WARNING: VENT VENT VENT!
I'm in the middle of my fifth week in a SNF, as a medication nurse. This is also my first LPN position.
I thought I was so fortunate to land the first job I applied for, and in fact, right there on the spot! However, this job is torture. Here's what my day was like today:
0645: Get to work 15 minutes early to find the six boxes I ordered to re-supply the med room, still not carried to the med room. Go inside the med room and see medicines for 3 new patients, all sitting on the counter, not put up. (We're talking dozens and dozens of cards here.)
0655: Count narcotics.
0700: Go to the dining room, where I am responsible for physically placing each tray in front of the 24 people in my dining room. I then pour coffee, etc., and pray for the pts to eat within 40 minutes, because I know what is waiting for me: the 0900 med pass from hell. Usually I end up taking a tray from one woman who suffers from dementia, and cannot understand why she can't sit there playing with her butter all day, while I watch. Everyday, she's mad at me for taking her tray.
0745: I push my cart out and probably have at least two people who are screaming for pain medicine - and I am required to give it within 15 minutes of their request.
0800: Start my morning med pass, doing all vital signs myself. Last week we had 18-20 patients, but now we have 26. This is a SNF, and orders change almost everyday. We got 7 new admits in the past two days, and everyone takes 12-30 meds at 9am - including multple inhalers, patches, PO, etc. Many pts have dysphagia. There are two peg tubes, and right now we have four known narcotic addicts, who each require pain medicine q 3 hours, sometimes up to 3 different meds staggered. Meanwhile, pts are in PT, the beauty shop, the shower....or outside smoking. I have to run them down individually.
10:30 - I'm supposed to be done with my 9 am med pass. Yeah right! That's about 5 minutes per person - and just gathering someone's drugs can take longer than that - much longer if the person is new and the meds aren't to be found in the cart. Then I have to find the patient, take vitals - and have them swallow the pills, which takes several :banghead:minutes if the pt can't swallow more than one pill at a time, and can't hold their own water.
10:30 CBGS on 10 patients. Of course, you realize I am way behind on my morning med pass, right? Nobody is getting their CBG at 10:30 right now.
11:00 my unpaid lunch break that is deducted from my check, whether I take it or not. Hello? I'm still passing the 9 am meds! Lunch for me isn't happening today!
11:30 - insulin for those that need it. But again, I'm way behind.
12:00 Trays are out, and everyone is waiting on me to get in the DR to pass them out. Too bad I haven't sat down, peed or even had a drink of water since 06:45 this a.m. I feel like crying by now I can't sit in the DR, either. It's standing room only for me.
12:45 Lunch is over? Back to work, hopefully I can get in 15 of minutes of charting and beg for the MAR back from the infection control nurse who is glaring at me for having it all morning. Now would be a good time to pee, even though I'm dehydrated from not drinking anything since 0600 this morning.
1300: Start passing 1300 meds, and most people get them. Also I have to fit in flu shots, pneumonia shots, B12 shots, etc. I have two more hours of my shift to get everything else done - calling the pharmacy, faxing new orders, all the charting I am responsible for, restocking the med cart, etc.
1500: Gosh, I seriously hope I'm finished with whatever I needed to do. I feel guilty because I had to race around like a chicken sans head all day. My back is killing me, so are my feet. The charge nurse is asking me this, asking me that. I guess my replacement is late.....keep on working.
1530: On a good day, I'm walking out. On a bad day, I'm calling my daughter at home and telling her I'll be late again. "What's for dinner, mom?" I have no idea. I'm too tired to go to the store. I can't take it.
That's been my day. No feeling of a job well done for this nurse. I can think of 10 things I wish I could have done better today. Will I get written up for not being able to find those 5 meds I couldn't give? Probably.
Oh, and today, the charge nurse asked me to get a demented deranged patient to take some medicine to "calm down," and I crouched down on the floor, and asked her kindly. She grabbed my hair - yes, most of it - and shook me like a ragdoll. "Leave me alone you ignorant *****!" I wanted to cry.
And this was my day. Did I mention I am earning $14 an hour?
What can I do? I just started, how can I quit? HOW?
HELP!
i may be a new nurse but i know one thing increased workload= decreased patient care!! and if any nurse gave a two.... about their patients they'd start by respecting their staff first!!
eldragon
421 Posts
Well, here it is the end of my 6th week on the job, and I just called in sick because my back is going out on me.
This is sad, because I never miss work or school - and strive for 100% attendance in everything I do.
But the extreme physical expectations of this job are unrealistic for me, and most people, I would assume. I am 44 years old and in good physical shape, but as I mentioned earlier in the thread - I run non-stop for 9 hours every single day, without ever having the chance to sit down.
Can you imagine having a full-time job that does not allow you a moment to sit in a 9-hour period? It's insane. The constant bending - passing out almost 30 breakfast and lunch trays and standing there while they eat - and then returning the trays to the rack - bending and reaching the whole time;
taking vital signs on all the patients - squatting on the floor while they are in PT, because they are in wheelchairs and I have to hold the glass to their lips for each sip;
doing cbgs on 10 patients - again - the same thing - squatting so that I can get to their finger while they sit in wheelchairs;
putting up supplies everyday - in high cabinets - the constant reaching and bending, it's not human to expect anyone to run like that for that long.
In the 6 weeks I have been there - I have never been able to take my ten minute morning break, or ten minute afternoon break. Not once. I have never had a lunch break over 20 minutes long,and that includes the distance I walk to the time clock, and to my car - and back - and using the restroom.
I am simply never finished, and by the time I get back in my car after work - I am almost limping out. The evening is ruined for me - because I am too tired to do anything else, and I am so stressed out - I can't sleep at night thinking about this miserable job.
It's all I think about, and all I talk about. It's the reason why - at 1:48 in the morning, I am sitting here on the computer when I should be asleep.
If I am emotionally and physically exhausted after a mere 6 weeks, what would I be like after 6 months? It's simply too much to pay, physically and emotionally. It's not worth it.
So today I will get some rest and type up a notice, which I will hand the DON on Friday, otherwise I will end up crippled physically or burned out on nursing.
Sad situation.