Shae

Currently studying through home study for my RN. Hope to enroll into Excelsior's soon. BTW, from south central Virginia.:)

We have the same problems at our facility. So bad that I have been called into the office as an LPN for complaints made by a CNA. This particular CNA seems to get an attitude when asked to do something; then goes to our manager and complains. I have never asked her to do anything beyond her scope of practice. We are really short handed most of the time with nurses and often have 10 or more patients each nurse with a variety of conditions: telemetry, MI's, COPD, etc; everything a med/surg floor comes along with. Rarely do we have enough coverage to have a "Charge" nurse; so we have all our meds, any treatments, OR preps, charting, checking MAR's and chart checks.

Had a pt. just the other night I had to push IV Lopressor on. However, he was on telemetry and his BP was 209/129. This was written as a prn order; not just a now order. Main diagnosis is CVA and his vital sign sheet shows extremely high BP's multiple times during his stay on a daily basis. He could only receive the prn dose Q6hrs.

As in any business, the customer is considered ALWAYS right; even when they are wrong. The comments the patients/family make about the nursing staff can make you or break you. Yes, patients do have rights; and considered customers; but there are times that the patient/family member go overboard with their demands. Most patients/family members forget that they are not the "only one" needing care. We try to give all our patients the best of care and it is difficult when one wants you at their side the whole time they are there.

:uhoh21: I work the 7p-7a shift as an LPN. There are nights that we have 10, 11, 12 or more patients a piece. What makes it worse, it that we usually do not have but 3 nurses on the floor without a "charge". The one RN out of us 3 is expected to take a patient load-usually equal to ours-and still considered responsible if a patient goes bad on us. Our nurse manager does not show up to help us out. We are all really very angry over the situation and feel our patients are not getting the care that they deserve. Infact, we know they are not. We care about our patients and strive to meet their needs; but staffing makes it impossible to do all the things we feel we need to in order to give the patients at least adequate care. We have telemetry patients as well. All of our patients just like any other facility are sick and with this makes it difficult to comprehend that they are not the "only" patient the nurse is assigned too. We should not be asking our patients to deal with us; but our facilities should get off their rumps and make it possible for staffing to deal with our patient needs. Our patients deserve much better care than any one nurse is able to provide for their patient load. This fact stresses those of us out that truly want to be all we can be for each and every one of our patients. I say my prayers every evening on my way to work to start my shift that the Lord will give me the wisdom to do the very best for my patient load and that no one suffers due to the lack of staffing. And that the scheduled nurses and nursing assistants can pull together as a team to make things better.