Yes Martha,

At work I did work my @#$% off and then some, and sometimes as you know, you run constantly for 12 hours. And yes, the type of work I did is back breaking. I was sedentary that last 6+ yrs., but that was where the repetitive stress came in bigtime - telephone triage - bad posture, bad ergonomics, etc. etc. I sometimes give myself credit for only the bad things I've done to by body, ie poor posture, leaning over that bed in not the perfect position, rather than the good things I did for people when I was in that position.

I tend to be a little too self critical at times. phoebe

Now you've got me to thinking. Yes, now I feel like ranting. The working conditions for nurses are pretty horrible in general, and I'll probably get agreement from most of the nurses here. You work as fast, as thoroughly, as safely and as therapeutically as you can but there is simply never enough time, I can't count the hours I've put in getting all the documentation down, after the shift has ended. And, as you know, you have to reach up to set that monitor, find enough plug ins - move stuff all the time so you can get to it. Sometimes I felt more like a mechanic, up and down and kneeling and craning your neck to see something.

I went through horrible anger about 10-12 yrs. ago, when they were actively and not secretly, trying to get rid of all experienced nurses for monetary reasons, hiring only new grads (not that there is anything wrong with a new grad, we've all been there). But, when I officially retired almost 4 yrs. ago, they were beginning to see the error of their ways.

And I was just lucky enough to be of retirement age when I really knew for certain I was "totally messed up musculoskeltally".

Wow, didn't mean to rant, but it felt good. phoebe

And now they think there is a nursing shortage!

HA!!! IMHO there are plenty of nurses but they are not working in the nursing field.

They have been driven off because of terrible working conditions.

Yes, I saw the charge nurse on the floor i worked on for 5 years laid off (yes, there were many lay offs about 15 years ago) conveniently at 29 years so she wouldn't get her 30 years in!

Then there is the 400 lb. patient (no offense to large people) that you are expected to move with the help of a very tiny nurse's aid that barely can speak English (again no offense) No mechanical lifts.

We pushed heavy beds with the patients in them, monitors, heavy sleep chairs you name it we moved it or lifted it.Trying the entire time not to trip over the visitors who have come to visit their friend, they don't know their last name but we have to take the time to try to find this 'friend' in a 600 bed hospital.

When I first got out of nursing school(1979-yes, I'm dating myself here) they taught us NOT to wear gloves when you were changing the patient's colostomy bag or cleaned up feces because it would cause the patient to think you thought their colostomy was offensive.(EEYOO!)

It took the aids epidemic for the hospital to finally give the nurses gloves to protect themselves.

I gave the hospital the best years of my life wading through the blood and the ***** to have them completely turn their back on me when I was injured as a patient in their OR. Not only did they ignore me, they sent me a bill for $600.00 to pay the balance of a bill for a surgery where I was permanently disabled with a brachial plexus stretch injury]caused by the doctor's error

They said if I didn't pay they would send me to collections!

I also gave the hospital sooo much of my time for free by coming in early to get organized and staying late to document correctly.

It does feel good to rant.

I could go on and on. And I, like you, enjoyed nursing in spite of the drawbacks.

But, now lets say nursing probably caused 80% of my problems and the posture, etc. is what made me become symptomatic.

I graduated in 76, and you're right, no universal precautions, we always recapped the needles (LOTS of needle sticks) - ok enough - I feel better now and I didn't even know I needed it. phoebe

I am not agesist, sexist, racist or in any way intollerant but as a nurse it was a saying in jest of course was that if you grew it you move it! We took six nurses to move up a 500lb pt who was dying!!! I was injured on the job with my arm under a 180lb pt's arm and lifted with another....but was injured as the bathroom was too small and I took all the wgt of the pt due to the other person having the sink in the way of her ability to lift this poor dying patient back to her bed!!


so job....lifting in the wrong way but he only one available.....thanks to all who were and are nurses!

love and hugs
Victoria Gibb RN

I just want to jump in here and say thank you to ALL nurses on here and everywhere. I've had some wonderful nurses both while I had outpatient surgery and was in the hospital. They're the ones who are on top of things and know when their patients aren't doing so well- not the doctors- because they see alot more of their patients than the drs. do....Too bad some drs. don't pay more attention to what nurses tell them. And hospitals are like every other business nowadays- trying to cut back and get by with fewer nurses and the nurses are busting their a%#@^ and the patients suffer because the nurses aren't able to be there as quickly when needed.

Thanks Red,
I want you to know that these days my massage therapist is my best friend! This guy really has a gift and when he works on me it is more beneficial than the physical therapist.

I have had 3 massage therapists that were wonderful people but this guy is the best.

Yes, Phoebe we had to work so fast and had to recap those needles. I did poke myself many times and it was scary.

When I first graduated in 1979 we did team nursing and on the medical floor a common assignment was 22-25 patients with 3 maybe 4 nurse's aides and maybe one of those was an LVN. I took a few years off when my son was born and was very happy when I came back and those huge teams were gone and it was 6-8 patients to one R.N.

After 7 years off of work as a bedside nurse I may complain (and thank you for allowing me), but I will tell you that when Dr Ahn told me I couldn't do bedside nursing again I felt like the world was coming to an end.
My world as I knew it has really changed. I grieved and barely left the house for a year.I was so depressed about my career being ripped from me 20 years from retirement age.
I may complain but I did love the patients (err, well most of them, some of them were heavenly sandpaper)

Most of us here on the forum have lost our careers. Many are struggling and have not received their social security and my heart goes out to all of you.

It's your profession that now is now a blessing to all of us. Oh, a massage. I do that ball on the wall self massage, and, IF I don't get to aggressive, which I seem to do alot, it helps me so much.

I thought of something else, and then I'll really shut up. My father, after retiring as a minister worked as a volunteer in a hospital for 20 years in the acct. dept. (the field he got his first degree in). He worked mon-fri 8-5, only taking off for vacations and drs. appts. He was hospitalized here, one of three hospitals he was to be a patient in over a period of 10 days before he died. They had offered him a paid job which he had declined, wanting to take off when he wanted or needed to. Their hosp. bill was the first to arrive, and the first to send a collection notice (because of course we couldn't pay it because it was then in the lawyer's hands).

Ok, I really am done now. Sorry to have jumped on this thread so heavily.

phoebe

I'm so sorry about your Father Phoebe.That is really wonderful how generous he was with his time.

But it sounds like the hospital he served so faithfully certainly wasn't there for him in his time of need.(wow, 20 years of volunteering full time)

Yes, I still have a lot of anger about how hospitals treat the people who serve them.

Could that be a cause of tos?

Well, it can't help our health that's for sure.

I think it is any employer unless you happened to have worked for a very small company or business. Once you are not there anymore for whatever reason they forget about you. Big business just keeps on keeping on.

I don't blame my former coworkers or my employer - if the situation were reversed - I wouldn't have time to keep in contact with someone that left work because my work & life would be plenty hectic and busy.

A lot of us gave too much of ourselves to a job and here we are.
Darn type A behavior!!