Debra W, Ok (10/31/2007 10:14:35 AM)

I have been a RN for 20 years. I left the hospitals in 1999 because of constant verbal abuse from doctors and adminstrators. Many of us have left and stay gone because of the same reasons. You can not buy us back.

DavidS, Tulsa (10/31/2007 10:34:19 AM)

Earlier this year Oklahoma was ranked 1st in some emergency evaluation. One of the requirements was having a certain amount of nurses. Todays story isn't the first story since then to mention the shortage in Oklahoma and makes me wonder again , what good are rankings and evaluations......

nurse from oklahoma, OKlahoma (10/31/2007 1:20:08 PM)

It's strange that there is a nursing shortage here in oklahoma, I have applied for several nursing jobs and I can not get a job. I have a good job history and great references. The hosptials in Oklahoma only want to hire RNs, Lpn are left out in the cold. These hospitals are making the patients suffer because of this.

Kate, city in oklahoma (10/31/2007 1:33:00 PM)

I'm an RN, and agree with #1. Not constant abuse, but fairly often. Also ruining the working environment are quite a few nurses who are bullies to other nurses. Perhaps they are just mean girls grown up. I certainly could be bought back, if the working environment were improved;)

Vikki, Tulsa (10/31/2007 1:33:37 PM)

I totally agree with what Debra and nurse from OK have to say. I loved working in the health field because of the pts. but the everyday stress of having to deal with totem pole politics are too much. I started out as a CNA and went to LPN and at the last hospital that I worked at saw the beginning of the phasing out of LPN's to RN's. I can appreciate the fact that I need to go back to school to become a RN but doesn't a person's experience in the field count for something?

Dana, Tulsa (10/31/2007 4:00:11 PM)

I have been a RN for 24 years. I left the hospital setting 13 years ago. NOTHING could get me back. The work is hard, the pay is terrible and the first place hospitals cut is in nursing. The physicians treat nurses like second class citizens. If facilities are going to be able to hire/retain nurses, it will require a significant change in culture, as well as much higher pay.

MiMi, Tulsa (4/1/2008 8:00:35 AM)

Treat "All" healthcare workers better. Most healthcare workers can't afford healthcare coverage. We need better working conditions (lower stress, physically and emotionally) and increased wages. I am an LPN of 10yrs returning to school to obtain my RN, so I can continue to advance in salary. It's sad that I can't get hired full time with organizations and recv good fair compensation; but if I go through a staffing agency I usually end up at the same organization for $10-$20/hr more. This is one profession I discourage most to avoid. Sad, because I come from a long line of healthcare professionals from CNA's to NP, and the sentiments are very similar.

Ethel Runt, (11/1/2007 7:07:33 PM)

They need to go back to the 3 year hospital Nursing Program. Learn the practical while learning the book work. I graduated in 1947 and worked until 1989 then did some part-time work when needed. They are graduating now knowing book-work but nothing about actual patient care. You have to work a new graduate about 2 years before she even knows patient care. Three year hospital trained graduates were able to do it all when they graduated. WE didn't have to take special classed in each field. We learned it all.

Ethel, (11/3/2007 9:33:52 AM)

I also believe that some of the older experienced LPN's could be given a test and grandfathered as 2 yr. AD - RN's. It was done during the war to obtain LPN's

Nurse Tech, Tulsa (11/3/2007 3:14:12 PM)

Thanks Meg! As you can tell I might be heading a little towards becoming bitter..lol...Sorry, I just think that the whole system sucks right now and it needs a major overhaul, but I don't think the elites in the article are barking up the right tree..The patients are the ones who are at risk here and it scares me to death when I think about the kind of care that my loved ones will get in the future with the decline of the current system, and I work in a hospital!

The fixes are simple: Look at the pass rates! People are not passing their boards...Maybe, just maybe they aren't being educated while they are in school...From my experience in lpn school, and from networking with others about other vo-tech lpn programs in the state, they all are run the same nowadays..The "self-paced" programs..What a joke! Basically the instructors are there serving as little more than proctors over the exam days...Outdated materials that don't match, No lectures, No PowerPoints, No handouts, No encouragement...And when you do need help they are either too busy or too hateful to encourage communication between the staff and students. As far as clinicals go, I see it every day in the hospital where the "instructors" are only with the students for a couple of minutes when they arrive, and a couple of minutes at the end of shift. Most nursing students I talk to on the floor are not feeling very educated or encouraged and their clinical knowledge is less than the average 5th grader. Most of them don't have any idea how to clean up, ambulate, or turn a patient, and one asked me a few days ago if the peri bottle was to clean up the incision on a C-section..This from a student going to graduate 5/08 with a BSN..

I wish they would bring back the hospital programs, too. I would do it in a heartbeat. But I do not have enough faith in any of the programs in the Green Country area to hand them my check for what I will get in exchange for my hard earned dollars. A comment on the LPN statement from Ethel: Some of the best nurses I've worked with are the older LPN's and I totally agree with your recommendation for the grandfathering. A lot of these women would like to be an RN but are not in the position to go back to school to obtain it. I would put good money on a bet that they could pass the RN boards with flying colors.

theangrypatient, . (11/3/2007 7:19:01 PM)

all of these comments are a good example of just how scary getting sick can really be. one nurse says doctors treat them like second class citizens. the nurses turn around and treat patients like third class citizens.

don't get sick around any major holidays. nights are dangerous in a hospital. patients should keep a camera running in the room, especially at night. take lots of pictures if you see problems. hypodermics on the floor, dirty bathrooms, dirty mop water, no gloves on, bedsores, also take photos of and document any patient condition that develops in the hospital that the patient did not enter the hospital with. if they try to tell you it is illegal to video and document the patient's care - get the hell out. remember, babies are born being videotaped all the time. it shouldn't be any different in the patient's room.

Rebecca, (11/7/2007 1:14:45 PM)

I've been an LPN for 20 years, and also agree that LPN's with at least 5 years experience should be able to "test out" to be an RN. I've oriented several RN's to our floor and feel the 20 years I have are more advantageous to helping people than another year of school. Let's get this going now with the board of nursing!

joe, wauwatosa (2/28/2008 3:16:46 AM)

all you RN wanna be's suck it up and go back to school!!!!!!

naw am just kidding ( bad joke ) you are right!!!!!

Nursing Student may 2008

Debra W, Claremore, Ok (10/31/2007 7:28:13 PM)

I started out as an aide while attending RN school. I have worked in Texas and Oklahoma. It did not matter whether it was a government facility or private...it is the physicians combined with the administrators that make the work environment a nightmare. As a manager and a charge nurse I have seen and experienced physicians physically gropping, cussing outs, placentas thrown, scapels thrown, and my staff nurses crying because they could not take anymore patients because they were overwhelmed.

-

I have worked with many LPN/LVNs that are terrific, but sadly I believe this is being fazed out. I always recommend obtaining a RN license.

Terri, Tulsa (10/31/2007 8:49:28 PM)

I have to agree with # 3 and 5... I've been an LPN for 21 yrs, and was a CNA for 17 before that.... They keep yelling that there is a nursing shortage, but they don't want to hire the LPN's so therefore the patients suffer, when they should be the most important ones to consider.not counting all the crap we have to put up with anymore when working in a hospital...I've thought about going back to school. I'm over 50 now,and besides putting up with abuse of drs and all the "politics", my body doesn't feel the need to take the physical abuse we go thr anymore.. what the "ideal" thing to do to fix this shortage, is "grandfather" us in ol timers LPNS that been around for a long time..as RN's... we probably know alot more then these new nurses coming out... at least from what I've seen being teached ... its sure not like it used to be, that's for sure ...... just my 2 cents worth....

Debra, Claremore, Ok (10/31/2007 9:02:49 PM)

Terri, I graduated from RN school 20 years ago. What is being taught today is scaled back from what was taught when I attended. You are correct in that I have worked with LPNs that had been nursing for many years have far more experience than the new RNs. It is not the new RNs fault..it is our nursing boards and educators trying to get more nurses by compromising the cirriculum. Sad, Sad, Sad!

Terri, Tulsa (10/31/2007 9:18:35 PM)

Your soo right, Debra I agree, it IS the nursing boards and educators fault... and its nots just the RN's.. I've seen new fresh LPN's come out that wasn't taught anything like I was....it is very sad....

Nurse Tech, Tulsa (11/1/2007 10:05:34 AM)

I thought I wanted to be a nurse...I love caring for people. I often have said I would do that for free. I checked out all the nursing schools and decided to go for my lpn because it was quick. I got in there and realized they had a completely disorganized psycho from H**L running their program and quickly decided that it was not worth ruining my health and marriage over the stress of it all...Plus, the further I got into it the ore I realized it was a joke since they were using new books with old tests and they basically wanted to turn you loose and let you teach yourself how to be a nurse! I don't want to be a shade tree anything, but definitely not a shade tree nurse...

I've since found out that this is the "norm" rather than the exception in nursing schools. Why would anyone in their right mind WANT to pay good money to put themselves through that for a piece of paper?

Then, when you get out of school you get to go to work in a hospital or other facility and get constantly harrassed by all of the "bullies" in the workplace. I'm sick to death of hearing about team work, team work, team work when I give 100% every day to my patients only to be torn down mentally and pysically by apathetic, lazy, inconsiderate co-workers and the huge workload of an already short staffed floor.

Here's a couple of ideas for the state of Oklahoma:

Board of Nursing: Require the nursing schools to be a halfway organized program with competent instructors that encourage their students along the way instead of trying to burn them out before they ever get started in their career....

Hospitals: Step up and follow your own mission statements and hold your employees accountable to the standards you hold so dear starting from the top down. Get rid of the problem people instead of letting them slide for years and years all the while running off hoards of good employees who actually want to be there caring for patients.

Offering flexible work hours and one on one mentoring is a great idea, but it is not the KEY to getting or retaining healthcare workers...Fix the flaws in the system from the nursing programs down to the work environment is the key...

Meg, Oklahoma (11/1/2007 1:46:23 PM)

Wow - you said it, nurse tech. I went thru an RN program but have had to learn everything pretty much on my own with help from a few wonderful coworkers. School was an abusive experience with many clinical instructors who thought writing long care plans was the thing to teach us skills. To this day, I don't know where they spent their time when they supposedly were supervising clinicals. They were nowhere to be found. The nurses with PhDs were the most out of touch, with their "depth and breath (sic) of knowledge."