Sick of working short

[kristi-lpn2]

I went to work this weekend. I work weekend doubles. On 7-3 we had 23 patients on a medsurg floor. 1RN and 2LPN 1CNA and 1US. We had 8 patients a piece to take care of. Am I just a wus or is this a bunch of crap. We have been told we cannot refuse patients. Can we get fired for rufusing to take report when we know we cannot give the care these patients need? I remeber in nursing school my instructor said we have the right to refuse is this s*** or is the nursing supervisor that said this full of crap? Can we be held responsible for patients not getting their meds on time if I document we have to take care of to many patients per nurse? The staff is sick of this tx and more and more people are quitting every day. I dont know what to do or say. I dont know if I should tell my patients they didnt get their meds on time because I have to take care of my 7 other patients and the ones that are the worst get my care first. The bosses are trying know that so many people have quit. Lpn's are getting 50cent raise and RN get 75cent raise they are trying to bring in traveling nurses but it is hard to even get them to stay. The first worked 2 days and quit she said it was the hardest patient/nurse care hospital and the worst hospital she has ever worked at. People are starting to talk about Unions. I would like to look into one but I dont know where to begin we have to do something or there is not going to be any nurses left. No RN's have put their applications in for more than 6 months so we have been told a bunch of crap because a friend of mine says many of her friends that are RN's have put in their applications and they have never been called. what the h***. I am fed up. I cannot simply find another job b/c of the shift I am working I need to stay on weekends. I work 32 and get paid for 40. I have been looking around but have found nothing yet. I am an LPN have been at this facility for 6 years I dont want to quit but am getting to the point of not caring what happens. I am doing the best that I can. Please give me some advice someone on what to do. If we can get a union to make things better or is it like this everywhere? Every shift we work at least 2-4 people short and this is getting worse every time I go to work. Thanks for listening I had to get this out. By the way I work in a hospital and we have around 120 beds. It is not just my floor working short it is everywhere in the hospital. What should we do?

[banditrn]

I kind of feel that filling in the gaps, doing more with less, accepting bad ratios - quietly accepting and adjusting instead of speaking up and fighting, we just continue to feed the system.

Yep, I agree, but you never seem to get all the nurses on the same page. I last worked in a post anesthesia 'day surgery' unit - our ratio was 1:4, sometimes higher, which meant that you could have 4 fresh surgicals at one time. This ratio had been the same for years, even tho we were getting patients that a few years ago had been in-patients.

I remember glorious evenings of two patients puking at the same time, while another patient would be in the bathroom, and someone else ringing for pain meds. We had no CNA's.

Other nurses would recognize how 'crazy' it was, but others didn't want to rock the boat for fear that they would lose their jobs. And the managers would point out that 'they' had worked with that many patients years ago.