I'm so frustated right now. The hospital where I work just implemented a new "policy" in order to keep up with the budget. So, now the 7p-7a shift is not going to have a Charge Nurse on the floor if there are less than 20 patients on the floor. How is this a safe measure on a Med-Surg unit!! I understand this might work on other units, but not on a Med-Surg unit! Our patient ratio at night is 7-8 patients per nurse. And the hospital has "Magnet Status"!
Why is everybody always so afraid to speak their minds!!!! Enough is enough!
What can be done about this? Is anybody else going through this same ordeal?
This is how it works on my floor, except the charge nurse takes a FULL pt. load, not "one less pt." Exactly as you described, it's "ok, who wants charge today?" And that nurse carries the "charge" phone and makes assignments and assigns admits. You get an extra $1.00/hr. that shift. :-/
I think I may be really lucky where I work! We have a free charge and ratio of 1:4 on our tele unit! It probably won't stay that way for a long time though :/
Specializes in Hospice, ONC, Tele, Med Surg, Endo/Output.
Regarding "eliminating the charge nurse..."-- At some Kaisers, noteably, Oakland, Ca, there are no charge nurses, but assistant nurse managers on each floor that do nothing except nit-pick, write people up, and make you redo your documentation on Health Connect, usually during the last half hour of your shift. Of course it is illegal to alter the medical record, but they don't care. The ANM also writes the assignments and the RNs are not allowed to see the assignments until the last minute. It is in the ANMs office and the ANM will give you no time to dispute the assignment or change it up. It is very political. The ANMs spend most of their time in their tiny offices and do not introduce new travelers around. My first day there i basically did another RNs work for her and got no orientation. I also had to draw my own labs because the hospital had slashed staff, and i could barely find the ANM to sign my timesheet. You must call her on that @$%^% spectralink? The RN does all the work and all the documentation. Nursing assistants are scarce. There is no employee parking for free. And for the tele floors, one of the RNs stares at the tele monitor and does not have an assignment of patients. There are no monitor techs, and the cnas are used as "sitters". I could not get the cnas who were sitting patients to do vitals or document in the computer. Way too many of these patients need sitters and even I, an RN, had to sit with a patient for 8 hours of a twelve hour noc shift, and the off-going RN had me give patient a bath at 0500. This patient, a "VIP" was an insomniac, refused to have the light off, refused any anti-insomniacs, yet slammed her hand on her table every time i picked up a magazine, and she was up to the bsc, with my full assistance of course, q 10 mins. I suppose this is better than being a "stat" nurse or "break relief" where all the nurses do is leave a stack of meds to give or accuchecks to do, or beg for any small task to be done while they doc on Health Connect or gossip. Kaiser Oakland is building a "replacement hospital" right next door. It is most important that Kaiser keep maintaining the status quo, for they are the Walmart of large hospitals. So, what do they do to lure more hapless folks who pay too much for their insurance--sacrifice the nurses by cutting staff so they can build a big beaut of a campus next door. Boy, do i miss hospice. Also at Kaiser you had better not complain or have any complaints to management about you from a patient/family. They will get rid of you stat w/out an investigation, nor will they listen to the nurse explain her side. The patients are upset and keep asking me where is the doctor, where is my cna? I can't tell them the MD is busy ordering things on Health Connect for a patient they haven't talked to in hours, and that the cna is busy babysitting a full grown adult which no SNF has accepted for 6 months. Managers are ruthless and will fire you if you can't do the cnas, phlebs job and monitor abusive patients all at once, because Kaiser is terrified of lawsuits. They will also cancel your assignment without warning, or will make you work 2 twelves, off one day, then work 2 twelves again. I am so sick of doing baths, vitals every 4 hours, and cleaning up code browns, but i must travel, because in this economy, i cannot find another hospice or home health, outpatient, or post-partum job--definitely do not want this at a Kaiser. The good thing is that i had a life-threatening illness and because of that i lost tons of weight and now that i am better have tons of energy for my next career change.
JxMom
4 Posts
OMG I wonder if we work at the same place lol!!!