I have to turn in some equipment to my boss because Saturday was my last night shift as an LPN(which I called off on, and I'm not sorry). We recently had 5 travel nurses on our floor to help with staffing. We were hurting pretty bad. For some reason even though I do the exact same work as the RNs, I barely get paid more than the nurse aides. The RNs make $11-12 more than me hourly and I made $2 more than the aides. I expressed this frustration to my boss because I had been in the charge position as well without being compensated because our unit was a specialty and nurses floated to us weren't super familiar. She basically told me she appreciated what i do and that was the end of that. They never hired anyone, and didn't extend the traveler's contracts. I left to be a traveler, over doubling my income. A coworker of mine is leaving shortly after me and when he does, there will be one full time nurse on staff for the night shift. Healthcare is falling apart.
Basically what I'm saying is Fuck useless management and overhead. I feel like I've been drowning and I've just kicked off the bottom of the pool and I'm finally coming up for air. This is meant to be a feel good story for me. But it casts a different light on the medical field. I hope you all find a breath in your own way.