Well, I finally had an entire shift where I didn't end up in the operating room in some capacity or another. I did, however, have several laboring women (all of whom had epidurals), and was a second RN in a birth.
Meanwhile, the usual grumblings of unhappiness among the nurses pervades. We are just so overworked, and our middle manager doesn't seem to "get it"! She still refuses to come in, when she is the manager on call, and we are up to our ears in patients, and don't have enough nurses on staff. Oh, and that same manager? Keeps f-ing up my schedule (and other nurses too) by changing our schedules around.
We work on a self scheduling type of situation for the unit. We transitioned from a paper form of scheduling, to all computerized. Well, when it was on paper, the scheduling committee (several nurses) would review it, revise it as needed, then put the schedule out as "final". Most people were very happy with their schedules. But since we went to computerized? No one is happy with it. They divide us into four groups, and we rotate which groups go "first" to put their schedule in. Then after all of the groups are done, it's open for a few days, where the per diems can put their schedule in, and we can make last minute changes as needed. Then it goes to the scheduling committee nurses and management for review and finalization. That's where things usually go wrong. They switch people around into crazy schedules............and NO ONE is happy with the results.
Sigh.
When will we ever be happy with our schedules? Probably never. Not if the current middle management people stay employed there. You know - the same middle manager who refuses to come in when she's on call. Nice. If any of us refused to come in when on call - hello! - FIRED.
I will be so happy to be done with this nonsense. In about 2 more years.
3 comments:
As a middle manager, let me just say this. How would you like to work an average of 10 hours per day. Get home, just get to sleep and then get a call telling you to come back in. All this knowing that you have to go back and work another 10 hour day the next day? And, since you are salaried, do all of this while getting paid for only 40 of the hours you worked that week?
I'm sorry but as a manager, it's your job to go in when you're called. You're a MANAGER! My husband was working 6 days a week and getting phone calls all the time when he took on a management position. We couldn't take a vacation longer than 3 days in over 4 years and even had to come back early for a couple. And when I was managing, I was working 7 days a week during the summer (and on 40 hr salary) while I was 9 months pregnant. Because it was my JOB! I hate when people complain about how being a manger is hard, you know what you're getting into. If you don't want to do the work, don't take the job.
People who don't take their jobs seriously and abuse the system really tick me off.
My ex-husband managed a convenience store. It was literally a 24/7/365 working or on call job. He was salaried (and paid well, I might add). He knew the risks of being on call so much and working often 80-90 hrs per week.
Still - it was his job. He accepted it, knowing full well what he was going in to.
The same with a nurse manager --- only there is the potential for serious harm to patients if there aren't enough nurses to take care of everyone!
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