I work on a outpatient ambulatory Infusion center. We do outpatients antibiotics, blood transfusions, wound care, PICC lines, small surgeries, bone marrow biopsies and post op surgicals. sometimes pre-ops on the weekend. Due to management not being upfront with us we recently lost 3 nurses leaving me alone many nights. We get anywhere from 8 to 18 patients on nights. Since we have lost the nurses I have been refusing to do the blood transfusions or post ops on the nights I work alone. We are fairly isolated from the main part of the hospital so if something goes wrong I am a long way from getting help. Also of course I can never leave to get the blood, much less silly things like breaks. We have recently been told we don't need 2 nurses to do transfusions, next will be the surgicals I am sure. Granted it only takes one nurse to do the transfusion, but how can it be safe to be the only nurse or staff member on the floor? I have been a nurse for 36 + years, worked in most departments, have my ACLS and am very experienced. I think because of my years of experience I know how rapidly things can go south and want to know if there are any standards of care out there that can protect me from this situation. They run the entire hospital on skeletal staffing these days but I have only 4 more years to go and really don't want to run the risk of getting fired or losing my license at this late date.
