It seems like work has been especially bad the last few weeks and my coworkers and I are fed up. Ive been an RN for 2 years and to think that I have another 30-40 years of this profession is pretty depressing. Dont get me wrong, I love my job on its good days when I can actually do my JOB. But like today when I come in and see I am assigned 7 patients. I work on a very busy med/surg floor. My assignment today consisted of 2 isolation patients both of whom are incontinent with C-diff, 1 is confused and running a high temp as well as has a ton of meds and piggybacks. I have NG tubes, JPs, all my patients need assistance to get out of bed, need walked 3-4 times/day in the hall. I have a ton of IVPB antibiotics, 2 dressings to change, and a wound vac. All my patients have Q2-3 hour pain medicine ordered. Not to mention some pretty overbearing family members who come in for an hour and demand that we wash the patient's hair or demand to know if we are keeping up on their pain medicine or why is the IV not taped to their liking.
Then we had to go to a meeting today about the patient satisfaction surveys and how we need to improve. We need to round on our patients every hour, always say thank you, answer the call light within 1-2 minutes (hahahahaha yea right.) Now we are even putting a sign in the room where we write down what time they received their pain medicine and when the next time its due again. This is just feeding the pain medicine seekers in my opinion. People are just going to look at that and say "oh its 1300, my pain medicine was due 5 minutes ago." Whether or not they are really having pain.
Its just sad that nursing is coming to this....they just keep adding more and more things we have to do, increasing our workload, pushing us to get out on time....and we have no room for error. Making errors in nursing can have very bad consequences. But it seems like we are getting set up for failure. I feel like I am risking my health and sanity for another person's health. I really cant imagine what my body and personality will be like 10-20 years from now if this continues. Why cant we just get enough help so I can have 4 patients and spend time with them, show caring and compassion, talk with them and console them, and just basically do my job safely. Just feel like somethings gotta give.
I think the hardest thing to come to terms with in nursing today is acceptance of the fact that nurses are - with a few exceptions - glorified waitstaff. And I use the term "glorified" very loosely, as I have not yet heard of waitstaff ending up covered in feces, urine, vomit, or blood during their shifts.
Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.
That sounds like nursing was 8 years ago when I started out, except that I would have cried tears of JOY if I only had four patients on the med surg floor I worked on.
porridge
44 Posts
I think the hardest thing to come to terms with in nursing today is acceptance of the fact that nurses are - with a few exceptions - glorified waitstaff. And I use the term "glorified" very loosely, as I have not yet heard of waitstaff ending up covered in feces, urine, vomit, or blood during their shifts.