Reply #48: They know it...

[AnneD]

they refuse to acknowlege it. They expect they can strong arm or shame us into placing ourselves AND our patients in harms way because they refused to consult us before making a plan. Many of us boomer Nurses are getting older and refusing to put up with the crap anymore. The average age of Nurses is 46 and climbing fast (the Nursing professors are 51). Most Nurses I know are planing to be out in 5-10 yrs and no amount of money will bring us back. Even now, hospitals insist on 12 hr shift instead of a sane 8 or 10 hours (add the charting time you need to do but can't do until your relief arrives and you can add another 1-2 hours to your 12). Oh, and by the way, if your relief doesn't show up, those patients are YOUR responsibility-it's called mandatory overtime. I call it involuntary servitude.

I am not bitter, I took the same courses that these docs took and did as well or better. But I didn't want to be a Doctor because I love patient care. I would love to see Nursing survive as a profession, but frankly it is undervalued to the point that recruiting kids into it will be harder. I figure our salary should be under a Docs but over a Pharmicist-I say that because pharm always consults us as to drug interaction (says we are the experts in this-LOL). When I asked my daughter if she wanted to be a Nurse (at the tender age of 8), she said no, you work to hard and you don't get much money (and I never portrayed my job in anything but the most positive of terms). Guess she got tired of my missing holidays, weekends, etc. Nursing has been immune to the forces of the market place for far too long. We are highly skilled and are continually required to update our skills, yet we are expected to mop floors and take out the trash during evenings or nights (ignoring pt care because corp wants to save some money while giving themselves fat raises). I always liken us to canaries in the mine. One day we will be gone or dieing and it will be too late.