Nurses-give

Less drama

As a nurse with 20 plus years of experience and now going back to the floor I’m being started at 27.00 an hour with shift diff of 2.50. New grads starting at same rate. Makes me sad to think there is no regard for experience and your degree. You get nothing extra. How is this right?

Patients don’t know what it means anyway. But you earned it! I never had mine put on their until I got into management. When I was teaching in colleges I had to have it on my badge. But even if you are a floor nurse don’t let anyone take what you earned. The only person who really matters is the man above who loves us no matter who we are. So not putting it on there maybe means your a better person because you have nothing to prove to anyone. But in my opinion it’s all about them and their perceptions, not about you in trying to prove anything.

Because others who don’t have it, can’t handle you having it. So they form their opinions as to why you think it means anything. We don’t think we are better than others(at least I don’t) obviously the place you work at doesn’t think that either. We want it there because we worked for it and if you have a problem with it..that’s all on you and your insecurities. We are not feeling insecure by having it on our name badge to prove we are better than you. We do deserve at least minimal our credentials we earned and are paying out the you know what for it. For nothing???

Your so right about the name badges. I have been at my job now for 2 months and can’t even get a name badge. After asking 5 times. They can sure print the tiny things up for the staff that got hired after me but will not give me one?? The patients can’t see it anyway and don’t know if your a nurse or a fake person walking in with whatever it says on that tiny thing. Sorry so negative but you must ask yourself what’s the problem.

We worked hard for that degree, get no extra compensation for it, most places could care less if you have it and or it means nothing to them. We rack up student loan debt ( mine is 60,000) for what? And they don’t even let you put it on your name badge unless you asked the after they made your badge. Don’t we at least deserve to have our credentials if nothing else. I had one nurse say “ do you think you need to prove something by having that on there”. I went from LPN then RN then returned 3 times to finally finish my degree so I could teach (the only place that required me to have that degree). I did the BSN program when it was not online. Drove 1 hour to classes, clinicals, did research papers, wrote proposals, and learned how to assess patients as a doctor would. When you work that hard and owe that much money , and they don’t even acknowledge it... what’s the point! After teaching not one hospital nursing home cared about your stupid degree. Nurses that didn’t have it don’t want to see it even on your badge. My advice don’t waste your money unless your job requires. The pay is no different, and if your boss or director doesn’t have their degree.. well they don’t want to see it or give 2 cents if you have it! TRUE. My best friend is an LPN makes 1.00 less then the RN she works with and has no intention of getting her RN. She is happy where she’s at. No way will she rack up student loan debt even more to get a dollar raise. She’s certified in IV administration, just as good as any RN. Having your BSN makes you feel better that you completed it, but it’s just sad they don’t want to recognize or compensate for it. You can become director of nursing without it. If I had it to do all over again I would have went a few more years to get nurse practitioner. I don’t discourage it, but borrowing from student loans with a total debt of 74,000 to get from LPN to BSN and having 60,000 left to pay is just plain waste of money.

It’s called broken finger trying to type, lol

It’s all about management! Your staff needs to know they are appreciated. If they only hear from the director or nurse manager when they have did something wrong, made a mistake, or just negative interactions, they will never appreciate you. Thank god for the praise they get from patients/residents. They also need compensated for their experience and every nursing home should have equal or better pay in comparison to the area they are located. Everyone should be treated equally throughout the work place. They will pay agency nurses top dollar to come in but won’t pay their staff higher wages! Makes no sense and it’s nonsense! To retain staff you must appreciate them, value them, pitch in and help when you can. Don’t let a nurse work the hardest floor and do a great job and let her walk out the door because you didn’t care enough to find out why she left. I’ve seen some of the best nurses just give up because management didn’t care.

The best DIrectors get out on the floor, they don’t just sit in their office. But on the other hand they are bogged down with important paper work that must be done. They still make time to ask the nurses “how are you doing?”, letting them now when they did a great job, pitching in even with little things, they don’t leave their nurses drowning. They don’t allow or contribute to negative gossip. They never play favorites. If they have close friends working with them, they kept it professional at the work place. They choose the best candidate not their best friend. They lead by example! They are far from perfect and hopefully you have one of these as your director.

Becoming a Director of Nursing was something I have always wanted to do. I wanted to make things better for ..Fisrt- the residents, staff, facility and every person who cared for the elderly. I don’t judge anyone, I first put myself in that persons shoes. I work hard and will even volunteer to work as nursing assistant when they are short. I believe in seeing the good in people and giving positive feedback to everyone even before I have to pull them aside for corrective action. As director you are the role model not a dictator. You get respect by showing respect. I turned a facility around to nurses feeling appreciated and respected. Nursing assistants started pulling together to make it better. But you must and I mean MUST have leaders above you that support you and embrace your efforts. As I moved into another DON job the turn over rate was astonishing to me. Prior to me the first facility had 5 DON’s, the second had 2 DON’s lasting 2 months. Jobs I interviewed at that offered the job but I took the best one that would fi. Those jobs I turned down also had the DON job re-posted after several months. I know this job is very stressful, tons of responsibility but it’s an opportunity to actually make a difference. One thing I’ve learned if there is one person above or even your assistant that just does not like you, your struggle is real. I have been yelled at completely inappropriate in front of department heads in IDT.. meetings because I tried to speak up- to do the right thing. We are nurses for one reason and that’s our residents/patients. It’s not about us!

I gave it my all. I worked myself to basically destroying my life outside of work. I made it through the tags they received. And was reminded before I decided to leave- by the administrator “ Do you understand what you have accomplished? You helped us get out of 20 or more tags with 10 IJ.” I got nursing assistants raises higher then our competition, put my heart and soul in this job. I had no life outside work. Decided enough was enough when I was supposed to have 2 ADON and had none. Running a facility with over 120 residents. A facility that had maybe 5 regular nurses and used all agency staff. I was chasing my tail trying to save a broken system.

Missing clonazepam from narc box.. I was set up by ADON