What do you hate most about your job?

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Hey lovely (or studly) nurses,

Upcoming strong word advisory.

What do you *hate* the most about your job? Like over the past week or so --

what have you been most stressed, angry, hurt, or annoyed about?

I'm doing some informal research to help me understand the needs of nurses….and would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks!

I have subscribed to this website, kevinmd, for a long time. Came across this article that talks about EHR and the frustrations.

Maybe it's time to go back to index cards for medical records

My favorite quote in this article:

"Do not forget, we have more years of education and experience than those individuals who are making the rules. Why have we allowed them to essentially manage our profession?"

Thanks for the link, Spidey's mom.

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Lack of communication.

Systemwide lip service to being patient-centered, when all the actions are cents-centered.

Lack of respect for the person and the position of nurse at my hospital.

Having to rush-rush-rush and pray that I'm not going so fast that I'm overlooking something critical.

Egregious lack of planning and foresight on the part of my unit manager and director. They are some dumb ****es. I mean, when you annex a unit, you should have some sort of plan for training the employees you inherit.

Having the system I work for treating nurses, aides, and ancillary staff with a "you can be replaced" attitude.

Having to get a BSN when I already have a BA and a diploma, just to keep my crappy, low-paying job.

Since you're going to ask, I cope with chocolate. :)

As far as how I feel... mostly demoralized, diminished, disrespected. And then some days I feel vindicated when the karma comes back and bites my superiors on their butts. Our turnover rate is ridiculous and administration finally noticed.

Thanks for sharing your insights, analysis, and descriptions, canigraduateRN!

How did you know I'd ask about coping and feelings??! :)

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Mandatory assignment.

When I go to work for a regularly scheduled 8 hr shift and am told I have to stay for an additional 8 hr shift.

This happens every pay period.

Staff with children are told that daycare is not a reason to refuse a mandate, staff going to school are told their schooling is secondary to their job so if they have class in the morning they can still get mandated to the night shift.

Every day we have staff on mandatory assignments who are working tired and exhausted, giving up time with their families so this impacts all of us every day.

So basically, don't have a personal life. At least nothing that requires a commitment.

Be ready to cancel any personal, vocational, or other professional (school) plans.

I cannot think of many (any?) other professions that could actually get away with this kind of demand.

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So basically, don't have a personal life. At least nothing that requires a commitment.

Be ready to cancel any personal, vocational, or other professional (school) plans.

I cannot think of many (any?) other professions that could actually get away with this kind of demand.

Other than the Military, I can't think of any!

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As a therapist, you want to help your clientele deal with perceived problems. Many of the problems--poor administration interaction with the staff, electronic charting systems that are designed for billing rather than nursing, inadequate staffing--aren't easily fixed from the bottom up.

How do you teach your clients to deal with these problems?

I have no problem saying "no" when asked to work extra.

However, I can't talk with administrators who refuse to talk to me. This means that when I go into their office, state what the problem is and what I would like to see as a solution, I am told that I have no input.

I do have a problem with working all of the holidays because the scheduler thinks since my children are grown, I don't need holidays off.

I have a problem with the scheduler scheduling me to work one day in the middle of my vacation because she couldn't find anyone else to work. At the time, my son was living in another state and his wife was dying of cancer and they knew I planned to go there. His children were 1, 3, and 5 and he needed help. I left that position.

I have a problem with being told that I can't go to my brother's wedding because we aren't allowed to use vacation on weekends. I called in sick. Nothing was ever said to me about calling in. But why can't I just arrange my time and be honest?

I have a problem with being told I can't take off to take my daughter to her father's funeral because he and I were divorced, even though I had plenty of vacation time and did not ask for funeral leave. There again, I was told I couldn't take vacation on my scheduled weekend to work. This is a different employer, BTW. An HR employee who went to bat for me lost her job over that one.

This isn't happening to just me. One nurse was allowed off for her wedding, but not her honeymoon. Others have been refused time off after thinking they have time off and buying tickets for events, then having to work.

It's almost impossible to deal with administration that doesn't see the staff as human beings who have families and lives separate from their employment. The same administrative staff gets every holiday off, takes of every Friday at noon, and accrues more vacation time per working hour than the floor staff. This isn't an issue that affects only hospitals, either. People who elect to become administrators seem to feel that they are superior to those who do the actual work and seem to feel that they deserve "more"--more money, more time off, more respect, more of everything--simply because they are administrators.

I have worked bad hours, been short-staffed, been frustrated by poor electronic systems and generally had my bad times, but what I hate about my job is the total lack of basic respect for the staff as human beings from those who make decisions that affect both our work and personal lives.

Hi Ellekat2,

The question you ask -- how do I help people with systemic work problems -- is one of the most difficult situations I encounter as a therapist.

Ultimately, in many situations such as those you listed, I help people "know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run."

It's sometimes all about weighing pros and cons, and what a person will have the least regret about doing.

The situation you mentioned in which your daughter-in-law was dying of cancer (so sorry, by the way), and you intended to take your vacation time to help your son and grandchildren -- if your manager wasn't going to honor that the time was your vacation, you had to weigh out your options.

Which it sounds like you did.

In those less-than-ideal situations, that's what I help people do. Weigh out what's worth more to them long-term. Stay at the job and not help one's son and daughter-in-law? Stay at the job and lie with a sick call for the scheduled day? Quit the job? Something else?

Sometimes a client and I will brainstorm in out-of-the box methods. We'll discuss the legality of things done at work (i.e. schedulers discriminating about what reasons / marital statuses / children statuses will be granted the person's earned time off. Wedding, yes. Honeymoon, no. Holidays if the children are under 18, yes. Over 18, no.)

Sometimes I'll inquire about things like what would happen if the whole department organized and agreed to certain conditions of work (like, vacation means vacation. Not being required to ask the scheduler if she approves of the reason for the vacation.).

Then we'll discuss his or her thoughts about it -- what's possible, what's not possible, what's black and white, and what's grey. What's in their control. What's not.

Sounds like you've seen and experienced real problems with the systemic aspects of nursing. I hope you've got some good listeners with whom you can talk things through.

Thanks for your thoughts and the question.

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When someone picks on someone else's bad spelling and they themselves misspell things in their critique of said person:D

That being said, there have been things in these responses that either make me feel grateful for my experiences at the bedside or a bit jealous, depending on the issue. Great thread!

xo

Hahhahh! ;)

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Lice.

Ew. Nast.

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Haha- give me the trach any day (traches never bothered me)! I work as a school nurse, so I see a lot of lice... it wouldn't be so bad if the teachers weren't so phobic about it. I have one that once a lice case is identified, she sends every student who sits near him or her to be checked, then sends that student to me 2-3x a week for rechecks.. if the lice return, the whole process starts again (with all that students friends and table mates!) ug

If I were a teacher, I'd totally be doing the same thing as the lice-phobe!

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I have the belief that you can work hard without working miserable. Being tired is not the same as feeling like crap. Some ways I try to create a better work experience:

Attempt to teach how to be efficient, create mental templates for charting.

Educate re regulations to reduce the time to work thru issues.

Create mental muscle memory for the basic foundation and habits of organizing and scheduling patient care.

Encourage repeatedly to ask for help.

Reduce redundant processes.

Explain rationale and usefulness of helpful processes ie routines that help avoid the time sucking frustrating pitfalls.

Advocate for staff to mgmt above and below me to the realities and extent of what our staffs' (staff's?) job entails.

Encourage ataff to help come up with ways that reduce individual stress.

Praise the hard work.

Point out accomplishments.

Explain the financials, the why of things, method to the madness etc.

Teach how to approach people to get the outcome desired, how to avoid getting the opposite outcome.

Teach how to diffuse versus incite and perpetuate.

Promote our company culture and remind everyone as a group or as individuals of the humanity in all of us, including staff, mgmt, providers and patients/caregivers.

Validate group and individuals without perpetuating unintended misgivings, avoid feeding into negative emotions.

Hi Libby1987,

All your ways of coping are internal; mindsets, and behaviors that are in your control.

So proactive! So analytical! So amazeballs!

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1. Labor law violations (never getting a lunch break)

2. No safe lifting/lifting equipment

3. "Leader" rounding that seems to undermine the staff (have had patients call me saying "your manager was here asking all these questions about you trying to catch you doing something wrong")

4. Coworker hostility (people threatening others with write ups and "telling on" one another)

5. Micromanagement by discharge planners, administrators, managers

6. "Secret shoppers" spying on nurses trying to catch them doing something wrong

7. Schedules getting messed up

8. Manager who lies or doesn't follow through with things she said she would

9. Pressure to police the doctors and told to write them up all the time (no thanks, I'd like to have a good working relationship with them)

10. Constant employee turnout, I wonder why, haha

Thanks for sharing, noyesno, BSN, RN,

This atmosphere would totally make me paranoid. (Or amplify every shred of my already existent paranoia).

How on earth do you remain grounded -- not looking over your shoulder at all times -- in this environment?

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Not Spidey's mom, but I'll take a stab at it:

Thanks for weighing in, Ruby Vee!

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Mandatory overtime, low morale because of how nursing is treated and management not keeping staff informed about even the most basic things.

Hi 2011RN,

What are the ways nursing staff is treated that you wish would change?

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