Back to Work...

After a long recovery, I am back to the job I truly love....

I love making a difference with my patients, caring for them, laughing with them and often making decisions that keep them alive. These are the joys of the profession I chose so many years ago.

Unfortunately, the politics of the profession, the demands and often unsafe situations are persistently prevalent. And the frustrating lack of nursing advocacy is enough to drive anyone away from this wonderful work.

Who advocates for the bedside nurse? Who makes sure that the night or day that is crazy busy is also safely staffed and that your patients will have all of the help that they need? Obviously not the budget and too often not those you work for, because the help is just not there.

Danger, Danger, Will Robinson...Aliens may not be approaching but the Nursing Shortage is not a myth and it is current and the future.
See: http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/fact-sheets/nursing-shortage

The fact of the matter is that until facilities and organizations make nursing satisfaction a priority, there will never be a solution to the shortage. The nursing schools are popping out nurses faster and faster with less training and less tolerance of the situations that older nurses have put up with for decades. And countless numbers of these nurses are retiring now and many in the next decade. The Shortage is real and will not get better until the safety of work situations and the satisfaction of the bedside nurse is addressed as an important issue. These new nurse are leaving every day, they are moving on and not staying at the bedside, where patients need them.

Every workplace for nurses NEEDS NURSING ADVOCACY that does not answer to the those that do not care about their workforce. Those highest in the realm of administration should be the ones that care the most and want to provide for their largest group of employees. The ones at the bedside providing the care that keeps patients safe and happy.