LPN Needs answer

pagandeva2000, LPN · Sep 30, 2006

:penguin: I work agency and on my last job assignment there wer 11 patients on the floor plus 3 RNs besides my self staffing for that unit. In report I got six patients this left the other five patints for the three RNs. Needless to say I had a terrible night. Most of my patients needed medications I could not push or give IV and two were in isolation. I felt the assignment was unfair but was afraid to say anything. Has this ever happened to anyone else? If so what to do? At the end of the shift the other nurses wanted to know if there was anything they could do to help as they were walking out the door to go home. What is going on with this situation?
Feed back welcome

Not sure of what to say to offer advice, but this does seem to happen in many places. Our post surgical unit has 15 beds, and the LPN will get 11 patients and the two RNs will get two a piece. But, in my hospital, the LPNs are medication nurses, and do not do primary care. Most of the LPNs will make sure that all of the medications are distributed that they are assigned to, and don't bother to help the RNs with the catheter care or anything else. Maybe you can let them know early that some of these are IV push meds and need their intervention, and if they do not help, then, don't go back.

foxxcat · Oct 1, 2006

:penguin: I work agency and on my last job assignment there wer 11 patients on the floor plus 3 RNs besides my self staffing for that unit. In report I got six patients this left the other five patints for the three RNs. Needless to say I had a terrible night. Most of my patients needed medications I could not push or give IV and two were in isolation. I felt the assignment was unfair but was afraid to say anything. Has this ever happened to anyone else? If so what to do? At the end of the shift the other nurses wanted to know if there was anything they could do to help as they were walking out the door to go home. What is going on with this situation?
Feed back welcome[/quote
Hi , I have been an LPN for 21 years and I have ran into the same, RN's are there to supervise and help but when it comes to WORK they run, and give us all the work
Alwaysn remember as an LPN/Lvn we are as good if not beter than RN's because we know how to WORK
best of luck

mamason · Oct 2, 2006

I came across this thread and read a few times. I'm an Rn. Haven't been one for long, only about 3 years. So, my question is....Is this common practice for LPN's to be treated this way? Where I used to work, we had one Lpn that worked with us. She took the same pt load as us, not more. She was very helpful and very knowelgable in her care with her pts. She actually took care of my mom after a knee replacement last spring. I was happy to see that she was in charge of my mom's care. I knew my mom was going to be in good hands. I'm appalled at the unfair assignment that this nurse was given at this facility. Is this common practice? Could you have documented that you were given an unfair assignment? Does this constitute harrassment? :nono:

CV_RN · Oct 2, 2006

I guess it depends from state to state. When I was an LVN I took my own patient load, which was the same amount of patients as the RN's had. We usually have 3 RN's and 3 LVN's per shift. Each LVN has an RN buddy and that RN buddy will do the LVN's admission assessment if they get an admission from the ER. All other care is done by the LVN. LVN's can do IV pushes, IV piggy backs and even monitor cardiac drips (heparin, cardizem, lidocaine, etc). The only thing they need the RN for is admission assessment, put a patient in restraints if they need, spike their blood, and hang TPN or lipids if they have those ordered, that's it. LVN's are very much respected on my unit and most of our strong nurses are LVN's. LVN's can even pull chest tubes where I work

Fiona59 · Oct 2, 2006

Got to agree with the above. We have the same number of patients as an RN. The RN does my IV meds, TPN and blood if required. I've had shifts with zero IV meds, or TPN, and blood isn't used that often on our unit. I do my own admits and discharges.

But having said that this weekend I worked with an RN who managed to discharge two of her five patients and left my to drag through five all shift......long, long day. We are only supposed to have 3 patients on days and were short staffed hence the increased work load.

mamason · Oct 2, 2006

Sounds like the OP was taken advantage of. Unless the other 5 remaining pt's for the 3 RN's had some sort of high acuity status? "Can we help you with anything?" as they are walking out the door?Why that's happened to me too as a new nurse. I told them,"Yeah, you could help me pass all these meds that are two hours late, get these consents signed, help with one of the 3 admissions you just sanblasted me with, etc." Of course no one took me up on it. Kinda gave me a weird look too. They changed their toon when I complained to the NM about it. From then on, a neutral person made the assignments instead of one senior nurse and her buddy. No more "let's set each other up so we only get the easy assignments. Should of seen them scurry around like the rest of us. Of course, they got no sympathy from us other nurses who'd been running around non stop for six months before the change of who made the assignments. Just thought I'd share.