OK. Everyone has read a complaint about short staffing and what not on here. Unless this is your first time on the site and this is the very first thread you have ever opened, you've seen it.
I too balk at the staffing levels admin. expects us to function under. Don't preach to me that you want to see "5s" on the surveys when you barely staff well enough for "3s".
With that said, I'd like to take a look at the staffing problem from a different, more introspective angel. I recently finished doing a boat load of OT this pay period. Too much to be honest. Problem was, every time I went in to do a four hour evening shift, it turned into a twelve hour overnight shift. That plus one daylight shift in which there was no aid (hence the need for nurses) but we still had our usual ratios and.........well, I did my part to "take one for the team" these past two weeks. My life outside of work is in the ditches and no paycheck is going to make me happy about it.
So, I'm talking to a night nurse one of the times I stayed and she is boobing her head back and forth telling me "He he, I can't believe you stayed but I'm so glad you did. We would have had to take (X) patients if you didn't stay. I can't function with that many patients. I don't know how you do it though, I don't do OT, its too tiring. I NEVER DO OT."
OK. Thanks for the info. legally blonde wanna be. You basically just got done telling me that if the roles were reversed you'd be out the door letting me function with (X) pt load. Nice, I'll remember that next time.
As I look around my unit, I do notice her approach to "helping" when things get tight is the norm. Very few people do OT or come in on a day off to help their coworkers from having to deal with excess stress. Everyone walks around with this idea of what it is they want to do and wont stray from it one way or the other. Ask them about changing their schedule because one day is overstaffed and another is short.........forget it. Ask them to work a weekend thats not "their weekend"......boo hiss.....they'd rather see their coworkers drown. And holidays............forget it, everyone thinks they are the only one's with a family and plans.
So, with regards to running short staffed, how much of it is us (nurses) doing it to ourselves? How much of it is us not answering the phone, saying "its not my problem" while we know our coworkers are at work drowning.
Heck, there was even a thread in here of someone calling off because they found out they'd be floated. Ummmm, next time your unit is short and the M/S nurse refuses to help out, I hope they remember that day.
Me, I do more than my share of taking some of the "pain" in the helter schelter schedule. I work my off weekend from time to time. I stay to help other avoid bad days. I often come in on off days. Holidays..........just give me T-day and I work Christmas Eve, Christmas day, New Years Eve and day. Granted, I am flexible to the extreme but my gosh........a little bit of flexibility would do wonders for the work environment.
I just don't understand the people who think they are ever going to have a "steady" schedule. Nursing never has nor will offer that unless your are in an office or something. Did they not know that when they got into it?
If you are doing half that list.............time to move on. I don't, not at my place. Passing trays, fixing things...........many of our dept's are union and would FLIP A BIRD if they saw you doing stuff that was in their realm of responsibilities. I don't do any of that stuff.
See, if you move on and a lot of other nurses get the same idea.............then everyone in here would get their way cause admin./management would really have a staffing issue on their hands. Sort of a "vote with your feet" thing.
Nurses never stick together... If I left....I'd just be replaced.
And you know what? I'd search long and hard for a new job doing the exact same thing..
Surely you jest!!!!!!!!! There are no nursing positions around here. The mgmt cackle softly to themselves as they watch us struggle. :smackingf
Yeah. The manager of the unit I recently left (to get off nights was my primary reason) was very bold, said in meetings "Move on, get outta here if you don't like it."
Now she has a staffing crisis on her hands. Can't staff her night shift at all, half the people on nights don't want to be and have informed her they are "actively looking". One told her there would more than likely be no two week notice, she would just work up until the day of her next night, once she found suitable work. The day shift nurses won't help and some of them are "Moving on" like she said to do. She's gotten to the point where she has to ask the other managers from other units not to interview her staff for transfers.
So, yes..........."Move on"?????? You don't have to do it right now, today. But actively search while your current management "cackles and watches you struggle." Vote with your feet. Its very powerful. Managers are judged on how well they retain staff. If everyone is trying to leave one unit, it puts up red flags for their boss and their boss's boss.
Nurses never stick together... If I left....I'd just be replaced.
And you know what? I'd search long and hard for a new job doing the exact same thing..
I think this thread is evidence of that. Heck, if we won't help ourselves, there is no need for admin./management to do anything to win out against us. We beat ourselves.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
QFT? Eh? No idea.
If you are to the point where people are bullying you for ANYTHING, much less just coming in to do OT from time to time...........your problems are far beyond this thread's topic.
No. You are the one acting like the bully in this thread.
No. You are the one acting like the bully in this thread.
QFT= Quoted For Truth
Me thinks its time for some "introspective" criticism if being told you may not be a top notch team player makes you feel bullied (QFT). Seriously though.......notice the defensiveness from some of my counterparts in here. You'd think I wrote this article as a PM directly to them or something. Hmmm..........could it be..............there was already a little voice inside their head telling them exactly what I am saying and now..........BAM, here it is, on the screen right in front of them. Easier to be defensive than it is to change (QFT lol) so..............ole Eric must be a bully cause us becoming a team that functions for the group rather than a group of separate islands that function as individuals........well, it ain't gonna happen.
See, I can't be made to be the bad guy here. Believe it or not, collectivism still outweighs individualism. Thats everywhere with everything. Well........except maybe for drug addicts and people on welfare...........is the the model of decision making we should follow?
Me thinks its time for some "introspective" criticism if being told you may not be a top notch team player makes you feel bullied (QFT). Seriously though.......notice the defensiveness from some of my counterparts in here. You'd think I wrote this article as a PM directly to them or something. Hmmm..........could it be..............there was already a little voice inside their head telling them exactly what I am saying and now..........BAM, here it is, on the screen right in front of them.
Nah, people also tend to get up in arms in response to smugness of tone too, not just guilty consciences.
I just recently figured out BFF on here awhile ago. I can't add anymore of these shortcut abbreviations to my dictionary. And the sad part is, I thought people were making fun of me with the BFF stuff. Spent forever trying to decode it:
Nah, people also tend to get up in arms in response to smugness of tone too, not just guilty consciences.
I know. Not everyone can keep up in a good debate.
Any Lord Of The Rings fans out there? I know I'm not the only one.
Us nurses are in the same position the Ents were in. TreeBeard explains to Merry and Pippen "I am on nobody's side because nobody is on my side."
Thats the position we are in. There are two options for us:
1. Continue on the road we are on with staffing being used as the first/favorite option for admin. to make cuts whenever they start to fear for their bonuses, all the while we the nurses and our patients are the only ones who suffer or.................
2. Take care of each other and become a team. Get things under control enough that we may be able to form a bond strong enough to initiate change.
Right now, most people on this thread prefer #1. Somehow they haven't walked into the brick wall enough times to decide going around is a better option.
). Seriously though.......notice the defensiveness from some of my counterparts in here. You'd think I wrote this article as a PM directly to them or something.?
Lol. People do tend to react that way (myself included).
2. Take care of each other and become a team. Get things under control enough that we may be able to form a bond strong enough to initiate change.
.
Thats funny too. In a sad funny kinda way. It will never happen...
Lol. People do tend to react that way (myself included).
I know. I got flooded with responses like "Well, I've had a hard life..........16 different men have left me and I'm left taking care of 4 children and my dog bit me last week blah blah". I mean, really............so you think I'm talking about you then when I say we could do more for one another? Seriously?
I'm not shallow/selfish or single sighted about this. I understand, very few people are in my shoes and can do the flex scheduling and OT I do. I'm not saying anyone should do anything that introduces any hardship to their outside life even. I'm just saying..........we can do more for each other.
Fine, can't come in on your day off and keep your coworkers from having outrageous ratios. Next time you are the one being saved by someone like me...........don't hand me the worst possible assignment in the house and then proceed to spend the night on the phone with your BF/GF. If you are charge, and someone has been doing tons of OT so others can have their days off the way they like it..........be nice, skip giving the tired one an admit once in awhile. Heck, for some people, just cutting out the BS call offs would be a huge step forward. There are all sorts of little things people in the "team" can do besides give up days off. Then, the people who cramp their personal lives in the name of "team" will feel more obligated to continue to do so.
Here I go, quoting movies again. So what happens? Its like the movie "Pay it Forward". Charge nurse lets me have a night with no admits on Wed.................soooooo...............the following week, when you need off because some friend from HS is in town but only told you the night before............I'm probably more likely to come in for you cause I have more gas in the tank.
Ummmm, next time your unit is short and the M/S nurse refuses to help out, I hope they remember that day.
:smackingf
jkpowell23
50 Posts
Move on?????????
Surely you jest!!!!!!!!! There are no nursing positions around here. The mgmt cackle softly to themselves as they watch us struggle.
:smackingf