I work on a medical ward and also do agency myself.
However, I am appauled at the amount of agency nurses we get who haven't worked in a tertiary hospital for years and so come back via the agency. Most have worked in non ward settings such as OHN, Anaesthetics, home nursing ect.
The problem is, they are really dangerous. I have a student with me at the moment at work, and we had an agency nurse who hadn't worked on the wards for years. She worked in a clinic, that is how her registration is still valid. She was asking my student things, and I had told her not to as I was assessing the student and she was not a resource person.
This particular nurse asked if you give the patients a bed pan in bed during the day amongst other questions that are basic knowledge.
Our ward seems to get inundated with these nurses because when they sign with the agency and say they haven't worked in hospital for quite a while, the agency suggests a medical ward.
Some of the agency nurses have complained our ward isn't supportive. I told then to bugger off and go somewhere else then. I reminded them they have the choice if they wanted to be on our ward or not. I get sick of people like these expecting us to reintroduce them into hospital nursing and when we won't, they say we are not supportive.
A number of complaints have been filld in by numerous personal staff with regards to agency, but it keeps happening!!! Aggggghhhhh, there has to be some solution.
My expectation of a agency registered nurse is that they will require orientation to the ward and that is it. If they need help with patient movement ect, then they will get it. If they don't know how to use certain equipment, then they get shown as all hospitals have different equipment. But, I shouldn't have to explain paper work, what the patient is like ect though. They should be making their own assessment of the patient. One even asked me what medication times we have. I said they were on the drug chart. She gave me a nasty look.
