MDS Duties

If all that she were doing were the MDS at that number I would raise an eyebrow unless the position were part time. Given all the other duties you have mentioned for her it sounds about like she has a full plate too given the bed number you mention. Do you have a high turn over?

I'm a DON at a 40 bed facility. When I was hired I was told I would have assistance from the ADON/MDS coordinator. Currently she does 4-5 MDS a week. I've been told that an admission MDS takes 5 hours and others take 4 hours. The charge nurses do all the assessments for all admissions.

She also does Infection Control, arranges inservices, updates orders on the MARS. She also runs off the certifications and recertifications every 60 days. We both take turns working 3 hours a week and share the times we have to fill in for other staff. It's seldom that we have to fill in.

I want to be fair to her. She does nothing else to help me. I'm overloaded. She is also a good friend of the administrator which is easily seen in the work place. She feels she has too much to do and gets extra help from another nurse to do her assessments.

Is this load too much to handle? I want to be fair with her. Thanks for your input. I really appreciate it.

It is still hard to call without actually being there to see how things really A comprehensive assessment to just phyically imput is way easy. I would say an hour is about the upper limits of it from my experience. Of course, I would also have to factor in the actual collection of the data needed. I can see that varying from place to place depending on the systems in place and how one feels about the validity of the information obtained. I have times where I am not always satisfied that someone's interpretation of assistance needed or presentation of mood/behaviors is correct. It may need to be investigated more in depth. Of course at a 40 bed facility it should be fairly easy to keep track of if your population is stable and she has been there long enough to have a good grasp of the residents themselves. Is she doing the care confreneces? How long do they last? How intricate are the care plans? Are they including every minute detail? How confident is she in doing them? I have seen some MDS folks be so focused and worried that they are going to mess up or miss something that they think themselves in a frenzy all the time. How many assessments are done in conjunction with an MDS? We have a ton of add ons like vulnerable adult, smoking, wanderguard, etc...

I am not being a smart mouth but do have a good grasp of what the MDS is and what is involved? Could you sit down and do one? The folks at my place- the DON and ADON are scared to death of them. They think it is some big frightening thing.

She may be at the threshold, she may not be.

If you feel like there is a 'special' relationship or favoritism with her being tight with the administrator it may be valid. I can relate to that thought. The owner/adminstrator's wife came on board as the ADON at my facility and it has not been a positive thing for morale on many levels. But that it another discussion thread

She's only been doing them since March. She is doing a thorough job on them. Care plans last about an hour.
I'm impressed how she has caught on. And she is very detailed. I've only been at the facility for a year and had to redo every system when I started. I'm probably feeling overwhelmed as she is.