ChristinP

I have had an assortment of situations when I felt EMS should transport a patient but as long as the patient is of sound mind they have the right to refuse. I make the appropriate calls and document. Sometimes it's a matter of cost I have a nice patient with CA and when she needs to go to the ED her husband takes her because they are responsible for 50% of the cost. They can not afford it. I've had patients that I felt needed to go and refused because they were not of sound mind and simply notified EMS to send a police officer who usually found a way to convince the patient to go. Document, document, document! but also throw in some teaching, education and compassion and most patients will gladly get the ED tx they need.

I have been working in home care for about 5 years and with 3 different companies. Your orientation to homecare seems terrible. All of our nurses spend several weeks learning how to document a routine visit before moving on to Oasis admissions, recerts, and discharges/transfers. We all have our cheat sheets for documentation and most agencies have a template to use or you can make your own. It takes nothing but time to learn to how to complete an Oasis. Most agencies I know count and admission as 2 visits and recerts/discharges as 1.5 visits. Your company owes it to you to train you properly or medicare wont reimburse correctly. Good luck to you, I love homecare and wont leave at all.

I live and work in Ct for a large HH agency. I only do revisits and I have to do a minimum of 35 visits a week. I average 8 Pts a day. If its mostly status checks & prefills without problems I'm finished In 8 hrs or less. But lately my 8 Pts are all wounds, mix of wound vacs, new ostomys, none of my visits the past week have been simple, they are very involved with lots of teaching and f/u. I work approx 10 to 12+ hrs a day & average 15-20 miles a day all in one large city. And there is always something that needs to be charted when I get home. 12 patients on one day?? Nope I wouldn't do it!

I live in Ct. I don't believe lpns are being phased out. It's been the same for a while. The job market is poor, I have friends Rns with degrees who have found the job pickings here to be poor. It's the economy. Ive always had 2 jobs, when the VNA of Wallingford closed in Jan. I had a tough time finding a job because not a lot of places are hiring and I could only work 1rst shift- my opportunities were limited. I even *gasp* applied to mall jobs just to pay the bills. Fortunately, I start my new job with a great company on Monday (above average starting pay & benefits). If I was a new grad I don't think I'd have a fighting chance around here!

open doors are invitations LOL we leave it closed!

I'm in Ct, as long as the patient has the slip from the MD, I'll check the site. We do this routinely in my school nurses office for our students and staff and I've done it for patients in home care. The slip gets faxed to md. Any positive reaction, allergic reaction or anything that looks poitive is immediately reported to the MD for them to f/u on.

Many of my classmates felt the same during nursing school. Some used meds, some of us exercised on break or found something to keep our minds clear and free of the craziness. I called it enviromental depression with situational bi-polar :) It really helps to talk to someone and find out if you need further help, which means you need to fit that into your schedule too... I know, more stress and time. But, if it's needed to help then it is important because you are important. Nursing school is very stressful, it doesn't last forever and lucky for you it's almost over. Please remember your first job is also likely to be tough and stressful so take care of yourself.

Amazing...... After reading the OPs statement which I believe is just a 'happy, feel good type statement' and then reading all of the comments both negative & positive..... remembering I live in the USA land of the free My comment is to the OP: "Good for you. If it makes you feel proud and good to be a christian and a nurse then good for you" :)

Hospital Schools/ Diploma nurses are a dying breed. It's a shame because I've met so many wonderful nurses who graduated from these programs.

i've written many cover letters and i am currently job seeking. my cover letter is constantly evolving. i tailor it to suit the company i want to hire me. i've had mine critiqued. i'll pass on some of the advice i was given. 1. if i can't find the name of the hr person on the company website try calling the hr department to get a specific name. "hello my name is ____ i would like to send a cover letter and resume to apply for _____ , can you please tell me who i should address my letter to?" most people are willing to help. if not then go with dear sir/ madame. but a name makes it personal. 2. first paragraph: how do you know the reviewed your application? you want them to read your resume and application. tell them why you want to work there and what would make you an essential part of their team. use their own mission statement to your advantage. 3. second paragraph: brag about your special/extra accomplishments. you have some good points but you need to shorten it up and accentuate, make it standout in a way that specifically applies to them. 4. last paragraph thank them for their time and tell them you look forward to scheduling an interview, let them know your resume is attached and if possible give them a date that you will call back to f/u. make sure everything is spelled correctly and there are no grammatical errors.

How about you ask the MDs office straight out. How did you get my information? Show me where I signed permission? Then ask how you can prevent it in the future? Shoot, I understand you are upset but I wish my MDs did this because repeating myself get annoying.

i know some spanish mostly learned from my patients and students. i do use google translate on my phone when i visit patients in their homes. the written translation is good/not perfect. when it reads the translation out loud the pronunciation is hysterical. i also know the alphabet in sign language but it takes a long time to ask questions one letter at a time and usually the patient quits before i do lol. my sup is supposed to look into medical spanish course for our dept. - i'm looking forward to it.

I don't get paid a lot but, I will have a nice pension when I retire. I have the same days off as my kids, snow days off, multiple vacations and summers off. My oldest even went to the same high school I work in (that was and wasn't a benefit). It's not a cake job and it's never boring. I do however have to work a part time job to earn extra money. I stay because I really like it and when I finally get my RN I'll be able to put in to run my own school.

I'm currently working in a high school health room it doesn't change with age :) our very old poorly designed office only has one bathroom so we save it for the "really" sick kids and send the poopers to the public bathrooms! All I can say is thank God for febreeze when they sneak past us!

While I do love my patients google and webMD moments my favorite of all time was..... Sunday morning 8am home visit, the patient insisted I call his MD (not the oncall, his real doctor) because he was watching Animal Planet and there was this fly that had a bite which caused all of the same symptoms he had. Despite the fact he hasn't ever traveled outside this country. I very nicely told him what a coincidence your illness causes all those symptoms too, we'll call the MD monday and see what he wants to do :)