Mds Job

froglady · Mar 15, 2003

If you want a life, don't take the MDS position, it interferes with your life in more ways than one. I was on the floor more than in the office and got behind because all the nurses would call in one time or the other and I ended up on the floor.

Fran-RN · Apr 24, 2003

I have been MDS coord at 2 different facilities and am applying for that position at my current employer. I really like the job if they will let me do it and not expect 20 other duties. My last job I had 4 job titles with all the duties and responsibilities to go along with them. The current MDS coord ( where I am applying), never is pulled to the floor, no overtime, no extra duties. well, we'll see.

I think the MDS is a great tool and I have seen results from the assessment, but most people do look at it as more busy work. LTC ,the job we all love to hate.

Disablednurse · Apr 24, 2003

ChainedChaosRN you are to be applauded for not pulling your MDS nurses to the floor. You are one in a million that does not expect your MDS nurse to do 15 other jobs in addition to the MDS. I have held that title and as the other nurses have said, you get pulled to do every job except that one.

ChainedChaosRN · Apr 25, 2003

Thank you DisabledNurse, it probably comes from having a strong back ground in MDS myself. I'm a firm believer that the MDS nurses are the ones that drive and coordinate the residents care. They are the ones that know the residents history, current medical status and the chart from cover to cover because they are the very first ones putting the whole picture together and relaying it to us-the team to move that patient forward.

They are much to valuable to the patient and the facility to be charge nurse for a day on a unit. I try to keep quite a few nurses on as a contingent basis for emergencies.

I just love my team, if we can't get a PRN nurse in...my nurse managers will just pull together and cover a unit, and you never see them any happier than when they have a chance to do hours of good old patient care. They are an amazing bunch and if it wasn't for them I'm not sure I would stay there. That's why I keep telling everyone...keep looking, there are diamonds amidst the rhinestones.

Dawn

ChainedChaosRN · Apr 25, 2003

Thank you DisabledNurse, it probably comes from having a strong back ground in MDS myself. I'm a firm believer that the MDS nurses are the ones that drive and coordinate the residents care. They are the ones that know the residents history, current medical status and the chart from cover to cover because they are the very first ones putting the whole picture together and relaying it to us-the team to move that patient forward.

They are much to valuable to the patient and the facility to be charge nurse for a day on a unit. I try to keep quite a few nurses on as a contingent basis for emergencies.

I just love my team, if we can't get a PRN nurse in...my nurse managers will just pull together and cover a unit, and you never see them any happier than when they have a chance to do hours of good old patient care. They are an amazing bunch and if it wasn't for them I'm not sure I would stay there. That's why I keep telling everyone...keep looking, there are diamonds amidst the rhinestones.

Dawn

Disablednurse · Apr 25, 2003

ChainedChoasRN, what I would not give to have been able to have worked for you during my nursing career. I have worked for many people who claimed they knew that MDSs were important, but they never showed how important it was when they called me away from them day after day, when I was the only nurse doing them.

Disablednurse · Apr 25, 2003

ChainedChoasRN, what I would not give to have been able to have worked for you during my nursing career. I have worked for many people who claimed they knew that MDSs were important, but they never showed how important it was when they called me away from them day after day, when I was the only nurse doing them.

CapeCodMermaid, RN · Jun 5, 2003

I work in a 142 bed LTC...3 units. We have a "case manager" who does all the Medicare MDS's. She works 40 hours and NEVER gets pulled. She is treated like a queen by administration. The nurses on the floor are supposed to be able to care for the patients AND do MDS's on the long term and Managed Care patients. I am the day supervisor and I end up doing most of the Managed Care MDS's and long term ones for the nurses on the subacute/rehab unit. It just takes being focused and well organized to get the MDS's, triggers and Raps done...and then our MDS nurse doesn't write the care plans. She bases her triggers and raps on the paper and not the patient. Sorry for babbling, but I just spent the last 2 days doing MDS's for month end close, because our "wonderful" MDS person called out again.

renerian, BSN, RN · Jun 5, 2003

I would work at McDonalds rather than go back to long term care. Had nothing to do with the residents. Had everything to do with 1 nurse caring for 25 to 50 people and not being able to realistically do it.

I also did home health, and the OASIS, like the MDS. Takes skills and I think more than one year of nursing is necesary. Just JMHO though.....

renerian

MICKEY73 · Jun 16, 2003

I was a MDS Coordinator for a period of 4 years. Prior to being an MDS Coordinator I was a charge nurse for 2 years. I enjoyed being an MDS Coordinator but I longed for the resident interaction that I was not a part of... when families write notes thanking the nursing staff, the MDS Coordinator is not mentioned. I often felt like I was in a world of my own and no one understood how difficult completing the taks of the MDS Coordinator was on a daily basis.

MDS COORD · Jun 18, 2003

Hello Chainedchaos RN,

I'm new to these forums, but I was just reading one of your posts on MDS dated 2-4-03, and I was wondering if you could give me some idea of what type of flowsheets your CNAs use to document on that goes along with MDS language. I'm an MDS coordinator and we use what our DON has termed FOCUS CHARTING (flowsheets completed by the LPN). Believe me, this is a disaster because the documentation is extremely inaccurate on these forms. Do you have any ideas about what I could use for the CNAs to document on? I usually interview what staff I can (I'm not there for all three shifts) and I document the discrepincies in my RAPS when I have to do RAPS, but all assessments don't require RAPS. This job is frustrating!!!!!!

catlady, BSN, RN · Jun 19, 2003

I'm not the person you asked, but I am the cliinical reimbursement coordinator at my facility (read: Medicare queen), so I have to scrutinize the MDS very closely. Our CNA flowsheets are coded for each ADL to match the MDS. Each ADL has two boxes for coding the self-performance and the support provided, using the same numbers and description as on the MDS. If they code it incorrectly, they are supposed to fill out a correction sheet that goes with the flowsheet.

The biggest problem is getting the CNAs t understand how to code correctly, and not to copy from the previous day/shift. It's an ongoing educational nightmare.