wtpsych

i have never seen this before in a hospital setting. i am currently working 8 hour shifts but in a correctional facility, from 6am to 2pm. i would love an 8 hour day shift hospital gig, but most of the openings i see are evening or night. i would never be able to see my family or spouse working 3pm to 11pm or 11pm to 7am. was just curious, that's all.

what's going on here? i live in northern california and i'm noticing lots of openings for 8 hour shifts? this is not agency/contractor work, but inhouse fulltime permanent positions. why?

just the other day, my RN coworker was terminated because of her "differences" with one of the psychiatric techs there. this girl put in lots of effort in our unit and was always doing extra shifts to help it. we were all surprised when she was walked out. everybody seemed to have issues with this psych tech, but she was the only person who voiced her concerns. RN was registry and psych tech was state employed. i also have a friend in the lab and she told me her coworker was walked out for this reason. i'm looking for a new position. registry at a CDCR sucks.

we have about 80 patients and each of them is on q15 minute observation due to some unknown regulation i am unaware of. total staffing includes a mixture of psych personnel, rns, lvns, cnas, etc... don't know if that helps any. it's more of a team nursing environment. there's no REAL ratio split. i guess i could've illustrated this better. last week myself and another RN was on the floor. we split the inmates 1:40. including triaging, admitting, discharging, daily activities, and q15 minutes suicide precaution, etc... an 1 LVN was the med nurse and 1 psych person doing their "psych" duties. unfortunately, 1 inmate on my coworkers split decide to commit suicide while she was triaging another inmate. we did not know until 1 hour later. i was not able to cover their observation roundings because i was admitting somebody. they asked us why we didn't ask for help? we've always asked, but nothing was documented. we didn't protest because we both want to work at this facility as state employees not registry employees. i haven't seen the RN since. i hope she didn't lose her licenses.

long story short, i had a patient complain of chest pain. he presented OK, except the EKG was abnormal. the person does have cardiac issues. so i called the nurse practitioner covering and she asked me: "does it look similar to the previous ekg done?" i responded "i have no idea? i do not know where the previous ekg is located. we just started a new computer charting system so i have no clue where to even look." he doesn't even have a paper chart i was able to locate. she said "what do you think we should do?" i told her "he looks great, but i have to relay ALL abnormal ekgs to you." she didn't even want me to read the present ekg. she said she'll be there in 10 minutes. she was on the floor (i work in a prison). so 40 minutes later, she arrives, assesses the patient, and reviews the ekg. it was similar to the previous EKG done a couple days ago. give or take a couple of lines (on the description). she was irritated i couldn't find the previous EKG and relay it to her. she told me i wasted her time. i am not a cardiac nurse nor do i know know to read the strips. is it in my scope of practice to compare these ekgs? i wanted to tell her everything is ok and he could go back to his cell, but what if those lines that differed were significant? what should i have done differently?

I work in a correctional facility in California.There seems to be a staffing issue. Tuesdays-Thursdays, we have 14. Fridays-Mondays we have 4. Who do I report this to? I am a registry employee so I do not have a union. Ironically, the nursing office that staffs the facility is aware of this but does nothing. Who do I elevate this to?

so a relative of mine had this to say about working in a jail, prison, corrections: do not work in a unit where you do not have access to the patient. meaning, if you cannot open their cell when a "man down" is called, good luck. the correctional officers are lazy as ****. they pull all sorts of "safety" associated reason(s) from their ***** to let people die. last week, there was a registry RN who was "walked off" because of this. speaking of registry; AND it's even easier, if you're a registry employee. these "state" RN workers have little regard for your licenses. registry RNs are scapegoats in this environment. let me discuss my daily duties. i am a registry RN that works psych in correctional facility. i have to chart q15 minute rounds for 30 patients. every time a prisoner commits suicide, an RN (registry) is "walked off". coincidentally, no state employed RN EVER rounds because litigation always seems to follow. i also have to assess every patient with a complaint. this ranges from "i have chest pain" to "i have a rash on my arm." all your state employed RNs are "too busy" consistently creating reports. throw in you having to therapeutically deescalate a suicide attempt daily (manipulation or genuine). you are ALWAYS short staffed fridays, saturdays, sundays, and mondays because state RNs are always calling off. when you voice your concerns, you WILL BE WALKED OFF. this happened to a coworker of mine. should i quit? i am registry. because i'm starting to see some of these situations play out.

the rules and regulations on the "correctional" side of this position. everything takes forever so i sit my behind down most of the shift.