I have read a lot on allnurses about nurses being suspended here in the USA, and it lead me to thinking why does this happen over here but it is rare in my country that a nurse is suspended or fired. In the UK if a nurse had a problem then they are supervised and supported, I wonder if it because there are unions who step in and help out.
In my career which spans 17 years I have only really known 1 nurse who was so awful we needed to supervise her for over a year and I seriously expect her to lose her registration because she was far too dangerous.
If a nurse is not a 'super' nurse they tend to be encouraged to move to a quieter environment, where there is less stress.
It is the culture that rather than help out each other over here? Everybody at some point needs support.
I read on threads if a night worker sleeps-then it is the worst thing ever and they should be fired, or a nurse on nights slept and I reported her for sleeping on duty because I really want her to be in trouble and fired. Why would you want to do this to your collegue, it is not a competition. Surely you wouldnt want your collegue fired, would you?
I worked in a no blame culture in the UK but here it is a blame blame culture.
There is a nursing shortage and I think sometimes rather than always blaming the government and accusing them of short changing the country we should look to ourselves and see what we can do individually and as a team to improve working conditions by not jumping in and reporting our collegues for every single little complaint you have. People who are suspended and fired have their lives ruined, and unless they are dangerous surely all problems can be sorted before these steps are taken.
