Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Feeling Overwhelmed

Have you ever had a moment in your career where you just wanted to cry and quit? I know for sure some of you nurses had those in your early years... it's okay you are not alone. I often have patients ask me if I like my job. I tell them in the beginning I did not, but I have learned to ignore the politics and just take care of my patients. The problem now is that the politics have become so invasive that I can no longer ignore them. When I graduated nursing school I remember thinking to myself "how in the world am I going to remember all of this information, babysit doctors and pharmacists, not become upset when my patient calls me names and tries to assault me, remain confident when my co-workers doubt my skill level, chart every damn thing that I do, and not get overtime?" With time I can say that I have learned to juggle most of these things but now it is coming to a point that every time I go to work or check my email, there is another task for me to do. I feel like I am at my limit and unless there are some major changes that occur in healthcare, I will have to pick and choose what I think is the most important because I cannot do them all.


  • If you want me to have excellent customer service and treat patients with utmost compassion and empathy, then give me time to do this. I cannot enter a woman's room, who is crying because she has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness, in a hurry because you chose to give me an admission at shift change. What do you expect me to do "sorry ma'am that your life is about to end and your family has left for the day but I have to admit my other patient. Hopefully I can make it back here in the next 2 hours to comfort you. In the mean time you can listen to this channel that plays birds chirping and waves crashing to make you feel better." STOP GIVING NURSES ADMISSIONS AT SHIFT CHANGE. I don't care how you do this but figure it out. We can save people's lives for god's sake. 
  • I know hospitals are freaking out because reimbursement is becoming more difficult and it has become absolutely vital to chart on core measures and other JAHCO mandates in order to get paid. We all want to get paid, trust me. IF IT'S THAT IMPORTANT THEN HIRE SOMEONE TO PERFORM THESE SPECIFIC TASKS. Why is it up to me to make sure every patient with a heart attack is prescribed a beta blocker or to make sure the physician has charted in his note that someone is at low risk for DVT. I barely have enough time to worry about my own charting let alone the physician's. 
  • Some genius has created what is called the "no pass zone," This means that every person who works in the hospital cannot walk past a call light and not answer it. This sounds great in theory but I don't think I have ever seen a non-clinical person answer a call light. If you want call lights answered faster, then HIRE MORE CNA'S AND GIVE THE NURSES LESS PATIENTS. If patient satisfaction is that important then it is worth the extra staff. 
  • Taking care of patients with chronic pain and narcotic addiction is becoming commonplace. These patients require specialized treatment. They should be managed by a pain service of some sort and dealt with very carefully by nurses who have a good understanding of pain control. They should not be left on the medical floor with a nurse who has 5 other patients. This is not fair to the nurse or the patient. In the name of patient and nurse satisfaction, STICK CHRONIC PAIN PATIENTS ON FLOORS WHERE THEY CAN BE MANAGED APPROPRIATELY. 
Nurses come to work everyday prepared for the worst and expecting to be at their best. Administration needs to realize that we cannot perform the way you want us to under the current conditions. If you want higher quality of care, increased patient satisfaction, less falls, higher reimbursement and happy nurses then changes need to be made. It should not take an Ebola outbreak to help us realize that our standards are not up to par. I am proud of the nurses who have verbally supported Nina Pham when her own government threw her under the bus. We as nurses have to support each other. We are in the trenches taking care of these people while administration sits in their offices pointing fingers and placing blame; if you really want to improve the quality of care delivered by your healthcare system, then I challenge you to come out of your office and get your hands dirty.

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