Phasing out Unit Clerks???

ShimmaShimma0304 · Apr 29, 2012

But maybe they will quit paying us with money and start giving us a bag of rice... like they do in CHINA??? :0[

Vespertinas · Apr 30, 2012

Good god you're kidding!! Every secretary I've worked with is always busy up to his/her neck and they do SO much to help patient satisfaction! They have all been excellent at their jobs and I have been very grateful for their expertise.

By the way, this past week was Administrative Professionals Week. I hope some of you took the time to thank your secretaries. I know I did....but the sad thing is that it ended up making them notice how little management thought of them because they weren't otherwise acknowledged.

~PedsRN~, BSN, RN · Apr 30, 2012

With the move towards physician order entry......my assumption has been that administration will phase them out.

We are starting the physician order entry here soon, and our clerks are being "retrained" to take on new responsibilities. I'm interested to see how their job role will change. I love our secretaries! They really can make or break a night on the unit. They are the glue that keeps the pieces together some days!

tokmom, BSN, RN · Apr 30, 2012

We have physician order entry that started about a year ago. Our secretaries were worried they were to be phased out, but that has not happened, thankfully! They are busy with phones, lights, hunting down records from out of facility, etc.

I'm a charge nurse that does not take pt's. However, I do all the discharges and admit med recs, so I'm busy at the desk along side the secretary. When she goes to lunch, I'm trying to answer two phones, call lights and put out fires. God forbid we need to transfer a pt and I would have to do all the paperwork. I think I would jump off a cliff!

It truly boggles my mind that a hospital would let go their secretaries. I think the physicians needs to raise a big stink!

whichone'spink, BSN, RN · Apr 30, 2012

Today, I was low censused for the remainder of my shift. Why is it that they pressure the charge nurse to get rid of ancillary personnel when there aren't enough patients on the floor? Even 14 patients can create more than enough work. It sucks that I had to leave for the remainder of my 3-11 shift because that means the charge nurse has no one at the desk. It sucks for me as a secretary currently, and it's not going to get better when I'm finally a nurse. One day I will be a charge nurse hanging in the wind with no bloody secretary!

tokmom, BSN, RN · Apr 30, 2012

Today I was low censused for the remainder of my shift. Why is it that they pressure the charge nurse to get rid of ancillary personnel when there aren't enough patients on the floor? Even 14 patients can create more than enough work. It sucks that I had to leave for the remainder of my 3-11 shift because that means the charge nurse has no one at the desk. It sucks for me as a secretary currently, and it's not going to get better when I'm finally a nurse. One day I will be a charge nurse hanging in the wind with no bloody secretary![/quote']
We even cover for each other if one of us uses the bathroom, lol. She won't leave until I'm done with a discharge. The moment both of us left, you would know the place would explode with V tach on the monitor, phones ringing off the hook, vocera screaming at me and God knows what else! lol.

imintrouble, BSN, RN · Apr 30, 2012

LPNs are taking the place of unit clerks. They can enter med orders, answer call lights, and do nursing stuff in a pinch.

ShimmaShimma0304 · Apr 30, 2012

Not where I work... We have LPNs and RNs and we each have 6 patients apiece... It's every man for himself. The bad thing is that we are ALL getting burned out because it's almost impossible to help each other because we are ALL going crazy ALL day long! Our aides disappear when we need them so we even end up taking people out to their cars when they are discharged.

GitanoRN, BSN, MSN, RN · Apr 30, 2012

unit clerks? that's a luxury on some of our units, and administration is leaning towards facing them out all together in order to save :twocents: . therefore, the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the nurse...needless to say :no:

NoviceRN10 · Apr 30, 2012

The unit clerk I work with is useless. She is either yapping on her phone all night (or the unit phone), or she is sleeping (which means she often doesn't pass on call light requests or gets the room number wrong). If not those two options she is going off on a foul-mouthed rant about whatever has ****** her off that day. Apparently she is a valued employee and is allowed to do those things and get paid for it. That being said, I have no desire to answer call lights or the phone or try and figure out how to add patients to our unit when they show up, I have enough on my plate with my other duties. The hospital has tried phasing out clerks on a couple of units recently and I have not heard positive things about it.

lindarn · Apr 30, 2012

Why is is that, when the PTB decide that the budget needs to be cut, never consider cutting their own ancillary staff- THEIR secretaries, administrative assistants, etc, NONE of whom affects patient care??

Maybe they should have to answer their office phones, schedule their own appointments, handle all of the administrative duties that their secretaries do for them, all of which they get paid BIG BUCKS?

I must be in lah lah land to even consider this, I guess.

JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Somewhere in the PACNW

ShimmaShimma0304 · Apr 30, 2012

SO TRUE!!! You know how they talked us into getting rid of our unit clerk? By telling us that we would get another nurse... Instead of having 6 patients apiece, we would have 5. And then guess what? Most of the time we still have 6 apiece. That's quite a load without a unit clerk.

I really just wondered if this was the trend everywhere.

The fact is... Their patient satisfaction is NEVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR going to increase with the way things are right now. They are going to continue to have patients complain about the time it takes for call lights to be answered and "no one coming to help Mama to the bathroom in time before she crawled out of bed herself and fell," and people threatening the nurses with "going to Administration." And the nurses will always be disposable... all in the name of the Almighty Dollar.

It's sad...

But I do try to roll with it and let it not bother me... It just depends on if I'm PMS-ing or not that day. LOL Seriously... If the phone is ringing and I'm in the middle of something, I just flip the phone off *in my head* and walk right past it. I'm sorry... But I'm taking care of my patients first. That's why I went into nursing. ;0)