the staff and young nurses were leaving almost before they could finish orientation. As far as HR goes, NO help there. I submitted a complaint about these activities that went NOWHERE but the HR managers desk. The HR manager went so far as to threaten me when I declined to schedule a meeting for 8AM following 3 scheduled 12 hour night shifts. OK, this is one of those things where you had to be there. I recognize that the more I protest the guiltier I sound and believe me I have spent many hours reexamining the issues to find a way to correct whatever it was that brought on this attack by the OD and manager. After 22 years of nursing I'm not sure I care to continue. Fortunately for me no one is going to go hungry if I do not work. Why does this kind of abuse continue in a profession that should be nurturing and empathic? I don't have an answer.