Please Help Me!! 50 pts med pass [New grad]

Published

I am brand new to nursing I just received my license last friday. I landed a job right out of school and I thought great how lucky for me. I worked there as an aide until I passed the nclex and although its not a top of the line facility the staff seemed to care for the residents so I thought great.

Now that I'm on as a nurse they spring a 50 resident med pass on me.:eek: I gotta be honest that scares me. I don't really feel like I can safely do a 50 person med pass right now. I'm slow cause well I'm new and I don't know all the people yet and this is a behavioral unit so some of them can't tell me who they even are. I feel trapped because when I asked about nurse to patient ratio I was told at the most 1:28. The most meds I've passed at one time was to about 15 residents while in school, and now they place me on the behavioral unit and tell me to do a 9pm med pass to all these people. What should I do I desperately need help.

The LTC i work for is for kids and there are an average of 56-50 kids on each wing (there are 2 wings) Each wing has 3 nurses and 3 sections ... that averages 20 or so per nurse...and it still takes us the 2 hours (sometimes more if you run into a problem) to do our med passes. 95% are total care and g/t and vents. There is no way on God's green earth I would do all 50 kids on that wing myself. I would be dialing the 1-800 number to my state board immediately and then I would clock out and go home. (Before taking the cart or report first of course) RUN LIKE THE WIND GIRL...AND QUICK

Up Vote Up Vote ×

:roll I took you guys advice and I ran right out of there. I went job hunting today and landed myself another job at a better facility. And the icing on the cake, I'll be making more money. :chuckle I'm very happy today!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTAC.
:roll i took you guys advice and i ran right out of there. i went job hunting today and landed myself another job at a better facility. and the icing on the cake, i'll be making more money. :chuckle i'm very happy today!!!

congrats!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Well I spoke with the DON today. I feel like she pretty much blew me off. She really didn't look to happy to see me and when I told her how I felt asked if the nurse I was doing orientation with felt it was too much for me. I told her no, the nurse I've been following said that she thought I'd be ok once I got a routine down. I told her that I personally feel that this is too much for me. She said that she would see what she could do but that she couldn't make any promises. So have I just basically been blown off?

I agree with everyone here about the situation you are going threw right now and If I was you wish I wish I was I would have blow that job off just as the DON blew you off...Honey believe me R.N Job come dime from a dozen it not worth it give it up it not worth lossing you license after all of the the hard work you put into getting it...It's just not worth it let gooooo and move on and get another job where the facility and the DON will appriciate you as a human being and not just as a RN...Runnnnnnnnnnnnnnn and ruuuuuuuuunnnnnnn as fast as you can...:chuckle :chuckle :chuckle :chuckle

Up Vote Up Vote ×
:roll I took you guys advice and I ran right out of there. I went job hunting today and landed myself another job at a better facility. And the icing on the cake, I'll be making more money. :chuckle I'm very happy today!!!

Congradulationssssssssssssssssssss haraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa she did

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Glad to hear it...congrats..

Up Vote Up Vote ×

the problem here is that they know what is involved in this type of job but they make a newbie feel like it is their fault that everyone else 'has no problem at all'

this is too much with an experienced nurse new to facility

a problem we have at our facility is that they get the most incompetent nurse to train the newbies

Up Vote Up Vote ×

If nothing else I have learned from this experience. I asked so many questions during my interview you would have thought I was the one conducting the interview. I just wanted to be clear about EVERYTHING. I have a good feeling about this place as I have a couple of people I graduated with already working there and they have told me good things. I'll keep you posted about it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

This sounds like a nursing home. It is not totally out of line to have to pass meds to 50 patients. I've worked nursing homes off and on over the years. Once you learn the patients, you learn how to get all the meds passed. There are tricks to it. You pass as many meds as you can while the patients are grouped together in the dining room, for instance. Giving medications from the cart at the nursing station as the aides wheel the patients by on their way to places in the morning is another way. We scheduled meds for the patients with tube feedings at times other than the other patients because of the time involved in crushing and getting the meds down their tubes. It also helps save time when you get to know (memorize) what medications each patient gets, what they look like and just where they are in the med cart. Another way to stay in compliance is to change some of the times on medication administration, but I wouldn't recommend doing that until you get to know the patient's really well. Believe it or not, it is doable. It will take you about a month or so to get acclimated to this and start to feel like you might know what you are doing.

No matter what nursing home you go to, you are going to find a very similar situation. That is just the nature of this beast. So, just keep plugging along. Always think about ways to make your med passes more efficient and faster. Don't expect that you will be 100% "speedy nurse" for a few months though. I worked in several fine nursing homes in the Dayton area and the number of patients I had to be responsible and pass meds to and do treatments for was the same. And, these were very good homes. You might find it less stressful to work on the 3-11 or 11-7 shift where the med passes are not as intensive as they are on the day shift.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
This sounds like a nursing home. It is not totally out of line to have to pass meds to 50 patients. I've worked nursing homes off and on over the years. Once you learn the patients, you learn how to get all the meds passed. There are tricks to it.

Daytonite please know that I'm not knocking you in anyway. I think it's awesome that you could pass meds so efficiently on so many patients!

I think it's totally sad that LTC facility charge so much to the patients and put such a burden on their employees. I have worked LTC in the past being responsible for 30 pts on the day shift. The aides are woefully undereducated and woefully understaffed. The nurses are overworked and underpaid. The bottom line is money, money, money! They endanger the lives of our precious elders. I was so busy passing meds that I didn't have time to pay attention to their skin conditions, lung sounds, outputs, turning schedules. I tried and tried to educate the aides about turning, even put up chart above the head of every bed bound patient. Patient faces this way at 0800 and this way at 1000 etc....did it have any impact at all, hell no. I talked till I was blue in the face about intake and output, in one ear, out the other. The day I ordered a big bottle of generic skin creme for $2.99 from the pharmacy and set about getting the aides to lotion the diabetics legs and was asked by the administration to pay the $2.99 I walked out. You could pull any single patients socks down and get hit with so much dry skin you would think it was snowing. Sorry didn't mean to hijack the thread, this subject just irks my very soul. I would rather be dead than end up in a LTC facility. Truely! My family would miss me (I hope) but I'd be in a far better place. If I'm ever in one I'm going on a hunger strike and will be a DNR, no tubes no nothing.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Good luck and I hope you run out that door. They simply hoped you'd be a naive, quiet "sucker" because of your being new. They want what they want, because it saves them money, and they WILL make you feel like something is wrong with you for not being willing to do it. Nothing is wrong with you- that's a facility that is waiting for a med error, assuming that they haven't had several already!!!!!!! (And I'm betting that other safety hazards exist at that facility, all over the place!)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in aged -adolescent.

Hi Deanna RN

I hope you really enjoy it and do well and to the new grad who originally posted. It is so scary. Like you I am a new grad, (last July) but have been nursing my husband who has MND. He enters an aged care facility on Tuersday and I am hoping to get into a grad program at Rockhampton (Australia), preferably medical. It's too hard to try to do this the other way and there's too much riding on it, Good luck and take care. Hassled

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion