How many OHN's are on these board?

Hey Wayne, I'm Carmen. I'm sorry you are not still in the OHN position and unfortunately I am over here in Northeast Texas so I'm no help to the position New Mexico. Hang in there. The good thing about nursing is that there are always jobs......maybe not the ones everyone wants but at least you can get a job. I am having troubling time with the medics I oversee. That's why I got on the board....for some advise on how to deal with medics. Got any background on that subject?

I'm looking desperately for help and hope you other OHNs will have some background on this topic. I am supervisor over 4 paramedics full time and a few prns. My bosses have told me that I am having trouble with my "direct reports" and want me to change my ways. I'm an ol' ER/ICU nurse. Yep, bossy and domineering at times and I do call them on things when they are done correctly. They say my interpersonal skills are not very good. However, I do an exceptional job for my company. I just recently saved the company 1.3 million dollars. Of my job performance I receive high marks and have been looked at as a "best practices" site for other divisions in our company. The medics look upon me as a rhymes with witch. I get very little cooperation from them and when I ask them to do something, I hear the words, "Why" and "How come we have to do it that way?" Let me reiterate that these medics are not employees of the company. Our company employees these medics through an agency. They are contract employees. My bosses see it as totally my fault. The medics run to my supervisor to report me for anything and everything. I don't run to my supervisor for every little thing. (Although maybe I should) For example, we had a meeting where it was announced that I would be doing a skills check off on the medics. They became enraged and went to my boss stating "How can a nurse check off our skills as a medic?" What I meant were the skills that I must sign off on per company policy....audiograms, pulmonary function testing.....ect....but it became a Us vs the nurse issue yet again. HELP! If you have ever had to supervise medics, please find it in your heart to advise me. Lately, I haven't asked them for anything and we've got along perfectly. They sit around reading and watching T.V. during their shift, while I am in my office working to keep our clinic going well. My boss is totally on their side and they know it. Our boss that is over him and I is not much better. I've considered resigning but this job is a great job that I love. Teaching and treating employees with little to no knowledge level about health is very rewarding. So, I beg you.....if you can give me some guidance, I will be in your debt.......

Thanks.......scrubsinthewasher..............

I am going to start a new thread to answer you.

Crash- I am also affiliated with a hospital based ohc in a small rural community,primarily seeing patients 2 days a week as well as nnds and NIDA ds in between...have been in nsg 20 years,,,,this position 10 weeks.

Thank you for the info on continuing education opportunities.

Good morning!

I, too, am new to occ health. I was skeptical when the instructor of the audiology course said it is "baptism by fire" in occ health, but I have found he was quite correct. This coming Friday, I will be working the 330-midnight shift, alone, at a very large engine plant. I am relatively clueless, and wonder if I made the right choice accepting the assignment. But, how else can I learn? any insight would be most welcome.

Thanks for all the other posts, for they make me feel a bit less isolated. As Wayne said, uninformed, not stupid. (Unless taking this assignment makes me in the latter category.)

Have a wonderful morning!

Did a few years as a Paramedic and RN in the Occ Health environment at a large shipbuilding facility (14,000). Then Six months at an oil refinery as an RN (good pay), then into "real nursing" at an ER. Really made me miss Occ Health, so I am heading back into it working out of a large hospital, now as a "salaried manager", (which just means longer hours without pay), :) Have already gleamed some good pearls from the posts here.

Jim

Brand spankin' new LPN here. I have a job interview for an OH LPN position. The job description doesn't go too much into detail about what I would be doing if given the job. I have about a week to pull in information about the whole Occupational Health realm so that I can go into the interview with some questions/answers.

Absolutely any advice on what I should "bone up on" would be more than appreciated..... Pretty please.....

Thanks, Blue:Snow:

The core manaual for occupation health would provide you with an overview of expectations. Look for some protocols and/or directives also, they will let you know what you will be expected to perform.

Occ health seems to be an "insiders occupation", that is, you usually need to have an inside connection to get started, but once your in, you are usually good to go.

Best of luck,

Jim

The core manaual for occupation health would provide you with an overview of expectations.

Thanks Jim, just one question:

What core manual? Sorry, did I mention that I'm a brand spankin' new LPN? And blonde...

Is Occupational Health the same thing as Occupational Therapy? Or similar to it?

I went online to two different libraries in my area and tried finding books with "Occupational Health" in the subject line, and nothing came up.

Thanks... Blue

It is the Occ Health core curriculum, I purchased mine through amazon. It gives a broad overview of the practice. I would expect that you would be doing basic first aid, reporting work comp issues, UDS, and blood draws for physicals, audio, eyes, hearing, ect. I guess that is what I like about it, it is broad in scope and independent in practice.

Hope this helps,

Thanks again Jim.

I hope you have a wonderful New Year!

Blue