tirednursedude

Wow are you lucky,your clinical coordinators sound like our off shift supervisors. Ours unfortunately are has beens who cant work the floor anymore,think they know everything,yet just walk around not wanting to be bothered.When you tell them you need an ICU bed you would think they have to pay for it out of their own pocket.

I am mostly referring to off shift nursing supervisors that run the whole place while the floor managers arent there,particularily on evening and night shifts.

I have a question. What do your nursing supervisors do for you and your floors? Do they merely walk around looking cool,having the title,not wanting to be bothered? Or do they actually still do some nursing things? I was just wondering if they are all washed up has beens who can't handle the floor anymore or if any of them actually still do some nursing things to help the staff out in a pinch.

LPNs are going to go the way of the dodo in a hospital environment anyway.They belong in a SNU or nursing home,not a fast paced hospital. Between having to do all of their IV meds,do their charting,do their consents,do their discharges,asses their patients as well as yours,they are just more of a liability than they are helpful. Unless you totally trust your LPN to do the assessment well,you have to do it yourself.Then if anything happens to this patient down the road and the LPN didnt see it or didnt tell the RN,the RN covering the LPN is the one who gets popped. I would much rather have 7 patients on my own than have 5 and cover 2 LPN patients. They just don't belong in a hospital where things need to get done now and fast that an RN has to do for them.I hate to say all this,but it's the truth. Spend the extra year in school,become an RN,you will make twice as much and be much happier for it. LPNs dont make much more here than a patient care assistant/nurse aide, but you have 1000x the responsibility.Frankly most of the LPNs we have are lazy,they wanted a fast way out of school to make more than they could at wal mart.Again,sad but true.There are some dedicated LPNs,but at my hospital at least,1 of 5 is actually worth having there.

Yes exactly.We have the same losers come to ER with syncope,alcohol is .45. HELLO!!! Passing out is part of being drunk.We had one the other night,came in on the damn squad with vomiting,.29.These people are a waste of time and money,they are self pay,they use the squad like a taxi cab,they come in wanting every bit of food we have in the hospital,they want to go outside to smoke,they disturb the other patients (semiprivate rooms). The police will find someone staggering on the street,where theytake them,to ER!! They have been doing this for years obviously,let them stagger home. If someone wants to stop drinking,they will check themselves into a detox center.A medsurg floor is not a detox unit and it is actually illegal for med surg units where i live anyway to treat etoh'ers with ativan and heroin users with methadone since we arent certified detox centers.

You would be very surprised if i told you which MAJOR system i work for.It surprises me too and i work there!! Its snowing here now in Ohio....

Oh but our nite supervisors say 'dont play the it isnt safe card with me'. Its very sad,8-10 isnt safe,you just cant watch that many people when you have 3 or 4 confused 90 year olds it's just awful.They will never get magnet if they interview us now,we a 30 bed unit.Busiest floor in hospital by 10 to 1.We have 10-15 discharges a day and 10-20 admits a day.Most of these come between 3pm and midnight.We usually have 3 RN for 25 patients,then they fill us to 30 overnight.

LOL Your nite staffing is busy with 5-6 patients. I would give half my pay to just have 5 people at night,a good night we have 7,most nights 8-10 and i am in management with this load!! I certainly hope it improves staffing,but right now,if they came for the nurse interviews,there is no way in hell they will get it,morale is down all over due to staffing and pay issues.

No it doesnt show while caring for them,I let them punch me,kick me,swear at me.I take it like a trooper. Im sorry,but i have no sympathy for someone who jumps off a vent and runs to the bar.The patient has to want to quit themselves,no amount of ativan or me feeling good about trying to help them is going to get them to quit.If they want to stay the course I would love to see it happen,but 99.9% of them dont want to quit. They take up valuable resources in people and time,they disturb the entire floor,they abuse the staff verbally and physically.A med surg floor is not detox. When you drink and pass out and them come to ER with syncope,get a grip,passing out is part of drinking and then these idiotic docs admit them for the syncope.When your etoh level is .35,syncope tends to happen. I have no problem with the people that truly want help,its the drunks that the bars call ems on or the police find wandering and dump into the ER.I'm sorry,but they can wait,the patient with colon cancer or heart disease is far more important.

Yeah we were assigned to them.No one knows what one they are on or even cares about it,after working my shifts per week on nights,i am not going in at 11am on my day off or when i work that night for some damn meeting to watch a bunch of professional meeting goers make this motion and second that so fast your head spins.

I have seen the same etoh'ers come and go. We have them on the vent in icu on ativan drips,2 days later they get dc'd and go right to the bar.I could care less about them,they are obnoxious,take precious pca's to sit with them while they dt and for what? Send them to a detox clinic if they want them to stop,not to the hospital ER.

What is your ratio on night shift?

Because the majority of patients on our floor anyway come to the hospital to seek drugs and to have the power of the call light.im sorry,when you drive to the er with a suitcase packed and a kfc dinner in a bag,it isnt a unplanned visit to the er. But the second you dont bend over and take whatever they dish out,you get a letter sent to admin saying you violated their rights.

Our hospital just applied for magnet,theyhope to have it by the end of this year or early 09. None of us can see what it will do for the floor nurse,it seems to be taken by most as a pat on the back for the corporation. None of the nurses are happy,if they interview me tomorrow I can guarantee they wont get it.My floor has 30 beds,gets 15-20 admits daily with 15 discharges, busiest floor in house by 10 to 1 margin. At night we have 9 or 10 patients each,all obs,all stat orders. Our ratings are awful simply because of the crappy staffing, when you have 10 people,usually 1 pca for the 30,how can you possibly do all that is needed to keep the people happy? Does magnet help things like this?