*wanting to slap the hospital admins*

Nurses General Nursing

Published

:mad: I just have to vent. I hope I'm on the right venting zone.

I hate it how inconsiderate the administration, in our hospital, can be to its nursing department. I'll take it that they passed the institution's neuro-psychiatric (NP) test as they hold those positions but they sure are awful leaders. I hate it that.... I didn't meet the NP screener's standard (they say introverts don't make good leaders)... and I have to retake the whole thing after a given time....when I know, if I were an admin (insert swear word here...sorry) I can do better than them!

I mean what kind of leader can be so blind to its people. I know I should respect their authority because it's a military institution (obey first before you complain) but what they are doing is just plain abuse for their staff which are by the way civilian personnel. We're being treated like were not humans. We have opinions. I would have dismissed these feelings if the admins' order is reasonable but it's stupid, impractical, compromising, abusive and the like.

If it isn't enough that we have to take the pharmacists' responsibility after office hours (good thing the med. techs don't rely on us for drawing blood these past few months), janitorial work, ...they have to give us loads of paperwork.... for crying out loud... WE ARE IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM, we shouldn't be wasting our time on paper works that we can live without! Did I mention, nurse's are the ones that write the rest of the doctor's paperwork?

And if we complain, we appear to be lazy. And now they expect us to open the door and assist on ambulating every patient, ambulatory by self or not. What next DO they expect us to carry each and every patient?

Oh, God! If only jobs aren't so hard to find locally and overseas, I would have left already but I can't because I'm currently penniless because I wasted..spent... my money attending seminars on a field of nursing that I'm not fond of....I like the wards better....

And in the case a patient, files a complaint against one of us, and the nurse is the one on the right, they won't even protect the nurse...

roser13, ASN, RN

6,504 Posts

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

While I don't understand alot of your post:

"If it isn't enough that we have to take the pharmacists' responsibility after office hours (good thing the med. techs don't rely on us for drawing blood these past few months), janitorial work"

I totally respect your right to vent.

I hope that you feel better after venting and that you receive lots of support.

macfar28

138 Posts

Actually, I understand much if not all of what you are describing. I'm guessing you wrote this in a hurry with the venting aspect in mind.

My team and I have the exact same problems. We do clean rooms, repair equipment, try to do maintenance, seek outside pharmacy support (not familiar with our psychotropics), advise our referral sources on what "medically cleared" means for our facility, etc etc. I'm not of the school of thought that I can only do nurse's work....I work as a secretary and mental health tech as part of my care for patients...but it is hard to respect my unit director when she cannot even complete 15 minute safety checks on 4 patients. All you have to do is eyeball them, make sure they are not hanging from a door - or about to - and record the patient's location??? I feel that our admins are so amazingly out of touch with patient care and so amazingly in touch with their cost saving bonuses that they really don't function as healthcare providers. Yes, of course hospitals are businesses....I get it. But when it becomes all about money and the nurse is the catch all for every task that needs completion but also the first to be reprimanded...that's a problem.

Last week we had a patient who sent an RN and our shift supervisor (also an RN) to the ED with significant injuries. When our director returned the next day, she said the staff was too forceful with the patient and that just because he was standing on a table in our day room threatening to dive into the floor that we should have allowed him to remain that way rather than put hands on. Really? Funny since this patient has an anoxic brain injury where HE HUNG HIMSELF IN JAIL....so clueless. It is beyond frustrating. I like to work and in fact, work hard and stay busy but this is out of hand and more importantly, unsafe.

Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Case Management.
Last week we had a patient who sent an RN and our shift supervisor (also an RN) to the ED with significant injuries. When our director returned the next day, she said the staff was too forceful with the patient and that just because he was standing on a table in our day room threatening to dive into the floor that we should have allowed him to remain that way rather than put hands on. Really? Funny since this patient has an anoxic brain injury where HE HUNG HIMSELF IN JAIL....so clueless. It is beyond frustrating. I like to work and in fact, work hard and stay busy but this is out of hand and more importantly, unsafe.

Wow! I can only hope (but doubt) that you are employed by a psych hospital.

macfar28

138 Posts

Yes I am in a psych hospital which appears to be part of the problem. While most EDs can restrain and inject, our culture is no hands on patients and no injections or forced meds. In many cases, I completely agree and none of us wish to go to those extremes. However, because the medical staff is reluctant to prescribe prn's, forced meds, etc. and because the admins are pressuring us to never put hands on, people are getting hurt and hurt badly. We have had several head injuries, bites, employees knocked unconscious, black eyes, etc but again, it comes back to our mismanagement of the patient...with mind you the bare minimum of staff (or what often feels like no staff). I love my patients, I truly do, and without the wonderful team of people I work with, I myself would go crazy but the lack of management support is unreal. We fear it will take the death of a staff person before the admins wake up.

Midwest4me

1,007 Posts

Specializes in A myriad of specialties.
yes i am in a psych hospital which appears to be part of the problem. while most eds can restrain and inject, our culture is no hands on patients and no injections or forced meds. in many cases, i completely agree and none of us wish to go to those extremes. however, because the medical staff is reluctant to prescribe prn's, forced meds, etc. and because the admins are pressuring us to never put hands on, people are getting hurt and hurt badly. we have had several head injuries, bites, employees knocked unconscious, black eyes, etc but again, it comes back to our mismanagement of the patient...with mind you the bare minimum of staff (or what often feels like no staff). i love my patients, i truly do, and without the wonderful team of people i work with, i myself would go crazy but the lack of management support is unreal. we fear it will take the death of a staff person before the admins wake up.

i so sympathize with your dilemma for i, too, work in a psych hospital that is mismanaged. i doubt seriously that it will take the death of a staff person to wake up the administration. they'll just put the blame upon the dead staff person.

i suspect the only thing that will wake up management will be a lawsuit against them from a family member. we frequently have our staff wind up in er from attacks by our psych pts. solution? certainly not im prns! "hands-on" is looked down upon unless the pt is striking a staff member or a fellow pt. management merely throws more staff at the problem; ie., make the pt a "constant"--putting 2-3 staff to sit watching the pt 24/7....when short-staffing is already a major thorn in our sides.

the short staffing is aggravated by mandated overtime shifts. one never knows if it'll be an 8-hr shift or a 16-hr shift(because of all the sick calls and unpaid leave days we have to take, many people are mandated every shift). you just have to plan on working 16's every day and then be thankful when you're not mandated to stay over. it's pathetic! and yes, we're unionized but the union does squat. it's abuse.

morte, LPN, LVN

7,015 Posts

i so sympathize with your dilemma for i, too, work in a psych hospital that is mismanaged. i doubt seriously that it will take the death of a staff person to wake up the administration. they'll just put the blame upon the dead staff person.

i suspect the only thing that will wake up management will be a lawsuit against them from a family member. we frequently have our staff wind up in er from attacks by our psych pts. solution? certainly not im prns! "hands-on" is looked down upon unless the pt is striking a staff member or a fellow pt. management merely throws more staff at the problem; ie., make the pt a "constant"--putting 2-3 staff to sit watching the pt 24/7....when short-staffing is already a major thorn in our sides.

the short staffing is aggravated by mandated overtime shifts. one never knows if it'll be an 8-hr shift or a 16-hr shift(because of all the sick calls and unpaid leave days we have to take, many people are mandated every shift). you just have to plan on working 16's every day and then be thankful when you're not mandated to stay over. it's pathetic! and yes, we're unionized but the union does squat. it's abuse.

has anyone tried to use the union?

Midwest4me

1,007 Posts

Specializes in A myriad of specialties.
has anyone tried to use the union?

union contract says mandated overtimes can only be enforced in the event of a public safety emergency; the superintendant of the psych hospital has to declare a public safety emergency. well, we never hear of such declarations of emergencies. short-staffing is not a public safety emergency...yet mandated overtimes are rampant, sometimes as many as 38 people are required to stay onto the next shift. staff need to band together and take a stand but everyone is too worried about losing their jobs if they stand up to management.

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