Quality nurses jumping ship!!!

[Sherry]

I am guilty as charged. I'm an MSI, and that was the right decision for me (After 15 years it was time). However, I am wondering if any other nurses out there are considering career "changes" as opposed to career "advancement" within the realm of hospital nursing.

For those who have opted to stay I am wondering what have hospitals and the ANA done to encourage QUALITY nurses to continue bedside care (which I believe is an awsome responsibilty and worthy of admiration). Do you see a trend in the responsiveness of hospital orgaizations to meet the needs of the most valuable assest of the hospital system (our nurses)? Or is there just more rhetoric?

I am very curious as this will affect me a great deal after I complete my medical training and I want to stay informed.

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[nursejenny]

I agree that hospital nurses deserve a huge thanks for sticking it out! I opted instead of a career change out of nursing, to look at all of the other opportunities within nursing. I loved being an office nurse for an independent oncologist. We gave personal care to cancer patients. I did not feel like I was rushed to get in and out of rooms. I had time to get to know our patients and at the same time gain valuable experience administering chemo, fluids, injections, etc. I rounded with the physician at the hospital and still felt a part of hospital nursing. I also worked in an office/and was a first assistant in the OR to an orthopedic surgeon. Again I gained valuable experience and really enjoyed my job without the overload of hospital nursing. And also I also worked for an insurance company as a review nurse which was really a change- it was like a career change, but I was still in nursing. So I have not jumped ship, but stayed on in another boat.

 

[Sherry]

Jenny,
I did some things similar to you. I loved nursing and went into a master's program and became a Family Nurse Practitioner. I never knew how my life and perspective would change so much. I never imagined the shear joy of the one on one patient encounters and the ability to follow thorugh with quality care. I quickly realized for me this was not enough. I had the beneift of financial stability and a unique opportunity to expand my knowledge base and continue with clinical practice by going to medical school. However, the decision for me to go to medical school was based solely on the satisfaction I recieved as a family nurse practitioner!!!!

I would strongly encourage those who are searching for "advancement" to look into the numerous NP programs out there. Medical school is not for everyone. There is an enormous time/financial committment and I realize I am very fortunate to have this oppportunity. But for my peers still in practice as FNPs they are very content and pleased with their career decisions.

I hope word of this website gets out to other NP and RN organizations. I believe it has the potential to be a valuable resource for those investigating careers and advancement.
I will certainly pass it on.


[This message has been edited by Sherry (edited 06-13-2000).]

 

[dthankins]

What about nurses joining the digital reform?

-- Palm computer documentation -- nurses know the system better than docs, admin, or computer geeks (which I admit to being!).

Any computer savvy nurses doing this yet?

 

[guylon07]

Ok, now a topic that has struck a nerve. As the person stated before, I am also going to go to medical school. I have been a nurse for 4 years in hospitals here in Little Rock Arkansas. However, I have become sooooo frustrated with the nursing profession. We are sooo overworked and underpaid for the responsibilities that we take on every time we go to work. I was a charge nurse in a critical care unit. The thing of it is, is that I was working so hard under mental and physical stress becuase we were so short staffed at work, and I was also under stress at home becuase I could not pay my bills with what I was getting paid at the hospital. Here I am with a B.S.N and a B.S. in physiology, and I could make just as much money waiting tables. I was in charge of the unit and took patients of my own most of the time, and after 3 years of working here I was making 13.50 an hour. THAT IS REDICULOUS. And what really makes me mad is that all of the hospitals around here pay anywhere from 11.80-15.00 hr. depending upon experience. I am sorry but that is slave wages for the work we do. The ANA should do something about this, but they are to busy making sure that nursing is considered a "Profession" than taking the time to actually do something useful for us nurses out there in the field. I also considered going into a NP program but I feel that this is also a JOKE. My fiance just finished a masters porgram here a UAMS, and it was useless. They are more concerned about teaching you the history of nursing, theory, and research than they are about teaching you how to care for a patient. I do not feel that an NP needs to know about this CRAP unless they are going into teaching. However, I love medicine and I love the idea of what nursing once was, but I could not take the way that nurses are treated any longer so I opted for Medical school. I will be starting in the fall, and I am really looking forward to it. All I have to say is "All of you people thinking about becoming nurses be forwarned." "It is not the glorious save the world scenario that they discuss in class. You can make a difference in some peoples lives and that is the only reason I have stayed in it this long. However you go to work, you are over worked, underpaid, unapreciated by administration, and in most places stressed to the hilt." I feel that if something is not done soon to adjust this problem there are going to be major deficiencies in the nursing population, and paitients are going to be the ones who suffer the greatest becuase of it. This thought has kept me going in nursing but I have done all that I can do, and I am moving on. Good luck to all of you.
Jodie Kelly

 

[Sherry]

Perhaps as nurses read our responses they will act on behalf of their professional orgaizations to make changes. There are a multitude of reasons that quality nurses "jump ship". I for one have seen little improvement over the years as far as the ANA is concerned. All of the comments of the guylon07 are true, regretably. For many years I tried to make a difference, but a TRUE PROFESSIONAL can only take so much of the ANA's nonsense. Until actions are taken to increase job/financial security within the "profession" of nursing, more and more qauality nurses will be jumping ship.

The ANAs response to this (over and over again) has been to retreat back to Washingtion and stipulate that some "disgruntled" nurses DO IN FACT Jump Ship. But the true profesionals stay and fight (HA!!!). Where are they??? Why have working conditions for hospital nurses deteriorated to the point of mass shortages throughout the country? Why are some RNs responsible for up to 30 patients at a time, supervising unliscened CNAs and MAs whose skills are marginal at best.

It amazes me that when a nurse leaves the hospital for home health, or out-patient services she is seen as a true professional, not one who has jumped ship. But when a quality professional decides to go on to medical school where they will truly make a impact/difference and have some sort of control and authority in the medical community, they are regarded as traitors.

The real question is why should any professional risk their license under these circumstances when their own professional orgaization (the ANA) does nothing but spew out more ignorant rhetoric?!?!

I can assure you as a physician I will empathize with the nursing staff. But if the quality of the hospital staffing situation does not change within the next few years the hospital situation will only get worse. I thouroughly intend to interview the DON of each hospital where I apply for privileges at and if I see these problems still exist and if so what actions are being taken to correct them. If I do not recieve a satisfactory response from the DON or the Administration, then I will by all means admit my patients elsewhere if . Additionally throughout my medical education I plan to educate my fellow physicians concerning these issues and urge them to "evaluate" their prospective hospitals accordingly.

 

[guylon07]

All I can say is that Iagree with you 110%.