- Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lamat
Photo by Hearttist. I have decided to post this photo which allows me to go to my happy place. A true beauty.
I feel I have lost compassion, a part of myself and live in fear of losing my nursing license by working in my current Emergency Room position. The fact is...I love emergency nursing and trauma especially and I hold the field close to my heart. The unit is always under staffed and the patients have high acuity. The other night I was expected to take 3 ICU patients, as well as one other high acuity patient, not only is the assignment unsafe for the patients but places my nursing license on the line. I am losing all faith in emergency medicine and the system in general. I was able to address my concerns and took 2 icu patients and 2 other patients, still very unsafe. My ICU patients essentially needed one on one care. This all falls into nursing politics and corporation’s failure to secure enough money for staff. Float pool was not available the other night because the nurses were acting as monitor techs on telemetry floors and patients could not be moved out of the ER to the ICU because the ICU did not have enough nurses. This is ridiculous. I lose faith in nursing...no wonder why hospitals cannot retain nurses. I hear there is a staffing committee and the committee is supposed to have procedures for times when unit staffing is low and I guess in theory this is a great idea. I have not seen this implemented. California has the right idea which mandates proper nurse to patient ratios. One day I hope Texas will jump on board. Its so sad that my nursing career has came to this...to leave the field I love due to staffing. I have even thought of leaving nursing all together.
So this is a new me. I have decided to take a job in the Post Anesthesia care unit. I am extremely excited to take on a new job and look forward to finding the love inside me that once was nursing. PACU will allow me to use my critical care skills but still have the "in and out" patient flow that I enjoy. I took a pay cut but when it comes to happiness, what’s the cost? Unfortunetly, I still have to finish 4 more shifts in the ER. I dread each moment.
A last word to the ER patients.
"In the sick room, ten cents' worth of human understanding equals ten dollars' worth of medical science." ~Martin H. Fischer
