Nursing is the only profession that I know of that is accountable for providing, not only nursing care, but is expected to do the jobs of all other areas in the hospital. We are expected to perform dietary, housekeeping, physical therepy, occupational therepy, respiratory therepy, pharmancy, social work, spiritual care, emotional support, security, safety, maintenence, and depeding on the protocols of the facility medical care for the patients at the hospital. We are accountable for all of the this for each and every patient and then treated and if we are maids because we provide these services.
We are expected to be experts in our fields, but not given credit for being experts in our field. We are expected to also be able to competantly work in other fields of nursing that we do not have experience, but other professions are not. I would like to see a physical therapist make sandwiches for a hungry patient, it would never happen.
We are expected to get hit, sworn at, treated like maids, and say nothing and just take it. We are expected to give up weekends, holidays, birthdays, and our days off, all without adequate compensation. If we say no, then we are not "team workers".
Personally I am sick of being a team member, when we don't even get a measly thanks for it.
I work the baylor program at our hospital and then volunteer one or two days during the week to help fill staffing voids, so what does my employer do, they let the weekday people have that day off because I am there as a volunteer. This has happened to me the last 4 weeks I have worked, so I am not doing it anymore. The weekday people don't ever offer to work even 1/2 a shift on the weekend and I know there would be hell to pay if a weekend person was allowed to take a day off on the weekend because there is a volunteer on.
It has come to the point that I am not going to volunteer for anymore weekdays because of this. From now on they can call me the day they need me and pay me the two hour call in pay for it too.