dream'n

I would need to learn more about it. Is it companionship only? Like spending a day talking, going to the grocery, helping with cooking? If so, you wouldn't need a nurse but perhaps a home assistant. If it means counseling, then I think that should be having a MCSW or LPC. I have a family member that provides counseling therapy and trust me, she knows so much more than I do as a RN in providing mental health care, even after me working in psych for a few years previously. My family member is trained in so many different psychological treatments (many that I've never heard of) and has certificates in these types of treatments. I would need to learn more about it. Is it companionship only? Like spending a day talking, going to the grocery, helping with cooking? If so, you wouldn't need a nurse but perhaps a home assistant. If it means counseling, then I think that should be having a MCSW or LPC. I have a family member that is licensed and provides counseling therapy and trust me, she knows so much more than I do as a RN in providing mental health care, even after me working in psych for a few years previously. My family member is trained in so many different psychological treatments (many that I've never heard of) and has certificates in these types of treatments.

Today in the US, if you aren't rich and don't qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, you are at the mercy of your employer and the insurance companies.

Facts: Many receive Medicare that never worked. My mother for example, she never worked outside the home a day in her life. She's on Medicare because my father worked. And with the standard Medicare recipient nowadays, many women on Medicare were housewives and personally never paid taxes. Many of us on this thread may be lucky to live to Medicare age due to the lack of universal, preventative care to the younger working class.

I hear and agree with you. A few years ago, I was offered a new job and I asked about the insurance plans offered. This was after I had been working at another employer with crap insurance, so it was very important to me. The HR department couldn't (or wouldn't) give me the specifics. They just kept saying "we'll go over it in orientation." Uh no we won't...offer declined.

I sure hope not. Still have quite a while to go until retirement age and my mind and body are already tired.

Every nurse has made a mistake; therefore, every nurse has at one time or another practiced sub-par and unsafely. So, if the mistake happens to be deadly, the nurse should be prosecuted criminally for reckless homicide and placed in prison? I agree it doesn't make complete sense, LOL. I think I had a brain fart in the middle of it ?

Does that mean we put nurses in jail only if the mistake is deadly? Also, a police officer doesn't have to pull either the taser or the gun. But the nurse has to provide whatever care they are responsible for. If cops are busy hunting a rapist, they don't stop for the red-light runner? Are the cops responsible if that red-light runner kills someone in a car wreck later? Apples vs Oranges I think

I worked with GREAT nurse that was my preceptor when I became a RN. She had decades of nursing under her belt. She was careful and mindful. Stuck to policy, worked safely, but one night...patient wanted pain medication. She went to the Pyxis and was immediately called away for an emergency on Vocera. She ran out of the med room and as she flew by, she asked another nurse at the station to give pain meds to room 12345. This other nurse followed protocol and reviewed the orders, the last dose, etc, and gave the medication. The GREAT nurse returned after 15 minutes or so and was overwhelmed with another patient issue but remembered the pain medication. She pulled the med and gave it. She didn't scan the med, so she didn't see that the other nurse already gave it. BIG PROBLEM! She did practice sub-par and unsafe at that moment, she definitely did. But she was an amazing nurse, that had done amazing work through the years. For that moment of sub-par care, should she go to jail? I'm worried about the grey area that this case opens up for other nurses

I agree that staffing wasn't the issue at the time, but who gets to decide when some other nurse makes a mistake?

My opinion is that criminal charges should never have been filed. Nurses work many times with high ratios/bad staffing/too critical patients and it's totally out of our hands. Many shifts are running from dumpster fire to dumpster fire. Nurses have tried to get safe staffing and it has been turned down. Bean-counters decide the ratios and all else in the hospital. Nurses scream and scream about patient safety and never are heard. That's a large reason why nurses are so stressed and leaving the bedside. And now the DA wants to charge nurses criminally for mistakes that are made? Nope, TPTB cannot expect no mistakes to be made when the workers can't even have a voice in their own work environments and safety conditions. Glad I'm leaving nursing to retire fairly soon.

I know animals are killed for food all the time and I'm no vegetarian. But this is causing an unsettling feeling in my gut and I'm not sure why. I can pin my own feelings down because of course I'm happy that people in need of transplant may eventually have options and it could save lives. But at the same time, I feel unsettled. Anyone have an idea of why?

I really thought I read BON. That's what I get for responding while half-asleep

Why did you ask the Board of Nursing? Your work attire is up to your employer

The facility is being ridiculous. Talk with your attorney first, but perhaps the facility needs to be aware that 'false reporting' can result in a lawsuit against them for your stress and legal fees. The facility also needs to be aware that if they are considering extra toilet paper so essential as to report a nurse for neglect to the BON, then them keeping this essential item under lock and key and not readily available deserves a report to the appropriate authorities against them. But again, do as your attorney instructs

JC and the ANA are both useless in my opinion

I've seen some nurses that I think overuse gloves. For example, they put on gloves to deliver a meal tray or taking a blood pressure. But for peri-care, heck yes, I'm wearing gloves.

I need more information. What type of facility do you work in? How many patients? What are your and the other nurses' usual responsibilities? Are you a RN? Is there management also in the facility? Please paint me a more detailed picture.

We all know the answer to why. It's a broken health care system that is profit driven. Now the real question is what we are going to do about it on an individual and collective basis.

I've lost hope that nurses will ever unite to demand the ratios and treatment we deserve. Nurses unfortunately can't seem to ever agree when enough is enough and stand strong with other nurses. Perhaps it's the nature of some that are drawn into the nursing field. There is a portion of nurses that seem to find standing up for themselves as distasteful and that as nurses we should be completely altruistic. If many nurses walk away from low-paying, abusive employers, it always happens that some 'Angels of Mercy' step in, if you know what I mean.

How low was the O2 and how low was the blood sugar?

Actually they can..or at least in my experience (which was long ago granted) could. I needed to give report on MY patients and if my DON/ADON were leaving or left there wasn't a darn thing I could do about it. The only time the ADON took report from me was because I'd already worked 16 hours and they couldn't mandate me by law for another eight hours. If the DON/ADON refused report or snuck out the front door before I could give it to them, what was I supposed to do other than stay?

In many places you have no choice. If your relief nurse doesn't come in, you have to stay. Otherwise, it's considered abandonment. When I first became a nurse, I worked dayshift in a LTC facility. My regular evening shift relief was notorious to call out. Staffing didn't care and I wouldn't even be told until the nurse didn't show up. I worked so much overtime until I came to my senses and left.

I wonder if I'm weird, but I've never had a job I loved. I've had jobs that are rewarding, or interesting, or better than most other nursing positions; but none that I've actually loved. I have had jobs where I've felt lucky to be doing what I was doing compared to other positions I could of had. But I can say I've never had a job that I would have done for free, just for the pleasure of it.

I even worked at one facility where I was the only night nurse in the entire building, but was expected to be responsible for Respite patients that were in other buildings down the road. I was unable to leave my facility being that I was the only nurse present, but was expected to be responsible for patients I couldn't even see to assess and without having their records. I quickly found other employment.

I understand and have worked for facilities that owned Respite care centers. They are too cheap to hire a nurse to cover Respite, but have no issue trying to involve the other facilities nurses when the need arises. I again would need a script, etc to provide nursing care for the patient. The lack of nursing staff at the Respite center doesn't trump my need to perform professional duties with records, RX, etc.