orgecatt

I have been a nurse for 7 years, I have worked in telemetry, medical ICU in the past and now I am working in cardiovascular surgery stepdown. I have read other threads and I feel empathetic for those who has burned out and decided to leave the profession. Nursing is a very tough job both physically and emotionally. Heavy patient loads, short-staffing (not just because there are not enough nurses but hospital admins call staff off for budget), endless paperworks, and policies that are changed so frequently that we can not keep up with any more. And the admins and CEOs who only care about money. It doesn't seem like it's going to get any better, it only gets worse. Many of us are stressed out. On the tele floor I used to work at, we had very high staff turnovers. We just couldn't keep staff because every time they hire new nurses or new grads, they only last few months and most of them quit within one year because they got tired of handling such high acuity pts and heavy workloas with little help. Nursing is not "helping people" any more. It has become bureaucratic. I feel like I spend more time taking care of paperwork - making sure that I don't leave any holes in my chart so that I don't get nastygrams from managers, rather than taking care of my patients. Not being able to accomplish our primary goal - patient care- as a nurse is very frustating and heartbreaking. What do you think we can do to improve our work conditions and make nursing job better? I believe STAFFING is the key. Having plenty of staffing and redusing workload on each staff would reduse stress levels. It would cost more for hospitals / facilities, but in a long run, it would end up saving a lot of money if they could keep people from leaving and hiring and training new peole so frequently. But the admins see it in the oppoist way. They seem to focus on how to cut back on the budget right at this moment and if we are not doing well on the budget, they make it even tighter and tighter. Would mandating nurse-patient ratio by law help? I am planning on staying in nursing career till I retire (I have 20+ years). I just hope to enjoy nursing job and retire happily.