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It's OK to quit - Part 6

Writer's picture: amber dregeramber dreger

A random journal entry


Crabs in a bucket


If you put one crab in a bucket, it will find it’s way out.

If you fill the bucket with crabs, none will get out. If a crab tried to escape, the other crabs will pull it back in. “If I can’t have it, neither do you.” ***


I often think of this when I think of the healthcare system.

Nurses have spent decades being pulled back down by management and government.

Seeing other professions complain about not getting a break, we would shrug, “I haven’t had a break in 10 years!”

If I can't have a break, why should you?


Text reads: "the boiling frog story is often used as a metaphor for the inability of people to react to significant changes that occur gradually or to events which have become commonplace." An image of a sweating frog in boiling water on the stove
Is it hot in here?

“Put a frog in boiling water and it will jump out. Put a frog in cold water and slowly turn up the heat, it will boil to death.” Whether or not this is true for frogs... it's true for humankind.


I think we are all frogs. In every aspect of healthcare. We have been sitting in hot water, waiting for someone else to say something because the temperature is making us sweat.

If no one else is hot, maybe it's me, I just can't handle the heat.


Management and government are just turning up the heat, and we are mostly just sitting frogs and crabs in a bucket. Each time one of us tries to crawl out, pulled back in by the rest of us shrugging “what’s the point?”


It starts with missing your breaks, or staying late to finish charting or to give a thorough report. Then it's the sick calls that don't get filled, and working short becomes common place. Then it's the budget cuts and the positions disappearing, and a nursing shortage that's been coming for decades and no open positions yet always working short....


At some point, I have to make the decision to stay or leave. I might die outside of the pot, but I dying is guaranteed if I stay.


***this has been proven to be a myth.



 

If you are experiencing signs of burnout, please, reach out for help. Talk to a trusted supervisor, your Employee Assistance Program, myself or someone else about what you are experiencing. Burnout and Vicarious Trauma do not get better on its own.



To determine if you are experiencing burnout or vicarious trauma (or at high risk), take the self assessment here:





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