258bourbon

I can relate!! We have a supervisor that just loves to keep everyone stirred up. I always think of the best come back after the fact. The other day we were oncw again working 2 people below our "master plan", being the charge nurse, I wrote a variance report on it. This supervisor, not only picked it up from my things and read it, but called me on it saying that I shouln't report things like that, If we aren't willing to pick upthe "slack", we will blow our budget hiring agency help. By the way, she hadn't offer to do any patient care. I argued w/her briefly and then went on about my business. Afterward, I thought maybe I should have reported her for harassment. I had several witnesses. She drives everyone nuts.

Pamela--I often wonder what the state of health care will be in 20 yrs. My husband has been very ill over the last 3 years and for the first time I was on the other side. Thankfully this was before HIPPA because I had to spend soooo much time on the phone tracking down other peoples incompetence. He had a condition that was hard to dx and more difficult to rx. We had insurance and had to travel to various places to have lab work, treatments, etc according to where and what our insurance paid. I often felt that if he was on medicaid/-care it would have saved us alot of time and money. I work in a rural hospital and about 80% of ER visits are things that I would go to my Dr. for. We have pts who have years of alcohol/tobacco use who are now ill and sit in the hospital for days w/ no insurance. They are unwilling to take responsibilty for themselves and think we should do it for them. I get really frustrated sometimes. I work 4- 12 hour days/wk (almost always understaffed, but that is another story :)) and manage 3 teenagers, a sick husband, house and a life. I can't even "qualify" for an aide to come into my home and help my husband bathe and get dressed unless we pay for it. My husband and I have been in the workforce for over 20 years each and have worked professional jobs, paid taxes, had insurance-- What kind of return do we get?? I just get so frustrated at times, sometimes I wonder why I am trying so hard. We would get more assistance if we weren't working. Jeeezzzz!! I sure unloaded on that one didn't I??

I have turned into a very frustrated nurse. I work in a small rural hospital on a med/surg unit. We have a fairly new manager,( she is an experienced RN) and our staffing ratios have become what i consider dangerous. Last week, I had 12 pts over a 12 hour shift. The most I had at one time was 10. The staff on the whole floor consisted of myself and a CNA. WE do have a respitory tech(for the hospital) and lab techs in house. All other responsibilites fall on me--all orders, answering phones, making arrangments for testing, passing meds, charting, admissions, discharges. I am the staff nurse, charge nurse, clerk, etc. Our manager refuses to even address the issue, she claims that the staffing problem is our own because we are trying to do self scheduling. Our total staff consists of 1 RN manager, 4 full time RNs for days and 4 full time nights. The staffing pattern is supposed to be a minimum of 2 RNs and 1 CNA per shift. We currently have 1 RN on maternity leave. I really like my job, it is close to home and fairly low stress except for this current trend of staffing issues. Does any one have in suggestons for me on how to correct this or is this typical of how most places are? I was a labor and delivery nurse prior to this in a facility where we had over 300 deliveries a month and we had great staffing. (We moved or I would still be there)