Hi! My name is Donna. I am an R.N. and currently I work as an agency nurse. Because of the shortages EVERYWHERE I have been lucky enough to pretty much choose my hours, floors, days and more...That is the good side of supplemental staffing. I love rehab. It is truly my favorite area of nursing. I also love working with people in the last chapters of their lives.
As an agency nurse of about 4 years, I have experienced so many different scenarios with regard to staffing. I have worked in hospitals, and been given the worst assignment on the floor. Worst = most acute, farthest from the nurses station, supplies, omni, and so forth. I have been shunned by staff nurses, verbally abused by staff nurses. I have had staff nurses assume that because I am an agency nurse I am an idiot. Funny story...one time I walked onto a unit, and the staff nurse I was to recieve report from was very rude, and condescending. When she asked me if I knew how to give insulin I couldn't contain my "Irish". I said....."ok....I am sorry if you were anticipating an idiot nurse. I am not. Let's start over...Good afternoon my name is Donna...I am a Registered Nurse!!" Recently I had the most unpleasant experience of having to write a written formal complaint about a night shift supervisor whom I had the displeasure of recieving report from for the last 5 months or so. She has treated me with contempt, rudeness, and simple immaturity. Let me tell you this.....I do not understand these staff nurses. It seems rather simple: if agency nurses were not showing up, they would have the work to do. I don't want anyone to kiss my ring...I just want to work in an environment where ALL nurses remember the most fundemental of all truth's in nursing.....IT IS NOT ABOUT US..IT IS ABOUT OUR PATIENTS!!. I don't care how much you make per hour. I care about whether or not you care enough about our patients to give me a thorough report, do you work, and work with me for the best possible outcomes for our patients no matter how little help we have!!
Thankfully I have had more positive experiences as an agency nurse than negative... I just wish that ALL nurses would realize this.....agency nurses work for agencies because it works for their personal lives. Yes the pay is better....hourly anyway. But when I want to take a vacation...I have to work 60-70 hours a week for the months preceeding to ensure I have a paycheck when I get home in addition to spending money etc... I only get partial healthcare benefits, and that is if I work 40 hours/week only. I do not get paid when I am sick...I have no 401k, and so on... It is simply a matter of me being able to stay home, and homeschool my little girl with learning dissabilities, see my son every now and then, and keep my home in shape.
As an agency nurse, I go into a facility/hospital with one focus...Optimal Patient Safety, and care. As an agency nurse, my antennae are always on alert, because I am in a new environment, and I don't know patients...As an agency nurse I find more med errors, transcription errors, documentation errors, and oversights by staff nurses because I have not settled in, or succumbed to the "routine". I have been told many times by my patients and their families "You have helped me more than any one else in this place...because you listened, and you followed through" That is the bottom line for me...I can go home and know that though I may never see that patient, I have cared for them as if they were my own familily member. Agency nursing is not for every nurse.... It works for me & my family. Nurses are in crisis everywhere, mainly due to staffing problems. I am tired of the words "have to rely on agency nurses who don't know the patients, policies, yaddy yaddy ya!!!" As I said with 4 years of agency nursing under my belt I can assure you that every LTC facility has relatively the same med books, treatment books, bowel books, INSULIN syringes, I & O records, staffing shortages, Medicare / medicaid charting guidelines, and so on... As far as not knowing the patients...in the hospital turn over is so high now that nurses on med/surg, post-op floors and such know the patients sometimes as little as I do. If you are a staff nurse...and you are truly concerned for your patients because you have an agency nurse coming in please do the following: Treat him/her with respect & hospitality (as you would a visitor to your home). Show the where to place their personal belongings, give a short tour of the floor or facility (clean/soiled utility, omni, treatment closets, supply closets, staff bathrooms, break room, patient rooms ex: your assigment starts here), Give a detailed report about illness, dx etc...but also specify orientation, crush vs. whole, any behav. issues., Point out who will be a finger stick on that shift in order to maintain compliance, and be sure the nurse knows where the glucometer is. Believe it or not....that is one thing that is different almost everywhere I go!! If your fingersticks are in the treatment book, mention this. Often times treatments are not done until mid-late shift...not knowing the fingersticks are in the treatment book can lead to non-compliance and risk for the patient. Be sure the agency nurse knows who the supervisor is... Believe it or not.....one night I was working in a hospital med/surg floor. It was 10:15pm. I was suppose to be off at 11:00pm Word came up that there was going to be an admission...strait from the street (not through the E.R.) For one reason or another the night shift supervisor was already on the floor...I heard her say to the 3-11 shift supervisor...."give the admission to the agency nurse you got on...she is making all the bucks!" So much for keeping it "all about the patient". I was assigned the admission...and you know what? That man went to sleep knowing that he was in a safe place, being cared for by professionals, and that his health was important to the staff at that hospital! He didn't know that I would have liked to poked the night shift supervisor in the nose...he didn't need to know that I was an agency nurse...He only needed to be taken care of... Please....Agency nurses are you friends!! Let's work together....Don't assume what you don't know!!
Donna
P.S. I noticed that there is not a forum for agency nurses on ALLNURSES.com HHHmmmmm!!!
