nurses care so much about patients they walk off the job

Jondo wrote:I agree. I'm tired of the ransom dynamic that the nursing contingent has evolved to. Fact is - we need to start expecting people to be responsible for their own primary health (diet and activity) versus going bankrupt on the care side. No amount of money can keep up with the self-inflicted health decline that we're seeing. I was at the HSC at 6am this morning for an MRI brain scan (tumor) and it made me sick seeing people outside the building when I left (7am) in wheelchairs - hooked up to drips while they smoked. I regularly see people outside in wheelchairs with missing limbs, grossly obese, smoking, eating chips, drinking pop etc. We have a healthcare shortfall/crisis?? Huh?? We have a personal responsibilty crisis - which nobody wants to talk about. This will change. I know that because it is wholly unsustainable.

So when you end up in hospital, can we judge your imperfections and refuse to treat you then?

I agree about needing more personal responsibility, but it isn't that simple.

According to DeanK, an acute care, specially trained, experienced nurse who doesn't like their specific unit any more should have two options: go work in a nursing home or leave the profession.... ???? Hell of a choice. Good thing we don't have all our managers like Dean, there really would be no nurses!

Yes. There are people who's lives revolve around the healthcare system. If you can't see that for yourself then speak to healthcare workers including doctors. It's the not-so-secret secret. There's your answer. The patterns and trends are not difficult to track. Intervention with those abusers will take the immediate burden off the system. And the diabetes specialists should be stationed up north rather than booking regular planes for transport to Winnipeg. I could go on - if anybody is really interested in looking where the billion$ are going.

darkwind wrote: Like I said, you sound really not knowledgeable about the stresses and strains of that kind of work.

Bingo.

darkwind wrote:According to DeanK, an acute care, specially trained, experienced nurse who doesn't like their specific unit any more should have two options: go work in a nursing home or leave the profession.... ???? Hell of a choice. Good thing we don't have all our managers like Dean, there really would be no nurses!

nope. not what I said. try again.

Deank wrote:

darkwind wrote:According to DeanK, an acute care, specially trained, experienced nurse who doesn't like their specific unit any more should have two options: go work in a nursing home or leave the profession.... ???? Hell of a choice. Good thing we don't have all our managers like Dean, there really would be no nurses!

nope. not what I said. try again.

You said WRHA should refuse them other jobs. Where else do you think they can work in this city?

You also said they should stay and train the new hires- orientation and training of new hires by the senior staff is normal and routine on all nursing units. Not necessarily by the person leaving, but by the team as a whole, depending on employment start dates. IF that did not happen here, management dropped the ball.

Btw a comment left on wfp says the nurses were TERMINATED when they amalgamated programs and simply chose to apply for new jobs elsewhere - wonder what the true story is.

They could work in any doctors office or they could move.. obviously their speciality is out of the question in this province ever again.

that did not happen here because the nurses either quit or transfered out they were "so upset"

I dunno Dean. If I worked for a corporation that I loved, where I'd invested a good part of my career, I would not be so quick to move on. I think it is unreasonable to expect people to just because they are nurses.

I have worked in a large company and if I was transferred to a manager I did not like or into a role I did not like I would take the very first opportunity to find another spot in the organization.

Also, in most major organizations staff are reviewed. If enough people bailed on a manager or from a department a smart organization would want to know why and will take steps to correct the issues.

Not all people are cut out to be managers and leaders...

So where is the real story? Where is the report from the 6 nurses? Why do we even bother to read a newspaper that hasn't bothered to do the hard digging?

Is this story about 6 nurses who are still working, who moved to other jobs in the system, rather than work for 1 abusive NDP nurse supervisor?

rosencrentz wrote:Why do we even bother to read a newspaper that hasn't bothered to do the hard digging?

Are there any investigative reporters around besides Brodbeck and the black rod???

brodbeck is no "investigative" reporter. brodbeck is all about sensationalistic one-sided tabloid reporting.

That anyone would still want to be a nurse, in this day in age, where most of your time is spent tied up in bureaucracy, paperwork and having to cater to the spoilled, entitled and selfish public is a wonder to me. The amount of abuse and over-work that RNs have to take on during a daily shift would stun most people. To say that they should suck it up or leave the profession blows my mind. Really? More time could be spent on patient care and real health care prevention if administration and government weren't making it impossible. Your system is broken, not the workers.

Apparently, most people like the way they're treated within our health care system....as they re-elected these commie bastards that are running it.

True but the gov't has cemented the sense of entitlement attitude that most public have. And now they serve to fill the need. It's the ultimate gov't make-work sinkhole. No parameters - just keep increasing the funding. That's what needs to change.

I think it's only going to get worse in the next four years. This government doesn't know a bureaucracy that it won't enlarge. Meanwhile, patients suffer in hallways.

Sourpuss wrote:That anyone would still want to be a nurse, in this day in age, where most of your time is spent tied up in bureaucracy, paperwork and having to cater to the spoilled, entitled and selfish public is a wonder to me. The amount of abuse and over-work that RNs have to take on during a daily shift would stun most people. To say that they should suck it up or leave the profession blows my mind. Really? More time could be spent on patient care and real health care prevention if administration and government weren't making it impossible. Your system is broken, not the workers.

Very well said. I challenge all of the critics of "lazy nurses" to spend just one day doing their job, or any other job that requires a lot of patience to take physical, mental and verbal abuse by patients and visitors alike. Some of you really have no clue.

JTF wrote:I think it's only going to get worse in the next four years. This government doesn't know a bureaucracy that it won't enlarge. Meanwhile, patients suffer in hallways.

Frankly, I want to see what's being done in other provinces to make things better. There is better elsewhere, right?

grumpy old man wrote:I dunno Dean. If I worked for a corporation that I loved, where I'd invested a good part of my career, I would not be so quick to move on. I think it is unreasonable to expect people to just because they are nurses.

I have worked in a large company and if I was transferred to a manager I did not like or into a role I did not like I would take the very first opportunity to find another spot in the organization.

And that first opportunity should not be allowed to happen until such time as your replacement is trained in your job. These nurses put the health care of EVERY Manitoban at risk. That should not have been allowed without then facing consequences.

" To say that they should suck it up or leave the profession blows my
mind. Really? More time could be spent on patient care and real health
care prevention if administration and government weren't making it
impossible. Your system is broken, not the workers."

They should suck it up. For the time it takes to train their replacements, until then they should not be allowed to simply move out of their position because they dont like it.

EdWin wrote:

Sourpuss wrote:That anyone would still want to be a nurse, in this day in age, where most of your time is spent tied up in bureaucracy, paperwork and having to cater to the spoilled, entitled and selfish public is a wonder to me. The amount of abuse and over-work that RNs have to take on during a daily shift would stun most people. To say that they should suck it up or leave the profession blows my mind. Really? More time could be spent on patient care and real health care prevention if administration and government weren't making it impossible. Your system is broken, not the workers.

Very well said. I challenge all of the critics of "lazy nurses" to spend just one day doing their job, or any other job that requires a lot of patience to take physical, mental and verbal abuse by patients and visitors alike. Some of you really have no clue.

Who said they were lazy? But anyway, Nurses are NO different then any other job, we all have to put up with different levels of frustration and mental and verbal abuse from different people all the time. Challenging anyone to do anyone else's job for just one day is ridiculous as we all see different things day to day. I hauled a 25lb crowbar up and down a hot, wet sticky mud filled road 12 hours a day, day in day out, sucking down diesel fumes and stale water.. I challenge anyone to do that and not say its difficult... See? We all have jobs that can be pains in the a$$ at times, Nurses are no different.

I think there are too many conservatives posting on this forum! Complaining that the NDP are running the Winnipeg Regional Health Department is ridiculous!

There are health care professionals doing that! There might be the odd NDP supporter or bag man put in the odd job, but you know that they would be 87% qualified!

Deank wrote:

EdWin wrote:

Sourpuss wrote:That anyone would still want to be a nurse, in this day in age, where most of your time is spent tied up in bureaucracy, paperwork and having to cater to the spoilled, entitled and selfish public is a wonder to me. The amount of abuse and over-work that RNs have to take on during a daily shift would stun most people. To say that they should suck it up or leave the profession blows my mind. Really? More time could be spent on patient care and real health care prevention if administration and government weren't making it impossible. Your system is broken, not the workers.

Very well said. I challenge all of the critics of "lazy nurses" to spend just one day doing their job, or any other job that requires a lot of patience to take physical, mental and verbal abuse by patients and visitors alike. Some of you really have no clue.

Who said they were lazy? But anyway, Nurses are NO different then any other job, we all have to put up with different levels of frustration and mental and verbal abuse from different people all the time. Challenging anyone to do anyone else's job for just one day is ridiculous as we all see different things day to day. I hauled a 25lb crowbar up and down a hot, wet sticky mud filled road 12 hours a day, day in day out, sucking down diesel fumes and stale water.. I challenge anyone to do that and not say its difficult... See? We all have jobs that can be pains in the a$$ at times, Nurses are no different.

Again, I really believe you don't get it. There are certain professions, especially those within the public sector, that put their employees at a much higher risk for all kinds of abuse, injury and burnout than anything most of us see in the private sector. Nurses, firefighters and police (cue the cop haters) are the three that stand out the most to me, but there are many others as well. Most of us don't have to put up with nearly the same amount of crap or danger that these men and women do, and I admire and respect them as people and professionals. And as much as we expect them to take care of us first, I fully understand and respect them for wanting to take care of themselves when they feel they are at their limits and can take no more. Kudos to them. They have my full support. And I'm not going to put them down for looking out for themselves, their safety and their mental and physical well being. And in all honesty, if someone doesn't feel they can do their job to the best of their ability anymore, especially with regards to caring for the sick and elderly, then it's probably in everyone's best interest that they move on and allow someone who has their head in the game more to take their place.

i believe you dont have a clue, nurses are not super heros, they are not angels, they are just doing a job

Yup, I agree DeanK.

But I also think the best nurses are the ones who are engaged, challenged, enjoy their work. Not just slogging though a job. There are some jobs that you can be good at "just doing a job". Some (careers more than "jobs") require a higher involvement to be good at them.

Anyone who doesn't see that must have limited experience with the health care system, imo.

I do think a valuable point was made about the sheer size of hsc and wrha though. It really is a monopoly, and people who enjoy and are engaged in certain types of work really only have one "umbrella employer" to look at. But those of us that work in it don't really see "WRHA" as our boss. Your boss is your department head, because of the vastness of the place. HSC has more than 5000 employees now. Someone who likes acute care is just not going to be good at or engaged in "doctors office" or other places of work. It's not fair to someone to say that if you are not satisfied in your current job that you have really no option.

Actually I think that "on the ground", WRHA exists only on paper. And that may be part of the problem with the nurses who didn't want to be rotated to different sites. Because honestly, each facility still does things quite differently.

Deank wrote:i believe you dont have a clue, nurses are not super heros, they are not angels, they are just doing a job

Hey man, that's cool. You obviously don't have much respect for those that take care of you when you are sick. You are entitled to your opinion and I'm not going to argue with you on this, but it does surprise me that some can't even realize that they play a big and special roll in taking care of the public. They deserve more respect than many give them.