nursing shortage? how about equipment shortage?

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Ok, a bit of a rant/pet peeve, but....

IS there a facility in this country at which I can seek employment that does not require me wandering the halls for a good hour of my time searching for the one working (fill-in-the-blank: thermometer, blood pressure machine, wheelchair for discharge, etc....)

sheesh. talk about wasting time here folks! down here in florida it's reeeeally bad! my sister worked at an ER in sarasota where there was one thermometer for the entire ED.....that was not a small hospital...her section alone had twelve beds, and there were *several* sections. They all had to fight for the one thermometer, hiding it from each other, etc. My hospital literally did have about three wheelchairs in the entire facility....i've discharged patients up to an hour and a half after the time they were completely cleared to go because i had to go to several other floors to find one wheelchair....of course, facility policy says the patient can't just get up and walk downstairs....

sigh.

anyone work in a paradise with adequate equipment? :chuckle :banghead:

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Specializes in CMSRN.

I would not say our facility's equipment would be paradise but we have adequate enough that it only takes a few minutes to search for something that works.

I hope it gets better for you. It is so ineffective to work like that. Administration should realize too that "productivity" (poor word but appropriate for adm) is decreased under those conditions. I am surprised that they could not see that.

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Specializes in LTC and MED-SURG.
Ok, a bit of a rant/pet peeve, but....

IS there a facility in this country at which I can seek employment that does not require me wandering the halls for a good hour of my time searching for the one working (fill-in-the-blank: thermometer, blood pressure machine, wheelchair for discharge, etc....)

sheesh. talk about wasting time here folks! down here in florida it's reeeeally bad! my sister worked at an ER in sarasota where there was one thermometer for the entire ED.....that was not a small hospital...her section alone had twelve beds, and there were *several* sections. They all had to fight for the one thermometer, hiding it from each other, etc. My hospital literally did have about three wheelchairs in the entire facility....i've discharged patients up to an hour and a half after the time they were completely cleared to go because i had to go to several other floors to find one wheelchair....of course, facility policy says the patient can't just get up and walk downstairs....

sigh.

anyone work in a paradise with adequate equipment? :chuckle :banghead:

Where I work and have worked is not as bad, but ALMOST. I'm still trying to understand it.

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Specializes in Assisted Living, Med-Surg/CVA specialty.

Not as bad as 1 wheelchair for the entire hospital, but I have spend unknown amounts of time lookin for feeding tube pumps, IV pumps, PCAs, etc.

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Last place I work had one lift for 300 bed hospital. In a year and a half I never saw it once. Could you imagine working in a large ortho/rehab unit with no lift.

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Worked in Naples, Florida and they had more supplies there then ALL the hospitals combined that I ever worked at. Unfortunately that was the ONLY good thing about the place.

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My mother works at one of the best womens hospitals in the area (that is what everyone thinks). She often tells stories of needing to run to a sister hospital "up on the hill" for things...lactated ringers a while ago.

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Specializes in ICU.

We are always fighting over IV pumps and pillows. Our big frustrating is running out of supplies. Sunday nights are the worst. We'll always run out of lab tubes, dressing supplies, foleys, and tubing and have to go steal from other areas. Once, we ran out of normal saline. We didn't even have 100 cc bags left. And we are always running out of linens. Makes it hard to change a butt when you don't have any washcloths to do it with.

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Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.

Lack of equipment is something your going to find in ANY workplace not just hospitals.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

I find this an ongoing frustration. Between that and filling out the pain assessment form, fall assessment form, medication reconcilation form, SBAR communication tool form, anti-coagulation flowsheet, diabetic record in triplicate, signature sheet, and nursing careplan form, it's a miracle there's any time left for patient care!

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OMG, looking for supplies drives me completely crazy!! I could actually take a heavier pt load if I had everything I needed to do my job on the unit in a logical place. In fact, it would make total sense to at least keep things in the same place they were yesterday!! Any why, why, why, doesn't the person who used the last or second to last of something, let the charge nurse know, or call equipment or whatever?? If a machine doesn't work, report it, put a sign on it, don't just leave it in the hall so everyone can waste their time with it.

And the words I dread are, you'll have to go to such-and-such unit... such-and-such unit does not want to see us coming or tell us the combination to their supply room.

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Specializes in Mental Health, Surgical-Ortho.

wow I guess the hospital I work at is paradise!! We have an ivac in every room, a dynamap per every 6 patients (and a sphygnometer on the wall over every patient bed), the only thing I ever really have a problem with is finding a wheel chair. It has become somewhat of a game that the various floors play... oncology will steal one from ortho, ortho gets one from med-surg, med-surg gets one from welcome desk (it is very James Bond like in the attitude the nurses and PCAs take in it). We have resorted to locking one up in the nurse managers office.

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