Never Enough Time for Nurses
As a nurse in this nation, I am proud to care for the people in my charge and not scared of hard work. I am not, however, proud of the companies that are for profit and making money on the over burdened backs of the nursing staff. Employers across the nation scream about nursing shortages all the time. Yes, they are correct in the nation does not have enough nurses working in hospitals. The time allocated for each patient makes hospital nursing the job that does barely a service at all. Time management goes to the center of the argument for nursing patient to staff ratios. Just like any other corporation, hospitals for profit want more production and to stretch the “patient care dollar”. Nursing does the stretching and the time just gets broken down until you never see a nurse in your room.
Nurses are the backbone of any medical system and the back has been broken. Critical shortages are in the mass media and a “dire need for nurses” are always touted. Do they ever point to the reasons why? Nurses make good money, have educations that are transferable, and job security is a given. Sick people cannot be outsource to India, Mexico, or anywhere else. Why are they leaving? A simple reason is burn out and over work. Nurses care for a much larger group of very medically complex patients in hospitals today. People are living longer because the eyes and ears of the MD are ever present in the care process. Not so in America! We have a lower life expectancy than our Canadian brothers and sisters. Corporations in America have pressed the nurse to patient ratios out to and over the edge of viable care in many states. Overworked nurses want to leave the hospital and specialize in what pays the rent and easier due the the unreasonable expectations of employers. Why kill yourself and maybe someone else because you don’t have a reasonable and safe patient ratio?
Have you ever met a drug representative or medical product rep? They are almost to the person an RN that left care settings for more money and much less stress. Nurses have so many outside then hospital jobs that insurance companies use their knowledge with telenursing(calling to check up nurse), environmental health nurses(factory nurse), medical device nurses(sells pacemakers etc), and the list goes on. Large profits are to be made and the nurses get some of that profit through their sales ability. Do you blame a nurse for this? I do not at all. I blame the screwed up medical system in the nation that puts profit before people. Ask a nurse if he or she wants 8 patients to care for working 12 hours or to host a luncheon and sell something in a nice dress or suit. Easy answer for most, show me the money and I will make your pitch. 12 hours sounds long but is it really?
Time is the factor that presses nurses out of facilities. 8 patients for 12 hours. If the math is applied to each patient getting equal care, a little over one hour is all you get with no lunch and no breaks for the nurse. Reviewing the chart, taking report, giving report to the oncoming nurse, and just going to pee have to be counted in there. Time gets shorter with each time intensive event. Now add a really sick patient in the mix of the 8 and the attention shifts from the 8 to the one for longer. You may not get anything for hours if a nurse has a truly sick patient and has your room assigned. Medications take 30-60 seconds each to verify and give each patient. Many elderly now have 15 pills in a given day to maintain their fragile health. The law in most all states require medicines to be given on time(within one hour) for every pill. 8 patients with 10 pills each is not possible within the law for medication administration. How do they get done on time? Nurses have to cut corners to the edge of liability they assume, not the facility. They are giving the pills and having to run to do it. Who wants to volunteer for this duty now? $100,000 a year easily with minimal overtime sounds great to me!
Safety and conscience dictate a better environment in our hospitals. Unions have made strides in some states to get the nurse to patient ratios placed into law. California has a 5 to 1 ratio and nurses have flocked there to work. Unions may be the only answer as the corporations lobbyists keep the lawmakers focused on the shortage without telling them why it exists. The standard line is ” if we mandate the ratio to something, we will be in violation every day because the nurses do not exist to staff.” That is a lie and tells only half the story, they don’t mention the reason staff does not exist. The burned them out and they left due to the workload. It is a rigged game that only money and power can change. Power of the people in calling their government and asking for fundamental changes in health care. Money for the nurses that choose to work in a facility that makes them want to stay and work. HR676 can bring the patients in and the profit out.
We just need a nurse corp for our nation we the people fund. Make part of your new years resolution to bring change to your family and their coming health needs. Call your congressional representative and make them aware of your concerns about nursing overwork and the need for a corp of nurses. Fund an education for nurses and make the an ability repay the loan be through care in a system that we all fund, the Veterans Administration. Make a change, make care come to the health care industry, and stop the for profit machine that care only about how little you get from them. Be the Change!! Yes WE Can! (202) 224-3121 is your access to Congress! It is right at your service! A quickly dialed number and the switchboard will find your representative for you! Give them your zip code and you will be transferred right to the office.
David
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