I had a fantastic 2 weeks off and I have to go back to work tomorrow and I am so dreading it. Our department is a mess, we are short staffed and everyone is so overly stressed. And going back in a Friday was probably dumb, because it’s the hardest day of the week for case managers. Even though I had surgery, I felt good really quickly and my knee feels better than it did since the injury and 1st surgery. I had a rare reoccurrence of something rare in my knee along with the meniscus and I’m praying it doesn’t grow back and stays this good. The stiffness is gone and I don’t have to limp my first 10 steps anymore after getting up. I’ve been enjoying taking the time to do things, not being rushed and always freaking out about the next thing I have to get done. I’m really going to miss that. I hate we have to live life that way.
Had our unit holiday party last night at a local restaurant ( in my town) and the police had their party in the room next door. They were awesome and have some of us rides on the cop cars to the next bar! I ended up dropping my wallet and someone returned it to the police station and when I went to pick it up, I was talking to the 2 cops. One went to school with the nurse I work with who threw the party and the other cop I actually babysat! He doesn’t remember me , but i remember him and he ran out of the house on me! My ex babysat him and his brother as well. My ex also found his mom’s lesbian sex tape ( they divorced because she was gay) this I did not bring up, lol. Man, am I old. I am actually only 6 years older than him, but still. They said whenever we were hanging I it again to call them up! One was super hot ( 12 years younger than me, the mayors son, and he has an identical twin) but too young for me.
Things have been peaceful. I enjoy not talking to any guys or pretending to try to date. The thought makes me so anxious and uncomfortable now and I wasn’t like that. I know I need some therapy. Maybe I’ll pull the trigger on it.
My major stress right now is my financial situation. I don’t know how I am going to make another 3-4 years of this. Low six figures and I can barely make it. It’s giving me a lot of anxiety. I made a decision that in January I am not spending any extra money. None. All meals will be homemade. No takeout. One night out to dinner with D. ( she chose the cheapest restaurant thankfully) no more buying my morning coffee, no buying clothes or anything enjoyable. And the worst part will be declining social invitations. It seems covid is bumping back up here, so maybe that is better. We had 4 cases when i went out on leave and now we have 27.
I have to do this. I did not want to be house poor, but I didn’t have a choice. I hate it more than anything. I haven’t vacationed since 2018. I haven’t taken D anywhere and her dad takes her on multiple vacations. I am just barely Surviving financially and I hate it. I don’t do anything nice for myself. I don’t get my hair done. I get my nails done once a month. I don’t buy fancy things. It just is what it is I guess until I move.
I never saw myself here and for this long. But it’s life I guess
I had a fantastic 2 weeks off and I have to go back to work tomorrow and I am so dreading it. Our department is a mess, we are short staffed and everyone is so overly stressed.
I keep hearing this, or similar versions, from all over. The majority of places are understaffed. Just talked with a NP from a different state a few days ago who is taking extra weekend shits as a regular RN where she can earn over a grand in a single weekend shift! I’ve heard several local nurses claiming they have been offered over $100 an hour including differential to work a shift just so the hospital can staff. What is going on? What’s the non biased reason? Is it burnout and staff has just had it? Is it recruiting or being stolen to go to other employers? Is it all the people they insisted on firing because they would not succumb to a vaccination mandate? How are so many places coast to coast in this position? There has to be a reason.
Are you able to tap into any of these reported $100/hour shifts? It’s almost like the supply chain, staffing and inflation issues that are badly hitting restaurants and clothing stores have also hit healthcare.
I totally applaud you trying to rein in any expenses you possibly can. But if you can also take advantage of any offers - signing bonuses, overtime, etc, you should consider it. Loyalty has gone out the window with employers. Employees need to do the same and take advantage of any opportunities that are out there. $100/shifts won’t be here forever.
DonH Midwest Me 56 WAW-EXW 55 Met 11/95 / Married 5/00 Bomb 6/20/05 / She Filed on 6/2/06 / Divorced on 10/9/06 4 who'd qualify as GF since D & dated about 25 women since D
Funny you should say that. They are so desperate they are looking for “resource nurses” basically a nurse who can go around helping in any functional capacity that they can. Inserting IV’s , foley’s, even just cleaning like a PCT at my hourly rate . One of the directors were on my unit today as I was leaving begging for help. I asked her if the RN case managers could take advantage and she said absolutely. They are even trying to find nursing students who can help.
So on Monday I’m going to look into it. It’s a lot of work,‘I’ll be exhausted, but the money and opportunity is there. I figure busting my butt working in January could be a part of my January saving spree. And it’s a good way to sharpen my bedside skills that have been out of practice.
Going back to work today it is obvious covid is a real problem again. We were supposed to go to the Christmas spectacular in NYC tomorrow but it was cancelled today. Here we go again. We had this very sad 52 year old woman who stroked out while intubated with covid and is a max assist of 2 now. Has children under 18. Husband can’t stop crying . Unvaccinated. And we also have those vaccinated getting it . Just not as severe and haven’t gotten the booster.
I’m just hoping I can bust my A and make all the money o possibly can without burning out too hard
Be careful of the burnout. My niece, the ECMO nurse, is suffering from PTSD. She's planning to go to 3/4 time for her mental health. She's been seeing a counselor for over a year because of the pandemic. She injured her wrist doing CPR for over an hour on a 26 year old who died of Covid. All the jerks out there not taking this pandemic seriously are responsible for tremendous strain on innocent health care workers. This girl never had any mental health issues, despite working ER and ICU, before treating Covid patients. And the frustration right now of knowing that most of the patients she's seeing now could have prevented this is sky high.
This was one of the potential reasons I was asking about since I keep hearing about it but don’t have hard data to point to since the huge hospital system refuse to release the data. How could they not be burned out and feeling used, abused and taken advantage of? Now not from most patients but from their employers. Alcoholics have been drinking themselves to death for years. We’ve had six digit annual death rates from drug overdose. Diabetics have been refusing to follow directives with their diet and medication. Patients ignoring or at least not following medical advice has gone in forever. It’s part of the game. So that has not changed. But what has changed is how healthcare workers are treated. They hung in for nearly a year putting themselves and their family at potential risk. They stepped up. They worked overtime and did the right thing. And their reward? Their reward is to be forced to receive medical care they don’t agree with. Some have quit. We have an example if that right here with a posters former G/F. Many others were not as bold and took the vaccination against their will just to keep a job. It’s no wonder they are burned out. It’s no wonder they are resentful. They may not have overtly fought and refused but they are just as psssd off and resentful. It sure seems like staffing all across the nation is the bigger problem. Though that is being hidden.
On top of it, they were lied to or misinformed and that takes a toll. We were all told that the vaccine would return us to normal. That clearly has not happened. These people are not stupid. They know at bare minimum half the total population is vaccinated. Some stats show over 90% of the elderly population is vaccinated. Yet hospitals are still getting overran? How is that possible if this is working as advertised? It should at least be closer to half if it’s the half not vaccinated. Yet it’s not. An Ivy League school has 97% vaccination in their students yet they are closing to in person learning due to hundreds of cases. Again, how is that what we were told? We were told get vaccinated and you won’t get sick, won’t transmit the disease, won’t have to wear those useless masks. Yet here we are. We were either misinformed or lied to. Once again the experts were totally WRONG
All of this, including frustration with patients adds up to people being done with their job. So many doctors I know have buyers remorse signing their big healthcare contract. They are treated like employees now - practice medicine as we tell you, say what we tell you to say, do what we want or we will fire you, take away your income and retirement and do anything we can to not allow you to practice within 100 miles of our huge hospital.
Far more people are fed up than are speaking up. It’s again the silent majority. I’m truly scarred for healthcare. This is what socialized medicine brings you. A one size fits all that serves very few and harms those who already had good healthcare. Let’s all be miserable together.
So I feel bad for todays care providers. I can’t imagine going into this profession now today knowing what I know. Burnout is just at the tip as the population ages and needs more care. $100/hour for a two year degree person. That right there speaks volumes. But Ginger I’d take advantage of it. If you can’t beat um join um.
Originally Posted by kml
She injured her wrist doing CPR for over an hour on a 26 year old who died of Covid.
You’ve regaled stories about this niece in the past. Dang she has the worst luck. But to the specifics if this happened it’s way outside best practices and moving towards malpractice. No one can do quality CPR for an hour. I’m not sure a well conditioned body builder could. That’s why the person doing compressions should be swapped out every 5 to 10 minutes at the max. CPR is a HUGE workout when properly performed. The rate and depth of compressions simply can’t be sustained at quality benchmarks for an hour by the same person. Much less by an average 26 year old female on top of it. If there was no one else to do compressions that speaks again to my earlier point - lack of staff. Why is a compression machine not being used? Not good healthcare going on here if this happened.
My original questions still stand: why the lack of staff? Why the same levels of hospitalized when no less than half the population are vaccinated? Why are the vaccines not working as advertised? Why have more people died after a vaccine than before we had one? Why are we still not treating patients better than we were when this started?
DonH Midwest Me 56 WAW-EXW 55 Met 11/95 / Married 5/00 Bomb 6/20/05 / She Filed on 6/2/06 / Divorced on 10/9/06 4 who'd qualify as GF since D & dated about 25 women since D
I don’t have ice time, but I can answer the short version
1) the pandemic gave nurses PTSD. A lot left the profession. And to add to it, when you get the anti-maskers, conspiry theorists, anti-vaxxers, etc having covid and almost dying treating the staff like crap as they risk their lives to save their lives, you get some serious compassion burnout. Pre vaccine, it was a literal life risk. And there were still the abusive patients. But to have these patients abuse you while you are literally risking your life to take care of them is really damaging.
2) then comes in administration. Less staff, more risk, more burnout, still expecting staff to keep the pace and the patient satisfaction scores up, and it’s near impossible to do. Unsafe patient assignments for the patients. Which leads to more angry family members and patients. Everyone is just ANGRY and ABUSIVE and DEMANDING. The bonuses aren’t all that great. People are burnt to the hilt .I’m my 16 years of nursing I haven’t seen such unappreciative abusive patients and families and the lack of of support on the administrative end.
3) no one does an hour of Chest compressions. I have done alot in my time and I can do 2 min effective chest compressions and I’m huffing and puffing. And I was young and I’m good shape. Our biggest strongest guys get like 5 min before they have to switch.
On covid patients we have they do not code that long because it is almost always futile. They didn’t even do CPR on them in the beginning. The docs were allowed to make the call not to if it was futile and it would put the staff at risk they wouldn’t do it.
The healthcare field is certainly a mess. And it’s scary. I am just thinking about going back for these small extra hours, but I am already kind of burnt out, but I need the money. I was hoping to make some extra money not in the healthcare field, but it’s hard to match the money.
I am fortunate to work for a hospital system that does its best to support its staff. But it’s just not enough.
Of course she didn’t do cpr nonstop for an hour on her own - but she was part of the team that did so and did so much in that hour that she injured herself.
IF everybody got vaccinated and wore their masks her workload would be 1/3 of what it is. It’s hard to maintain compassion for the unvaccinated who are causing her to continue to work this hard. It was one thing last year when it was a war that everyone was fighting. It’s another thing now when 90% of Covid ICU cases could have been prevented with a simple vaccine.
IF everybody got vaccinated and wore their masks her workload would be 1/3 of what it is.
If you honestly believe this you simply are not paying attention to what’s going on. We’ve tried this. It clearly does not work. We’ve got vac rates of between 50 to 70% and around 90% with elderly at risk populations and vaccinated people are still contracting and spreading Covid. The college example I listed. Professional sports have extremely high vac rates in the high nineties yet still have positive cases so much a few have cancelled games for lack of players. The thing the vaccinations have done is reduce deaths and severity of illness. That seems very clear. They work for that - well at least for about 6 months. Yet They are not stopping the spread. If they were, 70% vaccinated would be resulting in a marked reduction and its not. Some areas are reporting case numbers higher now WITH A VACCINATION than WITHOUT ONE! Sadly it’s not. Increasing 30% vaccination rates is not going to result in a 66% hospitalization reduction.
Ginger I GREATLY appreciate your first hand perspective. It mirrors what others in healthcare are telling me. Although I had not heard sick patients were treating staff poorly. I’ve heard remorse and regret but not abuse. I’m not surprised at making vented patients no codes and found it odd that CPR would even be attempted in these patients but had no intel to back up my hunch.
Thankfully it appears more and more people are finally starting to say what some of us have said for 18 months now. It’s crazy to think we can stop an airborne virus. All we’ve done is taken a bad situation and compounded with depression, financial devastation, worse care and now damadge to and loss of healthcare workers. This whole response has been a huge fail on so many levels and the proof is it’s still happening nearly as it was 18 months ago even after all of these failed ideas. Just can’t blame Trump for it all anymore though I’m sure some will still try. Hopefully the seemingly much less destructive omicron virus will get us to the robust natural immunity we so desperately need. Sadly history is only repeating itself. We made the same mistakes with HIV, with drug overdose and others - including blaming the patients. We’ve got to stop doing the same failed things and expecting better results.
I will say again I feel really bad for todays healthcare providers. Sadly it’s going to be future patients who really pay the price. Heart attacks still happen. Strokes still happen. Trauma still happens. Who will take care of these patients. It’s the same with law enforcement and we see how that is turning out - mass looting and all. See I guess it could be worse, instead of a nurse you could be a cop!
In the end, like most things, all we can control is us. We can tell the diabetic to take their insulin or the CHF patient to take their lasix. But in the end the choice is theirs. As long as we do our best, that’s all that we can do. This is not going to change. People have free choice - even if their choices would not be ours.
DonH Midwest Me 56 WAW-EXW 55 Met 11/95 / Married 5/00 Bomb 6/20/05 / She Filed on 6/2/06 / Divorced on 10/9/06 4 who'd qualify as GF since D & dated about 25 women since D
I wonder why the US has had so many COVID deaths even though we are a developed country with advanced healthcare? I wonder why other countries in the world that followed scientific measures such as vaccination, mask mandates and contact tracing were able to limit the spread, number of deaths and severe cases? I wonder why someone as smart as Mr. Donald Trump would take multiple doses of the vaccine if there were genuine concerns, especially since he also has natural immunity from having been infected with COVID?
