Taco Bell is hiring

RoaminHankRN · Feb 28, 2002

I did a really bad thing at work last night... I admitted a patient to the floor.. did the admission screening tools.. vitals... and settle the patient in... It was not that bad.. but the floor was short staffed and when that happens you have to help out. Just glad there was not a code blue.

It does give you respect for what the floors do but this nursing shortage is making life miserable for us all!!!!!

aus nurse · Mar 1, 2002

I have read all the posts and sympatise with all points. What I really think it is all about is the nursing shortage. I work in a small hospital and we all know each other well. I have been here for a number of years and what I am seeing now I directly relate to our increasing levels of stress. In these times of high workload, short staffing, low morale and high burnout we understandably lose sight of other people. We now seem to be *****ing at each other all the time, especially unit to unit. What we need to do I think, is direct all this to the management instead of each other. Don't let the turkeys get you down. We are fighting back at my hospital.

fergus51 · Mar 1, 2002

Ha! I work L&D and when they call us for a patient is the one time you see all those type A personality, adrenaline junkies looking scared:) We obviously take them no matter what time it is. The floors have an unwritten policy of no admits a Between 7 and 8 while shift change and report is going on. They will not take report during this time, and if they don't take report they can't take the patient. A little passive agressive maybe, but it works. The cleaning house has stopped a little.

When I float to the floor I only do tasks, no patient assignment. I was on one night to hear an ER nurse berate the floor nurse for not taking another patient. This was when the floor nurse had 14 already, one of whom had just coded and 4 who were fresh from ICU. The ER nurse was yelling so loudly on the phone that I could hear her from three feet away! Then she comes up with the patient and tries to get me to take report! Me...the OB nurse....hmmm...I don't think so. I had to get a bit of an attitude myself to ward off that one.

I have never seen a floor nurse refuse an admit just to be a b*tch. If they did I would write them up in about a second. I am sure the ER nurse like the one I mentionned is busy too, I just think she has no concept that other people might be busy.

purplemania, BSN, RN · Mar 1, 2002

I work 6 pm to 6 am. Our cafeteria is open from 1-3 am. We seem to get our admits from ER just before 1 am. We don't have a unit clerk at night, so the nurses have to do everything. Since it is a pedi floor that usually includes starting IV and getting labs (even though the pt. has been in ER several hours). Bottom line: the ER gets emptied around 1 am and we get admits but NO LUNCH>I have worked ER and have seen them hold pts. till time for their own break. The real gripe is getting reservations over a 2 hour period but the admits all hit the floor at the same time (and you don't get to eat). Yes I show a little attitude when things could be planned better and everyone get a little break.

RoaminHankRN · Mar 2, 2002

If that is happening to you... that is not cool. Where are your house supervisors in these situation? (if you have them)

At least your cafe opened... when I worked ER, it was closed all night. Add that to most of your nights busy, you'd be lucky to get lunch period. We learned to eat a meal in 5 minutes.. I remember one hospital we did not have a staff lounge.. we ate at a counter next to the trauma bed that was seperated by a curtain.. That bed was usually occupied with a young kid dead of a GSW and family were weeping, while on the other side of the curtain we were trying to keep our sugar levels up for the next trauma... Some fun days!!!

Ahh thinking back to the days of Level I Trauma Centers in the windy city.

Try that on for size some day.

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Mar 4, 2002

Hi yall

from deep in the heart of Txas

Yall get lunch breaks in your Er, aint never heard of such, shuckins right now were doing good to get a pee break. Ive read all the posts in this section. Got to admit there seem to be a lot of strong feelings floating around depending which side your on. Ive been an Er charge nurse or asst nurse manager for the last 14 years. I never yell at the floor nurses. If there seems to be a problem, I just call the charge nurse of that unit ans Say Callie dear whats happening. We always come to an amenable understanding. With the possible exception of the 5th floor, here, Im not sure about those people there. I have strong doubts about that floor at night. But all the other floors and units, just a little ole call to your fellow charge nurse, and we always work it out. Somehow or another.

Im still curious though how yall get lunch breaks, were lucky to get a wolf it down break. Any Er nurse who cant eat 1/2 a large pizza in 30 seconds doesnt deserve to be an er nurse.

love yall

teeituptom

Cindi_B · Mar 4, 2002

Hey teeituptom and all,

I had a good chuckle with your reply because of the basic truth in the attitude that you display in your interaction with your co-workers. I think that some nurses have forgotten the old adage that "you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar." This doesn't mean that you have to be condescending, just "walk a mile in their shoes." We are all in this together and together we should be able to work something out that doesn't diminish any of us.

anorberg · Mar 4, 2002

I am now a school nurse I have worked the floor been a head nurse and worked ER you may wish to rethink offering nurses a job at taco bell we crrrently have a shortage of nurses and must all work together to give quality patient care. Every area feels the are the most over worked and we are all overworked fighting or encouraging nurses to leave and go to fast food work is not a positive may to handle the problems.

ChristenLPN, LPN · Mar 4, 2002

The frustration that is so evident in all of these posts suggests one very compelling reason for our current nursing shortage. With waiting lists to get into the nursing programs at my school, and an excellent pass rate on the NCLEXs, it seems clear to me that there is no shortage of people going into nursing. Our shortage seems to stem from the vast numbers of people who leave it. It seems I am always running into ex-nurses, and I always like to ask why they left. 95% of the time, the answers echo the frustrations I have read here. Nurses eat their young. Continually unsafe patient loads and someone always wanting you to take one more admit. Days when you have three patients code simultaneously, and you're criticized for not being available to take a phone call or help someone to the bathroom. Running yourself ragged for paltry pay and enormous legal consequences and being called lazy. Verbal abuse from drunk and high patients. Being floated to a totally different department on a slow night and having no idea what you're doing, knowing that both the patients and your co-workers suffer as a result. Management that seldom gets involved with personnel issues and seem to frequently prefer the easy-way-out method of issuing staff-wide memos instead of having the guts to address troublemakeres personally. Everyone sort of needs someone to blame when all hell breaks loose and it seems like the whole world is conspiring to make doing your job impossible, but then you have nights like the one Katana described, when patients are late leaving and ambulances are late coming, and there is no one at fault, just an infuriatingly inept system. And when you are that overwhelmed, that exhausted, that afraid of losing your license for your inablility to do the impossible, the only solution seems to be to leave nursing. (Especially when you learn that Wal-Mart night staff is much better paid than you are!)

I am very fortunate to be in a job I love, with phenomenal nurses who are energetic, upstanding, and professional. I think I probably would work at Taco Bell before I went to the hospital, and that is a sad, sad state for all nurses.

frann · Mar 4, 2002

Who do we talk to about getting a job at walmart for 22 hr?

And Where? I want answers. I find it difficult to believe that walmart pays that much, certainly not anywhere near me.

RoaminHankRN · Mar 6, 2002

Originally posted by allonna norber
I am now a school nurse I have worked the floor been a head nurse and worked ER you may wish to rethink offering nurses a job at taco bell we crrrently have a shortage of nurses and must all work together to give quality patient care. Every area feels the are the most over worked and we are all overworked fighting or encouraging nurses to leave and go to fast food work is not a positive may to handle the problems.

My suggestion was originally directed at those people who hate being on call and let you know about it with their attitudes.

However I do suggest it to those who are burned out for whatever reason...ChristenLPN brings up a lot of good points. Would you want your family member cared for by a nurse who is burned out and has a bad attitude?

CEN35 · Mar 7, 2002

while this may be a little late....i must admit.......with the title taco belle is hiring, i had no intrest to even look into this thread before today. maybe it comes out of boredom this morning. however, now that i know what this thread is about, i have to throw in my two cents. for those of you who may get offended, i am sorry. i figure the best way to go about this is with the facts. of course i only have the facts from my er, when i am there.

while i am not there 24 hours a day :eek: (thank god!) i do try to persuade those who are there when i am not, to follow in the same ways.

#1 - unaccording to what some have experienced, we do not send patients up without report. (fact)

#2 - in reading this thread, people are reffering to "floor nurses" and "er nurses". this brings up a question? does the term you posters use "floor nurse", reffer to rnf? sdu? and/or the units also? due to the lack of clarification i will assume it reffers to sdu and rnf floors.

i have frequently heard inpatient nurses in general, hate the admits because of the paper work involved. yet, our hospital policy gives them 23 hours to complete the admission paperwork. all the info cana be found on the er paperwork. (fact)

codes do happen on the rnf/sdu floors, and nobody denied that (fact).

many claim worry over two or three admits in a short period of time, when they have multiple other patients. (fact)

in our facility, patients are not in the halls on the floors (fact).

when the rooms are full, nobody else goes up into hall. whether there are pending transfers/dc's or not. (fact)

when patients go to the rnf/sdu from our er 98% are completely stable. if there is any concern, we relay that concern to the nurse taking report. (fact)

there are incidents when nurses in the er call an admit over, and forget vital info. for instance thte fact that the patient is a giant petri dish (i.e. mrsa, vre, etc etc.) (fact) sorry but it happens.....and we all know they belong in a private room.

we have some new nurses in our er. they don't always catch the changes in patients, while down there. i try to keep up on all that, so something inadvertant does not end up on the rnf/sdu. (fact)

we also have four nurses that came from the ccu, sdu/csicu and rnf. every one of them has said, they cannot beleive the abuse and crap we take from the families and patients at times. the one said, "it is so much calmer, less chaotic in house. everybody is much happier and an easy going pace in house." although it isn't a valid reason for copping a tude it does wear on people at times. while i can't vouch for everybody else, if i cop that tude......i will be the first to call back later and apoligize. (fact) ***also jfr...i never saw anybody claim "floor nurses" just sit around and drink coffee......i find that intriuging and funny someone would think that. :chuckle

people here assume or allegedly claim to have heard (hearsay), on the "clean out theory" at the end of the shift. while again, i cannot vouch for other facilities, we do not do that in my er. (fact)

we do not wait until the end of the shift, or shift change to ship patients up to the floor from my er. (fact)

if we are not getting crushed and have places to put patients, i will ask the nurse; "tell me how long you want us to hold them, until you are ready." assuming the walls do not fall down, and doors bust open at the seems, i will keep them there until that time comes. (fact)

in the er i would so much rather get balsted, during shift change when essentially you have a half hour of double staffing.....rather than any other time. (fact)

so i never did understand the issue of waiting until a half hour before and after shift change, to transfer a patient to the floor. ecspecially when we have 27 people, in a 21 bed er, with 17 in the waiting room. those people then become my responsibility. i have to decide with no room, which chest pain is real, which gib can wait, and which person with sob can get by with a wr aerosol tx. so if i appear a little narrow minded, you will have to excuse me, because that will not change.

as you all know, hospitals frequently go on diversion. anybody who doesn't understand this concept let me explain it. there are different catagories, which is irrelevant. however, on divert or not a hospital cannot refuse a patient. so on divert, we still do get squads, and god help the person that tries to to divert a patient circling the drain.

what's my point? i was downstairs by the cafeteria one day, and heard some nurses from the floor say something. "how nice it must be to go on diversion, and work in the er. because they close down, and just sit around and do nothing until it is time to open up." here is the fact - unaccording to what hank said, at least at our hospital the er is not responsible for most of the admits. we are only responsible for 41% (fact). however, on divert or not only about 20-25% are squads. a hospital cannot close their er. so we are still busting our butts, while on divert. (fact)

gib for three hours without being cleaned up? your right that is totaly unexcuseable. (opinion also......because i dont know what their circumstances were that night)

99% of our patients being admitted have an iv placed. if they don't, most likely it is because they are a social admit. (fact)

when we are jammed, and i transport patients to the room. not because i have nothing better to do, but because there is a lineup and all our monitors, and beds are in use. when i get to anyplace other than a unit.......(fact) nobody acknowledges me, and i move the patient over by myself, tuck them in, put their rails up, and head out. on my way out i hear, oh he's here?

unstable? everybody is busy? ever have to hang nitro, riapro, heparin, do a rectal in the hall, and only have a 12 lead machine, and a nurse on a stick that doesn't record past b/p's and pulses? i have......and will bet that doesn't happen anywhere else.

i'm not claiming to be supernurse, or put anybody down. in additon, i won't reply to anybody who comes out as harsh, crude or wants to stir the pot. these are just the things i see and hear. it's frustrating for everybody. hope nobody takes offense!

have a great day too!!!

me :)

p.s. - taco belle is paying $10.50 an hour here....lmao!