JEHORAPHA

Sounds like a handful

Hats off to you!

Hats off to you. With 1500 students you must have your hands full. Thanks

You must be working at the same place I was working at. That's the drill only our subacute are mixed with our long term care in a lot of the Alabama and Florida faciltiies.

Thanks

Do you know if agencies even go to the site before assigning you? Does your agency have a safe site check off sheet that they give to you before sending you?

Alabama there is no limit to what the patient:nurse ratio. The limit depends on what you feel is a safe patient ratio and you voicing it to the facility. I recently had to tell the DON and Administrators of the LYC/Rehab facility that 67 patients on 11-7 shift did not feel like a safe mix. The laws really need to be changed. Face it, they are for profit.

Asking your agency for the emergency plan and knowing the plan might be helpful. If when the drills are done issues of deficiency are reported may save a life.

The nurse that were shot have lost an appeal and were awarded not anything after the hostage take over that left one nurse shot two to three times. The prison neither the agency, Interim Health Care of Northwest Florida, paid for the damages of the three nurses that were involved. See Report from newspaper: UPDATE: Former CCA nurses lose appeal in negligence lawsuit // Read DCA Opinion | lose, appeal, negligence - News - The News Herald

The nurses that were shot have lost an appeal and were awarded not anything after the hostage take over that left one nurse shot two to three times. The prison neither the agency, Interim Health Care of Northwest Florida, paid for the damages of the three nurses that was involved.

:yeah:Good Deal. You no longer work there. If anything goes wrong administration and the law will ask why did you accept what you felt you were not able to handle. The downside is, there are nurses who are willing to accept such risks. Maybe Alabama Board of Nursing will have an answer. Thanks

The last two jobs I had I was assigned to from 56 to 67 patients with various acuities. When I met with the nursing administration I was told Alabama does not have a law as to how many patients an LPN can be assigned to and therefore the facilities were within the legal guidelines of the law. Unfortunately, I resigned stating I did not feel comfortable taking keys for that many residents and patients in a long term, step down, rehab setting. Any ideas about how to change this law?:redbeathe

:redbeathe[/fontj it's time for a change in florida. the nurses in the following article link were given a bad deal. two of the nurses were employees of corrections corporation of america. the agency that the other nurse worked for did not give her counseling nor were they "responsible" for her being taken hostage on her first day of assignment since she was "covered" by the jail. florida statute 440 states worker's compensation will only be paid if the employee is physically injured. it does not take into account of the mental anguish as in this hostage takeover and the 5 years of court with the court system these nurses underwent. if you are employed by an agency be informed about who handles your medical bill(physical and mental) in the event you are working in a facility and you are injured. it may become your own liability as was the following case:how can we change this law? judge rules in favor of cca, bay county in hostage case comments 5 | recommend 0 june 02, 2009 05:31:00 pm by s. brady calhoun / news herald writer panama city-three nurses who were held hostage at the bay county jail in 2004 are asking florida's first district court of appeals to overturn a local judge and find against bay county and corrections corporation of america. the plaintiffs, amie hunt, glenda baker and kathleen baucum, are claiming that nashville-based cca should be held liable for the actions of officer james clayton hall. hall was breaking cca rules by allowing more than one inmate out of his cell at a time, according to a final judgment written by circuit judge hentz mcclellan. mcclellan ruled that hall was concealing this activity from other employees and his supervisors. "there is no evidence here that cca knew of the dangerous situation created by hall based on prior similar incidents or on explicit warnings of hall's actions," mcclellan wrote in march. he added that the nurses are only eligible for monetary claims from cca and the county under florida's workman's comp statutes. the case is now being reviewed by florida's first district court of appeals. hall, hunt, baker and baucum were held hostage for 11 hours by four inmates. during negotiations all of the hostages except for hunt were released in exchange for pizza and a cell phone. the sheriff's office's tactical team stormed into the third floor of the old bay county jail and freed hunt. however, hunt was shot three times by deputies in the sept. 6, 2004 incident. she filed suit for loss of earnings, pain and suffering and medical expenses incurred. the bullets entered her hip, back and left leg, damaging bones and vital organs. she survived but had to undergo physical rehabilitation. the other nurses were not physically injured in the incident. three of the four men involved in the takeover, kevin nix, james norton and matthew coffin were convicted of false imprisonment. nix, norton and coffin were acquitted of more serious charges in the incident, but still sentenced to 15 years in prison for their roles. the fourth, alleged ringleader kevin winslett, plead guilty to grand theft auto, resisting an officer with violence, assault on a corrections officer, three counts of false imprisonment and six counts of battery on corrections officers. he was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2007. h. lawrence perry, the attorney for baucum, baker and hunt, did not return calls seeking comment tuesday. cca and county officials declined to comment because the matter is facing an appeal.

this is how one nurse reacted after she and two other nurses was held hostage 2004 and to date none has been compensated. one of the nurses prayed her way out of the hostage situation. re: jail inmates threatened nurse with torture, death permalink -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- nurse at cca fired, safety issue cited (see video) comments 10 | recommend 3 kathy baucum was one of the hostages during 2004 jail siege september 18, 2008 11:32:00 pm by s. brady calhoun / news herald writer panama city-even if it means her job, kathy baucum won't be a hostage again. baucum, 50, a local nurse, said she was fired wednesday by corrections corporations of america from the bay county jail because she refused to put herself in a dangerous situation. baucum knows dangerous situations all too well; in september 2004 she was held as a hostage during a 12-hour siege in the cca-run jail in downtown panama city. last week, the jail's warden, joe ponte, issued a memo ordering all nurses to enter the jail's pods with the inmates and hand out medicine, baucum said. under the new rule, baucum and other nurses would bring a cart full of controlled substances into the pods, a room filled with anywhere from 60 to more than 120 inmates, and the nurse and cart would be escorted by one guard, she said. a single guard standing between a nurse, a cart full of drugs, and dozens of inmates would almost certainly lead to another hostage situation or worse, baucum said. "no one knows it until they lived it," baucum said. during the 2004 incident, the inmates went for drugs first, she said. they snorted over-the-counter medication when they could not get to controlled substances, she added. for about a week, baucum and several other nurses did not comply with the order, she said. on wednesday night, the nurses were told they had to follow the memo and enter the pods. baucum said she refused and was fired. other nurses there do not agree with the rule either but cannot afford to lose their jobs, baucum said. when she complained to a supervisor, baucum said she was told the 2004 hostage crisis was a "one-time thing." "if it can happen once, it can happen again," baucum said. ponte said baucum has not been fired. instead, she was sent home for one night and he has tried to contact her thursday. "i'd like kathy to come in and talk to see if we can alleviate her concerns so she can come back to work," ponte said. "she's a good nurse." however, the current plan for delivering medication is "not that unusual," ponte said. he pointed out the guard and the nurses were watched at all times by another guard outside the pod. ponte said it was a change for some of the nurses, but it was done this way successfully in several other jails. ponte said baucum did not try to talk to him or make an appointment with him before wednesday's incident. "if they (employees) have an issue or problem, i'm always available to talk to them," he said. baucum was sent home for the night because she was refusing to do her job and the inmates needed to get their medication, ponte said. "i have a responsibility for the care and the custody of these inmates," he added. "after that, we could talk at any length about any concerns." baucum said there is no doubt she was fired wednesday night. her badge was taken away from her, she was told to return all cca property and she was escorted from the building, she said. she said she was told her termination paperwork would be filled out in the morning and she should not return to the jail. there are two other options that could be used instead of entering the pod, baucum said. one is to administer the pills through a feed flap at the bottom of a door. "according to the warden, it is not humane to do it through a feed flap," baucum said. the other would be to use a nurse's station attached to the pods and keeps the nurses separated from the inmates by a window. after the annex was built, the nurses were told the station was "just for show," baucum said. those options won't work, ponte said. the nurse's station ties up a hallway too long, forcing jail operations to stop while the pills are distributed, ponte said. and inmates cannot talk with the nurse through the feeding slot without shouting and being overheard by other inmates, he added. legally, inmates must be able to talk to a caregiver without others hearing the conversation, ponte said. baucum now is looking for another job, but she said getting fired was worth it if it means the warden reverses his decision and the other nurses are safe. "i'm doing this for the other nurses that are there," baucum said. "i don't want anybody else's safety jeopardized." what must we do to ensue our safety and provide quality care for this population. to date these

Yes one experience I had with this woman on stepdown unit in a long term care facility. She was quadriplegic but had tenacity and faith. I was assigned to this hall (not my normal assignment). She and I touched and agreed for her recovery. In about a week or two to my surprise I was reassigned to this hall and went in for assessment on this patient. She was no longer a quadriplegic. She was moving her legs and had sensation in her arms.