Hello out there! This is my first time posting and I will try to be as concise and objective as possible :-)
The Backstory
I work for a corporate hospital in rural Wyoming. In 2014 our hospital merged with its "sister" hospital that is 30 miles away. Many departments have gone to a Market Director approach to management which means that there is one director per department for BOTH hospitals. Inevitably doubling the work load for the director and leaving the department staff short changed when needing immediate unit director intervention- be it with inner staffing issues, floor concerns, etc. I work nights on the Med/Surg floor and strive to be very proactive with direct and objective communication and leadership. My hope for posting this thread is to gain guidance, insight, or words of wisdom about how to continue on with my job when it feels like "all of the rats are leaving the sinking ship".
In the last 90 days...
We have lost our fifth DNO in three years time.
The Med/Surg floor has had eight nurses quit in one month.
The Rehab and PACU/OR unit directors were invited to resign do to poor ethical violations.
On the M/S floor we are required to take up to six patients per nurse and in the evenings it is almost guaranteed that we will NOT have a CNA or assistance to help attend to patient needs- often resulting in a negative patient experience.
Things are feeling pretty dismal.
All of these issues (plus a few personal ones) leave me feeling pretty crappy. I try to tell myself that it gets worse before it gets better... It's always darkest before the light... But it KEEPS getting worse.
If anyone out there has seen their hospital suffer through some growing pains I'm open to recommendations of how to be an effector of change. Or stories to let me know that I am NOT alone.
What I have done...
I have spoken with one of my directors... who may not be my director now... about my goals for employment- wanting to precept and work with the college students. I used to have open communication with one of our directors but I hardly see her anymore because of schedules. I have spoken with seasoned nurses on this floor and they all tell me that I need to keep marching on and ride the tide.
When I first started working on this floor, I knew things were going to be tough. Staffing, pay, nursing ratio, the lack of leadership or teamwork, the threat of an inner circle between nurses and directors. But I was exhilarated to be doing something powerful for my community. Now I just feel blah. I continue to work hard for my patients because that is part of my moral fiber but... damn.
I'll stop here. I know I/we can go on and on about the thankless job we have signed up for but my biggest issue is that it feels like the ship is sinking and there is nowhere else to work.
Thank you for reading and thank you for any advice :-)
I'm sorry- I'm a little confused by the tone and message of your response. In your first post you directed me to NNOC which helps to organize nurses unions or at least be a resource for the latest in nurses rights. Now, if I understand correctly- are you advising that IF I should want to organize a "union" that this not be discussed in the place of employment? Or, am I being dogged for posting and expressing? Just a little clarification.
What she actually said was that is shouldn't be discussed on a website, which is essentially equivalent to standing in the town square and shouting about it. Discussing it in the workplace should also be done with great caution if at all.
Preventing unionization is a top priority for corporations, and a low-level, easily expendable employee (which all staff nurses are) who agitates publicly for one is extremely likely to find themselves on the chopping block. Officially, it will be for other reasons- nobody is going to tell you they're firing you because someone said you were talking about unionizing- but the state of modern healthcare, with extreme charting demands and understaffing, is such that virtually anyone can be found in violation of various policies that are usually not strictly enforced if management is interested in getting rid of them.
Nobody is dogging you- you sound like you're passionate about your job and your community, which is great, and we're trying to tell you that being the vocal one about how bad things are (and particularly being loud about wanting to organize the workers) in a workplace where middle and upper management are dropping like flies and extreme changes are underway in an effort to boost profits is a good way to become unemployed and black listed. You seem to have an optimistic view of how corporate management views clinical staff, and a belief that they will welcome suggestions and public criticism from staff as long as it's objective, which is probably not true.
We're just trying to give you a heads up about what could happen if this post or these sentiments reach your managements' ears, and the potential risk to reward ratio of attempting to create culture change from your current position. It is, unfortunately, not good.
It's sad that you find yourself in this position. Know that you are not alone. I too feel as if I am on a sloooooowly sinking ship, but I feel we can recover and turn things around, and even have a new admin who is making the kind of changes that are needed- so who knows what will happen now. OP it does not sound like you are in a similar position. My advise is to start looking elsewhere for a job, unless you are willing to deal with the crap that will come up over the next 3-5 years at a minimum.
So often we want to change things, and may even have GREAT ideas on how to fix simple issues. However, unless your employer is willing to implement them nothing will change.
It's an unfortunate truth of most employers that if they dislike your legally protected activity they can and will find a way to discipline you for unprotected activity (ever clocked in a minute early or late, failed to chart anything, been late with a med? ... you get the idea). ...
Absolute truth! Also, there is HAVING a legal right and there is ENFORCING a legal right. These are most definitely NOT the same thing. Believe me, you do not want the time, expense and uncertainty of litigation in these situations. Please be very, very, very careful discussing anything related to labor rights or actions at work or online.
You sound like you are perhaps in the denial stage of grieving for your former job. Do NOT hang on, hoping you alone can change an institution. You can't. You can, however, ruin your physical and mental health. Take your wonderfulness to somewhere that appreciates you! (Hopefully, somewhere close to me where students could desperately use a nurse who wants to precept students.)
I don't have advice, but you're not alone. My facility has been a revolving door for nurses, and there have been some 'leadership' changes as well. Too few nurses (and often CNA's) has resulted in most of us being overworked often this year.
Sometimes it's nice to get together with your coworkers at a nice coffee shop or breakfast diner away from work to just have a little chat.
And sometimes that is several more nails in the coffin!
What's that they say about "Loose lips sink ships?" And "Loose lips sink sinking ships even faster?" Please don't get into useless conversations that can and will only be used against you. Maybe a better chat can be had with a job counselor.
The postings sound almost like breaking up in a relationship. You find yourself in a sinking, dead-end situation, like a bad relationship. Things are not going to change soon, no matter what you tell yourself. You might not have changed, but the job you find yourself in has.
Hopefully soon, you will get hit with a sense of your own rights as a person and say, "I am not tolerating this any longer; time for a new job!"
I'm sorry- I'm a little confused by the tone and message of your response. In your first post you directed me to NNOC which helps to organize nurses unions or at least be a resource for the latest in nurses rights. Now, if I understand correctly- are you advising that IF I should want to organize a "union" that this not be discussed in the place of employment? Or, am I being dogged for posting and expressing? Just a little clarification.
Last night your original post had over two hundred views within minutes. Those were search engines and possibly the bots that corporations have to scan the web looking for negative comments on social media.
Not long after I posted I had a pop up that read allnurses wants access to your location and the buttons to accept or decline. That has never happened before.
I apologize for sounding harsh. My intent was to prevent you from being targeted for termination either for being identified for writing the original post or writing anything about even entertaining the idea of forming a union at your hospital.
Union busting is a billion dollar industry. Their tactics are unconscionable. Never discuss unionizing at work. Even a rumor about talking about a union is enough for HR to start progressive disciplinary action to make an example of the nurses who try to organize.
I suggested the NNOC because of your commitment to your community rather than this corporate entity.
My rule of thumb is to be gone well before the rats even start scrambling. I have no interest in attempting to stop a sinking ship with a wad of bubble gum. If things are going south I'm outta there and on to the next adventure.
I have a personal interest in this thread as my "ship" has been sinking for months. Advice as to leaving is harder than you think. With almost 20 years at my facility, and 36 months until earliest retirement, I'm between a rock and a hard place.
My working conditions are miserable, and are only going to get worse, if the current trajectory continues. What do I do? Transferring in house seems pointless, as all units are pretty much run the same.
My personal panic is that I've been floated to critical areas.
I'm sorry to hi-jack BtoM RN's thread, but I'm closely following posters for advice too.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
I have a personal interest in this thread as my "ship" has been sinking for months. Advice as to leaving is harder than you think. With almost 20 years at my facility, and 36 months until earliest retirement, I'm between a rock and a hard place.
My working conditions are miserable, and are only going to get worse, if the current trajectory continues. What do I do? Transferring in house seems pointless, as all units are pretty much run the same.
My personal panic is that I've been floated to critical areas.
I'm sorry to hi-jack BtoM RN's thread, but I'm closely following posters for advice too.
Unless we turn a page in our state laws, we may soon find ourselves working for greedy employers without any ability to organize into labor unions for protections. A couple of presidential candidates are campaigning on, and very proud of their union busting prowress and agendas.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
I'm sorry- I'm a little confused by the tone and message of your response. In your first post you directed me to NNOC which helps to organize nurses unions or at least be a resource for the latest in nurses rights. Now, if I understand correctly- are you advising that IF I should want to organize a "union" that this not be discussed in the place of employment? Or, am I being dogged for posting and expressing? Just a little clarification.
Don't discuss it at work. That doesn't mean you can't discuss it at home. I would make sure I had plenty of people who were like minded. Once you have an idea of how many nurses are supportive of a union, then it would be a good time to contact a union such as NNOC.
I don't understand why you got so snarky with previous posters. They were trying to help you.
emmy27
454 Posts
What she actually said was that is shouldn't be discussed on a website, which is essentially equivalent to standing in the town square and shouting about it. Discussing it in the workplace should also be done with great caution if at all.
Preventing unionization is a top priority for corporations, and a low-level, easily expendable employee (which all staff nurses are) who agitates publicly for one is extremely likely to find themselves on the chopping block. Officially, it will be for other reasons- nobody is going to tell you they're firing you because someone said you were talking about unionizing- but the state of modern healthcare, with extreme charting demands and understaffing, is such that virtually anyone can be found in violation of various policies that are usually not strictly enforced if management is interested in getting rid of them.
Nobody is dogging you- you sound like you're passionate about your job and your community, which is great, and we're trying to tell you that being the vocal one about how bad things are (and particularly being loud about wanting to organize the workers) in a workplace where middle and upper management are dropping like flies and extreme changes are underway in an effort to boost profits is a good way to become unemployed and black listed. You seem to have an optimistic view of how corporate management views clinical staff, and a belief that they will welcome suggestions and public criticism from staff as long as it's objective, which is probably not true.
We're just trying to give you a heads up about what could happen if this post or these sentiments reach your managements' ears, and the potential risk to reward ratio of attempting to create culture change from your current position. It is, unfortunately, not good.