Losing momentum?

Sophie · May 10, 1999

I live in Calif. Where are the other writers from? Sophie

barton · May 11, 1999

Florida here! (hot, hot, hot and sweat, sweat, sweat----excuse me, "perspire") :-)

Joe,RN · May 11, 1999

Georgia here, or should I say "jawja"!

Origcyn13 · May 18, 1999

Missouri here... I work north of the metro, live south...

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Cyn...stiring the mix

Linda, CCRN · May 19, 1999

Tennessee here.

anthing goes · May 19, 1999

i am so glad i happened to find this site.

i work in the midwest and have been going

up the chain of command to voice concerns about unsafe staffing. I too have called Joint Commission and my state nursing association in order to find out how unsafe staffing can be documented. I was told by the Joint Commission that an annonymous complaint could be filed against the facility you work for. The person i talked to at joint assured me confidentiality would be maintained. They would then do an unannounced site visit based on the complaint. i work in a peds ICU and the nurse to patient ratio is appauling to say the least. Upper administration claims they are trying to hire and are unable to recruit nurses due to the "nursing shortage". (there is no active advertising in the local paper)

The floors are even worse. A patient of ours was transferred to the floor and was not seen by a nurse for 5 hours after arriving on the floor. My question is...Don't the physicians see this? and Are physicians putting the pressure on administration to hire nurses??

i would appreciate any other information for reporting and/or documenting short staffing. i am also wondering what the implications of "whistle blowing" is in terms of job protection.

Erbn Girl · May 19, 1999

From Northwest Indiana soon to be in Southwest Missouri!

AnnieRN · May 19, 1999

I am in a similar situation. I work in ICU at a community hospital in central New York. Our unit has held census at 7 beds due to short staffing(we have a 10 bed unit). The only reason we are holding at 7 patients is because the nursing staff demanded it. We currently have 6 full time positions open. At one brief time our manager felt that we could handle 10 patients. It became unbearable. My coworkers were working 50 to 60 hours a week. I then called the state to find out what could be done to close the beds again. I was told that the state only gets involved when ther are documented patient care issues, for example, decubitis ulcers from lack of nursing care or med errors. They did say the would call tthe hospital to find out how they were dealing with our short staffing.

several days later we are holding the census at 7 patients. Our staff has been told that they are actively recruiting but we never see adds in any of the local or regional papers. I don't know what the answers are to these problems but I have become more vocal at work about refusing to accept patients when our staffing does not support the patient population. Only when Doctors are told that their patients cannot be cared for will they wake up and realize that there is a staffing problem.

Joe,RN · May 20, 1999

I read your posts! We are here to help and make sure your stories are heard! You can report neglect and abnormalities anonymously. You may want to look back through the messages posted under this heading. We have made many suggestions and debated confidentialty at length. I have been told that my identity would be protected, but I should provide my name to ligitimize the report. I have done this and felt reprecussions. Maybe it was just a lucky guess on the part of administration. I don't know, but if you do decide to identify yourself, be ready for retribution. As I have said before, I have no problem with being identified as a patient advocate, but this should be your choice! Welcome! We continue to grow in numbers!

barton · May 22, 1999

To: Linda, anything goes, and Annie,

If you've read even a few of the posts here, you'll see that most of us appear to be in the same boat.

Some have written legislators and the ANA and so forth.

NOW, many of us HERE have joined efforts, and are writing a column primarily about understaffing, and we plan to send a regular newsletter to legislators under the name of our column.

Please e-mail Joe or me and tell us your stories-----and join our group!

Thanks,

barton

MQ Edna · Jun 3, 1999

Maybe I missed it , but where do short-staffed nursing homes fit into this bill? Many of these acute care patients end up in short-staffed nursing homes.

Joe,RN · Jun 9, 1999

Jen,

Short staffed nursing homes fit in the same as every other facility. If your facility is short staffed, then patient safety is an issue, it does not matter what type facility it is!