Dangerous Staffing Ratios in the Miami,Fl. VA

alatta58 · Aug 23, 2004

Hi-I have been a LPN for 16 years-for 1 year I worked(slaved) at a hospital-let me tell you about the staffing level-I was responsable for 22-26 patients(I had 2 nrsg. assts. but they were on break 90% of the time-in some cases these nrsg. assts top out at $40k yearly due to the GS longevity pay scale-more then some lpns and rns)-My patients were demented,alzheimer types, total care-75% of them. I had to prepare meds(and lots of 'em), do nebulizer breathing treatments,tube feeds, IV flushes and bag changes, piggybacks,accu-checks, insulins, call the pharmacy for meds not in the cart,call the doc for emergencies, chart at shift-end, give report, assist with feeding, do pt. care also take and re-take vs on unstable pts.-the nursing assistants disappeared.Sounds unbelievable-if someone told me they worked like this I would dismissed it but it happened to me-sadly-No help from management whatsoever! And we Floated! Prior to that I worked at a detention center-this is where all the illegals,prison releases,rafters would be detained awaiting their fate. For the first 3 years it was great-best job I ever had-the best thing about it was I was able to learn Spanish-a great asset(many spanish speaking immigrants there) as this area of the US is 80% spanish it is a necessity here. The last 3 years-it was the job from Hell (we had a management change and budget cuts) I was assigned to 3rd. shift-this detention camp had anywhere from 350-450 detainees-averaged 400 usually. I was the ONLY nurse on duty for this number of pts. and they all don't sleep there on 3rd shift for sure. I prepared 9 pm meds for 40-60 pts. nightly, had to due blood draws, IV Starts, ekg's, pick up sick call slips at 4 outbuildings and formulate the sick-call list for the am shift. Also had to pull the records for these sick-calls and insert the slips in them. If this was not enough-we had new arrivals nightly-sometimes only 1 or 2 othertimes 20-30 new arrivals-had to do VS, pt. health history, give them a TB test (plant a ppd) minors-babies came also-and they requiered all their vaccinations (and did they cry-babies do NOT like injections at 3 am). Urine pregnancy test were performed on all females over 12 years of age (we saw them pregnant at that age also) Then at 7pm-we had to read all the ppds (tb test) usually 10-15 reads nighlty-- performed 48 hours prior) Of course -patients in a prison or detention population always had "Chest Pain" nightly at least-so we had to call the doc and do a baseline ekg to r/o a heart attack. Fights were common-so off we would run to the building where it occurred-=more wasted time-usually. Cannot forget the 6 am accu-checks and insulin injections-usually 5-8 detainees.The paperwork was incredable-all emergencies-and minors-needed double copies-at the time of contact-not when you had time! Oh, and the famous south florida everglade MOSQUITOS-real humid there so you had to DEET yourself with OFF on trips to the outbuildings-so west nile virus would not put you down!!A friend of mine, a detention officer, was bit by a pygmy Rattle snake-not nice!! We had all 5 Viper Varieties there-we were in the Everglade Swamp-I never did see a Gator in the camp-but if I stayed there long enough I probably would have! I have left some minor duties out-cannot remember everything(nor do I want to)-this type of nursing is extremely dangerous-stressful--Midway thru this circus I attempted to form a Union and though management suspected me-they could never prove-needless to say they made life less then fun for me-but as I am a fighter-they were not going to push me out until I wanted to go on my own volition-which I did and at my time of choosing! The good --I picked up an incredable amount of experience--After 6 years of work there I finally did leave. However BAD your situation may seem-someone else is always in a worse situation.

I currently work in home health and like it-I do diabetic visits and enjoy the one on one ratio, plus if I move fast and see my pts. I benefit $$$-if I slow down-I lose! But it is all up to me-What I earn depends solely on me and I like that! It may be an option for some of you folks who are stressed out in the hospital. I know now I never could return to staffing in a Hospital! My hat is off to those that do work and perform this extremely service-I salute you! Mike :coollook: