marymack57

My drug books get used frequently, I keep THIS years at work, and LAST years at home. Someone is constantly calling me and asking about some drug or other. Then I have a crazy sister-in-law that buys all those weird concoctions that are supposed to make her healthy. She wants to know about every ingredient.

After multiple complaints about a perfectly WONDERFUL aide, I told the patient "I hired her, I didn't RAISE her!" At least the patient had the good grace to blush.

(DNS in NM) We hire brand-spanker LPNs for 19 an hour. LTC

Experience? EXPERIENCE?? I feel like telling nurses who look down their noses at my LTC nursing job...how good are YOU at starting an IV on a 90 year old ex-rancher that is dehydrated because he's been eating and drinking for 90 years and has decided he's had enough to eat and drink? Oh lets see...you should practice on an IV dummy arm that has cured leather for a cover and veins the size of say a piece of angel hair pasta!! LOL

I don't get near as much trouble from EMS staff as I do the nurses/doctors at our local emergency room. They talk about our facility as it were the armpits of hell, and then expect us to be amenable to their calls and such. The last fiasco was when we sent a gentleman to the ER for changed mental status, and they removed a dressing on his leg and the doctor wrote the wound was "molded" in the ER report. If you think about it a minute, you'll know what I'm talking about. The wound had a silver based medication on it...and guess what? As soon as its applied it changes colors. I actually did make a formal protest about that one, and asked that the doctor's report be re-written to delete the mold statement. I hope I used this story in the right way, as a humorous though exasperating event. I don't want to be an ER nurse, and I certainly don't want to be an EMT...I applaud those people for being able to do their jobs. BUT...I would like that same consideration, thank you very kindly

That's bad, when the MDS person doesn't have a clue. Been there, done that! It took her only 3 months to hang herself, but after she left I had to fix up the errors. What a mess. Both our MDS coordinators are RNs and new and were hired at 29 an hour. They have good potential though, I'm thinking. How many PPS do you average on your caseload? I suppose we run between 5 and 15, usually averaging about 11. The non-PPS average in about 75, I'd say.

Never think you can't learn something new, and always ALWAYS stay on top of what your therapies are doing. LOL At least I found these to be true. Does your facility belong to a large corporation, or is it a stand alone (private owned) facility? I know this tends to make a difference in salary for management staff. The one thing I enjoy about working in a facility that is owned by a big corporation is that we have LOTS of education resources and that is definitely a plus for an MDS coordinator. However, I was told when I took the MDS position that I'd better treat the RAI manual as if it were my second Bible, and I did. I've never had a question about the assessment/RAPS/Care Plan process that the RAI couldn't answer.

I am DNS, but our MDS coordinators, though they are both RNs, make almost as much as I do per hour. By the way, I am a former MDS coordinator. They deserve every penny they make, and probably more.

I live in the SouthWest. Our MDS coordinator makes about (within a few cents) what the ADON makes. And worth every penny!:wink2:

I'm always telling my friends at work "when I'm a resident here...." and then tell them I don't want that, or I do want this. DON'T GET ME OUT OF BED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, OR BEFORE SIX FOR THAT MATTER, TO DO ANYTHING FOR ME...I might bite Seriously, its a dignity issue. How dignified would you feel?

An oncologist told me that anyone who has pain CAN'T be addicted to medication. What indicates "addiction", in his words, was the person without pain taking a narcotic for the euphoria it generates. I've tried to keep this in mind over the years I've worked in LTC. It has proven beneficial to some, I know.

Order given: "Fortified foods at all meals and HS" Order written by charge nurse: "Four to five foods at all meals and HS" Now THAT one took me a while to figure out!

When I can't hold it any more. Had need to go to an urologist, new to me, and he looked at one of my x-rays and told me "you're either a teacher or a nurse". When I asked him to explain he stated that nurses and teachers tend to have over-sized bladders from "holding it". I was pretty amazed at that! And don't even really know if it could be true, the more you ask it to hold the bigger it gets? Like the stomach? Hmmmmm......

Someone else sorta hit it on the head...all our GT patients get a GERD medication to control reflux. My problem is getting people to understand that just because they don't eat, doesn't mean they don't need EXTRA oral care.

my favorite medical staff person's name Nurse Clampett Specialty-mammography gotta love her!