[lujological]

gerinurse-nothing frustrates me more than trying to answer phone for calloffs from 5am-6am when i am trying to do 6am med pass.cna's are giving care so there is noone but me,even though we have a portable phone we usually have to go back up hall to nurses desk for scheuld or something.It is really unsafe and means medications are late.

[rn-ka1977]

WOW do I hear you! I work in ICU and I feel as though I don't have time to do my nursing job because I am putting orders in the computer, giving baths, doing finger sticks, calling doctors, drawing blood......the list goes on forever!!! Then I turn around and my patient's pressure is in the toilet!!!!! I could just scream! Is this the case everywhere???? Could I just do my job???

[softstorms]

I had to laugh about this one. Even tonight we all complained about the same thing. Not only do we ans. the phone and transfer to pt. rooms, we ans. the door after 8 p.m. It is locked and they ring a doorbell. We have a 24 hour visitation rule, so we have visiters all the time. Does not matter if we have to go from our unit down to the front entrance hall to let them in. Have we complained? Yes, many times on deaf ears. We are told that they have an open door policy and all family members are welcome to visit if they see the need.
Well, if I had came to my mothers house at 11 p.m. just to visit, she would have booted me back home LOL. If I had called her, she would have ask "who died". because she hated being woken up that late.
Sometimes I think we have become Hotels instead of places for people to heal. But I don't think this is going to change much. So we just grin and keep ans. the phone LOL

[Aquamarine]

Originally Posted by Cmariehart

Sounds like the lovely LTC I work at... Have to run and answer the phone, find the resident, bring phone back.. Help transport residents to places, toilet, feed, do treatments and the list goes on.. I spoke up once and stated I felt it was unsafe to do all these things and I was told no one else has ever complained but me....

I am sure you werent the only one...it isn't uncommon for faciilities to try to save money by risking your liciense. get a resume and take notes now and quit when you find a new job.

[rr1012009]

I know what you mean. Where I work I'm the only nurse on the unit with two aides for 30 residents. Most of the time I ignore the phone and so do the other nurses in the facility. During my med pass I not only answer the phone but handle anything else that comes up. It takes me forever to do a med pass. By the time I finish one it's time for the next one. The thing is----the med pass is the part of the job I like the least. I wish I could breeze through the med pass and get onto treatments, sit down for awhile at the desk to do paperwork, talk to residents, organize things and maybe----just maaaaybe get to supper!

[GLORIAmunchkin72]

Many times we have to do our medpass in the middle of chaos...a cacophony of alarms, yellings, call-lights...Sometimes it's hard to think straight. But, it's like, deal with it!

[Aquamarine]

Originally Posted by SoCalif1979

How many of you work in facilities that require the nurse to answer phones and play secretary and receptionist for the facility and patients during the med pass?

I feel this is too dangerous! It opens too much room for a med error which endangers the patient.

There are just three facilities that I know of here that require it. One has just one phone to be shared by all of the patients, all 60+ of them and the nurse is expected to answer the phone then track the patient down. Sometimes the phone is misplaced and the nurse needs to find it. The CNAs always disappear. I've found them in the room with a sleeping patient watching TV.

I've been "talked to" because I refuse to interrupt a med pass. These are also the facilities with 32 to 40 patients to one nurse and only two aides on a good day 3 aides.

I can identify with what you are saying, I have seen it myself over and over. I will not under any circumstances put up with it...One thing for your own good is to document it if there is a communication book, put it in a letter and mail one copy keep one for yourself as that little communication book won't be around in a courtroom. CNA's have little to lose. Adminsitartors don't care about anything but thier own backs and the patients are of course...the true victims.
The families are more concerned with the floral arrangement in the foyer, or the big screen TV's the fountains in the well manicured gardens, while patients drool in front of those TV's, slumped in thier chairs, in wet diapers....so sad, so true. It is crazy, it is a medical system gone mad, someone is getting rich...it isn't the hard working RN's now is it.
The one thing you have to put in prospective is what your priorities are...to answer the phone and make a medical error that costs you your RN and a patient harm, or someone getting mad because you didn't answer the phone. I would wrtie up a protest about the phone.
I would get to my car everynight and keep a diary and don't tell a soul...even though the first thing you want to do is turn that key and get out of that parking lot.
I have seen abuse no one would believe in a place with religious symbols all over the walls, and prayers on the loud speakers...
I took care of the patients one night like I would want to be taken care of. Documentation was late, some meds were late...I got called on the carpet for it...they said I should have written up a protest of assignment...but the fact is they knew that night they left 20 acute hospitalized elderly patients with 2 nurses, all new orders written at 7pm by one MD that had been on vacation, no receptionist or anyone to answer the phone. I did not get written up because I am sincere, honest, respectful and one of the most caring nurses you ever met. I told it the way it was...I was doomed to get written up eventually, the situation was doomed to happen again, and again and again.
You know what the nurses were all about????...don't complain and we will all get O.T.$$ because we are short...no kidding.
I left because it isn't within my moral code of ethics and a RN license can be lost in a heartbeat. That hospital system with all the prayers, crosses, and whatever....they don't support their nurses on the floor, and they won't in the courtroom. A zebra doesn't change it's stripes because they change situations...
Stay, or do what is right...refuse to work under such shoddy standards.
There is no shortage of nurses but instead a shortage of nurses that want to work under those very common circumstances.
Two of the best nurses I know that I sadly left behind the old job...one got a bad review for having a "big mouth"...she was a true angel and a patient advocate, the other for general insubordiantion...she has to have the union go on the floor with her daily, and has a labor lawyer hired. The boss is low class but part of the "system" and protected by it. I commented on the one nurse during my first performance review that was good...that if it weren't for the one nurse I was almost going to go back to my old profession...and the reply was"she has a big mouth".
that system hired a RN as a "retention" RN to make sure the drop off rate wasn't so high...they tie her hands so she can't really do the job...it is such a joke, and such a crime.
Get your resume together, start looking, don't tell anyone at work and good luck.
don't let another day go by unless you are willing to go to bat for the patients, fight the administration for allowing such behavior and will eventually have to pay the price...don't be a part of it.
It isn't good for anyone, not yourself either. I certainly understand.
Good luck. Aquamarine

[busy-bee]

It is the same way in the facility I work at. Answer phones, run down residents, toileting, call lights, personal alarms.....you name it, it's sounding. It's constant. And it seems the nurses are the only ones on the hall. Where are the aides, in a room with the door closed. Oh and the biggy is, along with all this, nurses have to pass trays and are required to be in the dining room feeding residents, then cleaning the dining room, take the meal carts down. After all this we now can get back to our med pass. Contemplating changing med times of four of our residents to 10:00 a.m. just so we can be compliant when state walks in. Desk work begins at 2:00 p.m., sometimes 2:30 p.m., depends on the treatments. The administrator needs to follow us just one shift to understand.

[Aquamarine]

Originally Posted by busy-bee

It is the same way in the facility I work at. Answer phones, run down residents, toileting, call lights, personal alarms.....you name it, it's sounding. It's constant. And it seems the nurses are the only ones on the hall. Where are the aides, in a room with the door closed. Oh and the biggy is, along with all this, nurses have to pass trays and are required to be in the dining room feeding residents, then cleaning the dining room, take the meal carts down. After all this we now can get back to our med pass. Contemplating changing med times of four of our residents to 10:00 a.m. just so we can be compliant when state walks in. Desk work begins at 2:00 p.m., sometimes 2:30 p.m., depends on the treatments. The administrator needs to follow us just one shift to understand.

I can bet the administrator already knows, they are not treating nurses like that not knowing...they aren't stupid...they are saving money and keeping you feeling disrespected so you will appreciate any little cookie they throw your way and won't complain when they get big fat bonuses for saving money on your being overworked. It is a game.

[leslymill]

Originally Posted by anne74

What is this one-phone-per-40-patients business? Don't they have phones in their rooms? Is this Little House on the Prairie? That's ridiculous.

I like the idea of just not answering the phones and concentrating on NURSING responsibilities. Maybe if the other nurses followed suit, they'd get the hint and hire someone to do that job - like most businesses in the United States. Or, why don't they have phones in the patient's rooms, so the patients can help themselves? I think too many LTC facilities take advantage of nurses. They expect you to handle interuptions during med pass, but then if you make a mistake, it's your license on the line. Just say no!

Phones cost the residents more in most LTC facilities..

One residents abused phones by calling 911 when his light wasn't answered.