Nursecathy123ca

This might be a benefit for long term care facilities. They are famous for short staffing, but it is difgicult to prove. With hard evidence of how long it takes staff to answer call lights, the facilities would have to increase staff numbers.

It IS frustrating. If your state does not have mandated resident:staff ratios, you have to look at whether the staff can adequately care for each resident's needs. Sounds fuzzy. And it is. I am learning how to dig for information regarding staffing ...

So glad this column helped you make that decision. I did home health nursing for 8 years and have no regrets!

Wow. The ANA here sounds almost bedside nurse-friendly!

After asking the ANA it's position on minimum staffing levels, I received the same old "each hospital should decide proper staffing levels according to need..." pablum. Allowing hospital management to control staffing has gotten us into this mess. A ...

After burning out of hospital and home health nursing, I am now a State surveyor! My goal is to be fair in judgment and always, always kind in demeanor. Benefits? 40-hour workweek, regular hours, low pay but good benefit package. And no more wee...

Time for a union run by real nurses.

Good for you, wanting to remain at bedside. I loved it but just couldn't do the 12-hour shifts any more. Also, the short staffing was killing me. I was a pretty darned good nurse by the time I left the hospital and took my skills into home health ...

That is disturbing. I have never had a nursing job where I had to do an activity similar to sit-ups. I have, however, done lifting, stretching, kneeling, catching a falling patient and even lying on the floor to see something under the bed! You ar...

I agree with CathRN. You would need to have very, very reliable childcare--you never know when a survey is going to go longer than planned. You will also have to start a few surveys at odd hours, such as weekends or 10 p.m.

Also, you may want to search for 'nurse' on your state employment website. I searched 'surveyor' and never found anything. BTW, the surveyor job is going great. Learning a lot. Love visiting small towns in Texas I have never seen before.

Thanks for the comments, CathRN. I am moving right along in training. Getting to know teammates, etc. Looks so good. And I love having real weekends and evenings off!

BTW, this hospital also has a discrimination suit ongoing, brought by some Indian physicians who were not allowed to advance in their positions. Seems they don't project the right 'image' for the hospital either!

[quote=nerdtonurse?;6410072 I have no desire to stand before God at the end of my life and when he says, "what good did you do with the life I gave you?" all I can say is, "I was thin and a snappy dresser." Amen!

HealthyNurse, I'm wondering if you took that surveyor job and how things are going now. I just started a state surveyor job. The training is interesting, though a little tedious. I'm not good at sitting in a chair watching Web-based training all da...

Let's be clear that this is not about a hospital's concern for the health of its employees. It is about appearance, plain and simple. Here is a segment of the story published in The Texas Tribune: "The Citizens Medical Center policy, instituted a ...

It is my theory that euthanasia is never needed. If an ill person just refuses medical care, he will die fairly quickly. For example, my elderly home health patients with pneumonia would go to the hospital, get IV fluids and antibiotics, go to reha...

FLmomof5, you speak the truth. My med/surg unit shifts were brutish. Heavy patient assignments, a couple of coworkers with attitudes, and rare breaks, so I came home exhausted, upset and starving. Mostly due to the stress of nursing school and tha...

Too bad appearances are so important these days. Some of the sweetest, best nurses I have ever known have been overweight. And they certainly did not shirk their work. Also, every obese person I know has tried to lose weight. Should they live in...

@jhanes

In this case, nurses truly need a union. But they only need a union that remain representative of its members. Unfortunately, unions have a history of turning into self-serving corporations that feed off their members and often become arms of manag...

I am considering a change from home healthcare to dialysis. I know there is a huge learning curve ahead of me, but I have always been interested in this topic. Are you on your feet a lot? Do you ever get to sit down?

Subee, you are right about advertising of worthless food. I don't think it affects us immediately, but repetition of a message usually works whether or not we want it to! Let's face it: broccoli just doesn't have as good an advertising firm as Che...

And research has shown that, especially for children, it isn't just the food they eat that contributes to obesity; it is very much the lack of activity. We just are not as active a society as we were 50 years ago. So much is automated now that used...

Alpha Omega, that's what I have been wondering. Where did this issue come from? We have always known that the local Catholic hospital did not endorse contraception or abortion, and the health plan did not cover it. My Catholic friends (all of whom...