I work on a cardiac/telemetry floor where the ratio was supposed to be 4:1. Now it's usually 5:1 and occasionally it's 6:1. This happened so incrementally that it became the norm. We have, at best, one tech and there are 30 beds. Meanwhile, ward clerks quit left and right because of the workload -- so it is impossible (or seems so) to stay abreast of the constant changes in the patient's orders. A few weeks back, a patient (not mine, but it could easily have been) actively infarcting was totally overlooked, for instance. It's crazy. I rarely feel safe and always feel like I am drowning.
So I look on the internet with search terms like "safe staffing" and "nurse-to-patient ratios" and stuff like that, and I constantly read, "Nurses must stand together to resist unsafe staffing," and blah, blah, blah, and I have to ask: what is that, exactly? Everyone complains, but nothing is done. Our supervisor says (if he responds at all), "Oh, everything will be fine." ??? If I refuse a sixth patient, because I already have one too many with probably two cardiac drips, a post-cath and another who is completely confused and pulling out his IVs (and God bless that fifth patient, who is just there for observation and I must totally ignore), that just means a co-worker will get her sixth and she won't refuse -- in other words, nothing works.
I don't know what I am looking for here. Company maybe? Any advice? I want to be a really good nurse. But all I feel like I do is try to just keep my head above water.
"I think nurses don't refuse extra patients because they would be seen as "letting thier colleages down" or not "coping".
And just how sick and self-defeating is THIS attitude?"
How long would you like to continue this martyrdom? When will you forget about your OWN fears and think about the pt.s? And when will you FINALLY recognize that your pt's lives and your career is being harmed because of your employers greed? Not having that extra nurse in 270 hospitals daily adds up to MILLIONS per year that the greedcats get to pay out to themselves! You suffer, and your pt.s suffer, because you fear you are "not coping"?
Your "coping" expectations have been arbitrarily set by a company who doesn't care about you, your pt.s or good outcomes. They are about profits offset by the occassional bad outcome (read: lawsuit). As long as the pay in exceeds the payout, they could not care less about your working conditions or stress.
I'm going to agree and disagree -
As someone who was just debating with another RN on a different thread about how it is unfair to simply fire new nurses who are not "keeping up," I think this attitude of "Letting your collegues down or not coping" is very prevailent in nursing, and not sick or self-defeating, but reflecting actualy reality in the nursing work environment.
And I totally agree with you in that the expectations of what a nurse should be expecting to cope with are set by people who don't nurse and rarely deal with patients. It is about the dollar, and unfortunately, while hospitals are required by law to have doctors, they are not required by law to have nurses, let alone a good nurse-to-patient ratio. This makes the nursing staff ultimately "expendable."
Burlshoe114
69 Posts
I'm going to agree and disagree -
As someone who was just debating with another RN on a different thread about how it is unfair to simply fire new nurses who are not "keeping up," I think this attitude of "Letting your collegues down or not coping" is very prevailent in nursing, and not sick or self-defeating, but reflecting actualy reality in the nursing work environment.
And I totally agree with you in that the expectations of what a nurse should be expecting to cope with are set by people who don't nurse and rarely deal with patients. It is about the dollar, and unfortunately, while hospitals are required by law to have doctors, they are not required by law to have nurses, let alone a good nurse-to-patient ratio. This makes the nursing staff ultimately "expendable."