Preach it!!! But we also need to put on blast the nurses admins who excuse things like this with supportive phrases like, "well, it is still better than other hospitals". This is not a competition on who sucks the least. This is about those of us who ACTUALLY put our licenses at risk when we show up to work.
I'm a respiratory therapist. During Delta, I spent my nights bouncing from one crisis to the next, rarely completing one task before I was pulled to another. I remember sticking a husband and wife for ABGs in the ER and being called away to a rapid response before I could run the samples. An hour or two later, I returned, stuck them again, and was paged to a code. I gave up on ever running their gases. The wife was discharged a few days later: the husband died a couple weeks after that. Obviously, if you weren't having a dire emergency or on a ventilator, you weren't going to see me. Our floor patients got no nebulizers or inhalers - except, god bless them, from some of the med-surg nurses who learned to do nebs. Two RTs (our standard night shift staffing) for 170 beds isn't enough under normal circumstances. With a count that warranted four RTs but only two of us there, well, half of our COPD patients would have been better off at home. At least they would have gotten their routine medications there. I remember watching a particular name (admitted for a pretty moderate COPD exacerbation) move across our whiteboards from med-surg, to PCU on BiPAP, to the ICU on a vent. I had only seen her once. She'd been asking for her scheduled nebs all night and I didn't get to her till 4am; she was working hard to breathe and nearly in tears, simply because she wasn't getting routine medications. I would've cried too, if I hadn't already had my allotted crying jag that night. I didn't see her again for weeks. Even on that vent, she didn't get enough attention, but she survived. I saw her one more time, shortly before she was discharged. She was one of the few ventilator patients who made it out of our ICU alive all summer. During all of this, I was a new graduate, and my coworkers were just as overwhelmed and usually not available to help me. It was sink or swim, and if I sank, my patients went down with me, so I swam. The patients went down anyway, for the most part. I'll never forget watching a man learn that his father was dying downstairs, then hearing the code called for the son five days later. Or the single father of the 8-year-old, followed by the child's grandmother in three days. Or the father of the 3-year-old. Or the frequent flier we coded four times in one night while her family spent an hour deciding when to draw the line and let her go. Or the patients I never got to see at all because they probably weren't at risk of dying in the next five minutes and therefore were not a priority. My stories were the ones my therapist brought to her own therapist to process - something that most therapists with HCP clients were probably doing. And after witnessing all this death and dying each night, I saw the anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists on social media saying that their right to go unmasked was more important than public health, that the vaccine was dangerous, and that what I saw and did at work wasn't even real. I'm not a hero. I'm not special. I'm a normal person with a normal job who's been forced to attempt a task beyond human ability, and no, I couldn't do it. None of us could. Our patients all suffered because what our CEOs and administrators asked of us was impossible.
And I'm just going to say it don't know that I'm sick of people saying it's they're right, they're freedom, because they live in the United States of America, the rest of it is because they've decided to go without a mask. I've been vaccinated and boosted and I wear a mask every time I leave the house. Or the people who wear it below their nose, who seem to not know that the nose is a part of the respiratory system.
You are amazing and deserve a medal and a hug! I'm a covid nurse, (though my hospital didn't have it nearly as bad as it seems yours did). As a COVID nurse, RTs are my best friend!!! You guys are wonderful and so knowledgeable. I'm grateful for all you do. The experience you gained through covid has no doubt made you into a phenomenal RT (though I know that's not how anyone wants to gain experience). I know it has made you a stronger person too. Take care of yourself though. Now that numbers are down some especially. Take a vacation, take care of yourself, and take time to process everything 🙂 From one COVID saturated person to another, keep up the good work👊And thank you for doing your best amist dire circumstances 😊 God bless!
I am a floor nurse and the tears were in my eyes reading this because I know how true it is. Hang in there, I know the guilt is terrible but you can only do what you can do when the moments and patients are prioritized for you.
Yes! 👏🏼👏🏼 we need this in psych! Very sad when I and other staff can go an entire 12 hours without having time to give 5 minutes to patients because we do 12 discharges and 12 admissions a day
Needed everywhere! I recall being on an extremely busy med search for several years, And typing up as fast as I could, the discharge papers and hoping ahead time to actually give decent discharge instructions, our instructions, while the charging nurse was telling me I was getting a new admission, either someone who came through the ER or someone who had to be prepped for surgery within 10 minutes.
I'm an RTR (xray tech) and I know I don't even deal with a fraction of the understaffing problems that nurses (or anyone who works in a hospital in general) deal with. I give yall so much credit, I could never do what you do and be sane. Thank you for continuing to save lives and take care of others even though administration doesn't care for you, you're appreciated.
Thank you. As a nursing student graduating in May, this is a scary time to be a nurse. I just want to help people heal, hospitals are profiting off of our good will.
Well, it's cool that you are graduating. I'm going to back into nursing now after being off work with a medical problem for two years. I could have switched to something much easier and still make good money. But where else can you care for people, advocate for people’s rights, and pull people back from the edge of death?
My 87 year old mother was just in the hospital. She got hospital psychosis, shoved a doctor and slapped and pinched her first nurse. The nurse was an angel about it. Unbelievable how patient and caring you all are. Her next nurse who she had for four days got her under control then somehow sent her home stronger and able to do more than she could before. My mother tested positive for asymptomatic Covid and the nurse kissed her cheek and gave me a hug. I’ve never had a bad experience with nurses (and rarely a good one with doctors) I love and appreciate nurses. You should earn ten times what you do. ❤️🙏 Much love.
So I am about to embark on the journey to become a nurse and having spent the last 2 years as a CCE I have seen a lot. My background is in the aviation industry and I think hospitals can take a few lessons on work rules for pilots and flight attendants. Rest requirements, breaks, min crew, max hours, plus a very defined safety culture.
I'm really glad to hear that, you are right! People who fly planes and work on planes need to be given all these things! And yes, The medical staff members! They could indeed take a lesson
I'm a bitchy lab tech, so I have it (comparatively) easy. But you nurses have my utmost respect; you work really hard. And you (and the patients) would be much better off with safer staffing. Because when you get tired, that's when mistakes (sometimes critical ones) get made. Because you can't be in 10 places at once. Because you can't do more with less; you can only do less with less.
Thank you so much for your kind words! That really means a lot to me. I'm retired at the moment but I've been in Orion for 37 years and retired last year after my mom had covid before vaccines were available. She's now 93 and a 1/2, having had a relatively mild case I've admitted still put her in the hospital for 11 days and has left her a little more fragile than Before period if I go back to work it'll Just before one day a week since I live with my mom. Sorry I got a lot of track later a bit :) and appreciation! I appreciate what you do as well!
Hospitals need to offer 8 hour shift options for RN's who are older but very wise and smart but cannot tolerate a 12 hour shift. This would provide increase opportunities to those of us with 30 plus years of experience who left the bedside because of the long unbearable 12 hour shits.
Good point! I'm a former ICU nurse going back to work after a long recovery from a medical problem. Doing a 12-hour shift (which ends up being 13/14 hours) would overwhelm me at this time. I’m going into long-term care/rehab. Neither of the two local hospitals would let me work 8-hour shifts. The other facilities were like “What kind of shifts do you want and how many per week?"
Please don't forget about your animal hospitals too! People are leaving the veterinary field left and right. Sometimes our ER wait time is 8+ hours due not just our hospital, but other clinics being seriously understaffed.
I’ve always agreed with this point, but it makes me think. Will it even help with the nursing shortage? Won’t it just force places to shut down or only accept x amount of patients at one time?
Seems like a great idea. But considering that there is shortage of available nurses, how are "safe staffing" levels going to be enforced? Are we going to magically pull some nurses out of the air?
We really do need a safer patient to nurse and patient to tech ratio in all facilities. People wonder why patients are not taken care of so well, fall and meds are late. Well, in most hospitals nurses have 5+ patients and techs have 10+. Nursing homes nurses have 20+ residents and techs have 10+. It's not safe or realistic. It's not just the staff that needs to speak up about this, the community needs to demand to have this corrected so our communities can be properly taken care of. Then may be we'd be able to retain our nurses and techs better.
@@LucidDreamer54321 Oh yes it does. Spent thousands of dollars and I took all of my classes, pre-reqs (sciences,stats towards a bachelors college), and electives. Straight As but can’t pass the TEAS. So all of that hard work gone to waste because of a test that I already took 100s of them already. GTFOH. And you’re a Rep? Ha Ha Ha.
@ChristinaL1 You are wrong. There are a limited number of student slots available in each nursing program. The TEAS test is used to determine which students will be chosen. If you were not chosen, then that means one of the other students who applied was chosen instead of you. Don't let your bitterness make you unable to see (or to admit) the truth.
@ChristinaL1 There would be exactly the same number of students accepted into nursing programs with or without TEAS. If you can’t understand such a simple concept, then maybe it is good that you didn’t become a nurse. You probably couldn't be trusted to make good decisions on the job.
Not one mention of the vaccine mandates either in the video or in the comments. Surely it should be in the discussion? Or is this one of those things we aren't allowed to speak of?
"Safe staffing costs me money. Shut up, Blake." - every hospital CEO ever
Preach it!!! But we also need to put on blast the nurses admins who excuse things like this with supportive phrases like, "well, it is still better than other hospitals". This is not a competition on who sucks the least. This is about those of us who ACTUALLY put our licenses at risk when we show up to work.
🤣I almost choked on my food…”it’s not a competition on who sucks the least” so true!
PREACH!!! So tired of hearing this! They can shove it.
I'm a respiratory therapist. During Delta, I spent my nights bouncing from one crisis to the next, rarely completing one task before I was pulled to another. I remember sticking a husband and wife for ABGs in the ER and being called away to a rapid response before I could run the samples. An hour or two later, I returned, stuck them again, and was paged to a code. I gave up on ever running their gases. The wife was discharged a few days later: the husband died a couple weeks after that. Obviously, if you weren't having a dire emergency or on a ventilator, you weren't going to see me. Our floor patients got no nebulizers or inhalers - except, god bless them, from some of the med-surg nurses who learned to do nebs. Two RTs (our standard night shift staffing) for 170 beds isn't enough under normal circumstances. With a count that warranted four RTs but only two of us there, well, half of our COPD patients would have been better off at home. At least they would have gotten their routine medications there. I remember watching a particular name (admitted for a pretty moderate COPD exacerbation) move across our whiteboards from med-surg, to PCU on BiPAP, to the ICU on a vent. I had only seen her once. She'd been asking for her scheduled nebs all night and I didn't get to her till 4am; she was working hard to breathe and nearly in tears, simply because she wasn't getting routine medications. I would've cried too, if I hadn't already had my allotted crying jag that night. I didn't see her again for weeks. Even on that vent, she didn't get enough attention, but she survived. I saw her one more time, shortly before she was discharged. She was one of the few ventilator patients who made it out of our ICU alive all summer. During all of this, I was a new graduate, and my coworkers were just as overwhelmed and usually not available to help me. It was sink or swim, and if I sank, my patients went down with me, so I swam. The patients went down anyway, for the most part. I'll never forget watching a man learn that his father was dying downstairs, then hearing the code called for the son five days later. Or the single father of the 8-year-old, followed by the child's grandmother in three days. Or the father of the 3-year-old. Or the frequent flier we coded four times in one night while her family spent an hour deciding when to draw the line and let her go. Or the patients I never got to see at all because they probably weren't at risk of dying in the next five minutes and therefore were not a priority. My stories were the ones my therapist brought to her own therapist to process - something that most therapists with HCP clients were probably doing. And after witnessing all this death and dying each night, I saw the anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists on social media saying that their right to go unmasked was more important than public health, that the vaccine was dangerous, and that what I saw and did at work wasn't even real. I'm not a hero. I'm not special. I'm a normal person with a normal job who's been forced to attempt a task beyond human ability, and no, I couldn't do it. None of us could. Our patients all suffered because what our CEOs and administrators asked of us was impossible.
And I'm just going to say it don't know that I'm sick of people saying it's they're right, they're freedom, because they live in the United States of America, the rest of it is because they've decided to go without a mask. I've been vaccinated and boosted and I wear a mask every time I leave the house. Or the people who wear it below their nose, who seem to not know that the nose is a part of the respiratory system.
You are amazing and deserve a medal and a hug! I'm a covid nurse, (though my hospital didn't have it nearly as bad as it seems yours did). As a COVID nurse, RTs are my best friend!!! You guys are wonderful and so knowledgeable. I'm grateful for all you do. The experience you gained through covid has no doubt made you into a phenomenal RT (though I know that's not how anyone wants to gain experience). I know it has made you a stronger person too. Take care of yourself though. Now that numbers are down some especially. Take a vacation, take care of yourself, and take time to process everything 🙂 From one COVID saturated person to another, keep up the good work👊And thank you for doing your best amist dire circumstances 😊 God bless!
I am a floor nurse and the tears were in my eyes reading this because I know how true it is. Hang in there, I know the guilt is terrible but you can only do what you can do when the moments and patients are prioritized for you.
Just 1 reply to the naysayers who refuse the Vax. GO TO HELL. Jeff, MSN,RN.
Imagine a world where
ICU has 1:2
ER 1:3
Med surg 1:4
How good life would be.
We do 1:5 on days and it still feels like a stretch.
Yes! 👏🏼👏🏼 we need this in psych! Very sad when I and other staff can go an entire 12 hours without having time to give 5 minutes to patients because we do 12 discharges and 12 admissions a day
Wow!!!!!
Needed everywhere! I recall being on an extremely busy med search for several years, And typing up as fast as I could, the discharge papers and hoping ahead time to actually give decent discharge instructions, our instructions, while the charging nurse was telling me I was getting a new admission, either someone who came through the ER or someone who had to be prepped for surgery within 10 minutes.
40 years of preaching this.
I'm an RTR (xray tech) and I know I don't even deal with a fraction of the understaffing problems that nurses (or anyone who works in a hospital in general) deal with. I give yall so much credit, I could never do what you do and be sane. Thank you for continuing to save lives and take care of others even though administration doesn't care for you, you're appreciated.
Thank you. As a nursing student graduating in May, this is a scary time to be a nurse. I just want to help people heal, hospitals are profiting off of our good will.
Hello Alison O’Connor how are you doing today?
Do you always have that beautiful smile on your face?
Well, it's cool that you are graduating. I'm going to back into nursing now after being off work with a medical problem for two years. I could have switched to something much easier and still make good money. But where else can you care for people, advocate for people’s rights, and pull people back from the edge of death?
My 87 year old mother was just in the hospital. She got hospital psychosis, shoved a doctor and slapped and pinched her first nurse. The nurse was an angel about it. Unbelievable how patient and caring you all are. Her next nurse who she had for four days got her under control then somehow sent her home stronger and able to do more than she could before. My mother tested positive for asymptomatic Covid and the nurse kissed her cheek and gave me a hug. I’ve never had a bad experience with nurses (and rarely a good one with doctors) I love and appreciate nurses. You should earn ten times what you do. ❤️🙏 Much love.
Thanks Blake for bringing light into this topic. Couldn't agree more.
Nationwide safe staffing!! No more every state has thier rules. You want a mandate that matters this is it!
Blake, we miss your youtube videos.
April 2022
Please come back. Say hello to your hubby. Jeff, RN.
Love it! Any news on getting it aired and if so, when and where?
Thanks for the campaign you’re leading here! 🥰
So I am about to embark on the journey to become a nurse and having spent the last 2 years as a CCE I have seen a lot. My background is in the aviation industry and I think hospitals can take a few lessons on work rules for pilots and flight attendants. Rest requirements, breaks, min crew, max hours, plus a very defined safety culture.
I'm really glad to hear that, you are right! People who fly planes and work on planes need to be given all these things! And yes, The medical staff members! They could indeed take a lesson
They should, but they won't.
Great idea. Let me reach out an magically pull a few thousand new nurses out of the air.
they have already been using the communication models.More is needed.
So crazy you say this because a lot of the research done at patient safety has paralleled some of the research done in aviation
Well done Blake. Thank you from Ontario Canada too 💕
Goosebumps! You're so right Blake
Love it Blake! We need this in AZ.
I'm in AZ and concur. I am unhappy, chronically stressed and very fed up
@@porcelaindolli3 Same! It’s sad.
I'm a bitchy lab tech, so I have it (comparatively) easy. But you nurses have my utmost respect; you work really hard. And you (and the patients) would be much better off with safer staffing. Because when you get tired, that's when mistakes (sometimes critical ones) get made. Because you can't be in 10 places at once. Because you can't do more with less; you can only do less with less.
Thank you so much for your kind words! That really means a lot to me. I'm retired at the moment but I've been in Orion for 37 years and retired last year after my mom had covid before vaccines were available. She's now 93 and a 1/2, having had a relatively mild case I've admitted still put her in the hospital for 11 days and has left her a little more fragile than Before period if I go back to work it'll Just before one day a week since I live with my mom. Sorry I got a lot of track later a bit :) and appreciation! I appreciate what you do as well!
Hospitals need to offer 8 hour shift options for RN's who are older but very wise and smart but cannot tolerate a 12 hour shift. This would provide increase opportunities to those of us with 30 plus years of experience who left the bedside because of the long unbearable 12 hour shits.
Good point! I'm a former ICU nurse going back to work after a long recovery from a medical problem. Doing a 12-hour shift (which ends up being 13/14 hours) would overwhelm me at this time. I’m going into long-term care/rehab. Neither of the two local hospitals would let me work 8-hour shifts. The other facilities were like “What kind of shifts do you want and how many per week?"
so grateful for mandated ratios in California
Facebook links 🔗 👆
I’m a cardiac monitor technician and my best friends are nurses. They are exhausted and hate that we all are short staffed everywhere
As much as I absolutely love the thought of it, that would require that organization to actually do something to HELP us
They should start showing up without advance notice.
Thank you Blake
Omg so needed!! Can’t agree more. I freaking love it 🙋🏻♀️
Wow we the theme of of Blake, thanks for the comment.
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Good job putting this together. Will share.
Yes 🙌🏽 love this
I hope someone does something about this one day....we all struggle every shift and no one does anything for us. So sad.
Please don't forget about your animal hospitals too! People are leaving the veterinary field left and right. Sometimes our ER wait time is 8+ hours due not just our hospital, but other clinics being seriously understaffed.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!
No link?
I’ve always agreed with this point, but it makes me think. Will it even help with the nursing shortage? Won’t it just force places to shut down or only accept x amount of patients at one time?
Yep
Yes!
Joint commission 😃😃😃 is a joke of 🍿🍿🍿🍿 paper fillings
Seems like a great idea. But considering that there is shortage of available nurses, how are "safe staffing" levels going to be enforced? Are we going to magically pull some nurses out of the air?
Exactly.
We really do need a safer patient to nurse and patient to tech ratio in all facilities. People wonder why patients are not taken care of so well, fall and meds are late. Well, in most hospitals nurses have 5+ patients and techs have 10+. Nursing homes nurses have 20+ residents and techs have 10+. It's not safe or realistic. It's not just the staff that needs to speak up about this, the community needs to demand to have this corrected so our communities can be properly taken care of. Then may be we'd be able to retain our nurses and techs better.
Get rid of the TEAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why? The TEAS test does not limit the number of nurses.
@@LucidDreamer54321 Oh yes it does. Spent thousands of dollars and I took all of my classes, pre-reqs (sciences,stats towards a bachelors college), and electives. Straight As but can’t pass the TEAS. So all of that hard work gone to waste because of a test that I already took 100s of them already. GTFOH. And you’re a Rep? Ha Ha Ha.
@ChristinaL1 You are wrong. There are a limited number of student slots available in each nursing program. The TEAS test is used to determine which students will be chosen. If you were not chosen, then that means one of the other students who applied was chosen instead of you. Don't let your bitterness make you unable to see (or to admit) the truth.
@ChristinaL1 There would be exactly the same number of students accepted into nursing programs with or without TEAS. If you can’t understand such a simple concept, then maybe it is good that you didn’t become a nurse. You probably couldn't be trusted to make good decisions on the job.
@@ChrissyL1111 spent thousands of dollars?something missing.
Not one mention of the vaccine mandates either in the video or in the comments. Surely it should be in the discussion? Or is this one of those things we aren't allowed to speak of?
That’s EXACTLY right. So much fear of saying what needs to be said. My goodness, when do we stop fearing what people may say in response to truth!