long overdue nurse talk I just have one question for the nurses working at the bedside what are we going to do like what are we going to do because the way bedside nursing is looking it ain't looking good that's the first part the second topic I want to touch on is what are you all doing to prepare for your future because the way things are looking as far as nursing is concerned America is going to be a country that won't have nurses I know you guys might think that's a bit extreme but the way nursing is set up right now the way things are going this is going to be a nursel country eventually so number one the nurse is working at the bedside I am in Direct Care on a PRM basis first of all let me back it up a little bit so you all know part of my nursing experience a good bit of it is being in the ICU I worked in the ICU I at some point very early in my ICU career thought toyed with the idea of going to CRNA school but then I had to say who am I fooling first of all I'm not trying to do that heavy duty kind of schooling it's too much for me I am also not willing to not work and not be able to support myself I don't like science that much and and some of the schools was wanting you to do the Gres they want you to take organic in organic in organic chemistry physics I ain't got that kind of time I'm just being honest this is not to discourage anyone I also don't like the cold so what would I be do what would I be doing in anybody's um operating room where it's cold as hell Plus I'm very Wayward I like to get up tell somebody watch my patients ask not tell ask ask somebody can you watch my patience I like to go downstairs I like to take a little stroll so I'm very own way I can't be in nobody's o stuck trying to keep people alive while they're on the table so I dismissed that idea but being in the ICU was also a strategic move for me because being there meant that I only cared for two patients two bodies yes those two patients might be very sick but it's only two of them and all my resources are here so it was a no-brainer like why would I be on Med surge or IMC or Telly running around like a chicken without no head so I you most of my career was spent in the ICU however since working in mental health I recently transitioned out of the ICU it was my choice because I decided actually I didn't decide I think it's just part of my destiny it was ordained right in my gut in my spirit I had no desire to care for patients in the ICU setting like I had no desire to be in the ICU setting it was so many things about it that turned me off that over the past few months I have not worked in the ICU I was picking up ships on random meds surge units in the hospital because I was in the float pool however the float poool became too demanding so then I signed up with the medur unit that I worked on as a tech I spent some time there as a nurse I said this is my home it's my safe place I know exactly how this unit works I'm going to go here on a PRM basis not on a float poool basis and you know complete my three shifts in a 6 week period and I'll be good so that is what I'm doing right now but I am beginning to question my entire existence at the bedside simply because bedside nursing today is not what it was 10 years ago it definitely ain't what it was 30 years ago for a lot of my OG nurses when I first started back as a tech not even as a nurse when I worked as a tech the nurses would have let's say five patients the ratio has not changed much when a nurse had five patients at least three of those patients would be a walkie-talkie meaning that they were independent they can get up they can wash themselves go downstairs to the cafeteria patients was going outside to sit and smoke and have a good old time okay patients were making friends outside while sitting outside in the summertime right that was back in the days then I became a nurse and then you know the patient load still you know I had patients that will go downstairs or I'll be right back you know I have to go outside looking for them cuz they've been gone for how many hours whatever today 2023 2024 those five patients no more self-care patients none everybody's a Complete Care literally everybody is a Complete Care what is happening am I the only one experiencing that drop in the comments below if you have noticed the change in the patient population patients are sicker now than they were 10 15 years ago it's insane the comorbidities are more the Acuity is more patients that are in the hospital right now on Med surge need to be on an IMC unit like they need to go to IMC where the ratio is a little bit lower patients on the IMC unit need to go to ICU and patients that are in the ICU uh listen all I know is I went to work the other night and of course I had my five patients after getting report the first thing I do is I go check my patients to make sure they're alive right all of my patients were complete carees all of them were incontinent some of them had finger sticks and needed insulin coverage three of them had like really bad pressure ulcers on their bottom and I'm just like how then the best part because people always ask me this on Tik Tok or you guys will ask in the comment well don't you all have CNAs isn't that why there's a CNA there I told y'all America is going to be a country that's not going to have nurses at one point they ain't going to have no more CNAs the CNAs are not it's almost as if CN no longer exist let me tell you something about these new girlies out here today the girls are doing nails the girls are doing hair the girls are braiding the girls are driving Uber they're driving lift the girls are cooking and selling meals the girls are babysitting the girls are dog walking the days of a young lady who's maybe 19 or 20 looking to make some money looking to have a job long gone are the days where people are ready to sign up to become a CNA because the workload is so much the demands is so much that these younger folks are like what you want me to do what stand and take care of who hurt my back and pull who on what I'm not doing that I'm going just go learn how to do nails and get certified on how to do nails I'm going to learn how to do some braids and I'm going to go braid here and earn a coin that's what these younger people are doing now like genes even like they're not trying to be at nobody's bedside taking care of P patients which leads me to the next topic the conditions in which patients are today if patients have gotten progressively worse over the past 10 years what's going to happen in the next 10 to 15 years that means they're going to be even worse and they ain't going to be no nurses because here's the thing a lot of people who are coming into nursing right now a lot of them are younger they get burnt out really fast and there's other things that they go on to do like some of them will become nurse practitioners some of them will want to go into mental health they want to go to Anesthesia School the nurses that are coming out these days nobody is trying to be at the bedside for 10 15 years I am the last of that generation I'm 14 years in I'm 14 years in these young girls that are coming out the 21 to 22 years old dang got time they come they do their year a lot of them like will get offered $30,000 sign on bonuses and them girls is like mm- we don't want it I ain't trying to have nobody hold me to their hospital when I'm ready to go I'm ready to go that's how the girls will moving these days so thinking about the future and looking at the condition at which patients are presented now in the clinical setting I can only anticipate that the quality of life the health of the population is going to further deteriorate if we don't start taking our health more seriously the amount of comorbidities an average patient has for example if I get reporting a patient on Med surge this is what the past medical history sounds like patient has a history of hypertension CAD um hyperlipidemia patient is a type two diabetes the left leg is amputated patient has a wound on the left leg that's not healing the doctors are considering amputation patient is on dialysis goes to dialysis Monday Tuesday girl hold on right there hold on hold on that's the medical history right so you also have to consider let's just say a patient gets admitted for a small bowel obstruction I don't know that's the first thing that came to mind patient gets admitted for a small bowel obstruction but then they have that history that I just mentioned so as a nurse at the bedside you are managing the current diagnosis but then you also have to consider the fact that your patient's a diabetic your patient has a wound your patient already had an amputation meaning that they're not more than likely mobile meaning that that patient is probably a moderate assist to Complete Care it's a lot people are sick so I'm here to ask y'all what are we going to do to prepare for our future so that way we are not burdening a Health Care system that more than likely will not be able to manage and meet the demands of the population the way things are going I'm telling yall there's not going to be any nurses for example it wasn't uncommon for let's just say like I'm a nurse I have two daughters it wouldn't be uncommon for my two daughters to be like oh yeah I want to be a nurse just like my mom when you ask my daughters number one my 12year old that girl is something else but when you ask her Coco you don't want to be a nurse no no I told you Mommy I want to be a software engineer okay the second the oldest girl she's 20 she currently works part-time as a dietary Hostess in a hospital and she comes home all the time and she's like I don't see how you do that job she's like I just I just can't she's like I don't see how you do it so me having two daughters nursing is not an option for them they're like no absolutely not and that has been the current Trend amounts a lot of my parents and a lot of other nurses that have children their children are not going into nursing and a lot of nurses are discouraging their children even if the child has an interest in nursing a lot of people are discouraging their children from going into nursing because the job is too difficult it's challenging it's not manageable it's not realistic it's not feasible I I don't know what else to say and here's the thing I don't see any Improvement coming I don't see any Improvement because Hospital Administration they don't care and then we have nurses that are in the positions of like being managers they're up in senior Administration they don't give a damn they don't care the other day when I worked I was getting ready to leave I was finishing up documentation and I was over hearing the nurses complaining to you know a nurse executive a nurse that's in administration they were complaining like listen the workload is too heavy for us we cannot handle it yet you guys are keeping us at the same ratio the fact that the patient population has gotten sicker on a medar unit here in Maryland where a nurse will get five patients that nurse really should only be getting four patients because the patients are sicker they require so much more care that it is almost impossible and guess who is suffering the patients are the ones suffering the patients are suffering because they're not getting turned as frequently as they should they're not getting changed as promptly as they should because let's just put it like this I go in I have five patients they're all five Complete Care the first patient I have to see is my little pop pop that's trying to climb out the bed he slid all the way down he all the way down to bed remember now we're short on Tech on CNAs so there's only two CNAs for the entire unit one is on this side one is on this side the one that's on this side she's trying to get her vitals in for 8:00 8:00 p.m. so I'm in the room with pop I got to find a way to put pop back up in the bed so what that means is I have to now get creative I have to unbreak the bed pull it from the the Wall go behind the the bed put it in Trendelenburg so like the bed is like backwards like this or like this yeah so the bed is like this and I have to like stand behind and pull on the sheets to get pop back in the bed so pop is not on the floor so I do that get pop back in the bed then I found out oh my goodness pop had a ball movement that's why he was trying to climb out the bed so let me go ahead and clean pop up I clean him up get him nice and fixed up okay cool okay now let me go check my other four patients I go into the other patient room he is slumped over in the bed looking a mess jewel is coming out of his mouth I have to fix him up because I can't just walk out the room and leave him like that I check okay oh he's dry okay good good good good good fix him up go to the other room the patient's on a ventilator it's it's a lot it's a lot one of the reasons why I even switched from day shift to night shift was because I needed to be able to take care of my patients because as a nurse working on day shift the busyness of dayshift the demands everybody is always looking for the nurse everyone the nurse can fix everything everybody's always looking for the nurse I'm talking about in person the phone call at the desk and the device that we carry it's always going off it is impossible to be the kind of nurse that I was trained to be and that I want to my patients working on day shift so now your girl switch to night shift and it's a little bit better but the patients are so heavy they're heavy so that is the reason why I want to have a conversation about what are we like the people now like us what are we going to do to help ease the burden later on as we grow older like y'all got to start eating right drinking water taking vitamin and most importantly moving your body like here in America we have too much of a sedentary lifestyle like I noticed today even at my mental health mental health job I didn't really move that much like we got to do something we really have to start taking matters into our own hands because I'm telling y'all it ain't looking good we ain't going to have no nurses people are tired you have a nurse like me who prides herself on taking care of the patient I pride myself on being that fundamental nurse however the lack of Staffing the lack of support the fact that the young girlies are doing nails and doing here instead of trying to go to CNA school and then eventually go to nursing school that has dwindled down that's becoming a thing of the past y'all I cannot take care of the patients in the way I want to because the load is too much and nurses We complain all the time we talk about it all the time it falls upon deaf ears something has to happen the patients are the ones not getting the care and that brings me to another point before I close this nurse talk out a lot of yall family members got to start doing better A lot of y'all got to start doing better like the fact that you have a family member that's ill and in the hospital for you to think that your family member is going to get Tip Top nursing care it's irresponsible it's irresponsible for you to think that considering the complaints and the outcries and the strikes and all of those things that you've seen over the past year it is irresponsible for you to think that it is okay to drop your dad off you come visit him and all you do is sit there no families y'all got to start getting involved in taking care of your' relatives and taking care of y' loved ones because I can't do everything I can't I need help nurses at the bedside we need help the fact that family members come and they just sit there like you don't have to do it all by yourself we don't mind helping but y'all need to start taking more of an initiative I know I'm going to get pushed back in the comments but and here's the thing I just want to clarify because of course there's always going to be people who saying but that's what you signed up for you don't don't want to do no work you just don't want to do your job no the job has become impossible it is impossible it's like on Tik Tok the other day I posted a video and this one lady commented she's a nurse and she wrote exactly what was on my mind and she wrote exactly what I do when the assignment is impossible she says she said actually when I have patience I'm doing the patient care the documentation they will get it in a narrative note because how you want me to take care of these people you know you don't have a nursing assistant you know this assignment is heavy you know the patients are sicker the data shows the patients are sicker so how do you want for me to document click click click click click click click all the RS click click click click click click click document document document oh don't forget to do this or don't forget to get this paper signed the charge nurse has to come and sign your skin documentation like you want for me to do all of this in the computer but do y'all know this man is sitting in the bed can't move I'm the one that got to push him move him I got to call for help the other nurse is too busy drowning and her mess we ain't got no CNA and y'all still want me to document now y'all going get this narrative note you're going to get the narrative note because the chart is a legally binding document you're not supposed to remove anything from the chart if I can summarize care so long as my patient does not have a sentinal event or does not have any type of critical event if I can summarize the care in the assessment of my patient in a narrative note that is what y'all are going to get at this point because we you can't get everything you can't keep making demands on nurses but you're not easing the burden on us there needs to be a safe staff and ratio Nationwide every single nurse every single state needs to have some form of legislation some form of intervention saying that hospitals cannot dump five some states six seven eight Med surge patients are y'all wild are y'all crazy that is distressing it's demoralizing like to have to come home as a nurse and sit and you know run through your mind and kind of make peace with the fact that you tried your best even though you couldn't get everything done you really really tried it's morally distressing to know that damn I really would have liked to turn that patient more but I just couldn't because the the load was Heavy time wouldn't allow I had four other patients that were Complete Care that we needed to take care of and give medicines to and do documentation and measure wounds and do wound change and bait them and all of those things like it's a lot y'all it's a lot but it's Saturday night I work again in the morning I go to work for 6:30 you guys know I'm at a mental health impatient facility where I work with adults and Adolescence suffering from eating disorders I'm supposed to write a paper tonight for school but I ain't got no charge I forgot my charger at clinical my iPad dead my computer dead I should have stopped at my daughters at their dad's house and got a charger from one of them but I just came home I'm tired I'm going to take myself to bed and I will catch you all in another nurse chat nurse talk what do I call it nurse talk all right let me know in the comments what you guys think okay bye