Nurses Without Job Security
Jaime Sinutko, MSN, RN, is project manager, Institute for the Advancement of Nursing
and Health Care, Oakland University School of Nursing, Rochester, MI.
"I'm keeping my options open" is the line many nurses have recently been overheard saying. Many nurses do not feel secure in their current job. There is a sense of "jinxing" themselves by overtly commenting on their job security. Many experienced nurses are not only holding onto their job by pushing back their retirement but some are acquiring a second job. This sense of pessimistic doom and gloom hasn't been felt in nursing for a long while. Not long ago, nurses stood tall together to demand fair patient ratios, wage compensation, and a safe work environment. Currently, there is a strain that is threatening to separate nurses. Some nurses are unwilling to speak to management about necessary changes on their unit because they fear for their jobs.
"At least I have a job" is another damaging phrase that can be heard too often. Nursing requires focus, compassion, accuracy, continuous knowledge acquisition, and dedication. When a nurse is strained with fear for losing their livelihood, there is a potential for a negative effect on patient care or the nurse.
Listed below are some practical and quick suggestions to alleviate this form of strain from affecting your nursing practice:
- Exercise: not marathon aspirations but simple releasing some negative energy into a tennis ball or golf ball.
- Socialize: not while at work but carve out time to laugh with a friend.
- Play: be fully present (no negative thoughts allowed) and play with a child or animal.
- Talk: schedule an appointment with your manager and share your concerns.
- Touch: get a massage (check out your local massage therapy school of a discounted rate).
- Support: you may have more to offer than you suspect when you look outside of yourself, so support your fellow nurses in their time of need.
- Spirituality: something we encourage our patients to use when in a time of need, rejuvenate your beliefs and passion.
- Hobbies: join your hospital's knitting group or start up a book club.
- Positive thinking: the more you spread optimism with your patients and co-workers, the more apt for some hope to stick on you.
Florence Nightingale once quoted "How very little can be done under the spirit of fear". Nurses must re-focus and lead by example. The new nursing graduates and patients everywhere will benefit from a confident and positive nurse. Change is inevitable. The current job climate is not optimal but when change occurs, look back at a proud and fearless nurse.