Assistant DON's...how many jobs do you have?

donmomofnine · Jan 13, 2005

I think that the ADON is such a catchall job and I noticed that many of the duties are really unrelated! I eliminated that position and instituted a Primary Care Coordinator job. She is responsible for everything to do with the nursing assistants and that ties into other RELATED things such as serving on the fall committee, doing their inservicing, evals, etc. The other duties, such as infection control, logging incidents, doing mantoux's, were delegated out and I hired a wound care specialist for three days a week to do the wound care stuff.

debRN0417 · Jan 13, 2005

My ADON is my "right hand". She serves many functions. She is the infection Control Nurse, Staffing Coordinator, Inservice and Education Coordinator, does all employee PPD's, drug tests, and helps me with whatever I need. She assists my unit managers with the running of their units, and if I am "down" a unit manager, she fills that slot. She used to take call for staffing and resource after hours, but I stopped that and now she alternates call with me on weekends only so that I can have a weekend off occasionally (I am on call 24/7). It is a "catch all" job and she fills in and helps me with whatever I assign. I am very fortunate to have such a flexible peer. She even works the floor if needed. Her salary is not near what she is worth to me, and I tell her that every day, but she sticks right with me thru thick and thin! She makes about 45 a year. This is approximate. I am trying to get her a raise when her annual eval is due, but she also gets bonuses for things like, retention, census and surveys. She has many jobs and because of this, I try to be flexible as possible with her hours and help her too, or have extra staff to help if she feels overwhelmed ( I pick up things also when possible). I don't want her to get burned out and leave because she is priceless! Hope this helps. By the way, I have a wound care nurse 5 days a week and the weekend supervisor does the major wounds on weekends. I have 109 beds and average medicare census of 30+.

CapeCodMermaid, RN · Jan 13, 2005

Deb...do you mind if I ask what your salary is?

donmomofnine · Jan 14, 2005

When I had an ADON, she made $55,000. Seldom, if ever, had to work overtime or work weekends.

debRN0417 · Jan 14, 2005

Not enough. :rotfl: 60/yr

I could make more in acute care, but I love LTC and my residents. I also love the flexibility of hours, although lately I spend more time at work it seems, than at home. I get calls all the time, but I am convinced that once I am more established (only in the position 8 months) things will get better and my life will be mine once more! (also I'll have gotten a raise by then, I hope!)

My ADON seldon, if ever works weekends, but does work overtime. My company expects more than 40 hours a week from management staff. I probably average 60 hours a week...more or less.

SheWulfwynn · Jan 14, 2005

I have a very full plate as the ADON and MDS coordinator of a 45 bed unit. I am also staffing coordinator and have to work the floor when people call-out with no replacement to be found. I find that the most frustrating as I am salaried and have to take time off I cannot afford in getting my other work complete. I worked for a 160 bed facility where none of this occured. There are so many new hurdles when working for a small place. You don't have as much back-up staff and keep a mnimum in staffing ratios. At the larger facility we just created a new position for these things when we needed one. I am on call every other weekend and while the DON is a good, personal friend she is a delegator and she makes sure she leaves the building on time because her personal life is first to her. I got call shoved on me for Christmas Day when it was her scheduled weekend because she got too many calls the weekend before. There is no saying no of course. I spend so much time in meetings and meetings about meetings that I can't keep up with the MDSs where we only run at most 18 Medicare with rest LTC. I used to do MDS for a 60 bed unit where we always had 30 and up to 60 Medicare at a time and never had this trouble. I like the place and the people, don't get me wrong but they expect miracles.

debRN0417 · Jan 15, 2005

I made a mistake...my Unit Managers make 45, my ADON makes 53.

nightingale, RN · Jan 17, 2005

We do not have an Assistant ADON but I do end up doing just that.

I am the MDS Coordinator for a 36 bed facility. I also am the Restorative Nurse and have had zero training. I zipped through the AANAC RAC-C Course as I started this title in October.

I was lucky, someone advised me to only work hourly, and that is what I hired under. Boy would "Management" (oooppppsss I am management) love to have me take a salaried job.... it ain't gonna happen. Also, when I hired on, there were no benefits, PTO etc offering so I negotiated for that, much to my surprise, got it too.

So now, when I work the floor, am the Admissions Nurse, Staff Development, Infectious Disease Nurse, Education Nurse, (and all this with "no training") they have to pay me overtime. They have stopped giving me "non-nursing responsibilities" because I give them "the look" like, "okay, you want me to do ----, okay.

I really like my MDS Role, particularly as I can flex my own schedule, but am so weary of "everything else" because I am SO behind, exhausted, and working a minimum of 50 hours weekly, 6-7 days a week. Don't get me wrong, I love variety but feel so spread thin in too many directions.

Can I set limits, you betcha. I have allowed a lot of this but it ends. I am promising myself two weeks with zero weekend work.

SheWulfwynn · Jan 17, 2005

I was hired in at hourly and was recently changed with all of of the other dept heads to salary. Does anyone know if I had any say in this at all? I let them know I wasn't happy about it but they did it anyway. Of course, I could have run the risk of losing my job to someone who would accept salary.

LTCRN4LIFE · Oct 13, 2006

I was an ADON in a very large facility. While I loved it, it was a "dump" job. The list was all that these girls are talking about and more. can't believe I survived 2 years...and the hours....at least 50 a week...sometimes more :angryfire

and then on call weekend too....every 5th.