nighttech

Thank you abbnurse! Our facility is regional and covers a wide area from the traditionally wealthier suburban areas to the inner city areas (it's not like people tend to stereotype, we get a LOT in these days from suburbia, often with a sense of entitlement!). And my gosh, a handgun! Sadly, I can believe it... I know another tech once recovered bullets during intake. Our facility is unique compared to what I've heard of others in that we're a dedicated girls unit and can accept them in 24/7 (yay night shift and OT opportunities to ensure coverage!). After the police drop one off and their paperwork is verified, the intake gets turned over to me/my counterparts to complete, including inventory of belongings and conducting a full body search (depending on their risk classification and the corresponding procedure...kids/girls reading this: stay out of these facilities, especially for drug or weapon offenses to prevent extreme awkwardness!). Because of this I'm often taking away things they shouldn't have in the first place but are still trying to bring in - pills, blades, vapes, lighters/matches, cigarettes, weed, smart watches, chargers. I really have grown to despise vapes. And as sad as what I deal with is, I am only dealing with these kids in that moment, whereas the social workers have months or years of case management to juggle and follow through with. I don't know how they do it! That inner city program sounds wonderful - the world really needs more diversion programs. I just always pray that the girls I work with will have a reality check and decide to start thinking long term and making better choices.

My facility has our RNs and LPNs do on call rotations since they do not work nights/weekends. As a tech that works those nights and weekends, we have protocols in place for when to call the on call. They receive on-call pay for the duration of their rotation, and also get paid for answering calls or coming on site if needed. I don't think it's uncommon, but I agree this is something that they should have put in place and explained when you accepted your job, a little weird to implement it after the fact.

Thank you! You're absolutely right, the potential is often there due to a combination of just having been involved in some kind of stressful situation that the cops became involved in, mixed with the realization of their sudden loss of freedom, with a sprinkle of hormones to add extra fuel. I've been doing this for a decade, and have had several people get hired and start training, only for them to realize within a week or two (or in one case, in one day!) that this wasn't the right environment for them (I can't blame them). It's also been long enough for me to have seen things pre- and post-COVID, and let me tell you the last few years have been heartbreaking. We're seeing them brought in younger and younger (the youngest age we accept is 11) for serious drug charges (distribution, various quantities of unprescribed benzos/stimulants on school grounds in whatever container is convenient goes over very well with cops and the courts), at least 2/3 tell me during their intake history that they've vaped or smoked, and also violence related charges, including a growing number for threats they make on social media ("I don't want to take a test today, I'll just post something that gets my school locked down" ?) I know they're not really represented on this board, but I have to give a shout out to our social workers who really do go out of their way every day to try to help get them back on the right path, despite an ever increasing caseload. I'm sorry that this turned into a bit of a venting session. I know that this is a depressing reality that a lot of people would rather, understandingly, remain oblivious to.

I feel blessed to have a panic button that gets me a fast response time! In my case, I am dealing with kids in a criminal justice sense so they're not coming in as a traditional "patient", they're brought in to be locked up for something they did meaning most don't have a medical reason to be confused... I mean we get a handful of intoxicated or high (after getting cleared by an ED) so those are the exception, but there are fair number of girls that fall square in the "jerk" category when talking with me.

Working with confused patients every day must be so difficult! I deal with a lot of intense, dramatic, sad, scary situations, but I don't know if I could do that for every interaction! With our facility, my position is responsible for working with girls ages 17 and under being brought in usually right after being arrested, and getting them through all of our intake procedures. We receive ongoing deescalation training, and combined with enough patience I can usually get through the toughest situations. I'm usually pretty good at reading body language, but there are some that just don't show anything externally and then just explode. That's what happened to my eye when one wasn't thrilled about a search procedure. Thankfully, no lasting damage!

My facility usually has contract MD/DO's that stop by for patient care. When they opened this up to NPs and PAs, we had a NP that came in and started talking down to everyone on our medical staff (including RNs/LPNs) but especially so with CNAs/Techs. She only lasted about a month. Thankfully we currently have an MD on contract that is very polite and helpful and is great to talk to and work with!

Healthcare workers shouldn't be punching bags. I've been punched in the eye. I thought I'd make a poll to see how common this is

I would say it depends on your family situation. If you have kids, or have other family you visit often, I would think it would be very difficult to do anything together when most people are only going to be free during the week in the evenings.

We got some crazy storms here too. I didn't sleep well today sadly. I've been at work for 2 hours, it's slow at the moment but started out a little crazy. Can't wait to get home in the morning and sleep!

Good morning, thanks for welcoming me! I am just finishing up my shift. I'm going to go home, do a few chores, sleep, and come back and do it all over again tonight. My night started out a little busy, but the rest of the night was very slow. Now I look forward to showering and eating breakfast-dinner!

Always be honest up front. If you are up front with them then if something comes up they aren't surprised. Even if something is expunged it doesn't mean all record systems actually have removed it, or that your licensing body may have some kind of access still.

I hope it's okay for me to comment here, I just found and joined this site tonight and wanted to say hello and good evening! This site seems a little more organized and sane compared to reddit.

I know this is an old post, but your answer applies to any unsecured unit or environment, at least from my experience in my world. I've seen complacency of staff lead to sad outcomes too many times.

I've been stalked and harassed, visible social media is a horrible idea. At least don't use your actual name or photos and turn off location whenever possible!

Hello! I've been a Tech in a juvenile detention environment for about 10 years, primarily working nights. Does anyone else in this environment feel the work is important but struggle with burn out? After COVID, the things we're seeing just get more and more depressing.