elizabethjk

Word. Apologies, busy week with intention to delve deeper. I guess I am referencing the big hospital scooping up littler community hospitals by "affiliating," the recruitment of outside consultants to implement "lean" models, scripted communication and other brain-washy types of thinking to promote the healthcare delivery as a something it is not, and therefore the deterioration of bedside nursing as a result and the increased burdening on families to provide essential care to inpatients.... I am having flashbacks to when I was a teenager working retail and my (new) boss (after having run the store for nearly a year) trying to get me to get customers to get interested in "add-ons" at the cash register.

GETTING INVOLVED. and wearing very stable shoes to hide the shaking.

get out of mgmt! come back to the floor! :)

I am shaking in my shoes at how scary this is getting...

teaching? psychosocial care? what are those....? OH THOSE ARE REASONS I SPEND AN EXTRA HOUR AT WORK BECAUSE I REFUSE TO GIVE THEM UP. ....that and the !@#$%^' computer. ugh.

I typically get all of, or most of the nurses on a given shift to sign on as well. I started an email group with the nurses on my floor to try to establish a sense on unity in a private manner... Next I am going to contact my union and tell them we need to be more forthright and aggressive. They push me I'm going to push back twice as hard... for the sake of patient safety.

California nurses rule!!!

Hey guys, I got a guilt trip for filling out an unsafe staffing form from my nurse manager and the next day when I saw her she approached me in a condescending manner when typically we get along very well. This should be fun, I'm not backing down.

I totally agree with all you are saying, and I guess my primary frustration is getting the UNITY. If I could do it all myself I would be out there, but that's not how this works.

MA.....

So I have (unfortunately) been subjected to a situation in which admin hired some "consultants" in order to implement one of those fancy "models" which is just a grid to determine how many nurses and unlicensed patient care providers are on at a given time. Our facility is union and the union is appropriately disgusted with the lack of consideration of acuity on the floor in relationship to the shift ratios, the jerking around of flex and float nurses and a boatload of other things I am sure you can imagine. I used to LOVE my job. Not to toot my own horn, but I know I am a dedicated patient advocate, passionate about what I do, probably annoying to physicians about my adamant means of communication. I now feel like I have my hands tied and risk being reprimanded for staying late to provide essential care that can not be overlooked (adhering to protocols, DOCUMENTATION, providing needed psychosocial support etc). The union is trying to approach this problem, but I feel as though it could be more aggressive in communicating to my fellow nurses WHAT WE NEED TO DO TO MAKE CHANGE. Has anyone else encountered this problem? Coworkers being poorly informed that the union is supported by the members, and change won't happen without action....? I need some hope after frustrating shifts where I can't take a lunch because I have a complicated chemo protocol and multiple blood products and no one to cover me safely... ACK.

The legislation would also account for acuity. We weren't rallying for numbers, yes sometimes 2 patients on a med/surg unit can be impossible, and sometimes 5 can be easy... we want a happy medium; set ratios, but also consideration of each individual patient on the floor at a given time. Patients aren't all created equal!

It appears to have been a common view. Last year, a breakaway group banded together to form a rival union: National Nurses United (NNU). In just a few months, it has grown to 155,000 members, approaching the century-old ANA's 180,000. It is now mobilizing across the country with one major goal: limits on the number of patients assigned to each nurse. Union leaders say nurses are stretched so thin that patients are in danger. Seriously, not something someone with a LICENSE should be sitting on. I would be out there if I could!!