I work 1400-2230 as an LPN (soon to be RN as soon as I take boards). I work in a LTC facility that has 68 beds that are always full. So, each night, on second shift there is always myself and 1 other nurse. We are constantly promised that we will "soon" get an OMT to help with med pass, but this never occurs. I am curious what other LTC 2nd shift (evening) nurses have to deal with?
My duties: I have 34 residents a night... all get pills at 1700, about 50% of these get pills again at 2000, and about 25% get pills at 2200. I have approximately 10 diabetics that need blood sugars/insulin at least once per shift, 3 wound dressings that take atleast 10 minutes each, I have 2 residents with G-tubes. Almost all my residents get atleast 5-10 different meds during our 1700 med pass. I have 10 residents with eye drops, 4 with weekly procrit injections, 1 with a colostomy that gets completely changed q3 days. This is in addition to the fact that our secretary leaves at 1500, so we answer phones, respond to faxes, get doctor orders, sign out meds from pharmacy, call family with labs/med change/condition changes, ect.
And then comes charting.... on average, of my 34 residents, at least 6-10 are skilled, so they require mandatory in-depth charting, usually 4-10 residents are "flagged" (i.e. monitor for mood changes d/t decreased antidepressant), and then any charting that comes from lab results, med changes, ect.
I'm just very interested in what other nurses responsibilities are, such as how many residents they are responsible for, ect. Even our first shift nurses (0600-1430) often get stuck with just 2 nurses and 1 OMT for all 68 residents. I'm very interested in what everyone else has to deal with!
