Competition can help

After being at my hospital for 7 years and always being told that it is a privilege to work in such a nice suburban setting and that is why the pay is so low and administration does not have to worry about the workload it is with relief to hear that 3 hospitals are moving into our immediate environment. This will take a few years to happen but construction has already been started at the other facilities. Worse then the low pay is the toxic work environment. Disrespect from the physicians plays a big role in this. At my hospital the physicians run nursing. This has not been my experience at other facilities. I have considered moving on but have decided to stay and become a nurse agitator. I am always amazed at how nurses do not seem to grasp the power that they have. In banding together and simply refusing to do it their way the work environment would improve. Instead nurses seem paralyzed when facing confrontation. I operate under a separate license than a physician. I have decided to keep a computer diary on the events of my workday and documentation when conditions become unsafe. As it stands now the docs decide whether we remain open or closed to ambulance traffic and there is no concern over nursing being unable to keep up. Somehow I think the hospital would not back the nurse in a lawsuit. We have had no staff increases in 4 years however our volume and acuity is up by 30 percent. We are even harassed by some of the physicians during times of high volume. I am going to try to work behind the scenes to prod the other nurses to stand up for themselves. If all else fails I will happily watch the mass exodus when the other facilities open.