Safety/Sanity/Family comes first

[dbeech]

1. Hi Everyone ! I have been a nurse since 1998 and I recently resigned from my Perioperative position of 9 years . I began my nursing career in geriatric nursing, but always had the desire to work in a hospital. I started as a float nurse primarily working on med surgical units then settled in a unit that took on Pediatrics as well. I was the only nurse this one particular eve that had Pediatric experience and I already had 7 patients to tend to when I receive a call from the Nursing supervisor that they wanted to give me another patient from the ER, a 6 month old with a respiratory infection....I told the supervisor I couldn't safely accept the child that I already had 7 patients . She told me that the hospital did not have a min nurse/patient ratio and that I had to take the child...I refused and told her she would be putting the child and all my other patients at risk and I was making it known in the presence of my colleagues, that if something went bad it would be on her shoulders. Well the ER faxed report on the child because I refused to take a verbal report and that was the end of my Floor nursing...I moved on to perioperative nursing until July 2nd of this year. My shift was from 6:45am until 3:15pm but due to the lack of staff most days my 8 hour shift would turn into a 10hr or 12 hr shift and then there is the call, starting at 10:30 pm until 7am during the week to having full weekend call ! needless to say staff dropping left and right getting injured, out on stress leave, having elective procedures just to get rest from the stress. The complete lack of respect and concern for the staff by administration/management is disheartening. The culture in the Operating room by management and some surgeons is abusive and administration continues to turn a blind eye. The lack of ancillary staff is forcing nurses and surgical techs to be the cleaning personnel as well, having to clean MRSA and VRE exposed rooms then off to tend to the next (clean) patient. I wonder if the CEO of the hospital was to have surgery do you think he/she would want to be next one in line to be taken care of after I cleaned the MRSA/VRE Operating Room ? Hmmm ?
   Now the colleagues that I have worked side by side with for 9 years are bitter that I gave my resignation the beginning of summer and stated I was inconsiderate and felt I could have waited until the fall after summer vacations were over because since I left all my call is being forced on them....How about turning your hostilities to the hospital administrators and the corporation they are the people making the cuts...I'm just the nurse who will no longer take the unsafe hostile working conditions. I love nursing and will find someplace that I can do what I love to do safely. The safety of my patients, my sanity and my family is worth more than any amount of money.
   

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[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Wow - I admire your integrity and commitment to patient care. Your decisions took courage -

It seems that you have had the horrible misfortune to be working in environments with very poor nursing leadership. This is not the case everywhere. I am very lucky to work with some very strong, positive nurse leaders who do not allow patient care to be sacrificed to achieve bottom line financial performance. I also live in a state with mandated Peer Review (for unprofessional conduct) and mandated Safe Harbor (formal protest for unsafe assignment)... these are very powerful tools for our staff nurses. It may also be somewhat comforting to know that Nurse Staffing is going to become part of mandated US hospital reporting very soon.

In the meantime, take care of yourself. Your knowledge and experience are assets that would be very valuable to many employers.