:angryfire:angryfirehere goes, during report time the day shift charge nurse is on the floor and suppose to be there in case something goes wrong or a pt needs help while all of the other nurses are giving report.
i come out of report and the charge nurse says" your pump down in room xyz is beeping and sucking air you need to check on it"
excuse me, but if she knew it was sucking air, why didn't she do something about it instead of waiting on me to come out of report?
so i go check the pump and guess what i find, the fluids switched over to a new bag and the pump beeping due to air in the line. ok, i checked that bag before shift change, had 100ml's in it and was going at 50mls/hr, time checked was 6:30 am so that means it could run another 1 1/2 because i reprogrammed it at 85mls to prevent this type of thing happening, i can't stand to find a pump with an empty bag , when i hang a new 1000cc's i always put in 985cc's to keep the bag from going dry.
this same nurse is always telling the night shift nurses you pt, pump, etc, needs blah, blah, and nothing gets said or done about it.
this same nurse is also known for saying" i was only hired to pass out prn meds and make the docs happy":uhoh3:
i am so tired of coming out of report and hearing this. what you you guys do in the situation?:uhoh21:
don't get me wrong, i don't mind helping out, but when the day shift nurses don't get to work till 0700 ( suppose to be ready for report at 6:45) and don't come out of the report room till 7:45 or later, who is there to look out for the pts? not the day shift charge nurse!!
i and the other nurses have completed report and are on our way out the door when this crap happens. no use talking to our nurse manager, she thinks everyone should get along and things are to be happy and smooth running.:angryfire
Frankly, it sounds like the Unit Manager needs to have a chat with day shift about coming in on time, and then you all need to get together and figure out a more efficient way to get Report done. 45 minutes for Report is just too long. It's a wonder anyone gets anything done.
It doesn't matter how short I make my report - I almost always find them sitting in the report room chatting away. In the meantime, every pt. wants to get up and go to the bath room, every pt. wants to order break fast and every pt. wants their pills.
Night shifts are short staffed as it is. It's insane.
I've started going in at 0730 and asking them "Have any questions for me 'cuz I need to leave". I'm waiting to see if this is going to work. If it doesn't, I'm simply going to start leaving.
I'm sick and tired of having to put up with this. It's one thing if it is a full floor and report takes longer because there are more patients to report on... but quite another if folks just pause the tape to sit and chat about anniversaries and what they are going to do in georgia 4 weeks from today! :angryfire
Oh and another thing: 'round here, nurses on eves and nights just listen to our assigned patients for report - but day shift listens to report on the entire floor.
We all listen to all the pts on the tape. In other words, if I'm the only one coming in at 3, I only have to listen to my 5 pts. If all the nurses on our side are all 8 hour people (we mix 8 and 12 hr shifts), then we have to listen to everyone. Every floor in our hospital does report differently...some face-to-face, some written, and some tape for each individual nurse. But for us, as long as the people before you don't tape too long, it's not too hard to get out within half an hour.
I HATE the fact that our night charge has to take a full pt load. Sometimes they try to give her a break and give her 7 pts instead of 8. Oh whoopie, that makes a real difference. It just seems so dangerous to me! But we are a not-for-profit hospital that has been in the red lately because census has been so low, and they want to squeeze every dime in the budget. But I just think it's so unsafe! It only takes one thing to go wrong, and they can be in big trouble! True, we have a rapid response team, but that's not really enough IMO. 4 nurses and 2 (sometimes 3) techs for 32 pts, and a response unit clerks you can sometimes call for admissions if she is there...not enough! Not only that, but some units have a night charge without pts, some have a half load, some have an ANM that works nocs, but we don't have ANY of that! Doesn't seem right to me.
Personally I think they should do away with ALL pumps and only use them for critical meds such as Dopamine or Heparin drips. They are the totally useless. I work the OR and for years it seems that the majority of patients that come to me have been on a pump and for some strange reason floor nurses think that just because the patient was on a pump the fluid was actually going in the vein! Strangely enough this is not the case. We spend more time wasted on restarting IVs from the floor because the meds are being pushed into the subq tissues and the stupid machines don't react to this mistake. I take every patient off of pumps when coming to the OR, ecept for the above mentioned critical meds, and they are left in the rooms. Anesthesia doesn't like them. We are always ready to re-start the IV because they are usually worthless. Sometimes we are surprised and they actually work.. Not every patient that has an IV needs to be on a pump. If the nurse actually keeps an eye on a patient's IV and it is mostly TKO there should be no problem. The "rule" is put them on a pump and just forget it! Sorry about this rant but after so many years of this problem, after many before with no problems, it gets to be real frustrating. I have worked the OR for 31 years and a year before on a M/S floor and this was pre-pump era where nurses actually had to calculate drip rates, long gone now. In California where the ratio is 5 to 1 how hard is it to watch 2 or 3 IVs without them infiltrating! Sorry again.
Nursing is a 24/7 "job" as far as patients are concerned. Until you are on the floor the patients belong to the previous shift. Even if you were on the floor it would not hurt to be a team player and take care of the patient's needs. Anyway, whoever had the patient prior to you should have realized there was a problem and FIXED it before your shift. Lazy people.
Roy Fokker, BSN, RN
1 Article; 2,011 Posts
Night shifts are short staffed as it is. It's insane.
I've started going in at 0730 and asking them "Have any questions for me 'cuz I need to leave". I'm waiting to see if this is going to work. If it doesn't, I'm simply going to start leaving.
I'm sick and tired of having to put up with this. It's one thing if it is a full floor and report takes longer because there are more patients to report on... but quite another if folks just pause the tape to sit and chat about anniversaries and what they are going to do in georgia 4 weeks from today! :angryfire
Oh and another thing: 'round here, nurses on eves and nights just listen to our assigned patients for report - but day shift listens to report on the entire floor.
What, pray tell, is the logic behind this?
cheers,