I just started a new job in the ER of a major university medical center. I was told by my agency how wonderful it is and how all the travelers love it and the nurse to pt ratio was 1:8 at worst and all this other stuff. All I have to say is...they flat out LIED. I have never seen an ER run like this. It is unsafe to say the least, nurse to pt ratio is more like 1:17, never mind the acuity. The area has a large spanish speaking population and I was told that there are 5 interpreters on at all times...I am lucky if there is one, so I can't communicate with most of the patients. NOTHING is convieniently located, even oxygen tubing and EKG leads are " put away" . ONE IV cart per area that is not portable so you have to individually get everything you need. The doctors dont communcicate with the nurses at ALL and usually the charts are NOWHERE to be found so you have NO idea what is going on with your patient, yet you are ultimately responsible for them. If your pt goes to the bathroom or a test, they lose their bed.Your patients are constantly being moved but no one tells you where they are moved to. I spend most of my 12 hour shift looking for the charts and the pts. Your nursing notes are usually tossed aside by residents and attendings and lost so it looks like you did nothing for the patient. No pt privacy, every pt is brought inside and stacked up on one another like sardines and a lot of them wait at least 8 hours to be seen, if they are lucky. Most of my pts are not even seen on my shift which is 12 hours. I dont even feel like a nurse anymore. I could go on and on. Anyway, I found out that no travelers ever go back and the ones I have met who are there now feel the same way I do. My agency had to have known. If they had been honest with me, I NEVER would have agreed to go there. I have 11 more weeks. I dread waking up in the morning..THATS how bad it is. IS this common for agencies to mislead their nurses this way?:angryfire
