What happens when senior nurse are "put out to pasture"

[twinkletoes53]

Re: Another post which stated: "It made me angry that the implication was that we should be put out to pasture. Which by the way many hospitals are doing by layoff's and early retirement packages. Ageism is alive and well........The idea that older nurses are a problem and we should graciously step aside for the younger nurses is just plain wrong."

I had posted in the forum "fired after 50" in the past. I had 34½ years experience at the pediatric hospital I worked at; 30 years were in a Level III NICU. Since then, recently, an RN who had been employed at our hospital for 32 years called me to say that she was fired this week. She is 62 years old. She was a transport nurse for 20 years. She had above-average evaluations each year. So did I. Among the reasons given for her termination? She had several instances where she clocked in to work 1 minute late. Our hospital has a very strict window for clocking in and out. On nights, you can clock in only between 1830 and 1845.You cannot clock in earlier than that; you are penalized. Going home, you cannot clock out before 0708. This RN stated that many nurses in the ER are habitually tardy; instead of clocking in they fill in a manual TACS form, stating the day and time they supposedly arrived. This ER nurse was also told that she spent too much time with a patient. An example given: it was brought up that she was in a room too long assessing an infant. Well, the baby had suddenly pooped everywhere. She assistd the infant's mother in getting him cleaned up. She was told that she should have left him as he was, and gone to get an aide. There are 2 aides in a very busy ER. I would have done what she did.

She told me that another RN who had worked at our hospital for 30+ years, whom I knew very well to be a dedicatd nurse and a hard worker, was terminated. She has arthritis, and needed to have hip and knee replacement surgery. The hospital refused to hold her position open after her short term disability expired.

Third instance: the hospital wants ALL RNs to get their BSN degree by 2015. Those that refuse to attend clases are fired.The hospital wants to get magnet status. But in Jan 2011, sudden, massive cuts in hours and benefits were announced by Administration. Within 4 months, over 200 RNs quit. If you want magnet status, your turnover rate needs to be

The results are starting to be disastrous. Nurses are angry, have lost the tender, caring, loving touch that we used to be known for. They come to work, do the bare minimum, and sit in rocking chairs chatting or "surfing the web" in their spare time. Which of course is forbidden, but the hosptail has done nothing about it except block a few web sites, and issued threats of dicipline. Cell phones carried by staff in their pockets are now banned. Why? Because certain nurses were placing their hands inside an infant's Isolette with phone in hand, and text messaging.Stupid.

A 'sentinel event' occurrd in the unit I used to work in. An infant with a syndrome, who was expected to not survive beyond a few months, was assigned to one of our new BSN nurses. The baby coded. Staff that responded found that her bag and mask were not hooked up, and her wall suction wasn't working.One of the senior RNS started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the baby, who vomited. She had an IO line placed for drugs and was intubated. She died the next day. Each shift when we come in, we go through a detailed checklist where we make sure all emergency equipmnet is hooked up and works; that infant has a current Emergency drug sheet, etc. Obviously this was not done, although it had been checked off that it was. The RNs involved had to meet with the hospital's legal team.

What I am ANGRY about is that there is no objectivity in the way staff are treated. If you happened to be "liked" by your Shift Coordiantor, well bully for you. Several months ago, an RN in the NICU I used to work in looked at the assignment she was given, walked out to the Coordiantor, told her she refused to take care of the babies assigned to her, and left. Made a scene, tears and all. A few hours later she was on Facebook, writing about how happy she was to not be at work, and to be sitting there having a drink. Abandoning a baby is grounds for immediate dismissal. This RN didn't even wait for her babies to be assigned to another nurse. Guess what? She is still working in the NICU.