ALH2004

I appreciate the responses everyone. I definitely don't think this is right, but unfortunately I don't think there's much I can do. Talking to management is like talking to a brick wall. There have been many changes as far as nursing goes at this hospital in recent months. Many nurses have complained, only to get the "be happy you have a job and deal with it" speech. Some were even threatened to be fired and as a result many nurses have left.

Hi everyone. I work nights on a busy ortho/neuro floor. My manager informed us recently that we would have to work mandatory overtime for the time being due to staffing issues. She claimed that this is hospital wide, but I haven't heard of any other floors having to do this. I also noticed that this is something she's only enforcing on night shift. We currently have 2 nurses on maternity leave on nights and 2 nurses have left on days. They're actually shorter on days than nights right now, so I don't understand why this is only a night thing. When I got my schedule today, I saw that I'm working 4 (12 hr shifts) a week for the next 3 out of 4 weeks. I also noticed that not everyone on nights is having to work this type of schedule, only a select few. My biggest concern with this is safety, especially considering I have a long commute to work. When I first started working here we were required to take call once a month, which was fine. Just a few months ago, the hospital took away call time and cut out a lot of overtime due to financial issues. Now it baffles me that they're enforcing mandatory overtime for staffing issues. I'm curious to know how this works in other facilities or if they even have it. I can see mandatory overtime being used for natural disasters/emergency situations but is it common to use it for staffing issues?

Thanks for the comments everyone. I'm going to try to tolerate it a little longer until something better comes along. Staffing is still screwing us over and we were told in our staff meeting yesterday that there's pretty much nothing we can do about it. On top of that, we were informed that the hospital is adding more tasks and paperwork to our already full plates. I have also noticed in recent weeks that I am being assigned more patients than everyone else and having to take 1st/2nd admit (I'm being assigned 4-5 pts while everyone else has 3 ) I'm just trying to take it 1 shift at a time and praying that I can find something else.

I've been working nights on a large, very busy Ortho/Neuro/Med-Surg unit (aka the dumping ground of the hospital) for 5 months now. Most nights are rough. We are overworked and understaffed. Most of our patients are very needy or total care and it's hard to give them the care they need when you've got 5 patients calling out at the same time and only one tech on the floor. With recent budget cuts, things don't look to be getting any better. Hours have been cut for non-nursing staff, the role of the CNAs have been cut drastically and almost to the point of being cut out all together, overtime is being cut out, and rumor has it that some PRN staff will be cut too, which is half of our night staff. Our manager is not very supportive of nightshift either. She basically told us that if things are left undone it will always fall on nightshift, regardless of whether or not it should have been done during the day and we need to make sure that we have everything complete for day shift, meaning double work for us.....but of course if we stay over to make sure everything is done we get yelled at because they don't want to pay us overtime anymore. I have honestly tried to remain positive and tough this out. I thought that with time things would get better but they haven't. I am so physically and emotionally drained at this point. I started having panic attacks again for the first time in years. I won't be eligible for transfer until May, but with our current budget crisis we're on a hiring freeze and who knows how long that will last. There are few hospitals closer to where I live that have openings (my current job is 45 minutes away), but I'm not sure if now is the right time to apply. I don't want to burn any bridges with this hospital and as crazy as it sounds, I feel guilty for wanting to leave, especially knowing that 2 of our nurses are leaving for maternity leave within the next 2 months. I've never been one to job hop but I just don't know how much more I can take. Thanks for letting me vent and sorry for rambling on!

This is what I was told last night by the nurse that was charging the night I came off of orientation 2 weeks ago. I've been working on a busy Ortho/Neuro floor for about 3.5 months now. My first night off orientation, there were 5 nurses working, giving us 4 patients apiece. Two of my 4 pts were total care and 2 were total joint replacements. Most of us were pretty busy that night except for the charge nurse and another nurse who had pretty easy pts. About midnight that night, we got a new admit which the charge nurse asked me to take. The new admit ended up being total care (giving me 3) and needed blood hung, stat labs, etc. In the midst of me admitting this pt, another one of my patients started having chest pain. So now, I'm running back and forth between my chest pain pt and the new admit. Thankfully the nurse who had the easier pts. stepped in and helped me out some, but the charge nurse basically just sat there and did nothing. I pretty much ran the whole night like a chicken with my head cut off. Word must have gotten out about the night I had, because the next night I worked there were several nurses that talked about how wrong the charge nurse was to give me that type of patient load my first night out. I didn't really make any comments about it, other than I had a bad night, and just let everyone else talk. I guess someone said something to her about it, which in turn made her make that comment to me. Now don't get me wrong, I never expected to have the easiest patients or a light patient load my first night off orientation. Our floor is hard and we are often short staffed so I'm more than willing to pull my own weight, but I guess I'm upset with how it all went down. I honestly believe that she could have taken the admit or assigned it to the other nurse who had easier pts, but gave it to me because I'm new. Has this happened to anyone else? Am I wrong for being upset?

I had a similar situation happen to me last week. I've been working nights on a busy Ortho/Neuro floor for about 4 months now. I worked the entire weekend last week and it was awful. Heavy pt load with a few of my pts going bad, so I was definitely looking forward to having a few days off. The last night I worked, I didn't get home until after 9:00 and didn't get to sleep until almost 11. My manager called me later on that day around 2 asking if I wanted to come in that night. I had to say no because my body just couldn't do it. I was so tired and stressed from the weekend I had, I felt sick. She sounded pretty disappointed when I said no, which made me feel extremely guilty but I just couldn't do it. I too worried about how this would make me look with me being a new hire but I can't take care of my patients if I'm barely hanging on too.

Sorry, let me clarify. My friend's cousin is actually a nurse manager at this particular hospital. She got me in contact with her and her cousin forwarded my resume to this particular nurse manager. This was a few weeks ago. I was wondering if I should call to kind of introduce myself or should I just wait

Like many new grads, I have been searching for a job for several months now with no luck. I've had a few interviews, but they always ended up going with someone with more experience. I've called, emailed, and visited several nurse recruiters at hospitals in and out of my area and most of the time have gotten the "don't call us, we'll call you" statement when calling to do follow ups on applications I've put in. Recently a friend of mine gave me the name of the nurse manager on a floor that I really want to work on. I was wondering should I go ahead and contact the manager directly or should I just keep trying through the recruiters. I don't want to over step my boundaries any or ruin any type of chance I may have but I just don't feel like I'm getting anywhere.

Hey all. I need a little info about nursing in LA. I'm thinking about getting my RN endorsement in LA and need a little information. How long does it take to receive a temporary and permanent license? Also, what's the job market like for new nurses in the Slidell/New Orleans area. I, like many other new grads, cannot find a job in my area, so I'm looking elsewhere. I live about an hour from Slidell, so driving won't be problem. Any info would be great. Thanks!

Thanks for the info. The position is available in a 7 bed minor care unit of the ER. The hours are from 6pm-2am, which is something I could handle because I'm more of a night person. I was just curious about it because I had never really heard of a minor care unit in the ER (most of the hospitals in my area are smaller and this is at a larger one). This will be my first nursing job, and I just want to make the right choice, but I guess it never hurts to apply.

Hello all. I hope this doesn't sound like a dumb question, but what exactly is Minor Care in the ER. Is it something similar to Urgent Care services? The reason I ask is because I see a position available for an RN in Minor Care in the ER and I'm thinking about applying. Also do you think this is a good place for a new grad to start? Any info would be great. Thanks.

Thanks for the input. I had an interview this past Thursday, but I don't think I'm going to take the job. The FA that interviewed me seemed like a great person to work for, but he was not the FA at that particular clinic. He's actually an FA at a clinic in the neighboring state, but was filling in for the FA of this clinic, while she is on sick leave. The nurses there didn't seem too friendly towards me. Maybe it was just a bad time of day for them, I'm not really sure. I really tried to take in everything while I was there, but I don't think it's for me. The facility was not in the best condition nor was it in a safe area. Nurses are excepted to be at work for 5am meaning I would have to leave my home at 4:15 to get there on time. Also, they want me to commit to at least a year, which is understandable with all the extensive training they provide. As a new grad, I didn't feel it was a good fit for me, so I will keep looking.

I have a friend that graduated from William Carey a few years ago. I've heard both good and bad things about the program. I've heard that it's very student friendly, instructors really seem to care and are willing to work with students. I've also heard that a lot of their graduates have a hard time passing NCLEX. I don't know how true that is, but that is just what I have heard.

Hey all, I'm a new grad RN and filled out a profile/application on the Davita website a little over a month ago. To my suprise, I recieved a phone call today from a lady at the main office. She gave me a "mini" interview over the phone and said she would be sending my info to the manager at one of the offices in my area and they would be calling me for an interview soon. I was very excited at first because this is the first call back I've gotten after almost 4 months of putting in numerous applications and having NO luck. BUT after reading some of the post here about Davita and really thinking about it, I'm starting to have a few doubts. From what she described, the job almost seems too good to be true. I mean an extensive orientation/training (which she says they would pay for transporation and a hotel since I would have to travel to the one week class), great pay, benefits and working environment. But I have to wonder, with all these great perks, if offered the job, what would I be getting myself in to. I know Davita offers new grad positions, but this particular job requires at least 9 months of acute care experience, which I do not have. ALso, the lady said that I would be working 4 10hr shifts, but then said my hours would be 6am-5:30. I asked her twice, about the hours to make sure I didn't hear wrong and she said 6-5:30, which is 11.5 hours not 10!?! I may be over thinking, but I have a few doubts about this job. I guess what I'm asking is if offered should I take this job or should I wait and continue to try for a hospital job? I don't want to pass up an opportunity, but I also don't want my first nursing job to a bad one.

To my Psych, Gero, and Pharm instructors thank you so much for being so understanding and supportive of us. Without you're support I don't think we would have made it through the semester. To my Adult Health II instructors: Thanks for making this semester a complete nightmare. If you really don't feel like teaching this class, then maybe you both should quit instead of coming to class and saying "I don't feel like teaching/talking today, why don't you guys tell me what you know". What's the point of coming to class if you're not going to teach us? Thanks for making us spend hours on end working on 10 page study guides that you assure us in class will be what the majority of the test is on, only for it NOT to be. 10% of the test is what's on the study guide and the other 90% is on completely new material. (And you wondered why 90% of the class was failing at midterm) Thanks for personally telling my academic counselor that I didn't have a shot in hell at passing this course, yet I passed with flying colors. I am so thankful to be finished with the 2 of you. To my clinical instructor: Practice what you preach. Just like you're constantly telling us to be on our Ps and Qs and be professional at all times, you need to do the same. It would have been nice to get through post-conference without constantly being interrupted because you have to take a PERSONAL phone call. We don't want to hear about who's picking up the beer and the kids and what time to meet you at the pool (yes she actually talked on the phone in front us about these things).