Mandee

There is no way to know for sure if he is addicted to lortab or not...Patient's with chronic pain don't look the same as someone with acute pain..so it's possible for pain to be severe and him to be joking etc...As far as the methadone goes, I would say he was not on it long enough to titrate and evaluate the effect..jmo.

No way can you do an assessment on a patient without signing consents first...and a 5pm admission would defintely be the on call nurse....at least I know it wouldn't be me if I worked all day.

Please don't take this the wrong way but from reading your posts it seems to me that you really don't like home care and have been looking for employment elsewhere since you started with your current agency. Home health is not for everyone and I hope you'll find something soon that makes you happier. Best wishes. Mandee

Not you Gerry, CapeCodMermaid....:)

Where on the Cape is that? Just curious because I work for a hospice on Cape and we don't make anything near that...That being said this is the third hospice(three different states) that I've worked at, we move a lot..hubby in the military, and $32 is high but not unheard of if it's hard to find good nurses in your area.

Depends a lot on where you are located?

We have nurses who prefer street clothes and others who prefer uniforms. Personally I wear scrubs, simply because it is easier for me, don't have to think about what to wear in the morning etc...I used to wear street clothes but made the change a couple of years ago. I found no difference in patient/family interaction and sometimes the gangsters watch out for the "nurse" Haha! I think it's all what you are comfortable in. :) Mandee

I think the answers to your questions are going to be different as each agency does things slightly different. At our hospice the nurses work 8-4, M-F, no on-call(we have full time on call staff) but we do work every 4th weekend seeing patients who need to be seen on the weekends(schedueled visits), we have a day off the week before and a day off the week after the weekend that we work. We case manage approx. 12 patients. Hope that helps. Mandee

Congratulations! No real advice just wanted to say that it is a wonderfully rewarding experience and you will learn more from your patients then you could possibly imagine. You'll do great! Mandee

Hello! We will be moving to Cape Cod soon and I wondered if anyone could give me info. on the Cape Cod Hospital system and Cape Cod VNA, particularly what the pay scale is and if anyone is working at either one, how you like it. I think I've read that nurses are unionized and wondered what that was like. Thanks in advance! Mandee:specs:

All this nail talk reminds me of a nurse I interviewed a few months back, nails were bitten down to the quick, it was really disgusting, I felt bad for him because I know it must be a terrible habit to break but I didn't hire him either. Mandee

I'm sorry for your loss. It does sound as though your Mom could have recieved better care but I hope you can find peace in knowing you were there for her, my thoughts are with you. Mandee

Jim, I'm just curious as to what your wishes are, if you would want to be maintained on artificial nutrition if you were in Terri's shoes.

Patients in PVS have no perception of pain/hunger etc...therefore it's a lot different than "starving" a conscious person like Scott Peterson or a dog for that matter.

I've been a hospice nurse 8 yrs and if it's a crisis we give MSIR and even MS Contin rectally, we do get an order asap for an alternate route/drug but it does work in a crunch, our medical director will write an order for admin. pr. The bedside pain manager which is an excellent resource for any hospice nurse states it can be given safely rectally. Mandee

Approx. 120 at this time. Mandee

Thanks for the input! Mandee

Thanks for the input! Mandee

We have full time on call nurses who are paid a salary, they work one week on and one week off, 5pm-8am during the week and all weekend, our case managers are paid $2/hr to carry the pager and then their hourly wage for any work they do(visits or calls), they don't do a lot of call though due to the full time call nurses. Mandee

We have full time on call nurses who are paid a salary, they work one week on and one week off, 5pm-8am during the week and all weekend, our case managers are paid $2/hr to carry the pager and then their hourly wage for any work they do(visits or calls), they don't do a lot of call though due to the full time call nurses. Mandee

We also have a full time admissions nurse so case managers rarely do admissions, we have three full time on call nurses so the case managers only do back up call(if the primary call nurse gets too busy) and usually end up doing back up call one weekend every other month. Case loads vary depending on what's going on with the patients, 12-16 is the norm with LPNs and prn staff helping out with visits. We do have a lot of LTCF patients which I think helps (ie: if the nurse is seeing four patients at one facility it cuts down on drive time etc....) It can be hard to staff sometimes if you have a sudden increase in census. Mandee

We have a comfort kit but would like to maybe change it some, so I was wondering what other hospices have in your comfort kits, I have heard of different kits for different diagnosis, ie: specific kits for COPD and a different kit for Ca patients. Thanks! Mandee

No but I would love to go to the NHPCO conference in Atlanta in April! I'm going to hit my boss up next week to see if she'll help defray the cost. Have fun in New Orleans!! Mandee

:)

Hi! I used to be an ICU nurse and have worked in hospice for the last several years and love it! There are advance practice nurses in hospice but there are a lot more who are not NPs. We look for nurses who are compassionate, have good rounded medical knowledge, good judgement, great people skills and nurses who believe in the hospice philosophy(ie: comfort care at the end of life) I think it has to be a passion and I wish you the best! Mandee