snh2009

I work in a rural hospital and of course Joint Commission is here, and I found out my mother is in the hospital yesterday, in the biggest town we have. It is about an hour away from us and I called in today because visitation hours are only 12-8, which I can’t make after work. She told me the doctor wants to talk with me ( she is forgetful and I go to all her appts with her.) I am her main support. I kinda felt guilty because I know that it was already a tight staff schedule. Am I wrong for calling in today? Why do I feel so guilty? Worried that this will looked down upon later.

Does your facility make you get two negative test to return to work if you call in sick? I left work yesterday, because I was feeling nauseated and I got hot wearing all that gear. I felt I had food poisoning, from eating out the night before. Once I got home and got it all out, I felt so much better. They tested me before I left, and now can’t come to work until I have another negative test. Going in this morning to get retested.. anyone else place of work doing this?? I had no fever or respiratory symptoms. The GI stuff didn’t even last 16 hours.

I have had this Concern from a different angle. I work in a rural hospital in the ER and now do some house supervisor shifts. We are only seeing about 60-70 in the ER a day, used to see 90 plus. There are several nurses o the icu they have left with no replacements. House supervisors that have left with no replacement, they cross train so ER nurses for house. The icu is closed more than open a month. They closed our baby floor 2 years ago. We average maybe 9 pts on the med surg floor here lately ( only became aware of those numbers in last 2 months). We have basically almost no specialty physician. Hospitalisit admits all pts. We have so much empty space and they have gotten rid of a lot of management roles and have combined a lot of this roles. But they have spent a lot of money on renovations lately. They have decided to drop our chest pain and trauma certifications with state, due to cost of keeping them up but not getting reimbursed because we do not have a lot that we admit. We are part of a bigger corporation so not sure if that is what protects us and we are the only faculty in the 4 surrounding counties. They say we are not closing, but I wonder?

Hi everyone I have a questions about staffing ratio. I work in the ER of a small rural facility and recently cross trained house Supervisor. The nurses on the m/s / tele area are taking 6pts on days even tele pts. Now these pt are not on any kinds of cardiac drips and most of the time are ready to go in 1-2 days. But is this the normal ratio as most of these nurses are very unhappy and discontent. I know that if feels like there is a lot of favoritism through management at least that is how it is in the ER. Just wondering if the discontent is the ratio or just management not listening, which has become the normal here lately it feels like. I crossed trained to help out and now they have pretty much pulled me out of ER to do this full time, which I hate, and they say they will get me back in the ER more in about a month and a half. I have also taught and teach multiple classes so the sad doesn’t have to drive to the bigger facilities almost an hour from our facility. I have been here for 2 years this tome. I have been asking for Sunday’s off since I started and they just hired a agency nurse full tome and said well she doesn’t want to work sundays. They have mostly worked with her and on this next scheduled she is only scheduled one Sunday out of the required 3. Neither of us had anything written down on our contract. So I already know I am irritated with mamangement and there are nurses that have the same problem up stairs. So before I try taking this up the chain ( the staff ratio) trying to get a feel for the average ration in Texas. Sorry I know that was a lot. Guess I am kinda venting as well

He had a fair amount of tissue. Thank you for the advice and as I said earlier this will definitely be a learning experience

Thank you both for the advice.. This will definitely be in my learning pile. I pray that he is okay and I am over reacting. This is one for me to truly learn from.

HI, I have made a horrible mistake and I am sick to my stomach worrying about it. My MD ordered decadron 10mg/ml IM. I went to give it to the pt and he wanted it deltoid, I have always done this in am bigger muscle, but he insisted. I figured it was one ml and you can put up to one in the deltoid. I will not make excuses other than to say I didnt realize that this medication is to be avoided in the deltoid and I had given it so many times before I did not go look it up, nor did the bottle say only deep IM. I monitored him for 30 min after and saw no s/s of reaction and let home go.. now I am so sick and can’t quit thinking of how I screwed up. Only days later I was looking something up and came across that it can cause tissue atrophy in the deltoid. I don’t go back to work for a few days and I can’t stop dreaming of this persons arm falling off and all the other horrible nightmares that come with it. I just want to cry so bad. All advice is appreciated

Thanks for the advice. I think I am frustrated and not sure why I can back to a job that I didn't care for. I guess it was the lesser of two evils or seemed so at the time.

So I started working at this facility 3 months ago. I had been there before for 6years in the past. They require a very other weekend rotation for Full timers..during my interviews I stated that I would be at church on Sunday and needed this day off. No one acted like it was a big deal..until my first schedule came out. When I talked to scheduler about it she stated "well no one told me, and everyone wants off weekends." I talked to her and the manager and it was agreed that I could come in an hour late, to be able to attend some of church. However my problem comes because there is one nurse that works part time hours with no weekends and still gets full time benefits and I know for a fact she hasn't been there 5 years. There are two other nurses (both been there less than 5years) and neither works Sunday.. am I being foolish or is this something I should escalate up the chain? I already hate missing my family as much as I do on weekends I work ( fri-sun) every other weekend. But it can even enjoy church because I worry about being late. Advice please???

I have been a nurse for two years and my passion has always been to work in the ER of a level one trauma center. However for the last year I worked as a med/surg nurse at a small community hospital. I transferred to a cardiology floor about 2 months ago at a level two hospital. I feel anxious all the time and depressed, to where I get nauseated before work. There is a opening at a level I trauma center ER. Should I go for this, will I even like it more, am I just burned out or is it just the change? I have no idea. Any advice would be appreciated.....