Does your LTC provide you with work supplies?

Specialties Geriatric

Published

:angryfire At my LTC we have no post-it notes, no yellow markers,no black markers etc. etc. etc. We also spend so much time running constantly to central supply to get any kind of supplies that are needed for our residents. Is it just my LTC that is like this or is this a widespread problem at all LTC's?

Does your central supply bring stuff to your unit or are you forced to run back and forth all night to central supply for your supplies? Thanks :)

We usually have what we need, but I only work weekends and we are supplied by the ADON who keeps an eye for our stuff.

But as far as post-its, and pens and markers...we're on our own....

The facility I just left, we would have to scrounge for any thing we needed! Kerlix, duoderms, tape....NOTHING was ever stocked....

Is it just my LTC that is like this or is this a widespread problem at all LTC's?

I've worked in two LTC's. One was horrible about supplies. Good luck even finding basics like soap, wash cloths, etc. :rolleyes:

The other was well stocked with everything.

:coollook:

Thanks for your messages. :) I had a feeling that my LTC was the only one that made the nurses buy their own supplies. I think that's an excellent idea to start keeping receipts of the work supplies I have to buy!

My subacute facility will buy our basic needs. Pens, pencils, erasers. We use postets from our representatives of Home Health, Respiratory, updated beds, Doctors with the drug that is being used by them.We also have Doctors that pass out pens with their name, address and specialty. Rns do get postets but I prefer to use my own color of my office supplies(lavender to purple) and place my sticky address sticker that I use for sending mail. I save my receipts for tax purposes. I am a manager for the 7pm-7am shift and the designated Infection Control Officer and I am able to get supplies that are offered in Central. I have sent notes to our Chief Nursing Officer in order to have Central Supply have the equipment for Nursing, Rehab, Wound care, Peg Feedings with the tubing and syringes, this applies to salem sump tubes and Dobbhoffs,etc. The Rn Manager is the one to get central supply items after 5pm. We also have a small supply on the unit itself. For pharmacy the Rn is allowed to get only what is one dose for night meds and all other medications are filled the next day by the Pharmacy. I remember that in the early 80's we had to start buying our own supply to decrease the cost of items that were constanly being replaced. Most of our private ambulance services also supply postets and pens with their logos. We have one Independent X-ray Professional that supplies us with canleders, pens, and Pizza for the shift that orders the most x-rays that are done on their shift. How is that for PR!!!!!!!!!!

Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

Be careful about accepting anything of " value" from a vendor such as your 02 supplier or xray company. We had the FBI come into the building on a complaint about a vendor and I was questioned for almost 45 minutes about the "kickbacks and freebies" we were supposedly given. I had to laugh when the attorney asked me what if anything I received from this particular vendor. I held up the memo pad on the desk and said "This is it...unless you count the 3 colored pen I got last year!"....it's all perception.

Our central supply person stocks the medical supplies on each unit in the Pyxis machine...each item is charged out patient specific. For our office supplies, we go to the secretary's office and find what we need in the closet. Anything out of the ordinary, we order from central supply and she gets it from one of our approved vendors (making sure, of course, we don't get any freebies :lol2: )

Be careful about accepting anything of " value" from a vendor such as your 02 supplier or xray company. We had the FBI come into the building on a complaint about a vendor and I was questioned for almost 45 minutes about the "kickbacks and freebies" we were supposedly given. I had to laugh when the attorney asked me what if anything I received from this particular vendor. I held up the memo pad on the desk and said "This is it...unless you count the 3 colored pen I got last year!"....it's all perception.

Our central supply person stocks the medical supplies on each unit in the Pyxis machine...each item is charged out patient specific. For our office supplies, we go to the secretary's office and find what we need in the closet. Anything out of the ordinary, we order from central supply and she gets it from one of our approved vendors (making sure, of course, we don't get any freebies :lol2: )

Hello CapeCodMermaid; For some unknown reason The administrator is aware of what the "freebies" entail. I do not know how it works here in Texas. But I will ask our Cheif Nurse Officer regarding this. I will reply this weekend. I will be attending an Infection Control Conferece in Austin, Tx. Friday evening I will be at a pajama party. I am a member of the Red Hat Society. Yes I am over the Hill!!!! We do not have a secretary to distribute our office supplies. Central supply is where we get our office supplies. If it is not in stock Central, it will be ordered if it is reasonable. But due to my preference in colors, I buy my supplies. I do not get reinburst. I have labeled all my supplies with my name on every thing that comes out of my pocket and keep all my receipts. Thanks for the info.

Hi

Background: 25 years of nursing experiece, most all specialty, critical , O/R, et.c. O.K...Blackballed in this area after sticking up for myself after being injured in the line of duty. Couldn't buy a job. Did agency, very unpredictable income to say the least. So here's where I'm leading....

I decided to add some stability and get some floor experience by signing up at a LTC facility. The first shift I'm there, the supplier came and reposessed 5 specialty beds that hadn't been paid for in a year, they had cabs running out to pick up scripts for the residents at local pharmacies, and the staff told me to cash my check the day I got it.

Question: Are most of these facilities run this way? If not, it sounds like a no brainer to head for the hills pretty soon.

Hi

Background: 25 years of nursing experiece, most all specialty, critical , O/R, et.c. O.K...Blackballed in this area after sticking up for myself after being injured in the line of duty. Couldn't buy a job. Did agency, very unpredictable income to say the least. So here's where I'm leading....

I decided to add some stability and get some floor experience by signing up at a LTC facility. The first shift I'm there, the supplier came and reposessed 5 specialty beds that hadn't been paid for in a year, they had cabs running out to pick up scripts for the residents at local pharmacies, and the staff told me to cash my check the day I got it.

Question: Are most of these facilities run this way? If not, it sounds like a no brainer to head for the hills pretty soon.

Hello: I have been a nurse for 34 years. I too worked in alot of specialty areas in my nursing carrer. In Texas you cannot be blackedballed because of a on the job injury. Human Resourse can only give out information. When lookin for another job you give your name,current license and a resume. Once you are hired you cannot be asked if you had any on the job injuries. I had an on the job injury. The same facility where I worked I asked for transfer to a job that was an in house transfer. I was transfered to Employee health, Infection Control,Workers compensation. This is way before hospitals started doing their own in house injury reporting because The Texas Workers Compensation was costing to much money for the facilities to handle the compenstion.

In Texas you cannot be blackedballed because of a on the job injury. .

Well, that must be in a different area of Texas. I admit my first mistake was to be honest with potential employers as regards my injury. Second, the employer would not accomidate me for a short period to get back on my feet by reducing my daily shift hoursfrom 10hr. to 8 hr., although shifts were modified for several females who had to 'pick up kids' and such. Third, I was simply let go without reason, although I pursued positions which I could perform after being naieve enough to believe in the false concern and reassurances of management, employee health nurses, and such.

Where I live, a little money, some good whiskey, and a whore to the right people can serve to make 'all men equal, it's just that some are more equal than others.' as Orwell wrote. And besides, I am convinced that the hospitals all sleep together not-withstanding a public facade of intense competition. Behind closed doors, who can prove blackballing? I raised too much Cain in my defence and knew the laws well enough that I became a liability. Plus I did not defer to the upper eschelon so far as my interests were concerned, although I continually reassured them that all I wanted was a chance to heal up, and get on with things. I didn't want a pound of flesh. My record is spotless, I had topped out on performance raises in my department within a year, and was considered a first rate nurse, having the evaluations to prove it. Yet I saw 'friends' in management and even former employers whom I had good relations with do a 180 degree turn in their atttude.

I entitled this response 'Smith County Justice' after a book from the 1980s by the same name which exposed quite a bit of the corruption that continues to go on in this 'God Fearing' area. The author, D. Ellsworth recieved death threats, and all sorts of obsticles during the writing of his book. It was subsequently quickly pulled off the shelves by the 'good people' (you know, like they pressured booksellers not to carry the Harry Potter series), and the only way you can view it is in a small room at the library in the reserved book section. Unless you want to pay $150.00 for a rare copy, which I did. Plus I talked to quite a few people who were directly/indirectly involved. The film "Rush' is very loosely based on the facts of the cases, and the 'good people ' even got Ross Perot involved to carry out their agenda. It was pretty much precipitated by a club owner's refusal to pay bribes to the cops to stay open.

My point is, maybe the hospitals 'can't' do certain things, but they do, and they will. My EEOC complaint, my payday law claim for back benefits, et.c. were summarily dismissed with incredible rapidity, inside of a month.

I have spoken to too many employees and former employees with similar stories to think that I am misled. I was simply too willing to believe that the law is applied impartially, and that rights under law are respected. I have always believed (until now) in loyalty to an employer, have gone far beyond call of duty for employers, only to find that they don't know the meaning of the word 'reciprocity'.

Call me cynical if you wish, but it is tempered by experience, and henceforth a job is just that; a job. I have started a new job where they use mostly LVNs and need my license to be a token RN more than I need them. I have not lost my ethic concerning patient care, but that's my limit. I do no favors, work no OT, and could care less if the place I work is still in buisness come tomorrow, so long as I am paid.

"Smith County will remain dry as long as the good Baptists can stagger to the voting booths" ... A saying in these parts.

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