Why In The Heck Should I Be A Loyal Nurse?

[RNperdiem, RN]

My Dad was a "company man" for most of my childhood until things at his company broke up in the late 1980s. I remember the company picnics and parties. His old coworkers and their families have remained lifelong friends with us.

Those days aren't coming back anytime soon.

Most of us have never experienced anything except the modern workplace.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

I feel some loyalty towards my manager. There have been a couple times she's looked out for me. That's not being naive, as I was burned badly before I started working for her, so I've got my eyes wide open. She really is a good boss. (As far as bosses go! :) )

But the company? Not so much. I'm just as loyal towards them as they are towards the nursing staff. And that is NONE. They'll screw us over in a heartbeat. Little things here and there add up to big things. They talk a good game with their non-profit philanthropic spouting off about our mission and ideals. But they're just as full of corporate doublespeak as an HCA or Wal-Mart.

[malamutepants]

I was very loyal to the 4 or so units where I worked...until I got into CRNA school.... WOOOT! Always advocate for yourself when it comes to issues outside direct patient care. No one else will do it for you.

[on eagles wings, ASN, RN]

I feel some loyalty towards my manager. There have been a couple times she's looked out for me. That's not being naive, as I was burned badly before I started working for her, so I've got my eyes wide open. She really is a good boss. (As far as bosses go! :) )

But the company? Not so much. I'm just as loyal towards them as they are towards the nursing staff. And that is NONE. They'll screw us over in a heartbeat. Little things here and there add up to big things. They talk a good game with their non-profit philanthropic spouting off about our mission and ideals. But they're just as full of corporate doublespeak as an HCA or Wal-Mart.

i get you about the good boss. i love my boss. she has been good to me throughout nursing school. it makes all the difference...

but i wanna move on already. i needed to read this article. brings quite a few things into perspective!

[Aurora77]

I'm loyal to my employer without being naive. If I were to walk in tomorrow night only to find my boss ready with a pink slip, I wouldn't surprised. Not that I'm bad at my job, or that my boss, coworkers, and patients don't like me, but that's the nature of the business world. That being said, I am grateful to my boss for giving a new grad a chance. My coworkers have embraced me and I've had a wonderful environment to learn my new trade. If/when the time comes for me to leave, I'll give plenty of notice and leave professionally. A long as my boss and coworkers continue to show me loyalty, they'll get the same in return.

[nomuramai]

so true!

[DizzyLizzyNurse]

I worked at a place that worked to treat their employees right. We did company picnics, very fancy expensive dinners when you reached 5 years employment, 10 years, etc. The owner came and talked to the staff and actually gave a crap. In return the staff was great. Our LTC was so different than your "typical" nursing home. Then he decided to retire and sell his company. At the same time we got a new administrator for our particular branch who was all about the bottom dollar. She was sneaky and waited until the DON was out on maternity leave to screw me over. She tried to screw me over in a BIG way. I was out job hunting the next day and put in my notice as soon as I had a job. From what I heard the DON threw a wicked fit when she found out because I had been there 10 years. They paid for my schooling. I was a very good employee. "How can you do that? Now she's leaving. It's hard to find a great employee who sticks around!!" But the administrator didn't give a crap because they could bring in a new grad (in that terrible economy) and pay her way less than I was getting paid.

From what I hear, my old place of employment (a nursing home with easily over half of the staff having been there 5 years minimum) is going down the drain and becoming more of a "typical" nursing home with big staff turnover. People who have been there 20 years have left and when I talk to the ones who are still there they are pretty bitter and miserable and looking for a way out. Pretty sad.

[SweettartRN]

I thank God for at-will employment because it works both ways.

When my time with an organization is done, I am free to part ways.

I get told "you're burning bridges" but it has yet to happen. In fact at two places that I have quit in the last 10 years both bosses that give references always state that they would hire me back in a heartbeat. Keeping and maintaining good relationships with a few that you work with is always a good idea.

Loyalty to my employer? No way in hell. Mainly, because it no longer works both ways.

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

At my employer up until about 2 years ago it was a company I felt pretty loyal to. Then it all changed. Now they are pushing out EVERYONE with any sort of decent experience or any major health issues. They hire complete idiots who will work for next to nothing. Recently the nurses have been referred to as peons and the bottom of the barrel per several doctors (which I find to be amusing consider the real winner doctors they have hired recently) The whole dynamic has changed. Guess what....patient care is no where near what it used to be. Our "satisfaction" scores are plummeting, which of course we get punished for. I am looking hardcore to get out of this toxic environment. There is no loyalty left on either side. I feel bad for those who are just 2-3 years away from retiring as they feel stuck. They have spent their whole working life at this one employer and now they feel too old to start over. They just pray they can last the next few years.

[gonzo1, ASN, RN]

One place I was working at tried very hard to harass their older staff into quitting. Fortunately they only made it work on 2 nurses. The others are staying till they are fired. I have seen many nurses get thrown under the bus over the years. That said, my unit director is a very kind sweet lady who takes pts when we are short nurses. She is as close to perfect as one could ever be. I have been recruited by another unit and I always say no. I will never leave my current manager.

But if she goes, I may too. The place overall is just about money. We don't even get a decent holiday meal anymore.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

I started my career in the late 70s, and in all of the years since, I have never seen what the OP describes as standard operating procedure. Executives, including nurse executives may wax and wane in favor, and I have seen entire departments eliminated or merged with other departments. In most of those cases, though, the displaced nurses and even nurse executives were offered other jobs within the network or at the very least, the first opportunity to bid on any open positions. The only nurses jobless at the end of the restructuring were those who chose to be. The only place I've ever "seen" the type of disloyalty to employees described by the OP is in the large California HMO where my sister, as nurse executive, purges her staff from time to time. I'd always assumed it was my sister's disloyalty to her employees, not the HMO's, although I could be wrong.

In my current job, working for a large healthcare system, what I've seen is that every employee we've had to let go as a poor fit is offered 2-4 weeks pay after their employment ends and all possible assistance in finding a new job within the system. Only the employees who are fired for cause (like the guy whose solution to a recalcitrant Pyxis was to kick in the screen or the guy who was found passed out in the employee bathroom surrounded by vials of Fentanyl with a needle in his arm) aren't offered the chance to find a new position in the system. That's the way it's been everywhere I've worked in the past 35 years.

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

Disloyalty comes in many forms. Ever have layoffs anywhere you've worked? That's a form of disloyalty. How about cutting of pensions? That's disloyalty. As an employee, I'm not entitled to one day work 25% less than I did the day before. Yet that's *exactly* the type of thing employers do when they cut benefits, they're suddenly giving us less compensation, yet expecting the exact same level of work. Those are all forms of disloyalty on the part of the employer.