What can RN's LVN's or LPN's do in order to make the nursing industry nurse friendly?
Asked by BeeBee
I am an RN of 15+ years and after making the decision to leave the acute care setting 10 years ago I am sad to see not much has changed! There is a horrible nursing shortage and I wonder just what we as nurses can do in order to make the nursing industry more nurse friendly? What can they do in order to make hospitals more supportive of staff? It is still a back stabbing industryr which is so so sad. Luckly enough we have many other fields in nursing order to leave the acute often hostile hospital setting... I guess my question wasn't really clear. What can nurses do to make thier work environment bearable if they work in a hospital? Short of the union of course.

Best Answer:
A very worthy question. I believe many nurses get tired of being buried in paperwork--it would be good if that could be reduced without endangering patient care or causing problems for nurses. I think a lot of the other frustrations probably have limited fixes by the nurses. It's hard to divide up the work "fairly"--some patients are a lot more work than others so body count, per se, isn't always a fair distribution of work. Scheduling can cause a lot of problems. Possibly nurses in particular hospitals and possibly even it needs to be particular units can come up with specific fixes for their problems and if someone with the power to grant them would listen, that would help. The frustrations vary so from place to place. In a cath lab unit for example, one nurse was going crazy trying to get pillows for her patients. She'd call for them and be given the "budget speech." Part of the problem was that if a patient had an angio then needed an angioplasty or admission for something else, the aides would take the patient (and pillow) to a room and the pillow never returned. It was billed to the cath area.... Why is someone who has REAL responsibilities and a REAL education and TOO MANY PATIENTS to handle then stuck on the phone BEGGING for what should be provided? These constant annoyances that eat up time, put people in a mood, etc. wear on morale and patient care and it is ALWAYS the nurse that takes it in the neck for ANY and ALL problems. In cases like that example, frankly, it seems to me (and I know it's a dream, like getting politicians who do their jobs instead of issuing hollow promises and smearing others) that a supervisor doing his job would just figure out a way to get what is NEEDED, staff appropriately, etc. and be the buffer he SHOULD be so the nurses can do their jobs--which is patient care and proper documentation. I wish I had the answer, but I think it's really going to be such a small group in various settings that have to come up with what they need, spread the word, share ideas, and see if they can get some administrators to appreciate the devastation that a high turnover and/or high dissatisfaction/burn out rates have for everyone. As to the bad temper some nurses have, part of that is probably exhaustion, poor diet, students traipsing through, paperwork, bad shifts, personality clashes, equipment that doesn't work, supplies that are short, different approaches to patient care, impossible to read charts, ringing phones, patients that complain excessively, etc. Some is part of the job (grumpy patients) some perhaps could be alleviated by admin (equipment, supplies, shifts). I wish I could give a 1,2,3 plan that would resolve the problem.

First of all, I do not think it is all up to the nurses to make it better. There is more of a problem with institutions not staffing correctly or safely. I find that to be at the root of most nurses frustrations. There are plenty of nurses,but most places have nurse/pt. staffing ratios that they look at ,not the acuity of the pts. Ohio nurses are looking to change this problem,it starts with the state legislators. Sadly about the back stabbing issues..unfortunately,when it is a work place primarily made up of two or more women,back stabbing and cattiness follows..sad but reality!
Answered by nursecyn11

I don't know what the nurses can do, but I know that the job could be more appealing if job satisfaction was improved and nurses actually liked their job enough to be able to encourage new-comers. Instead most nurses I know are so miserable in their career, they say "don't' become a nurse." The profession is just in shambles in my opinion and I wish I would have NEVER became a nurse; it hasn't been worth it. It is back-breaking work, the paperwork is ungodly, and the liability is mind staggering. The great idea of helping sick people actually becomes so overbearing with the patient load and the lack of sufficient support staffing. Lower patient to nurse ratio, sufficient support staff and less paperwork would be wonderful beginning.
Answered by goofy goober