I have been working in my local rural hospital for almost 20years. I love my workplace, it has always been a relatively harmonious environment. We have fantastic staff who really care about our community and providing an exceptional level of care.
I recently decided to give the Clinical Nurse Educator role a go. I increased my hours considerably and had really found my passion for nursing after taking a bit of a break prior to my children starting school.
I love the educator role and I think it is so important that we provide support to our new nurses but lately this support is fading. Due to critical staffing shortages I have been unable to fulfill my education duties, I feel responsible for the fact that my staff are stressed and scared that something terrible is going to happen on their shift and they are not going to know what to do! There is no time for upskilling or inservices.
We desperately need skilled, experienced ED RNs, who are willing to work in a non-supported department with little to no medical coverage. There are not enough of us to go around!
In our facility myself, the NUM and Facility Manager have been trying to keep our roster afloat by picking up extra shifts and filling the gaps. We can no longer continue to do this. It is relentless and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. With every weekend that comes my head and heart are filled with doom. Either it is going to be up to me to fill the shifts or my friends, meaning that we miss out on our families and home life. And if we don’t fill the shifts we are subject to personal attacks from our work colleagues who are feeling just as stressed as we are!
Numerous emails and phone calls to our Executive have resulted in us being told that they have nothing and no one available to help aside from some ridiculous suggestions about asking around to see if any nurses (who are already working) can do the odd weekend double shift for a few weeks. Or maybe we can pull some CNEs or CNSs from elsewhere to help! We are all from the same pool!
They are only offering bandaids and we need a compression dressing!