I need to vent a little....

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Oct 7, 2006

Love your thinking...forget proper storage temp of breast milk likely harm a premie too..

Gompers, BSN, RN · Oct 7, 2006

That really sucks. We don't have to do any inservices that don't apply to us. There are some hospital-based competency things (CPR, environmental safety, computer charting, HIPAA, etc.) that everyone has to do but they aren't pateint-related so it really does apply to all units. But the only inservices we have to do that are those that involve our unit - new equipment, policies, etc.

We are also pretty lucky that these inservices are offered at different times of the day so that all shifts may attend. Same with our unit staff meetings - night shift is never expected to come in during the day, especially if we're between shifts. For some of the hospital-based classes (like when we went to a new computer system) there are only day or early evening times available, but we are scheduled so that it is during our days off so we aren't going without sleep.

I'm sorry you've got to deal with that stuff. We don't need more stress!

Trauma Columnist · Oct 8, 2006

A little off topic but I'm on a roll here. I worked nights in the ER for 10 years. For 2 years I was the night charge nurse and our meetings would be scheduled for 0730 - right after we got off. After one particular awful night I had a meeting and I fell asleep at 0900 - yep, drooling the whole bit. My unit manager woke me up and said she hoped that she wasn't "boring" me. I was still pretty foggy and just told her that the next meeting would start at 2 am and I hoped that I wouldn't be boring her - lol. We quit having these long meeting shortly after that.

Night shifters need sleep too!

Mulan · Oct 8, 2006

Is it due to JCAHO, like all the other ridiculousness is?

Jolie, BSN · Oct 8, 2006

I know just what you mean, prmenrs!

I once worked in a private, for-profit hospital that was constantly seeking the newest "gimmick" to draw patients in. First on the list was to upgrade the physical appearance of the maternity center, and expand to a Level II nursery. They put millions of dollars into consultants, architects, decorating and equipment, and at first were pretty generous with education money for the nursing staff. But as soon as the first financial reports came in indicating that the new department was not a financially successful as hoped, they yanked our education money and went on to the next gimmick. I could no longer pay nurses to come in for what should have been mandatory inservices on topics such as stabilization of the newborn, thermoregulation, etc.

Then the hospital decided to seek status as a "Dabetic Center of Excellence". In order to receive this designation, ALL nurses had to attend numerous hours of inservices on diabetes, not one minute of which applied to OB or nursery. We requested training on care of diabetic moms and IDMs, but were told "no", as it was not required for the designation they were seeking.

So no payment for any OB or nursery related inservices, but we had better show up for our marathon diabetes sessions!

I couldn't take the stupidity there, and didn't last long!

htrn · Oct 9, 2006

I feel for you - been there, still doing that.

Our hospital has a 'competency' system and annual skills fair. They finally decided to go to a 'must demonstrate competence' and 'must understand' and then for those in different departments, assigned us the ones needed competence in. I am still required to be competent autotransfusions, CPM for knee patients, bucks traction, etc... but, the med/surg nurses still need us to come out and do fundal checks on a pt that has a stillbirth and doesn't want to remain in the birth center.

ARRRGGGGGG

And yes, I think it does have something to do with our good friends at JCAHO

RainDreamer, BSN, RN · Oct 10, 2006

That would drive me nuts too! Why do they feel the NICU nurses need to know the "adult stuff", if the adult nurses don't need to know the "baby stuff"? Makes no sense. Isn't that the whole point of specialized nursing? So you can specialize and focus on your own field without being weighed down with a bunch of information that isn't relevant?

Lucky for us we don't have this. We have the mandatory annual TB and infection control things we have to do, but that's it. We have skills labs and inservices for our NICU that have nothing to do with the other units and it keeps us up-to-date on our own unit's policies, procedures, skills, and such.

Sweeper933 · Oct 10, 2006

Wow, I guess we're pretty lucky in our unit. We'll have skills day on our unit, but it's put on by our fellow NICU nurses, so everything is related to NICU. We have to do computer charting/CPR/NRP along w/ the rest of the hospital, but that pertains to us as well. We also have other in-services, relating to new equipment on our unit, new protocols... things like that.

Shelby 0520 · Oct 14, 2006

We have a bunch of updates, meetings, etc we are required to go to! We have 4 hour long "updates" 4 times a year, that go over things we do every day, and everyone hates. We also have a compentency update once a year that is ridiculous, but at least pertains to babies. It seems, though, that they always bunch them together, and we have an update in Nov, then Jan, but not again until June.

What burns me is that I work weekend option because we have a little one at home. So my husband has to take off work to watch her so I can go to these silly meetings. I work weekend option for a reason, duh!

preemieRNkate, RN · Nov 9, 2006

We have these annual "recert" days, and while I understand the need for all nurses to do certain things each year, do I really need to sit for a 30-45 minute class on restraints? No! Last year I remember saying to my friend, "In NICU we have two kinds of restraints, Huggies and Pampers." Cause we wrap a diaper around the kids legs when they are putting in UV/UA's. Us NICU folk usually come prepared with magazines and find ourselves seats in the waaaaay back for recert day! And of course, they're all held during the day, I work nights.