What do you consider to be nursing's biggest setback?

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Just wondering what some of you thought might be a big setback in the nursing industry? What is holding it back from being something that it may not be. Look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

Specializes in ER/ MEDICAL ICU / CCU/OB-GYN /CORRECTION.

The tolerance of lateral violence and the lack of recognition of the power the profession has to dictate safe patient care.

Marc

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Specializes in Spinal Cord injuries, Emergency+EMS.
The tolerance of lateral violence and the lack of recognition of the power the profession has to dictate safe patient care.

Marc

the Lateral violence thing seems to be common across the world, possibly due to the gender balance - one ofthe heads of year at my secondary school said that he 'preferred' to deal with Boys who had a disagreement as they would either beat seven shades of poop out of each other and then be friends or just completely avoid each other , vs the catty backbiting name calling bitchiness and psychological torture thegirls used on each other.

I do think that in the case of the US the power of the profession as a whole is related to the way in which Unions work in the US and the apparent relative lack of agreement by the profession that the ANA has Nurses and Nursing as it's main interest, compare this to the Uk where the RCN - acting as both a 'union' in terms of professional / staff representation, collective bargaining, and the like and as a main campaigning body , with a membership of approaching half a million - all Nurses or members of the wider 'Nursing family' (i.e. Students, HCAs etc )

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
Not charging for nursing services.

Nursing salaries are just a part of the "room charge," putting our services roughly on a par with housekeeping and food service.

This was a big topic for discussion back when I was in school studying for my MSN -- Back in 1980! I agree with you: it's still a big issue. What amazes/disappoints me is that we haven't made more progress in this arena.

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Specializes in LTC Family Practice.
MTs?

I'm unfamiliar with the acronym. And I'm assuming it's not a typo for "MDs" because they are definitely licensed by individual state boards of medicine.

MT is a Medical Technologist they have a national licensing organization the ASCP, they oversee many levels of laboratory professionals - phlebotomists, medical labortatory technologists, medical technologists, pathologists etc.

waits for the conspiraloons to descend ... unfortunately it's the kind of thing that gets the conspiraloons and militia types all vocal and therefore the politicians will be forced to abandon it ...

:lol2:LOL thanks for the laugh

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Specializes in ICU.

IBTL indeed.

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That's a easy question for me, it the inablility to get new nurses hired. We had thousands answer the "Nursing Shortage" call, and yet when those thousands graduated, only a handful of jobs were there. And before anyone says in was just the economy, Doctors don't seem to have a problem gettingn hired for there residency's, niether to pharmacy grads. There has got to be better way to transition more new nurses from student to competant nurse, and it has to be more then a few people at a time even when the economy is slow!!!!!!:twocents:

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Specializes in Cardiac/CT Surgery.

Oh my ... where to start? How about top heavy administration salaries ... I make roughly $32/ hour and my VP of Nursing reportedly earns $450, 000/year? My director makes close to $200, 000/year? It's demoralizing. I agree with the frustration and futility of duplicate documentation which takes up so much time. Let me chart once and document in one place please. I see our support professionals documenting everything they do electronically. Why is that so hard for Nursing to put into place? We are the front-line professionals and everything literally rolls downhill onto us. I don't want to deal with politics, micro-managers and rules that make us look good when the state and/or federal officials come around to check up on us only to be set aside most of the rest of the year due to cost effectiveness. Pay our support staff (CNAs) what they're worth so we can keep dedicated and caring co-workers ... they make or break a unit for the rest of the Nursing staff. Basically, I want to go to work, get an assignment that's safe and fair, have a CNA who's well-trained and not overwhelmed and discouraged and have the support of my bosses so that I can take care of my patients who are THE most important people in my life for the 12+ hours that I'm there. I don't want to leave thinking that I wasn't able to take care of them like I know I should have because I didn't get the kind of support I needed and asked for. I've been an RN for 7 years and these are all the same concerns and issues I've had all along ... If I didn't absolutely LOVE being a nurse and think that I made a difference when I do show up and work, I'd stay home. All the pep talks and faux kudos from the hospital administration are worthless to me - talk and compliments are cheap. SUPPORT YOUR NURSES ... REALLY support them and your CNAs with good pay and sufficient staffing and that's how you'll get really safe, compassionate care for your patients. Administration is so out of touch with what really goes on - and for the most part, if you're a Nurse who's now an administrator - you're not one of us anymore. So, don't act like you know and care what it's like to be doing direct patient care because you don't. That ended when you started wearing high heels to work and the bottom line and your incentive bonus became your #1 priority.

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Specializes in ICU, PACU, OR.

In my opinion the main setbacks are these: Unrealistic expectations/mandates (JCAHO compliance and documentation), self-respect as a profession (we act subservient, therefore we are subservient), education is not good enough (BS programs are not long enough to include more clinical experiences-my personal experience reflects that diploma programs educated better-nurses and turned out nurses who were better equipped to move directly into the workplace-maybe they should combine the two programs and make it a 5 year program?) Fostering relationships in middle management-getting to know managers who collaborate with your department is very vital to a better working environment and building bridges to more efficient patient flow-plus you make new friends and colleagues. Taking away nursing duties/skills like medication preparation-pharmacy now controls all the admixing-because of that we have lost the ability to learn medication skills that are beyond pill passing and finally, not using nurses (non-managerial) to make important decisions that directly impact the workplace and the clinical environment-logistical, practical, efficiency efforts. Easier to just tell nurses what to do than take the time to listen to the folks who actually work in the environment.

Fostering life long learning in nursing care/medical innovations/pharmaceuticals is imperative.

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Specializes in ICU/NICI/PICU/Pulmonary/GI.

Biggest set-back??? How about the actual lack of hands-on care ( that seems to be the job of an assistant now)! My unconscious mother -in-law sat in an premier hospital's ICU for 3 days. We were at her bedside for nearly the whole time. The nurses rarely moved from their portable computer consoles in the doorway. Her actual "hands-on" contact was scant!

We are a family of old nurses and doctors. WE KNOW HOW TO CARE FOR PATIENTS. I couldn't BELIEVE the lack of touch. But, I bet the paperwork was well taken care of.

This is what keeps me from going back to a hospital setting (where I was an ICU nurse 15 years ago). Rather, give me a low paying agency job where I do EVERyTHING for one patient and have time to really care..

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Specializes in ICU, PACU, OR.

I have also wondered-if we paid nurses by the case-would you ever have a nursing shortage? In my area we have cases that require more than one nurse to complete the task. We have some cases where three teams are present, we have cases that are 15 minutes. Simple to complex in task orientation-not patient care. All cases have substantial risk involved, but what if you had a pay scale for specialties? That would be an interesting conversation to have. Make nurses independent practitioners who get paid by the amount of cases they do, patient load, complexity of care, and procedures involved. Not to mention quality of care provided-survey patient and family concerning the care provided. Boy would things change. All nurses would be on their best behavior. Sorry but money drives better care. This may be a calling, but if I did this job for charity I'd have been a nun.

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Not a nurse yet, but I COMPLETELY agree!!!!:dancgrp:

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Specializes in ICU and Dialysis.
Women

Hear, Hear...Thank God...finally someone's said it.

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