Girlvet has written a post about nursing satisfaction with a tongue in cheek twist, but very real concerns. Here is my opinion on how to have satisfied nurses that want to work for your facility.
1. Don't f#$& with their schedule. Nurses work long grueling shifts, holidays, nights and weekends. Try to accommodate their needs when you do the schedule and they will be much happier than if you split their days, make them work extra holiday and weekends and deny their vacation requests.
2. Focus on Retention. Hospitals spend millions of dollars in recruitment with sign on bonuses, moving allowances and training costs. Here's a clue, why would I want to come to work everyday, do a good job and do extra shift when necessary if the new nurse gets all the recognition? Duh!
3. Insist that the medical staff treat nursing with professional respect. And, administration needs to treat nurses like the valued professionals that they are.
4. Stop trying to screw your employees to save a buck.
5. Spend money to send your nurses to seminars and conferences. Have a nursing education department that actually does some education other than BLS, ACLS etc.
6. Quit cutting, cutting, cutting bedside care and increasing, increasing, increasing clipboard nurses and administrators. Coincidentally, adequate bedside staff will increase the Holy Grail, the patient satisfaction score.
7. And I agree with Girlvet, a real live practicing nurse on the hospital board to represent nurses.
8. Free cafeteria food, free parking. You give it to the docs, why not the people actually providing patient care?
9. And one of my top concerns, adequate FUNCTIONING equipment to do my job.
Not so hard, really. If people don't quit because they are disgusted with how things are run and how they are treated they you won't constantly have to be recruiting, will you?
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
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11 comments:
I completely agree with you and Girlvet, and whine about much of the same stuff in my own little world and on my blog.
I've long been mystified that the focus is so sharply on recruiting new staff as opposed to keeping the faithful around. Good to know it's not just me that doesn't get it.
AMEN
amen! our hospital is undergoing a change of ownership. and its been amazing at how the good employees seem to be getting the shaft. They want us to go to school and increase our education but they aren't willing to work with school schedules. they expect you to take online courses. its scary seeing the qualified/dedicated nurses getting the run around to save a few bucks. if i am in the hospital for chest pain and having an M.I. I want an experienced nurse around to help guide.
Damn... I'm scared to get sick anymore... I really feel for y'all in the nursing side of the house, but as a friend who is a psyche nurse said, it's no longer about care, it's about the bottom line for investors and to hell with the staff and patients. There will be plenty of both... sigh...
One of my sister's practices in a hospital where they actually have a 'concierge' for the nursing staff. (Day shift, naturally). But this person does everything. Grocery shopping, picks up dry cleaning, or lunch.
I want one of those at my hospital.
A very wise nurse once told me: never work for a hospital where the docs have assigned, special, next-to-the-door "Doctor Only" parking. Never mind free parking! What are the nurses, OT, PT, radiologists, chopped liver? Drives me bazoo...
I hate to say this, but as nurses we are our own worst enemy. We think by complaining to each other in the break room , we are actually doing something about unacceptable conditions. Nurses comprise one of the largest healthcare professions in the US, yet we cant decide how to use our political muscle. We get what we deserve.
I'm going to shoot my mouth off here about something I don't know much about.
I think that terry overstates the issue, but I do think that nurses as a group could advocate better for themselves. I think that part of the problem is that it seems to me that many nurses who leave for administrative roles develop a Stockholm syndrome and then begin to identify with "the man" instead of advocating for nurses. Not that that's any excuse for nurses (or anybody else) not being treated appropriately.
I am a 30 yrs RN and MSN - I am Unit Director MS - and about to be made Chief Nurse at our hosp. I am all about patient care and staffing and schedules and adequate help etc. I DO go in and work weekends when my (current) MS floor gets slammed w/admissions, I DO pass out and collect meal trays 3 meals a day, I do act as Charge and turn the Charge nurse loose on the floor if its a hellish day...etc. I DO stay until 7pm and work when we are busy. I DID tell our CFO to kiss my ass when she told me to cut 15 hours of staff(a day) cue hysterical laughter.... I DO staff to MY comfort level and make sure my staff are not stressed. So I think some of us are out there....if you stand up to the bean counters and dont be bullied just so their spreadsheets look nice - you can do it. NURSEEE
There was once an adage, "Vote with your feet." If they won't listen to anything else, it works. I've done it and even (I thought) burned a bridge in the process. And you know what? A couple years later, I got apologized to, told what they'd changed, and approached about coming back. By two different previous employers. And in both cases I heard those magical words: "You were right. And we want you here."
Music to my ears. Vindication. I turned one down and accepted one. But I appreciated that from both.
Play the same game. Ask for money and make them pay if they are not going to treat you well. Pretty soon it will cut into profits enough for them to contemplate other ways to improve the bottom line like nurse retention. Travel nurses should make them pay too for the same reasons.
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