I am finishing up my fourth week at a SNF, as a medication nurse (LPN.)
I am a very ethical, diligent worker. I always follow through with anything that I know needs to be done, and get everything done, and could be said to be an over-achiever in that way.
My problem is that I am realizing, much to my dismay, that the other two shifts - swing and graveyard - nurses aren't pulling their weight around my unit.
Here are some examples:
Leaving me, the dayshift nurse with the heavy load, without supplies. So I order a boatload of supplies, and they come in the next shift - but nobody puts them away. Instead, they take from the pile of supplies, and leave the bulk there for me to put away when I come on shift. This goes on day after day. Incredibly, I rarely have essential items, such as glucose test strips and lancets and am constantly ordering them. Yesterday I wasted two trips from a patients room, because the first time I noticed the glucose test strip container was empty, and the second time, I saw that the spent lancets were in a cup - not in a sharps container - where only news ones were supposed to be. I had to go back to the locked med room twice to re-stock.
Medications are signed off on, and there is no way these were given. This has happened twice, with two other nurses, in the past week. As in, a new patient comes in and his/her medication isn't in yet - but other shifts sign off on their meds, saying they gave them. I hunt and hunt all over, and do not find their meds. I call the pharmacy, and am told the items are on backorder, and have not been delivered. This makes me look like a loser, because previous shifts are signing that they gave all these meds, that do not exist. I have to go in and chart and follow up, and check orders, and re-fax them, and call the pharmacy - only to find out that the medication couldn't have been given by previous shifts. Then I look like a rat. Get it? This keeps happening.
And to add to the last part - last night a new medication nurse on the second shift came on and took the med cart out on the floor...(I was charting at the desk) and went to several patient rooms, passing meds. Opening the cart, getting items- pouring water - going into the rooms - for a full 30 minutes. The problem? She had left the MARS at the desk. This is a SNF, and orders change daily. You can't do this from memory.
The consequence of these things is that I am always running to get my things done. I am the busy, dayshift nurse. And at the end of the day, I am so stressed out, I can't stop thinking about work, and can't sleep at night.
There are other examples of things going on, but these are the biggest and worst.
Is this common behavior amongst individuals I thought were professionals, or just bad luck for me to be working with slouches?
I can relate to that ! How about a nurse that comes on and completely rearranges your med cart, that you have 5 days a week ? I came on to do med pass this morning, and had a fit. Meds were not separated, just crammed together (her reasoning was "so the nurses wont have to bend") O PLLEEEEZE..Now I have to separate my inhalers from eyedrops, etc, before the pharmacy audit which could come this Tuesday or next. This is not a rookie nurse either. I am the senior citizen (50) of the unit, have been LPN for almost a year, these are nurses that have been in the profession a while. This was horrible ! I told her that if we were audited today, we would be cited for all of the spiriva capsules dumped in the same section with the nitro paste..
I work noc shift and I find that the other shifts leave a great deal to be done as well. But, like numerous others have said: things need written up. You can start c med errors, then work on evening shift for not following up c pharmacy. Our facility works on the notion that it is a 24 hr day, not just 8hrs.
When I worked nights I absolutely hated that the day shift RNs expected everything to be all nice for them, then when I came in I was to accept that they left many unfinished things for me...
I am sick of the days vs. nights crap. Nursing is a 24 hour a day job. If something doesn't get done on your shift, you need to pass it on to the next shift and pray it gets done.
Sorry, just came from a facility where night shift nurses were treated like dirt and called lazy all the time, by staff RNs and management.
I hear ya. It's getting UA's that gets under my skin. The evening shift at our facility has 4 LPN's they pass meds for their own hall and they think they have sooooooo much to do, so they leave me, the only noc nurse 4 UA's to get. And, to start 2 IV's. It's rediculous. My DON tells me to stop whining!!!!! It doesn't do any good to complain.
I was told by a graveyard shift nurse, that I should come on nights, because "there are about 6 hours with nothing to do."
That's ridiculous, because first : they make $2 more an hour than I do, and can do the same clerical stuff I end up doing, like making copies of forms and fixing files that are messed up, and they can order supplies the same as I do.
The fax machine works 24 hours a day, too. And during those six hours of nothing to do, he could switch the med cart around with dayshift meds, no?
Because I do not have 6 seconds of nothing nothing during my day-shift, and I still try to have everything ready for the next shift. It's called common courtesy.
Literally from the second I walk in the door to the second I clock out at the end of my shift, I am running.
I like being busy, but not running around like a chicken with my head cut off.
Specializes in Nursing Home ,Dementia Care,Neurology..
We do a lot of admin work on nights.We also stock up and clean drug trolleys,make up care plans for incoming residents,do drug auditing and ordering.There's always something to do if you look for it!!
..........(I should, of course, be charting instead.......with all that free time I have after pushing 300 pills and everything.) I swear....we had another impromtu meeting today about charting and how the poor owner, (who owns the local hospital and 4 LTC centers, ) is losing money by having so much help.
Right, so I guess he's in it for the charitable aspect.
.........
He's probably worried that he won't be able to keep up with his Rolex watch payments and Mercedes car payments.
This is the reason I left LTC. It seemed to me that all of the facilities I worked at were all the same.
This is sad to hear.
My life has changed so much since I took this job. My husband took a swing shift so that our daughter won't be home all day long in the summer, by herself (she's 11,) and that means we (my husband and I) never see each other. I leave for work at 6:20 A.M, and get home at 4 pm, he leaves for work at 1 pm and gets home at 1 am. (He works tens - and is 40 miles from work.)
Everyday I wonder if it's worth it for the few extra bucks I am getting paid.
Yesterday I was very busy all morning, and then we had a death. Too bad, because we also had 3 more admits to deal with!
So who even knows what today will be like. I was busy before the 3 admits - but until we are full (28 bodies) on our hall, we take patients. I am the one and only medication nurse on that hall - whether there are 18 patients or 28. If I'm busy with 18, how can I get done at all with 28?
(This is SNF, and the orders change everday. The patients, mostly, are in PT or speech during the day, and many times I have to go look for them. Every patient takes 8-20 medications at 9 am, and most include eye drops, inhalers, etc. And, many of the patients have dysphagia, and require meds to be crushed, and take time swallowing them.)
Specializes in Did the job hop, now in MS. Not Bad!!!!!.
This is the reason I left LTC. It seemed to me that all of the facilities I worked at were all the same.
Oh it's not just LTC. This is universal. Night shift c/o days leaving them the work load b/c they think nights just sits around while the pts sleep. NOT! And day shift c/o nights not doing anything, when so many admits come in the middle of the night, but it can leave a huge mess for days to clean up . It's a vicious cycle.
My facility is not too bad, but then again I don't have anything to compare to. I have worked all 3 shifts and know what each entails. Each shift has it's merits as well as it's drawbacks. However, there usually seems to be the one person on each shift who is overly concerned with what the other shifts are NOT doing, and they perpetuate the strife between shifts. I personally don't have time or wish to put in the effort to concern myself with what everyone else is/isn't doing, unless it directly affects me. More often than not, folks will get away with being lazy because they've been allowed to for some time. If they are "checked" on their laziness, they are made aware that "we know" what they've been up to, and will hopefully stop. It is a common courtesy to re-order when something runs out, as well as re-stocking the cart by the end of shift. I would not hesitate to bring it to their attention that hey, the cart looks like it needs to be stocked, do you mind doing that before you leave? Who cares if they get mad? You're the one shouldering all of the grief that comes with their laziness, and you have to take measures where you can to take care of yourself. I was taught in nursing school that nursing is cut-throat, and you have to learn to hold your own. I had to get over the "I just want to get along with everybody" mentality I brought to nursing, which translated into "I'll just be a doormat and not create any waves." I was MISERABLE in nursing until I learned to stand for myself and confront (professionally, of course!) those that were causing me grief. I now confront as soon as I see something wrong, and I don't have the anxiety I used to. It's still hard, though. My first instinct is to harbor resentments quietly until I'm miserable again, but always feel better after I address whatever issue is bugging me. As far as others passing meds that aren't there, I usually just circle the med and chart in the MAR, "unable to locate med" and note the drug and time of admin. That way, I'm covering myself without "ratting" on anyone. If someone else wants to hang themselves, fine by me. But I'm not going down with them.
At the last hospital I worked in, there was a lot of the days vs. nights crap. Now I work at another hospital in the ICU and there is no days vs. nights. They realize that nursing is a 24 hour a day job and sometimes things can't be finished in 12 hours.
My DON tells me to stop whining!!!!! It doesn't do any good to complain.
Skeetersmom119
35 Posts
I can relate to that ! How about a nurse that comes on and completely rearranges your med cart, that you have 5 days a week ? I came on to do med pass this morning, and had a fit. Meds were not separated, just crammed together (her reasoning was "so the nurses wont have to bend") O PLLEEEEZE..Now I have to separate my inhalers from eyedrops, etc, before the pharmacy audit which could come this Tuesday or next. This is not a rookie nurse either.
I am the senior citizen (50) of the unit, have been LPN for almost a year, these are nurses that have been in the profession a while. 
This was horrible ! I told her that if we were audited today, we would be cited for all of the spiriva capsules dumped in the same section with the nitro paste..