can't get into an acute care setting

[paixmondiale]

I graduated in december of 2009. Took my boards in april '10, passed and got a job in a nursing home right after. I've been working there for 6 mos now as a registered nurse supervisor. I am very overwhelmed at my job because I oversee over 70 patients at a time. I'm in charge of all the ivs (and we can have up to 12 patients with hydrations/antibiotics at a time), I am in charge of admitting, discharges, changes in conditions, abnormal labs etc. The paper work for each task is horrendous. Let's say for example a typical day at work is I come in check my ivs hang those that need to be hung right away, do my pt/inr, unhang the iv's that are complete, go to fax machine pick up my stack and yes I mean stack of lab results. I look through them relay abnormal lab findings and ua and c&s results and pt/inr results to all these various md's and obtain orders. then I carry the orders out (which means:transcribe onto mar all orders, if orders include abx I need to add pt onto our change of condition form so we can track any adverse reactions and condition progress, then I have to write out the same gibberish into our communication book and if I obtain lab orders I have to write the lab order out onto the specific form, fax it, write it on the calendar and the communication book again. Mind you during this whole process call lights are going off-cna's are being paged by me. Family members want to tell me their entire life stories and I'm expecting 3 admissions. so I'm moving a mile a minute to get everything done just in time before the admissions arrive. Then they typically do arrive all at once at 6pm while I'm in the middle of all this chaos. so now I have to assess, transcribe orders onto physicians' sheets out, call physician, call family, call pharmacy, write labs, do care plans and mind you for all three patient's. One admission can take at least 1.5hours and when all this is going on you still have ivs to hang and for the old and new patients. Even using the emergency kit for an abx can be tedious because you have more paper work. Sometimes I stay till 3am doing all this stuff. I clock out earlier than that because they get mad about overtime. It's insane!!!!!!

Unfortunately I've been trying to get into an acute setting but they all want at least 6mos to a year of acute care experience and I'm not eligible for a new grad program at this time because I technically am not a new grad.

I'm sick of this whole nursing thing I'm thinking about changing my career and I need to work so I can't just quit. So what do I need to do to get into an acute care setting or doctor's office or anything else but a nursing home because this is suicide!!!

[deemalt, BSN, RN]

You may want to try an LTAC (long term acute care). Don't know where you are located but some are Kindred, Vibra, or Promise. Sounds like you have a good amount of experience for this type of setting.

Good luck!

[NewestRN_OnTheBlock]

I must say i feel your pain! I started off as a SNF supervisor too... in a 180-bed SNF and only 1 RN supervisor at a time. I'm also trying to find a way out of there lol... I feel like all the skills I learned in school are gone!