Enough time in a shift to finish work

Specialties Geriatric

Published

I currently work in a nursing home where there is not enough time in a shift to do all the meds, treatments, and still complete my charting correctly.

Are you usually able to complete all of your work and charting in a shift in other fields like acute care?

Specializes in kids.

I work perdiem in a LTC facility an HATE to follow one nurse. She NEVER gets out on time. Ever. Ever Ever. I have no idea what she does, because almost all the time, treatments are not done, early afternoon meds are not done (1400 med pass) When I work days I do the meds @ 1320 ish and I have PLENTY of time. My charting gets done, correctly. Treatments get done. Food Consumption list is done. Orders are done etc. She is hardly laboring over her work, (cannot read her notes anyway). She spends more time doing.......I do not know what. I have addressed it my DON to no avail. I do my rounds, first meds and any treatment early if possible. Our census is pretty low right now. Frustrating to say the least.

I work perdiem in a LTC facility an HATE to follow one nurse. She NEVER gets out on time. Ever. Ever Ever. I have no idea what she does, because almost all the time, treatments are not done, early afternoon meds are not done (1400 med pass) When I work days I do the meds @ 1320 ish and I have PLENTY of time. My charting gets done, correctly. Treatments get done. Food Consumption list is done. Orders are done etc. She is hardly laboring over her work, (cannot read her notes anyway). She spends more time doing.......I do not know what. I have addressed it my DON to no avail. I do my rounds, first meds and any treatment early if possible. Our census is pretty low right now. Frustrating to say the least.

After a period of time working in LTC, I noticed this phenomenon, but with more than one nurse. More observation and putting two and two together led me to the conclusion that a lot of "socializing" behavior with peers was going on and not enough nursing tasks. When one or two people do what they are supposed to do, the way it is supposed to be done, it makes the slackers' lack of accomplishment stand out even more. It is almost always pointless to bring this to the attention of supervisors, because they are a big part of the problem.

Time management I learned from a nursing home helped me a lot in the acute hospital.

I'm an LPN so in the State I live, LPN's can find jobs in Dr. offices, or LTC facilities. That's about it. I'm working on my Associates, so while I'm finishing school, it's the nursing home or no job. I recently took some time off and currently am not working. The last company I worked for was this big corporation out of Tennessee. They would not allow us any overtime. NONE! So we basically were told to get off the clock no matter what. So most of us were left without much charting to do. If I had something happen that was detrimental (spelling), I would chart it. Some of the nurses would stay and chart off the clock. Not me! So I basically had to bust my tail with my med pass and all the other duties of being Charge Nurse on the night shift, and chart as soon as something happened. I had to refuse to work off the clock and just get the overtime. I was not going to lose my license over not charting and I refuse to work for free. One of the reasons I left the place! Just my opinion. I've been a nurse for 6 years and was a Paramedic for 15 years prior to nursing and one of the most important things they taught us was, if it's not documented, it didn't happen, so I fought with my DON many times about charting, but I have to protect my license, not hers! Most of the charting in a LTC facility is for medicare/medicaid reimbursement and they wanted us to chart their ADL's each shift. I would check and if it was charted at least once a day, I did not worry about it unless like I said, something changed with the resident/patient. I hope this makes sense. I have worked in a hospital on a med surg floor and they never cared about overtime. I've asked other nurses I know that work in other LTC facilities and they have no problem with their management and overtime like we did. This place was literally a sinking ship! Census was dropping. One wing was for rehab and the other wing, which is where I worked, was LTC residents. They made many cuts, we ran out of linen, supplies were not ordered, ect. Poorly managed from the top down.

Specializes in Inpatient psych, LTC.

How long have you worked in LTC? As a new grad I felt overwhelmed and unable to get everything done. But after a few months I was able to pass meds, chart, do everything else I was supposed to do PLUS have actual time to hang out and talk with the residents. You will get there too, hang in there!

Specializes in Geriatric/Sub Acute, Home Care.

if there is an admission...forget about it...we deal with an Irate, half drunk doctor who is as nasty as all get out....between weekly summarys...and meds and treatments.....you have to just triage what is more important at times....because YES...its overwhelming....very overwhelming.

Specializes in LTC, Med-Surg, GP Office.

I've been in nursing almost 30 years mostly in LTC. I've worked six years where I'm at now 3-11 shift at a 100 bed SNF and ICF facility. It has steadily gotten harder and harder to finish on time. We now do our own admissions, sometimes new admits coming in after 8 p.m. on weekends, during out busiest med pass. A few weeks ago we got FOUR admissions on our shift and were at work until almost 3 a.m. trying to finish up. NO one from upper nursing management will come in to help or stay over to help. It has become a nightmare with not enough staff, not enough supplies, increased charting, etc....I'm working only 3 evenings a week now and almost always can't clock out until 1 a.m. or later, as does everyone else on our shift. I feel so bad for the residents. It's not fair to them that we don't have and can not keep enough help. We are a five star facility. I don't know how - except we can put on a good show when state is here!!! The place is beautiful and puts on a good front. All of our dept. heads, office staff, activities, etc. HAVE to become a CNA...why? They don't help pass trays, answer call lights or take anyone to the bathroom...BUT, it looks good on paper that we have so many CNA's! Thank God the nursing staff we do have get along great and help each other and no one leaves until we are all finished. I guess it's probably the same everywhere and I should be grateful I even have a job. If I had it to do over, I would NOT have went into nursing...no...no...no.

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