bluesboyj

Runner, it must be nice. Where I work we have alot of new nurses who are orienting to IABPs, VADs, CVVH, CABs. I've got 15 yrs critical care experience (10+ w/cab, iabp) who had to pester my manager to orient to CABs (their way of doing things). I got tired of beings aked questions about things I have experience with but haven't yet been asked to orient to so I'm transferring to Neonatal ICU. A whole new experience for me. An example of the above was a "gas loss" alarm on a balloon pump going off and all anyone could do was keep checking the connections and saying they're tight and checking them again while I'm pointing to the problem and had to say here is the problem which was blood in the gas drive line secondary to a ruptured balloon. I'm on of the "strong core nurses" according to my ex-manager, but if that is the case, why wasn't I oriented to everything earlier. I've done adults too long to work with a bunch who are in over their heads. So no more adults for this kid. ------------------ If Ya' Don't Love The Blues, Ya' Got A Hole In Your Soul

Also our weekends for nights are Fri and Sat nights. No penalty for calling in sick either.

We do 12 hour shifts and on nights we have to do 3 weekend nights and 1 Sun night every 4 week schedule including 16 hrs call time in the same 4 week period. We get a 26% weekend diff. No staffing problems except during the summer when our census drops. ------------------ If Ya' Don't Love The Blues, Ya' Got A Hole In Your Soul

I disagree that personality tests can determine if someone will make a good ICU nurse. Nurses store things that are important from report and assessment not from being able to regurgitate some bit of info from a question on a personality test. Tests are not an end-all for determining how a person will perform at a certain job. If tests are so wonderful, medical students just getting by would be dropped, yet they wind up getting called "Dr." ------------------ If Ya' Don't Love The Blues, Ya' Got A Hole In Your Soul

The hospital where I worked in Ca was at war against the county hospital and spent millions$ to keep the county facility to expand and upgrade their lab and kitchen, which were at risk of losing the licenses because they were so old. When we were told of the war at it's start the administrator said point-blank "these are not patients in our beds, they're market shares, dollars and cents." Welcome to managed care/HMOs.

I would contact an attorney since to didn't consent to a personality test ------------------ If Ya' Don't Love The Blues, Ya' Got A Hole In Your Soul

As my pal Sophie says DOCUMENT.....!!!!!!!!!! everything. Also I think you should notify your state board of nursing and the facility to the agency that oversees your type facility. Something tells me if something should happen to a patient, your administration won't back you up, if you reveal your discussions with them about her behavior and probably have labeled you a troublemaker. ------------------ If Ya' Don't Love The Blues, Ya' Got A Hole In Your Soul

I agree it would be nice if staffing could be done by needs of the individual pt. but it's not going to happen, esp. in these days of a profit driven business. The bottom line of hospitals is the bottom line, not patient care. Fewer nurses, esp. experienced ones, means more profit for the hospitals just like not being aggressive at first in a lot of cases, means more $ for the doctor. Less tests/tx., more $ kept. Human life now has a $ and cents value!!! ------------------ If Ya' Don't Love The Blues, Ya' Got A Hole In Your Soul

I agree with LRichardson taht a stable IABP pt can be paired with another stable pt. Unfortunely, ours is now a business not driven by the mission to help the ill but is driven rather by the bottom line. It all really started with DRGs. The DRG said MIs are well enough to go home in 3 days whether they really are or not. Stay 3 days, hospital loses $. I'm using 3 days as a illustration, your milage may vary. As nurses, we usually know best what needs to be done for the patient, not someone behind a desk with no medical knowledge denying care based on a book or chart in front of them. And gatekeeper physicians are watching out for their pocketbooks because that's what managed care has done. Profit goes UP and care goes DOWN. ------------------ Blues Forever

I agree that pairing IABP patients is unsafe. All the hospitals I've worked, the policy has been 1:1 staffing except on a very rare occassion having to pair with a STABLE pt and the IAB pt has to be stable preferbly 1:2 or 1:3 frequency. These days of managed care have made hospitals very money hungry and the only thing they understand is a BIG!!! lawsuit. They figure why pay experienced nurses good money when we can get new, inexperienced nurses for less $. Besides if the hospital gets sued, they'll probably sue the nurse(s) anyway. It's not their license/livelyhood on the line. People don't seem to mind a sports star or movie star getting paid millions of dollars a year to perform and worst case scenerio-team loses/movie bombs. We get paid far far less than that to perform with peoples lives and worst case scenerio-someone dies. Who performs the more important duty and derserves more money?