20 Years in the CCU and He’s Leaving

A nurse who has been working in the CCU at my facility for 20 years is leaving. He’s packing up his stethoscope, cleaning out his locker, and making the move to the competing hospital a few miles down the road. He is talented, compassionate, and a real asset to nursing. He took care of my mother when she passed away and helped to ease the pain and calmed me in a time where I was full of questions.

We’re loosing a talented nurse who has been see as an mentor to many.

I have talked to him about myself. I haven’t personally seen him, and I’m sure that he has been asked enough, but I would be interested in hearing straight from the horses mouth the reasons he is leaving. We all know he’ll make more money. The competing facility does shift differentials based upon a percentage, rather than a flat rate. So if you have been a nurse longer, you are rewarded accordingly.

But I know it’s not just about money. In nursing, it hardly ever is. We don’t do this for the money. Most of us would agree that if we were just after the money there would be easier ways for us to get it, with far less heartache and emotional distress. No, it has to be about more to him,  but what exactly?

Did the rude email about the staff being “policed” in the parking lot strike a nerve? Is he upset about the nurses loosing their retention bonus, due to the “state of the economy”, even though there are rumors of the renovations they are planning costing upwards of 15 million? Is he annoyed with the constant cutting of staff based upon the numbers without regard to acuity or skill-level of nurses?

These are all questions I have for him, but will not ask. It’s inappropriate and none of  my business really. But I do remain curious.

I’d like to know if his decision to leave has anything to do with the low morale. Perhaps it is more exaggerated to me, since I am hoping for a change in practice. Perhaps my own potential for burnout has me assuming that others are feeling the same way that I am. But I don’t think anyone can ignore the obvious increase in the number of nurses leaving. I also don’t think anyone can argue with the lack of new nurses incoming. I know that the grass is always greener, but I just feel so very devalued at this time, that I can see why the nurses who have left has chosen to do so.

I am crossing my fingers and hoping that this change for me comes sooner rather than later. I love being a nurse and doing what I do, I just don’t feel an reciprocation of this love in my current position. It’s time for a change and the nursing profession provides me with that luxury. I am so very thankful for that.