I'm just venting so please do not feel obligated to read this booklength post.
I had the worst 16 hours yesterday.
I was off on Thursday and as soon as I walked in on Friday (3-11pm) the DNS said she wanted to speak with me. I was a little confused because she started talking about how when a new admission comes in we have to pick up orders etc. So I was like "We have a new admit?" I'm new but that's nursing 101 new admit...pick up orders....it's not rocket science. Anyway, I told her I was off on Thurs and then she proceeds to tell me about the new resident. She closes the conversation by telling me that if I needed any medications they have an emergency box in the office so I should just call the supervisor. I'm thinking why would I need medication from the office? I should have dug deeper but like a dummy I let it go at that.
Next before I left the office she asked me if I would work 11-7am on another floor and I (stupidly) agreed even though I did a double 2 days ago. There is a lot of pressure to pick up extra shifts, typically I am asked 4-5 times per week and I say no a lot but this time I said yes because I was a little intimidated that the DNS was asking and I feel guilty for always saying no.
Big mistake.
Anyway I get to my floor where total and utter chaos are in progress. The nurse manager was off and the regular day shift nurse called in. Would you believe that before they left on the Thursday (my day off) that those two characters (I would really like to use another name) did not bother to pick up the orders for new admit? They didn't even bother to fax them to the pharmacy...they did nothing and this admit came in before 2pm. The NM works from 8-4pm and the day nurse usually stays until that time or later because she comes in late every single day.
My thinking is that they thought I was coming in and they planned to just leave it all to me to do which they have done before. It was my day off though and the nurse that came on was agency. She refused to pick up those orders and then when the night nurse came in (also agency) she also refused to pick up those orders. So our new admit had NO medications, and she has COPD and is supposed to be receiving regularly scheduled treatments, she is also on percocet and she had NO pain medication until I CAME IN ON FRIDAY!!!! *&$*&@!!
They got two staff people from another floor to work the day shift (Friday) and they "supposedly" cleaned up the mess but trust me it was far from cleaned up when I got there. The lying good for nothing SOBs claimed that they did everything dressing changes etc. Ha! dressings were caked on with tons of all kinds of drainage, obviously they hadn't been changed since the day staff left on Thurs more than 24 hours ago. The off-going nurse was so bold as to ask if I could do a 10am dressing for her because that was "only one" she didn't get a chance to do. They also only bothered to do half the admission (just the med stuff) and left all of the consults for me to do.
The incontinent residents were soaked in urine and feces. The lunch trays were not picked up and the CNAs just piled them into the 1 working water fountain. The new admit is sharing with my most difficult resident who was OOB in her WC screaming for a nurse at the top of her lungs. They swapped out Ms. Difficult's bed for the new admits (I don't know why they did this) and housekeeping had no mattress for her. Then the supervisor (lazy wench) tries to come onto the floor and push some more work on me...the pharmacy is having issues with the triplicate RXs (I have more narcs than any other floor in the building) and she is so busy maybe I could take care of it? (NO!) Also they are having problems getting the lab results (due on my day off btw another thing blown off by the Thursday people) for a Vanco trough for a resident with MRSA....if the lab doesn't call back would I be so kind as to call them and then call the doc? They took the nebulizer away from my sickest COPD resident's (who is confused and non-verbal) and gave it to the new residents cuz they were too dang lazy to get another one so they just take from those who cannot complain and give to those who might be able to get on their Cell and call the family. So that poor resident had no treatments all day shift and goodness knows for how long before that. I could hear her wheezing from all the way down the hall as soon as I got off the elevator.
The porters get me a new bed and all seems well until a CNA points out that we have no siderails. The porters try to blow me off cuz it's Friday and after 5pm but I know that if I don't get this done it will not get done by the skeleton crew we have on weekends. They bring us siderails but they don't fit the new bed and there are no more working beds in the place. They would have to bring one in from another facility and in the meantime just push the bed against the wall and use gym mats.
The drama went on and on with the bed and the screaming resident....I thought my head was going to explode. Not to mention that my back ached from changing her dressings while bending over her non-working bed while she was screaming and carrying on about everything that was wrong. To top it all off I had another shift to work? I know I wasn't duped into it but damned if I didn't feel that way last night.
I managed to survive and headed to another floor for my second shift. My goodness! I thought my floor had more than it's share of psych residents but it was nothing to what I had to deal with on the floor I did my extra shift on. Each and every single person on that floor is a psych patient....no lie and there is one registered sex offender who the CNAs advised me to watch because he might try to get touchy feely. I had the creepiest night....the overwhelming majority of the residents on the floor are male.
I was stared at all night by one male resident who pulled up a chair across from the nurses station and just stared at me without speaking. In the AM when I was doing my med pass another followed me all through the halls and kept getting so close he pressed up against me a few times and I had to keep chasing him off.
I was actually in fear for my safety on that floor and I am truly P.O'd to the point of wanting to snatch someone bald for not giving me a heads up about that floor.
I got home at 7:30am and at 8:30am I called in.
Right now I don't care if my calling in is just making things worse. I cannot face another shift in that hell hole on less than 8 hours sleep. Especially when I know that this is the day nurse's weekend off and the agency nurse who is coming in will do nothing so I
will be in the same predicament I was in last night. I cannot deal with that screaming difficult resident (of all the people who this had to happen to why THIS particular resident?) who is still lying in a broken bed with no side rails screaming, "NURSE! NURSE! Where's the NURSE? This is abuse!" when I have just left her room and haven't even made it down the corridor yet. I cannot deal with another shift with our incompetent new supervisor who is a friend of the DNS and was brought in to replace the old competent supervisor who was let go because of "nursing politics."
If you read this far thanks for letting me vent, because non-nurses (like my spouse) just don't get it.
It's time that we stopped taking these double shifts out of guilt and started demanding additional compensation, plus at least the part of the following shift off. If I stay until 11, darn straight I want "on call pay" and that they need to take me off the next day schedule until 11am. There's no stinking way I'll be recharged after a five hour sleep to get up and do it all over again.
It will only work if we all start dealing with management using our heads and not our hearts. We can leave the heart of our practice to what the patients ultimately get. If we are a united block, then management will have to compensate fairly.
I hope you enjoyed your R&R without guilt. It's entirely misplaced. You deserve to be treated like the competent professional that you are.
wow. thats really crazy. i found your post to be a very interesting read. and yes, non-nursing people usually does not understand my work stress and the hard work we have to do. your post was both shocking and amusing. good look working in that job!
I think I would have called off for a week after a night like that - I can feel my B/P rising over all the frustration in your post. It might be time to get out of there!
After reading your post, I am thinking to myself - "WOW"!! I don't kow how you managed it. I would get out of there ASAP!! They should all be reported. The one thing that always irked me was when pts. were left to sit with wet/soiled diapers on. People have no business being in the nursing field if they can't treat their pts. properly. That sounds like abuse to me!! I would like to to see these nurses sit in wet/dirty diapers for hrs. and see how they like it. And, to lie about changing dressings -OMG!!!
The patient who was yelling, "This is abuse!" was right after all. The NURSE was being abused. My advice to everyone is to never, never, never double back. A double is not nearly as bad as trying to double back. And to combine the two... Why do we do this to ourselves? Why in the world would we feel guilted into this, even if the working conditions were much better than what you have described? Don't get me wrong, I have felt bad about shirking my "duty" and done things like this. But...This must stop, for us and for our patients. All of us deserve much better.
Specializes in Day Surgery, Agency, Cath Lab, LTC/Psych.
Wow! I don't know how you made it through the day. I think my head would have exploded and my eyes popped out. My eyes just about did pop out when I was reading your post. That is gross negligence of the other nurses and the facility. I cannot believe that new patients were not receiving meds for more than a day after admission! Unbelievable care these poor elderly people are receiving. I would be looking for other work ASAP.
I would report this facility to every possible accrediting agency and the state. BTW, the bed with no side rails and just "pushed up against the wall" is a huge problem. Many facilities consider the fall matts to be a restraint.
Kudos to you for sticking it out. You deserve a huge hug and pat on the back. I'm sure they gave you neither. Please find an employer who actually values you--I don't think your current work cares two bits about you or the patients.
Any nurse that makes a patient go without meds for convienence sake deserves to lose his/her license. You did a great job, but some of the people you work with should be fired.
I'm so sorry your day was horrible. I have a question though. Do you get paid overtime (time and a half or double) for that extra shift? I'm still trying to understand the ridiculously complicated nursing pay.
I once worked at a nsg home where there was never a night shift nurse for 1 of the 4 stations, so when stations 1 and 3 finished their med pass etc, they woprked together to do station 2. I told my DON in a meeting there was no way we could give even 1/2 way good care; HIS answer?"Theres no law says you can't". Scary huh?
They also only bothered to do half the admission (just the med stuff) and left all of the consults for me to do. 
Blee O'Myacin, BSN, RN
721 Posts
That day sounded horrible.
It's time that we stopped taking these double shifts out of guilt and started demanding additional compensation, plus at least the part of the following shift off. If I stay until 11, darn straight I want "on call pay" and that they need to take me off the next day schedule until 11am. There's no stinking way I'll be recharged after a five hour sleep to get up and do it all over again.
It will only work if we all start dealing with management using our heads and not our hearts. We can leave the heart of our practice to what the patients ultimately get. If we are a united block, then management will have to compensate fairly.
I hope you enjoyed your R&R without guilt. It's entirely misplaced. You deserve to be treated like the competent professional that you are.
Take care,
Blee