JKL33

Ignore comments from hospitalist. However: Is this your process for activating a stroke alert?

I didn't. 😂 But if I did I'd just check my very short list of ignored posters.

Your beef is with management. They might not have control over people disappearing (arguably), but they do have control over their own policies and how evenly they implement them. It seems most reasonable to not be mad at one's peers for whatever decisions they made while management was flirting with the idea of community-sewn masks and bandanas for our protection after having abdicated their responsibility to be prepared for even a relatively small disaster. You know?

Do you really believe these things; do you think they are rational? Or do you feel bad that a patient of yours died even though they not appear too distressed the last time you saw them?

And she knew this was what she was going to do. The bottom line is you either accept it or you don't. You either accept that you're never likely to get a bona fide CVICU orientation or you don't accept it. You probably can just learn by getting sort of thrown in this way. It isn't ideal. Yes things are rough everywhere. Or in lots of places, anyway. Your manager was still deceitful in order to serve her own interests. You either accept that or you don't. You don't have your manager's promises in writing. You have to decide what you are okay with and what you aren't. Personally I would consider hanging in there. If they are willing to pay you OT to be oriented one day at a time in addition to your regularly scheduled shifts, I'd take the money, learn what I want to learn and get myself into a marketable position and then decide if I want to have any loyalty to them or not.

I think this attitude is inappropriate. Sometimes it is a defense mechanism and (other times) it is some personalities that sort of get into being involved in these situations; I call that latter thing the cowboy attitude, where we're here to wrestle around with people and put them in their place and it's all good. I think there are other attitudes that are much more safe and also, frankly, more respectable/professional ways in which to treat patients even when things are bad. My primary concern is that if the cowboy attitude prevails in a place then other things tend to go out the window, such as respectful communication, for example, or taking care to not invite extra difficulty simply by one's attitude and approach. We all know that these situations are going to arise and/or may even be regular occurrences. However, one thing that is completely inappropriate is any new grad (or anyone new to the environment) being placed into these situations without any associated training and without appropriate back-up. I would not see a need to stay in a place where management did not prioritize these things.

@kale_ Sorry to hear you are struggling. You are in a huge time of growth and transition with regard to learning new things, learning to apply what you have already learned and having it all come together to advance towards competency and feeling a bit more comfortable. Your environment does have a lot of pressure and in general it often just doesn't feel good to be on this part of a learning curve. That said, based on the bit of feedback from others that you have shared, I would be surprised if you are performing as poorly as what you think you are. I would guess your internal feelings are coloring your perception of your own performance to some extent. I think you should first discuss all of this with your PCP; it sounds like difficulty coping. You could also speak with a trusted close friend or loved one...and then also possibly a therapist. I would strongly advise against any drastic moves. You are holding your own in CVICU even if it doesn't feel good right now. Give yourself a chance to get the coping part better in hand; it would be preferable to be in a stronger position (mental health-wise) before deciding your next move. You yourself have verbalized part of my concern: If you make big moves and there is some underlying issue that has been unaddressed, you stand the risk of not feeling any better about yourself. It's possible to go through life making a series of decisions that each end up reinforcing inappropriate feelings of inadequacy; it can become a cycle. Please think about hanging in there while you seek professional advice. Take good care of yourself. 💮

Thank you for the clarification @JBMmom. I just have mixed feelings about it all (even though I probably wouldn't choose to behave exactly as what you're describing) since overall I believe there are fundamental disparities between the behavior that is considered acceptable for employers (especially large corporations) vs. employees. For example, take a case where nurse:patient ratios go into effect. The employer may then choose to remove all ancillary help and let the nurses do all the jobs that need to be done on the unit including taking out the trash. They can get away with that, but it wouldn't be the spirit of the law/regulation and it definitely isn't in the interest of good patient care. I have a hard time disparaging people even in the scenario you describe because in my entire time as a nurse I have not seen employers even entertain a scenario where they actually get the short end of the stick. Rather they will make sure someone else is left with that end every time. They will achieve it one way or another. And due to their resources they are able to do it without resorting to unpleasant-appearing screaming on social media.

I think an employee spotlight, chosen randomly, might be a similar but better idea. It's just highlighting someone for the sake of highlighting them as a person first, who is (happens to be) a member of the team. Undoubtedly there are some who wouldn't love this, either, and may choose not to participate but I still think it's better than the awkwardness of employee of the month type things. I don't say this because of any love for the participation trophy idea but because I am for something that in my mind seems like a more genuine interest in the people who are doing the work. Everything else is about performance, there is very little that is actually about the people.

Well...in my heart I'm trying to use proper netiquette (other thread 😬) but in my very humble and polite opinion we should make sure to not imply that the nurses were wrong and are just screaming no matter what admin does. Both the situations ARE unsafe. It sounds like these admins first tried to work their very stressed workers even more, and when that was not well-received they then tried to be vindictive by not mandating and simultaneously not trying any other solution either so that those "complainers" would have to eat their words. Nurses can't be conjured up, true. They have to be hired, paid appropriately and treated appropriately. Until all those things are happening then no one can really shrug and claim that there are none to be had. Management is "stuck" because if they can't shovel downhill, they're not interested.

It sounds like your team is not part of this profession, though? I promise I'm not trying to split hairs with your words, but that could be kind of important in terms of what they believe their obligations are and how they view these. On the other hand, it's possible you are behaving in ways that even others in this profession would not see fit to join. It kind of sounds like your actions are a bit like some of those who believe that only they are trying, only they know right ways, only they care, only they are devoting the energy that should be devoted. When I have run across individuals who operate this way, part of my disagreement with them is that I see them as voluntarily taking on stress over problems for which someone else had the authority, means and obligation to mitigate long before it had a chance to become a problem at my level for me to deal with. And I prefer not to expend emotional energy on problems where responsible parties have already taken a pass. In other words, being a martyr just doesn't feel good. Some people derive something from it; I don't. Are you "the nurse" at an assisted living business, or what?

Oh for pete's sake. Do you have any idea the number of times I literally have tears coming out of my eyes and someone says, "what's so FUNNY" and I have to say "oh, nothing..." cause it's too involved to explain, then I just keep laughing??

Out of sincere curiosity, why would you be offended by what I said? I'm sure it's difficult for you to believe, especially here where it's just strangers typing things, but I do have compassion for people who write posts like yours, and that is the spirit in which I answered. I believe you will have much less stress, angst and emotional discomfort if you try to see things a different way and stop giving power to those who are simply stroking their own feelings of angst by toying with you. These people feel bad inside or are upset about something other than you in the moment when they say these things and behave this way. Ultimately they don't feel good about themselves and feel powerless. All of their actions indicate that they are trying to put you down or lower your position so that they can have the emotional experience of telling themselves that they are higher/bigger/better than someone. Your reactions are the emotional version of signing up to let them feel better by putting you down. So...literally...walking away from them is what protects you from staying around to voluntarily serve their off-kilter emotional needs. When you understand and believe this, you will be able to see their mouths moving and you will feel nothing while walking away. And you will feel so much better. What they are doing is meaningless with regard to your life. It means nothing. So walk away.

Therein lies the problem. Show no emotion and ignore them. They'll get bored quickly.

I used to get annoyed and say things back, not very productively--when I had to deal with the kind of things mentioned in the OP. Now, not only do I rarely say anything, I'm rarely annoyed. Just can't care about OPPs, and every one of these are all OPPs.

Personal opinion: Not liking the material would concern me. Spend some time reconsidering the material and deciding how you feel about it. 👍🏽

Usually open the conversation by first standing by in a mode that could be called "silently engaged" for awhile (not intrusively but anywhere from 30 sec to couple of mins) - then asking if they have any questions in an engaged, meaningful way.

I will give my standard advice of making sure that your medical therapy is optimized. Best wishes ~

I think it's best not to paint a whole group this way. There are hard workers and complainers in all demographics. I'd imagine these new nurses were taught the same idealized version of nursing the rest of us were, and in my opinion things have gotten very bad in hospitals in recent years; like intolerable. So at least in my mind it makes sense that more recent grads would recognize an even bigger discrepancy between school vs. real world than maybe previous generations. I don't know, just thinking out loud. This year we've been hearing from people whose education has been shorted due to Covid, and no one seems to care too much except them. They're just expected to get out there and be the workers they were (partially) trained to be. It can't be easy. As far as compromise and give-take employer-employee relationships, those days are going by the wayside. Big corps started it and employees got the message. I'm not sure why you would find it odd that they would be surprised to be told to float if they didn't sign a float position. We know that's normal but they're just learning how things roll. Do you think they see give-and-take, flexibility and cooperation and that sort of thing when they consider how their employer regards them? Doubtful. Personally I'd ignore this. Not worth the aggravation. As far as complaining about assignments, that's been going on, what--forever?? At my first nursing position whenever I was in charge I did my own little acuity calculations to get the fairest assignments I could possibly come up with and people would belly-ache until I showed them my math and said "have at it." If you try to develop a rapport with these newer nurses you will get a lot farther. Even if they some of them do have a problem it certainly isn't worth your time to get frustrated about it. Let management worry about it. Just take good care of patients. 👍🏽

Because if you have to wager a bet, chances for being treated like a human being are better in any of those other roles/places (except maybe the middle management role). That's just sad. I guarantee you that some of it isn't just some need to shore up oneself with the idea of "advancement" but rather laying eyes on the situation and just saying no. There are a ton of people that love bedside care. But not enough to lose any sense of well-being.

Well-known veterinary med--mites, mange, worms, etc.

The contracts are practically proof all on their own that there is no nursing shortage. If there were a real shortage, there would be no nurse anywhere who would have to sign one to get a job, even as a new grad.

These fools have spent the last decade or more with their "lean" BS! That's what they have been doing. They don't have any room to breathe on a good day. Their entire plan has been to cut everything to the bone and expect the fallout to be taken up and made whole by their bottom-rung entry-level bedside staff. They are freaking crazy, that's all there is to it.

Maybe some, but I don't even fully believe that. Rural areas have people who have history and roots in those areas, they want careers and they need jobs just like anyone anywhere else and quite a few of them prefer the lifestyle and are not just willing to stay but hoping to stay. I've worked in a couple of places like that; one was a CAH and it wasn't suffering for nursing help. If anything people will commute an hour or so to a community college with the full intention of working where they grew up once they finish nursing school. But understand that ^ this is the type of things corporations have absolutely trashed. They don't want it. They don't want to have to show any loyalty of their own to a community that was there long before they rolled into town. They seem to think that having loyal, well-connected employees is too much trouble and a threat to their business ideas. They don't care about community relationships, they are there to put their name on things and to commandeer whatever meager resources exist and use them in a way that benefits their flagship. And they return much less to the community than what they lead people to believe. It is ridiculous to think there is a shortage of nurses in any but the most desperate of areas. And pumping out more nurses isn't going to change the fact that a small number of areas are really going to perpetually struggle. My firm belief is that, with regard to help/staff, healthcare organizations are only struggling because of their own poor choices. I've been saying for years that it doesn't matter who you are or how lowly you are viewed by a business exec, people don't enjoy being treated like crap and will seek to figure out something else if they have even the slightest chance of doing so.

I have been saying things along these lines all along. One of the first things I read here about new grad contracts, for example, was that they were necessary because of the huge investment that was being made into fickle new grads who have no sense of loyalty. The contracts were necessary in order to stem the losses from such irresponsible and ungrateful people. That was never the case, never. This started with corporate BS. The reciprocal lack of loyalty followed, and is completely logical. I've never posted an article here but I prepared one a few weeks ago and decided it was just another one of my rants. But this is exactly what it was about....basically that I wonder if any "leader" anywhere has any regret whatsoever about they way they have destroyed things. Now here they are again flailing like a 2-year-old blaming every one in sight for the various difficulties they are experiencing like the example in this thread. They themselves taught people to expect zero loyalty and in the last 10 years have managed to spite so many of the nurses who were loyal, making damn sure we all understood that they did not care about us or about nursing. I'm convinced there is mostly enough help out there, even for covid. But they have spent 10-20 years blowing up bridges and burning the remnants for good measure. Where's that one chick when we need her? 😬😂 You know who I'm talking about, the one who can turn these admins back to themselves to find their own answers instead of blaming everyone else and expecting others to solve their problems. 😉