Hellllo Nurse

I don't work in a hospital anymore for the same reason. When I worked med-surg, nocs, we always had 9 pts each, no unit sec'y, no CNAs. It was pure misery. This is the real reason for the so-called nursing "shortage."

No, eight-to-one is not acceptable. I'm so glad you told the NM why you turned down the job. I agree w/ the Aiken study- any more than 4 pts per nurse is too many.

This happened to my mother. She could feel and hear, but not move or open her eyes. The anethesiologist/anesthetist (don't know which) was able to tell by the change in V/S. My mother says she was terrified and in agony. They were able to put her back under quickly, thank goodness. This was years ago, but my mom is still very freaked out about it.

I have kept everything from school. I have three huge trunks of assignments and papers. Plus, many boxes and shelves of books. I actually do refer back to them from time to time.

Wow, sorry you are dealing with this kind of behavior in a husband. Only you can decide what is best for you. However, I could not deal with a spouse like that. I thank God for blessing me with the most wonderful, loving, kind, caring, responsible, faithful, intelligent, educated, supportive husband. There are so few like him! :kiss for my dh!

No, I'm sorry to say. I was a CNA for 3 years, and LPN for 7 years and have been an RN for 3 years. IMO, the higher up you go the harder and more stressful it gets. Then, it is even harder to leave the field, because you have invested so many years, so much effort, and so much $$$ in your education. I love what nursing is supposed to be, but the working conditions and the way nurses are treated make it not worth it.

I must say I TOTALLY disagree w/ Tiddlwink. As a nurse, I would rather not give any care at all if the only choice I have (with the current working conditions) is to give half- azzed care. I am not a half-azzed type person. Many other nurses feel the same. I'd be willing to bet that many of the 500,000 licensed RNs in The U.S. who have left nursing for other careers would agree.

I had heard a couple of years ago about foreign doctors becoming nurses in The U.S. Many of these docs are from very male dominated cultures.... how are they going to react to having females as their bosses? How are they going to react to taking orders when they are used to giving them? I feel there will probably be a lot of problems with these "nurses" practising outside their scope of practice, as in acting like doctors. And as we ALL KNOW, there is no freaking nursing "shortage". This is just another way for those in power to avoid taking any action to address the real issue- working conditions.

I acknowledge the responses about official procedures, scope of practice and all that. I've been a nurse for 11 years and that stuff won't help. If I thought writing anything up or showing my mgmt documentation re: safe nursing practice, etc. would have a snowball's chance in hell of changing anything, I'd have done it. I've done it at other jobs and the only thing that happens is the nurse is labled a troublemaker. I am one of only two RNs in my unit. There are not many nursing jobs where I am. If I don't play along like everything is fine, they would just prefer me to leave, I'm sure. I am talking about the dynamics of nursing and the way things really are. Things are the same everywhere I've ever worked. I possess the clinical competence. What I don't have is a work culture that gives anything more than lip service to REAL quality pt care. Mgmt is not understaffing, according to them. They are understaffing if they want the pts to receive proper care. They don't want that, though. They say they do, of course, but their actions prove otherwise. I have never seen a work situation where the ideals of nursing and what great care should be are allowed into the building. cannoli and Sharon, I appreciate the understanding and commiseration. I am just going to try and get out of nursing. I don't know how- I have no idea. But, I have to try.

Well, I'm sick of it. I'm sick of disrespectful, mean-tempered, insubordinate techs, I'm sick of trying to give good, quality care, and being told that being "faster" and giving the APPEARANCE of good care is more important. I'm sick of never being noticed for the good I do, only for the occasional mistake. I'm sick of managers that are scatter-brained and have no interest in improving care, streamlining procedures, eliminating unneeded paperwork/steps. I'm sick of their answer to short staffing- "Just try to manage your time better. I've had 20 other nurses who never had a problem with this." Ya, and none of them work here any longer. Why is that? I'm just sick of having to compromise myself, my ethics and my standards in order to have a job in nursing. I'm sick of all the pretending that goes on in nursing- managers pretend that we are doing things the right way, they pretend we have time to do it. When nurses take short-cuts and do sloppy work in order to save time, managers pretend they don't know it's going on. I'm tired of the "right" way of doing things being in such conflict with the "real" way of doing things because of lack of staff/time/resources. I'm tired of feeling pressured to break-away from a pt who wants to talk to me or share their feelings, concerns, or just a friendly word, because I don't have time for them. I think I should just get out of nursing. Any words of encouragment, comisseration and/or understanding would be greatly appreciated.:stone

I worked inpt hospice for 4 years. We had many pts on up to 15 liters (not a typo, that's 15 L) of 02 regularly. We (and our med director) saw this as a comfort measure and I do not feel that it prolonged dying in any way.

I worked LTC for years and it does sound like you have reason to be wary. Most LTC can't keep staff and are really desperate to find a warm body w/ a license. I think that when new nurses are overwhelmed, they tend to think "If I work harder and am better organized, it will be better." New nurses often think that they must have a problem if it seems overwhelming. Seasoned nurses know that many nursing jobs are just impossible and that even Florence Nightingale couldn't do everything that is expected and do a good job of it. It may be worth a shot, but I would just be cautious if I were you.

Never heard of this, thanks for the info and the link. Sounds great! However, I know it would be a cold day in heck before my facility would ever get these. $$$, ya know.

Michelle126's reply is similar to what I wanted to say on this topic. When I worked LTC, I did not know a ton about dialysis pts, but I did know they should not have certain foods like bananas, potatos, tomatos or OJ. When I saw pts routinely getting these items at one LTC, I spoke to the DON about it and was told "We are having a lot of trouble keeping dietary staff. I don't want them to keep quitting, so I can't add anything to their duties right now. Most of them can't speak english or are illiterate, anyway. So, they won't even be able to understand or follow renal dietary restrictions." Can you believe this??! At another place, I had just started as the nursing supervisor and noticed that none of the dialysis pts were following renal diets.I told that DON, and he made up a dietary waiver form and had all the renal pts sign it. This form stated that the pt refuses a renal diet and that the facility is therfore not responsible for providing one. This is another "can you believe it"! Yet another story..... When I worked as an RN Consultant for several adult day care centers, I noticed that one center was providing all the dialysis pts w/ the same diet as all the other pts... Breakfast usually included milk, OJ, a banana and fried potatos. Nobody I spoke to was much concerned about it. This was in a sub-tropical area and many pts brought in oranges from their own trees and all the pts ate them. The center owner told me "Well, they are going to bring in their own food and eat what they want, anyway." I told her, yes, but if we provided a correct diet, and documented that each dialysis pt had had dietary teaching, that we were then not responsible for any related adverse reactions. If we did nothing, we would be responsible. This was a very law-suit happy area. The owner agreed to provide dialysis diets. I have always assessed grafts/fistulas for thrill/briut, was was also instructed never to remove a dressing from one. Now, that I work dialysis, I know better.

Shoot! I just typed a long reply, re: my experiences w/ dialysis pts in LTC. Got the "no thread specified" message and my post was lost in cyberspace. Will try again later!