New to Hospice, Not to Nursing, have many questions

[rlloyd227]

Ok, so I am in my second month of my job, the pay is great, but my manager sucks really bad, she won't help out by taking call, so this month I got dumped on for two weekends, plus two other nights a week and any other time another nurse doesn't want to deal with one of my patients they call me on my days and nights off. I never got real orientation because we were so short staffed that I was just thrown into my case load which is around 13. I did my very first death visit by myself( the very first week I started working there) without any help from her at all. I have had some really bad caregivers that required several social worker visits, but my boss would not even go out there, we even cornered her last Friday and she still wormed her way out of it. I have had to rely on one other nurse for answers and she has been a blessing, but for IDT meetings I was told to write my IDT just like another nurse does, which means nothing to me because it has never really been explained. My boss currently sits on her computer on facebook, calling other loan people to get a home loan, trying to fix her credit score and other crap just like it. The first admission I did she was suppose to go with me to show me how it's done, but amazingly enough she had to go home sick and never once helped me through the admission packet. I am a single mom of six and I need my job, but I am starting to hate my job because in my opinion she is worthless. I don't know what to do cuz I can't go up to her and say "You have really sucked at orienting me to this field." I was an LPN for 6 years before graduating with my RN, I have worked just about every field there is, and this by far has got to be my worst experience in being taught a new field to work in. I am so fed up!!!! HELP!!!!!

[Leda1st]

227, if it weren't for the fact that some of finer details didn't fit, I would wonder if you worked in my office. It seems to me, from talking to other nurses in my office with previous hospice experience (very covertly and being careful to whom I choose to talk), I have discovered that although Hospice is a very difficult and time consuming job, all Hospice agencies are not the same. Some (like the one where you work and where I work) will give you barely a week's orientation before giving you a caseload of 13 (I swear, same thing happened to me, and I had NO hospice experience), will give you the "Hospice is a calling" line to make you feel guilty if you don't let it consume your life (being a wife and mother is, to me, also a calling - and a higher one), and have supervisors who think it is okay for THEM to leave the office at 4:30 and never take call (but expect you to chart on weekends and days off and take call without any backup). The agency I work for seems to care more about increasing their census (and thus their revenue) than about anything else. They say a lot of great things in front of the right people, but it is crap. I am on a quest to find another Hospice that truly puts patient care first (and in order to ensure your patients are properly cared for, your nurses must be properly cared for). I am in a position where I can work PRN for some agencies and "feel things out" before going full time. Obviously, you are not. Perhaps you could find a full time job somewhere working the three 12's a week deal (to have a secure salary and benefits) and look into PRN at some other hospice agencies in your town until you get a feel for which ones are "good"? Or, at the very least, read around here and see if you can figure out what to look for that indicates a GOOD place to work. Hang in there - this IS a wonderful specialty in nursing! A "good" agency is out there for you! :hug:

[rlloyd227]

My gosh I think we are twins....lol. This is so similar it's scary. I will take your advice and keep looking for an agency that does care about it's staff as well as their patients. thank you so much.

[tewdles, RN]

You are absolutely correct that your manager sucks at her job. There is no room in hospice to work for poor managers...the combination is lethal and any good nurse (or MSW, or chaplain, etc) will have the life and enthusiasm sucked right out of them when they repeatedly experience death, grief, loss, and then must tolerate an uncaring and unskilled leader.

Look for a new hospice starting now. Begin to develop the questions you will ask the new managers of the new hospices when you interview. Good luck.

[Hospicetex]

I really thought you were referring to my present boss. I swear you are my work partner! I have finally found a new job at another hospice. I am so hopeful that it is the professional place that places emphasis on patient care and those that care for the patient. They actually have real benefits, insurance and some perks for the employees..and if it is more like where I am presently I will move on.

As others have said we are all valued human beings with lives, lives to lead that are not job related.

I love hospice nursing but I don't love working 24/7 and not being appreciated, I am pair of hands with a license at my current place of employment and that is why I am leaving. I have no other value to them.

[AtlantaRN, RN]

It sounds like you work for the last for profit hospice I worked for. Boss would "say" she was out marketing---she would call the office line and it would plainly show that she was calling from her vacation home in North Carolina. She was never at the office on mondays and fridays-saying she was marketing LOL. she would NEVER back me up. I remember having 2 patients that were actively dying, I put 320 miles on my car in 16 hours, driving back and forth between the two patients that were at opposite corners of the area we covered................when I called her on it-she got MAD AT ME!!!!

I would look for another job, and when you have moved to the other job, I would write a detailed letter to corporate. Im sure if she is using a networked computer, it will show how many hours she spends on facebook, and NOT backing you up. My heart goes out to you. I endured the last place i worked for 2 years, corporate FINALLY came in about 6 months after I left and canned her lazy butt......