arelle68

Jaznia, I feel that you should quickly get that promised recommendation in writing, and make lots of copies of it for your job search. My concerns would be, firstly, that someone from the clique will get the "pushover" manager to change her mind about giving you the recommendation. Secondly, I would be concerned that one of these people who lied about you will say more lies and hateful things about you to people who call there. I know that it would be against the law, but that does not mean it won't happen. Just my thoughts. You will be in my prayers in your job search and interviews. I know about unfair firing from my own experience.

This is not the way it is supposed to be! If it is as you say, patients treated like criminals, you feeling threatened, and actually being hit, then things are not being done the right way. Where I work, there is enough staff support to keep other staff and patients safe. Patients are not to be treated like criminals! That is outrageous! If my environment were like yours, I would want to change it too. How to change it: Staff education:Respectful Workplace, Non-violent Crisis Intervention, De-escalation Techniques. It will take a while to get attitudes readjusted. Just know in the meantime that you are the one who is right about how patients should be treated. You be the first to make the changes by treating everyone with respect. You feel threatened because patients are out of control. They are no doubt upset about being treated like criminals. A lot of the irritable edge will resolve when that changes. There are still dangers involved in working with patients who are actively psychotic, or just antisocial. That is why you need staff who are trained in non violent crisis intervention who also know how to take a patient down if they have to without anyone getting hurt. You also have to have plenty of staff available and/or law enforcement standing by. Sometimes when you have to enforce a Treatment Override, you just have to wait until the next shift comes on, and then use the extra staff to get it done. I am sorry that your foray into psych nursing is going like this for you, but there is a better way to do things, and you are right to be concerned about what is going on around you now.

I live in a "Right to Work" state, where all employment is "at will". I worked a very (very) sub-standard nursing home in my small town. I spoke up and told the auditor what an abusive, dangerous, and exploitive environment it was. I got fired the next day for stuff management made up. When I pointed out to the executive director that they had violated their own policy in firing me, he read me this "Right to Work" and "at will" law. Yes, they certainly can fire you for any reason, or for no reason, and they do. Free at last! Free at last! Thank GOD ALMIGHTY, I'm free at last! I have a way, way, way better job now, and I am so, so happy! Praise God from whom all blessings flow! I don't need a union. I've got HIM to take care of me!

I would have posted "No, don't do it" if I had been asked about 2 months ago. I had been in LTC from the time I graduated until then. I have worked 8 hours without getting to eat drink, or go to the bathroom. I have carried a load of 28 patients, some of them acutely ill, with state in the building. I have been abused in all kinds of ways from all different directions: staff, patients, facility. I can't count the times I cried myself to sleep over things I couldn't do for my patients. I have been perpetually understaffed to the point where I could not ensure that my patients were being changed and fed. I have been frightened that my enormous, ridiculously rushed med-passes could not possibly be safe for my patients or my license. I have been sick with stress, and felt like my nerves were wrecked. Thank God, after years of praying for deliverance, I have a job with a state hospital. It is very, very different form working for a for-profit corporation. The care is about the patients instead of about money. It is a different world. I could do psychiatric nursing for the rest of my life, and love it.

I had a terrible case of plantar fasciitis. I couldn't hardly walk, and I was crying for hours after my shift. I saw a podiatrist and he told me to get Brooks Addictions with a Powerstep from ProTech orthotic. I've never had shoes so expensive or comfortable. My feet never bother me anymore.

How very terrible! I pray that the Lord will comfort you during this time of sorrow and loss. I hope that you can get another job and get away from these people soon. So not right how you and your baby were treated. Sick, sad world!

There are so many job-hungry nurses right now that the profession, if you can still call it that, is like a meat grinder. If they don't retain you, no big deal to them. There are plenty of nurses who want your job, however abusive the situation may be. That is why my last manager felt free to call my house and scream at me for calling in sick while I laid in bed in terrible pain with a sprained back. Absolutely horrendous. This in the USA. God help us all!

I got about two and a half weeks two years ago, then they told me to sink or swim. I swam, but only by the GRACE OF GOD!

IMHO you need to see an MD who won't blow this off.

CRAAAAZY!

22-24 very demented residents (heavy psych needs). 17 walk and talk (Think seventeen 5'8" two-year olds who are not potty-trained). One nurse, two CNAs, and one shower aide for 5 hours of the shift.

I received and filled out the survey. The way the design of the survey was confusing, and may yield inaccurate data damaging to EC and EC grads. I believe that this is why EC warns that it may not be in the EC grad's interest to fill out the poorly (or suspiciously) designed survey. The appearance of this survey does not bode well. I shredded mine.

You'd best head for the hospital.

Does she have fever, flank or pelvic pain, pain or burning upon urination, or a change in the character of the urine. A UTI can cause confusion, but so can a host of other things

I wonder if the OP is an administrator fishing around for takers...uhh..suckers)

Is this happening in your area? Please report. It will soon become the law in my state that facilities may use QMAPs (Qualified Medication Assistive Personnel). They are being hired for a few dollars less than nurses are paid. They will undergo 4 months of classes, and 40 hours of clinical time to be qualified. The facility will then employ fewer nurses. I would like to hear how other nurses feel about this.

You need to get out of there at least for a while.

Are you handling any antineoplastics?

If you can stick it out, you are going to be one fantastic nurse! I don't know how you are doing that. You must be some kind of miracle person.

My Alzheimer's patient yell "Waitress! Waitress!" at me. They come up to the nurses station thinking they are at a bus terminal. They want a ticket out of there, now! Nothing these dear people do bothers me. The phone calls from families who call me to relieve their guilt at not coming to see their mothers bothers me though. They seem to think that visiting me on the phone is good enough. I really try to be polite. I have a MILLION things to do!

All the jobs in Califoooorinaa, are filled by happy nurses with ratios who are getting really good pay. It's becaaause theyyyy had the guts to walk out. We'd all be employed, and the hospitals, annoyed, if we all joined the CNA! California Nurses Association, that is!

I would have to agree with him. They are piecing our skills out to other professions one at a time. I'll have an individual with 40 hours of training passing my meds by this time next year...for cheap.

I couldn't begin to tell you. I don't know if I could unite the nurses at my facility. For one thing, it would have to be done on the sneak. The first problem is just what you mentioned, nurses have to eat, and pay the bills. I would lose my job so fast, it would make my head spin. One nurse or two speaking out, or saying the "U" word, would be fired summarily. The second problem is that trying to unite nurses is like trying to herd cats. Everyone has their own ideas how it should be. It would be a challenge to get nurses to work together. It would be like trying to get Lutherans and Pentecostals together on a Sunday morning. (Not at the ball game.) See how nurses treat each other? Unity would mean that nurses were out for the best interest of other nurses. People would have to put themselves second, and the good of the profession first. The problems with unions is that nurses have hired business people to run the unions, and the unions have sold the nurses out to the corporations. I don't know what the solution might be. Let me pray about it a while.

We are powerless ONLY because we are not united. We think that we can't do anything about any of this because the corporations have all the resources. Nurses have forgotten that we ARE the resource. If nurses would unite, we would have safe ratios, better benefits, higher wages, and less abuse to put up with, and our patients would only benefit.

So what you are saying is that the one Medication Aide replaced two licensed nurses. They hired the med aide, and laid off to LVNs. With nursing jobs already so hard to come by, are we just going to let this happen to our jobs? Is there any way to stop this from happening? The nurses lose jobs, the residents lose the safety of having a licensed professional administer their meds. The nurses and patients lose again. The corporations win again. When will it stop? :angryfire