Wow, I can't believe it has been a week since I posted anything. Time just flies by. It's been a busy week. I have worked all week. I should be sleeping right now as I have my last night shift this evening. But those of you who know what it is like can understand how messed up your sleep patterns get when working shifts. Before my head hit the pillow this morning at 0800 I had been up for over 24 hrs. I got up at my regular time yesterday morning, did my house chores, went for a run, then went out with hubby to do some errands, which I thought was only going to take a couple of hours, ends up we didn't get home till after 3:00, I start my night shift at 7:00 pm. I have to leave my house at 6:00 pm, which leaves me a couple of hours to put away the groceries, do some school work eat dinner and get out the door. I arrive at work, I have a ventilated patient, which keeps me very busy. Between my hourly monitor and ventilator checks, the medications which have to be given, blood sugars to be monitored hourly, physical assessments, dressing changes, bed baths, mouth care and turns every 2 hours. Before you know it is 0530 in the morning and I am starting to calculate the patent's fluid balance for the past shift and 24hrs....how much in ....how much out....what have their vital signs been like....draw the blood work for the day shift....get the patient ready for their chest xray, as the doctor is going to want to see that as so as he comes in .....and then at 0700 the next shift arrives and I give them report.... I get outside ....only to find that we had the first frost of the season...so I spend 20 mins warming my car and scrapping the windows....drive my 50 mins home.....check my emails when I arrive home.....shower and climb into bed. I've now had 4 hours sleep....the sun is shining and the world is going on without me....So I am up..... dusted and vacuumed and put on a load of laundry.....thinking I might grab a bite to eat and then crawl back into bed....hopefully until at least 3:00 pm and then get up and get ready for another night shift. Yup any of you who have worked shifts knows exactly what I am talking about. It's a very strange life we lead. Your body never knows whether it should be sleeping or working. You force yourself to be awake when you don't want to....and sleep when you really don't want to.....they say that the average shift worker cuts 5- 7 years off of their life expectancy by working shifts. That's a hefty price to pay.I have been taking courses as well, and in one of my courses we have been looking at the history of nursing and where we are today. In some areas we have made some major gains, i.e. wages and benefits have improved considerably. But in many areas we have stepped backwards. I am reading this book right now, that although very interesting I am finding it discouraging. It talks about where nursing started, how it came to North America, Canada in particular as this books is talking about Canadian nursing. How nurses use to be the primary care givers especially in the communities, hence the VON's (Victoria Order of Nurses). The doctor's revolted, they felt nurses had to much power...they went to the government and had many restrictions put on nursing...they insisted that nursing have formal university/college training. Now that wasn't a bad thing, but what happened from that is nursing became the underpaid hand maidens to the doctors. I went into nursing in 1988, this book was written about that time. One of the nurses they interview graduated in 1985, still at that time nurses were expected to stand and give up the chairs to doctors when they entered the room, yes doctor no doctor, good morning doctor...this was not reciprocal.
Don't get me wrong there are many things I absolutely love about nursing and wouldn't trade it for the world. But gosh, it is the RN's who are at the bedsides 24/7 watching for the subtle changes in a patients conditions...reporting and documenting these changes....calling the doctors and making them aware...and in some cases waiting far to long for doctor's to respond. For those nurses who have worked along side resident doctors you know exactly what I mean when I talk about nurses, often it is the RN who is the ones making the suggestions for treatment for the patient.
You know when you thought you have heard it all, well last night as I was working the nursing supervisor came around...she was doing her rounds...we started talking.....she told me a story ..... apparently, when there use to be a cardiac arrest and as the code nurse you would go and take the crash cart...she told me that before the time when we had suction canisters on the crash carts....the nurse.....had to wear this canister, tied to a string around her neck...there would be a compressed canister that attached to the bottom that she would have to attach....you know what that canister was used for....you'll never guess.....suction....yes the nurse would have the suction canister around her neck during a code ...suctioning out bodily fluids from the patients into this canister which was attached around her neck....all the while still either giving drugs or doing CPR.....I said to her...you've got to be kidding me....nope that was how it was....this nurse has only be nursing 4 years longer than myself....I just couldn't imagine that....what total disregard for the health and well being of the nurse. It was just a given that is what the nurse had to do...and of course they did it.
It just all amazes me...to see the progress nursing has had in so many areas and yet we still have such a long ways to go, before we are truly recognized as well educated, informed and strong advocates for health care, and should be treated with the respect our profession deserves by both administration and Doctors.
Nursing shortage is at a crisis level. In the next 3-5 years there is going to be a mass exodus from nursing. Nurses are getting ready to retire and they can't seem to get enough nurses educated to replace them. Last night I worked with two such nurses....27 & 30 years of nursing....I can't even imagine. What I found astounding was that the nurse who has worked 30 years was saying she didn't know if she could afford to retire. I said you've got to be kidding me...30 years and you can't afford not to retire? Did you quit to have children....no she said....just took a year off to travel. You see it's only been in the past 5 -6 years that nursing has been making a decent salary that one could actually think about retiring on. In the early years when nurses went off to have their children there were no maternity leave benefits, so you lost everything. Nurses didn't have pensions, and they certainly didn't have very good health care coverage. Things have finally started to change for nursing in that regards...hence the older nurses are hanging in their to improve their retirement packages. But I don't want to stay in nursing for my retirement package. I want to stay in nursing because I love what I do, I love meeting new people, helping them through crisis, helping them find their own path to health and recovery. There are so many things I love about nursing...but it is physically and mentally demanding and it is the physical part that I am not sure I can do until I am 60 years old, and I certainly don't want to leave nursing as a cripple. As it is I have a very bad shoulder from the many patient transfers and lifts I have done over the years. I am fit, I run and exercise regularly but when you are turning one patient every 2 hours and then compound that with helping out your colleagues with their patient transfers and lifts...it eventually takes it tolls....and now I am back to where I started this post in the first place. The combination of the shift work and the physical demands of the job...puts a natural life expectancy on the nurse. So I must leave this post and put my weary head on my pillow, so I can get right back at it tonight.
Good health to you all!
15 comments:
I admire you and the nurses like you.....who are dedicated and actually care about the patients well being!
And I agree with you that nurses don't receive the credit and respect they deserve........hopefully that will improve soon.
As your friend, and as a patient of many different nurses, I want to take this opportunity to thank you and the many others for what you do!
Hugs
Dear Florence Nightingale, you are a grand example of what a nurse should be -- caring, dedicated, hard-working, intelligent, in it for the patients not the money. If I was in the hospital and needed intensive care nursing, I would pick you or someone just like you.
Thanks for all your dedication and hard work, friend. Get some rest.
BTW, husband worked shift work for 36 years and we had a swing-shift marriage. I worked days and he worked second or third shift. We saw each other in passing and the kids barely saw him. Now that we are retired and spend 24/7 together, I wish I was working again. (Don't tell him that.)
WOW! I don't know how you guys do it! I have so much respect for nurses, you guys have to put up with the patients AND the docs.
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Thanks!
I didn't realize that there was such a nurse-shortage. That's not good.
I don't see how you do it. It's great that you are in good shape because otherwise it seems that it would be impossible. I will never understand why nurses don't get more respect, at times, and I'm glad that it is changing somewhat. Still sounds like there is a ways to go. I've always noticed both with family I've cared for and myself that when you are hospitalized (in particular) the nurses make the biggest difference in the level of care. Good to read about the work from your perspective and all I can think to say is to repeat, I don't see how you do it. Take care, Carver
This is an excellent post because you bring up many valid points. Our profession has taken many step backwards in regards to power within the workplace. I am hosting Change of Shift this week at Nurse Ratched's Place, and I'd like to include your post in next week's roundup. Please email me at nurseratchedsplace@yahoo.com and let me know if I can include your post in CoS.
MJ
Really good, very interesting and informative post. Coming from you, there's really nothing unusual about that aspect though. Keep up the good work in nursing - and in blogging too.
Just read your post and does it bring back recent memories! I just retired on January 15th of this year after working under the conditions you described for more years than I care to remember! I also worked the night shift when my kids were little and looking back, I feel I lost most of those years. It's interesting, I meet with a group of about 12 to 15 retired nurses monthly and their is not one who misses it. Keep up the good fight though and remember if you can why we went into the profession in the first place.
I've always thought that nurses don't get the pay and recognition they deserve. Nurses do all the hard work and often know a hell of a lot more than the doctors. You all deserve to retire at 50 with a huge pay off enabling you to live a life of luxury!
Nice to see you back hon.
PS I've posted another Nursery Rhyme Quiz today if you fancy a bit of light relief. :)
Interesting. .. so nurses are in demand you say. [rubs chin thoughtfully] hmmmmm.
Anyway, now that I've moved to California I've missed out on freezing temps or having to warm anything up (other than leftovers) and I can't say I miss it all that much. I never liked cold weather all that much.
Nursing certainly isn't a career that people go into for the money, prestige or benefits. I know we deserved the same benefuts and salary should match performance but there is more to nursing than just a job. Someone wanting to become a nurse should want to take care of people like you and me.
Mama Bear
Wow. I found myself nodding my head and "uhuh"-ing to many parts of this post. True, nurses have come a long way....and I find it so interesting that it's only been recently that nurses are making decent enough money to retire. Wow. That is incredible.
Night shifts wack the body out so much. I know many many nurses who have trouble conceiving.....and I wonder, just wonder if it might have something to do with the abormal sleep/wake cycle being disturbed throwing off other cycles. Perhaps one day I'll do a research study on it. (ya right!)
Also true that there is going to be a HUGE void to fill in a few years when all the seasoned nurses retire. On one of the surgical floors on the hospital I work at, the most experienced nurse right now has been graduated 3 years. How's THAT for frightening? It seems the medical floors are still able to hold onto their nurses a little longer. Perhaps a bit slower pace, I don't know. There are a few 20+'ers out there. Wonderful to glean knowledge from. I preceptor after next semester and I wonder if I'll get someone with more than 5 years experience. Likely not.
One other tid bit, one of my instructors whose nursed for 10 years mentioned that up until 5 years ago (that's in the new millenium no less!) she worked at a place where the doctors came into the nurses station the the nurses as part of the duties had to make tea and toast for the docs. Could you imagine that? Hahahaha. It's such a foreign thought for me as I sit there arguing with the docs about upping the analgesic for my palliative patients.
Ok, that's all I got.
Well first of all, kudos to you for managing to fit exercise into your schedule! The only exercise I get is what I am doing right now - typing on my computer!
Boy, did this post strike home! I think nights may be a bit easier on me because I tend to be a "night person", but the older I get the harder it is to have only two days off in a row!
We don't give up our chairs to doctors anymore (although desk space is at a premium and I will make room for the hospitalist to chart as a courtesy - male or female), thank goodness.
You did a great job of showing exactly what and how nursing impacts your life, so much so I now need a nap! : )
I also need to link to you, something I should have done long ago and will do now....
Oh, PS - you gave me an idea for a post, too! : )
The credit and respect for nurses are not requested but can be gain from people who understand what's it like being a nurse.
Long live the nurses!.;)
Best of luck to you, your blog is nice.
Til then,
nursereview.org
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