There is currently an artificial bubble regarding nursing shortages due to the recession. Registered nurses who had planned to retire now work a bit longer if their spouse is unemployed. Other nurses have returned to the marketplace for the same reason(s).
Much of what is written in the article link below rings true. My hospital also hired highly paid consultants to move into our work spaces and observe us. Staff nurses were also required to keep time logs of their activities. Did they note three minutes to have a bowel movement, wash their hands and return to work? We were then given scripted responses to improve patient satisfaction survey scores. Should this present as an ethical dilemma for a profession which attempts to maintain high ethical behavior? I duly noted that we were not allowed to follow administration around, require them to hand us a time log, and then suggest better ways they could extend the "servant leadership" back to the peasants outside the moat.
My facility does give a Christmas meal and a gift card to employees. It is a fifteen dollar Target card. I say "my facility" in past tense at this point. But for any nurses feeling the burn of skeletal staffing patterns which throw units into a crisis when one R.N. calls in sick; for any R.N. wishing to share with the public the wonderful Christmas gifts offered up by her smiling leadership, this is the place to vent.
The end of the road came for me when attending an Employee forum where we faced the cheering squad a.k.a administration. Our hard work was rewarded of course. Dietary provided boxes of animal crackers and cartons of milk for our refreshment. I determined on that day, to walk away and never look back.
Is it time for Texas nurses to change the way hospitals conduct their business with regard to the talent pool known as registered nurses? Unfortunately, we are not allowed to unionize in Texas. The law needs to be changed. A mighty sea wave of change is needed in workplace conditions. It can only be accomplished when nurses are truly given a voice - not the falsetto of corporate hospital groups. We need hospitals to make the hard decisions now. Less and less women are choosing nursing as a profession. There are valid reasons for my concerns.
I am an R.N. with highly valued critical care skills. My fifteen dollar Target card was handed off to a homeless man last year.
Much of what is written in the article link below rings true. My hospital also hired highly paid consultants to move into our work spaces and observe us. Staff nurses were also required to keep time logs of their activities. Did they note three minutes to have a bowel movement, wash their hands and return to work? We were then given scripted responses to improve patient satisfaction survey scores. Should this present as an ethical dilemma for a profession which attempts to maintain high ethical behavior? I duly noted that we were not allowed to follow administration around, require them to hand us a time log, and then suggest better ways they could extend the "servant leadership" back to the peasants outside the moat.
My facility does give a Christmas meal and a gift card to employees. It is a fifteen dollar Target card. I say "my facility" in past tense at this point. But for any nurses feeling the burn of skeletal staffing patterns which throw units into a crisis when one R.N. calls in sick; for any R.N. wishing to share with the public the wonderful Christmas gifts offered up by her smiling leadership, this is the place to vent.
The end of the road came for me when attending an Employee forum where we faced the cheering squad a.k.a administration. Our hard work was rewarded of course. Dietary provided boxes of animal crackers and cartons of milk for our refreshment. I determined on that day, to walk away and never look back.
Is it time for Texas nurses to change the way hospitals conduct their business with regard to the talent pool known as registered nurses? Unfortunately, we are not allowed to unionize in Texas. The law needs to be changed. A mighty sea wave of change is needed in workplace conditions. It can only be accomplished when nurses are truly given a voice - not the falsetto of corporate hospital groups. We need hospitals to make the hard decisions now. Less and less women are choosing nursing as a profession. There are valid reasons for my concerns.
I am an R.N. with highly valued critical care skills. My fifteen dollar Target card was handed off to a homeless man last year.
New York Times article
Tammy Swofford
tammyswofford.blogspot.com
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