Question for nurses who dislike where they work

Louie18 · Aug 28, 2003

That gives you the right to leave a place you do not like. Especially in nursing where the patients can 'FEEL' your dislike.

Why would anyone stay working at a place they hate?

If you are of the personality type that needs to always be unsatisfied, do it as a factory worker, not a professional career.

Louie

CseMgr1, ASN, RN · Aug 29, 2003

Originally posted by Going80INA55
I believe it all starts and ends with the manager. Most of the ones I have experienced are do nothing lazy butts.

They know how to sit a good chair, kiss some butt and they have mastered the art of saying "resolve the conflict on your own."

Yep, and they will promise the WORLD to you, then sit with their finger up their a----, when it's time to deliver. :angryfire

Trixie01 · Aug 29, 2003

Yes, I agree too many managers just become that as a rsult of being there as a staff nurse, etc.. for a extended time. Thay go into management for the raise and to get off the floor. They have very little skill to run a unit, but they are given quickie classes to

at least look the part. Overall, they don't want to hear anything that will bring them extra work. Meaning real issues, and problems. Its so sad. And to think these people can have a big effect on your career, because they judge/review YOU! I think all managers should be required to work the floor at least once a week. No breaks, short staffed, high acuity, etc..... and for goodness sakes don't complain or be negative.

bluenurse · Aug 29, 2003

Originally posted by Louie18
That gives you the right to leave a place you do not like. Especially in nursing where the patients can 'FEEL' your dislike.
Why would anyone stay working at a place they hate?
If you are of the personality type that needs to always be unsatisfied, do it as a factory worker, not a professional career.
Louie

Patients can "feel" your dislike if you ACT unprofessional. It IS possible to separate emotion from action and affect, Louie.

There are many reasons someone would stay working at a place they hate. If you can't think of any then think harder.

"Always unsatisfied".......what does that mean to you? Does not liking a particular aspect of a workplace mean "always unsatisfied"? I am sure many who dislike their work environment due to poor leadership are at times, satisfied. But maybe this concept escapes you.

I am trying to understand your logic about the whole working in a factory thing. Are you saying that all factory workers are unsatisfied? I think many would disagree, or maybe you are saying that if you are unsatisfied with leadership at work you should not be a nurse. That too is a strange concept. I don't really see how the one would preclude the other. Perhaps you could explain.

Louie18 · Aug 29, 2003

The factory element was brought in as a place to stand around and complain and not have it effect anyone, since your task at a factory is usually one of repetition, with many hours, good benefits and a very good pension.

You see, once upon a time, a floor consisted of opened door rooms where a walk down the hall would allow you to see every patient. Some rooms were called "wards" consisting of usually 6 beds. Then there were private rooms that were close to the nursing station and exta attention could be given.

But most importantly were the words said by nurses as they passed one another walking to and fro. "Do you need any help?" were said every time we would pass.

Then under the guise of 'total care,' rooms were more secluded and patients were not as visible. Nurses however were led to believe this was a better thing, but in accuality it was a strategy to eliminate the comraderie and possibility of unions being formed. Rarely would you pass a nurse on the floor since most of your time was spent in patient rooms.

Nursing today has many chiefs and very few indians.

Nursing today has assumed a large portion of liability. (at the point of needing PC's formed.)

Nursing today is not any fun.

The best shift for a nurse like me is PM or MIDNITES.

I have a shoe repair business at home more as a hobby and find I am putting lots of steel wedges in stacked leather heels on wingtip shoes. Why? Because they are more intimidating coming down a marble hall.

All I know is technoloy has created 'much ado about nothing' and we seem to be scavanging a battle of wits, rather then talking about Steven Johnson Syndrome or Guilliane Barette.

I am

Louie

Louie18 · Aug 29, 2003

I am among the less fortunate in not being able to harbor resentment. It eats me from the inside out.

bluenurse · Aug 29, 2003

Originally posted by Louie18
I am among the less fortunate in not being able to harbor resentment. It eats me from the inside out.

Well then you do harbor resentment, Louie.

I take it you've been around awhile.....yes, I am sure things have changed considerably. One thing you have to consider in those changes is the population explosion and now, the baby boomers aging. That alone put alot of stress on the health care system. Technology can be a blessing and a curse. If it takes away from real human interaction it is a curse and if it helps improve care it is a blessing. I think we can find instances of both in health care.

You bring up an interesting point, unions. Looking back through history....until unions were formed many jobs paid very little and could work an employee to death. Sound familiar? Unions put an end to that. Now, I think corporations have learned that if you give "just enough" but not "really enough" then people will be pacified and not form unions to improve conditions. Yes, I wouldn't be at all surpised if hosp ceo's had meetings on how we can control the nurses and make them good little slaves. After all, without nursing the hospital has very little.....and they know that. If nursing would put it's foot down and demand better conditions then hospitals would be forced to comply.

Yes, nursing has absorbed alot of liability. All under the guise of that we are "more professional and autonomous" which in reality is a load of crap.

Nurses are too often pitted against each other but that is a natural human reaction to the environment they work in. Change the environment and you will change the nurses dramatically. I think it is far more than just how the rooms are placed. It's about money grubbers at the top plotting how they can stretch a health care dollar even thinner while they stuff the $100 down their pants.

Louie18 · Aug 30, 2003

well put.

Miss BB · Jun 30, 2007

I am so burned out with the entire thing....Supervisors, administrators and doctors. I am sick of the lack of team work, the dangers that we are placed in daily, the abuse by the patients and the staff.Most of all I am burned out because we have a director of nursing who continuously heaps more work on us, ignores long term staff in favor of the new kids on the block, hires people for day shift only, gives preferential treatment to new nurses and the list goes on. She also has no clue how things are run in a state facility and to be honest she is not the brightest bulb in the marquee. :madface: :uhoh3: I wish I could find the love I once had for the job but I've been used and abused too much to feel anything remotely like love anymore.:uhoh21:

RNperdiem, RN · Jun 30, 2007

I must be lucky or in a minority. I tend not to see managers much in the off shifts(mainly weekends). As long as they hire, fire, supervise and otherwise let me do my job, I am fine.

The manager in the job I didn't like was fine. I just didn't like med-surg nursing. Even with the best manager, I wouldn't have stayed beyond one year.

Patients and their families have far more power to drive you batty on a daily basis than the manager.

Managers are an easy target for hostilities.

Indy, LPN, LVN · Jun 30, 2007

Management was the root cause of the things I didn't like about the job I left. Bad management, that is. The director is umm... strung out on so much caffeine you begin to wonder if it's crack... she makes people nervous just to be near her with all the jitteriness. She makes promises with no intent to keep them, she avoids actual problems like the plague, she listens to a few select people I'll call "lackeys" who have a flair for the dramatic. She also tops this by making and/or implementing decisions that affect her staff without thinking enough of them beforehand to tell them what's going on, and oh yes. She likes to show preferential treatment to males.

With all of that, there were a lot of repercussions in the working environment. And yes, while every nurse is responsible for how he or she handles himself, by god so is the manager. When you throw a two year old's tantrum, slamming doors in your employees' faces, thus coming about two inches from breaking some gal's nose, you darn well need to just check yourself into psych and have a vacation, or better yet, go home and don't come back. When the reason you're upset in the first place is that a nurse asked for help when the staffing was abysmal, because no one told the staff that understaffing was the new policy, you should just be ashamed to hold a license.

Yeah, I'm talking to you, Miss J. You know who you are. I hope you don't sleep at night, you took an entire bunch of my favorite new grads (the class after mine) and turned 'em into bitter, disillusioned people who just want to get as far away from your unit as is humanly possible. You destroyed what was left of the morale on night shift, congratulations.

/rant off

Okay, so anyway I voted with my feet. I find that having a director who works the floor once a week cuts down on 99 percent of the crap.