At my new facility I am almost always on the Skilled Unit. With all the Alert and Oriented, walkie talkies, short term IV ATBs,Wound vacs, with a few demented LOLs and former marine who likes to beat up the CNAs thrown in for good measure. I don't stop from the moment I hit the floor. The majority of the time I have to finish what day shift didn't have time for before I can even start my first med pass. The computer won't allow my to accept the med cart untill everything from days as been "administered.' That unit has 9 4PM accuchecks, plus multiple residents who receieve neb txs with the first med pass. Everyone always wants the pain meds at the same time, I'm being paged to take a phone call a while trying to change a wound vac. It's 5:30 now, and I'm suppose to stop what I'm doing so I can go observe the dining room because there HAS to be a nurse there during all meals. Maybe 10 our of 30 take their pills whole. So I have to take more time to crush everything. It's 9:00 pm and now I have to look up my coumadin doses go downstairs and get them out of the pyxis that literally takes a minute between each screen. And waste 10 more minutes of my time. What's this? No one approved this order, let me stop what I'm doing and and go thru 10 more screens to be able to approve it. Oh yea Mr. Soandso has no oxycontin in the narc drawer, I'll have to go downstairs again, call the pharmacy and sign away my first born child so they will let me take a C2 out of the pyxis. Did I mention I still have about 12 skilled charts to chart in. Or that my failed hip replacemnt needs her 8cm tunnelling wound packed, JP drained and dressing redone. All while taking temps on everyone because you gave out flu vaccines. Plus 348 decided it would be a good idea to yank his foley out. And at the end of it all I still need to tape report, give report and do the never ending narc count. And at the very end you ask if me I want to work over.
It varies on these lines every evening. And someone help me if there is an admission coming, because if one does I'm not getting done till at least 1 am. I haven't taken a lunch break but a handful of times in the almost 2 months that I have worked there. They are severly understaffed and in denial about it. On Friday I worked till 3 AM, there was one CNA for a whole floor of 50 residents. I feel like I can not give these people the care they deserve and get done everything that "they" want done in 8.5 hours. I feel like I am drowning from the moment I get there. Add in taking off orders and entering them into the computer and sometimes having to draw labs. There needs to be another of me to get things done completly. I'm begginning to think that this place and I are not to be even tho I do genuinely like the people who work there and the residents.
I have to tell to the Supervisor when I need an issue addressed and hope they will take the time to call the dr. Sometimes they do,sometimes they don't. I have to throw other people under the bus when I chart,so that i can protect my own license so they can see that I had addressed the subject. That it wasn't me who didn't take care of it.
They expect me to have come in early at least once a week for some type of inservice where the repeatdly tell us how "crappy" the care is that these people are receiving. The DON is condsceding and basically plainly offensive in some siutations. I worked 105 hours last pay period and they still wanted more.
I feel myself getting burnt out already. There are too many things to get done and not enough hours in the shift to get them all accomplished to my standards. I consider myself a competent nurse and don't half do things. I don't know what to do.
