how much is too much

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in ICU/ER.

OK I know there have been many threads lately on how much extra work nursing staff now does, but my god where is the limit?

Here is what I have seen in the past few years. CNA's we dont have them. Ward clerks, dont have them. Trays do get brought up, but we must deliver them to the rooms and pick them back up and then take the dirty ones back down.

Housekeeping: bare minimum--we wash the BSC and wipe down all the towers/counters and computers, we take out the trash--really all they do is floors and wipe off bed. We make the beds.

We do the stocking and all of the ordering. Materials mgmt brings up our supplies in card board boxes and leaves them at the nursing station, we put them away.

we do all the "charging" every night we need to mark down all the IM/Sub Q and IV meds given, how many hours they were on tele, if they are on feeding tubes etc etc etc for billing...granted all this stuff is on their MARS and in thier computer chart, but we need to put it on another form to give to billing as well.

Now lab is no longer coming up to the floors, nursing will draw all of the labs and deliver them to the lab in the basement. Lab no longer faxes results to us either, we need to log on to thier system and print them off ourselves.

Whats next, we get our own portable x ray machine and start taking our own x rays too? --are we going to start going over the bill and set up payment plan at time of dismisal?

I love being a nurse really I do, but I am starting to feel like not only a nurse but a housekeeper/accountant/stock girl/phlebotomist and most of all a customer service rep!!!

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Specializes in Corrections, Cardiac, Hospice.

Get out! Run, don't walk. They are taking advantage of you and have no repect for nurses. My boss tried that, Oh well, the nurses can clean the rooms crap. No way. I told him, I refuse. I will not do that, if you think that you can along with all the other responsibilities that we have by all means, be my guest. Better yet, how about I call you at home and YOU can come in to clean the rooms. He found another way. If he hadn't I would have quit. You have to draw your line somewhere. :rolleyes:

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Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.

run quit leave with your license

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Specializes in ER,ICU,L+D,OR.

could be worse.

You could have to bring in a bucket of coal with you to work

You might have to sharpen your needles when you got to work.

you might have had to work 16 hour days.

You might not have been allowed to have any private life whatsoever

you might have had to carry out all the bedding daily to air it outside.

I hope things get better for you., I truly do.

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Specializes in ICU/ER.
could be worse.

You could have to bring in a bucket of coal with you to work

You might have to sharpen your needles when you got to work.

you might have had to work 16 hour days.

You might not have been allowed to have any private life whatsoever

you might have had to carry out all the bedding daily to air it outside.

I hope things get better for you., I truly do.

I dont get the bucket of coal comment?? Seeing your 46 I hope you never had to sharpen your own needles!! but I get your point. Thanks--it is true, it could be worse..I am just griping as the extra work is causing petty arguments with in staff. I have enough to worry about besides why I didnt order enough pudding.

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Man, that's crazy! You poor thing. Seriously...do you have a union? Is it that you're short staffed? Or that they've just cut some positions due to our lovely economy? This sounds like an issue for your union. When do you have time to take care of your patients?

Hang in there...are there other places you could work in our area?

Good luck!

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could be worse.

You could have to bring in a bucket of coal with you to work

You might have to sharpen your needles when you got to work.

you might have had to work 16 hour days.

You might not have been allowed to have any private life whatsoever

you might have had to carry out all the bedding daily to air it outside.

I hope things get better for you., I truly do.

Things have not gotten better, just different. Unfortunately the public's and management's views still think we don't have other responsibilities since we don't carry coal. Many nurses on this site have reiterated some of their responsibilities that would have the nurses of the 1900's doing flips in their graves.

I am old enough to remember when nurses did not start IVs. Their job was to care for the sick, not to use critical thinking to discern appropriate advanced care.

Many still are doing 16 hour days and have little private life due to the hours we work.

Nurses are still treated like indentured servants. We are usually our own worst enemies as we can be forced by threats of abandonment. We need to work at putting our collective feet down. Management needs to look at what is being asked of us and recognize professionals should not leave the bedside to do jobs they are not educated to do. This not only places our patients in jeopardy, it prevents others from having those jobs for which they were trained.

It is time management stopped trying to balance the budget on the backs of the nurse. :twocents:

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Man, that's crazy! You poor thing. Seriously...do you have a union? Is it that you're short staffed? Or that they've just cut some positions due to our lovely economy? This sounds like an issue for your union. When do you have time to take care of your patients?

Hang in there...are there other places you could work in our area?

Good luck!

While I enjoyed the initial fruits of the ratio law in CA . . .now hospitals have cut other staff so we do as the OP wrote.

CNA's and ward clerks were fired a year ago. Now there is some movement towards CNA's returning but only limited to 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and they do the ward clerk job along with the nurses.

Yesterday, there was a patient going downhill . . . I happened to be walking past (on my day off) on the way to my office . .. I don't work on the acute side anymore . . . . both nurses, the doctor, the pharmacist, and the ER supervisor were in the room with the door shut . . .. the CNA was answering call lights . . .the phone at the desk was ringing and no one was there to answer the phone and watch the cardiac monitor as there were two patients on tele . . .so I sat there until things calmed down and answered the phone and watched the monitor.

This is unsafe. Which is why I resigned.

Unions are not a guarantee that things will get better.

I think it takes each individual nurse to not put up with the unsafe staffing and danger to patient care. But, only 3 of us left and the rest continue to work there.

Of course . . . .I could point the finger at myself for sitting at the desk.

steph

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Things have not gotten better, just different. Unfortunately the public's and management's views still think we don't have other responsibilities since we don't carry coal. :twocents:

I agree with this . . . . . . making nurses feel guilty because oh gosh we don't carry coal anymore or sharpen needles is wrong.

steph

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Specializes in ER,ICU,L+D,OR.
I dont get the bucket of coal comment?? Seeing your 46 I hope you never had to sharpen your own needles!! but I get your point. Thanks--it is true, it could be worse..I am just griping as the extra work is causing petty arguments with in staff. I have enough to worry about besides why I didnt order enough pudding.

I was reading a history book

They had to carry a bucket of coal in to heat their ward and to heat the water and to cook with. And yes sharpening the needles was before my time also.

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Specializes in ER,ICU,L+D,OR.

I really do love nursing.

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i do it all....well it seems it anyway.........and i love it!!

i also work in a house type setting with 12 mentally retarded very frail individuals......only nurses work there.....and we do it ALL.....cleaning,changin them and beds,laundry,giving meds,stocking med room,taking phone orders,taking them on outings or dr apts.....much more,but you all get the drift......

I am also 46 and a new nurse........while doing clinicals,i would get so angry with some RNs when i asked for help and they would reply...this isnt my job...go find yoiur aid......well..my aid was in with another PT and all i wanted was help postioning a very large man......usually the Rns were young wh responded this way........so when my mom was in the hospital in summer....she is 82 by the way.......i reguested certain nurses....the nurses who i saw that cared...not the ones who said...this isnt my job......i may be new and a virgin......but i know good kind compassionate women/men when i see them.....

hats off to all:bowingpur who love what they do....

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