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.
I used to go to that site. LOL. Its kinda scary actually. Someone will fail a class because: A. They didn't go to class at all, B. They didn't buy the book and C. When they were in class, they did nothing but text the whole time.
Yet, they would go onto the site and write intimate reviews of the teacher's technique and style. Ummm............you weren't there, how would you know?
A lot of this is based off one person I know, he wrote up a nasty review of a Stats teacher than talked about it in class before the teacher got there. Geee.............suprise surprise, he was failing the class. But, if you read his review, you'd believe it was because the teacher "Did not properly communicate the dates of tests" or some grasping for straws complaint.
Although, I'd love to see what some of my patients say about me. Especially the drug seekers.
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".
And these are the people we are supposed to "reorient"? Good luck with that.
Don't tempt her.
At least one very poorly staffed FL hospital, after cutting staffing to the bone, decided that ICU could triple their nurses more easily if they took the issue of running codes on the other floors from them. They then mandated that every nurse in the hospital needed to be trained in ACLS, including the rehab/SNF floors. The fact that many of those floors may have a nurse to pt ratio of 1:10 or worse. Never mind that the SNF had maybe 1 RN and 1-2 LPNs for 36 or more beds. Never mind that they did not want to pay for the ACLS time and thought that we could learn dysrhythmias on our "down time". Never mind that some staffers work MS, Rehab,SNF because they do not like things like dysrhythmias or coding.
After about a year of attempting this fiasco, they quit.
Management often exemplifies the "peter principle" in action.
Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
QUOTE True,that. That is totally the case in the LTC I work in now-they love to say "You think it's bad now,wait a few months" What the heck does THAT mean?
The worm will turn and then all the help will evaporate just like it did every other time they treated people like crap. Problem is it is impossible to predict when, but it will.
I have to post to this one. Most of the time i just hop on and read and think, but this just screams for a reply. I have been a nurse for four years, the last year being at a small, rural hospital that was hit fairly hard by the recession. In the last few months they began laying people off- I work in the ER and we now have to be our own housekeeping, mop floors, take out trash, decontaminate for isolation patients, etc. They also are letting the Physician Assistants go- they see most of the lacerations, broken bones, coughs, colds, etc. It has gotten UGLY. I have complained several times about not being given any breaks or only one during a 12 hour shift. No one cares. Our work load is going up, our acuity is going up, our staffing level is going down. No one cares. Well, I take that back- WE care, but the manager doesn't, the administration doesn't. They are totally giving us this attitude that we are lucky to have a job, so....... It is absolutely horrible. My level of patient care is going down out of necessity because I just don't have enough time to do it all. We are all getting written up sometimes daily for lack of 'proper' care- and we just don't have time, or staff to make it all happen. We are tired, burned out, and everyone is getting apathetic. I am the LAST person I ever thought it would happen to. I love my patients, I love being a nurse, I will still do everything possible to take good care of my patient, but I am also getting apathetic about the organization. Why should I care when they don't give me breaks? When management responds to complaints with an attitude? When every where you look people are busting their tails and there is no end in sight? When more and more benefits are taken away? When we are already underpaid and don't get raises? I am not saying we are apathetic about taking care of sick people but we are definitely getting apathetic about the organization. I fear it is only going to get worse, and we are stuck in this weird vortex of feeling thankful to have a job and hating the job we have. I come home crying many days, exhausted all days, and dread going back the days that I am off. I do not think this is specific to my hospital, but a symptom of a greater epidemic. I, too, would like to hear more thoughts on the original post, because I am tired of it- the apathy- and really would like a way out without leaving nursing!
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.
Unfortunately, for said lawsuit to be effective, it must be directed at the right personnel. By this I mean, the courts and powers that be must stop falling for the "the nurse didn't follow procedure, it's all his/her fault your honor, we've done everything we can to avoid this" routine hospitals use. Hospitals knowingly walk the tightrope and push the boundaries of care. We the nurses save them from themselves on a daily basis and help them avoid the lawsuits.
When the time comes that they've pushed the line too far, its of no concern to them. There are Bible sized books by the dozens hidden in the break room (the room no one see's, cause, well, we have no time for breaks). Simply find a policy or procedure in them that the nurse did not follow to the tooth and present that as your case in court.
"But your honor, the pt. obviously did not survive the code because the nurse was wearing shoes with blue string laces. We don't allow this, white is the only shoe string color we allow. Its a case of malpractice with the nurse, the death of the pt. is unfortunate but obviously not our fault."
Many many things would have to change in order for courts and politicians to stand up to those who run the machine instead of using nurses as a sacrificial lamb.
Although, I'd love to see what some of my patients say about me. Especially the drug seekers.
. 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".
red2003xlt, LPN
224 Posts
Ever hear of http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ ?
Rate my workplace er hospital ought be enlightening.