It Burns!

or, "In which we discuss, yet again, Jamie's hatred for corporate policies and those that make and enforce same."

Alright, so I did some calculations (as in counting on my fingers, because remember, I'm just a stupid nurse and therefore don't have the brain matter required for advanced math) and by my estimate, we've lost ten nurses in under one year, not counting maternity leave people, which brings us up to twelve. All but two of these folks are nurses with more than 5 years of practice as a nurse. Factoring in those who went on maternity leave, went per diem/asked to work less hours and you're looking at probably fourteen or fifteen folks.

Apparently the nursing shortage is (like everything else) the nurse's fault. Management doesn't seem to get that if one wishes to retain his or her staff, a better way than laying down Draconian law regarding sick leave and doing the Houdini "now you see it, now you don't" game with people's vacation time is to actually give people a break once in awhile.

Ask any one on the floor--we're burnt out, and still burning the candle at both ends. I think that those that remain do so either because they have to, or because they feel some loyalty to their comrades-in-arms. It's certainly not because we like the way we're treated.

I mean, look at me, I hate the thought of doing nights, but I felt bad because we're so short staffed on nights, so I agreed to do some nights in May when I go per diem. Yeah, I'm stupid.

I won't even get into the metaphysics of the 9,999 t tiddly-winks mind games we have to play to get our sick time, vacation time, whatever. They don't even accept a doctor's note from one of the hospital's own attendings as valid proof of your illness-they rack it up against you and can fire you for being sick too many times. Seriously.

I also love the Catch 22 admonishment: "Don't come in if you've got diarrhea because you could be contagious and we don't want that here on the floor." Then you call in, explain you've got diarrhea and have been up all night, and they say, "Well, if you call in, it still counts against you."

Gee, thanks, I'll try to feel better in the meantime.

I know of nurses who have dragged themselves into work with fevers, chills, congestion, diarrhea, and all sorts of stuff that should be properly left at home so as not to further endanger the health of our already immuno-compromised elderly. Why did they do it? Because they were told if they called out "one more time" in the next X months, they'd be written up, lose their bonuses, etc. etc. These aren't slack-off nurses I know who call out just to go on vacation or whatever, these people were really, legitimately sick.

I've only been off of orientation for eight months, barely, and I'm already succumbing to every little bug out there because I'm so run-down and dehydrated all the time. And I don't have kids or a super huge house to take care of, either.

I probably shouldn't even go back to work until next week, considering what kind of shape I've been in for the past five days, and how I fear if I go back I'm just going to end up sick again and not be able to call in and/or get fired.

Good golly, Miss Molly.