Trailblazing Nursing

Thank you for this wonderful podcast and encouragement to all hess as healthcare professionals to lead with HEART and collaborative to gain impactful changes.

How long has it been since you’ve worked at bedside? I challenge you to work 3 12 hour shifts, take a complete assignment, without the resources that are needed to do your job not only safely but effectively. I encourage anyone that is thinking about becoming a nurse to be mentally prepared for disappointment that comes from feeling like you failed your patients because you cannot reasonably provide the care, attention, and teaching that they deserve when you are one person with 7 patients, a number that fluctuates when you discharge then admit 4 additional patients. If a hospital could give a decent nurse to patient ratio, they wouldn’t have the issues with staffing. Starting my day at 6:45 with 5 patients and being given 2 admissions by 7:10 is not safe. By 8:00 I’ve admitted 2 (making my assignment 7) by 8:10 the house supervisor wants to know why I haven’t discharged the 2 with orders to go home. Charge nurse? What’s that? The “charge nurse” has a her own 7 patients and is training. As nurses the hospitals set us up to make errors, they aren’t helping us to prevent re admissions by rushing patients out the door. There are so many patients admitted for problems that are just as easy (just not as quickly) done outpatient. Nursing is a great career, but the past 8-10 years it’s become disappointing because we’re expected to churn them in and out, then we’re the ones being punished when something goes awry.