starletRN

It's so easy to slip into that habit. I think the biggest contributor to that is the time crunch. Having to get so much done in a certain period of time. The paper work comes to mind the most. Some nights I feel that's all I do is paperwork.

To me it's not about whether someone is a LPN or RN. It's about the intelligence and work ethic of the individual. I've seen slackers in both groups and I've seen some great nurses in both as well. I have noticed that hospitals in my area are hiring fewer LPNs but that seems to be only with the hospitals. That is a shame because in my first nursing job I learned a lot from the LPNs on my floor.

I work nights now so I don't have to deal with family like I used to. I do see them sometimes between 7p-8:30p and I just tell them what I tell the patient. "Use your call bell if you need anything." That seems to cut down on the visits to the nursing station for water, ice, juice, etc. Of course, there are some family members that will do that anyway. But it doesn't happen as often. If they come to me with a request and I have a more urgent matter I just tell them I'll be there shortly and get back to what I'm doing. No explanation about how I have other priorities or that we're short staffed. I get to it when I can and I try to be nice about it the whole time. The general public doesn't understand nursing priorities. For them it is about blankets, ice and juice. It makes them feel like they have some control over their family member's care if they can take charge of these things. Now with that said, it doesn't matter if you're a health professional or not. You don't have to understand a nurse's job to understand basic common courtesy and I've seen some rude "customers" in all the jobs I've had over the years.

Also keep everything within reach. Patients who have zero safety awareness try to walk across the room for their water cup, phone, snack etc. then they fall.

I didn't know I was orienting until the night I came to work. I was off for a couple of days and the daily schedule for all staff is only posted a day or 2 ahead of time. So you don't always know who you're working with until you show up. I come in at 11p and can only contact a supervisor in case of emergency. I guess I could have called before my second shift to talk to someone but I have voiced my concerns about other issues in the past and let's just say it didn't go over very well. I guess it is what it is and I'll just have to learn to deal with it.

I think the assumption even at our facility is that our residents sleep all night. Most of them do but there are quite a few that have their days and nights mixed up. There are also several bolus feedings at night, labs, trach patients, treatments etc. We also have hospice patients that need meds q 2 hours as well. I guess I just think that if they want to orient someone properly they shouldn't do it on a night when there's only 1 nurse on the floor.

I could be wrong but is it unreasonable for my supervisor to expect me to orient someone on a night when I have 55 residents? I have only been working at this LTC for 4 months. I started out on one unit and they moved me to another 3 nights ago. Normally,the floor is split between two nurses but for the last two nights I have had the whole floor. The other nurse had the weekend off. I was only a nurse for a year when I took this job due to a move, so there are times when I still have questions. I barely feel qualified sometimes to orient anyone. Much less expect to orient them with that many residents. This is probably nothing for some of you guys but for me it was a little overwhelming. Also, I was told this morning that I was supposed to be with her the whole time we were working. I asked her how she would learn best (this was her 4th and 5th night orienting) and she said that she would like to do as much as she could without me stepping in to help. Well, I allowed her some free rein. Which come to think of it, if I hadn't the day nurses might have been waiting for report 2 hours after their shift was supposed to start. Anyway, I am probably just being a whiner. It just seemed like a bit much to expect.

Exactly. I have been in LTC for 4 months and my DON told me that I needed to work on my time management. Like you said, you have to have the time to manage it. I work nights and I'm the only nurse with 35 residents. I spend 1 1/2 to 2 hours doing charting at the end of my shift because it takes a back seat to other things they want me to get done. And they still assume that residents sleep during night shift. Anyway, my residents were more acute since they're transitioning from hospital to home. So I have now been moved to an "easier" section of our facility and they're bringing over a more experienced nurse to make sure everything gets done. I was getting it all done. Just not as quickly as they thought I could, I presume.

ICAM I started a couple of months ago at a LTC. Had to move so I had to quit my med-surg job. At the hospital we helped each other out and I didn't hear nurses bad mouthing another because something had to be passed on to the next shift. At the LTC where I work now it's a daily thing to hear one of the nurses complaining because the previous shift didn't get everything done. "It's not fair that I have to do this...blah blah blah." I'm not saying that hospitals in general have better folks. Not even close. There are bad apples in every bunch. It just seems that his particular facility has a lot of back-biting and finger pointing going on. Makes me extremely uncomfortable.

Thank you very much. That means a lot to me. I'm going to save this post so that when I'm feeling like I haven't done enough I can go back and read it. Thanks again!

Also, I wanted to add that as a nurse with less than 1 year under my belt, I put a lot of pressure on myself to get things done at work. It's nice to know that what I'm doing now is considered a heavy load. It makes me feel like less of a failure.

We had two nurses when I was first hired and then he left and we had more CNAs too. It seems like right after I was hired we had less staffing. Go figure. I hear they have a high turnover rate.

41 residents; 1 RN and 2 CNAs I have only been there a month and am having a really hard time getting it all done.

I just started LTC and I'm feeling the same way. It was a shock after being in med/surg for a year and improving my assessment skills to come to LTC where assessments seem to only be done on the sick folks and new admissions. Also, it would be great to get faster at the med pass. But I thought that might get better as I get to know the patients. I'm still technically in orientation right now.

That's why we had to have English Comp as a prereq for the nursing program. They recognized that it's an excellent idea for nurses to know how to write well. I know that one English class is not going to make the perfect writer but it sure helps. But for formal writing such as resumes? There's no excuse for not proofreading. Even if they can't do it themselves they should at least find someone who can. How can they expect to land a job like that? I turned mine over to a friend who proofread mine. There was no way I was going to send out my resumes without a second opinion.