I suck at time management. I spend too much time talking to my patients and doing "extra" stuff for them. In order to allow this, I sometimes document off the clock. If I stay clocked in I get in trouble. If I rush through my documentation, it is sub-par at best.
Today I had a discharge, an admit, and a patient actively dying who was getting morphine every hour. That's on top of my other 15 residents. I consider myself lucky because this facility is the best I've ever worked at and the staff are amazing. Management is amazing too. Its just a broken, broken system.
I stay because I love what I do. I love it. I love having some rehab patients, some long-term and some hospice. I love getting to know these people and making a difference in their lives. I love being able to bring things up to the MD and have them addressed when other nurses just blow it off. I feel like I'm helping them and making their lives better.
But, I digress. Its a horrifically broken system and society likely has no idea what goes on.
The kicker is we are almost always in the red. medicaid payments are at an all time low, and most of our medicare patients only stay for short durations. We mostly get cardiac and respiratory pts. that don't qualify for acute rehab. So, while people think the facility is being cheap and someones pockets are getting lined, they're actually losing money.
