SHERCAT

UNBELIEVABLE! The national standard for calls is 8-15 minutes. Carol Rutenberg, a nationally known speaker and instructor on telephjonme trioage says that is you are doing a call in less than 7 minutes you are not doing a good job. Wow, I had to read this twice to comprehend what I was reading. Under 7 min. means not a good job? My boss rates us how how fast we can do the calls. Her standards are as follows- fantastic- 3min talk with 3 min. afterwork time good -4 min talk with 4 min. afterwork passable -5 min talk with 5 min. afterwork poor- anything slower than passable. She increased our requirements for gathering med hx. before we can triage the call recently but did not increase our talk/work time allowance. Example for a call on a 7 month old the following has to be gathered no matter what the call is about... 1- med hx./past hospitalizations 2- meds- 3- allergies- 4- activity level- 5- # of wet diapers in the last 8 hrs 6- last bm 7- fontanels? 8- sleep habits 9- birth weight 10- present wt 11- temp. 12- immunizations 13- gestational age 14- fluid intake 15- food intake 16- breast/bottle this is what we have to ask if under 1 even if the mother is calling because the baby has pinkeye! Then after that we can assess. the syptoms to recommend level of care needed. It is even sillier for age 1-15- just minus the fontanels, breast/bottle, gestational age, # of wet diapers is changed to # of urinations and ya still have to ask a mother # of BM's her 15 yr old son had!!!! This takes the 3 min. alone just to get all this stuff answered and I haven't even gotten to the assess. yet! Sometimes I lose the caller because they want to know what all this has to do with the call and maybe some of it does but the rest is total nonsence.I tell them my employer requires it as that is all I can think to say. This was per URAC's recommendations during their recent recert. visti. Do all of you have to ask all this stuff before you triage a caller?

I can't help but post my starting salary from 1982! My first job was at a major hospital in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. I made a whole 8.52/hr!!!!!!!!!

He continues to care for his patients with the same compassion he always had, and he is dedicated to taking care of the whole person to the best of his ability. He also treats the nurses with respect as he has had a close view of what it is we really do. I don't think I could ask for a more well-rounded Doc to work with. I think it's great. [/b] I want to be his first patient when he gets his medical licence!

My husband and I discussed abortion if I was pregnant. We were pretty sure we were going to go in that direction, but didn't worry about it because of the negative results. I took two tests through the doctor's office and they both came back negative. Debbie -future RN [/b] Grandma knew this so she made sure that the tests would be neg. so you wouldn't abort.

Atlanta has a Kaiser nurse advice line as well.

Ya know I haven't thought about the obstacles in a LONG time but now that someone brought it up I started thinking about them again. I had a child at the age of 17. She was concieved from a violent experience- don't need to detail it. I dropped out of school to start raising my child. I worked as a nurse's aide and lived in a 1 bedroom apt. (when one could live in one for 100.00 dollars). I attemped to figure out a way to go to nursing school within a few yrs. into working at the local hospital. Meantime I became sidetracked by a new boyfriend who moved me and my daughter accross country. There I decided that I was going to take positive steps to get to nursing school. I went to night school at the local high school and crammed a yr. into 6 wks. Yes, in 6 wks. I had a REAL high school diploma. Then I applied to LPN school and checked into nrsg. degree programs. Thngs then went sour with the b/f. I went to work in the hosp. again and had to get creative with my "steps for success". I took entrance exam for the LPN. The LPN program accepted me but I had no money and they had no student help for financing. I then looked at the college because they had all sorts of scolarships and student aide and whatnot. To make this long story shorter, I went through college with any and all fiancing programs I could qualify for and graduated at the age of 28. The 1st thing I did when I got my 1st job was to get my daughter a nice place to live with her own bedroom and I bought myself a new car~ We spent too many yrs. in dumps and driving around in downright unsafe cars. Now I can hardly imagine how it would have been trying to go to school and raising 4 kiddos! My story is easy compared to hers.

I knew a nurse many yrs. ago who would take a break from nursing every couple of yrs. and do something else. It was her way of keeping herself from getting that "burn-out". She would come back to nursing after 6 months renewed.

I would also concider the expectations a bit high. I work for one of those major managed care companies-yes I work for the bad guy- and I have to pay 35 per paycheck for their own insurance!! You would think that since they are the owners they would give us low on the totem pole nurses a break! They also own the dental plan and I have to pay 4 per pay period for that. Total of all my deductions for benefits come to 98.00 per 4 wk. period- not per month. We have 3 pay periods this month so it comes out to more paid into the plans this month.

Written by B.D. Schmitt, M.D., author of "Your Child's Health," Bantam Books. I ran a telephone triage department for several years where we utilized protocols developed by Dr. Schmitt. We were actually able to effectively teach parents who called about fever. I think the above is great evidence based info. There's more at http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/pa/pa_feverpho_hhg.htm if you're interested. [/b] I work in a telephone triage dept. and several yrs. ago another nurse I worked with at the time turned me on to Dr. Schmitt's great protocols and I use them to educate parents alot, especially now with the flu season. I always knew that fevers are our friend and not foe- I actually tell parents that when I am educating them. I have photocopied alot of his stuff and have it handy in my notebook here at work. I highly recommend his book.

Oops, I am sorry... I am at work and we use all caps on our charting and I forgot to take the caps off- I am not shouting- just wanted to make that clear.

I ANSWERED SOMEONE'S POSTING THAT ASKED DIRECTLY WHAT EACH POSTER'S INCOME WAS SO I ANSWERED- SIMPLE AS THAT. I ALSO STATED WHAT REGION I WAS IN. NOONE KNOWS WHO I AM AND WHERE I WORK. I DON'T THINK THIS IS AN UNREASONABLE QUESTION THE POSTER ASKED. PURRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, SHERCAT

I work for large managed care corp. here in Atlanta. My wage for this yr. is 75,000. I like the lower cost of living here- I am from S.Cal and could not even think about buying a home. The 1st yr. I was here I went out and bought my dream home! Quality of life got better, definately got better.

Are you willing to relocate to Atlanta, Ga.? We are a large corporate HMO and we are always hiring but not because of turnover but because we are getting increasingly more and more calls.

My title is " Demand Management Nurse" which gives ya no idea what that is suppose to mean!