Found a post on Allnurses that just sums it all up.

Mar 13 by Jennerizer here

"A lot of the hospitals here in Florida are getting rid of the patient care techs....so if you plan on being a nurse, you better make sure you're ok with doing a lot of what a typical CNA would do for the patients. I can understand why turn over is high for new grads....it is crazy out here. I've been a nurse for over 7 years & even I am getting fed up with the shortstaffing, poor pt to nurse ratios, the constant berating of HCAHP scores & how we (the nurses) need to do better.....even though the hospital chooses to keep us running with as few nurses as possible. Our poor new grads are started out on med/surg with 7 patients, no techs and no secretary. If I had started in an environment, I would have turned around & ran the other way.

I don't think it's so much that older nurses are eating their young......rather they are too overwhelmed themselves to help very much. I am not jaded towards nursing.....nursing is a fine career. It is when administration thinks because a nurse "can"...that they "should" do everyone's job. We put in our orders, we are doing respiratory treatments, now they are telling us to make sure we clean the rooms on a daily basis.....as well as emptying the trash and laundry. Cater to not only the patients, but their families also...because 60% of the patient satisfaction surveys are filled out by family members. Remind doctors to do this or that. Call doctors with results of tests....and in turn get yelled at by these doctors for bothering them with results.

Where is the nursing in all that? We are being turned into a jack of all trades & then blamed when something doesn't go right. Lab messes up a time or a order....well, the nurse should have caught the mistake & corrected it....or the nurse should have noticed no one from lab drew the blood at the exact time & the nurse should have made a call to remind lab to draw the blood. The doctor orders the wrong test or doesn't give a reason why a test is ordered....the nurse should figure it out or follow up with the md. MRI is ordered but the dept is taking awhile to get the patient...the nurse should call and find out why they are taking so long. Pharmacy is questioning medications, have the nurse call the MD to clarify & then call the pharmacist to follow thru on clarification. Pharmacist still doesn't agree? The nurse should keep calling until it is resolved. Why can't the doctor & pharmacist talk to one another? No one around to answer the phone, the nurse should drop everything to answer the random unit phone calls. It goes on & on & on. Put the nurse in the middle & then blame the nurse for everything that isn't perfect. That is not nursing!"

THIS. THIS. THIS in so many ways. Urgh! Thank heavens I'm not the only person who thinks this way.

And to add, why is it when a doctor comes on the floor to write orders for a patient they RARELY go in to see the actual patient? Patients expect us to stop what we are doing to call and inform the doctor of every question they have no matter how minimal it is (such as getting an excuse for work after they are discharged) and then get pissed when we don't take the time during our busy shift to stop and do said task....I'm sorry that passing pain meds, putting in orders, and drawing labs is more important that making sure you have an excuse for work!!!! All questions could have been resolved had the physician actually dropped in and SAW THEIR PATIENTS!!!! Then I wouldn't have to call them to get that order for tylenol for that patient who has a headache because they've been stressing out about not seeing their doctor for 3 days....

And patient families. Please do not get me started on you. Yes, I know that you want to visit your family member. I completely understand that. But please don't linger at the bedside and refuse to move when I ask you to so that I can get to said patient. And stop rolling your eyes at me because I don't have time to make YOU coffee or answer every bloody question you have. I can't tell you anything about the patient's condition. Stop asking! And no, this isn't a hotel or Burger King. You can't have it the way you want it. I'm not a waitress. I don't make coffee. I will if I have time, but I'm not going to stop in the middle of an assessment to make you a cup.

Lord. It feels like all I do these days is complain. I wish visiting hours didn't start until at least 11am. Then I could get my assessments and morning med passes completed before grandma, cousins and their best friends from high school show up and slow me down. -_-

The Road is Long

I've been working as a nurse for 6 months and 8 days and I must say...nursing isn't what I thought it would be. I've been yelled at my patients, threatened by family's, humiliated in front of every staff member on the floor by doctors. I've gotten in trouble for things I didn't know, things I was never taught and never thought to ask about. I've been made to feel little, unimportant, a waste of space in a hospital that can easily replace me. I do not feel important at all. Another name on a page. Another face in the crowd. I try and it doesn't seem to do any good.

I've been told that the first year of nursing will be your hardest. I've only been working for 6 months and 8 days and I'm already ready to quit.

In my short time as a nurse two nurses have already resigned. Neither of them have been on this floor for a year. This particular unit will chew you up and spit you out. Sure, there are nurses who will help you if they see you drowning, yet you're 10 feet under before they realize or care to help. And you hate to be a burden. Everyone's busy. No one has time to stop and answer every single question. They pile up, they suffocate you and before you know it you're head deep in chaos and no one, not even that sweet, even tempered charge nurse can help you.

I try. God how I try, but each day the light at the end of the tunnel grows dimmer. I can no longer see the glow as it fades. I try to keep my head up. It must get better eventually...right? Less than 6 months and I will be a year old nurse. Will I know everything? No. Will I feel comfortable in my own skin? I hope so.

Nursing for a new nurse is a difficult feat. I truly wish that patients, families, doctors and more experienced nurses realized how hard it really is. They expect you to know so much in such a small about of time. Six months is not very long. 3 days a week. 4 weeks in a month. 6 months. 96 days. That's barely 4 months of true experience and yet I'm required to have all of the answers or at least know where to find the answer which is easier said than done some days.

I'm ranting. I know. I've been having these horrible days a lot lately. A new nurse said something online that has stuck with me for weeks. I'll summarize it.

As a new nurse we need support and guidance. We need help even though we may not always ask for it. Please, when you see me drowning in piles of paperwork, calls, physician orders, family issues, do not ask me if I need help as you're one number away from clocking out. You do not wish to help. You only want to make yourself feel better, satisfy your conscience before you leave at the end of the day. Please do not, after asking if I need help, huff and pout when I ask you to do something for me. If you didn't want to help you shouldn't have asked. There's nothing more irritating.

Tomorrow I'll give it another try. I've yet to have 2 horrible days in a row. Tomorrow will be better. If it's not at least I get three days off before I have to plunge back into the despicable world of bedside nursing.