inkydorei

I had a nurse manager tell me once, "We as a healthcare industry have created this monster, now we as nurses have to feed it". It's the Hilton Healthcare effect. I work LTC, and trust me, the disrespect is everywhere.

If you put in a 2 weeks notice at the nursing home, you are not burning bridges....or like prettymica says, just go prn, with notice. As an LVN, you will probably have a hard time getting in at a hospital, so if i were you, i'd jump at this chance if working in the hospital is what you want to do.

As a floor nurse in LTC, I would have to say that this wouldn't work with myself or the nurses I know. What you are proposing is basically unscheduled mandatory overtime. I don't care what sort of bonus my superviser offers me, I don't want to be told I *have* to work OT. I signed up for 40hrs a week. If I wanted the obligations of management, I would have applied for a management position. just my 2 cents :)

Thanks for all the replies. The only reason i heard about this is because i worked this past weekend. i normally only work mon-fri. The w/e nurses are apparently the ones who do this the most, but a brand new nurse (one month out of school) was telling me that he did it the other evening. i told him that as far as i know, he shouldn't be doing that. i only take telephone orders, or sometimes when we fax labs etc, a doc will fax back an order, but i transcribe that to our telephone order sheet, and clearly mark "via fax' and attach a copy of the dr's handwritten fax. i will talk to my DON about this. She may not even be aware that it is happening. These nurses who don't want to pick up the phone and call the doc are setting us (the facility) up for some BIG problems. thanks again for all the comments. :) inky

oh, and for clarification purposes, when i said i have been doing this a long time, i meant working in LTC......NOT texting docs :)

i'm assuming they are using their own phones. There are no company cell phones available. i'm like you, Michelle, i want to talk to a live person. We had one doc who would fax us orders, and i didn't like that either. i was just wondering if this is acceptable practice in other LTCs.

i had a nurse tell me the other day to "just text Dr. H and he will text you back the order" What??!! i have not been told by Dr H or management that this is accepted practice, yet several other nurses have said 'oh yea, we do that all the time.' Do you text your doctors for orders? Do you feel comfortable doing so? Is the response time shorter when communicating with the doc this way? Have you ever sent a text to a doc only to have him/her say "I didn't get it"? i've been doing this for a long time---i will never forget the day i learned to use a fax machine! i think my biggest concern is sending a text to a wrong number, with all my patient's information, which would result in a HIPAA violation. Any comments, advice, thoughts?

i've never had enough time to do my work AND someone else's!!!

I've been working in LTC for almost 20 years. death definitely has a distinct smell, as does staph, cancer, and c-diff. My husband calls me a bloodhound because of my acute sense of smell....sometimes it's not such a good thing.

i have not read thru all the comments, so i will be replying directly to your post by telling you a little about my story. When i was 17, i had my daughter. Her father was not in the picture; i was still living at home. i decided (like you) that i wanted my child to have a better life than i had. When my daughter turned 2y/o, a friend told me about LVN school. The main attraction for me was getting ahead in life and always being able to provide for her. Right before i started classes, i overheard my father saying "what does she think she's doing? This is just a phase she's going thru; she'll never finish". His doubt fueled my desire to succeed. There were MANY times when i wanted to give up, but i kept hearing his comment in my head, and i pushed on until i finished. i've been a nurse now for almost 22 years. i did not have the passion you have. i did not have the excitement you have. All i had was the desire to change my situation for my daughter's sake, and the determination to prove my father wrong. i love what i do now and can't imagine doing anything else. If i had listened to the one person who had no confidence in me, i would probably be a welfare mom now....but i refused to let someone tell me i couldn't do it. You have passion, excitement and a desire to succeed. Yes, it will be hard, but it will be worth it. i wish you luck in whatever you decide!! lis

I worked with a new RN once who was charting on a patient with pneumonia. She charted "breathing sounds good, no weasels present." I just had to laugh and be thankful that I was in a weasel free zone