LokiM

We prone most of our resp. pts who are on vents. it takes 5 to 6 staff and at least half an hour to position them properly. We leave them proned for a minimuim of 6 hours, perferably 12 hours shifting position as we can. It has been very effective for us but boy is it a pain for staff!

Thanks everyone, my gut reaction was to to tell my manager to grow a pair and tell whoever was complaining to put on their big girl panties! There is enough work for everyone and if someone wants extra work and extra pay go for it! Just leave me out out of it. I know of several other jobs that are paid an additional dollar an hour that no one is doing so it isnt like there isn't emough work to go around! I have been asked to be on three seperate committees this week alone! Each of these committees pays for the time spent on their activities ( no freebies here : D) I'm already on two committees and don't really want to take on any others.

Our charge nurses do not have assignments so I expect more of them then I would if they had an assignment. And yes, I am currently working as an ICU charge nurse. It is policy at our facility that all drips are double checked by the charge nurse so I shouldn't have to ask or remind her. As for charge nurses with less then 5 years experience, I dont think they should be. But this is not an ideal world. And sometimes nurses are assigned to charge duty without the experience that would make them as "all knowing" as I would like. After 20 plus years as a nurse I am not as all knowing as I would like to be. Mostly what I am looking for here is what do you find most helpful from your CN? I'm looking for ideas that I can incorporate into what I already do to make life easier for the nurses I am working with. And yes, I expect a lot but as a charge nurse I do alot. And as ICU are more intimate enviornments then a busy M/S floor my expectations differ. I try to do what I listed as well as draw labs, start lines, assist the docs with procedures, follow up with ancillary departments ie lab, blood bank etc. I think that I work harder as a CN then I do when I have a patient assignment....and to think that I'm looking for more to do!

I expect my charge nurse to: Be more knowledgable about our patient population then I am. To try and make sure we have adequate staffing to care for our patients (not always possible, but please make those calls!) To check my drips without being asked To monitor acuity and help where most needed, or get the needed help. To answer call lights if not busy. To call Drs and let me know the outcome To advocate for me when needed To challenge me and guide me into being a better nurse. To cover my patients for breaks. What do you expect?

I don't understand this. I was hired to do several very specific tasks as well as my usual nursing care and charge duties. My compensation is calculated to include these tasks. As an example, I am responsible for ordering supplies that are not part of our units regular stock. Because I am responsible for this I get paid an additional dollar an hour for every hour I work, whether or not I'm actually ordering supplies or doing patient care. Today I was called in to my managers office and was told that there had been a complaint that I was doing these tasks too often and no one else had an oppurtunity to do these same tasks. The complaint wasn't that I spent too much time on these tasks but that others weren't given the oppurtunity to do these tasks. Now, I am supposed to offer others the oppurtunity to do the tasks I was hired to do, even though my manager says he is quite happy with how I am doing the tasks and has had no problem with my performence in the 5 years I have been doing these doing these tasks. I still get paid whether I do the tasks or not and if someone else does these tasks then they expect to get compensated for doing so. It does not make sense to me to pay someone else for what you are already paying me to do. I was blown away that my manager did not tell whoever was complaining that these tasks were already assigned and if they wanted to do extra, other tasks were available, not that they could also do mine!