12 patients in a day on the floors

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Specializes in Med/Surg; Psych; Tele.

Hi. Just need to vent here - will try to be short. I am just still reeling from the last shift I worked. So I get to work at 7a and was told not to clock in here (med-surg) because I was being pulled to our ortho floor. OK. So, I get to that floor and literally ran my @$$ off with 6 patients (and mind you have never been on that floor before) - never had a break or even got lunch (and of course did not eat BF). Then, I am told that I will need to go back to my home floor (med-surg) to finish up the 3-7p shift. Well, both of these floors were so short that I did not even make it back to my floor until 1630-45 (charge nurse not available to take report on my patients until then) only to find that it had been an absolute nightmare (very short of RNs and CNAs) from 7-3. So it is after 1700 by the time I get report on my additional new 6 patients that I will need to do assessments, pass meds, troubleshoot problems, etc. for and then be expected to be done by 1900.

I guess my problem is that if both floors were so short, why did they not just let me stay on my home floor to at least allow me to have some of the same patients (does make it easier)? We do computer charting which does take longer than paper charting, but at least this has a copy function for the post 1500 assessments (I still do the re-assessments, but the charting does not take nearly as long). And again, at least being familiar with the patients you had that morning also helps a great deal. Am I just being whiney? I'm thinking not, as interfacing with 12 different patients in floor nursing is just plain exhausting. I guess I am still feeling a little angry for the lack of concern for me (or whoever the unfortunate nurse would have been to have gotten pulled around that day).

Any regular 12 hour staff experience this type of pulling around in your hospital? Just curious. Thanks for listening (reading).

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Specializes in med/surg.

Poor thing - sounds like a nightmare!! Not good at all, hope you recover soon!

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Specializes in OB, NP, Nurse Educator.

When I staffed we often had this problem until our floor went autonomous. We fussed, fumed, and cursed about this until the DON told us to come up with a solution. Our solution was that our floor became autonomous. If we had too many people scheduled to work, we went home - did not float. If we were short staffed people from our floor were called in to work - nobody floated to our floor from another area. It worked well and satisfaction went up on our unit tremendously. Sorry you had such a cruddy day.

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Specializes in Med/Surg; Psych; Tele.

Thank you guys for your empathy! It's nice to know that someone feels my pain.

It's not that I even mind floating *every now and then* (even though we supposedly have a dedicated float pool), but again I just don't want to have to go somewhere else at 1500. Way too much stimulation!

It was honestly just one of those days that I kept thinking over and over..."Life's too short for this much stress...gonna have to leave this place and not come back".

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.
Hi. Just need to vent here - will try to be short. I am just still reeling from the last shift I worked. So I get to work at 7a and was told not to clock in here (med-surg) because I was being pulled to our ortho floor. OK. So, I get to that floor and literally ran my @$$ off with 6 patients (and mind you have never been on that floor before) - never had a break or even got lunch (and of course did not eat BF). Then, I am told that I will need to go back to my home floor (med-surg) to finish up the 3-7p shift. Well, both of these floors were so short that I did not even make it back to my floor until 1630-45 (charge nurse not available to take report on my patients until then) only to find that it had been an absolute nightmare (very short of RNs and CNAs) from 7-3. So it is after 1700 by the time I get report on my additional new 6 patients that I will need to do assessments, pass meds, troubleshoot problems, etc. for and then be expected to be done by 1900.

I guess my problem is that if both floors were so short, why did they not just let me stay on my home floor to at least allow me to have some of the same patients (does make it easier)? We do computer charting which does take longer than paper charting, but at least this has a copy function for the post 1500 assessments (I still do the re-assessments, but the charting does not take nearly as long). And again, at least being familiar with the patients you had that morning also helps a great deal. Am I just being whiney? I'm thinking not, as interfacing with 12 different patients in floor nursing is just plain exhausting. I guess I am still feeling a little angry for the lack of concern for me (or whoever the unfortunate nurse would have been to have gotten pulled around that day).

Any regular 12 hour staff experience this type of pulling around in your hospital? Just curious. Thanks for listening (reading).

No you are not being whiney. It is completely unreasonable to expect you to be pulled at the end of an eight-hour shift to go start somewhere else at 3p. When I worked the bedside, I got pulled like that once. Then they started making it a regular expectation of the perdiem staff. After that one time, I refused to do it again. Then the rest of the per diem staff started refusing. I told them if they didn't need me to work on my original floor for the entire 12 hours then I would go home. As a per diem I understood that I was first to float but there was no way I was going to cover the whole freakin hospital over the course of a 12 hour shift. In the meantime, they save a bundle of money because they don't have to get other nurses to come in. REFUSE to do it. I'm gettin ticked off just remembering it.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

In my last hospital job, EVERY DAY was like that for me.........and I only worked 8 hour shifts, so I had to do 12 hours worth of work!! It was not at all unusual to be pulled to three different units in those 8 hours, do admissions in every one of them, and have as many as 15 different patients........well, after a couple years of that I had to go.:uhoh3: The stress almost killed me. I don't recommend ANYONE putting up with that for more than the occasional shift.:madface:

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I think you should complain to your manager or whoever. Let us know what kind of a response you get.

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Specializes in Med/Surg; Psych; Tele.
No you are not being whiney. It is completely unreasonable to expect you to be pulled at the end of an eight-hour shift to go start somewhere else at 3p. When I worked the bedside, I got pulled like that once. Then they started making it a regular expectation of the perdiem staff. After that one time, I refused to do it again. Then the rest of the per diem staff started refusing. I told them if they didn't need me to work on my original floor for the entire 12 hours then I would go home. As a per diem I understood that I was first to float but there was no way I was going to cover the whole freakin hospital over the course of a 12 hour shift. In the meantime, they save a bundle of money because they don't have to get other nurses to come in. REFUSE to do it.

I'm gettin ticked off just remembering it.

--> HA HA! You're making me laugh Sharon! It is crap though. I have already thought the same thing...that I am just going to refuse. "Oh, I need to X floor? That's fine, but I will be there for the entire 12 or I will be going home at 1500." It is a little scarey for me though, as I have never refused an assignment or anything. I have a little over a year of hospital experience and guess I just still have that newbie way 'o thinking.

Thank you for the support!

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I feel you're pain, stress and aggravation.

I hate when that happens. The last time I floated, I got pulled at 3pm after working 8 hours on my floor. I wasn't ready to go and didn't get there until 4pm, of course the nurse didn't wait on me.

The one's who suffer are not only us as nurses, but the patients.

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Specializes in Med/Surg; Psych; Tele.
In my last hospital job, EVERY DAY was like that for me.........and I only worked 8 hour shifts, so I had to do 12 hours worth of work!! It was not at all unusual to be pulled to three different units in those 8 hours, do admissions in every one of them, and have as many as 15 different patients........well, after a couple years of that I had to go.:uhoh3: The stress almost killed me. I don't recommend ANYONE putting up with that for more than the occasional shift.:madface:

That is absolute insanity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't even phathom it! If I have to do another day like the other day again within the next month, I'm done there!

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Specializes in cardiac med-surg.

you are incredibly [sp?] tough to manage that and stay sane

how awful and upsetting

get some self-preservation policies and stick to them

and of course, good luck

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Specializes in Med/Surg; Psych; Tele.

The one's who suffer are not only us as nurses, but the patients.

And that's what I may hate the most! These poor patients get to have a nurse whose nearly psychotic near the end of the day just trying to play catch up. On the one hand, you're angry because of all the stress and on the other, you're feeling guilty because you're not multiply yourself to meet everyone's needs as quickly as you'd like. GRRRRR!

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