ends and beginnings and a rant, too

June 30 will be my last official day at Roanoke Memorial. I've been there nearly four years. I planned to work there until I retired. Sometimes plans don't work out. When I was hired, there was a "temporary housing" benefit. The hospital paid for a hotel room for any nurse (and some other employees)who lived more than 60 miles away. I live 120 miles from the hospital. But for the loss of this benefit, I wouldn't quit. I like what I do. I have a good group of coworkers. There are issues that I wish could be corrected, but that's true of any job.
July 5, I'll start my new job at Thomas memorial Hospital. I'll stay with Catie and Ben while I'm working. That works out well for all of us. Abbey will have someone to care for her all the time. I'm not worried about starting a new job. Maybe this time, I can stay in the same place till I retire.
Health care is changing in this country, and not for the better. Today, 12,000 nurses in Minnesota went out on a one day strike. Their request is simple: They want better staffing to improve patient safety and they want their retirement benefits protected. Not much to ask. I was amazed at the number of negative comments left at USA Today. Negative toward nurses. Comments about how nurses live in $500,000 houses, drive $100,000 cars, and make $80,000 per year irk me. Comments about how nursing assistants do "all the work" annoy me, too. I live in a $60,000 house. I drive a Jeep with nearly 90,000 miles on it. It surely didn't cost $100K. And the $80K/year figure is an average! Most bedside nurses make far less than that. Nursing assistants on the unit where I work are a luxury. It is the nurses' responsibility to bathe, feed, potty, medicate, assess, and otherwise care for their assigned five patients. Time can be a real problem. It is expected that all nurses document activities (turns, medications, assessments, treatments, etc) within one hour. There are nights when I can't document anything before 4am! I'm just too busy! When reimbursements are cut to hospitals, or when hospitals have financial strains, the first cuts are made at the bedside. Nurses go first. We are viewed as expendable. That's why the temporary housing benefit was cut. An experienced RN is worth the CEO's weight in gold! Unfortunately, when we demand appropriate compensation for what we do and appropriate staffing levels to provide the quality of care that our patients deserve, we are vilified. None of us took a vow of poverty when we made the choice to do this really gross work. Most of the people who post the ugly comments about us have no idea what we really do. I suggest that those who find it so easy to fault us walk a shift in our clogs. Then, you might see where we're coming from!