CocoaGirl

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on where to find the guidelines for staffing ratios or how to have them changed? I have called the Renal Network for my area & was told to check with the board of nursing. I had no luck there either, I ...

I just read a company email that FMC is boasting a "9% increase in revenue to $1,876 million & dialysis services revenue also increased 9% to $1,677 million" for the second quarter of 2009. But when the employees at our clinic asked a few months ...

I had my CNN for several years, but decided it was too time consuming & expensive to maintain the 60 CEU's. There is no reimbursment from my employer for seminars, journals etc. & It is hard to find free CEU'S related to nephrology. There ...

I feel that the staff RN(s) get the short end of the stick, so to speak, especially if you are the only nurse beside the clinical mgr. The RN is required to fill in for the PCT when they are off, but if the CM can't fill in for you then you can't h...

If you are employed by FMC you are not allowed to transfuse in the outpatient clinic. This is a HUGE issue for our patients because they have to go to the lab to have a T&CM drawn (another needle stick). The patient will have to go the next day...

I have always been curious WHY FMC is not considered a Monopoly in the industry. FMC has the market in its back pocket since it manufactures their own machines, dialyzers, saline. They own Phoslo, Venofer & want us to push our patients to utili...

I can't say you will be on your feet all day, but it will be 95% of the time (unless you are lucky to get a pee break or a lunch). The RN does pre & post nursing assessments on all patients, administers all meds, sets up & tears down machine...

I have been through a Fresenius acquisition, our unit was private & was bought out by FMC. It was a nightmare and still is, be prepared that staff who quit will not be replaced. Almost all of our support staff were let go: HR, unit clerk, rece...

Telling someone their patient is "Tachy". That usually gets a look or two.

FMC is famous for not being totally up front with potential employees about hours, traveling & training. Only certain facilities are training facilities & if you are hired for a different facility you WILL have to travel to the training faci...

Yep......the extra day(s) off is so not worth it because of the ridiculous hours that we work. I would really love to do the ten hour shifts I was hired for.

Sounds like we work for the same company. I know what you mean about having two 30 min breaks deducted when you don't even get to take one break. These hours are killer, I couldn't do two days in a row.

We work 13-15 hour shifts Mon, Wed & Fri. The days are very long, non-stop & there is no such thing as a 30 minute lunch break. (Even though the company knows we can't take longer than 10 mins) we still get 30 mins deducted. I could not do...

Are there any infection control recommendations for caring for a C-Diff positive patient in the chronic setting? Our unit has an alert & oriented nursing home resident who is obese & requires a hoyer lift to transfer into & out of the dia...

The foot rests were removed last week & the patients do NOT like it at all. Our patients can't push themselves back in their chairs, their legs dangle and it is just uncomfortable for them. Each patient was given a memo that was written by corpor...

The footrests in our area will be removed by technical ASAP according to the latest memo. Each unit will have to purchase "portable" foot stools for staff to tote around for each pt to use to get into their chair. I don't believe that they will be ...

Management did away with our pillows & cases (our pillows were only 1 yr old & in excellent shape). The clinical manager put out a memo to each pt about the pillows being an "infection control issue" and they are to now provide their own pill...

FMC does make a profit from every medicare pt, the last newsletter put out to all employees boasts about the profit margin & the increase that was made on each tx. Every medicare pt in our clinics has a secondary insurance to pick up the 20% not...

I was curious how other units provide oxygen for their chronic O2 dependant patients or do they have to bring their own O2 for tx. I'm not talking about providing O2 in an emergency situation but O2 dependant patients. There is currently an issue wit...

I too received the union letter, but no one has approached me yet. Do you think a union will make any difference? One of the "old timers" at a nearby clinic told us to be careful about this union issue because in the past employees have been fired or...

I agree with you TraumaRus, a portable O2 tank will not last that long & the patient will run out. This is the issue we are dealing with in the clinics, who is going to be held liable if something happens? Can the non-medical area mgr who is maki...

The staff at our unit do work together, or we would never survive. There is not time for breaks or lunch because we have such a long turnaround. In the moring our first shift starts going on @ 0700 and finishes @ 0800. We do nursing report and the ...

Scheduling is a nighmare. In the example schedule how do you take a pt off at 10 am & have another one going on at 10:15 in a different chair within the same pod? This is the issue we have with our clinic, there are no extra hands to help tear do...

I totally agree with Lacie, I work with a few very good techs who honestly feel in 2010 they will not be working in dialysis. There is so much anxiety among the techs, and to top it off they have to pay for their test out of pocket & were told t...

You must work for Fresenius, I personally don't feel that someone without a nursing background should be in a FA position. You did the correct thing, after all the FA doesn't have a license to lose, but you do.