What would you change about Nursing to make it better?

dishes, BSN, RN · Aug 23, 2009

In my workplace most staff enjoy their work. There may be some toxic personalities but the majority of staff want to do good work for the patients. A large number of our patients are just nice people going through a difficult situation. I find if I am friendly, considerate and thankful to my colleagues and the patients, they treat me the same way.

Some patients make it challenging for the situation to be positive and I do feel affected by their negative attitude but these patients are few in number and staff are supportive of each in these situations. I think the majority of people want to work in a positive place and if they work together they can accomplish this.

dishes

Mike A. Fungin RN · Aug 23, 2009

I think to make nursing better that a lot of nurses need to realize that if we're ever going to be respected as much as we are trusted that they need to act like professionals and move forward together as a group.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Aug 23, 2009

i went to school for x number of years to become a nurse, i do my job competently and present myself professionally. so stop trying to mandate what color of scrubs i wear to work. (if the problem is that ancillary staff who don't do actual patient care are also wearing scrubs and the patient cannot tell them from the nurse, mandate what the ancillary staff wears -- or doesn't wear.)

throw the press-gainey business away with the trash, and return our focus from "customer service" to "patient care" where it ought to have been all along. this business of pillow fluffing and beverage fetching while someone else is coding is ridiculous, and the management types who pander to this sort of craziness at the expense of safe nursing don't have a clue. perhaps they should be finding jobs in the customer service sector and let us get on with the business of health care.

new nurses need to understand that it is not their "right" to "follow their dream" of being a crna, nurse midwife, er nurse or whatever if they cannot master the basics of nursing. people who give them negative feedback aren't merely trying to backstab them or eat them -- many of those people are genuinely trying to help them.

let's reinstate and enforce visiting hours. we had them for a reason, and it was a good reason. for everyone that complains that it is their right to be at granny's bedside to ensure that her nurses do a good job of pillow fluffing, hand holding and tear-soothing, i explain that it they're sitting there, that's their job, not the nurse's. when you're sitting at granny'd bedside, confine your complaints to the legitimate ones. (hint, it might be something like "granny couldn't breathe and the nurse didn't do anything because she was fetching a diet coke for the patient in the next bed." and not "granny had to wait twelve minutes for her tea because all the nurses were in the next room watching some old guy get shocked.")

as nurses, we all understand about cultural diversity and let us not be ethno-centric. but let our patients also realize that we, as americans, have our own culture and the nurse that inadvertently violates your customs may be a perfectly fine nurse out to save your father's life, not a whore out to soil his person with her touch. and there are some customs i absolutely cannot respect, however non-pc of me that might be. do not expect to backhand your wife across the mouth in my presence because in my culture, the culture of the country whose soil you've chosen to be standing on, that's a crime.

and finally let us all worry about our own motives for become nurses, and not put down someone else's motives. i don't care if joe's in it just for the money as long as he helps me lift and turn and clean up my patient when he's working beside me, and leaves my patient clean, comfortable and the work complete when i follow him. nor do i care that sue's motive was a calling as long as she's there to help when i need her, lets me know when she needs help in a timely fashion and doesn't bore me or waste my time blathering on and on about her calling and how god has put her in this place so she can convert the sinners.

i'm sure i'll come up with more, but it's late and i really should be attempting to sleep.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Aug 23, 2009

better nurse-patient ratios
no back biting. i see very few md's back bite.
jeanne

look closer. mds back bite with the rest of us, and they often put nurses in the middle.

Virgo_RN, BSN, RN · Aug 23, 2009

1) Less backbiting and more mutual support, definitely. If I'm getting a decent orientation, please stop with the catty comments about how *your* orientation sucked. Once I am off orientation, I will be your teammate, and you really shouldn't be trying to alienate me. Plus, wouldn't you rather I be better prepared coming off orientation, if I'm the one you're going to have to count on to have your back?

2) More nurses at the bedside!

3) No more "customer service"! Yes, I should be nice to patients and their family members, but my goodness, this is not a day at the spa! If you come to the ED for a three day old bee sting on your behind that's a little red and itchy, don't be surprised when you have to wait four hours to see a doctor! Do I really need to explain that the doctors are all busy with people that are actually trying to die? And no, I will not get you a cup of coffee, and no, there are no softer gurneys. Sheesh! In the meantime, that guy who might be having a heart attack next door is calling me "Ma'am" and saying "Please" and "Thank you".

4) More nurses at the bedside!

oslogirl · Aug 23, 2009

If I had the power, the first thing I would do is institute a zero tolerance policy on gossip and disrespectful language.

Nacki, MSN, NP · Aug 23, 2009

new nurses need to understand that it is not their "right" to "follow their dream" of being a crna, nurse midwife, er nurse or whatever if they cannot master the basics of nursing. people who give them negative feedback aren't merely trying to backstab them or eat them -- many of those people are genuinely trying to help them.
and finally let us all worry about our own motives for become nurses, and not put down someone else's motives. i don't care if joe's in it just for the money as long as he helps me lift and turn and clean up my patient when he's working beside me, and leaves my patient clean, comfortable and the work complete when i follow him. nor do i care that sue's motive was a calling as long as she's there to help when i need her, lets me know when she needs help in a timely fashion and doesn't bore me or waste my time blathering on and on about her calling and how god has put her in this place so she can convert the sinners.

are these two quotes not contradictorary? put down newer nurses who want to pursue higher education...whatever it may be and then the next quote you want to say "not put down someone else's motives" for being a nurse? what give you the right to input your opinions on someone else's future goals and aspirations?

who's to say the new nurse may not be a great crna, midwife or er nurse once they get experience under their belt? everyone has to start somewhere in life...remember you were once a newly graduated nurse w/no experience as well.

Vito Andolini · Aug 23, 2009

There are a few things I would like to see change.
1) Get rid of the complaining chronically depressed I hate this job types.
2) Mandate a bachelors degree as the minimum requirement for all entry nurses.
3) Cut out all the additional educational titles seen on name badges. Ex: Gaylord Focker RN BSN LMAO ACLS BLS CCRN ACRN CDDN CWOCN CRRPTC. Really, is all this crap necessary? I have always found it annoying. How about Gaylord Focker RN.
4) Get rid of all the waste of time classes (cultural diversity, theory etc) and fill that space with some science that will ACTUALLY BENEFIT YOU in the real world of nursing. Unfortunately, the BSN programs tend to fill their students with more of this useless crap than the ADN programs.

If someone has earned various certifications and degrees and wants these on his badge, he is entitled to that, I believe. It's just that no one else knows what they mean!

Cultural diversity is reality and we need to know about the cultures of our coworkers and patients. Not only is it vitally necessary, it is also quite interesting, I think. I agree with someone below who wrote that more math is needed, but not at the expense of learning about our diverse population.

I do not think a BSN is necessary to be a great nurse.

Vito Andolini · Aug 23, 2009

I hear lots of frustration and anger in these replies, my brothers and sisters. Now, the next step is for each of us who has expressed our wish list to take the actions that will make our wishes reality. Money does not fall from the sky. Wishes do not come true via a fairy godmother and her magic wand.

It takes our own blood, sweat, and tears to make changes and bring about the bettering of our profession that we want to see.

Together, we can do it. Let's each, in our own area, take the first step.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Aug 23, 2009

are these two quotes not contradictorary? put down newer nurses who want to pursue higher education...whatever it may be and then the next quote you want to say "not put down someone else's motives" for being a nurse? what give you the right to input your opinions on someone else's future goals and aspirations?
who's to say the new nurse may not be a great crna, midwife or er nurse once they get experience under their belt? everyone has to start somewhere in life...remember you were once a newly graduated nurse w/no experience as well.

no, the two are not contradictory. follow your dream. be all that you can be. but please, master the basics before you move on. the new nurse might actually be a great crna, midwife, er nurse or even bedside nurse once they get some experience under their belt and after they've mastered the basics. if they are unable to master the basics (as i believe i stated) perhaps they ought to think long and hard about their dream of becoming an advance practice nurse.

RedCell · Aug 23, 2009

if someone has earned various certifications and degrees and wants these on his badge, he is entitled to that, i believe. it's just that no one else knows what they mean!
cultural diversity is reality and we need to know about the cultures of our coworkers and patients. not only is it vitally necessary, it is also quite interesting, i think. i agree with someone below who wrote that more math is needed, but not at the expense of learning about our diverse population.
i do not think a bsn is necessary to be a great nurse.

these dudes with 3 or 4 lines of consonants and vowels after their name have always appeared to me as though they were compensating for something they wanted to be, but could not achieve. similar to the guy who measures up at 4'9" and buys a ssc aero to make up for what he is missing in testosterone production. more importantly, these acronyms are confusing to staff and even more confusing to the patients.

i did not say that you could not be a great nurse if you lack a bsn. in fact, i think that the diploma trained rns were far superior in performance to the material nursing mills are cranking out today. i think that by mandating bachelor programs as a basis for entry level nursing we would earn more respect for our profession. it shows that we take our education seriously. why do you think apn programs will soon make it mandatory for all new nps and crnas to have doctorate level degrees.

regarding cultural diversity, it is a complete load of crap. i don't know what kind of nursing you do, but my limit with cultural diversity ends with asking the patient if there are any personal reasons why i cannot give them blood products and/or albumin. if i were truly interested in the analysis of a certain social institution and wanted to compare it to society as a whole i would have become a sociologist. as i have said in a previous post, if my undergraduate nursing program had spent more time teaching me the difference between a pansystolic murmur vs a midsystolic or diastolic murmur and less time teaching me how to be nice/respectful to an atheist, muslim, jew, christian, homosexual, racist, redneck, etc..... i would have been much better off.

since nursing students are unfortunately mandated to take these cultural classes, why not teach something useful such as differences among pharmacodynamic profiles of certain drugs pertaining to the white and black races. or maybe certain things you can anticipate due to the alteration of the mc1r gene in redheads. this is much more useful to my nursing practice than knowing that i should not use the same firmness when shaking a muslim's hand. seriously, these kinds of classes are the reason med/surg units are providing 3 month orientation programs to new hires. they have to teach people how to be a nurse after they have graduated from nursing school.

as far as taking the first step, i believe that i do this every day in the or when i have students working with me. no cultural diversity questions, just straight up pharmacology, pathophysiology, chemistry and physics. useful information they will require to pass their boards and be competent practitioners. :nurse:

hypocaffeinemia, BSN, RN · Aug 25, 2009

Just googled the MC1R-opiate link based on your post. Thanks for that-- fascinating. Helps to explain a patient I had earlier this summer that reacted so severely to tiny amounts of opioid analgesics that we had to keep her on a narcan drip. She was, in fact, a redhead.