my name is Jessica Hernandez, i am a licensed practical nurse at peconic bay medical center in riverhead, NY . I have written to this agency before. i have been an LPN for about 2 years my issue is with my DON and nursing admission packets. i am on this crusade to help the LPNs stay within their scope of practice, but it seems to me to be all in vain when the DON can change every word on the admission packet to read data collection instead of assessment. you can call a chicken a duck but that does not change what it is it is, still a chicken. i feel very strongly that we should not be doing the body assessment of the patient without the R.N present it states in the hospitals policies and procedures that the registered nurse is to be present for the body check that they are to do the oral screen and several other things, how is it that they can call what we do data collection when the R.N. signs off on this packet and never goes into the patients room. believe me when i tell you that i am more than capable of doing that job but what if i was not what if i was like the several other brand new out of the womb nurses that are on my floor and i am not sure about what i am doing. Their is a clear issue of patient safety here. are we not supposed to be our patients advocates. when i went into nursing i never knew about all the shady bureaucracy that goes on and how things can be covered up to seem like they have never happened. i am truly disgusted. please please tell me what is the difference between assessment and data collection. how could you assess something you have not seen. how could you trust the word of someone else as a nurse when it is your responsibility to care for those patients?
thank you
Jessica Hernandez
p.s. to all nurses on this forum please tell me if you been having any of these problems.
sorry, can't resist now...science is not learning the names of organs, drugs, and disease. it is real, actual physiology and real mechanisms of meds. again, the therapists all did, all of the above, all therapists.
dump the disturbed energy field nursing diagnoses and learn physics and pharm like the rest of us.
sorry, can't resist now...science is not learning the names of organs, drugs, and disease. it is real, actual physiology and real mechanisms of meds. again, the therapists all did, all of the above, all therapists.
dump the disturbed energy field nursing diagnoses and learn physics and pharm like the rest of us.
I don't know where you are going to school, but I did learn my pharm AND anatomy/physiology, thank you very much. And to pass my program, we had to have an 80% average. Not sure where you get your 51% info.
Nursing is more than "actual physiology and real mechanisms of meds." It is also putting together the big picture of disease processes and changes of physical condition. This entails coming up with your so-called "energy field nursing diagnoses" (i.e. identifying the problem) so that we may decide on an effective plan of action (plan of care). To do this effectively, we work as team members, calling on each other, doctors, caregivers, therapists, family members, and other involved persons as appropriate.
If you begin alienating nurses with arrogance when you have not even finished school, you are in for a rude awakening when you actually start practicing. And that, my friend, is my .
truly it has nothing to do with if i can do an assessment or not it has to do with the fact that we as LPN's are taking on all these responsibilities that are not ours and not being justly compensated for it why is it that an R.N. can run a unit and get paid thirty plus dollars an hour, and we take charge of the same unit and get paid just a dollar more. if i am taking on all the R.N.'s responsibilities i want just compensation... believe me i have trained many R.N.'s to the facility and they know nothing....that is why i went back to get my R.N. one more year and i will be done ....i just want every LPN to know that if you are taking on the responsibilities of an R.N. you can lose your license i have spoke to the state board of nursing we are responsible for abiding to our scope of practice....those R.N.'s that allow you to do their assessments so they can finish their mountains of paper work or whatever it is that they do.....because some of them do nothing and could not critically think if their life depended on it....oh wait their patients lives depend on it........they would not back you up if push came to shove because when we went to the hospital board of directors we were told shame on you guys if you did the admissions no one forced you to do it ......meanwhile when we told our ADON it was not within our scope she stated whats the problem you've been doing them all this time just do it.......and after myself and several other co-workers went to the board of directors we were retaliated against after we were assured retaliation was unacceptable.we were harrassed by fellow co=workers i was told that myself and my flock were going to regret that we involved the union we were told we were burning our nursing bridges...etc...etc... since then my self and my fellow LPN's that complained went to the national labor board the attorney generals office, the EEOC the dept of labor, the department of health etc.. etc...don't think it was just a little gripe it is unjust and against the law.....i am currently working in another hospital... that i love i have never felt so supported. i resigned from the other hospital facility....and in my resignation i thanked them for teaching me to listen to my conscience and provide nursing care with no support....i know what i did and continue to fight for is right and myself and my fellow LPN's that are doing the same will not stop......
Specializes in A little of this & a little of that.
This is a big problem here in CT where our LPN scope is similar to NY. I find a lot of semantics involved. I am continually trying to avoid stepping outside my scope while I'm working on my degree. Employers don't make it easy with policies like this. My advice: contact your board and ask this question then you can be totally sure. Sometimes Boards will contact the DON and tell them that they are violating the "delegation" part of their practice.
On the tangent started here: I also believe that nursing would get more respect as a profession if we worked on a basis more like other professionals with "clinical impressions" and "working diagnoses" rather than "nursing diagnosis". I find other professions are confused by how nurses work and therefore we don't get the credit we deserve. Yes, there are lousy nurses out there but that is true for all professions. Nursing programs do include a great deal of hard science as well as clinical experience. The fact remains that no matter how many disciplines are involved the RN is the person who is responsible for the patient's overall plan of care and its implementation.
Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
truly it has nothing to do with if i can do an assessment or not it has to do with the fact that we as LPN's are taking on all these responsibilities that are not ours and not being justly compensated for it why is it that an R.N. can run a unit and get paid thirty plus dollars an hour, and we take charge of the same unit and get paid just a dollar more. if i am taking on all the R.N.'s responsibilities i want just compensation... believe me i have trained many R.N.'s to the facility and they know nothing....that is why i went back to get my R.N. one more year and i will be done ....i just want every LPN to know that if you are taking on the responsibilities of an R.N. you can lose your license i have spoke to the state board of nursing we are responsible for abiding to our scope of practice....those R.N.'s that allow you to do their assessments so they can finish their mountains of paper work or whatever it is that they do.....because some of them do nothing and could not critically think if their life depended on it....oh wait their patients lives depend on it........they would not back you up if push came to shove because when we went to the hospital board of directors we were told shame on you guys if you did the admissions no one forced you to do it ......meanwhile when we told our ADON it was not within our scope she stated whats the problem you've been doing them all this time just do it.......and after myself and several other co-workers went to the board of directors we were retaliated against after we were assured retaliation was unacceptable.we were harrassed by fellow co=workers i was told that myself and my flock were going to regret that we involved the union we were told we were burning our nursing bridges...etc...etc... since then my self and my fellow LPN's that complained went to the national labor board the attorney generals office, the EEOC the dept of labor, the department of health etc.. etc...don't think it was just a little gripe it is unjust and against the law.....i am currently working in another hospital... that i love i have never felt so supported. i resigned from the other hospital facility....and in my resignation i thanked them for teaching me to listen to my conscience and provide nursing care with no support....i know what i did and continue to fight for is right and myself and my fellow LPN's that are doing the same will not stop......
While I agree with much of what you stated, I think that some of the comments are generalizing all RNs, and I don't see it that way. There are plenty that demoralize and take advantage of the LPNs, for sure, but this is not everyone. In addition, sometimes, those actions are done unknowingly by the newer RNs coming aboard by imitating the incumbant ones. At this stage of the game, witnessing current nursing education, I doubt if anyone really walks away knowing much with less clinical hours, or less proper placement for the clinicals (meaning that I have read on these forums that some people had to go to nursing homes rather than ICU because there were not enough hospitals available to allow for that valuable, necessary experience).
You made the right decision to move on to another facility, because it just would have gotten worse from there. Best of luck with your education and for furthering your career as an RN.
Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
This is a big problem here in CT where our LPN scope is similar to NY. I find a lot of semantics involved. I am continually trying to avoid stepping outside my scope while I'm working on my degree. Employers don't make it easy with policies like this. My advice: contact your board and ask this question then you can be totally sure. Sometimes Boards will contact the DON and tell them that they are violating the "delegation" part of their practice.
On the tangent started here: I also believe that nursing would get more respect as a profession if we worked on a basis more like other professionals with "clinical impressions" and "working diagnoses" rather than "nursing diagnosis". I find other professions are confused by how nurses work and therefore we don't get the credit we deserve. Yes, there are lousy nurses out there but that is true for all professions. Nursing programs do include a great deal of hard science as well as clinical experience. The fact remains that no matter how many disciplines are involved the RN is the person who is responsible for the patient's overall plan of care and its implementation.
I have to agree with you...it is very hard to tow the line with these policies, especially when there is, in fact, a nursing shortage. I had to contact the state myself to clarify some sticky situations and they were helpful. I am fortunate enough to work with empathetic RNs (so far), that honored my decision not to do certain things, but I can't guarentee that this would happen in other settings.
I just want to impart on one part of the BON. It is the teaching part which states Rn only. So my question is.
. I teach my patients something everyday whether is what the purpose, possible side effects or food drug interactions might be on each and every medication I give them. I also teach patient how to self cath, or teach their loved how to do catherizations. This is with full knowledge of the RN/s above me. We have what are called teaching notes in which I document what is taught.
I now have to question, am I suppose to not tell a patient anything about their medications, or about self care such as how to cath.. I am truly wondering. Not being a smart alleck about BON and what my Scope of Practice is versus reality. I am being honest, that is all and looking for thought on the subject.
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jbtampa
49 Posts
just one more thought........nurses would be well off to stop the nursing diagnoses crap right now. learn science. your peers all did.