Opinion: Nurses have rights too (or should)

Apr 23, 2020 at 12:09 pm by robmtchl

Tired nurse

I write regarding a disparity in the nursing profession and the treatment of nurses as a class not only within private hospitals but within the VA Federal hospital system as well. Not only are nurses being forced into dangerous situations without proper training or adequate protection; it's against their will as well.

I understand general employment law gives employers the right to change job descriptions. I understand that employers generally have the right to assign employees, on a temporary basis, jobs for which an employee was not hired. The employers first duty is to get a required task completed. If that task is sweeping a floor, stocking a shelf, unloading a truck or caring for a sick patient. Whatever the task is management must make certain it is accomplished. Medical care is not "sweeping a floor" and should not be treated the same way.

Nurses and the field of nursing is a highly skilled profession. Nurses train many years to become proficient in their given specialty just as doctors train. Nurses who are trained to work with mentally ill patients train for and have a different skill set than ICU nurses or nurses who are emergency telephone care nurses. Over time, training for such positions is highly specialized in order to provide the most efficient and most productive care for patients. Doctors specialize for the same reason. An ICU nurse may be able to triage an urgent phone call, but they would lack the necessary proficiency to insure the best outcome for the patient. The same would be said if a telephone triage nurse suddenly had to work with mental patients or the mental care nurse was placed in an ICU. Outcomes would be poor and the risks to patients would be increased as would the risks to a valuable and highly trained professional.

Nurses train, interview for and specialize in a field of medicine just as doctors specialize. Hospitals interview medical professionals with the skill set and necessary experience to best fit the position. Nurses seek positions for which they are best suited; both for the sake of the patient and themselves. While hospitals take every effort to insulate physicians from unnecessary exposure to "risks," management fails to provide the same level of respect to nurses.

Doctors who lack the skill to care for infectious disease are sent home to work remotely and do "tele-health" visits. Nurses who lack the skill or desire are given several hours of refresher training and cast to the wolves as so much fodder!

It may be legal, but it is wrong.

Those who would dismiss this by attempting to equate it to the often quoted "It's not my job to sweep the floor. I wasn't hired to do that." would be missing the point and would be wrong. Dead wrong!

Nursing and the medical profession have become highly specialized due to the complexity of the medical care. Nurses nor any other medical professional should be required to place themselves and patients at risk by mandating they perform a task they believe they are inadequate to perform. Not to mention many nurses may have chosen a specialty in order to minimize adverse health exposures to themselves.

No nurse, doctor or any other medical professional should be legally forced or coerced into working a temporary assignment for any reason which they did not voluntarily agree to work and are not trained to accomplish in a safe and effective manner. To believe or act otherwise is dismissive of the nursing medical profession at the most basic level. Perhaps the only reason it has been permitted to continue for so long is because nursing is a female dominated profession and women are treated poorly even in today's "enlightened" society.

You can lead willing people into fire, but healthcare is not the military; not even in the VA healthcare system. Their reward is much more than just a paycheck. It is the service to those in need, a commitment of the heart, compassion and spirit. Oaths taken and service given!
Administrators who forget this and foolishly stamp upon hearts and spirits will reap the whirlwind.

Laws need to change to forbid this from continuing. If not, no one will ever want to become a nurse and without them,hospitals cannot function. The nurse is the foundation of healthcare.

Rob Mitchell
Murfreesboro,TN 37129

Photo by Jonathan Borba from Pexels

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