SJERNBSN

I'm an RN who went to Nursing school right out of high school [1967]. After working for a few years and getting paid a pitiful wage, always working short, rarely getting breaks, doing unpaid overtime, working rotating shifts and constantly complaining a family member who was a mechanical engineer taught me a few things about drafting. I doubled my salary and worked Mon-Fri and went to the BR whenever I needed to [a real treat]. I workled in the field as a temp for 12 years doing drafting, design, technical writing, production control and left when my son was born to work off hours in Nursing again so that he wouldn't need to go to day care. It's a different world with alot less stress and responsibility and done at a more human-like pace.

When I worked in the ICU, I would take report from the offgoing nurse in the break room or nurses' station then we would both walk to the patient's bedside and do a quick overview of the IVs, dsgs, tubes, settings, etc. That way anything said to you in report could be verified and you could get a look of each of your patients. That helped me to prioritize my own schedule for my assessments when the other nurse left. Anything out of the ordinary could be questioned and anything off-kilter could be corrected by the off nurse. It takes time but when the offgoing nurse knows that it is expected of her, the oral reports tend to be factual and less chatty and the patients look better than if the staff knows that they can run out before you can look at what they've left you. Get another job. The administration will hang you before they'll admit that they try to abuse their staff. That's abuse of staff and patients, too. Leave before they chip away at your self esteem. You sound like a knowledgeable, caring, astute nurse - the kind the profession should be trying to keep, not harass. Good luck.