mds mountain of work with no help

Your lucky to have an assistant when I did MDS I had no assistant. I had to work overtime, on days off and take work home. The biggest advantage I had is that I could type at lightning speed and we had a good software program. That is one job I would never take on again. Yep, a lot of meetings, from care plan to department head and whatever else the facility wants to involve you in. Hopefully you will be sent to some formal training soon. I didnt have any when I started out. I had to read the manual and figure it out on my own. They have a formal organization for MDS coordinators. You might want to join to get as much info. as you can. The position is not for everyone. Either people love it or hate it.

Gee, I was inquiring about this position with a facility I work at PRN.

I think I shall pass on the oppourtunity.

Please forgive my ignorance, but what does MDS stand for? Maybe because I don't know what it means, I am not qualified to respond, but I was just curious. Thanks.

Oh, honey.......get out while you still can!!

I've walked in those moccasins, and let me tell you, it can be a killer.....for one thing, the hours you put in are ridiculous, and your time is never your own because the facility is always calling for one thing or another. (BTW, I hope you're not on salary.......by the time you figure in the amount of time you spend on the job, taking the job home, answering calls from the job, and dreaming about the job, you're barely making the minimum wage!) Then there's all those meetings.......I still don't know how one is supposed to do the job properly when you're in meetings for half the day!

THEN.......the survey team will be on your a$$ like white on rice, and you'll be held responsible for everything that's been wrong in the facility since before you even started there. That's when upper management must start working on the plan of correction......and that's often when an MDS coordinator finds herself kicked to the curb.

I know......it happened to me. And the best thing I ever did was to shake the dust of the place off my feet and head back to the hospital, where I'm just a little fish in a big bowl and I can do my 8-hour shift and go HOME--- without middle-of-the-night phone calls, take-home paperwork (RAPs are pretty labor-intensive) or being called in to work the floor when the night-shift nurse doesn't show up.

yep, i remember one year when the facility received deficiencies...the entire blame was put on the mds nurse. that is just so unwarranted. needless to say, she too, went back to acute care and grappled w/patient loads, mandatory overtime and STILL was happier in the hospital. now what does that tell you?

leslie

Yeppers, that's me in a nutshell......even with the physical and mental stresses of hospital work, I'd rather be a lowly little Med/Surg nurse for the rest of my life than EVER be an MDS coordinator again!

Agree...agree...agree!!! This is a heck of a position!! I have been doing this for years and still never feel caught up...and once I do ever think I am going to feel a little more at ease...one little thing throws it all away!! I work 6 days per week...put in 10-12 hour days and still do more work at home when I get here!! I am salary...worked 72 hours last week...the week of State survey...went in at 4 am just to be able to do some of my own work before the surveyors got there!! Always work at least 50 hours per week or more and get paid for 40. My department has been cite free since I started there...but whoever stated it earlier is so right that the surveyors are on you like white on rice....and blame does get placed on the MDS's and care plans often...I am currently working by myself on corrections for a cite that wasn't even an MDS cite...plus doing my own work...and trying to keep casemix up...etc..
Came home yesterday after working 12 hours and the staff development person called before I even got in the door to work 11-7..on the floor!! I expect this was to be for free...since I get no overtime!! Then you get the crap from the floor nurses who think you don't do anything...when you are working your a** off! I do like doing the MDS's and care plans ...it is all the other crap that you have to put up with!....and yes too many meetings!!! I have taken to skipping some!! It is ridiculous...! Good Luck....it is a job that noone can understand unless you have done it.

Someone else stated it earlier...you definitely should look into classes or training of some type....I know our state has free training courses every other month that can be attended...found ours on the submission website.
Good Luck!