What I thought/What I said

The interviewer asked, "What's making you want to leave your current job?"I'm tired of watching my coworkers coming in, looking defeated.I haven't had a sit-down lunch in six weeks. One of my coworkers weaned her baby early because she couldn't get anybody to relieve her so she could pump breastmilk.Our acuity increased at the same time our director cut our staff, so there are delays in care that I find unacceptable.We've been rebranded a "step-down" unit, so none of us will get critical-care raises or credit, but we're still taking CCU patients. We still float to the CCUs.The attitude of the administration to our unit is "do more with less; you're nothing but big whiners." When the director brushed off legitimate concerns with the response that we were "jibber-jabbering," I died a little.I showed up at six yesterday and started working immediately, because there were three admissions at once and none of the resources or help we were promised were available.We're having falls and bad patient outcomes as a result of short-staffing, and we're getting disciplined for them.I can't get a damn MRI statted because I can't find somebody who can monitor a patient on a drip in the tube.Our manager refuses to back us up when things get dangerous.The doctors I work with recognize the problem, as do the nurses in other departments, but still nothing is done.I'm exhausted from not eating, not peeing, not taking a day off, and the rest of my life is suffering.Although we stand in solidarity...
Source: Head Nurse - Category: Nurses Authors: Source Type: blogs