CardiTeleRN

I've been a nurse for almost 6 years and when I was a new grad, I was offered a job on an adult oncology unit (apparently a substituting manager hired me) and an adult obs/tele unit. I accepted one but 2 months in, the actual hiring manager told me she was glad I was there but she would've recommended I started in adult jobs/tele for the broad experience. So I left and did that a few months later...so many regrets. I wish I had stayed in oncology. Obs/tele gets you no where fast as far as career progression. Burn out occurs much more rapidly. I read the other comments and there is death and horrible family dynamics in both scenarios. The amount of times I've had to stay late to chart family issues and commentary is ridiculous. Personally, seeing someone die, regardless of age, bothers me. Nursing will thicken your skin. From a career progression standpoint, ped/onc may offer you a good foundation/networking later on for careers like Nicu, research nursing, infusion clinics, radiology, adult ICU (-> CRNA if you decide to go back to school). Other nurses without onc exp may also be able to obtain these pathways but your exp would trump theirs; however, in this economy, if its financially feasible for you to do adult obs/tele, def go for it. Just try not to stick around in it as long as I did. After 5 years of torture, I've finally been able to convince someone that I truly want out of it and am worthy LOL. Just recently got into case management.

Distracted by training and communicating with doctors at the same time. Still too much. I worked at Vanderbilt and they have tightened ship a lot since that incident and the incident of the surgeons removing the wrong limbs and kidney. They were very loose with policies. Vanderbilt is also to blame. I have worked at nothing but teaching hospitals (really difficult to find one that isn't that's hiring) and they had tighter policies. Vanderbilt should have very well held some of that blame. I will forever stand by that. Again, maybe the older generation of nurses prefer 12h shifts but many new grads I've spoken to hate it since it is no longer the typical 3 12's and 4 days off. Maybe because the hospitals are now forcing us to work 3 12's with a 4 12's week every other week or every 3-4 weeks. Soon it will be 5 12's at this rate.

1) She was staffed to work in the neuro ICU but she DID float to imaging to administer the med. 2) She said she was overwhelmed BECAUSE she was working as a resource nurse, floating around the hospital to other departments to help out with the patients (such as the one in question) all while training/orientee a new hire. 3) Who cringes at the idea of 8hr shifts? Because it seems the older generation of nurses were the ones who agreed to 12h. Who was surveyed recently to determine this? I certainly did not participate. I know of at least 13 nurses who would LOVE 8hr shifts again. I know nurses who are clawing to get away from the bedside just to work 8h shifts again. So that was just purely opinion-based. 4) She may not have known the generic name. That's not ALL of the issue. There were multiple issues at hand with the Pyxis. For some reason, Vanderbilt did not require 2 people to pull narcs or override at the time. Vanderbilt actually made many strict changes with their Pyxis and charting systems following that. The changes they had made were things I had already seen in place well before I became a nurse myself. Simple policy changes that most of the hospitals in the country already had in place. Completely agree that she should've at least investigated why the med had different names even if she thought Versed WAS the generic name. No one knows what was going through her head in that moment. Not everyone are like you and your colleagues. Not everyone is able to handle being overwhelmed daily. She doesn't seem like she went to work with the intent to commit homicide that day. For her, this could be a blessing and a curse. She is able to escape the taxing demands of nursing while also being able to live comfortably with the support she does have. I feel for the family. That would eat at me every day. The family has forgiven her; why can't other nurses do the same? Such a bizarre profession.

I recently had several interviews and was asked the cliche "what made you become a nurse?" or "what do you like about nursing?" and I think I shocked them and myself when I simply said the educational aspect of it. I think they were expecting me to say "I love taking care of patients." Don't get me wrong, I enjoy providing care of course; however, that has not become the main drive anymore. Only 4 years in and I'm a bit burnt out from the punches, kicks, bites, items thrown at me, verbal abuse, harassment, etc from confused and mentally intact patients. The main thing that keeps me going is actually the critical thinking, learning new things, and seeing the technological advancements involved. I'm almost wondering if I should pursue research nursing.. What do you enjoy about nursing?? I'd love to hear other experiences even if it is providing care. ?

I would always opt with going with your gut. Just weigh the consequences which are usually just losing your job. You can always get another. I saw someone comment that they will document a discussion made with a manager in regards to an unsafe assignment but will continue to work it. In non health care law, if someone commits a crime under the commands of another person, they can't go to the cops and say "they told me to do it so I did it." and not face any criminal reprimands. The BON triumph everything. Just remember that. They will always get right down to the point of "did YOU think that was safe?" Not did the facility think it was safe. They will penalize you AND the facility. You rather the facility go down on its own. So I wouldn't recommend following that...You reserve the right to refuse/question an assignment before taking report. It isn't patient abandonment until you've received report.. Sorry for my 2 cents LOL...

Oh fair point! Travel agencies are the way to go. Get away from staff. Heads up, traveling has a 50/50 chance of receiving 20xs worse treatment from staff and management and you will get the worse assignment plus more patients but its worth it in the end. Just document like your life depends on it! You can collect half a year worth of average staff salary in 3 months and take some time off to recover to prepare for more chaos. => Good luck girl!

Wow, sorry I am just now seeing this. You're definitely right. Many hospitals I've worked with have had overflow all the time. It's a pretty common practice. I recognized that. That night was just horrifying, they didn't have overflow and the support staff was extremely unhelpful and moody with us that were trying to help. The 4 of us weren't chem-certified that were working the unit but I had witnessed them pin things on travelers and were just 500xs harder on travelers even when travelers were going out of their way to help. At that point, I had just rather lose the contract than my license. Thankfully, I've found other work and am continuing on my path of transferring out of nursing. I did find my brief 3 hours on the oncology unit to be amazing with the patients there. They always teach me so much. I love that population, I even loved it in school but I would never agree to doing anything that I know Im not certified to do just to management please. Patients always come first. ❤️

I just had a similar situation but as a travel nurse but they were flat out trying to assign me to work a unit where additional certifications(chemotherapy) were required and I refused. They tried to convince me to leave without waiting for coverage to attempt at the patient abandonment but my first passion of nursing was always legal nursing so I was 20 steps ahead. As to your situation, you waited for relief and gave report. You literally handed off care to the next nurse. As soon as the next nurse accepts report, you are no longer responsible for those patients. So that supervisor was just doing what 90% of most inpatient nursing managers do which is be a manipulative condescending piece of garbage trying to place fear into you. I'd just be willing to leave if I were you, if you stay there, they're gonna make your life Haydees. Honestly, it sounds like they're preparing to terminate you. HR rarely has the best interest of employees at heart. Heavy emphasis on RARELY!! So really at this point, its be terminated or resign. Somewhat bright side is, if you're terminated, you can apply for unemployment until you find another job. ?

Hello everyone, I just wanted to go ahead and post my experience working at Albany Medical Center as a travel nurse. I feel that our experiences should be shared with factual data so anyone that may be considering employment or a travel position at these facilities will have some background before accepting these opportunities. I began my contract in November of 2021 and it originally ended in Feb of 2022. I should have got out of dodge then haha. I chose to extend it because they actually seemed to need the help. Major regrets. The unit was a near unit and they floated the travelers first. There was no rotation schedule, it was just whomever they felt like floating during that shift. The entire experience was horrifying on so many levels. The high acuity of the patients versus the ratio, the lack of staff. There would be multiple shifts with no PCA/CNA help. Endless use of restraints. Personally, I have worked in facilities that strongly advised against the use of restraints. So to see so many restraints used was just a personal shock to me. I had to call pharmacy on several occasions to correct meds that were clearly given in error prior to my shift by previous nurses. Meds that were E-R being crushed, ordered meds that were listed as patients' allergies, etc. The facility also would regularly delay scans by days, be it CT/MRI/etc. They also regularly would transfer patients throughout the hospital during shift change. I've read studies proving that transferring patients during shift change indicates an extremely high risk of falls amongst other things and of course there was no report being given at the bedside. Beside report was a norm for me prior to accepting that contract. Aside from that, the staff nurses were some of the rudest batch of humans I have ever come across towards travel nurses. I will leave it at that. I was recently cancelled because I refused to work the oncology unit with chemo patients because I am not chemo certified nor was I told I would float to a chemo unit. My contract stated I may float but I thought common sense would kick in and I would float to other med sure units since that what I was contracted to work. Needless to say, I let the charge nurse, house supervisor, and of course recruiter know I was not comfortable working that unit. NOW, keep in mind, I floated 70% of my time during the contract that began in November without issue. The house supervisors decided to corner me in a room, create a very hostile situation by pressuring me to stay and work the unit and began questioning my competency after I repeatedly stated I was uncomfortable working the Oncology unit and I am not chemo certified. The house supervisor then called me rude and went to the patients and my replacement nurse and began bad mouthing me. The only reason I know the house supervisor bad mouthed me is because my patient and my replacement told me. The next day, my recruiter let me know the facility decided to cancel my contract effective immediately. Hopefully, this sheds some light into the facility. I will also add 5 other travel nurses cut their contracts short during the last 4 months for similar reasons of unjust treatment. I have been working since I was 16 and in health care since I was 19 and I have never had a complaint against me by patients, I've had patients request for me to come work for them for private pay and still to this day as a CNA to RN. I have never had issues with coworkers or staff until I started working as a travel nurse. We have to do better nursing team... Thankfully, my recruiters were amazing and there are other job offers.

Why are some states considering capping travel nurse pay?? What is the purpose? To help with the nursing shortage? I'm not sure if someone informed the decision makers that nurses left staff jobs due to low pay so lowering the travel pay will only make nurses leave the profession entirely. I already plan to go back to school for PT to have that under my belt as soon as travel nurse pay is capped. I refuse to go back to misery. The low pay wasn't even the meat and potatoes of it - the issue was the toxicity. The unsafe ratios, long mandated hours, physical/emotional/mental abuse from patients, coworkers, and doctors, and rarely having planned time off approved. I wouldn't even care if the time off was paid or not. Travel nursing allows the freedom of having vacations. One week is more than enough to recover from nursing fatigue. Why haven't they capped the pay of other healthcare specialties? Why are they bullying nurses so much after everything we endure day and day out and not to mention the sacrifices of pandemic work (risking our lives and potentially bringing it home to our loved ones)

Dear nurse who wanted to know if pt had a bm... Before I answer, I'd like to know why the pts haven't been repositioned q2h per order, why the pts are constantly developing new PUs with no treatment/barrier protection? (Just because you discover it doesn't mean you're treating it. assessment is followed by treatment), why are scans not being completed per policy? Why are pts' pain not being treated POD1? Why are pts being sent to units for admission with no report from EDs? Why are reports severely inaccurate when I am receiving a transfer? Why were stat labs ordered for a pt with no IV access and no IV team/no nurses available to start an IV/draw labs after I attempted twice? Why did the pt have to wait till next shift? Why didn't any nurse attempt to communicate with pts that speak various languages? Why are some nurses condescending? To the nurse that ignored all of this during report and was only concerned about if the pt had a bm, maybe you should have listened when I told you the pt's GI workup was normal and that isn't the admitting DX. but because I know you're worried being as condescending as possible (because she disregarded every important detail about the actual DX) the pt will probably be next down the rabbit hole of the ball being dropped. Sorry, I just needed to vent. The horror of things that occurred in just one short week and yet, I was asked about something that was so minor and not of concern via labs, scans, pt reports, or to the doctors. Because I didn't give an exact day & time, (it was within the 3 day rule) this particular nurse continued with an attitude as though I was than dirt. Please nurses, stop. This is getting out of hand and I hate to see patients suffer due to hateful individuals being blinded by their own pride/ego and trying to find faults and problems in each other instead of our patients so that we can actually help fix them. These issues are nationwide and its becoming disgusting.

Wow I’m so sorry you’ve had to endure this. =( I’m glad you’re getting out of there! my employer is also toxic. My manager asked me if this position is right for me because I asked the for the policy for the job they want me to do following a 1h orientation to a newly developed speciality area. What a joke of a human being. turns out there is no policy haha. I wonder how the interview process goes for these nut jobs in management sometimes.

LOL I've been trying to get a copy of my union contract since I was hired coming up on half a year now. No one wants to provide it for some reason. I have had the convo with management and they're the ones who told me its easy work and I should be fine.

I've witnessed this when I worked as a CNA in a LTC. The management were functioning as RNs and DONs and they weren't licensed as RNs, LPNs, or CNAs. Needless to say, the place was ran poorly. The residents were always breaking bones from falls, always sickly, went wandering outside the facility, etc. The aides would be arguing with one another, the residents. I quit without notice.

Whats the CBA? Should I address the safety aspect? I just feel uncomfortable. Mostly because I don't want to miss preparing a surgical instrument or forget to do a step and cause a delay mid-surgery or worse, cause a lawsuit.