morelostthanfound BSN

^^^Love it-truth!!!^^^ Or, "um, how can we retain nurses and keep our year-end bonuses as well as all of the perks and bennies for our top heavy senior management team?

From now on, whenever I hear this question asked by academia or nursing management, I am going to just walk away. It is painfully obvious what would remedy the situation; manageable N/P ratios, tolerable workloads, less focus on 'customer service', unfreezing stagnant pay....duh!!! They (academia and management) would rather be disingenuous, play their little games and talk around the problems instead of effectively addressing these concerns head on. In the future, I chose to NOT insult my intelligence by indulging in these little charades and exercises in futility.

I tend to agree. While I understand that importance of not offending people's sensibilities, I feel this trend has really gone sideways. My personal pet peeve are 'euphemisms'. I realize that some of these may be from a bygone era and are now considered objectionable, but what happened to just calling things by their well known, and often simpler, names? personnel department (Human Resources), housekeeping (Environmental Services), being poor (economically disadvantaged), glasses (prescription eyewear), cough drops (throat lozenges)....

^^^No, wrong!^^^ Not a lot of questions. If asked by a manager and you are forthcoming, offer current/valid proof of prescription from a licensed medical provider, and are taking the medications as prescribed, there are no other questions. The one caveat to this is Sinequan's strong sedative properties-taking it before or during work probably is not a good idea.

Huh?? Taking a prescribed benzodiazepine and a TCA are going to be frowned on by a potential employer? That this nursing student should rethink their career path? That he/she will be incapable of performing their nursing duties in a safe manner? Wow! Really? That sounds like some serious stigmatization. You do realize that there are hundreds of thousands of fully functioning and capable nurses who just so happen to be diagnosed with a mental disorder and take polypharmacy to manage their illness(es)??

^^Excellent advice^^. I long ago discovered that there is almost always at least one very difficult personality in every workplace. I, too, have found that this approach, in addition to acting in earnest and being humble, usually disarms this person and they will no longer see you as a threat. Often too, it's and ego thing and even just deferring to their 'knowledge' or clinical judgement can go a long way-Jedi Mind Trick.

Regrettably, I have never really felt a passion for nursing and like you, I also had (and continue to have) major misgivings regarding my career choice. I really doubt if I had it all to do over again, I would again chose nursing but at this point in my life, in almost 27 years of practice, it's water over the dam. The answer for me has been steering away from areas of medicine that I are knew where consistently physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting for many (likely me)-i.e. ICU, NICU, Med Surg.... Instead, I worked in Psych, OR, and finally Corrections, all which I feel were less stressful. I personally think finding peace in this profession is in following 'the middle way'-not being apathetic and disengaged, nor in being Gung Ho and subject to career burn out. This has been my strategy for going on 27 years and it has worked for me. Be good to yourself above all and know that you're not alone:)

Sour Lemon, while I mostly agree with you, I shudder with the notion that, "doctors are in charge of nurses". Both of my parents are retired nurses going back to the 1950's-this 'old school' way of thinking also went hand in hand with subservience, pandering, verbal/physical abuse, and unwanted sexual discrimination on the part of male physicians that was rarely reported and almost never taken seriously. I get it though, there is a power hierarchy in medicine and the "buck" ultimately stops with the prescribing provider. However, I would like to see Nursing as more of a collaborative effort which gives mutual respect to all parties.

Great post-thank you Katillac!. It is this simple and what I have said for years. However, it is also pie in the sky and realistically, probably not going to happen anytime in the foreseeable future. What angers me about this entire issue is that it has become the 'Elephant in the room' for academia and hospital administrators, who would rather scratch their heads, feign ignorance, and talk around the problem, rather than address it head on with dollars and cents! And what about all of those lofty hospital mission statements and corporate values about safety? What could be more safe than effective and realistic staffing of nurses and ancillary staff? Do we really need more talk, surveys, research.....? Couldn't we work to retain our senior and experienced nurses instead of marginalizing and pushing them out so newer nurses can be hired in at a much lower hourly wage? How about laying off some of the health system's deadwood administrators or cutting some of the senior managements' many perks and using that $ to beef up direct care staffing?

Absolutely-this . 54% of nurses having never made an error? That is an absolute statistical impossibility-sorry! Having worked in direct care for many years and administered thousands of medications (as most acute care nurses do)-regardless of one's cautiousness or attention to detail, a med error, unfortunately, is an eventuality. Also don't get me started on the recommendation to join the ANA to promote patient safety. The ANA's last position statement on nurse/patient ratios made it abundantly clear to me that they were in bed with large healthcare associations who are fighting tooth and nail this very important safety measure.

Ok. However, if you were terminated because of a patient care concern and falsification of information" was given by your employer as the reason, as others have stated, this may be reported to the Bureau (Board) of Nursing. Right or wrong that agency may still choose to look into the matter further and if it were me, I would chose to be proactive in this instance.

It may not matter if you did anything wrong, "perception" is sometime reality and if you are reported to your state's BON, you may very well be in a position of having to defend your license. Again, I would meet with an attorney that is knowledgeable in this particular area and know your options. It may also be that you have a case for wrongful dismissal or a hostile work environment, but at the least, you should have representation if this escalates further.

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and further DeeAngel's assertion. It fine and well to say, "don't judge a book by it's cover" in regard to professional appearances-sounds good, right? However, people have always done, and will continue to do, just that! It's analagous to making assumptions of someone's overall intelligence or level of education based upon how they communicate in either spoken or written contexts. I also ask, does this lowered bar apply equally to other professions? What would you think of retaining a personal trial attorney with dreadlocks, full sleeve tattoos, gauged earlobes, and multiple facial piercings? I maintain that appearances do matter and far more than people are willing to acknowledge. This most definitely reflects upon professionalism and the instillation of confidence to our patients. To suggest otherwise is perhaps, more politically correct, but certainly disingenuous.