Recession creates apathy.

[eriksoln, BSN, RN]

We've all seen the effects of the recession. If not in our own professional lives, then in the neighborhood at least, or maybe on this board with all the new grads looking for work or nurses who planned on retiring but could not because their spouse got laid off.

When the recession hit, I noticed a difference in the attitudes of hospital admin. and management. It was as if, after years of resentment and having to hold their tongue, they breathed a sigh of relief and started speaking their minds. Managers bragged about having more applicants than they could deal with. Hospital admin. began strutting about the hospital with their chests pumped out like rosters, daring anyone to disagree with their new money saving tactic (which was usually to freeze wages, cut ancillary staff and make their duties nursing responsibilities). In short, with jobs so difficult to find, we are down, and we are being kicked while we are down. Hospitals see us as a profession as being vulnerable, and they have certainly applied to boot to our throats and are doing everything possible to keep us there.

In the past, when a situation I found myself in was dangerous, I would resolve it as best I could and then let management know what the problem was. "Three fall risks climbing out of bed all at the same time, on opposite ends of the assignment, and no aid to help watch them. I'm surprises there was not a fall. Bed alarms won't avert a fall, because alarms were sounding off in one room while I was getting the other one back in bed. I couldn't just stop and run to the new alarm every time." Not being critical or pointing fingers, just letting them know there was a problem.

Lately, when you bring issues to your manager/admin., you are basically greeted with a "I have a meeting to be at, if you find the work conditions so bad, have fun finding a new job. And BTW, empty the trash out of the public restroom on your way out."

Easy to see, after a year and a half of this, nurses are finding themselves having to choose between poor work conditions and being jobless. I know more than my fair share of nurses holding onto positions they hate just to make a living. I must admit, on more than a few days, I am one of them. I go to work and, on a daily basis, am placed in a situation where only the most generic care is possible. "Service" is an illusion, simply getting meds passed and avoiding a code takes the extent of my nursing skill. I try to figure out anything, something, I can do differently rather than treat my pt's like numbers/things on an assembly line, but it just is not possible under the conditions my hospital has become comfortable with.

The longer this goes on, the more I find myself thinking/acting like one of the nurses I used to make fun of. Pt's want this/want that and I simply don't have time for it. I don't even make an effort anymore. Pt's try to converse with me, have a discussion with me, and I turn my back and walk away, I don't even have time to explain that someone needs me NOW and I can't talk right now. I've even had a few days so bad, other nurses are asking me for help with this and that and............sorry, I don't even have my cart checks complete, whatever your pt wants will have to wait until they are done.

We even have a nurse so fed up with the whole thing, they have gone a step further than I. She had the assignment I described above, with all the fall risk pts, and she simply gave up half way through the shift. "If they fall, they fall. I've done all I can do. Maybe then they'll stop taking the aid off the unit to save $50 anyway."

I don't support her attitude, but at the same time, I can certainly sympathize with it. I certainly hope I don't get that bad, but things are not going to improve on the unit any time soon. They are, on a daily basis, taking away everything/anything that could make our jobs easier. You have to be F. Nightingale just to keep people alive, forget about compassion or "5 star" service.

:pMaybe we should create a support group for nurses or something.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

"Maybe we should create a support group for nurses or something. "

Under the circumstances that you cite, that would likely be called a union:lol2:

[eriksoln, BSN, RN]

No, more something like a 12 step program for "Compassion Strain".

Then I can spend my off hours talking about work even more

[SandraCVRN]

Maybe we should create a support group for nurses or something.

I call that AllNurses....

But really, I'm sorry you are having to deal with this, I haven't seen this attitude where I am, but I'm in the OR so I may be missing it.

[JB2007, ASN, RN]

I am sorry that you are dealing with management that does not care for the pts or thier hard working staff. I am in a situation also where the management does not care and I am exhausted from trying to give good care. I do not know what the solution is but hopefully I find one soon. Good luck with surviving the situation that you are currently in and CYA at all cost. You know when one of the pts falls and it goes to court they are not going to have your back.

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

This was a common attitude even before the Recession in many places. I found it in GA and very commonly in FL.

[PetiteOpRN]

Maybe we should create a support group for nurses or something.

I call that AllNurses....

But really, I'm sorry you are having to deal with this, I haven't seem this attitude where I am, but I'm in the OR so I may be missing it.

Really? Everyone I talk to says patient safety is compromised in the name of turnover times everyday. Sure, we're not asked to scrub/circulate multiple cases at once, but a turnover time greater than 22 minutes (for a crani or a mnimally invasive spine procedure with navigation) will get you the wrong kind of attention from management.

So when I go out to get the patient (who doesn't speak English) and her children are telling me that she has a number of undocumented medication allergies, and I have to choose between getting her in the room on time or paging the physician so that he can order something she is not allergic to, guess what management wants me to do? Allergies be d@mned! Wheels in!

[anonymurse]

Management is in denial. Although everything has changed (and I wouldn't call it a recession vs. a depression until the hyperbaric yodeler screeches), management has changed nothing. Grandiose building projects and executive bonuses proceed apace, funded by refusals to maintain safe staffing and refusals to keep staff income even with the growing cost of living (never mind well-deserved raises), and safety continues to slide and will until a lawsuit the size of Rhode Island blows the organization out of the water. Boom times have persisted so long, THEY DON'T KNOW HOW DO RESPOND TO ANYTHING ELSE.

[belgarion]

This is pretty common in all businesses, not just health care. When management displays a "we don't care attitude" it will eventually trickle down to the workforce. The employees then start thinking that if the people who run this place don't care why should I? Then the powers that be sit around with puzzled looks on their faces wondering why productivity, efficiency, and morale are in such bad shape.

[anonymurse]

I don't think they don't care. I just think they're not in Kansas any more. Nurses, being more tightly coupled to daily reality, could help reorient 'em, but they're not listening.

[eriksoln, BSN, RN]

I don't think they don't care. I just think they're not in Kansas any more. Nurses, being more tightly coupled to daily reality, could help reorient 'em, but they're not listening.

Yes. The apparent separating between the knowledge base of those who "manage" hospitals and those who work in them is growing and growing. I've heard some of the most amazing things come from the mouths of administration lately. Makes us all sit up and go . For instance, an educator was doing rounds for annual "mandatories" and showing everyone how to use the crash cart. No big deal.

What was a big deal was when she started yipping and yapping about how, when she was a nurse, she'd start giving the cardiac meds LONG before any doctors showed up and she was the hero of the day for it . A few nurses tried to point out to her how the unit she was currently on was a med/surge. floor and there were policies that those drugs not be given on that floor and that only a cardiac trained/ACLS certified nurse could push them and she go NASTY NASTY. From that point on...........no one heard a thing she said, they just sat there pretending to hear her as she went through the rest of the "mandatories".

Just one of those people who sound more intelligent when they don't talk I guess. Then again, that applies to a great many hospital admin./managers. Why should she be the exception? Not as if she's going to go to court if the meds are pushed or anything.

And these are the people we are supposed to "reorient"? Good luck with that.

[SandraCVRN]

Really? Everyone I talk to says patient safety is compromised in the name of turnover times everyday. Sure, we're not asked to scrub/circulate multiple cases at once, but a turnover time greater than 22 minutes (for a crani or a mnimally invasive spine procedure with navigation) will get you the wrong kind of attention from management.

So when I go out to get the patient (who doesn't speak English) and her children are telling me that she has a number of undocumented medication allergies, and I have to choose between getting her in the room on time or paging the physician so that he can order something she is not allergic to, guess what management wants me to do? Allergies be d@mned! Wheels in!

Sure, it's all about turnover in the OR, BUT not to the extent of pt safety. We have SDS and Holding before we ever get to the pt so hopefully all the "extra" issues are dealt with by then. We computer chart and chart reasons for any and all delays so it's not just the 22 minutes, they look at why...

I do hearts so our turnover is always longer...