WhichWayIsUp?

What a dismal commentary on the state of nursing. Frankly, I only know one nurse that wishes to stay at the bedside in my hospital. She is a new grad and is still quite idealistic. But she is beginning to look tired. Beginning to snipe when there are to many demands and not enough of her to go around. She can't work as fast or as smart as us old farts because she doesn't have the body of knowledge we use to project what we have to do the next hour, the next four hours or the entire day. I rarely leave late but she is always finishing up her work. I love nursing. I hate what we as nurses have allowed nursing to become. The health care system is broken. We need to get back to patient centered care. But alas the bean counters will not allow it. And we are powerless even though we are 2,000,000 strong in numbers. What a sad, sad, sad state of affairs this has become.

All forms of discrimination exist. Age, sex, race, religion and sometimes just plain appearance. My podiatrist only hires good looking blond nurses and support staff. It looks like a modeling agency when you go in there. I hope his wife is just not that naive!

Well, I don't think being male ever hurt me in getting girlfriends. I dated just about every girl in nursing school in our class. Maybe because we were all stressed out either in class or studying from 4 am until MN every day! We had no social life! And then there was this really hot girl in my last year of nursing school that really found me exciting! She even laughed at all of my dumb jokes and was always interested in my extremely gory and nasty stories from practicum. She even helped me study to pass my finals and eventually my state bar exams. She found me exciting enough she said yes when I asked her to marry me. Male nurses back then was suppose to be homosexual and all of us were broke. But she married me anyway. We have been together 34 years now. And other women find me attractive and sexy. They tell me that all the time. And I tell them to please give me another piece of cornbread and cold buttermilk because it is the only thing I need. LOL! If a woman doesn't think you are attractive and sexy because you are a male and in nursing then you should run from that woman as fast as you can. There are 100 other women that are waiting out there for you to show up on their doorstep. I asked one of my 20 something young female nurses if she thought men were more or less attracted to her as a nurse. She said that she found most men in her age group did not find her attractive for her brilliant mind (she is) her wonderful personality (so bubbly and warm) or her beautiful body (very cute), they were attracted to her paycheck! LOL! On the other hand, my 20 something new grad male nurse came into work the other night and for once all of us were in the station. He was instantly surrounded by a herd of females! Youngest was in her 20s and the oldest was in her 60s. They were oohing and cooing about his new hair cut and his new scrubs. They were darn near assaulting the poor boy! I told them to leave him alone or I would turn the fire hose on them! He gave them big hugs and then they went on their merry way. They don't find him attractive or manly because he is a male nurse? BS! I told him to be careful that there was not only kittens in these woods but cougars as well. He had no idea what I was talking about or what I meant when I told him that I better not catch him coming out of an empty room! ;-)

Hey guys, I appreciate your comments but you are perpetuating some of the same stereotypes as you claim the facility is doing. Never, and I mean ever claim that a facility should hire males because we can "lift" patients are other stereotypical tasks. Yes, this is and remains a female dominated profession. But us old coots that helped pave the way for you new male nurses to enjoy the climate you practice in today paid a huge price to help make nursing more gender neutral. When I started working as a nurse in the 70s it was automatically accepted that we were all homosexual. Out of my entire graduating class of 11 male nurses none were homosexual. But in order to prove we were not we had to chase every skirt that can by us and boast about our conquests. Needless to say it was stressful. I lost many friends that could not put up with the stigma and constant need to prove that we were good nurses. Finally after many years I have seen a huge acceptance of men in nursing that I would have told you 30 years ago would never happen. The one thing that I find still frustrating is the need to practice safe patient contact between male nurses and female patients. Due to the threat of lawsuits I now tell my young male nurses that anything above the waist is okay to be alone with a female patient. But below the waist, you want a female chaperone. Has nothing to do with the professionalism of the nurse, has to do with plaintiff lawyers and the probability of suits. I just talked to our Risk Management attorney regarding male MDs and female patients and she said the same thing. Not worth the risk. And the double standard exists for MDs as well, she does not advise our female MDs to be chaperoned with males when performing genital assessments or procedures. Totally accepted. However, we both agree that if it was not for the risk of lawsuit that society would find it acceptable. I went into a room the other day to remove a lady partsl packing and while I was simply explaining what I was going to do and before I could inform the lady that my female PCT was coming to assist me she had the sheet down to her ankles and the gown to her shoulders. She was in position to remove the packing with no further positioning. I simply told her that it wasn't necessary and asked her to put her gown down, pulled the sheet up and then my PCT came in the room and I completed the procedure. The patient did not have one single thought about my being a male nurse or any risk of assault. She simply wanted the packing out so she could go home. We have come a long way since 1970. If it wasn't for lawyers we would be much further.

I am a little put off by the comments that the nurses in this scenarios delegated tasks then went to do non-nursing tasks. In my hospital that would last about one time and then the nurse would be in the nurse manager's office with the HR rep and being told when to expect their final check. Just not going to happen! On the other hand, I see red when a PCT/MA/NA says "shouldn't we all be a team player?" That seems to work really well when the NA wants your help but does nothing to help the RN meet all the obligations thrown at them. Let me be real clear. I don't think PCT/MA/NA understand how they got to where they are today. We went from a Team nursing care delivery system to a Primary Care nursing delivery system to a Task nursing delivery system. Nursing has been reduced from a Profession to a Trade. This situation was created by for profit companies injecting the profit motive into health care instead of the care motive. In the days of the Team model (70s) there were only NAs (nursing assistants). Their role was to provide the basic necessities of care including filling ice pitchers, serving trays, feeding, emptying urinals, bedpans and BSCs, bathing and changing beds. Then overnight Primary care into play and all the NAs were gone! The ratio of RN to patient was never to be more than 1 to 5 and the nurse would do everything. Nurses left the profession and we had a major nursing shortage (80s). Then hospitals decided to make more money and figured out they needed "nurse extenders" also known now as Patient Care Technicians. The nurse practice act was violated and all of a sudden these super NAs were trained to put in foleys, do Accucks, start IVs in some facilities and other skilled tasks. Now nurses are thinking less critically with a higher nurse to patient ratio and much, much sicker patients. Forget holistic practice. Now it is a matter of how many tasks can you perform in one 12 hour shift and can you chart it at leas 3 different ways. The ANA is expecting a loss of 25% of the current nursing workforce at the bedside when the economy turns around. So let me clarify PCT expectations: take the vital signs on rounds. While you are in the room empty the urinal or the BSC, offer the patient the bedpan if necessary and take them off. Fill up the ice pitcher. Get them something to drink from the diet kitchen if they want it. Empty the foley and record it on the I&O sheet. Give the bath if needed. Do the Accuck. Call me the out of range results on any test or vital sign. If you need help to clean up a patient or turn the patient then let me know. And while you are doing these things I will be taking off orders, giving meds every hour, calling the doctor, assessing the patient for changes, filling out Influenza and Pneumonia screens, doing core measures sheets, learning how to use the new RX for DVT Prevention, attending the training on the new pump, attending the meeting on the upcoming JACHO review, learning how to use the new defibrillator, trending outcomes, reviewing patient satisfaction scores and learning how to use the new computer system update. Yes, I am your team member. We are here to help each other help the patient. But always remember, you are an extension of me, you are doing the things I would do myself if some hospital CFO would let me. But they want me to take my 3rd admission of the day before I can discharge my other patients. I have walked in your shoes, you can't walk in mine.

Let me see if I can answer your questions. I don't wear any make-up at work. Of course i don't wear any make-up at any time. In fact my family would have me 1013'd to a facility if I did. Hair: I don't put it up. Unless it falls off and I have to put it back up on my head. I tried to glue it back on one time but it didn't work. So I don't bother putting my hair up. When I was 20 and a new grad I had shoulder length hair. I didn't put it up then either. Oh, by the way, I am a male. This wasn't a female only post was it? LOL!

One of my colleagues left our hospital and moved there to work at this hospital. It has been a constant stream of horror stories. I hope the union wins there and change is made to help the patients.

The OP said she works nights and 3 shifts a week. She also said that the facility is hiring on her shift. That sounds to me like she is casual or PRN. They are going to hire folks that are full time and part time and cancel her so they can work. This is typical today.

I went from being a Millionaire to a Zeronaire two years ago. I hit rock bottom. Lost $7M. Escaped with 2 old cars and $147 in cash. Age, 53. The true assets I had were: #1 a caring and supportive wife, #2 a nursing license and #3 a "can do spirit." So, I went and got a floor nurse job, the lowest form of job in the hospital. Got a check. Able to eat again. Got another check, able to have a roof over our head. Got a checks, bought a house. Went to school. Got a MSN. Looking for new job, should actually double or triple my income in one swoop. Already turned down multiple job offers because they paid less than $100k. Wife stood by my side through the hard times and the good times. Could lose it all again. But we have each other. Money or the lack of it is not the cause of troubled marriages, troubled marriages are the cause of troubled marriages. Here is a simple math formula I learned when I got my first masters, a MBA: Revenue minus Expense equals a positive or negative profit. R-E=P(+/-). Make more. Spend less. Make the hard decisions. But do it together. If you can't do it together then the relationship is broken, not the bank.

Wow! Are you sure this is good advice? I only ask because I have the same issue. Except I am the husband with a wife that will not get off her butt and take a job that pays twice what she makes now, she makes $65k now and I found her one that will pay her entry level $125k. Does gender bias enter into the picture here? Should I just go ahead and call my attorney now and file for divorce on the grounds she refuses to earn at the maximum level she can? I am really confused here. I only make $60k now since I am underemployed as a staff nurse on a med/surg floor but I am hoping to get a job making $150k soon. That is how I found the job for her. I was overqualified and the recruiter thinks he can place her in it. But she is resistant because she is not sure she would really enjoy doing that kind of work. Is she selfish?

ED is not a place to avoid toileting. there is a lot of of it there. Ophthalmology is a great field. I loved it and I may be reentering that field as the Administrator of a chain of eye surgery clinics.

Just finished my second masters, a masters in nursing (MSN). I think the conflict here is something that we covered in class. Today's basic nurse has to master a body of knowledge that is huge. Have you seen the latest version of Brunner's Medical Surgical Textbook? It is two massive books! When I went to nursing school it was only one large book. And we didn't even cover every chapter. Today's nursing student doesn't stand a chance. Studies have proven that to gain enough knowledge to truly function in nursing today a nursing student needs to be in a 5 year program. Wow! And we are still arguing if we should eliminate the LPN status? Ridiculous. If you work on the floor you know that passing drugs and doing basic care is 2 of the least of tasks you need to do and ranks very low. Today's nurse is responsible for being the safety net for the patient. You are expected to know everything about the patient and everything that is being done to and for the patient. You need to know that the patient was admitted with a possible PE but the Doc did not order a venous doppler study to rule out other possible DVTs. You need to know which acute rehab facilities will accept which patients with a host of co-morbidities but not others. PCTs have taken on the role of caregiver, bathing, feeding, tolieting and comforting. The days of RNs doing that gone. It is no longer economically feasible in the USA to maintain that thought process. Nursing has grown past that. The LPN, and ADN need to be eliminated. The minimal entry point needs to be a BSN with many more seeking MSN and DSCN. This is the direction of nursing and it will not change. Change or perish, there is no going back.

Wow, you work for my hospital! The matrix rules! Patient care suffers but mgt doesn't care because stock price is up!

The largest barrier to converting people to Christianity is Christians that confess Jesus by voice and deny him by actions. Returning to nursing has dragged me back to the cross kicking and screaming all the way. I could not put up with the bad hours, bad patients, bad management and bad working conditions if it wasn't for Jesus carrying me through yet another day. I have to often go into the bathroom and kneel and pray for guidance and patience less I begin to commit grave sins. We are the hands of God ministering to his children. All of his children. It changes the perspective and makes it easier to accept the difficulties.

The OR for sure. Not sure what you mean by A&E? PACU is another area. Dialysis is another. Outpatient surgery as well.