Managing screens and work

malamud69, BSN, RN · Sep 18, 2017

Up at 430 a.m.

stickybun · Sep 18, 2017

Up at 430 a.m.

I'm guessing to start your day and check in asap. Still, if you can't even donate until 7:30 or 8 and the lab closes at say 5p, how do you get there to provide a sample if you're working that day?

catsmeow1972, BSN, RN · Sep 18, 2017

I've always done the check in at 4am. I take it as a personal challenge to have no check in later than 402. Don't ask, I'm just like that. Set the alarm, wake up, hit the **** website, either roll over and go back to sleep for a little while or cuss a little and get up. Either way, the LabCorp in both places I lived did not open until 630 or 700 respectively. Both were the same times i had to be at work. The first was 8 hour shifts but i did not trust that nasty place to let me off in time to go. The second had no problem with me skating in a few minutes late and were in fact very gracious about it. I think i had a bigger issue about it than they did. You gotta figure, they hired you knowing it was something that was going to come up so there *should not* be a problem with it.

Big Blondie, ASN, BSN, MSN, APRN · Sep 18, 2017

Go on lunch hour

stickybun · Sep 18, 2017

Go on lunch hour

That was my thought. The only experience in nursing I have is working in a hospital. No way would that fly where I have previously worked.

Recovering_RN · Sep 19, 2017

When you interview for a job after your monitoring program allows you to return to work, you will have to disclose to the employer that you're in monitoring and that one of the restrictions is that you may get called to test on a work day and they will need to give you time to do that. So most people do it during their lunch time. My lunch times at the hospital (prior to monitoring) was either nonexistent or 30 minutes max, so getting out to a lab, waiting to be seen, giving the sample and then getting back would be way more than 30 minutes. So you'd have to have someone cover your patients for your "lunch" with the full understanding that it will be more like an hour. Which also means your coworkers who cover you for lunch will probably have to be told you're in monitoring.

For me, I did home health at first so I just went to the lab in between patient visits. Now, I work night shift so I just go after I get off work before I go home to sleep.

It's possible that you'll have to test on a weekend, but much less likely, so working a lot of weekends will help avoid having to leave work to test.

BigRed23 · Sep 19, 2017

Hi stickybun,

Like you, this was one of my main concerns when getting close to returning to work. Before monitoring, I also had only worked in a hospital, where lunch breaks were non-existent and coming in late wouldn't fly for any reason. So I didn't really believe that I could find a job where that would be okay. To avoid the worry and hassle, I found a job working only night shift. Also, I know someone who just started back to work, and she will be working daylight. I guess where we live there is testing place that stays open until midnight; however it is like 60miles away. So ask around, ask your case manager or your Nurses group if you have one- see if there is a testing place anywhere that stays open late, ask what their recommendations are...or look for night shift jobs :)

stickybun · Sep 19, 2017

For some crazy reason I had it in my head that we weren't allowed to work nights but I looked back at the agreement and it isn't listed as a no-no. So that could be the answer for me.

SpankedInPittsburgh, DNP, RN · Sep 19, 2017

I'm pretty lucky in that regard. We have a place pretty close that's always open. I'm with most other folks. I check early and pee early

Recovering_RN · Sep 21, 2017

I think some programs do restrict nights, for awhile at least. Maybe if you looked through your own paperwork and it's not in there, the reason you thought you couldn't work nights is just that you read someone else here on allnurses that did have that restriction. Keep in mind that one of the restrictions at least in my program is that you need to have a supervisor available at all times, and on nights you may or may not have that. Where I work I am the only nurse at night, no management, so the docs were approved by my case manager to be my "supervisor".

malamud69, BSN, RN · Sep 21, 2017

The whole same-day check-in thing is absurd... Many a nights I'm awake at midnight as well checking in... Why we can't check in say the evening before and then plan head... Well wouldn't that be just too logical. The way these tests work and how precise and accurate and how much they test for its complete idiocy to think they wouldn't detect something within a greater than a 24-hour period...but alas we are dealing with the absurd.