First hand experience of issues in Nursing
By: Allure Williams
Not too long ago towards the end of the fall semester, I was completing my required hospital volunteer hours for the EMT Course I was taking. Before signing up I remember my firefighter professor saying “Hospital clinicals are set for 12 hour shifts and field clinicals are set for 9- or 12-hour shifts depending on the agency.” In my head I thought to myself “12 hours …I’m not even a real employee”. On the day of my clinical I arrived at South bay Hospital a few minutes before 10 in full uniform on an empty stomach – I was rushing that morning, nervous not knowing what to expect for the next 12 hours I will spend in the Emergency room. I walked up to the nurses’ desk asking the busy women at the computer “Who is the charge nurse today?” she said Melissa and pointed to an empty chair. Luckily there was an older volunteer willing to show me the ropes. He motioned for me to follow him which he then led me to the nurses’ lounge room. He told me the key code and that I was welcome to leave my bag in there and put food in the refrigerator. Next, we walked to “The Board”- a white board next to a tv screen that showed which nurses were responsible for which rooms and the tv screen corresponded with rooms and the patient’s info or if the room was empty. The screen was covered in symbols and info,
yet it was organized.
Most of the nurses didn’t pay much mind to me they just walked back and forth from room to room while making little stops to send lab work or fill out paperwork. I saw an opportunity to get some action with a friendly bright-eyed nurse named Brittany, I mean after all I was being rated on my performance by the nurses themselves. I walked up to her and asked her, “Do you need help with anything?” and it all started from there. She answered “yes, grab some gloves”. From that point she had me getting patients started which is to get a temp, respiratory rate, and BP1 set up or in some cases a 12 lead2 or EKG3. After a while of doing this my hands started to smell of latex free gloves and hand sanitizer. Not too long after that, I heard a call of an unconscious male coming in less than 5 min away and of course he was coming to trauma; a room that she oversaw. He comes and I rush, quickly trying to put on gloves. This wasn’t an ordinary unconscious man he had mental health issues and was fighting the sedatives. I saw she was struggling to hold him down, so I did what I had learned, I held his leg down and tied it to the bed with restraints. Now that he was restrained the doctor came with more sedatives and the respiratory team came to assist with his breathing. After this ordeal, the other nurses saw that I can be a help to them. All the other nurses then took their chance to have me do various task to help them with their work load. It got to a point that I would be in a room with a patient and hear “where is the student?”. Later that day I was able to sneak away for a break and I saw Brittany in the lounge room studying, she said she was going to school to be Nurse Practitioner because being a RN didn’t “pay enough” and the hours were “exhausting”. Talking with some of the other nurses I realized that their normal hours are 13-15-hour shifts depending on how busy the ER is or how many nurses are on duty.
According to an article in “Nursing Times” called “Exclusive survey: Nurses underpaid, overworked and undervalued”, “The majority of nurses feel underpaid, overworked and undervalued, according to a survey carried out..” and that “Staff shortages and too much paperwork were the most common factors stopping nurses from doing their job properly, they said.”. This article says everything I seen happen that day and yet these nurses still have a passion for their job. Seeing Nurses from their perspective has really given me an insight into what I’m getting into and my appreciation for nurses has grown more.
1 Blood Pressure
2 Simpler form of a EKG
3 electrocardiogram, used to determine heart rate, heart rhythm and other information regarding the heart's condition.
Works cited
Ford, Steve. “Exclusive survey: Nurses underpaid, overworked and undervalued”
Nursing Times, 7 May. 2014
https://www.nursingtimes.net/roles/nurse-managers/exclusive-survey-nurses-underpaid-overworked-and-undervalued/5070524.article
By: Allure Williams
Not too long ago towards the end of the fall semester, I was completing my required hospital volunteer hours for the EMT Course I was taking. Before signing up I remember my firefighter professor saying “Hospital clinicals are set for 12 hour shifts and field clinicals are set for 9- or 12-hour shifts depending on the agency.” In my head I thought to myself “12 hours …I’m not even a real employee”. On the day of my clinical I arrived at South bay Hospital a few minutes before 10 in full uniform on an empty stomach – I was rushing that morning, nervous not knowing what to expect for the next 12 hours I will spend in the Emergency room. I walked up to the nurses’ desk asking the busy women at the computer “Who is the charge nurse today?” she said Melissa and pointed to an empty chair. Luckily there was an older volunteer willing to show me the ropes. He motioned for me to follow him which he then led me to the nurses’ lounge room. He told me the key code and that I was welcome to leave my bag in there and put food in the refrigerator. Next, we walked to “The Board”- a white board next to a tv screen that showed which nurses were responsible for which rooms and the tv screen corresponded with rooms and the patient’s info or if the room was empty. The screen was covered in symbols and info,
yet it was organized.
Most of the nurses didn’t pay much mind to me they just walked back and forth from room to room while making little stops to send lab work or fill out paperwork. I saw an opportunity to get some action with a friendly bright-eyed nurse named Brittany, I mean after all I was being rated on my performance by the nurses themselves. I walked up to her and asked her, “Do you need help with anything?” and it all started from there. She answered “yes, grab some gloves”. From that point she had me getting patients started which is to get a temp, respiratory rate, and BP1 set up or in some cases a 12 lead2 or EKG3. After a while of doing this my hands started to smell of latex free gloves and hand sanitizer. Not too long after that, I heard a call of an unconscious male coming in less than 5 min away and of course he was coming to trauma; a room that she oversaw. He comes and I rush, quickly trying to put on gloves. This wasn’t an ordinary unconscious man he had mental health issues and was fighting the sedatives. I saw she was struggling to hold him down, so I did what I had learned, I held his leg down and tied it to the bed with restraints. Now that he was restrained the doctor came with more sedatives and the respiratory team came to assist with his breathing. After this ordeal, the other nurses saw that I can be a help to them. All the other nurses then took their chance to have me do various task to help them with their work load. It got to a point that I would be in a room with a patient and hear “where is the student?”. Later that day I was able to sneak away for a break and I saw Brittany in the lounge room studying, she said she was going to school to be Nurse Practitioner because being a RN didn’t “pay enough” and the hours were “exhausting”. Talking with some of the other nurses I realized that their normal hours are 13-15-hour shifts depending on how busy the ER is or how many nurses are on duty.
According to an article in “Nursing Times” called “Exclusive survey: Nurses underpaid, overworked and undervalued”, “The majority of nurses feel underpaid, overworked and undervalued, according to a survey carried out..” and that “Staff shortages and too much paperwork were the most common factors stopping nurses from doing their job properly, they said.”. This article says everything I seen happen that day and yet these nurses still have a passion for their job. Seeing Nurses from their perspective has really given me an insight into what I’m getting into and my appreciation for nurses has grown more.
1 Blood Pressure
2 Simpler form of a EKG
3 electrocardiogram, used to determine heart rate, heart rhythm and other information regarding the heart's condition.
Works cited
Ford, Steve. “Exclusive survey: Nurses underpaid, overworked and undervalued”
Nursing Times, 7 May. 2014
https://www.nursingtimes.net/roles/nurse-managers/exclusive-survey-nurses-underpaid-overworked-and-undervalued/5070524.article