Don't know if this is legal or not....

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I've posted before that I work in Skilled LTC. Our corporation is going though some budgetary cuts and I'm wondering if all decisions being made are even legal.

At a MANDATORY Staff Meeting, yesterday, Administration notified us that as of May 1st, we'll be changing labs. We will be required to draw all STAT labs, spin it, then bag it for courier pick up. I was hired as an LPN, to do patient care; not as a Lab Tech. A lot of our nurses aren't IV certified. How can they draw labs? Are the ones of us who ARE IV-Certified going to be paid additionally, for sticking OTHER nurses' patients, on other units? Are we going to get a raise for being Nurses/Lab Technicians/CNA's, due to staffing cutbacks?

Our Baylor's is being done away with. Our yearly raises have been dropped to less than half. We have a weird clock in system that makes you clock in and out for lunch and any discrepencies in forgetting to clock in or out are punishable with write up's, suspensions, and termination, even if a discrepency form is filled out for a missed punch, due to more work for the HR person.

Since October, we're on our FOURTH Administrator, third DON, and fourth ADON. Corp. offered little slips of paper with numerical values, for picking up shifts. Cash value was 1/2 of the numerical value; able to be cashed in for movie tickets, Walmart Gift Cards, and other various sundries. During the changing of Administrative hands, our little "Cash Slips" were in limbo. They kept promising us info on what we could do with them. Honestly, I figured they were useless, after a while. A couple weeks ago, they informed us that the Cash Slips were no good, if they were from before October and that we had a deadline to cash them in, or they'd be voided. UHMMM.....Those cash slips were monetary bonuses for services rendered. How can they take them back, now? That's like telling us they want a refund of our paychecks. IS THAT LEGAL???? Mine are all from before October. I have 400 Cash Slips. I always bought movie tickets for my kids, but the tickets were promised but never purchased, by the Administrator. I waited and waited and got nothing. Had I known this, I would've just cashed them in, with Payroll and eaten the tax.

I've really got a bad taste in my mouth, after seeing how Corporate greed works, first hand. I'm starting to doubt if I even want to be a nurse anymore. Is this the way it's going to be from now on? Everyone's in a Corp. group: Doctors, hospitals, LTC's, ALF's. It's all going to be the same. We're all just warm "numbers," on the floor, fulfilling State requirements. Corporations don't care about the patients or the staff.

Can't wait till next week's mandatory in-service on Abuse and Staff Burnout. PFFT!

Specializes in Mother-Baby, Rehab, Hospice, Memory Care.

Ok just need a clarification... Are they "cash slips" bonuses on top of your hourly wages for extra hours worked or were they paid to you instead of your regular wages? Sounds pretty shady...

I didn't think you had to be IV certified to do venipuncture? I suppose if they added that to your list of job responsibilities and you signed it that it is now YOUR job. It does sound like a LOT of extra work especially when you are already very busy. I wouldn't be pleased with that either but it sounds like you don't have much choice if you stay at that job. Ugh... I got out of LTC for some of those reasons that management had endless lists of new responsibilities for us with no regard to how are shift actually went and that most of the time nurses would be staying for hours after their shift doing work and charting! I can sympathize with you...

Specializes in snf, hospital- stroke unit.

Ive come to the conclusion that none of these companies care about there employees they only care about money. My facility has also gone through 3 dsd 4 dons and 3 administrators and the one we have now is fire and suspension happy. Good luck I hope things get better.

In my state LVNs must have blood withdrawal certification in order to do venipuncture. It sounds to me that the facility is in continuing trouble and they are making the employees bear the brunt of their ill guided attempts to turn things around. Until stable management is introduced, you can expect more of the same. If you want to keep your job, you should just lay low and keep out of the line of fire. Quietly looking for a second job, just in case, wouldn't be a bad idea.

The cash slips were pick-up bonuses, given as a perk for picking up shifts.

I don't know what the requirements for venipunture is. Honestly, I welcome the opportunity because I LOVE IV administration and phlebotomy. My problem is that staffing is what it is. There's a hiring freeze so we're not getting ADDITIONAL staff, to pick up the slack. To add blood draws to our laundry list of "To Do's" is just shady. When is a floor nurse going to have time to be a Lab Tech, too? I can't complete tasks that I was hired knowing about, let alone MORE.

Thanks for the kind words. I take my entrance exam for my RN, in a couple weeks. Hopefully, I graduate, get my degree and licensure and just consult on the do's and don't of employee retention/LTC regulations and how to maximize the full potential of staff to INCREASE revenue. Show how a facililty can have a win/win situation.

My theory is that if a facility is consistantly staffed, no matter what the cenus (within reason), a facility will look and smell better. Noone has stuff left undone. The rooms will stay nicer. The residents will look and smell nicer. People will look at our facility and residents and realize that this is the place to trust, to take great care of their family member.

Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.

I believe a facility that cares about their residents also cares about their employees and vice versa. Staff retention doesn't seem to be a priority here and that is always a bad sign. I think drawing your own stat labs is great, after all, they are stat and having to wait on a phleb could take a couple of hours. Furthermore, it's a new skill for some and that never hurts. I've been actually written up once for a missed punch on a time clock. In my response I stated that if the only complaint about my performance was a missed punch, I felt I was doing an excellent job and deserving of a raise. I was never written up for another missed punch.

Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

It doesn't hurt to gain the skill, but I can see the point of the OP. It seems to me that nursing homes place a great deal of responsibility on LPNs as it is...administering medications, treatments, G-tube feedings on a 60 patient floor with (and from what I saw, at night, it would only be one LPN for the entire unit).

I think the fact that they've been through their 4th Administrator and ADON and 3rd DON says a lot. They obviously don't give a whip about you all. I'd find another job ASAP. Good Luck!

Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.
It doesn't hurt to gain the skill, but I can see the point of the OP. It seems to me that nursing homes place a great deal of responsibility on LPNs as it is...administering medications, treatments, G-tube feedings on a 60 patient floor with (and from what I saw, at night, it would only be one LPN for the entire unit).

Yeah, you're right. They keep piling it on to the smorgasboard plate of nurses. I guess I just like the idea of not having to wait since I can get a courrier much faster. There's another downside to it. Unless you have time at the beginning of the shift (did I say that?) or you can keep your own kit, you'll spend more time hunting supplies, because nobody keeps stuff neat and organized or checks tubes for expiration dates. I kept my own kit in my locker with a cheat sheet of what tubes I can use for what and how much blood it takes for certain labs so I didn't have to keep a huge amount of supplies.

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