Cynjon

I applied for endorsement in AZ from Ca. It took about 6 weeks. Goodluck

I agree with the OP about not wanting to give candy to a diabetic. But how about trying to make it a win-win situation? Change her insulin to fit her carb intake, for example for every 10 carbs in her snacks she gets 1 unit of insulin as well as for every 50 pts of BS over 150 she gets 1 unit of insulin. The patient gets to control how much and what she eats which will make her happy and we get to teach how to keep her blood sugar under control based on what she eats . Maybe if candy isnt forbidden its appeal will decrease?

The nursing shortage is just one symptom of a much larger health care problem. Several years ago I worked as a house supervisor. I learned a few interesting things. The county I was in had 5 hospitals. Reported profits ranged from negative 6% to 15%. Each hospital paid JACHO around 24 thousand dollars to survey them on the same things that the state and Medicare surveyed them on. How much preventive care could be provided for this money? One hospital closed due to inability to pay its bills. The bankruptcy papers reported over 30 million in debt. Drs admit patients and order additional tests to cover their backsides. They are afraid of being sued. Families insist that "everything" be done for the terminal patient. I've always wondered how insistent they would be if they had to pay 10% of the costs after the patients are diagnosed as terminal? Except for hospice care, of course. Every baby must be born perfect or someone has to PAY! Families insist that Granny be admitted, though Granny isn't any sicker but the family wants/needs a break and can't/won't spend the money for private care or can't find safe reliable care. No one has pay for the error of his or her ways. Alcoholics receive liver transplants, smokers get lung transplants and the overweight, high cholesterol, and non-exercising heart failure patients get a heart transplants. The hospitals in the county footed the bill for an extra 60 nursing students per semester at the local colleges. They could only accept 30 due to a shortage of instructors. Patients use the ED as their primary care provider because they don't have insurance or have inadequate coverage. Guess who pays? Each hospital in my county reported providing approx 5 million dollars a year in un-reimbursed or charitable care. Drinking and driving.....need I say more? Nurses are getting older, average age 45. Schools aren't turning them out as fast as we retire. Women have more career options. We are no longer limited to teaching, nursing and secretarial work. As a society we expect that all of our ailments, even those that are self-inflicted be treated and cured at whatever cost necessary. Do you think that if we had to foot more of the bill we might take better care of ourselves? You will notice that none of the above has anything to do with hospitals trying to save money. Our healthcare system has serious problems. We need to figure out solutions before there is no one to care for us when we are in need. We need to recruit more young people into nursing and figure out who will teach them We need to figure out a way to hold healthcare workers accountable for negligence and malpractice without having to resort to a legal system that continues to drive up costs without making our systems any safer. We need to figure a way to provide basic preventive care and treatment of minor or chronic problems in order to decrease hospitalizations. We need to be involved in addressing these problems or the nursing shortage is not only going to get worse, it may be the least of our problems.

Hi Elyse, I thought that was you. Thanks for mentionig this site. Cynthia

"This is not my first night shift position and I am shocked at how many people at this hospital sleep during their shift. I'm not talking about nodding off for a couple minutes either. They are slumped over in chair, head on the desk drooling all over themselves (at the nurses station!). Their little slumber lasts 1-2 hours, some even sneak off and sleep in their vehicles for this amount time. During this time almost everybody is busy, and even busier because they're pick up their slack." The OP was NOT about anyone sleeping on their lunch break but sleeping at the nurses station for one to two hours. BIG difference! I don't care what you do on your break. But when you are getting paid I expect you to be awake and working. Not sleeping, not taking personal calls, not flirting with the resident etc......

My experience with unions has been pretty negative. My first experience was back in the dark ages, at age 17. I was working as a NAi n a LTC facility. SEIU was trying unionize. They convinced the LVN who was the only nurse in the facilty from 11p to 07 to walk out when they had a strike, telling her that they would protect her. She was fired and lost her liscense. Something about patient abandonment? My second experience, as an LVN at a County Hospital was while another union, forget which one(it was during the Ice Age:D ), tried to unionize the "real" nurses. The promise was to improve staffing and increase wages. There was little discourse with staff about how they were going to accomplish this but lots of talk about going out on strike. They had a one day sick out and yelled and screamed at everyone who went to work. I didn't appreiciate being threatened, especially since I was merely an LVN and wasn't "good enough" to be in their union. My third experince was as a RN House Supervisor, management. I wasn't eligible to vote but had to live with the results. The union promised a 7% wage increase, staff got 3.5%. The union promised no more floating, the contract included floating. The union promised no low census days, the contract included low census days. The contract did include an "interesting" formula for figuring out floating and call offs that didn't make anyone happy. The contract did formalize many policies that were already in effect but did not change anything. What I did not notice was increased difficulty in terminating employees for wrong doing. For example, charge and staff nurses had written up a certain CNA for sleeping on the job, disappearing for hours, being rude to patients and not following simple policies like handwashing. She called in sick alot, left early and arrived late. She was not someone you wanted to work with. Despite being counciled on over 20 seperate occasions with more then 50 complaints, the union fought against her termination and won their grievence because her supervisor supposedly didn't like her. My most recent experience is currently ongoing as staff....sigh....We are being promised no floating, no call offs, increased pay, full control over staffing ratios, administrative staff will be fired, less expensive health care, more sick and vacation days etc ...etc.... I don't believe that they can carry out their promises. But what really bothers me are the negative ads and fliers and outright lies that the union propagates. Example: We are opening a new unit. The union claims a "Victory" by saying that it has forced the hospital to appropriately staff the unit, provide pt supplies, a tube system, a crash cart and a medication Pxysis! Like any hospital anywhere wouyld not havew a crash cart or pt supplies or etc.....the unit hasn't opened yet but when I walk by the nurses station I see a tube system, I see a med room with a Pyxsis....Things that have obviously been in progress for a while. Do I think the union will improve patient care? No. I don't think anything will improve if the union is voted in except the uions budget. I think that the only thing that will happen is I will lose over 1200.00 a year in union dues ( hourly base wage x 2 per pay period plus 2%) I don't think they will improve ratios, policies, get rid of management or anything else they promise. Again, this has been MY expierence...and definitely not something I want to have to deal with again... Good luck with whatever happens where you are.

I just finialized the design for our PICU Tee's, scrubs, fleece vests and bags. Its a nurse duck with several little ducks swimming behind. Our slogan "keeping kids afloat since 2006" the year we opened. The idea behind the ducks is they are serene on the surface and paddling furiusly underwater. projecting that cool, confident air...

No this is not normal! Personally, the first time Sleepy's call light went off I would be over there tapping them on their shoulders and telling them their patinet needed them. I would not do their work, and Iwould let my coordinator know about the problem.

I work at a non-union hospital. We get 2.00 hr after 1500, 4.00 hour after 2300. We also get 3.00 hr for preceptor and 3.00 for full time charge, 1.50 hour for relief charge. There is also a 4.00 weekend differential and 20.00 hour for "incentive shifts". Incentive shifts are paid to whoever picks up and extra shift in a unit where core staffing is down by 20%. So tomorrow I'm working incentive, charge, weekend and preceptoring for a total of 30.00 hour for the first 8 and 33.00 for the last 4 before I even get my base pay!