Frustrated

EmmaG, RN · Dec 26, 2007

I'm sorry for your frustration and that you were the only tech on the floor. That's a hard shift

It's often not a matter of the charge nurse not having the guts to stand up. The house supervisor is responsible for looking at the whole picture, knowing the staffing issues and patient acuity on all units. It's up to them to staff accordingly for patient safety. That sometimes means that an individual floor is left with less-than-optimal staffing. I'm sorry you had such a rough assignment, but in a case such as that the nurses are there to help you. You can't be expected to effectively take care of that many patients on your own.

caliotter3 · Dec 26, 2007

Kylee

Sorry this happened to you. It is not a rare occurrence. There are many call offs on these holidays. One of my coworkers at a LTC facility told me about one Christmas where it was only one LVN and her, the only CNA, for the entire building of more than 148 residents. She was ready to cry, but did not go home. She said the LVN did not do a single med pass. All that each of them did was spend the entire night making rounds, trying to keep the residents clean, dry, and comfy. The majority of the facility personnel were attending a party. It seems that the DON and administrator were well aware of what happened and nobody was disciplined.

When things like this happen, you just do the best you can. And pray.

pagandeva2000, LPN · Dec 26, 2007

As mentioned, the charge nurse cannot override the nursing supervisors. It may be true that some advocate and navigate better than others, the probable situation could have been that they were spread thin for techs and tried to distribute them evenly, even if it were not quite safe. Holidays are notorious for this. Even with the threats of docking pay, people call in with no regard for their collagues. And, it may be hard to obtain agency people at the last minute as well.

I am glad that at least, the nurses pitched in and helped you. There are many instances where they would have left the aide to their own devices...and still complained ungratefully. You are not wrong for feeling the way you did, because heck, you were tired and overwhelmed.

EmmaG, RN · Dec 26, 2007

As mentioned, the charge nurse cannot override the nursing supervisors. It may be true that some advocate and navigate better than others, the probable situation could have been that they were spread thin for techs and tried to distribute them evenly, even if it were not quite safe. Holidays are notorious for this. Even with the threats of docking pay, people call in with no regard for their colleagues. And, it may be hard to obtain agency people at the last minute as well.

I've also seen managers who will deliberately schedule their floors under-staffed, knowing that the supervisor must pull and distribute staff to cover.

pink2blue1 · Dec 27, 2007

Ugh Kylee! That is SO HARD to be the only Aide on the floor ( I was an Aide for 4 years and know the feeling!) Now that I am a nurse, I'll be the first to say it's hard on everyone when there is only 1 aide and as often as we complain about it, this still happens and it isn't the charge nurses decision, it's the house supervisor! They have often pulles one of our 2 aides (and we have 30 patients!) to send one to be a sitter on another floor.

Sorry you had a cruddy few days.

Hugs

Ms Kylee · Dec 27, 2007

My time on the floor is winding down (going to PRN as of Jan 5), and I'm so frustrated by how bad these past 2 days were that I'm half tempted to call in tomorrow. Especially, since I start a 5 day run and 4 of them are daylight. I'm tired, I don't want to go in and I just want to move on. Thing is, I've already called off twice this month because of lower GI trouble (I think it's the stress of the floor) and I'm afraid they'll fire me or give me a warning if I call off tomorrow.

GrumpyRN63, ADN, RN · Dec 27, 2007

I know on my unit the superviser pulls the staff, charge nurse has no authority, the only thing she can do is explain her situation to the supervisor to either keep or request additional staff. Thatbeingsaid, If you are the only aide, the nurses need to step up to the plate and pull some extra weight so your not dumped on. If we are down staff @ noc, we draw our own am labs, vs,empty drains ,whatever needs to be done to get the work done. In the old days there were no aide's/ PCT's/PCA's,the LPN"s and RN's did it all ( in the hospital) the new nurses(sometimes spoiled) need to realize that they aren't above doing anything, one hand washes the other. Things were 10X harder before modern technology hit healthcare. I'm talking everything was done by hand/no automated computerized anything. It's still bad now, trust me it was a lot worse then. Don't be afraid to speak up for yourself under extreme circumstances, sometimes you just need to ask for the help from your coworkers

And yay for going prn, hang in their until the fifth...