Comments on: Don’t burn your bridges

By: JerZFox

JerZFox — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:18:57 +0000

Nursing completely overlooks the donut and focuses solely on the hole. Save a patient’s life and all you get is a “Yeah, so what?” Forget to give a patient their vitamin, and they kick your ass to the curb and report you to the board. As Shakespeare said in “Julius Caesar,” “The evil men do lives on after them. The good is oft interr’d with their bones.”

By: j5150

j5150 — Sun, 20 May 2012 15:53:16 +0000

WARNING: LATERAL VIOLENCE IN ACTION.

Personality conflicts can’t be avoided but they can sure be tempered and managed professionally. A seed was planted in your post and the thread turned into a bully session against Jane Doe, RN. Everyone, including a nursing instructor, joined in on the whipping.

Lateral Violence (LV) impacts healthcare and the nursing profession in many ways, financially, physically and emotionally. Here are a few quick stats off a study (2007) conducted by a university LV think tank in SC:

–60%: amount of new RN grads that leave their first jobs because of LV.
–$92,000.00: estimated cost to recruit, hire, and orient a med/surg nurse.
–$145,000.00: estimated cost to do the same for a specialty nurse.
–8.4%: average voluntary turnover in a peaceful healthcare setting.
–27.1%: average turnover for first year nurses.

Budgets can’t sustain this. Recruiter’s can’t keep pace b/c no one wants to work in a system where LV is tolerated. RN health falters in terms of mental and physical illness so call-outs increase. When nurses are sick on the job, patients are at higher risk from errors. It’s a no- win situation.

I had to respond to this post in this way as it was screaming for this connection and attention and I hope everyone will stop and think about what they read and wrote. Our problems in healthcare are too big to pit us against each other. Only on common ground and with a collective voice can we make strides forward.

j5150

By: Kathy

Kathy — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 06:12:17 +0000

I could not agree more with the exception of the “clicks” that are still in fashion, mostly when all the hospitals are under one system. Clicks have a habit of sizing people up, and no matter what one can not shake it, even if it’s the biggest lie ever told. There are several healthcare systems here that have clicks that make a round table dicussion look like kindergarden. This state also puts out a high volume of nurses, yet everyone wonders why there is a very high number of out of state nurses that have to come in to work. Just be careful.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:43:55 +0000

I have always been of the opinion that when I leave a job, I should be able to turn right around and apply there again …. You just don’t know who will be your next co-worker/boss/etc . . . and unless you want to totally relocate, you will probably see them again!

By: Mary

Mary — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:37:34 +0000

On the same token, I have seen that when I have left a position and people have been jerks and non-supportive, I remember the behavior and poor nursing skills. Nurse managers will come up to me to ask me about a person when they know that I worked with them at a facility and got my opinion-Needless to say, they were not hired.

By: Shannon Weaver

Shannon Weaver — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:56:39 +0000

This is so true and I wish more of our new grad nurses realized this. Recently one of the new grad nurses I worked with on oure Telemetry unit burned a major bridge at her first ever nursing job. We all tried to help and warn her but she had to make her own mistakes. I wish her well at her new job but don’t really think the grass is really greener there.

By: colleen

colleen — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:56:29 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. as a nursing instructor I would tell students that their behvior in the classroom was so important and that we were working as a team. Those students who ignored the message did so at their peril. When job/ school recommendation time came along (as it always does) I was brutally honest about their abilities and interpersonal skills.

By: Ericka Garcia

Ericka Garcia — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 03:26:50 +0000

Oh man so there is one of those in every nursing class I thought it was just ours, but heres the thing she is not only a cna but an flunky from 2 other nursing programs, but she knows it all or think she does…..LOL man I would hate to see how she will interact with the physicans when we start our clinicals if she is always trying to correct our teachers I can only imagine what she will do.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:43:26 +0000

Rob, I could not agree with you more. I think in life, in general, it does not pay to make enemies or burn bridges. Being involved in pediatrics, homecare and phone triage, it is amazing how many former co-workers I have run into on the job, or worked with people who know former work mates. Nursing may be a universal profession, but that said, we live in a small universe.

By: Sean Dent

Sean Dent — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:19:38 +0000

You are so right Rob. I think this small nugget of information should be ‘taught’ to the nursing students during basic nursing skills – this is Nursing 101. Heck this is proper professional conduct across the board.
Life is a circle and what goes around comes around. Be sure to keep all your bridges open for traffic – coming and going.
Great advice.