Jerry99

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely try that in my next interview. I just found out that they also let LPNs act as DONs at this facility. I'm wondering now if I'd be able to negotiate that extra 10% when they can hire someone else for less $.

I'm looking at a possible job at an assisted living facility as a DON (RN here btw). It is a 28 bed facility that takes care of residents with alzheimers. I have experience in acute care ccu, psych nursing, and currently work in a nursing home with residents ranging from totally dependent with numerous medical problems to guys that can do everything on their own. My question is what would be a reasonable salary to ask for? The job is M-F weekends off (I'd still have to take call 24/7, so the M-F part is just in theory), but the people I've talked to say that they haven't had to work a crazy amount of hours. I'm making about $56 a year right now. Any thoughts on what a good starting number would be? I'd prefer not to take a big pay cut, but at the same time I work all three shifts where I'm at right now, and its starting to get to me. Thanks for any advice.

We've talked about going to osha, but aren't they more about hazardous materials, and safety issues of the actual hospital building. Could they help change anything, about being pretty much defenseless when being assaulted, and not having any rights to protect yourself without the risk of getting fired. Some good news though, they got rid of the guy that assaulted me. Not because he was violent to me and a bunch of the aids. They got rid of him because he was an elopement risk. So that says to me, you can beat up on all the people that work here and nothing will happen, but if you try and find a way to escape you're going to higher security.

So I got assaulted by one of our psych patients, who doesn't really belong in minimum security. I got messed up pretty bad, and got sent to the ER. I also went to the sheriffs department to press charges against this client, because he's not NGRI yet, he's there for pretrial. When I got done giving my statement the deputy told me that probably nothing will end up happening because to C.O.O. (the big boss) of the hospital won't cooperate with them. He's said this has happened several times before, someone gets hurt and presses charges but the sheriff can't do anything because this lady won't work with them. My question is: is that legal to do? Secondly, the place where I work has gotten to the point where a client can walk up to you and sucker punch you, and then start yelling , "I'm calm, I'm calm" and we can't do anything about it. But if a client just says that a staff member did or said something wrong to them, they get put under investigation and can't work for a week or two. Is this just the norm for psychiatric hospitals. Is there a reason why psych hospitals can't be run more like they do in DOC? I'm only talking about forensic hospitals, I don't mean that geripsych and alzheimer's wards should be like that. Several of the people I work with have gotten hurt, and the administration is aware of this, because they have a department that gets a fax everytime someone gets hurt. Is there anything, or anyone I or we as a group could talk to to be able to protect ourselves. I don't want to quit, because the benefits are great and I like most of the people I work with. Thanks for letting me rant. Any thoughts are welcome.

I don't think that we can press charges because he has already been found NGRI and has a guardian. I've been told that once someone has been declared NGRI or permanently incompetent that its pointless to press charges.

There is a paper trail. Every time that he goes into restraints, hits somebody, or steals things, an incident report is filled out and a note is made in the team notes in his chart. That is what makes me so mad, the higher up see that this has been going on for some time now. I guess they just want to wait until someone gets hurt really bad, because it's sure not going to be them because they're in the offices all day.

Hey Everybody, Was wondering if anybody else has experienced something like this before: I work in a minimum security psych ward. We are an SLP or social learning program, that uses a token economy. There is one patient on this ward who belongs in intermediate security at the very least, for several reasons. He has polydipsia and has gained 10lbs in just over an hour, but our treatment team leader won't let us remove him from the fountain when he guzzles, and even if we did try that he is so violent that someone would get hurt. Almost everyday he pushes his way into our token store and takes whatever he wants, and once again if anyone tells him no, he swings at them or lunges for their leg and tries to bite them. He has been referred to intermediate security twice before, and the team leader is reluctantly referring him again. The people who make these decisions are never on the wards and aren't the ones who have to get the crapped knocked out of them whenever this patient goes off. The reason this worries me so much is that for most of the time that I work I am the ONLY male in the entire building. I don't mean to sounds sexist because I'm sure there are a lot of women who could kick my a$$, but with this guy I'm usually the only one who can deal with him until more people get to the ward to help, and even then its a real struggle to restrain him. His treatment plan is a joke and gets changed all the time or not followed very closely because all of the aides are afraid of him and we aren't staffed well enough to deal with him. Does anyone have any suggestions that would be useful at his upcoming transfer hearing? This is very frustrating because right now he pretty much runs the ward. Thanks for letting me vent.:angryfire

Hi everybody, I recently started a new job in mental health nursing at an inpatient facility. I am in a supervisor's role and am responsible for 1 ward primarily, and some of my duties include orientating new employees, and handling disciplinary actions. A new employee on my ward has been having quite a few problems in just his first week. He refuses to let anyone show him how to do paperwork, or programs on the ward, and he does not listen to anything I tell/ask him to do. All of the other employees on the ward have informed me of several inappropriate things he has said or done in front of the clients, and I have made my supervisor (who hired him) aware of it. Today at work he said some inappropriate things to a patient, and I had to give him a disciplinary letter for it. When I presented it to him he denied that it happened (although I had witnesses that overhead him, and the patient he said it to came to me as well). Then he began cussing at me and said he was going to go over my head and get it fixed. I guess my question is should I be doing something else with him. I've tried to be patient, but it seems he's not going to work out, and I don't want to just keep whining to my supervisor. Any advice, as I am new to the role of supervisor. Thanks for reading and letting me vent a little.:banghead::banghead:

Hey everybody. Just recently switched from ICU nursing to psych nursing. Since I've been here I've noticed (and so have a lot of other people) that the training they provide in order to safely take down a patient who is attacking pts or staff, while on paper it looks like it could work, but in real life situations is pretty much useless. Know what I mean? I'm all for trying to take down the patient without harming them, but at what cost? Am I supposed to allow myself and the other staff get hurt before letting the patient get hurt. Does anyone have some techniques that could be used to be more effective to take someone down. I've been thinking of trying to learn judo, but don't know if it would be too rough on the patients. I realize that the best thing to do would be to talk them down, but on those rare occasions that you cant talk them down, I want to know some ways to protect myself from getting hurt by some of the scarier patients. Thanks for listening to me rant j

Thanks for the advice. That does make a lot of sense. I do want to have a lot of options for later in my career, and so far this seems like the path I would like to pursue. The only thing I need to do is find a good online program that I could handle with my night shift hours, oh and then make myself go back to school. Thanks J

Hi everyone love the forum. I've gotta lot of questions so here goes. (sorry if they've already been answered somewhere on here) First: Can anybody name some online adn to msn/np programs that are totally online (no campus visits or anything like that). Second: What a rough estimate of how long this will take me. ( My hospital will pay for up to six credits a semester, so I'll be taking that many at least). Third: Are there any programs that let you do the classes at your own pace? i.e. if I could get the class done in two months as opposed to four or five, could I do that? I really don't want to go to school for 10 more years:cry:!!! Fourth: Would I earn enough extra money as an NP to make up for the extra liability of writing scripts, and etc. Five: To anybody who already is a NP, was all the extra training and school worth it. Do you find it more rewarding then bedside nursing? Thanks in advance Look forward to hearing from you J

Wow. Lot of replies, took me awhile to read them. Thanks

Hi, first post so please go easy. I'm an ASN and I currently work night shift in the ICU at the local hospital. Lately I'm starting to feel unsatisfied at this job. I like the work, but the hours are starting to get to me. There are currently no dayshift jobs available at this hospital, and the next closest one is about 40 miles away. I can't really afford to commute everyday b/c of gas prices and other bills I have. My question is this: should I go back to school and try to become a nurse practitioner. I've been thinking about this even before I went to RN school, and have been thinking about it a lot more lately. Also, does anyone know approximately how long this would take? (I say approximately because I realize that not being able to see my transcripts or knowing the course requirements of the school I'm thinking about, it would be impossible to have an exact timeframe.) MU has an online RN-BSN as well as online MSN/Practitioner program. I've been thinking about trying it, but don't want to spend several a billion years back in school. Any tips, feeling kind of lost right now. Thanks in advance Jerry