I have been a nurse for 41 years, and NEVER have worked on a unit that was fully staffed. Sad.

Nursing isn’t about improving outcomes anymore, it’s about patient satisfaction. I’ve had supervisors ask me why my whiteboard wasn’t updated in the room where we had just coded the patient. I wish I was kidding.

As a newer nurse, I'd love to have more time working as a healthcare practitioner. Unfortunately, it seems that our directors and managers are more concerned with us clicking the appropriate boxes. And they will give us a report on our charting at the end of our shifts and tell you, "click this, put this in your note, etc." and then want to scream at us because of "there's increased caudi rates" or "we need to reduce falls." How am I to focus on my nursing practice and try to make those numbers go down if we're more concerned that I've clicked all my boxes before you'll let me off my 12 hour shift??? (Usually 13 or more when you include change of shift reporting). I think, personally, that our priorities in the health field are screwed up big time.

The cubicles is spot on. I didn't want to work an office job, but now I feel like a data entry clerk that at least gets paid well. CNAs however i really feel for. They make the wage of retail workers but do the backbreaking and gross stuff all day.

The moment admins gave us a script and stood outside the door ensuring we used the script was the moment I decided to leave bedside.

I'm an Er nurse, I was special forces before that. I've never had more bad dreams, ptsd etc until recently. I watched this and a tear comes to my eye. I question my profession everyday but I still go back. But it's getting harder everyday. Thanks

I've been an RN for 8 yrs. currently ICU/ED. Like many healthcare professionals I come face to face with corporate greed on a daily basis. Great monologue. Love what you do. Love your parodies too. U get it!!!

You really hit the nail on the head with this video. I worked understaffed (no CNA) caring for 5 patients one of which should have been in the ICU but staffing wouldn't allow for that so the patient ended up on the floor. I have been a nurse for 30 years and when I started there were no computers. I am leaving nursing in a few months to drive truck because I simply can't take it any more. What you call Health 2.0 has killed medicine as we know it. Don't give up your passion for change and hold fast to your ideals. BTW I agree with you on Dr. Oz.

I wish I could believe that things were changing. Sadly, everyday we are shorter staffed than the day before and shoving more beds and patients into the facility. Administration has stopped pretending like nurses or patients matter. We are all expendable if we don't increase their bottom line.

Zdogg needs to be in the government making changes. I got into nursing to heal, not be a waiter.

Dr Dogg, please remember the only other group of licensed pt care provider s are the life support specialist s who have multiple certifications and several degrees. They are the respiratory therapist s who work in every corner of the hospital. I am so sick of hearing how wonderful rn s are while at the same time they spend a tremendous amount of time dissing my profession. I support all people who choose to help the sick and injured.

I was in nursing for over 42 yrs. You are spot on about the negative changes that have occured with nursing being data entry clerks, not using critical thinking with little to do with actual pt care. Felt like a robot in the end. I am so glad I am out of it. Today's nursing is not what I signed up for. Sad but very true.

Hearing you speak so passionately FOR nurses and FOR CNAs and how we directly relate to healthcare 3.0 is encouraging and inspiring. I'm a nursing student and CNA in the CTICU and seeing nurses practice at the top of their license is something I cannot wait to do. Hearing support from a physician is encouraging and inspiring! Thank you for all that you do!

As a nurse of 32 years who ended up in EMS after CCU and ICU. I SO APPRECIATE YOUR WORDS. We also need to stop eating our young..the new graduate nurses who end up actually eventually leaving the profession because of the way they were treated by their first supervisors and precepts..give them help, encouragement realize just how new, untested, and scared they are and stop expecting them to function like a nurse of 15 years experience. The fact that I am STILL a nurse is in spite of my first manager and precept..at Good Shepherd Hospital in Illinois where they actually took great pride in how many "newbies" they could get to quit hospital nursing or the field completely.

7:51 this speech gave me chills down my spine. It was beautifully portrayed.

I genuinely hope I can meet and work with physicians as great as you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I was an ER and cardiothoracic nurse, I gave it my all for years. I miss the bedside so much it hurts. However, that job and the way this system is breaking us was breaking me and I had to step away from that acuity, those fundamental hospital, administrative and staffing issues. We need change.

I've been an RN for a dozen years. I simply have seen too much to believe that the profession will change for the better. I'm currently in the process of gaining certification elsewhere and will seriously consider giving up my license. It's not worth it anymore.

This is so true From a nurse who has worked both in U.K. and NZ Not even the US You summed it up perfectly Why I am so frustrated with my nursing job which I LOVE 😪

This is the true reality of nursing I've seen nurses who changed their careers because they were tired of feeling like robots and slaves. And they drill you over failure to rescue when obviously you can't be in 6-7 patient rooms at once.

This is amazing. Very powerful message. It's very inspiring when I talk to other nurses and they say, "I am excited to work and do what I was trained to do, or learn more and orient to high levels of care/training". However, whats sad about these statements is that they all start with "luckily this shift we were fully staffed". At what point did this field go from 'we are unlucky' or 'this is rare to have so many patients'... to 'luckily we were staffed'. Why are we lucky we are staffed?!? I feel like nursing field has become complacent with the idea that nursing is going to be understaffed and unsupported. At what point will the over abundance of expected roles/tasks cause something catastrophic in your hospital? I understand this is not the case all over the place, but I do know this is a common cerebration. With videos like this, the will to push for this rightful treatment that us nurses believe is fair and is required to allow us to operate at higher levels is enhanced. Thank you.

Honestly, you and your videos are my post work therapy! It's so difficult to remain the only human element left in health"care". Lately, I've been so frustrated that Drs and nurses don't even talk. I am very outgoing, and now that I'm an experienced neuro nurse, I'm in their face. I just feel like Trump was here and put a wall up between Drs and nurses. We should talk. about our families, our weekend, what have you. We should most definitely at the very least, talk about our patients!!!! I'm pretty amazing and magical, but I'm not a mind reader. I wish you could come to Gundersen Health Systems in La Crosse, WI and help us out with Dr/nurse rapport and relationships.

I am GRADUATING NURSING school this Friday... rock on

I've been a Med-Surg RN for 2.5 yrs. My unit is always understaffed. Nurses have 6 or 7 patients, some of them TCU level. Meanwhile the CNAs wind up having to care for 12-24 patients. It's so hard to provide quality care with so few staff.

Way to go ZDogg!!! I'm a paramedic and so appreciate your attitude about honoring other providers!!! You're a credit to medicine.

Thank you for posting this video. I've been a nurse for about 2 years now, and burnout seems unavoidable. Most nurses I work with are frustrated with all the topics that you've just covered, and change seems unattainable at times. It's encouraging to know that change really can happen and that we have such a well-spoken spokesperson who is willing to take up the gauntlet and help us fix this broken system. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that the influence you can make in healthcare will be felt for generations. Please keep up the great work!

I have worked for the past 10 year at a hospital that actually staffs correctly. It is a 100% Physician owned surgical hospital. It is 1 to 1 for Preop and PACU and 3 to 1 on Inpatient. All the problems I experienced at other facilities don’t exist where I work. Doctors, Nurses and patients are happy and infections and errors are low. I should mention that 100% of our patients are insured. If I hadn’t found this job I would have left nursing.

I almost want to cry. This was awesome.

It's not easy to critically assess every patient when you have too many tasks. So the good nurses don't waste time documenting until late in the shift because you care about your patients well being, so you end up staying late (and not getting paid OT) to finish documentation. Exhaustion ensues. I'm applying for endorsement in California. I need those safe ratios. Thank you for this video. I love my profession that's why I'm watching Vids like this on my day off. Keep it up ✊ instant sub!

A gift! A sacred calling! My heart about why I became a nurse.

Laws for patient to caregiver ratios need to be done.

CNA, student, and member of the IWW. IU610, all healthcare workers together!!

The thing is that the average patient on the floor is now more acute than they used to be. And they've increased the number of patients ICU nurses get. They're just understaffing way too much; they're thinning everyone out! Thank you for saying this. I don't know if it makes a difference. The only solution might be unions or laws demanding better ratios.

I am a registered nurse with a BSN. love doing bedside care and teaching a patient's about their healthcare management (DM, COPD, CHF) even thought I know 9 out of 10 will not change their lifestyle...if just that 1 does it's my starfish (see Starfish Project). But now my computer not only insists on putting in orders for my physicians that are based on GIGO, but requires I call them for BS at the risk of being electronically reported by the same computer (HAL, or "want to play a game" based on your generation). My doc's are pissed because I woke them up, I'm pissed at the wasted patient care time) and hey ya'll I don't want to keep treating a computer while my patient's need a pain pill, education, a bath, their butt's cleaned, their dressing changed, etc, etc, etc. So I'm going to find something else to do. Anyone need a well educated person to take care of animals?

In my lifetime management in healthcare has increased by >3000%, when I read that it blew my mind. Think of the number of MDs, RNs, RRTs, CNAs, and others that are responsible for direct patient care....

Maybe it’s just in my State, but I have received formulaic non-individualized, demeaning care from more than one NP. I have some complex health issues and the dreaded & much-maligned chronic pain ( some congenital and some due to injuries on the job in bedside nursing). Once, I went the ER with new & different backpain & I was worried about having a herniated disc or kidney infection etc. I have never gone to the ER & asked for pain meds ( I have a standing prescription for tramadol). The first sentence from the NP after asking what the problem was, after interrupting me was “ well I’m not prescribing any narcotics.” I then said “ I didn’t ask you to”. I became worried that somewhere in my record it incorrectly stated that I was “ med-seeking” (which is now a discredited term). I had very little trust that she had any concern for me at all. I became afraid that I was not goung to receive good care. I have never had an ER doc say such a thing to me. I have begun insisting on a doctor. I have met perhaps 2 good NPs out of about 10. I have more and worse NP stories.

Thank you Dr. Z for your videos. I watch these after my shifts, and they help me to relax and wind down. You are awesome.

ZDogg for Surgeon General! Thanks for the pep talk, Z! I'm dreading being back on shift this week after some extended family leave, and you reminded me why I do this work and why I chose RN instead MD. Health 3.0 all the way. Bring it.

I worked bedside for a total of 5 yrs but I had to leave because I started to get burned out. Some days I miss the excitement of bedside nursing. But I know that when I had left I was so fed up with it all. I didn't mind working the holidays or weekends when others were at home with families. What got me was working long shifts (in reality 13-14hr) where I hardly got much of lunch break, bathroom break and coming home with aching tired feet. Some days I drank sips of water and maybe had a few graham crackers. And when I dared to clock out and indicate that I didn't get my 30min meal break my manager would hound me asking things like "what could we have done better to ensure you get a meal break?" I left when I realized that no matter whatever new bedside job I took will all have the same issues with staffing and etc. Nurses work largely thankless jobs and that hospital admin view nurses as "financial liabilities".

I'd say the worst are nurse administrators. They are no longer directly connected to the bedside nurse, have no idea what is actually happening. They are isolated from the grassroots and keep it that way. The primary function of the executive is $$$. My hospital has no problem of 35-40% vacancy rates for bedside nurses, however I've noticed, we are never without a VP or above.

I must say you were on target with everything you have said in this video. I found myself getting very emotional while watching this. Correct, I did not choose this field to chart all day and spend LESS time with the patient. Thank you SO MUCH for this video 😍

When I was a CNA we had 2 CNAs and 1 nurse to 50 patients

This video is 6 years old and ONLY TWO states have adopted staffing ratios!!! California was the first, and Oregon is the second, but it won't go into effect until 2026. I think that's EXTREMELY sad!... And a SHOUT OUT TO OUR CNA's!!! Without them, our work would be completely unbearable! Because when we getting a full patient load without a CNA? Those are the days that I work a 12½ hour shift, get no break (I don't mean lunch break, I'm used to not having that. When I say break, I mean enough free time to completely go through the chart and such), and maybe get to go to the bathroom ONCE! And unless our patients are all "easy", this is when things just BEGIN to become unsafe...

Awesome video. I used to work in an office and the reason I'm going into nursing is to escape mindless activity and have a meaningful role that can make a difference in someone's life. I'm seeing all the issues you addressed at every clinical. It's very concerning for me as a student going forward into the future of nursing.

Thank you for acknowledging that licensed nurses in nursing homes can have 40 plus patients. I worked 21 years in long term care as a LPN. My last position was hell. I had 40- 45 patients and was lucky to have 3 aides. Much of the time I had 2. Most of these residents were incontinent, unable to ambulate, and a plethora of meds, treatments, and diagnoses. I've actually been called a liar when telling others about the workload.

My hospital ditched nurses day and nurses week in exchange for "healthcare providers week"

Gotta share this with my classmates and other nurses 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿 we’ll be graduating this May! So happy to eventually be a future nurse!

Preach brother!! Amen!! If only the people in charge understood this.

This makes me cry. I couldn't do my job because they swamped us. I miss my patients.

What will everyone do when front line health care providers throw their hands up and quit? Im an NP and after 14 years in nursing I am looking for a way out. I cannot physically or emotionally handle this crap anymore. Somehow the friends I outperformed in grad and undergrad who went into business or ad sales etc are making bank. Me? Im barely making it , and so tired .

Thank you so much for this video, I couldn't agree more with you. These issues are killing healthcare, and my facility is almost chronically critically understaffed. We barely have time to build relationships with our patients and most of the doctors treat us in a condescending manner. We just can't have the level of disconnect between disciplines and our patients if we actually care about people being educated to get better over the course of their life.

I would live to see you do a special on Long Term Care facilities...and supply shortages, the staffing problems, the hours, to patient to nurse ratios... It is NOTHING like people think. People....keep your elderly at home if you can.

Thank you SO much for saying this, sharing for my NON-MEDICAL friends and family too see so they can (maybe) help us spread the message! You said it percectly!! from, one tired hospice RN

This is great. Love it. I'm a new grad nurse in the icu.

got that right. I worked at assisted living and rehab, barely had time to go to the bathroom.

VERY Well said, I cannot agree with this more. I have worked in many areas of nursing and feel myself wanting a different career at times. Please Keep up this work!

Cant thank you enough for this perspective as a new professional.

I am sorry I can only "like" this video one time, it deserves more. Well said zdogg.

8:10 ... Exactly! Besides being a caregiver and loving to help people, I have always been "anti-cubicle". Thank you for all that you do Doc Z. Pre-overnight binge watching and it's empowering, educational, and most important for the sanity.... funny!

So as a student nurse are you saying i should get a job working for a plastic surgeon?? Lol.. not in a million years. I look foward to fighting for whats better for healthcare and more so whats best for the patients! Thanks for the videos. We all as healthcare providers need to rally and take down the profit makers because the bottom line of every business is mighty dollar. But that shouldnt drive healthcare.

Thank you ZDogg! Let's hope you're right.

Great video; thank you! I've been nursing for 18 yrs and have seen it become more and more a customer service industry with increasing CYA charting. I hope to go part time in 2 and completely out of nursing in 5 years. Someone else can deal with the nonsense.

Thanks doc for the awesome appreciation video for nurses. Everything you mentioned I hear from my wife. It makes me very upset at how things are rolling. The whole medical system would blow up without nurses, and all layers of medicine. Keep up the good work and videos.

I am not usually a fan of his videos, but this one contains some pretty good truth bombs that need to be heard. I see each generation of healthcare workers coming in and I'm making positive changes to a better Healthcare System. But he is right, it will take us in numbers to make this happen. On another note, it's pretty sad that a lip sync video gets 1 million views in 6 hours but this video, which is incredibly important, has just over 26,000 views in almost three months. Perfect example of what is wrong in our society.

when I HAVE to call a resident when a patients trop went from 0.01 to 0.02....grr

Nursing is honestly like a sisterhood everywhere that I have gone nurses all work as a team people need to make sure that they are protected. This ass of a guard needs to loose his ability to work in any form of security or protective career ever in his life. Yes more staffing is needed everywhere with nurses and docs there are not enough to obtain the good outcomes you are looking for in health 3.0

Wow! This video is amazing. How can we get the ratio of nurse to patient to be better at private nursing homes when administration is so into numbers. Everyone is a number and nurses including myself are so burned out. :(

WE NEED THE RATIOS ACROSS THE COUNTRY, and the ratios need to go down even more in some usnits

COME TO NYC PLEASE!!!! TALK TO OUR ADMINISRATORS

I've been a nurse for 25 years. And from the time I was 16 I was working as a Nursing Assistant, then a CNA, then finally an RN. Sometimes I tell people that I am the "Dentist of the Nursing World. Nobody wants to see or know me unless they're in pain." And reading the comments and listening to some of what you said has really pained me. My co-workers (all nurses) and I work as hard as any floor nurse, except we don't have 5 patients, we have 3000+ nurses and 1000+ providers. We are the "evil" people who try to translate the rules, regulations and computer into practice - we are also known as Informatics Nurses. Recently, our nurses entered "click box land." Some hate it, some love it, some are, "meh." Since it went live, it's been like fighting the mythical hydra. For every assessment possibility we hide (so a nurse can bring it in if they want), we get 2 requests to either add a click box or un-hide a click box. And honestly, I am generally OK being a lightning rod, because every day, I hear, "Your system sucks." I get it. But for anyone reading this far, also try to understand that part of my job is taking STUPID regulations - like the CMS ban on Standing Orders by Protocol - (which frustrated me no end) and implementing them. How can I ask someone to work at the top of their license, when outside regulations make nurses unable to give a Senna for constipation? So I have to help design something electronic that makes No-ONE happy, but at least gets the patient some help before they explode! Anyway...I always love the channel, I will always love nursing, and I tell people that I don't do direct patient care anymore (though I try when I can), but I try and take care of the people who take care of the patients.

I am an advanced degree nurse with a psych specialty. I was also a business exec before becoming a nurse so I understood fiscal outcomes as well as patients. But no hospital support for our patients.

Nursing is now a machine. Nurses are not allowed to use critical thinking, but are reprimanded for not using it. Nurses are reprimanded for caring and for being there for patients and families. I am seeing trend where nurses with 3 yrs of experience are now charge nurses. Bedside experience is no longer valued, letters on a piece of paper are.

Dr Z, I love you

Getting so tired or "LEAN". Am a 30 year nurse at the same hospital and was told Friday that the company I work for is holding the matching funds for our 401 k for this quarter for some mess up that happened in California and our raises are on hold tell July......wth?!

Thank you Z for this video. I feel bad for my nurses. They have a tough profession and are not being supported by admin.

Solid work! ZDogg!

The amount of upper management in hospitals is disgusting.

I have never been so happy to leave the nursing profession. But, am sadly worried about the outcome for patients, and us as an aging population😢

If you are a bedside nurse, looking for a way out, that is not administration and not NP (they have it no better than you) consider the scholarly route. A nurse scientist does not put up with any of this. They provide evidence for EBP.........

Spot on! @ZdoggMD for HHS Secretary. I didn't become a nurse to make CEOs rich.

Talking about nurses not being able to work in a cubicle is dead on for me! I love the human interaction! Nursing isn't what I do. Nursing is who I am!

I hope your right💕

Thank you for your videos!

As long as nurses are treated like the N-word by narcissistic doctors and profit hungry hospital administrators, things will not improve. A seasoned nurse can know more than a green intern. Until our legislators enact tort reform, the lawyer industry will continue to drive up costs as doctors will do unnecessary tests to cover their ass. ZDogg - what percent of what you bill goes for "malpractice' insurance ?

13:30 😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️

I can’t like this enough.

Thank you, sir.

Omg ...exactly right... so amazing and crazy you get everything spot on. I could never have done that desk job.🤓😀😅.... I had to leave ... manager sends out kudos on an email .... “ these 2 nurses scanned every single med perfectly”... good job 👏.. how wonderful .. such nursing skills 🤔😐this is so fantastic!!! ( sarcasm)

What are your thoughts on the fact that hierarchy within healthcare exists and will continue to exist due to the extreme salary difference between nurses (including advanced practice nurses) and physicians? As the saying goes, “money is power”. A thought might be to balance salaries for both professions and even amongst other licensed employees. Curious to hear any thoughts.

Our hospital just held a mandatory Healthcare Safety and High Reliability (mandatory) education session for all employees (held by Press Ganey) and guess what wasnt covered? Staffing. As if staffing does not matter while delivering safe patient care.

Nursing is broken. But not beyond repair.

ZDogg the profit of the not for profit hospital often goes toward helping fund for the poor and disadvantaged.

ZDoggMD for AG

YESSSSSSSS THANK YOU. This is too true.

Omg! Thank you!!

B-R-A-V-O!!!!!!!

Amen

Legitimate question: What do you mean by nurses practicing at the top of their licensure?

I loved all my nurses. thanks for this pep talk for them. now I have a very picky observation for you. I'm a recently graduated pharmacist , and it hurts me to see you using the trailing zeros on 2.0 and 3.0 . these are unapproved abbreviations in our hospital , when combined with med dosages on orders . I know that is not the case here , but we need to stamp it out evrrywhere. In my P1 calculations class, we failed a test if we used a trailing zero anywhere in the paper....even if all our answers were right. so now, when I see a trailing zero, it makes me shudder. okay, rant complete.

Thanks Dogggg