Calling all nurses - 12 hour shifts and no help is killing me!

[Disney Doll]

I am an RN for lamost 22 years, and I have jumped into these kinds of threads before. I will warn you,...very shortly someone is going to start the ball rolling by telling about a bad experience they had with a nurse, make a few sarcastic comments about nurses don't work as hard as everyone thinks they do, and is going to paint all nurses with that same broad brush, so be prepared!

That being said, hospital nursing is difficult at best, for many reasons.
1. Staffing
2. Lack of respect for nurses by most hospital administrations & physicians
3. The "trickle down" theory (when it's no one else's job in the whole place, it automatically becomes the nurse's job)
4. Lack of young people going into nursing causing a shortage
5. More acutely ill patients needing more care with less staff
6. More demanding patients & families
7. Profit-driven decisions by administration that do not in any way take into consideration the needs of the patient
8. More "defensive" documentation requirements, which take the nurse away from the bedside-we are all charting to prevent being sued

I will echo the sentiments of the person who said that if you have a loved one in the hospital, stay with them 24/7.

I shudder to think what the healthcare system will be like when I am older and may be accessing it more.

 

[Annie68]

I graduated in '89 with my RN & have worked in the hospital setting my entire career. I have worked from the small community hospital, to the huge medical center. For the past 13 yrs. I have remained at a mid-sized hospital (approx. 400 beds) as a float RN. I work contingent now, usually 2 nights/week. I am assigned to critical care, but when census drops I find myself anywhere from stepdown tele to Peds! Never a dull moment . We don't have LPN's at our hospital, just Techs (nursing assistants who can do blood draws & assist with dressing changes, do vitals, etc.). In ICU we share 1 Tech for our 10 bed unit, with each RN averaging 2 patients. On the Tele floor (stepdown), each RN can take a max of 5-6 patients, sharing 2 Techs for the entire floor. On the general med/sug units we average 8-9 patients, with generally 2 techs for the floor. This is for afternoon/night shift, days is usually a bit better. Peds has no tech, so we have 2 RN's usually (10 bed unit). If things get busy, we demand a tech! Short stay can be wonderful or, if the floors are full, totally suck. They use it as the dumping ground when there is no where else to put patients.

I find that how my shift goes depends on how well the assignment was made out. If the charge nurse splits the patients correctly, and if your techs are good, then it is going to be a good night. If you get a last minute assignment (the "hey guys, we got an extra nurse after all...who do you want to give up?" assignment), and/or if you are assigned the "lazy tech", forget it....you are going to run your butt off and leave with that 'I let my patients down' feeling . I cringe some nights when I see who I am working with, I know they aren't going to help me when I need it. There are other RN's though, that I would work with & take a higher patient assignment for, just because I know they will help and that we work well together.

I could never go back to full time, I see so many of the young nurses burning out. It is a very rewarding profession, but something needs to be done to improve staffing retention and recruitment into the field. The hospitals claim they can't afford it, but how will they survive without us?

 

[Annie68]

I am an RN for lamost 22 years, and I have jumped into these kinds of threads before. I will warn you,...very shortly someone is going to start the ball rolling by telling about a bad experience they had with a nurse, make a few sarcastic comments about nurses don't work as hard as everyone thinks they do, and is going to paint all nurses with that same broad brush, so be prepared!

I was thinking this too! Everyone forgets that ALL professions have their share of bad seeds. I remember someone saying, after she bashed RN's and the nursing profession in general, that she was just as qualified as a RN when it came to hospital care because she had been taking care of an ill family member at home .

 

[Disney Doll]

Well, Annie68, I'll be perfectly honest with you...everybody thinks they know more than the nurse and pretty much everyone is convinced that nurses get some sort of sadistic kick out of torturing their family members! I can't tell you the # of times I have been told I am mean and uncaring because I am attempting to get a post-op patient out of bed and moving so that pneumonia doesn't set in, only to have a fmaily member berate me.

I have been berated by family members because I let their mothers' flowers die...thankfully, I didn't let their mother die though!

I have been told by family members that they were going to "tell the doctor" because I was doing something they didn't like, that, quite frankly, the doctor had ordered. My burning desire is to tell them that in essence their doctor doesn't give a flippin' hoot about them, and spends 5 minutes per day with them, if that. I would love to tell them that if anyone is going to notice a change in their health status and do something about it, it will be the nurse, not the doctor. Of course, I can't say any of this, so I just smile and try to explain for the umpteenth millionth time why I am doing what I am doing.

I have also been thanked for helping someone pass away peacefully, I have been thanked for being supportive, I have been thanked for saving someone's life, and those are the reasons why I am a nurse. I still feel I make a difference.

 

[deerh]

I have been a nurse for 25 yrs in L/D in one of the busy hospitals in the US.
I love my job, but sometimes I don't like having to deal with the family memebers that think that if they read it on the internet that it must be the way is should be. All pt have different needs and they have to be treated sometimes a liittle different. My unit maybe a little different because we have to work as a team. We have 6 areas with 6 Labor/Del rooms. We have 4 Rn's and 1 tech for each area. We also have to rotate to the OR side too. We are very lucky to have anesthesia coverage 24/7 and level 3 nicu.

deerh

 

[MScott1851]

I understand your burnout...I'm still fairly young, but have been a nurse for 6 years and work in a very busy ER. Our nurses are responsible for 4-5 patients apiece, but our ancillary staff is always short. So we're always doing our own labs, transporting, splinting, etc. I don't think I could ever be a floor nurse, even though I am super fast and super organized. I see a lot of my co-workers drown because they are reactive instead of proactive. I get a patient in, and within 20 minutes, I have a line in them, they are medicated, I've ordered labs/xrays/ct/treatments and the doctor hasn't even seen them. I'm blessed because we have implemented some protocols for pain managment that we can start, and also that all the doctors with trust my judgement and always sign off the orders I've started.

My main beef is that I work with a couple of incompetent women. They are slow, disorganized, and almost unsafe. I spend the majority of my time cleaning up their mess, placating the doctor before he kills the nurse who is screwing up, and smoothing things over with disgruntled families. But we are so short staffed, we can't get rid of them. I dread the nights they are on the schedule, even if I'm not in charge that night. I know I will still end up doing their work.

I love the ER, but don't see myself there in 10 years. I'm getting more cynical, and I also don't think my mental OR physical health will let me work there forever. Right now I work PRN (but still pull 36-48 hours a week) and our pool makes the 2nd highest amount of money in the CITY. Only weekenders at the trauma center make more, so I can't quit. I can't afford to go to staff nursing and take a $10 per hour pay cut. So I will do this until my debt is gone, and then move on, probably. I started taking backup call for the GI lab at my hospital, I come in and do conscious sedations for procedures, and that is all. I don't assist the doctor or do the procedure. I just drug, monitor, and recover. The director asked me if I would like to do it full time...It's M-F, 7-3, no weekends and no holidays. If I could afford it, I would do it in a heartbeat. So I'm keeping that option open.

Stay strong...you are SO not alone. Everyone I know feels this way, except new grads, and they are too naive to know any better...

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

I've been an RN for 16 years. I work now 2 days a week as a Home Care nurse. But in my earlier days as an RN had a job almost just like you described. I quit after 2 months. My supervisor was upset and asked if I wanted to stay on PRN. I then asked her if they planned to hire more staff, you know the answer, "well the budget won't allow it" I told her I worked way too hard for my nursing lisence and I wasn't going to lose it because of them. I walked out and never looked back. I could not imagine having to work full-time at this point. I usually drive about 40-80 miles a day, seeing patients. The paperwork is a pain in the butt and the thought of not knowing where you'll be from day to day. But its a relaxed atmosphere and MOST of your patients really appreciate you. Good Luck to you.

 

[Annie68]

I have been told by family members that they were going to "tell the doctor" because I was doing something they didn't like, that, quite frankly, the doctor had ordered. My burning desire is to tell them that in essence their doctor doesn't give a flippin' hoot about them, and spends 5 minutes per day with them, if that.

This is exactly what we were discussing the other night at work. My coworker had a patient who was 100% happy with her care....until the family came in . The patient had them so riled up, that when my coworker went in to hang an IVPB, the family demanded she get the Dr. on the phone to verify that he indeed had written for it. When she offered to show them the order, the daughter said "how do we know that's his handwriting and not yours?" WHAT?! We called the House Dr. up, and the family was as sweet as pie to him. They said they just wanted to keep an eye "on those nurses". UGH!

 

[TeresaNJ]

I know where you're coming from. That's why I got out, couldn't take it anymore. I'm still with the hospital, but work in Case Management now. It's a crazy, stressful job, but at least no one is going to die cause I can't get to them in time. NJ is now making hospitals post their nurse-patient ratios on every floor for the public to see, but so what, do these people really understand what these numbers mean? These are dangerous times to be a patient in a hospital. Darn right scary!!