MatthewKeating

Tell me about it! I swear sometimes they do it just so you have to ask. I work in general practice and the Drs are constantly sending pts around with orders like maxolon or 100 tramadol, etc, etc... it's like, ok so you want them to have it now? in an hour? IM? O? how much do you want me to give them? then they get stuffy with you when you call them for a proper order, like your doing it for the sole purpose of irritating them and not because it's legislation and policy.

while I agree, Ain't nobody got time for that, and the resident was obviously on a bit of a power trip, you may have found that although no amount of sunshine is going to orientate him, it may have made him less combative. I worked in Aged Care for 5 years they may not remember your name, know where they are or what decade it is but on some level they know who takes that extra bit of time to make their life a bit more pleasant. To everyone's disgust I implemented similar strategies and although it made everyone's job that little bit more difficult we found that it was very effective in decreasing aggressive and resistive behaviours.

oops posted wrong place and dont know how to delete post

I google stuff like that all the time to make sure I'm up to date with all the new stuff the bring out and such...

I was working in an Low Care Ageing in Place Aged Care Facility (in other words we were funded and staffed as a Low Care Facility but 90% of our residents were High Care patients). I had been working night shifts for like 2 weeks straight. It had been a particularly bad PM shift and we had several Locum Doctors coming out to see residents on the ND. Well I had seen about three Doctors, none of the residents thought it was particularly necessary to sleep at 3 in the morning and I was still following up on the dogs breakfast that had been the previous shift and hadn't even started doing the work I needed to be doing. And a fourth Locum Dr showed up. There wasn't supposed to be a fourth Locum. Turns out that the PM shift had forgotten to hand over that one of the residents had been vomiting over the PM. So after getting off the phone from a very sleepy PM PCA, I went to the Doctor to explain what happened. Well... you'd have thought I'd killed his mother. I was incompetent, I was stupid, I was irresponsible, he was going to report me to the nurses board, and worst of all I had wasted an entire 20 minutes of his time. So being a good nurse I remained calm, smiled and suggested the we go see the resident who has apparently been vomiting for hours without anyone knowing. But no, he insisted on yelling for another 10 minutes. So it's about 3.30 in the morning now, I've still got a tonne of work to do before I can even start what I was even supposed to be doing that night so eventually I just tell him I'm going to check the patient and start to walk off. So the Doctor, who is in full tantrum mode now picks up his laptop a throws it at me screaming about me wasting his time. I am proud to say I kept my cool, asked him to leave and called another Locum Service, who were very obliging after I explained what happened. The resident was r/v'd and perfectly fine, didn't even remember vomiting all afternoon and insisted that although it was very nice to see me, could we please wait until a more reasonable hour of the morning for Doctors visits.

They aren't useless restrictions.... EENs cert IV and diploma have less knowledge base, in that they dont study as broadly and they dont study as in depth. With my knowledge and experience there are maybe a few restrictions that are useless... but most of them are there because although I can understand what has to be done, I may not understand why or when it needs to be done... or of there is something that has to be done before I start. And that is simply because I dont have that extra year or so of indepth study. EENs and RNs have fairly similar SOP but RNs have more freedom because they have more knowledge and can make more appropriate decosions...

I am an EEN and I think this is rediculous. I understand as the more knowledgeable nurse you need to take responsibility for the actions of those under you, but if an E/EN screws up something they should take at the minimum, 60% blame (I'd say 90%) unless the mistake was due to misinformation provided by the RN, insufficient training/assessment on the RNs part, or lack or supervision. But even then the EEN should be knowledgeable enough to tell if their instructions arent quite right and question it, should understand the consequences their actions could have on their patient and not do something they havent been trained properly in, and should be competent enough to be able to work without an RN looking over their shoulder the whole time. When I make a mistake I expect to take the blame. First of all I studied hard to gain my skills and knowledge and to get registered, and I continue to study so as to provide best care and expand my knowledge base. To alow someone else to take the blame for my mistake, even if they are in a position of responsibility, is paramount to saying, "no, I am in fact neither skilled nor knowledgeable enough to perform my duties at an acceptable standard." And although I understand WHY we work under the supervision of RNs, I also understand that we are delegated our duties under the supervising RNs faith in our competence. Turning around after you have made a mistake and saying that the RN shouldn't have trusted you with said responsibility in the first place just makes no sence to me! I have worked with EENs (and PCAs) who have done that. They made a mistake (big ones) claimed they werent trained properly and/or didnt understand their training and then one of our RNs responsible for training new staff gets in heaps of trouble. But they get a mild scolding, retrained and continued on like nothing happened... no one seemed to wonder why, if they didnt understand what they were being told, and then obviously knew they werent properly trained, they went ahead and did it anyway. No one seemed to ask why, when what they were doing wasnt working, they didnt stop and ask for help. Instead a good RN (or EEN in the case of PCAs) gets their backside handed to them. Sorry for rambling on but it enrages me... and it is one of the reasons I've delayed my bachelors because I know many EENs rely on the fact that there is an RN responsible for quite a bit of stuff that they are required to do and they take liberties that they probably wouldnt if they were 100% responsible for it. So I'm not sure I want to spend a lot of money, three years studying my butt off, living of baked beans, coffee and 8 hours of sleep a week, so that I can not only take on increased responsibility for my patients, but also be responsible for a bunch of EENs who don't respect the potential risk I am taking on by supervising their clinical practice. I am not saying we EENs have an annual turn the RNs hair grey early summit... but over the years you work with a lot of people and a few (or quite a few in my case) who are ethically and/or professionally questionable. I'm just not sure I want to put myself in the position where I may be in anyway responsible for the actions of people like that. I know I wouldnt likely be slapped in handcuffs and thrown in the slammer because an EEN made a booboo. But even small things can damage careers, professional reputations and future oportunities. But in conclusion the SOP for the EN has grown very quickly and the legislation hasn't kept up, allowing ENs to administer medications, perform more technical procedures, and make assessments and judgement calls without there being an equal growth in our legislated responsibility. I have a great respect for RNs as not only do they provid a more complex level of nursing care to their patients but they allow an EEN to participate and develop professionally in ways they wouldnt be able to under their own merit by taking on the risk (regardless how small it is) of taking responsibility for the competency of the EEN. So, I really do hate that RNs get so much of the blame for a mistake made by a person who (according to APRAH) is trained and certified to perform these tasks or has been trained and assessed on site as competent (ie procedure supervised so many times)... anyway Id better stop ranting before I start hating myself for being such a pain in the orifice for RNs haha.

I have had those exact thoughts myself. But then I thought, as an EEN I never entertained the idea of being THE school nurse but rather a suport staff for the RN on duty. I mean if you think about it a school with 1000 students... one nurse... thats a ratio to put all others to shame and they do more than specifically provide nursing care. When I was in High School our nurse had office hours where people could book appointments, and ran the sexual health classes and stuff like that... so I'm sure it would be well within an EENs SOP to deal with the scrapped knees, pre math test "headaches" lol and other common school ailments while the RN is otherwise occupied. Besides I can nurse initiate medications if there is a RN onsite or oncall :) (but I am fairly certain that medication administration in a school environment is pretty strict because our nurse wouldnt even give us a panadol without calling our parents and asking permission lol... but either way Im pretty sure there would be something an EEN could do as a school nurse... wether or not the government would see it as a viable use of money is a different story haha

I am an EEN (cert IV) registered in Victoria. I have 3 years experience in Aged Care, low care aging in place (night shift incharge, medication quality manager, assistant care co-ordinator). I would really like to get in to school nursing but am finding it difficult to find any reliable information about it. I have a sneaking suspition that you need to be an RN due to the pediatric component. I do have a previous (most likely irrelevant) qualification in child care though. If anyone has any information about my eligibility to work in school nursing as an EEN, how I can get into it or any other useful information, I'd be extremely grateful if you could help me out. :) thanks