"M.B.A." = Moronic Bastards Arguing

I wish there was a "Dilbert" for Nursing.

I don't think it's a problem confined specifically to Nursing, although being a Nurse, I see it almost every day in a Nursing context. For years I've thought that it's because Nurses are not given any kind of training in management of employees or business practices. While this is true, I don't think it's exclusive to Nursing, either. This from a recent column on the Website Save WRKO:

By contrast, in talk radio, executives who have never programmed a radio station, much less been behind the mic, are increasingly in charge of hiring and firing talk show hosts. These "suits" come from sales, FM music stations, television news, public radio outlets and even outside of broadcasting altogether.

Even worse, these managers won't even admit to the problem, which is why so many in the media are now bearish on radio broadcasting's future.

One of the commenters ("LOL") puts it even more succinctly:

Yup, the trend for a long time was to move from operations to management. The idea being you knew the core business. Now the trend is just be a manager, a la MBA schools. No specific skills needed; except how lie, cheat and blame others.


One of the places I've been working recently is a prime example. They hired a new CEO last year from a nursing background and put her in charge of this Orthopedic hospital. She has a Master's in nursing, but no administrative or management training. Since her hiring she has fired (or had quit) almost every single management person in the hospital. Most of those who have quit have cited her unreasonable demands and refusal to consider input from the floor nurses.

Power Trip. Head Rush. Megalomania.

The second case from another place I've recently worked is somewhat similar. (In fact, this was pretty much the case when I worked at Porter Memorial in Valparaiso.) This second place is what we call a Skilled Nursing Facility -- essentially a Nursing Home with Hospital Trappings. Created when the Medicare Reform Act began capping the amounts they would pay to hospitals for care of Medicare Patients, these turbocharged Nursing Homes were created to provide the same care for less money.

Unfortunately, this put what were colloquially termed "Nursing-Home Nurses" (i.e., Nurses with Nursing experience limited to Long-Term Care) making Nursing decisions for patients far outside their experience bases and scopes of practice. When they are constantly challenged and even reprimanded for their incompetence, they turn bitter, nasty, grossly unprofessional, and start to become a major reason these facilities lose "good nurses" with the skill sets necessary to work with these challenging patients. The image provided here is from a t-shirt company, which just goes to show how widespread these negative feelings have become in Nursing.

Nor is it a recent phenomenon. When I was a young student the phrase was "Nurses eat their young." There is one of these Skilled nursing Facilities where I've worked is infamous for the terrible treatment this supervisor heaps on them day after day. In fact, the last I heard a majority of the available LVNs and RNs have refused to work with this Supervisor. (I personally have had the wonderful experience of having her call me a "Dumb-Ass Agency Nurse," which she and another staff nurse found uproariously funny and alughed in my face about all night.)

Abusive. Insulting. Cruel.

These are the reasons, in my honest opinion, why we have a nursing shortage today. Between the incompetence of the management and the abusiveness of the supervisors, Nursing in many cases becomes a matter of "Survival of the Fittest," with those developing the thickest skin being able to stay on to slog through another day in Hell.

And they then become as abusive, insulting, cruel, and incompetent as their mentors -- and perpetuate the "Nurse Rachet" archetype.

Is there a solution? God, I hope so. I'll be damned if I know what it is.

~~JD~~