NEVER have I been rewarded in my nursing “career”? by management for doing a good job; for stating the truth; for patient advocacy; or for reporting an injustice or illegal activity in any hospital–in fact, the opposite is true– and a swift reprimand in the form of a “write-up” for insolency after tearfully defending oneself in the manager’s office was chronically the result.

Satisfying the bottom line is so bloody important to corporate because they are slaves to the almighty dollar, that the “higher-ups” who do nothing but shine their seats with their arses and lick the butt-ends of their masters, would sooner behead a nurse than defend and keep her. And no medical doctor would ever defend a nurse in court to save her house, career, or her reputation.

I have been “encouraged” to leave a few nursing jobs–yes, for me it is a job, not a career–for reporting the following moral and/or ethical offenses throughout my fifteen year sojourn: a doctor who pinched my rump and fondled my breasts while i was giving care to a comatose patient; for exposing subordinates who want me to do their work for them–yes, if you are an aide,lvn, or housekeeper you ARE my subordinate and had BETTER do my bidding!– (my manager had the audacity to complain to me “but they make so much less money than you do”); employees stealing narcs; doctors screwing nurses on campus;– and I once was forced to resign from a STELLAR, if not legendary, eight-year charge nurse position because a doctor demanded my immediate expulsion after I informed the family that said doctor was in at 3 am to see the patient. (MD was avoiding the family during the day by doing rounds in the middle of the night, which frosted the hind-ends of the family members), and of course, who gets blamed and has to lose her job for it–the NURSE. BTW, my nurse manager refused me to have a lawyer present in the meeting with the MD and human resources,– and my union rep who was present was incapable of helping me(the union dues i pay are useless). I had to leave all my benefits after the nuckle-heads told me to go to behavioral health for a psych eval to keep my job–I laughed all the way out of the building!!

Why must we be martyred? I wish i hadn’t signed up for this, but i do have a cumbersome mortgage, a beautiful fourteen year old who, by God if it kills me, will stay in her private school; and a husband who cannot work outside the home because his mother lives with us and has dementia and can never be left alone. Only death can save me now.

Rant over.