curiousauntie

curiousauntie

LTC, Sub-Acute, Hopsice

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About curiousauntie

curiousauntie has 26 years experience and specializes in LTC, Sub-Acute, Hopsice.


Latest Activity

  1. DOH survey frequency

    I worked at my last hospice job for 7 1/2 years. During that time we were surveyed...not once! Honestly, we did not have one Medicare audit or one visit from the state DOH! We did have CHAP audits, 3 or 4 times, but coming from LTC, they were a cake ...
  2. Dealing with calls from work

    From a sign my sister has over her desk..."Poor planning on managements part does not constitute an emergency on my part". Read it, learn it, live it!
  3. Heartland Hospice

    I work for Heartland Hospice. It is owned by HCManorCare, who has LTC, Subacute rehab, AL, Home Care and Hospice and even out patient Pt/OT offices. How good the office is depends on how good your administrator and DPS (director of professional servi...
  4. There's no reasoning except they needed a scapegoat to show they addressed the problem. You need to write a statement that can be attached to the write up stating your 3 weeks of employment, that the mds is just now due and how you plan to address h...
  5. Where are all the nurses?

    The local hospital will be laying off another round of nurses in June....I am hopeful, although I don't think hospital nurses could handle the patient load on a sub acute floor! I like that last sentence. I worked in LTC for 22 years befor moving to ...
  6. DNH order, LTC???

    Very simply, if he was not to be sent to the hospital, he should have had a DNH order. In the middle of an emergency you don't have time to read POLST forms. That's why we have DNR, DNH, DNI orders. And with no way to speak to a family member or MD, ...
  7. Start of Care/Admission Process Ideas

    Our goal is to have the nurse there within 4 hours of receiving a referral/md order. No admission nurse, but if possible the case manager who will have the patient will do the admission, or the on-call (me;)) will do it in the evening or weekend. I ...
  8. Massage and Music therapies

    We have 2 massage therapist who do wonderful work. I know of one other office who has an on-call music therapist and our office has a vigil volunteer who provides music therapy once the patient is actively dying. I think both modalities are wonderfu...
  9. When do you get Narc orders?

    We cannot order meds in a facility. We can leave "Suggestions for care from Hospice nurse" with what we would use, but cannot call the MD and actually get the order. The facility nurses have to do that as the facilities say we are not their employee ...
  10. Too Much Suffering

    I'm hoping you mean that NOT having a DNR for an Alzheimer's pt is immoral...I get that feeling from the rest of your post.O:-)
  11. Teaching material for Care Kits?

    tammyG. That's a scary thought. I can't count the number of times that care kit was a difference between an easy and a horrible death. As a full time on-call nurse, the meds in there; morphine, ativan. haldol and compazine are frequently needed when ...
  12. Should we teach unlicensed caregiver . . . . .

    What about liquid haldol? We have it in our comfort kits and it works wonderfully. 2mg/ml. We usually start with 0.5ml/1mg. I personally wouldn't want to try to stick a combative, agitated pt. IM or SQ.
  13. On Call

    I'm 40 hours a week, salaried, and with 7 years seniority, at $33/hr. But I lost OT when I changed to on-call, so actually lost pay each week as I always had between 3-6 hours of OT each week when I was a case manager. But as on-call, my mileage star...
  14. Hospice/Palliative care nursing certification

    The tests are varied, with (I think) questions from 5 different aspects if hospice. I do remember ethics, medications, legal aspects, disease process...the test hand book breaks it down. And for each of the testing periods (there are 4 "test windows"...
  15. On Call

    Our company has 2 dedicated on-call nurses. For the past year, I have been one of them. I work 7 days, Mon evening to the following Mon morning, covering the hours the office is closed, including Sat-Sun. The other dedicated on-call nurse works the n...