slauren

Thank you everyone. We do have a union. I've asked all the other nurses I work with and they say it would never close. We aren't a small or rural hospital so it would really delay care for the community if we closed. I haven't seen any equipment disappear so I'll be on the look out.

Hi, has anyone experienced working at a hospital that has closed? The hospital I work at is going down hill - half the elevators are broken, per diem staff furloughed, overtime must be approved by DON, ancient equipment not getting fixed, and supposedly a sister hospital has a broken MRI that's not getting fixed due to unpaid bills. Not to mention the secure paper shredding people stopped coming because they weren't getting paid. I love where I work and enjoy my work family but I'm getting red flags about how the future of the hospital will be. I don't want to be unemployed. My coworkers tell me the hospital would never shut down because it's in a critical location with no other hospitals close. My question is, if you worked at a hospital that closed, what was it like? Did you show up one day and not have a job?

I agree with the previous responses, I would suggest taking the NCLEX soon after graduation. I precept a lot of new hires on my unit and it would be annoying having to wait several months for them to be licensed. It hinders the learning because I will not let a new nurse without passing boards pass medications or document by themselves. I imagine some directors would require a set amount of time to take the NCLEX or not consider you employed until you are closer to taking the NCLEX.

I like having students that are willing to learn by listening and offering to help. I had a student follow me most of her clinical during a semester and she was fabulous. As she got used to the unit she helped answer call lights, offered to bathe patients, ambulated patient's in the hallway, etc (all with nurse permission). One day she wasn't shadowing me but cleaned a patient after a BM when all the staff on the floor were drowning. Some students will go through and tidy up the rooms, restock isolation supplies/gloves as needed. What a lot of nurses don't like is being interrupted or when a student goes behind their back to complain to the charge nurse. What I don't like is when a student says they're shadowing me but I only see them for maybe 2 hours in the 12 hour shift and they're on their cell phone in the break room. Just like with anything else, you can tell when someone truly is wanting to learn and trying their best vs. people that are just annoying.

I had experienced this when I was working in LTC/rehab. There were some good CNAs but it felt like they ran the show, showing up when they wanted, leaving when they wanted (middle of shift & not telling me nor coming back), yelling at me when I asked them to answer a call light (3 talking in a empty room), and simply being unprofessional. I hated it and I left. It put such a bad taste in my mouth, I doubt I will ever work LTC/rehab again because of it. I do hospital work now.

Good luck with taking the NCLEX! Finding a job is hard even right out of school, but I think you'll find something eventually. When I was a new nurse I couldn't get a job at a hospital so I worked at a LTC/rehab, it gave me a bunch of experience and opened the door for me to get into a hospital. Might be hard getting exactly what you want from the get-go but take what you can to get where you want.

To answer your question, I never had a problem with gore, blood, death, etc. Like Sour Lemon said, a lot of it is more dramatic in the movies than in real life. Part of being a nurse is you see someone that needs help and it doesn't matter if they are covered in blood, vomiting, or anything gross you are so concerned with helping them that what's going on doesn't gross you out. I've had patient's die before and it sucks, but you see them as a person who deserves respect, they still need end of life care and have people who love them. I think it's something you get over quickly to be honest.

Maybe you could work as a CNA to see what parts of the medical fields would interest you? Nursing has a wide variety of opportunities. You could do patient care floor nursing, you could work in a doctor's office, do school nursing, case management, or even be a nurse manager. Other careers you could like is speech pathology (helping people get better with speech/eating), physical/occupational therapy (getting people walking and doing activities of daily living again), respiratory therapy, radiology tech, ultrasound tech, medical assistant, etc. Another suggestion would be to volunteer at a hospital so you can see how the hospital functions and meet people/ask about their careers. There are so many options out there. :)

I wouldn't want to work for a company like that.

It seems that you've already made up your mind, you aren't happy where you are. I feel you could learn a TON from what you're describing but you deserve to be happy with your job. I worked at a LTC/rehab for a few years, it was challenging and I learned a lot but I honestly hated how it was managed and the lack of help nurses get, unprofessional-ism, etc. Maybe put some feelers out for what your options are and take what you want. Word of advice - don't let managers/boss know your intentions are to leave soon, I did that with my rehab job and I regretted it even thou it ended on good terms.

I can understand your frustration. Talk to that nurse and tell them you liked how it was? Maybe the new nurse was trying to help with the med cart and doesn't understand they're doing the opposite. I used to work LTC and had a set team/cart each time I worked and it was annoying having to relocate everything after someone did their own version of spring cleaning aka rearranging for no reason.

I feel she should be investigated. Even though faces and names aren't shown in her videos, I still feel it is a dignity issue and the people filmed should know it was them. I don't understand why they would think making these videos, let alone posting them online would be a good idea?

I think you handled that great, I've never worked in peds or been in a situation like that but you did great reporting it and making everyone aware. I'm sure the mother appreciates you notifying her. I hope everything turns out well. You potentially stopped something bad from happening to her.

I live in Florida. When I worked in LTC/rehab, only the nurses gave the medications. I once interviewed for a job at an assisted living facility and the techs administered medications. I was curious about that myself and they explained that assisted living is still offering the residents independence, it's just someone to make sure they take the right medications at the right times. For the facility, there was only one nurse (position I interviewed for) and it was checking on the residents and being available to help, I believe also managing doctor appointments. I didn't take the position, I now work at a hospital, they are no longer accepting LPNs, therefore, only the nurses give medications there.

I don't understand the severity of your patient's condition/test that was going on but it seems like the charge nurse was trying to do you a favor cause he/she thought maybe you could use the help I'm assuming. If it was something minor with a completely stable patient, then I wouldn't expect the charge nurse or even other nurses to really help you with simple stuff like that anymore if you're going to tell on them (speaking honestly). But if it was something critical going on with the patient, then yes, the patient's should've been monitored. Like the other people commenting, pick your battles wisely.