[babs_rn]

I am VERY interested in a position that recently came to my attention....dialyzing patients in ICU. I gotta say, it would be REALLY nice to only be responsible for one patient at a time, and to not be responsible for running the clinical activities of an entire unit and STILL not get anywhere NEAR 40 hrs a week, so I've been doing stopgap measures by floating and working with the Agency on the side to make enough money to EAT....Only thing is, I live 70 miles away (not an issue for me, if you've read my other threads)...my question is (since I'm playing voicemail tag with the one doing the hiring) in y'all's experience (forgive my Southern Self), what kind of time limit do you have to respond and be in the facility when you're on call? I asked one nurse in an area town and she said it was several hours....what about you?

Thanks...
Barbara

[ageless]

Here, the response time is 25-30 minutes. If the patient is stable enough to wait several hours for the call nurse, then the treatment can wait until morning or normal business hours. Call is for pulmonary edema, hyper k, ....etc.


PS. Many programs require an RN to run more than one ICU patient at a time..depends on the situation and staffing issues. Also, fine tune your vent and cardiac drip knowledge while waiting for hire...best wishes!

[babs_rn]

Thanks, I've been told it's one at a time. I don't yet have any more details than that. I couldn't even make it 10 miles into the nearest town (out in the country) within 25-30 minutes if called in the middle of the night! GOTTA wake up, brush my teeth, my hair, and put something on!! How is it possible?

[babs_rn]

Well, I'm turning it down. Response time for this facility is an hour...IMPOSSIBLE unless I stay in a hotel...which will cost about 3 times the call pay....plus, only days I'd be off are the days after I've been on call all night....could never be a Mom or have a date or be a PERSON outside of work. It's hard to believe that nurses agreee to such terms - no wonder everybody's burning out. There HAS to be some kind of happy medium where I can make a LIVING and still be a mom and develop a meaningful relationship with another person....I'll just have to pray about finding something else to supplement where I work now....

Barb

[BeckieRN]

We need to be at the hospital within the hour and be setting up for the treatment. When we get called in the nepehrologist MUST be in attendance, the theory being: if they're sick enough to need a stat treatment they are sick enough to be seen by their doctor!! This protocol has changes a lot of "emergent" treatments to treatments that can wait until the next morning