kelbel

At my facility, we are having a problem with almost everyone in the facility going to lunch but not clocking out. It it were just the CMT or CNA's, we could make the nurses responsible. However, many of the nurses are not taking the time to walk to the timeclock. They simply fill out the board saying they forgot to clock out or they did not have time to get to the timeclock, but did eat. It also happens that people clock out but "forget" to clock back in, leading me to beleive that lunch is taking longer then 30 minutes. If this was occasional, I could understand but we have people doing it EVERY shift. How do we enforce this in order to cover ourselves with the Dept of Labor. My superiors want a firm answer to help put an end to all of this! Payroll is a nightmare trying to read the punch details!! Any suggestions welcome!:angryfire:angryfire:angryfire

Well, this particular job ended up having alot of "little changes" to the description before I actually started working. I never started because there seemed to be some confusion between the adminstrator and the DON as to what the role/responsibilities would be met by me. I did however start a job at a retirement community quite a bit closer to my house and for more money. I really enjoy this position and am learning alot. The work is long and tedious but in a different way than floor nursing. Mentally I am spent when I get home, but I function well enough to spend time with my family and make dinner, etc... The down side is that there is no set dinner time because I might not be home until 7:30. My hubby has been great in helping out and it is working so far. I love the residents and continue to learn every day. We are staffed even though at the present we use alot of agency. They are a BIG help, but one of my first goals is to fully staff to ensure coninuity of care for our residents. I am quite surprised by the lack of wanting to work. I guess as a floor nurse I never paid much attention and made sure that my stuff was done. Now that I get to formally hear all of the complaints and attitude I have to assume this went on the whole time where I used to work. I guess I was just oblivious to it. I am shocked at people feeling entitled to collect a check just for being there! I know nothing I am disappointed about is unique to this facility and every place will have these issues. My DON and administrator are WONDERFUL and don't expect me to know everything and are willing to teach me which is nice. I have never worked where they tell you every day how much they appreciate you being there! And YES YES YES we are hiring all positions and all shifts so if you can show up, are capable of doing your job, and care about quality and the people you are there for, PM me and we will talk further. I can really see myself here a long time!

I live in the burbs outside St Louis. This facility is in towards the city-which I love!! And I think it may have helped because it is tucked away in an older part of town, and it is not very big as I said. People probably assumed it was in a bad part of town or that the pay was substandard. I am glad to hear some positive feedback! That is so inspiring because I am a girl that truly believes in instinct and I walked in feeling really relaxed and impressed. I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks for the replies!

I interviewed for a job last week as an ADON of a fairly small LTC facility that consists of 48 beds with an additional 16 low acuity psych beds. The psych pts are able to leave on their own, continent,etc. They are there to receive meds and short of that, they are pretty self run. I have no DON experience but I felt very comfortable when I walked into this facility. Everyone had a job to do and was doing it. The DON was very calm and collected and didn't seem rushed or anything to lead me to believe I should run for the hills. They are looking to fill this position as 3 days on MDS and 2 days floor. She will also be doing MDS 3 days a week which sounds reasonable to me. The pts all looked well cared for, the facility has been defic. free the last several visits, and the DON stated that she has 18 years until retirement and she fully expects to retire there because the stress level is so low. I WAS VERY IMPRESSED! They offered the salary I requested, my hours are flexible and she told me that she doesn't expect me to work more than 45 hours a week and that is on an extremely bad week. She said she has never worked more than 45-50 hours the entire time she has been there. We will rotate call and I will take every third week. She said she hasn't been called in over 2 months and that is a rar occasion when it happens. She also said since she only lives 5 minutes from the facility that she will handle things if she can because I live about 35 minutes and it would be easier for her to get to. It is small and individually owned, no big corps politics, which she told me, since I don't have the experience to know, was a huge plus. She overstaffs when she does scheduling. 5 CNA's staffed with the assumption that 1 person will go home if noone calls in. If there is a call in, they still have 4, but really only need 3. Same with nurses. Does this sound too good to be true? I was very impressed and just feel like there is a big ball gonna drop when I walk in the door! Am I missing something or am I just bracing myself from my past experiences? Also every third weekend on and NO holidays for either of us. She said she doesn't have a problem with call ins from her staff on holidays because it is a very unpleasant fallout of working every weekend for the next month if it happens, plus workning an extra holiday to make it up.

I am a relatively new RN (May 2004). Started work straight out of school at hospital critical care stepdown unit, completed critical care internship, and worked on the floor with many strong personalities. Did excellent on my reviews, came in to work extra shifts, and then needed to have surgery this July. I was eligible for FMLA but upon talking to my nurse manager, she told me that she would not approve my leave (was having a breast reduction DEEMED NECESSARY BY MEDICAL INSURANCE) because it was cosmetic but I could try for early in the year. I felt that was not very encouraging and tried to civilly explain to her that it was necessary because my back and shoulder pain had greatly affected my health and to some extent my performance. She replied by letting me know that if I purused this, my job could be in jeopardy. I actually thought about quitting and paying for 1 month of COBRA insurance because it surely was cheaper than a needed $10,000.00 surgery. I decided to go to her superior, and my leave was approved. I was approved for 4 weeks FMLA following my surgery, but because of complications it was extended another month. During this time I was rehospitalized, receive blood transfusions, and had a very difficult time with it. I had been in touch with the PCC from my floor to let her know that my doctor was getting ready to re-extend my leave at which time I was told that I was already on the schedule and that I would need to have it in there that day or would be responsible for my shift. I decided to call in for my next 3 shifts that day (1 week early) to ensure my doctor had enough time to get the paperwork sent. 3 days later I get a letter in the mail sayiing that I was now on unpaid LOA because I was out of PTO and that I had 2 weeks to contact them to get my schedule. That same week, my hubby's grandpa got ill and died. We went out of state for 5 days for a funeral and memorial services. When I got back, there were messages stating that I was scheduled and didn't come in. In my mailbox was a letter stating that I was fired for no call-no shows. I immediately called my PCC and explained to them that I had been out of town but that I had a letter saying that I had until OCT 13 to call them re my schedule. It was OCT 5. They told me that our nurse mgr (the one who denied my leave) was in FL for the week but she would talk to her and call me back. I haven't heard from anyone and feel I was basically blackballed and wrongfully terminated!! Any ideas on where I went wrong? Please help, I have lost my insurance and just now got a new job because I was still unable to wouk until3 weeks ago. THANKS!!

Im Kelly , 28 years old, June grad of ADN program, now an RN (WHEW!!!), and currently work on a Telemetry Unit in a St Louis hospital, married, 2 kids, loving and hating nursing all at once. Nice to meet you all. :)

Thanks for the advice! I am actually going to accept a job here for a few months before moving. I am hoping they will countthat as some experience when I move and factor that into my starting pay. i love neuro by the way and that is the floor I will be on here, so maybe I will take a look at Zale. Is their starting pay competitive with Parkland or not?

In St Louis, GN pay is $15 and change ( more with experience as a Tech), $1-$1.50 night and weekend differentials. If you work at one of the union hospitals they just bumped pay to $16 but then you've got union dues. The odd thing is that the nurses are in the same union as the baggers at the grocery stores. How can you possibly receive accurate representation?? They do offer sign-on bonuses ($2,500-$5,000 usually) paid over a couple of years. I am graduating in May and can't leave town fast enough!! Cost of living is not all that cheap so I don't know how they justify it. :angryfire

I am officially movingto the DFW area inthe late summer. As a new grad I will be looking into internships starting in September. I contacted Parkland Memorial and they seemed to have what I was looking for with very good (in my opinion) GN pay. That always makes me a little leary because here in St Louis, you would have to work 2 years before receiving thatpay. They also pay $6/hour weekend differential which is unheard of here. Please tell me anything you may know about their reputation to staff and pt care, and what the typical salary range for a GN is in this area.

A fellow student told me that you could just pay the fee and your license would transfer, but you had to have worked for at least 30 days under my Missouri license. That seemed unfair to me because I would hate to mislead a hospital and take a full-time position knowing that I was moving within 3 months. I understand the committment they make to properly train their staff with the assumption that employee is staying with them. That makes me feel relieved that I can honestly transfer without leaving someone in a lurch! Thanks again!!

I currently live in St. Louis, Missouri and will be graduating from an Associate's program in May. My husband and I plan to move to the Dallas area in fall and I was wondering what I would need to do to take my boards in Missouri straight outof school and then transfer my license to Texas without sitting for boards again. (I am not currently working.) Anyone with any suggestions??