Hospitals in Crisis: Why Nurses Are Burned Out and Quitting | Amanpour and Company
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- The U.S. healthcare system is on the verge of collapse, say our next guests. According to one poll, almost one in five healthcare workers have quit their jobs during the pandemic. Rachel Ellsworth is one such person. She abandoned her 12-year career because of burnout. Traveling nurse Chelsea Walsh has seen what hospitals are facing all across the country. They speak with Hari Sreenivasan about the loss of so many nurses and what can be done about it.
Originally aired on October 25, 2021
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Amanpour and Company features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports. Christiane Amanpour leads the conversation on global and domestic news from London with contributions by prominent journalists Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, Alicia Menendez and Hari Sreenivasan from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City.
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My wife has been a nurse for 20+ years. I have NEVER seen her in so much stress. She has been working 12hr shifts with up to 6 patients. Then you have these a-hole patients, and family members who think the nurses are there to be their personal servant.
Yet we still have all these morons who believe it’s a hoax and won’t get vaccinated. It’s a war zone for these poor health care workers
@@993mike
It was a freaking war zone before the big bad covid. I still had 6 patients and no time for patient care. This is not new.
Covid simply exacerbated it.
Every single point raised is applicable to UK. Retention issues experience staff being managed junior staff even worse for minorities. They don't don't listen cos they have less experience to fall on and no clue but uses intimidation. Poor working conditions should be mandated as illegal I agree.
@Hopper33 That sounds right.
society seems to be crumbling i swear. no one knows civilization anymore
I’ve been an RN for 27 years. I will add to this the disappointment I feel as a professional in the way nurses (and all medical staff) are treated. There seems to be an accepted culture of bullying from managers to staff that needs to be addressed! Just yesterday in a morning meeting the entire OR team took a verbal beating from the manager over punching out for lunches. We get no breaks and only one 30 minute meal period in a shift that could be 8,9,10,11,12, or 13 hours in length. She said our 30 minutes start the second our foot leaves the OR and ends the minute our foot steps back in. Well, the time clocks aren’t in the OR... we have to run to our lockers, clock out, get to the approved break area, unpack food, gobble it down, and hope to squeeze in a bathroom break along the way. We’re college educated, licensed professionals with years of experience and brains full of knowledge.... who get treated like children. And the way we’re spoken to...... it’s a wonder any of us are still in the field. I am burned out and all I can think about is retiring. I want to cry.
Ridiculous!!!
I was a circulating nurse for over 6 years. When I was first call my shift could be as long as 18 hours…and you’re right! I would get one 30 minute lunch in that time period.
we need an hour lunch break
Same here☹️
Management will squeeze you all until nothing is left…
Training new nurses is important but we can't replace experience and expertise when they're lost.
Spot on comment Bonnie.
Beware the nurse whose license has ink that hasn't fully dried yet. Do your very best to stay out of the hospital right now. Signed, a healthcare provider.
It was a very experienced nurse who stepped in and took on my daughter’s care in the NICU 24 years ago. Invaluable
It was an experienced ICU nurse who saved my brother in law’s life 5 years ago and gave him 4.5 more years.
At long as nurses are still being fired for political reasons, it appears that experience and expertise don't mean s***.
I applaud these articulate and honest young nurses. Burn out attributed to my early retirement after 35 years. I burn out at the beginning of the pandemic. Starting my career at 21, I'm 59 and my body and mind is broken down. My family was so supportive during my career. They sacrificed many holidays, weekends, nights and vacations. Thank you ladies. Your awesome advocates for nurses !!! We must all speak up. By the way, I loved training new grads !!!
We need you back to do just that... train new grads without your own assigned patients!!!
@@MNP208 it takes 5 years for a new grad to be competent.
I am not a nurse, but I am a cook in a nursing home and have seen many nurses leave during the pandemic. I am also 59 and was thinking about taking an early retirement. I never thought that I would be doing this for a living at this age. One third of the kitchen staff are people that have just been hired anywhere between 2 weeks to 3 months and we are still short staffed. The cooks usually have to work in the dish room, since the younger people always call out. Every employee is fully vaccinated and now they are pushing the booster shot by offering everyone who gets the shot by December 14th, a $200 bonus and if you decline the booster, you will be required to wear a K-95 mask and a face shield on top of that! It is hard to breathe now with just the blue surgical mask.
@@apollovizsla Gosh, I'm between jobs and got my booster. I would take the $200!!
@@MNP208 I am not afraid of shots or needles but 12 days after my second Pfizer vaccine, I ended up in the emergency room with vertigo that was so bad, I missed 5 days of work, and I never call out. Also, my nieces husband had vertigo about a week after his Pfizer vaccine and neither of us had vertigo before. I am worried about that.
Pay the frontline workers what they are worth. The CEO's are not working on the frontline.
CEOs make a quarterly bonus in the thousands by holding down costs at the expense of patient care. This equates to linen shortages,inventory shortages( no chux,EKG paper,IV tubing,pumps,etc), dietary shortages(no spoons,crackers, juice,),NO RAISES, LOSS OF INSURANCE COPAYS, loss of vacation days, and the list goes on.
It’s not about the money. Where I live nurses are getting working short premiums, hazard pay, and unlimited opportunities for overtime. Every nurse I know would rather have a fully staffed unit and just get regular wages. Mind you I’m in Canada
@@lynnmaupin-simpson1215 gut the quarterly bonuses. That’s what has been fucking yo this country not just in the nurse and doctor area but in all companies. You try to drive results to get more personal gain at the expense of the logistics
@@joygernautm6641 different. The Us has a problem with underpaying frontline and overpaying CEOs
You got that right!
I am a respiratory therapist with >30 yrs experience. Everything these two nurses said is 100% true...Everything.... and it applies to all healthcare professionals, as they point out. It is frustrating and sad that hospitals have no respect for their staff.... We are losing RTs as well. Burn out is real...The pandemic just pulled the cover off all of this.
I'm an RT with 30 years experience. I retired shortly before covid and toiled with the thought of returning to help. But the reminder that no one in upper management cared about me kept me from making that step. I'm one less healthcare person who won't help because they won't help me.
Nothing but respect for the RT’s. Essential part of the healthcare team
I spent nearly 40 years as a critical care nurse(ICU,CCU,CVICU,ER,PACU, and NICU). The relationship shared with respiratory therapists is paramount to good patient outcomes!! In one 12 hour shift you can see an appreciable change in morbidity and mortality of a patient because of respiratory therapists. If their director is autonomous with his/her staff and administration the patient has so much better outcomes. Sometimes a thank you is all that is necessary. Or say how much you know their diligence paid off makes them feel better about busting their hind end. But our worth is defined by $.
@@lindasulla5302 Ditto. That was my first thought when I left nursing during the pandemic. My family is way more important than my job. The company could care less about me.
I’m and RT in Californian ( 32 years ).
We have state laws for nurse to patient ratios and the hospitals are ignoring them .
No RT to patient ratios though.
Nurses unions doing nothing about it - they only want to collect union dues and give the money to Democrats - they do nothing to help the members even when management breaks state laws .
I have about 4.5 years until I hit the minimum retirement age and then I’m out .
I was a critical care nurse that became a nurse practitioner. I have been working in hospitals since 1973. I finished my doctorate. I retired in 2018 but maintained my licenses. I am letting it all go. I am not a martyr. Nurses should unionize across the country, because the hospitals treat them terribly. Most shifts were short of staff, and we made it work. Unionize!!
The hospitals mistreat doctors and nurses.
@@shadrach6299 really sorry haven’t seen that but guess it could happen.
I worked in a hospital with a Union for nurses. The Unions can be good for the nurses if the union workers are upright with the nurses best interests in mind! It's not always that way! 🤷♀️
Why does the teachers union exist?? - and NURSES HAVE NONE???
I have recently arrived at the same conclusion- NURSES NEED TO UNIONIZE, or nothing is going to change.
It’s the same problem in hospitals…it’s a corporate problem …. Corporations now own hospitals …. No medical knowledge….just bottom line ….cash knowledge…… they are not run for the good of the patients 👎🏻✅
Yes!!!
Reality---> a hospital is a business aka a company. It's about profit, having specialty services, surgeries, etc just to draw people in so they can make money especially people with private insurances vs state insurance. Trust me the 2 nurses are saying is true.
THIS EXACTLY!!! The bean counters don’t give a dam about the patients or the peasant workers who make it all work for them, so they meet all their goals and get their bonuses!
🗣🗣
Very true
It's heartbreaking and terrifying how common this is all over the healthcare profession. My mom is a laboratory technologist (microbiology) - she runs the lab that in part handles in-house hospital COVID testing. They're currently dealing with a severe, chronic shortage of laboratory personnel, which contributes to longer times for testing. And people keep quitting, because it's not worth their health and sanity to deal with the crises hospitals keep piling on. The money is there, but the people who are doing the work don't get it - the hospital CEOs and board members get it.
It's not just about money. There's been a worsening shortage of healthcare personnel for a few decades now.
It really is heartbreaking and terrifying. Also infuriating. And thanks to your mama for her work. 💜
Part of the shortage is intentional short staffing for profits. Eliminate profit from health care. It's immoral.
Eliminate insurance companies and corporate profiteers neglecting and killing patients for profit.
It's time for a nationalized healthcare system sans profit like every other advanced nation.
I was a nurse for 12 years until I hit my threshold and became severely I’ll. The stress is insane. The patient to nurse ratio is the biggest issue.
So sad to lose such well-trained, competent nurses. It takes years of dedication to gain these skills.
I had major surgery a little over 7 weeks ago. Because the hospital was at 130% capacity, my surgery was scheduled as an outpatient procedure. But, because my oxygen saturation levels dipped too low in the recovery room, I had an overnight hospital stay. There were two patients in one patient rooms - in every room. When I was discharged the next day, it looked like grand central station in front of the hospital.
My heart goes out to what medical workers are going through.
Wow. I can’t imagine 3 patients in a single bed room. There are a plethora of mistakes at the best of times, I can’t imagine what mistakes are happening now.
I was hospital security for 16 years and worked hand-in-hand with the doctors and the nurses mostly in the emergency room, but in actuality everywhere in the hospital where there was a problem or a threat. At the beginning of the pandemic, I assessed the self-indulgent, entitled, aggressive patient atmosphere and I thought, this is going to be a living hell. I went inside the building and informed them that that was my last day. Since then, every employee I know at the hospital has told me I got out just in time.
The nastiness of people is hard to imagine.
You're SO right. I haven't been hearing your point being acknowledged enough in the media...huh, wonder why. This is my biggest issue. The customer, client, patient culture is so out of hand and abusive.
@Stanky Piece of Bluecheese Are these entitled patients and families the pandemic deniers?
@@pamelafeeney8086 most are.
People being nasty? Just wait until the more severe consequences of climate change hit. Significant food shortages, large scale population displacements, increased homelessness, looting, intense competition for scarce resources in general. Civilized societies are surprisingly fragile. We're never far away from a breakdown in civil behavior. People can come to blows over that last roll of toilet paper on the shelf.
Canadian working at a call center dealing exclusively with American clients: "self-indulgent, entitled, aggressive" - Spot on
I’m a retail pharmacist. I spent my whole shift yesterday saying in my head and out loud, “This isn’t real. Nothing here is real.” The nurses, RT, all the hospital staff workers are super stressed. We are stressed on the retail side of healthcare, too. Many new grads in my profession are leaving almost immediately, especially in the retail arena.
I’m a nurse with over 30 years experience and preparing for early retirement due to all that’s going on in healthcare right now. The work has become so overwhelming and the daily expected workload is unsustainable. I didn’t think my career would end at such a low point in nursing. All healthcare workers are being stretched beyond what is safe for patient care.
Yes, pharmacy is crazy stressful right now too!!
What isn’t “real” for a retail pharmacist? How has the pandemic affected the retail pharmacist?
@@MsRotorwings Many pharmacists are required to now administer Covid vaccines. Due to marketing and competition, they don't have a choice. The pharmacy profession, like nursing, had its issues before the pandemic. They are worked like dogs.
@@MNP208 I can see it! It’s nuts how many things pharmacists are doing that is not normal for a pharmacist. Instead of being focused on our medications, they have to do all these vaccines! I can see why they would leave the field to save their sanity. Plus being exposed to so many people in a small indoor space during a pandemic is so dangerous!
I work in education -- the same thing goes on there. Teachers, in particular, are being asked to do more and more, and they are blamed when kids aren't learning. It seems as if women's professions are blamed for poor outcomes even when their work loads are increased.
Yep me too and our industry also has the short working time before people leave the profession as well. We don't retain young teachers very well. And the abuse is a huge problem for both as well (students/patients, parents/family)
You are correct, I've worked in both health care and education. The NYT ran an article about school nurses being treated like the enemy. I can't imagine holding that job right now.
I have been a nurse for 38 years. I never thought I would see what is happening now. If it is good for nurses, it is good for patients--and hospitals as they are today are bad for nurses.
It's not just nurses that are being hit. It's nurses, and support staff, and doctors, and patients.
I started practicing medicine in the late 1970s. By the time I retired in 2007, I was expected to do five times as much work for an hour's pay. That hours paid was 1/3 of what it was in 1994. Thanks to computerization, the health insurance companies were able to get together and fix prices and one day in 1994 all the doctors in the hospital I worked with had their pay reduced by 2/3.
Of course what happened was there was an explosion of medical mistakes as doctors work faster and faster to try to keep their income levels up. I knew when Reagan stole the election in 1980 that the middle class would be squeezed. Since doctors sell their time just like factory workers, I knew doctors would be squeezed.
I was admitted to an ivy league medical school but I went to the State medical school because I didn't want a huge debt. My goal was to practice medicine for the underserved.
I might as well have gone to the ivy league medical school because I ended up paying an ivy League price for a State medical School degree.
The Reagan administration changed the terms of my loan. When I first started my loan terms were the exact same as the guaranteed student loan terms that anybody could get. Since very few people in my class were low income, I was the only people that received a low-income student loan from the package of federal money the medical school received.
When I signed the papers on the loan, the guaranteed student loan program, and my loan program both had the terms of 3% interest with up to 7 years deferred as long as you were still in training and not making much money. I hadn't graduated medical school before Reagan took office. That meant that he was able to retroactively change my entire loan despite the Contract I had signed with the federal government before Reagan was in office.
When he took office almost immediately the terms of my loan were changed. The guaranteed student loans which anybody could get including very wealthy students, stayed at the very favorable 3% no interest for seven years.
the health professions loans, which can only be attained from people from very low income backgrounds, changed dramatically.
The interest rate went from 3 to 10 to 14% depending on the market rate at the time. The period of time in which no interest would be charged went from 7 years to 0 years 0 months. When I graduated after two and a half years on Reagan's accelerated assault on porch students, I owed $60,000. The rich kids graduating at the same time old $20,000. For the same degree.
Furthermore, by the time I have been out of medical school for 3 years, in residency, my loan had balloon to $60,000 well all the rich kids still only owed $20,000. So I was paying 14% interest on $60,000 going forward well they were paying 3% interest on $20,000. For the same degree.
Most doctors are primary care doctors. By the time a primary care doctor retires, that primary care doctor has made slightly less per hour works in an elementary school teacher. Nurses actually come out ahead in the category of pay per actual hour worked.
Everybody resents doctors because they hate their health insurance terms. At least twice a month and the women's dressing room at the exercise gym, somebody would find out I was a doctor and attack me for health insurance costs. I would explain to that person that unregulated insurance company profits were what was driving the high cost of healthcare.
When the person yelling at me would finally understand that it was the insurance companies, not the doctors, and certainly not the doctor that person was yelling at since I worked for poor people, they'd be momentarily speechless.
However, my respite from being yelled at was only momentary. The angry person, having obtained some kind of relief from venting against a person, they did not want to give that up. For some it is an emotional release to yell at someone and transfer your angry feelings onto them. Those are people don't usually yell and get angry at the people that are actually cause their problems. The reason they don't yell at the people causing their problem is that the people that are the cause of their problem have great deal of power.
Instead of working on the cause of the problem, many people settle for temporary emotional release by scapegoating someone.
The only people that are having any sort of gain from the current healthcare system are the 1% who own the insurance companies in the hospitals. They're making a lot more money.
However, as the Reagan neoliberal austerity policies continue to squeeze all the money and resources upward toward the 1%, infectious diseases will become more fatal for everyone including the 1%. So the 1% will pay a price but unfortunately they will pay less of a price than people who are poor.
There is no escaping the fact that human beings are a social species and unequal distribution of resources will harm us all.
I watched my insurance premiums go up while services went down in the mid 1990s. The people negotiating with HMOs told me that they had collaborated to set prices prior to openning the bid.
Thank you for your service and saving lives. I'm a professor and burn out is hitting us too. Not the same, obviously we aren't saving lives. What you all do is heroic. I'm just horrified that people don't appreciate your sacrifices. And knowing staff are so underpaid is sickening. Again, I'm grateful for folks like you. Thank you!!
@@Madronaxyz Thank you for your service and I'm so sorry this happened to you. We need doctors like you and it's clear that just keep piling on the misery instead of working with medical nurses, staff, and physicians to make the system better and streamlined. Venting only leads to more hostility is what the research shows so I'm not surprised people get a moment of relief and clarity and think it's okay to yell again. Of course, it most certainly isn't
@@mlight6845 In 2007 --2008, when I started working with a political group to lobby my US Congress people, I Googled the salary of the chief CEO of Blue Cross in OH. His salary was $10M per year. In 2007 he also got a bonus of $11M.
I'm not a socialist, but the capitalist system we have that is calling the shots in the medical field is criminal.
Btw, I greatly appreciate my doctors. I'm now 66 and I've been seeing more of them!
These ladies did a wonderful job of representing us nurses. I have been working hard to get out of the profession for several years, and am thrilled to say that my last nursing shift was in May of this year. It takes a lot of strength to cultivate a new livelihood. Luckily, we nurses have been through the fires of hell, so we will hopefully come out forged into new shapes that will continue to benefit ourselves and our communities. May we all learn the value of standing up for ourselves and our lives.
Well said
Ask the nurses that have not had a decent vacation since covid started because the hospital mandated that no staff would be allowed to take a vacation. That has definitely contributed to burnout. And overextending the staff they already have by increasing their ratio. It is unsafe for the patients and unhealthy for the staff.
Nurse since 2008. This is a very accurate interview. These concerns are real.
In 2008 was when these issues began. Obama cut the reimbursement rates to hospitals and practitioners,
Retired nurse here , these young nurses are speaking the truth. Universities can pump them out as fast as they can, but experience is the golden ticket. Critical thinking in a emergency is what saves lives. That aspect of nursing occurs with time, exposure and continual education for the individual nurse.
Mandatory staffing ratios are so needed in every state . California has them, New York then followed and a few more states are looking at it but I wouldn't hold your breath. The results of staffing ratios are Nurses are lasting longer in the profession and patients outcomes are improving. Prior to that, the average acute care nurse left the field in 5 to 8 years.
Management treats so many nurses like crap. Why ? I'll never ever understand. I always refused to take a charge nurse position. I'm not leadership material I preferred mentoring the young ones. Helping them organize their shift or think through a problem.
In my 40+ years my trick was to transfer units or specialty's areas. I did this about every 5 to 7 years . Started on Medical-telemetry to emergency to trauma then ICU to acute rehabilitation followed by pediatric to maternity then NICU . Finally finished with adult orthopedic. The down side was floating I was the nurse who floated to other units the most , the reason "she's has so much experience " I loved my profession so so much ... but when your floated 4 out of 6 shifts it's time to retire. When they give you the most difficult patience because "your so good with the crazy ones " , it's time to retire .
This pandemic has hurt a hugh amount of nurses , the way the relatives treated them was disgusting. So many will and has left the profession all because very ignorant people choose to treaten and accuse professional of murder . Management did nothing . Geez, How about having a social worker or psychologist on stand-by to intervene on the call ? No that cost money so we expect all nurses to do all things at all times .
Nursing has never been an easy profession ,there's not much support except from your peers , the pays poor considering all that is expected, not only are you exposed to life threatening diseases, physical harm , verbal harassment from patients. The lack of administration support. You can count on being harassed by Management if you don't come in on your days off. O'yes Mandatory overtime is demanded.
I was proud to be a nurse and loved it until the end . I hate to see or hear about the abuse . I never had any patient or their family say or do anything but "Thank you ."
I recall the days of floating and receiving the hardest patients because the staff needed a break. It happened often. I wasn't too happy about it at the time but it was a challenge and became an experience for me to carry with me. I followed the Florence Nightingale way of nursing, was laughed at and not included in their reindeer games at the desk all night. But I'm able to hold my head high when I remember doing the right thing for patients and not following the short cuts and failure to treat a patient as a person and not a product to pass along to the next shift. I made a difference sometimes, even if it was a small one, in someone's life who just needed to be heard, needed hug, and a prayer!
In spite of the understaffed shifts, unbalanced nurse to patient ratio, and final burnout I'm able to know I gave it my all. But it shouldn't be this way! It's good to hear these voices speaking truth. I hope for the future of nursing and all the healthcare professionals that things will get better.
I especially agree with having a psychiatrist or therapist around. My friend who worked in the ICU was coding at least 3 patients a day when COVID was at its peak. Coding a patient became routine…but it took its toll on everyone’s (pharmacist, resp. Therapist, nurse, doctor, all who took part in the codes) mental health. Admin posted a flyer with a number to call for counseling. I work in another department, but for fun, I called the number. They transferred me, and I was transferred again. I wouldn’t have had time to schedule an appointment anyway, but the end result was that it was difficult to even get ahold of someone for counseling.
I left in 2019 before Covid. The pandemic has only exacerbated the situation. These ladies absolutely speak the truth!
Preach about new nurses burning out within 2 to 5 years!! It's a known fact that 2/3 of new nurses leave the profession within the first 3 years. This is been true since I graduated in 2003. It's mind-blowing that this statistic has been around for so long and nobody seems to care. Covid just made it worse.
True. Most became lawyers.
Same situation in teaching. What's bad for teachers is bad for students.
We knew our new nurses would leave as soon as they got their DNP, about 5 years. Now the NPs are just as affected.
Hate to say it I think new grads these days are looking for a easier job with more pay.
@@TheMallyjoe No one goes through nursing school with the expectation that the job will be easy. The ones that do don't even survive nursing school.
I would also like to congratulate both of these superb professionals for an excellent, on point interview. It is this kind of person that makes me miss my job in that environment. Clear, well informed and well thought out.
Listen carefully to these people.
You think your politician or your old Hospital CEO is watching this? LOL
Yes, but I wish all nurses would learn about investing and invest so they can retire earlier.
@Patron Saint Yes these nurses made some observations and points to consider, but some of it seemed pretty self serving in many ways. Consider some counter points.
- Covid strained the whole medical industry all over the world, not just in the USA.
- Both the AMA and Nursing industries are essentially monopolies that get to effectively dictate supply and pricing. If the US doubled or tripled the number of medical and nursing schools, then competition would deal with both supply and pricing. That is how competition works.
- The US healthcare system is already the most expensive in the world. Something like over 2x or more than any other developed country in the world. Yet healthcare outcomes in many areas are very very average in comparison to many other developed countries. US healthcare is approaching something like 20% of US GDP now. What can the US realistically support ... is it 100% of US GDP where everything goes to healthcare?
- How does the compensation of US doctors and nurses compare to other developed countries? Likely at the very highest end. I seem to recall a report from some years ago showing that US doctors earned something like 3-4x what German doctors earned. Are US doctors 3-4x better than German doctors? That is not to suggest that US doctors and nurses do not deserve to be well compensated, since they do .... it is a matter of degree.
- In many ways the US for profit healthcare model is seriously broken. Holland had a similar for profit healthcare system several decades ago. But they realized it was bankrupting the country. As such they studied and successfully revised their whole healthcare system. Reportedly very very successfully. The US needs to figure out how to do something similar... but vested interests fight tooth and nail against any healthcare reform.
So what is the solution to the broken and expensive US healthcare system?
@@coreyham3753 I don’t think you can blame the nurses for pointing out that their situation is broken. Maybe the doctors and their political clout, but overall, I think it’s the lobbyists for the overall medical system.
I agree that this entire approach is a mess. It’s about money in politics, not about the health of the nation.
@@coreyham3753 The solution is to TAKE the money from the CEOs and administratives at TOP and give it to the NURSES at bottom
how hard is this jesus christ
This interview really shed light on the nursing shortage. I've been a nurse 30+ years and started to burn out BEFORE the pandemic with the corporatization of our healthcare system. I worked 6 months into covid and have been semi-retired since. Like they said it's fixable but will there be the will to prioritize safe care and morale over profits? It's so sad how nurses are being treated. I don't know a single nurse who is currently happy in their job. I think it's time to unionize the profession.
Two years ago I was in ICU (non-covid). My nurses were great. My life was in their hands. I greatly appreciated them!
You are correct-not a single nurse is happy at their job.
@@jamesbinns8528 Glad you recovered and had a good experience! Not all patients are appreciative especially in the current climate. Alot of the disrespect nurses are experiencing comes from the powers that be. I use to have awesome managers back in the day. Unfortunately that hasn't been the case in a long time.
I'm late to this but it really hit a nerve with me. I'm glad these younger nurses are finally speaking up about the bs of the nursing profession. My husband and I, between the two of us, had 65 years of nursing experience and knowledge under our belts. I worked through that nursing shortage in the 1990's and throughout my career on a Cancer/AIDS unit and finally decided to walk away from the profession due to deteriorating working conditions and burnout. My husband stuck with it until he was bullied and harassed by nurse managers because he was one of the staff nurse negotiators for the nurses union working with hospital management on contract renewal. My husband tried to raise a red flag to warn the younger nurses that management was working hard to reduce pay and benefits as well as reducing staff. No one would listen or show up at contract negotiations to offer support to the older nurses working on their behalf. Not long after, management set out to retaliate against my husband and ultimately fired him for no other reason than his being a nurse negotiator. He was a valuable resource to the hospital for all the new nurses that always sought him out when they needed help. When the hospital fired him they ended his career as a nurse because no other hospitals in the area would hire him at age 61. When the COVID pandemic began to cause shortages of nurses, the hospital that had fired him had the nerve to ask him if he would come back to work. My husband told them to FO. It is disgusting the way hospital management treats the nurses that go way above and beyond to render care to so many and yet while doing so have to constantly watch their backs for the wrath of petty and incompetent nurse managers. Sadly, I will tell anyone that asks for my advice if they should become a nurse NO! At least not until the corporate run hospitals make huge changes to the way they so callously treat their nurses.
Many states including Utah conspired among hospitals and anywhere nurses worked to keep wages down. I believe it started early 1980’-1992. Is govt filled law suit and back wages especially the money that would have paid into social security lost. Despicable was it wasn’t given to all nurses who had worked during that time. Only ones that were in the class action lawsuit. No announcement, no news coverage I found out last year through research.
This is exactly the result of a for profit health care system And a cultural focus on the curative rather than preventative, treating sickness rather than maintaining health. It has now long been primarily a system for profit, and the care provided is seen as a product. Health care professionals, whether medical or administrative, are seen as workers and patients consumers who either can afford the care or can't. What did we expect?!
It's not just curative, it's a system where the patient and their family are encouraged to report how they liked it, like a restaurant. No wonder we're treated like servants/restaurant workers/maids.
@@90shilling Excellent point
@@karenl7786 Yep. And nurses aides have been running in crisis mode for at least 10 years or more. Patient load went from 8 to 10, to 20, and when someone calls in sick over 20 patient's per aide. And it can go to 30 or 40 on the night shift in nursing homes. After 38 years of working 50% in nursing homes, 50% in hospitals (CCU/Tele Floor) I retired in 2020. At the age of 61 my body just could not handle it anymore. Now I stay home and take care of my handicapped husband full time. Yea the health care system beat me up pretty bad. I feel for all the nurses, aides, doctors and other health care workers out there. God bless and good luck to all.
@@justincase3828 Thank God for people like you. We can only pray for more.
I would like to suggest that the nurses’ recommendations for patient ratios must be regulated and enforced. I’d also like for them to be given large chunks of paid vacation every two months, for their health and sanity. Two months on, one month off and they won’t burn out! We need seasoned, qualified and dedicated professionals to keep our citizens alive when they go to hospitals.
good luck Ruth, most hospitals are doing the opposite and telling nurses and other staff they cannot have any vacation time because of shortages, which only drives more people to quit!!
Health Care Corporation sounds like an oxymoron.
Such a great interview. I am an outpatient RN. I have friends who ask me "why don't you just go and help in the ICU?" (That thought terrifies me} It takes YEARS for a nurse to specialize and become competent in the ICU. The general public is ignorant about what we do. I wish you would do a story that actually follows an ICU nurse working with patients and describing the details of her job.
Well said. It isn't a nurse is just a nurse. Patient safety goes down when experience walks out the door with all that knowledge in their head.
As a new grad, experienced nurses are missed
I wonder if either of these nurses experience that little phenomenon that occurs the day before your next shift where you are just overwhelmed with this unrelenting anxiety not knowing what you’re going to face the next day. I bet Rachael experiences this even more because not knowing one day from the next if your patient load is going to be 2 or more is anxiety inducing. I think the reason why we are on the verge of a collapsed healthcare system is because Money hungry people care more about the dollar in materialism than they do about people and their well-being.
I am so glad to hear someone speak on other essential workers like CNAs that really doesn’t get the credit they deserve. 🙏😍
Yes, CNAs are AMAZING!!
Started as a CNA, became a nurse and am now an NP...I have never forgotten my roots and daily show thanks and gratitude to our CNAs who are seriously a big component of the patient care team!
Exactly, lots of nurses are paid very well. I don't completely agree that you're all underpaid. CNAs however are paid horrible wages.
@@staceystrukel1917 There is always the option to attend nursing school if desired, especially in the current job market. Many hospitals will now pay for tuition.
I was in a program working as a CNA during nursing school. I think it would be good for all nurses to go through. Working with the CNA's gave me an appreciation for all the staff and how working together can make for better shifts. After graduation I kept these lessons with me and always respected the different healthcare roles and how to work together to get things done. It didn't always work out due to different personalities and work ethics, but made most days better!
Excellently delivered! Huge problem when patient to staff ratio becomes a tool for increasing profit margin.
People say "so what. You now have 6 patients instead of 4". It takes x amount of time to take vital signs, go to the Pyxis to obtain meds, computer chart, draw labs, start IVs, insert a foley catheter, DO AN ASSESSMENT, and some chores take 2 nurses. So if you have 4 patients that is 15 minutes per hour. If it takes 2 nurses that is 7.5 minutes less per patient. If you add 2 more patients to the mix, divide an hour by 6. Our work is continuous. It is ongoing. Assessments are ongoing. Vital signs are every 15 minutes which includes a visual assessment. Administration know dollars and cents but they cannot do time management math !!
Healthcare should not be for profit. It must be Medicare for all.
how much more do citizens have to take before we stand up against the profiting pigs?
My patient to nurse ratio was 1:14 . That should not be the case in an emergency room. Add the fact that we get thrown icu patients in that ratio sometime 2-4 how can hospital administrators think this will not burn a Nurse out.
That is terribly unsafe! If it were me, I’d be so worried about losing my nursing license because of some patient disaster for which you couldn’t intervene because you are so overloaded.
@@jeanniej8296 They don't care as long as the shift is covered.
I’ll be the first to tell you that that amount of stress for any serious length of time is devastating to your health. I now have autoimmune disorders, and i damaged my gut. So it becomes the sick taking care of the sick.
I'm now 85, retired from nursing after 40 yrs. and without a doubt the toll on body and mind has been astounding. Retirement has been my road to recovery and every day remind myself I don't need to 'hurry' anymore. Take good care of yourself!!! love
I up and quit one day. Stress and Claire’s up my RA. I
Here's one for you to think about: I know a lady who studied hard to become a paramedic because she loved helping people. She quit a few years in because she became disillusioned from repeatedly going to homeless shelters and camps to resuscitate the same people over and over again (sometimes the same person within a few hours of resuscitating them)
That's another side of it too.
I retired early, after being an RN for 35 years. What started out as a rewarding career, turned into the most difficult and demanding thing imaginable. Long hours, mandatory overtime, terrible schedules. And over the years patients became more and more demanding and violent. Being hit, kicked and yelled at was becoming the norm. Patient obesity also played into my leaving early - their many health issues made them challenging patients as did moving them. As a 120lb nurse how was I possibly going to move someone weighing 350 ? Staff shortages didn’t allow the 3-4 people needed to move and transfer these people safely. I was destroying my own physical and mental health by staying. I’m much happier and healthier now, just doing odd jobs and volunteering !
Nurse here as well and I know exactly what you speak of when you mention the obese patients. It seems there are more and more obese patients (even the very elderly are so often very large and heavy these days), it really takes a toll on our backs. I try to do a T-Tapp stretch video before I go into work (I get up extra early so I can be able to do it at about 4:15 am, to help strengthen my back and abdominal muscles) but after pulling up dead weight, greater than 230 lb and up patients, just a few times, my back is hurting (I suppose it would be worst if I hadn’t exercised). I joke and tell my husband that the only thing I’m going to have to show for my nursing career is a Big back ache, sore hips and knees. It certainly won’t be that great retirement package!
I understand, been in nursing 40+ years. My heaviest pt was 732 pounds. Thankfully, he could walk. Had several 400 and 500 pound pots and yeah, getting help to turn et clean them is hard especially when you have 12-30 pts depending on if it's a hospital or nursing home. I have worked both! It is INEXCUSABLE for administration to saddle nurses yes I'm including Aides because they ARE nurses too, with that many patients!! It is unsafe for the pts AND the nurses! The administration doesn't care!! They only care about lining their pockets with money from OUR labor! The patients AND nurses suffer!!!!
My husband is an ER nurse and over the 15yrs in nursing the patients have become so much more violent and entitled. It has gotten so bad the admin is now defending the patients that are hitting the staff!! He left a job in the city for a rural hospital as the city hospital had violent patients every shift.
This pandemic has forced citizens to witness broken infrastructures. We all need to participate in rebuilding.
I seriously appreciate these two ladies for being completely straightforward to the point and honest about how it is. Every for-profit hospital has the same issues
Even when they are “supposedly” non-profit, they are plagued by the same problems.
Nurse here with a 4 year Masters-worked 40+ years. My sister worked 39 years as a bedside nurse. This is the SAME STORY that has been evolving over time, worsening over time, and continuously fallen on deaf ears over time. THERE IS NO END TO THIS STORY IN SITE. So sad. FOLLOW THE MONEY!
In my unit the ratio is four patients to one nurse. On my night shift last night I had eight. The harm to patients and the moral injury it creates for nurses is catastrophic.
EIGHT? Wow, that is horrible. I remember many times, having a ridiculous amount of patients, too. So scary, stressful, and I'd just cry on the commute home. I knew I did the best I COULD, but it definitely wasn't the care I WANTED to give them!
I worked at WalMart as my retirement job. There were multiple nurses working there who had burned out!
These brave young women hit it the nail on the head! This is a decades long problem and it is getting worse. People are dying because nurses are overworked, overly stressed, overly tired. The same is true of other hospital staff including physicians.
Adding to this problem is the overall quality of all education has significantly declined since the late 1950's.
Health care administrators, insurance companies and governments only compound the disaster.
Thank you for your thought provoking video.
Wow I have heard over the years so many nurses joke and say they were going to quit and work at Walmart but I never knew any that actually did that. I can understand how it would be so much less stressful than nursing.
I just want to say thank you to every single nurse,doctor and everyone else at hospitals,I would never disrespect anyone in the medical field ,what is going wrong in our society?so sad
Having worked as an R.N. in hospitals for 50 years...a decade or so in ICU...this is the most eloquently/clearly expressed fair assessment of what is happening. LISTEN TO THE NURSES. Get your vaccination, get your booster...stay healthy...there may be no one to care for you if you start crashing.
as an RN, you should be much better informed about the vaccine which is not all it’s reported to be. Statistics show that 1% or less of folks with natural immunity are “reinfected”, whereas breakthrough infections in the vaccinated are approaching 40%
When did you start working at 15.
@@TheMallyjoe Good question. I’m not the person you are directing this to, but I graduated nursing school at the age of 19 so that’s possible, I’m thinking that she’s still working.
You still have a long way to go with that mindset and thinking. You probably went to school in one of these online devry nursing that does not teach critical and logical thinking.
Kk doc is probably antivaxxer who is misinformed and unfortunately misinforming others. Clear lack insight here and clueless.
It is easy to become outraged at how nurses are mistreated, but if we step back a little, we see that our culture mistreats many different groups. k-12 teachers spring to mind. Mistreating others is, perhaps, a side-effect of capitalism. Or perhaps it is hardwired into our brains by evolution.
Definitely upshot of capitalism.
Women get abused in the workplace all the time. This is because men think we are not as important as they believe they they are!
@@angelbogart539 Agreed - Capitalism
It’s a specifically American capitalist problem.
No it’s capitalism because other countries full of humans can get it right.
Unfortunately, management who is eating up all the profits have personalised care so they dun give a hoot if nurses are quiting or lack experience. As long as they dun suffer like the everyone else, retention will always be an issue.
The one good thing about this pandemic is that the flaws of the system are finally laid bare.
Got that right all the way around and money is the ultimate factor.
YESSSSSS!!!!!
I’ve worked in healthcare for over ten years. I’m done. The PTSD and anxiety I’ve experienced has resulted in unplanned crying spells and anxiety attacks even when I’m off work. It’s hard to function normally after experiencing this level of trauma. I’m done. Weary is an understatement. I loved healthcare with all my heart. Dedicated years of studying. I cared so deeply for our patients. Then they, along with upper management, started to abuse me. I don’t regret leaving. I’m grateful for the lives I touched. I pray that every healthcare provider/staff/volunteer heals. We deserve it. Our families need us. Bless up ❤️
Wow, I had to check who wrote this b/c it sounded like it was something I could have written. Every single sentence except the 1st; I worked for 4 years.
American healthcare maximizes profit by having a minimal amount of staff so they have brought the heath care system to a state of collapse, but it is extremely profitable. PROFIT KILLS.
This really informed me of something I was unaware of. Also, these nurses did the best job of explaining the situation I have ever heard. Very intelligent people.
I am leaving my position in pediatric ICU after 31 years experience. Managers are completely tone deaf and expect us to work in unsafe situations. Feeling safe is the most primary human need so naturally if that need is not being met nurses will leave because we are human too! I took an inpatient hospice position.
I am burnt out and going into depression, I have finally decided to resign and do self-care thank goodness my family is so supportive. A lot of nurses on my unit resigned and moved on. My workload and nurse ratio has gone up, with no compensation or appreciation by the employer. The organization is bringing onboard new grad nurses who have no experience and are making tons of errors, putting themselves and patients at risk.
Another frontline worker here. These two nurses telling true. Working in healthcare is not only physical but mentally draining. And yet, our voice is not heard by the authorities.
I wish I could give a thousand "likes" to this interview!!!!!
Now you can’t run to the charge nurse anymore because the charge nurse has 6-7 patients
Wow ladies, well done. Your ability to articulate the heartache of our career field was spot on. I stepped away from the bedside three years ago. I often wondered if our career field was predominantly men, would we be treated so poorly?
Wow, I worked in a hospital 40 years ago as a nurse aide and saw these same problems, of underpaid and under appreciated nurses and workers.
PHENOMENAL DISCUSSION Ladies, and gent 😊 I’m with you both 100%! I earned a Bachelors Degree in Cardiopulmonary Medicine and have been an RRT for almost 20 years.
I was trained at one of the most infamous hospitals in the US (Charity Hospital, New Orleans).
I think I’ve seen it all - but we know how that can quickly change.
I was here for Katrina and it wasn’t anything like I have EVER experienced before.
In November 2020, I completed my MBA-HCM (Healthcare Management), for those who aren’t familiar with odd credentials.
My point is, BURNOUT is SO REAL - and as a matter of fact, I did my dissertation on healthcare professional burnout.
Let me just KEEP IT REAL….. the SUICIDE rate of PHYSICIANS absolutely FLOORED ME.
But shhhh… no one wants to talk about that now do we?
Heaven forbid the local news channels hear about physician at a certain hospital committing suicide. And then you put panic into the public bcuz their DOCTORS are losing their effing mind. Which you know what, they are. So does that tell you there’s a DESPERATE need for help?
Personally, I will probably NEVER provide direct patient care for the remainder of my career. It has taken a harsh toll on my body.
Honestly, I knew that time would come. And so, that’s why I spent a LOT of money on tuition and lost an enormous amount of sleep, shedded enuf tears to cry TWO rivers, and if I’m not mistaken, we can add a gallon or two of sweat, toward completing my Master’s Degree.
Ladies, you were absolutely STELLAR❣️ Keep shouting it from the roof tops when necessary!
Much ❤️ and good vibes coming ur way bcuz like it or not, we are a TEAM and a TEAM that works flawlessly together are TEAMS that SAVE LIVES. 😘
I’m really glad someone finally publicly addressed the fact that schools are profiting off the myth that there’s a nursing shortage & that they’re banking on them quitting. It’s a revolving door and tuition is expensive. Who are these soulless schools & CEO’s @ the top selling the idea that they care and profiting god only knows how much off of all of us. Retention is a major problem, burnout is worse without lower nurse to patient ratios. We’ve been saying it for years but time and time again corporate America cares more about pretending someday they too can make it to the tippy top and bathe in gold. It’s a broken system.
Because we're sick of being overworked and underpaid. That's why!
Give us 75% of what most American doctors make and then we'll gladly do it!
Nurses have always been viewed as a debit expense. Patients come to hospitals for nursing care not medical care. Nurses are the quarterback and the coach of the patient team. Everything they do generates income for the hospital. Every piece of inventory should have a charge attached to it both a monetary charge and a time charge. Instead of hospitals charging a room rate and ICU rate it should be based on a slew of items and time charges. It takes 4 Nurses, 1 or 2 respiratory therapists, a unit secretary, an anesthesiologist to admit a post open heart patient to the ICU. They will be working at a run to connect equipment, check orders,draw labs, do continuous assessments, check IV drips, assess IV rates and concentrations, weigh the patient, and the list goes on and on. After the first hour it will be one nurse and respiratory at the bedside. The unit secretary is doing necessary things for your new patient and all the other patients in the unit. Orders have to go into the computer. Pharmacy is notified. Orders are faxed. Labs scheduled. Family has questions, Drs have questions. It goes on like this for hours. This patient,in most hospitals , is charged a flat rate. If the patient is unstable a flat rate just does not apply. When you turn this patient every 2 hours it will take 2 Nurses and 1 respiratory therapist. There is no added charge. Same flat rate. There is no lunch break or even a bathroom break scheduled for the nurse.
The nurse will probably have 2 more patients in addition to this new patient. Now change the new patient to a Covid patient. Now the 2 other patients are Covid patients. They, all 3, are as busy as the open heart patient. The nurse will probably have 4 Covid patients. In and out of isolation tacks on minutes and lessens the time for patient care.
How long has it been since they get a chance to sit and chart? Collect their thoughts? This is for 4 patients.
New nurses have no skills. They have no assessment skills. They are overwhelmed. They are probably being paid what it took you 35 years to attain. They didn't know how taxing nursing is physically,mentally, and emotionally. Then factor in that administration has no clue and doesn't really care. Would you stay in nursing?
Frustrating to have to say the obvious that more staff is required to give quality care. They are describing what happens at every workplace that is purposely understaffed. I work for a city college network and the CEO's last raise was about $3-4,000K a year (I think even during the pandemic) when our pay isn't at the rate of inflation since the colleges were founded in the 70s because contract negotiations ended up with us getting the shorter end of the stick. I think our last contract took 4 years to finalize due to loop holes of course on administration's end.
First thing is as a nurse I can tell your TWELVE HOUR NURSING SHIFTS NEED TO GO!! It's exhausting, and not even feasible, you spend your days off literally sleeping just to make up for the exhaustion. When you are finally caught up on sleep it's time to go back again.... 32 hours, pay us for 36. As one of the nurses expressed STOP PAYING CEOs 4 MILLION A YEAR, and start paying for more staff and paying all staff more money.. My current hospital doesn't even pay me enough money to live, so I quit working there full time, and went back to working as a paramedic! Start turning people away from the ER if they truly do not have an emergency, quck screening exam by a mid level provider, and out the go. which will force PCPs to pick up some of the slack. SO many more things need to be done! THIS BULLSHIT HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR OVER A DECADE, HOSPITALS HAVE BEEN MAKING THEIR BED, purposely short staffing so CEOs and hire ups can make more money, NOW THEY GET TO LIE IN IT!!
This is an outstanding interview. I worked in a hospital setting as an EMT 22 years ago, I saw the burnout rate. Before I changed professions, I felt like I was working in a war zone, that was in the 90's.
A year ago I went back to the medical profession and worked at a surgical practice. The work-related stress during Covid was unimaginable and I left the position after nearly a year. All the hospital staff who were patients at that practice who spoke with me, were burned out and overwhelmed. Their insurance deductibles increased, and their co-pays for office visits went from $20 to $80. What does it say about our medical system when hospital staff's insurance rates skyrocket while they are working through a pandemic under the deplorable conditions these nurses have described? It is difficult to feel hopeful under these circumstances.
Its sad to see that not much has changed since I left hospital nursing 40 yrs ago. These are unpresidented times but greed and profit margins always seem to take priority over keeping nurses. Nurses also must do their part to support each other in the field rather than eat their young.
Private healthcare is about money first and foremost, not patient care. Until we get greed out of healthcare system we will continue to see more healthcare workers leaving and more families suffering from lack of care and/or financial ruin. This is a travesty on every level .
Compassion, transparency, integrity and accountability for all!
All Nurse's have expertise, working on the floor in a speciality ( Med- Surg), (Psych), etc. It's a lot harder to have 6 to 20 patients (depending on the unit and if You are the only RN/Charge Nurse) Everyone thinks only ICU or ER nurses have it rough?) We all are Valuable and Essintial. I respect All Nurses and their skill sets. The biggest problem is that there is non- medical people controlling and dictating the practices of the medical field
Only 1 in 5 have quit? I guess the ones who stay are Administrative Executives and the ones who only work in office.
Most of our ICU nurses are long gone. We have only 1 full time nurse left. The rest are new grads and travel nurses. The ICU charge nurse is also a new grad with six-month experience. This is not a good time to be nurses and patients. My advice is to stay away from the hospitals at all cost.
The high-heels nurses stay.
I applause these nurses for speaking the truth. I have been an ICU nurse for 13 years and I’m so burned out. The point they made about family not respecting our experience, yelling, cussing, and generally treating us like crap is at an all time high. It’s infuriating that I’m no other profession would that be allowed. I am also looking into other options to leave the bedside altogether due to each and every point these ladies have pointed out
I am a Brazilian Portuguese interpreter and I work alongside of doctors and nurses. Our working conditions are not very different from health professionals: low pay, stress, overworked and burn out is what we face every day.
i have many times more faith in nurses then in the elected we have.
Agreed. It's not even close.
I’m currently writing a grad school paper about this. RN and RT here, thanks for the shout out. This is 1+ yr from the original post date and it’s only gotten worse. Honestly makes me cry. Thank you for speaking what we are all feeling.
We’ve gotten travel nurses in the OR where I work. Most have been inexperienced (first assignment) and I had to train them for weeks to be fairly competent all the while they are being paid four times the amount I do!!! It’s ridiculous. It’s a slap in the face to staff that have tried hold out over the pandemic for some kind of raise/bonus. I’m looking for way out as many others. Got cafeteria tacos for Perioperative nurses week which were disgusting. Most have already left bc the vaccine mandate.
Tacos.....how nice (kidding!) I'll never forget (back in the late 90's), working in an under-staffed NICU. We had premie TRIPLETS about to come to us, and as usual----not enough staff. It was nurse's week, and the "suits" came in at NIGHT to serve us ice cream (wow--such a "sacrifice" for them....ha ha!) They kept calling our NICU to get us to come to the cafeteria to get our "thank you" ice cream. We had to keep explaining that we had premie triplets on their way, not enough staff, and NO, WE CAN'T ENJOY YOUR STUPID ICE CREAM !!! Arrrghhh!
Dam good interview with clarity. Great answers as well. Well said nurses and thank you for an devine excellence.
"To profit from poor working conditions should be illegal." No question! Furthermore, to profit from healthcare should be illegal. Those who work to deliver it should make a good living, but hospitals should be non-profit (like they once were). Rather than for-profit business ventures they should be state or employee owned institutions.
Why do hospitals pay executives 6-7 figures while overworking and underpaying nurses? Wake up nurses……
Corporations and insurance companies have completely taken over healthcare. MBA’s are making all the decisions. I worked in an ICU and we we’re always short staffed and severely short staffed on the weekends. Before the pandemic the BOD , slashed our hospital to barebones. They are working under extreme stress, physically and emotionally. They are doing the work of 3 people. This has been happening for at least a decade. Healthcare workers need to take their power back. Id like to see the CEOs and the MBA’s work in an understaffed ICU, they wouldn’t last a week. We have less nurses because the hospital doesn’t want to spend the money train new nurses. I know many nurses who have a license, but work as NA’s for sometimes as long as a year. So it’s BS, there aren’t not enough nurses.. the grossly understaffed hospital I worked in was a Magnet hospital.
I’m doing MBA-healthcare management right now and i’m a nurse. My professor was a CEO and still actively working for that hospital. An assignment about icu allocation was given to us and I questioned the problem that was given to us because it didn’t talk about the caregiver’s point of view. And yeah, I scored low on that assignment…
Speaking of "Magnet" hospitals.....My loved one had surgery in one, and as a nurse that worked at a NON-Magnet hospital, I was THRILLED that my loved one's care would be excellent. (Even so, I did stay with my loved one to help.) It turned out, that "Magnet" designation really meant NOTHING......some of the staff were not very skilled.
All of this Nursing shortage and retention has been in the system for YEARS! I'm sure that it's worse now with COVID! I was a Registered Nurse for almost 40 years, 12 years in the ICU and this "money first" has really shown up in the last 10 to 15 years. One other issue is that once you have worked in a Medical Corporation for many years and worked yourself up the ladder, administration doesn't want to pay "Senior/Seasoned Nurses what they are worth. The Administration can pay a new graduate nurse, up to ten dollars, less an hour but the consequences to this is poor nursing care because the new nurse doesn't have the experience to give appropriate and beneficial care to the patient, especially in Critical Care areas. Once you become a certain age, they find a way to get rid of the experienced/higher paid nurses. This is a huge problem!
Yes. I feel the ageism. There is an invisibility to your changing needs like more PCAs to help with physical labor (together) and larger text-less glareful comouter screens and more intuitive computer software & less frequent unnecessary to care changes to documentation & more 1:1 teaching on a daily basis. You have all this knowledge and they undermine you and subtly give less complementary evaluations though they were always glowing for decades.
This huge problem is a result of a Medical Corporation - profits rule
I don't know about anywhere else, but at the Novant Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC, the respiratory therapists administer NO bedside care to patients admitted with a COVID-19 diagnosis. I speak from experience. As far as what these nurses are saying, it's is true. I spoke with my nurses and 90% of them were travel nurses. The hospital staff was minimal. There weren't enough staff in the kitchen to fix food for the patients because almost all the staff quit because of the COVID-19 mandate. There were 6 kitchen staff prepping trays for 600 patients. Another day, there was only 4 kitchen staff in the kitchen fixing food for the patients. I heard that directly from the kitchen staff.
The hospital bill was over $60,000 for 10 days. The room cost was over $13,000 and the medication cost was over $23,000. in this PLANDEMIC, the hospitals are laughing all the way to the bank. We are on the verge of collapse, PERIOD!!
I agree with everything they mentioned especially in regards to preventive medicine being a priority. Nutrition therapy and dietetics should be covered more aggressively by insurance companies. Health of Americans should come first, this is the only way to reduce the amount of patients needing serious hospital coverage.
As a nurse of 5 years so far, THANK YOU for highlighting the issues so well!! Couldn’t have said any of it better myself!!
OMG, these nurses are so right!
Even the Dept of Health and Human Services even says there is no nursing shortage. I’ve read their study.
OMG. FINALLY there’s conversation about Nursing. Finally!!! Listen up. Please. Hospitals were becoming hostile toward those of us with many years of experience- many of retired because of it. The trend is toward hiring newly graduated at part time and no benefits. Experienced Nurses were too expensive. But now it’s even worse. This interview with an astutely honest Nurse needs to be listened to.
I was recently in hospital for cardiac care, unable to leave room due to rules. Unfortunately I had to use call button for nurse to come instead of merely walking out to desk for pain med or other reason. I felt terrible asking these poor worn out caregivers for help. Doctors are important but you usually see them once a day for about 15 minutes, nurses on staff for 12 or more hours each day. I see why they are burned out. They and other hospital staff are true heroes.
As a nurse, this hurts my heart. I'm doing my best.
Same old story…hospitals refuse to hire enough people to do the work for greater profits and they overwork the ones they have and don’t care if they get worn out.
Exceptional interview. Thanks!!!
It is easier to manipulate/abuse an inexperienced work force. Also, it is less costly to pay a newbie nurse so hospital saves money/increases it's profits. And when you constantly run on a staffing shortage, the hospital again saves money/ increase it's profits. The hidden truth from the public is that a patient's outcome is directly related to the level of skilled nursing care they receive while hospitalized. Fact is, hospitals can not run without skilled nurses. Will the nursing profession ever realize it's power....
So true in and fact shortage are not just with hosp but all fields(snf,al, etc we are all short with nursing and aids). As Aids, Nurses(not a doctor so i wouldnt know what they can say) we all do not want to do this anymore for a small amount of pay compared to other professions. Agencies pay twice as much so why stay? This job is like putting yourself on a mental abuse and getting paid for it, atleast this is how i feel at this moment. Another good point is too is the load increase. The more we have to deal with the more its harder to focus on what we have to do increasing the margin error in our judgement which can result in a patients death. We worked hard for our license and everyday we could be walking into a lawsuit yet the higher ups never seems to care as long are we can get the place running(its like working on a coal mine). It is a secure job yes but is it worth it? People need to realize that if medical staffs are frustrated? the patients pays for it.
SNFs are so so very difficult to work. Working at a snf was a lot like being in hell if you ask me. Not that I’ve been to hell. Or maybe that was my hell. It sucked!!
ICU should be 1:1. This 2 patient ratio started in the 90's. Because of that last nursing shortage you mentioned. Continuing that has contributed to burn out and moral distress. Every damn 12 hour shift feels like a constant race against the clock. Can't wait to leave this profession.
lol! you are funny and i relate to how you feel.
Remarkably revealing yet disturbing all the same.
And yet not all that surprising for a variety of reasons.
This was a wonderful interview..I am sickened by people who would attack healthcare staff whom are often burned out and away from their families to try to get people thru this pandemic..the amount of entitlement in this country is astounding and the number of people whom think that they have medical degrees and know better than trained professionals with years of experience..voodoo medicine is not going to cure covid..my most heartfelt thanks to all of thos healthcare workers who in the face of ignorant people keep on going and trying to save lives then being blamed if things go south thru no fault of their own..wish I could wake up from this nightmare..
Outstanding interviewees. They shared gritty truth and it’s impact on patient safety and practitioner retention.
I think many hospitals made a big error years ago, by eliminating nurse aides positions. They definitely do a lot of the grunt work so nurses don’t have to. That and not listening to the nurses for needed changes to happen.
Hospitals across the country still utilize CNA's they actually do the hands on care & have 10-15 patients! The nurses at my hospital only pass meds do assessments then sit down & chart for 5 hours out of their 8 hour shift!
Any and All nurses in US should become a Traveling Nurse.
Traveling Nurses r Right now Seriously cashing in. I’ve heard $1,000 a day, travel expenses paid. $7,000 a week.
My cousin has been a nurse for years now. She's a charge nurse at a children's hospital. She's burnt out, and has told me, a lot of her friends and staff are thinking about quitting. So, when ppl resist the vaccine, you're basically saying, they agree with nurses quitting because they are burnt out. So this will impact our medical system GREATLY. Longer waits for appointments, being turned away...so much more.
I notice how traumatized the public is. We healthcare workers & nurses are too but we at least know how to decipher what is real from fears & false and unqualified claims. Unfortunately, the bedside nurses and caregivers are a captive audience to people who decide to dump their anger & stress on us. What about our anger? What about our stress? We lived through the same thing they did. Even worse, we were on the front lines. No hiding at home being paid by the government for us. Exactly how much abuse are we supposed to tolerate? Behavior of pts & families is burning me out. I never thought that would happen. Before this, I was able to support pts & form a rapport despite their initial hostility, which is rooted in fear. The thing is, I just cannot keep up with the behavioral “hits” . I am overloaded with it. I have no more energy for this. I am burnt out. After 30 + years, I am leaving before it kills me. I am physically beat up as well. I just can’t take it anymore and all we get is lip service from admin that refused to pay us while on isolation awaiting Covid test results. Their were definite financial costs to us as we all scrounged up PPE wherever we could find it because our hospital ran out so often for the better part if 2020. Spouses were out of work. We had to isolate from our families who needed to be housed elsewhere.We needed to purchase headbands & headscarfs & supplies to bring with us. We needed extra supplies to disinfect our clothes & shoes since the hospital would not provide scrub suits. We risked future income & the care our presence supplies because we may have died. Many nurses did. We got no financial help. No hazard pay or housing or supplies. They continue to work us like slaves in this 2nd pandemic of many more and sicker patients coming to the hospital. I feel like no one truly cares.
Outrageous, particularly about the scrubs. The purpose of scrubs is for community germs not to be taken in to patients, and hospital germs not to be taken into the community. If ever scrubs are needed, it for surgery and pandemic. The scrubs belong to the linen service and should be taken on and off in the hospital. The practice of nurses having their own scrubs and treating them like work clothes is a danger and reduces the meaning of scrubs. I shouldn’t see medical staff at the bus stop and grocery store in scrubs, or taking their dogs out to urinate and defecate in scrubs.
Excellent interview and very articulate advocates. Nursing is a tough job mentally, emotionally, and physically. It's hard to really define all the requirements of a nurse in the acute setting. We work because we love our role as a skilled caregiver. We sacrifice and we challenge ourselves to learn more, and hone our skills to give the best care we can. We rely on each other,
and the many ancillary workers on our team. We learn to work together as a coordinated body. We pay attention. When I retired it was due to the changing support I felt from the executive team. It was like running track with hurdles. You can train to do it, but you can never feel successful when an extra 1-2 hurdles are added, or they are moved further apart, or some are now higher. There was a last straw for me. I wrote a resignation letter and left in 2wks. I loved my job, and my many friends in nursing, but I was done.
Thank you for clearly articulating the reality in the nursing world in the US. I myself retired at 59 and I was in management. Constantly juggling staffing shortage, high risk patients. administrative goals and in my case inadequate or lack of custody support, restrictions and lack understanding of health care processes was the cause of burn out.
Fundamental problem is hospitals have become for profit corporations instead of service organizations, catering to patients. Maybe hospitals should be owned by healthcare workers themselves instead of Wall Street and financial wizards!
Such an interesting discussion. I’m always surprised (but never shocked) by the deeper details of these systems. Healthcare literally has the word “care” in it, but it appears that care isn’t always the primary objective. If what these nurses are saying is true, and there’s no reason to doubt them, healthcare facilities have no right to provide $million bonuses for top execs when care workers are being told that the system can’t afford more staff.
The question is: Bonuses for what? For adding to shareholder value. That's it. Never mind the patients. More of those will walk in through the door tomorrow.
I’m a staff nurse at a large university hospital. I even work in pediatrics, which has been largely spared from the worse of COVID. In the past month, we’ve had 6 nurses leave our unit & we’ve had to shut down 2 beds because of it. We are hiring inexperienced nurses like crazy. When we had a session with our nurse executive about the retention issues, she did not agree with paying us more… or show concern that people are leaving. “We are the University & our name drives people to work here.” Other hospitals around me are paying up to $20,000 sign on bonuses. Travelers are making upwards of $5-8,000/week depending on the location. I’ve been a nurse for 15 years & I’ve never ever been so burnt out.
I hope things will change for the better soon. I'm not a nurse, so I can't imagine what you're going through.
Are you seeing a lot of kiddos with RSV right now?
Because we are😕🥺😢😭
@@juliek5094 Tons of kiddos with RSV & older than usual too. I work in a peds cardiac ICU so they see way more of it in the regular PICU. We have been seeing MIS-C in kids as well as post Covid cardiomyopathy.