Hospitals focus on keeping nurses happy

[peady2]

I got this today in an email from ANA SmartBrief. The beginning of the article talks about a graduate nurse residency program to help ease the transition from new grad to independent practitioner. Sounds good. However the second part of the article-copied below-stuck in my craw. A way to keep nurses happy? Sounds more like a way to keep hospitals happy-by not hiring enough staff thus keeping more money for exorbitant CEO/admin salaries. Are these volunteers even legally safe? Is there a legal precedent for this I wonder? I mean I know nurses volunteer in other countries or depressed areas or at calamities or at low income clinics in the US. But at a hospital where they are helping save money for the facility as opposed to helping to care for the poor or displaced? What do you all think?

Hospitals focus on keeping nurses happy

HELPING HANDS

Other area hospitals help keep nurses happy by recruiting volunteers — unpaid nurses with current licenses who provide an extra set of eyes, ears and hands to the nurses on staff.

St. John's Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur was one of the first in the country to give nurse volunteers responsibilities, including taking patient histories, changing bandages, checking vital signs and giving baths to patients. The volunteers don't take physicians' orders or dispense medicine.

Some of the volunteers are retired nurses, but others already have jobs and volunteer for the opportunity to give extra patient care.

Kim Lindley volunteers once a week through a program at Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, the same hospital where she started her career in the 1980s. She also works part time at St. Luke's Hospital in Chesterfield, and she says volunteering keeps her happy.

"I get to do the fun parts of nursing, the parts you don't have time for (at a paying job)," she said. "It's more rewarding when it's from the heart and not the paycheck."

On a recent morning Lindley played Yahtzee with one young patient, gave a nursing student advice on feeding a baby and helped insert a catheter into another patient.

Nurses say they love having the volunteers' help. The volunteers understand why the machines are beeping. They can answer patients' questions. They know how to help.

"He can anticipate our needs, we don't have to ask," Cardinal Glennon nurse Marlene Zagarri said of one operating room nurse volunteer. "Our younger volunteers are more like our gofers. These guys can actually use their nursing skills."

[reesern1963]

What is the matter with these nurses? Do they not understand the implications here? For goodness sake, the last thing we need is hospitals finding ways to do things on the cheap. Those "volunteers" are not helping us, they are hurting us.

The ANA has been irrelevant to me for a long time, but this is despicable. It goes to show just how out of touch their leadership really is.

[peady2]

What is the matter with these nurses? Do they not understand the implications here? For goodness sake, the last thing we need is hospitals finding ways to do things on the cheap. Those "volunteers" are not helping us, they are hurting us.

The ANA has been irrelevant to me for a long time, but this is despicable. It goes to show just how out of touch their leadership really is.

I'm glad to see you agree with me. At first I hesitated to post this because in general I think that volunteering is important both for those we help and for the personal satisfaction it brings.

But why the hell would anyone think that saving a hospital money by working for free is admirable? I already know too many nurses who work for free. Nurses who don't take breaks or stay late to finish charting after they punched out. These "volunteers" are even worse. The hospital is paying the nurse in the next room to change those dressings-WHY are you there doing it for free??

I could see coming in to rock or read to or play with kids, or chat with the elderly as a volunteer. That is admirable. But you don't do ANY patient care.

Over my many years I have done hundreds of hours of volunteer work in a variety of settings. But I have always made it a habit not to give away the skills that make my bread and butter. I think that is plain stupid.

[reesern1963]

I'm glad to see you agree with me. At first I hesitated to post this because in general I think that volunteering is important both for those we help and for the personal satisfaction it brings.

But why the hell would anyone think that saving a hospital money by working for free is admirable? I already know too many nurses who work for free. Nurses who don't take breaks or stay late to finish charting after they punched out. These "volunteers" are even worse. The hospital is paying the nurse in the next room to change those dressings-WHY are you there doing it for free??

I could see coming in to rock or read to or play with kids, or chat with the elderly as a volunteer. That is admirable. But you don't do ANY patient care.

Over my many years I have done hundreds of hours of volunteer work in a variety of settings. But I have always made it a habit not to give away the skills that make my bread and butter. I think that is plain stupid.

Who is responsible for supervising these "volunteers" who are performing these skilled tasks? Oh yeah, that's right, nursing staff. One more thing to add to the list of things to do. Who is making sure they are competent? If they make a mistake or cause a pt. harm, who takes responsibility?

ITA, peady. Most of us have given away far too many hours of our time to facilities. This sounds like yet another hairbrained idea from management. Hard to see clearly when you have dollar signs in your eyes.

[lukemacwan]

Thanks for this. Have you got a address I contact you on very quickly?

[coolmom1]

OMG where are they finding retired nurses to volunteer? most of them are working part time because they have such small pensions and their 401 K were just decimated!

[donnarn562]

This happens where I work. We have volunteers who give baths, sit on 1:1, answer call lights, answer phones & put together. One comes in the evening after the secretary leaves. The other comes in Sat on the weekend there is no aid. They are doing things that the hospital pays people to do. I can understand wanting to give back but they are WORKING for free. I agree whole heartdly with peady2.

[peady2]

This happens where I work. We have volunteers who give baths, sit on 1:1, answer call lights, answer phones & put together. One comes in the evening after the secretary leaves. The other comes in Sat on the weekend there is no aid. They are doing things that the hospital pays people to do. I can understand wanting to give back but they are WORKING for free. I agree whole heartdly with peady2.

TY. These people are taking away a job from someone. I don't WORK for free. When I volunteer, I don't use my license to do so, unless it is hospital sanctioned such as a flu vac clinic, and counts toward my clinical ladder. My license is for work only, when I know my malp ins covers me and my actions. I would never "volunteer" to do patient care. Anyone who does needs to get a full report on each patient they do care for and make damn sure that they don't miss any pertinent s/sx that indicate a deteriorating condition, because they will be expected to act up to the scope of their RN practice act and failure to do so could result in a malpractice claim.

[libcom1]

I want to be happy doing my job. I love my job but I find that I am told, you will not have given weekends off. I have been reprimanded infront of coworkers which if we are professionals, should have been done privately. I find everything frustrating! The only thing I truely love is careing for my patients and families. I see young nurses being turned off by harse critism, the hospital constantly asking them to do more but not giving them anything to thank them!! Please won't someone wake up the system before they lose all the bedside nurses.

[Frankreich]

First of all the system will never lose all bedside nurses. Nursing is a job and nurses receive payment for doing their job. Employers thank nurses by keeping them employed and paying them. You are responsible for your happiness not your employer. I know plenty of unemployed nurses that would love to work the weekends you don't want.

[golddust]

I would like to address libcom 1 and Frankreich. Libcom 1 is right, there are quite a lot of unprofessional behavior displayed by managers or charge personnel. Nurses should not be reprimanded in public, it is condescending and does not promote growth and solidarity in nursing. Of course management takes advantage of nurses by taking away their scheduled week-ends off because of poor management or better yet cutting cost. There is a propaganda out there that there is a nurse shortage, no such thing when there so many unemployed nurses. Frankreich, I am shocked that as a senior nurse you found the cries of libcom 1 deserving. Somehow your disposition slates someone who sees nursing as a paycheck, so whatever happens in between does not matter. You are one of the problems in nursing. Yes i believe in karmic events, but how many other believe in this. Shouldn't you be helping this young one to find ways to have a more pleasant work environment. When ideologies such as yours becomes the dominance of an overview, introspectively, it is conclusive that you should move on to other things.

[Qinasa]

Thank you for this valuable information.

[NURSEDETROIT]

Agree/agreed with "Peady2." More "propaganda" from the "powers that be." Time 4 Change and definitely not this type of change. Are nurses NEVER going to understand/grasp and learn their value, position, and power in #'s ? Administration collectively seeks to undermine, use, and abuse nurses; those that remain. First, was the introduction and addition of the unlicensed personnel; then, well, we'll just add a few more to the mix. . . This is becoming a recipe for disaster. . .

This is another means by which to accomplish this end; to further diminish the value and education of an R.N. Exactly how do they intend for us to pay for all our education and continuing education they demand? Follows my theory of administrative efforts perfectly; "The higher you go; the further from reality you are; the more "hypoxic" you become. . . The brain doesn't function adequately without oxygen. I say, for anyone who promotes this "new" concept; you all need to go back to "street level" for a reality check here. . . Hospitals/patients are NOT the new assembly line.

If this is indeed what the ANA is now promoting, they should be pronounced, as they are truly "brain dead." Glasgow: "3." This does not serve to advance and/or promote nursing as a profession or nurses in anyway, shape, or form. However, it does serve to further promote the bottom line mentalities of those who hold the purse strings. It degrades and belittles any advances of nursing as a profession. . . It only serves to reinforce the negative attitudes and unrealistic expectations of those who reside in the "altitudes." Then, we wonder "why" new grads become disillusioned, burnout, or leave at the rate they do?

[honitel]

Loving what you are doing is a great factor when you really into in that task! Perhaps being a volunteer is others happiness tho sometimes at not all for general is applicable especially if you deserved even more.

[samsauntrn]

The ANA should be called the Anti Nurses Association. I stopped having anything to do with them back in the 80's when it became very clear where their priorities were, and it wasn't with bedside nurses. Having these volunteers, licensed or not, replacing paid nurses is despicable indeed. It is just an excuse not to hire more staff to adequately monitor patients and to give the hospital something for nothing. What is the matter with these nurses that the don't realize that? We just went through a massive reorganization and layoffs yet the new CNO has the nerve to say that his main goal is to increase nurse satisfaction and decrease nurse vacancy. I'd say he is a paying member of ANA in that what he says and what he does are two different things. I am very afraid for our profession.