Biscuit12

I have an AA in Liberal Arts, a BS in Biology, and a MS in Adult Health Nursing. Now I work in the IT department (there was no "nursing informatics" when I was in school). Go figure!

You wrote: "My bf's ex saw him and told him that I got her fired for calling her DON and telling the DON that she was calling my house while she was employed there. I did call to tell her the DON that I was tired of her calling from her work and asking for my bf anmd that ohter people were also calling there at my house for her and gave the don their names, i told her that if it didnt stop i was calling the police, whihch I didnt. I didnt call police on her at all...I let it go because the calls stopped.......3 weeks later, she tells my bf I am getting subpoened in court....come to find out, I know a girl that works there and that girl told me, that she didnt get fired of that because of me, she got fired for sleeping on her job and whistelblowers told on her...LOL...anyways, do you think I am going to get into trouble over this anyhow? They have not contacted me yet. And I guess he told my bf, that she cant get unemployment because of me too and that is my fauklt? HA HA I didnt tell the ***** to sleep on h er job! " I had to read it several times because it was unclear to me as well. It's written as if speaking, not in clear sentences, and uses lots of abbreviations (bf? I'm guessing boyfriend...?) I'm not flaming you... this is a casual site, but it is hard to read - you asked. Anyway - I think I get it now, and it sounds like one of those very nasty domestic situations to me... My personal opinion is that those things should be kept separate from work. Calling your boyfriend's ex-girlfriend's boss to complain that she is calling you at home is not the way I would have handled it, because that can get very complicated if she decides to say you were harassing her (instead of the other way around, if you can believe that!) Now she can accuse you of threatening her "right to work". It just becomes a cat fight. Although not as instantly satisfying, I think the most correct thing to do would be to contact the police about the harassing phone calls, and let them take it from there. If they trace them to the hospital, then great... the hospital might get mad and fire the offenders. If they are tracked to other places as well, then that's good too, the police can take care of that. That keeps you out of it with the girl's employer.

Another thing to think about here is how hard it is to change your role within a group of people that you have worked with for a long time. Before you get too mad at the new RN, remember that she is now moving into a different role, and a different level of legal responsiblity. In her mind, she worked hard for that degree, and now she has it, and she's ready to use it. It probably would have been easier for her if she had started working elsewhere once she got her new degree - where folks had not known her in her old role. I've been through this before myself. It's hard for people to look at you in a new role when they are used to you filling a different one. Then if you protest, people think you're being arrogant. It's not an easy thing to do. Not having all the details, I don't know if that's happening here... but I have this question: is the staff on the unit expecting certain behavior out of this new RN because she used to be an LPN on the unit, and they thought she'd "understand", or are they really expecting her to act like they expect other RNs on the unit to behave?

But there is a difference.. a legal liability one. You can't just say in court "I wasn't being a nurse that day". That's why "being the nurse" requires a license, and involves so much assessment, planning, intervention, and, unfortunately, documentation. I've felt this pressure from CNAs before - because I have stuff to do that they don't value, or don't even know about, they assume that I should be doing the stuff they're hired to do. Don't get me wrong... I'll always help a patient in need, and I'll help the CNA if I possibly can. But I think that nursing is one of the few PROFESSIONS that has a lot of trouble truly delegating tasks to others, and has trouble standing by that delegation. Goodness knows, doctors don't seem to have that problem!

That's an interesting system, but it seems to me that it should be two lists.. one for CNAs, and one for Nurses... because the roles aren't the same. It's not that nurses can't, won't, or are "above" that sort of work.. its just that there is work that nurses have to do that CNA's don't have to do... and that responsibility doesn't go away if a nurse decides to "play CNA" for a day. The unit should determine the number of nurses needed, and the number of CNA's needed separately, in my opinion. Otherwise, they're wasting money on nurses when they don't really need them.

] The problem here isn't that folks with overlays don't do a good job of handwashing and glove wearing. The fact is, that even when you do a good job of these things, overlays STILL carry more bacteria, and studies have shown that this is true. It's a patient safety isssue, and not something that you can compensate for with handwashing and glove wearing.

It's always hard when changes like this are made... but ultimately, they are intended to make things better - not worse. I'm a nurse working in IT now since 1996. I can say this: computers don't fix broken processes. You have to fix the process, and then use the computer to automate it to make it more efficient, or faster. I don't know why your system is requiring that manual entry... most of them don't, or don't have to. Maybe that's a process issue that needs to be looked at? It's worth bringing to the attention of the project team. Changes like this are hard - it's hard to get used to new processes. Give yourself and the system time to adjust.

After reading your original message, and several of the replies, it occurs to me that there are two kinds of issues here: 1. Safety/gross out factors, and 2. Time/will I be a priority issues. I want to talk about the second one... as lots of others here have answered the first one really well. I think you need to really examine what you expect marriage to be like. Does it mean always having someone around when you come home, and never having to be alone? Does it mean being together all the time? Do you expect to define the culture of your marriage, or do you expect her to do it? Will you compromise? (news flash: you WILL compromise :) .) Once you're married, I think you'll find that lots of things are different from what you expected. And in the future, if you have kids, you'll find that changes everything yet again. The fact is, marriage is a pact to live life together... and do whatever it takes to make it work. I mean things like who's job is the "deciding job" in the family (or are they equal. Sometimes, this is an economic decision (like one spouse works because they make more money, while the other works less or stays home with kids). Sometimes it's a preference that one partner has... but you BOTH have to agree to it. Would you quit your job to move somewhere for your spouse's job? Would you expect her to? I don't mean to be risque... but I think a great example of this is the expectation that many men have about how much/how often they will have sex after they get married (seems never to be as much as they thought it would be :rotfl: ) But... they have no reason to know this in advance, really... they just never really thought about it. The fact of the matter is this: you and your wife will build the culture of your marriage TOGETHER. It may not look like your parent's marriage, or the marriage you envision now... what will define it and make it real is that you will have done it together. If you're not ready to accept that... and still hope that your marriage will fit some predetermined structure that you haven't shared with her... then you're not ready. I worked 3-11 shifts when I got engaged. Shortly after I was married, a 7-3 position opened up, and I took it. I had some exposure scares, but nothing really bad. That worked great while we were dinks (dual income, no kids). I started trying to have children, and ran into problems. I needed a change, and wanted to get out of the bedside "rat race". I moved to Information Technology, where I am today. I consider myself to be a "computer nurse" (also know as "informatics"). I work to apply computer solutions to the benefit of clinical care, and I work closely with the clinicians at the bedside. Happily, I am able to do this part time, day hours. Some day, I may have to return to bedside, odd shifts. If that happens, my husband and I will compensate... but the issue won't be as much about us spending time with each other as about spending time with the kids... you see.., the further along you move in life, the less the emphasis is on your personal needs, and the more on other priorities. I'm sure it will swing back around when our kids aren't as little. All things change. Good Luck

There are accelerated programs, depending on your current level of education. I attended the Vanderbilt "Bridge" program and went from having a BS in Biology from another school to having a Masters in Nursing. It was not easy, though.... its a challenge to get the basic skills in and the Master's skills in in that time frame. Not for the faint of heart. I think there may be a couple of other places that offer similar bridge programs. Before doing something like that, though, consider doing something that gets you some clinical exposure so you can know if you will like it (like volunteering or working in a non-licensed position in a clinical area). Working with sick people is not for everyone, and not all types of nursing are for everyone.

Hello all. I am an RN that works in Information Technology. In an effort to better support our customers (ie, our users within the hospital), I am endeavoring to learn as much as I can about how other hospitals handle clinical staffing and budgeting (and ensure safety, productivity, and satisfaction). At my hospital, we utilize a system to determine patient acuity. That information is used to make staffing decisions (with census information), and to make budget predictions. We also have a time and attendance system. We do not have a computerized staff scheduling system. There is interest in developing an interface between our T&A system and our acuity system to get actual staffing data back into the acuity system for reporting reasons. I think this would have to occur biweekly, as there isn't a great way to interface to a T&A system any more frequently than the pay period frequency. Most of the hospitals I've talked to so far have any range of variations on this theme (some don't have acuity, but do have scheduling... like Ansos, some don't have any of it and use grids, etc). It seems that some of these functions can be found in any mix of these systems. Would you please share your scenario, whether or not you think it is effective, and if not, what you think would make it better? Also, do you flex staffing? Do you flex the budget? Thanks