An MDS Nurse Position

[Crobert]

I have recently been offered an MDS nurse position. I have never worked in this specialty before. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of this position? What should I be excited about? On the other hand, what should I fear? Thank you in advance for your time and input!

[silverbat]

You will have a steep learning curve. You will be assessing, coordinating various team members as they assess.

You will write careplans until your eyes pop out.

In many SNF you may have many Medicare A residents that you will be assessing and documenting on within a rigid time frame. Failure to do so will cost the facility money. You will need to balance adequate care and treatment of the residents with the $ value their therapy treatment earns from Medicare / Medicaid.

If you are salaried- forget the 40 hour week. 50-60 is more like it.

You may be required to be on call. So if a charge nurse or med nurse calls in- you will cover the shift if no one else can be located to do it. And then you are still required to be timely in your MDS caseload.

I was MDS coord in a 250 bed SNF with 2 part time LPNS to help. I had all the Medicare and about 1/2 the rest. Only an RN can sign off on assessments so in reality I was ultimately responsible for every one of them.

The plus side? I enjoyed interacting w residents and watching them progress.

I did MDS from 2006-2014.

[Crobert]

silverbat, thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to provide me with all this wealth of information. I also greatly appreciate your very honest view.