Mirth

This comes up again in Janurary. I know I will be in Springfield, asking John Sullivan about it.

I know that IMC patients would be 1:3. That sure beats the 1:6 and 1:7 that I have now. Even 1:7 general patients beats the 1:10 and 1:11 they get.

I work in Springfield. St.John's is shifting all LPNs off some floors, and is not hiring anymore. Having worked in Iowa, I do know that many hospitals in Iowa do not hire LPNs anymore.

They are going to be introducing legislation to mandate nurse to patient ratios come January. Write your congressman folks. Now is our chance. Let's see what we can get done for 2007!

Well, I do hope someone has some information. The only way I could get to Australia would be to work there.

I never tell anyone I am a nurse. Ever. If I am a patient, I want to be treated like a patient. My mother tells EVERYONE that she is a nurse, that I am a nurse. :roll: And that left ME to do her bath and bed change and make sure she walked and etc, the last three times she was in the hospital. I know several people who take the attitude that "oh well, you are a nurse. I guess you don't need anything from me" and then leave the room. I know a couple of people who said "I'm a nurse. I'm fine" Then are offened that I want to see the incision, listen to the lungs and etc.

I worked for CMS. They kept taking away benefits, left and right. I worked almost NO weekends when I started. Ended up working every other weekend. The over time sucked, cos folks would call in sick. They finally gave us a pay raise, cos they could not hire anyone new at what they were paying, and they had to give all of us raises, or we would quit.

Never take anything from an inmate, never give anything to an inmate. You are not there to make friends. Not with inmates, not with officers. Keep your personal life PERSONAL. You always had a GREAT day off. Even if you didn't. Be honest with the inmate. If you can not, you can not. There are no maybes. They have the right to refuse. Let them.

At the Penn where I worked, we didn't talk to any family about health care, period. The prison had people who talked to family. If we found ourselves in the visiting room, handing out meds or whatever, then we might get into a conversation with family. But if you didn't want to talk to family, you didn't. The only time I ever talked to an inmate's family, I sided with the inmate, so the family never talked to me again. They wanted him to be checked into the health care unit to live, and he wanted to be out in the cellhouse with his friends.

What do you mean by DNU? My first travel job, I had to float out my first day on my own. I floated at least once a week, sometimes twice. I might work 4 hours this unit and 4 hours that one. I might start with 9 patients. The ONLY one to start with that many. The nurse techs did not do blood pressures. They were supposed to. I never found out until 3 hours into the shift. I asked the charge nurse about it, and she said yes, they are to take blood pressures. She talked to the nurse tech. Said nurse tech never spoke to me for the rest of my contract. Something like 6 weeks. My second travel job, I floated only when it was my turn. Average patient load was 6 patients. Same with the tech...her load was 6 patients. My first two weeks there: I struggled to learn the computer system. And the 'routine' that floor used. It was all I could do to keep up. I was chewed out, in a patinet room no less, for "not helping" the tech. Well, seeing as she din't ask for help...how would I know she needed it? I was lectured on keeping the staff bathroom clean. I was quizzed, constantly, by a staff nurse, on what I was doing, and how I was doing it. "Who are you bathing?" "Don't you want to use_____?" "Why are you using that?" "That stethascope is not any good, why are you not using this brand?" I did get a Charge nurse who wanted to give me 7 patients to everyone else's 4. Were it not for the unit clerk who came and told me what was going on, I would have just taken the patient. On that whole floor, there were maybe three nice people to work with. My current assignment is on a different floor, at the same hospital. These people have been very nice. I have been incuded in the weekly breakfast out. I have been included in a couple of parties, and I am greeted with hugs by several of the staff when they have been gone. As far as how I am treated, I do think that it just depends on the people that I work with. I told the girls on this floor how much nicer they are to me. They told me a little history about travel nurses they have known: One nurse sat on her butt and sent text messages all night. One nurse deliberately smeared the bathroom with, well, name it. One nurse sat on her butt all night, never did a patient assessment all night, but charted one. One nurse never came in on time, her whole contract. One nurse called in sick twice a month, and let early at least once a week. Explains why they treated me this way, to an extent anyway. Still.