Dear Abigail, Thank you for an excellent article. I've been an RN for 27 years, and for the last six years I've been trying to hold on for dear life, literally, to my job and my dignity. A bedside nurse's number one priority is the patient, and being a patient advocate in today's healthcare environment is more than a challenge. A nurse who speaks up and challenges healthcare management often becomes a target for bullying and ridicule. If you want to get along, you have to go along.
Nurses are afraid to act as their conscience and education dictates because of fear of retaliation.
Many nursing managers have fancy titles, but they are no longer competent to give nursing care. This often means laws that are already in place are ignored and sometimes flagrantly disregarded. I love my profession and ethically I try my best to live by The Golden Rule. Therein lies the moral dilemma for most of us, in that we can no longer treat others the way we would want to be treated ourselves. The system does not currently give control of the environment to the actual nurses who are held accountable for what happens to patients.