bigbub3000

If you do face termination, get a lawyer and sue because you will be being made the scapegoat for the errors of many people, as mentioned by rlaffn and me and others. Don't take all the blame. Fight back. As for your husband, yeah, it's best, in general, to try to not burden him, although you do need somewhere to open up. don't be too specific here on the internet. Maybe talk to a TRUSTED friend or relative who will never share the story with anyone.

Scary, isn't it, that a doctor makes rounds daily (presumably) on his or her hospitalized pt and doesn't see that the pt is now on something he didn't order. Also, the doc who gave the TO should have sought out the chart of that pt to co-sign the TO the very next time he was in the hospital, but he didn't, apparently. Is the person who was supposed to get the abx getting it? I see this as part of a system error. You should not have to take phone orders in a non-emergency ever and especially not take phone orders (or verbal orders) at shift change. Nor should you be receiving a new patient at shift change. Your managers and dept. heads need to make this stop. If they won't, you need to just refuse to accept patients at shift change. You can do this without much ado by being unavailable to take report for a small window of time before you have to give report and count. I'd write it up as an incident that someone sent you a patient at such a terrible time. Did they even give you report? Did you know the patient would be arriving at that time? Did you know the patient had arrived? How long does shift change take? Probably at least 20 minutes if you have to count and give report. This should be a time when no new patients/transfers arrive, as you can't immediately go see them. Furthermore, since you were going to be leaving, how could you be expected to actually receive this patient and be responsible to do anything for or with this patient? This transfer should have gone to the oncoming nurse, AFTER she got report and counted. I'm glad the recipient suffered only a rash - which is still an adverse reaction but at least not anything more serious. Don't be too hard on yourself, as these things happen and this really was not all your wrongdoing. But you must limit your exposure and protect your patients in the future from this avoidable type of error. Just don't answer the phone any more, even if it's a doctor. Tell the secretary or whoever is calling you to the phone that you are in report and the caller can speak to the charge nurse or call back in 30 minutes and ask for the new nurse and give that nurse's name, since you will be gone. And seriously, if it's not an emergency, tell the person to fax the order. Have your fax # handy. make sure it's right. you will need your boss' support to make this happen without the caller taking your hide off. Or hand the phone to the oncoming nurse and let her take the call, since she will be having the patient and you are, for all intents and purposes, off duty. And they need to make the doctors fax orders in, not phone them in, in non-emergency cases. BTW, you should stop broadcasting your mistake. You've already owned up to it. The catty nurses you work with will just have to eat someone else up because you have said enough and are not going to say any more about it in their hearing. Right?

Can you post the questions here? It's sometimes easier to reply here and you might get more responses. Welcome to Nursing.

What does that mean?

What's your definition of "fanatic"? The families who wanted a private room in order to pray - were they expecting to not have to pay the higher rate? Or what if a sick person needed that bed? Could they not pray somewhere else - maybe the hospital chapel, which is, after all, designed for praying - or just on their relative's side of the room if they didn't want to leave him?

Ah, yes, the old VS under the hijab and abaya. So, uh, how did your Muslim friends feel about your teasing them?

it is painful to be ostracized. tolerated but not liked. used and taken advantage of but not have any real friends. well, i guess you have to decide whether to stay or go. personally, if you like the job, i'd stay. let the others leave. or just let them live in their world and you live in yours, however lonely that is. one thing you can do is stop helping everyone who you think is taking advantage of you. just stop doing what you believe is not your work. stop babysitting them, stop cleaning up their messes. just say no. no. just stop. surprisingly, you will find that they don't like you any better and you will also find that the patients are not suffering (i'd bet) and that the ways the other people do things are adequate. maybe not the best or the ideal but adequate. if you like, you can crash their potlucks. especially since you were invited and actually bought something to take to one. just go on into the room. silence will fall or someone will reach out to you and you won't be able to trust that he or she means it sincerely. others will ignore you or even leave and you will be all alone in that room. they will take their food with them. not to hurt you but it sounds like they just don't like you. try to figure out why. what, if anything, have you done or not done to bring about the current conditions? i am in a similar situation at work. i have resigned myself to just keep to myself as much as possible. there are some who i think genuinely like me, some who don't think they can trust me, right or wrong. they think this because i don't tolerate people disappearing on long breaks without letting anyone know they're leaving the area, i don't put up with work not being undone, excessive personal calls, the wearing of headphones by staff on duty, and other policy violations. that's why they don't trust me. there is the race factor, too. as a black male, i think some non-black staff have a hard time having to answer to me. and some blacks think i should favor them, which i refuse to do. i am as fair as humanly possible to all. there are some who used to hate me but have sort of come around, now that they see that i'm really not the bad guy, that i'm just a nurse trying to do the best i can. guess what. i don't really care. i trust no one, unfortunately. trust was destroyed in me many years ago on various other jobs, having seen how some people treat each other. i just go in, do my work, try to be pleasant, try to avoid trouble, and go home. i get my check, play by the rules, ask for no favors, work ot when it is ok for me, try to be accommodating but don't go out of my way to help. i'm tired of trying to be liked. sounds like you have the same problem. try to develop a more detached view of the friendships there. there are no real friendships. it's work. every man for himself. just stop looking for friends, for acceptance, for anything but doing your job and getting your check and keeping out of trouble. a lot of people are telling you to leave but there's no guarantee that there will be nirvana wherever you go. go or stay based on all important factors - pay, seniority, time til retiring, the known devil is better than the unknown devil, all of these things. don't just leave expecting that you'll find perfection in the new place. best wishes.

How is it that all staff seem to have the boss' phone number? I doubt I could reach my boss. I have to live with the Shift Supervisor's decisions, stupid or not. This person is new to the facility, knows very little about how things are done because the ones who trained her showed the same crappy, easy-way-out of problems that they have always used. Only one other SS has tried to show her the right way and, since the right way involves more work than the way the other SS's use, she, being a slug, naturally defaults to the easy ways that are unfair to line staff. When my rich uncle dies and leaves me his fortune... . Believe me, I will not be sharing it with any of the terrible bosses I've had in my illustrious career.

I think the OP was not made aware that Hurt was on light duty. So she could not have a meeting about that. I advise not responding to threats. Just look the person in the eye and say nothing and go on and do your own work. They will soon realize that they need the bucks and will come on in to work, most likely.

She's upset because they went over her head! Didn't give her a chance to fix it! To OP: let it go. Be glad the full time nurse took care of it. I think. It really does sound like much ado about almost nothing, but I do understand why you're upset. But try not to mud wrestle that pig. It just ain't worth it, Girl. You're not paid enough to worry about this stuff. Just do your best and take a rest and whistle while you work. Or something like that.

So where do things stand at this point, DLissa?

Sounds like a lawsuit. Very sloppy, so unnecessary.

The doctor I usually see does not keep track of labs. He is very bad about filling out forms, like for FMLA, too. One has to get with his assistant, without whom he would be completely lost, I think. She really covers for him, I think, and pulls his butt from many a fire - fires of being too lax and seemingly disorganized. Who follows lab results? Radiology results? Consult reports? Shouldn't the doctor who orders all of these things keep a little list in the front of the chart or a log book of some sort or something on the the computer of Pt's Name, tests ordered and the date ordered, and the results and date received. And each patient's chart should contain a problem list in the front, which gets updated q visit or q call. And/or a care plan of sorts should be in the front of the chart. Without one or all of these things, I think many patients and their labs and problems fall through the crack. As a patient, this scares me. What if I were not a nurse? What if I were just a layperson, trusting that my doctor has everything under control but he really doesn't know what labs he ordered, has no method established to make sure he checks results, in a timely manner, of labs he's ordered? Don't medical schools and training residencies teach them how to do this?

She's lucky she didn't get shot. She should have called the police and she should have probably reported suspected child abuse.

Why is she making you wait another week?

I agree that your doctor is a jerk. As others have said, try working shorter shifts, try staying on the 12's but only do 1 at a time, try what the HR person recommended above. I guess if you get hurt at work, your doctor will then see the error of her ways? BTW, you are supposed to get rest breaks after q 4 hours of work, I believe. This depends on your state. Find out what the law says. Even if it doesn't say that, though, you need more breaks. This is a special time for you and you need a small concession to get through it. It is really cruel to work pregnant women like that. Vicious and evil. But you need to speak up. They're not mindreaders and don't know you're suffering if you don't speak up. Or just take the darned breaks. Do what you need to do. Use good judgment and common sense. Oh, I see my advice came late. Hey, good luck.

You are psychic! This actually did happen. She was involved in some personal situation and missed a lot of work. I guess the Manager must have kept up the supplies because we had enough. Come to think of it, though, the patient whose supplies I'm referring to did have some problems and wound up going to ER a time or 2 during her absence.

I work in long-term care and have a stable client who has a condition that requires somewhat special care. Nothing exotic, just it requires that we be familiar with his equipment and the procedures to keep it running. We also must keep his supplies stocked. Should be no big deal. However, no one said word 1 to me in Orientation about his special needs or where we obtain his supplies. I thought it was from the company whose name is emblazened on the equipment. Well, silly me. I've been there nearly 5 years and found out only last week that he actually owns the equipment, is not renting it and that the company name on the equipment does not mean we are to call them for questions, supplies, whatever. This sort of thing has happened repeatedly with this patient and with others. Important information not being shared with all of us, only 1 nurse knowing about it and handling it. Then that nurse gets mad at the rest of us if we use the supplies. I see this happen with broken equipment, too. It is left in its usual spot and one would think it's ok to use it. There's no note on it stating it's out of service and that a part has been ordered and it's expected to be back in service in a week, or whatever. Just there it is. you go to use it and boom, discover it's broken. So you check with the boss and learn that you have wasted not only your time but your caring about providing good care. She actually chides you for worrying about it, saying Nurse Susie Q handles that. Well, gee, could you maybe have told me that 5 years ago? Is it sloppiness to not inform all of us? Is it wrong for me to care? Is it asking too much to leave a broken item somewhere out of service, clearly marked as such, and say when it will be fixed and what to use in the interim? Am I an anachronism? OCD? getting old? constipated? low on wine or chocolate? Is someone too possessive? She calls the patients "my guys". Another nurse thinks she keeps info to herself intentionally, possessively, and says she must feel threatened when anyone else tries to take care of stuff. Well, there you are. What do you think? Oh, and thanks.

Wait til you've been doing it for 30 and only get $25 per hour. Seriously.

It can be. I've met a lot of "interesting" folks over the years, staff, bosses, patients, other coworkers. I think a lot depends on your nature. Are you sensitive and easily influenced? Easily hurt, shy? Or can you let stuff roll off without even noticing it? I have definitely lowered my expectations of the human race as it impinges me at work. :argue: :monkeydance: :clpty::beer: :kiss Hey, just do the best you can.

Time was when, if you had a clean uniform in the car, you could hire on and work today! No pee test, no nothing. There were no nurse addicts or other loonies (that we knew of) and it was such a totally different world. No HMO's, DRG's, or other than 80/20 Blue Cross. Soooo much simpler. Not really, but it seemed like it. There were other problems. Oh, well. Given the state of the world today, I'm afraid we ain't seen nothin' yet when it comes to Big Brother. He's off the growth charts and Armageddon hasn't happened yet.

Easy preachin', hard livin'. About relocating and turning down this job, I mean. And you know what assuming means, right?

You don't even list meds at the test time. If something shows up in the urine, you can tell them then that you have a valid prescription for that med and they will confirm it with the pharmacy. Just as a general rule of thumb, never provide your health records or information to your employer if you can avoid doing so. All they really have a right or need to know is that you are fit to do the work. They do not need your life history, medical or otherwise. It's too late now, perhaps, but for future reference. Good luck.

A male aide I know refuses to give physical care to other men because he says it violates Islam. Anyone know about this? An Imam I spoke to locally told me that it is an honorable thing for male or female to care for the sick. It is preferable for the same sex to do it, but not wrong for the opposite gender to do it.

I always recommend the library. These days, the internet has gobs of info on it, so the libe isn't quite the place to be, maybe. I guess you could talk with other students, other women who've given birth, etc. No experience in this area but good luck. Again, I vote for the library. Yes, I know you said you already have what you need for this time, but for the future, there should be lots of material at the library.