Compensation Suggestions

I am a little confused. Are you being asked to function as a consultant and make treatment recommendations or are you being asked to do dressing changes that have already been ordered? Are you going to be following an already established protocol for identifying and dressing wounds? This is just my two cents as a wound care consultant nurse....

Following orders and established protocols for the care of wounds is within the scope of nursing practice. Assessing and documenting these wounds is also within the scope of nursing practice. Applying dressings will also fall within the scope of nursing practice.

It sounds to me like you might have some opportunity to make things easier and probably more efficient. This begins with ensuring that the night shift nurses have an established protocol to follow (ie using a specific dressing on a certain category of wound). Also, the time will be crucial- nobody wants to be woken up at 3am for a dressing change.

Another component to this is making sure that the wound care nurse is being offered opportunity to take care of the most complex wounds and not wounds that can otherwise be effectively addressed and cared for by the nursing staff.

If the night shift nurses are going to be doing the wound care, is there a good communication mechanism that allows them to keep the wound care nurse in the loop (ie we initiated this treatment or we have been doing this treatment and the wound seems to look worse).

If the night shift nurse is performing the wound care for the patient, should the nurse be allowed extra compensation? Good question. I love clinical ladders and receiving extra compensation for going "above and beyond" and developing extra knowledge and skill sets (which benefit the patient and the employer). Does your facility offer a clinical ladder?

But, if your employer is asking you to do something that, while it is an additional duty for you, also falls within your scope of practice and is well managed, should you be compensated more? All nurses would probably be raising their hand up right about now because we are all increasingly being asked to do more and more. I wish I could give every nurse who goes above and beyond a raise. We would all be happier nurses I think it is fair to ask if there could be a small raise but as you said, you are being asked to "volunteer".

If you do "volunteer" (and coincidentally do not receive extra compensation"), what will happen? Will you be working more hours? Will there be some other aspect of the care you currently deliver that will now not be completed because you are doing wound care for the patients? Or, if doing the wound care simply means that you will be performing an additional duty without impact on your hours and other duties, what can be gained?

By "volunteering", you may have some non-monetary gains. You could have higher patient and family satisfaction because the patient is receiving more timely care. You may have better wound care outcomes because the treatments will be done and you may be able to avert negative outcomes with earlier intervention. You will have employer satisfaction because you are stepping up to the plate. Your employer may remember your dedication when you apply for a different position or higher level of employment within the company. Your wound care nurse will greatly appreciate your assistance and as you gain experience, will come to have confidence in your abilities and assessment. You will have developed a valuable skill set that can be used on your resume. You may even develop such an interest that you decide that you would like to be a wound care nurse. Those are all still valuable reasons to "volunteer"....those extra feathers in your cap. So as I see it, either way you could be winning.

We are being asked to pretty much br trained to do what the wound nurse at our facility would do, but on nights. The additional work would directly impact work load because, I would be responsible for the 7-10 patients I normally have, plus thoroughly assessing new admissions or acute changes in woumds abd establishing order reccomendations for wound care for these patients, plus the routine wound care for my patients. You are right, since its nights, you have to be careful with time because you can't just wake people up, but its gonna be tough to balance the care of my patients, their assessements, and the wound needs. It really is additional job and not just going above and beyond in my opinion.

My job has asked nurses to "volunteer" to do wound assessments and care on night shift (as our current Wound Care Nurse is a bit overwhelmed to see all patients.) I am highly interested but would like to propose additional compensation for the additional work as this would be in addition to me having patients on the floor and since our patient ratio is high). I know I would also have to obtain additional training such as probably staging wounds and choosing appropriate wound care ointments and dressings. Can anyone give me suggestions on how much additional I should propose. Thanks in advance for you help.[/quote. ALL staff should be competent in wound staging.You should also have clear policy and procedures relating to the appropriate treatments.It's really the basics,imho not something compensible...She will back you up and is available for consults.My issue with this is it's NIGHT time,when are these folks supposed to SLEEP?If you have more so ends then she can round on weekly then the day shift charge nurses should be taking up that slack....I am curious,how many residents do you have and how many wounds?Out of our population of close to 250 we have 16 stageable wounds being tracked by a full time wound nurse.