Seniority In Nursing Is Gone

I think it’s time to have a serious conversation about healthcare. To quote Jay-Z, “I’m not trying to be a businessman, I’m trying to be a business, man.” What does that even mean? Basically, it means that Jay-Z does not want to be defined by his position within a company, he wants to define the company. If we were doing healthcare the right way, nurses and doctors would be setting the standards for the industry instead of the industry dictating how they should do their jobs.

As a nurse, it is extremely difficult to nurture your instinct and inner drive to care for and support your patients when you are also making sure that you have complied with every policy and procedure laid out by the non-medical CEO of the company/hospital. Your gut tells you that your patient is depressed and needs a few minutes of your attention just to talk, but you know the charge nurse on your floor is literally standing outside the door with a stopwatch, ready to accuse you of wasting time. You might just need ten minutes to yourself to catch a breather after a patient has coded but your patient load is already more than you can physically manage during your shift, so that ten minutes will have to happen after you clock out in 6 hours.

This kind of “Corporate Nursing” doesn’t change much despite the many years an individual has dedicated to their job. There are not many perks to being the senior nurse on the floor, except, maybe, a finely honed bullshit radar. You can’t pick the better shifts because you’ve been there longer. You don’t have better odds of getting your requested holiday off because you’ve worked 6 Christmas Days in a row.

Some people think this keeps things fair. If you are a new nurse, you might really appreciate being on the same playing field as the nurses who have spent the last 10 years working the floor. I get that. However, if we dive into this a little further, we might find another reason that no one truly gains seniority. It could be because hospital administrations do not care. Seniority doesn’t count because turnover rates in hospitals are staggering.

What is supposed to be an empathetic role in health is viewed under the microscope of profit. Each nurse is a cog in the giant money-making machine that is America’s Healthcare System. Nurses are pushed and pulled in every direction, for long hours, on holidays, during crises and the burnout is real. What happens when a nurse burns out? She goes to the higher-ups for help and, eventually, finds herself looking for a new job because the hospital administration knows there will be a fresh crop of bright-eyed, naive nursing students ready to step into that now vacant spot.

Is this fixable? In my opinion, not while the healthcare system is privatized and for profit. Profit gets in the way of compassion. The bottom line is the number one concern. What is lost in the pressure for financial gain?

The Nightingale Pledge we all took states:

“I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping, and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work, and as a ‘missioner of health’ I will dedicate myself to devoted service to human welfare.”

There is no mention of profits or shareholders or money.

Nurses should be more Mother Teresa and less John D. Rockefeller. Hospitals should be a place we go to for healing, not for financial ruin. We cannot possibly hope to foster a sense of teamwork and camaraderie in the nursing staff without job security and support from administration. No matter the profit paid out, no matter the bonuses the CEOs take home, the current state of healthcare means that humanity, and especially nurses, are operating at a loss.