RNowakowski

My facility considers it a violation of privacy to look a patient up before they are physically on the floor. We cannot even check an H&P or labs until they arrive. So any info I can get from the ER nurse makes my job easier. Do I need an IV pump, SCDs, bed alarm, seizure pads, etc? And for the ER nurses... is it so hard to make sure all labs are done before you send them up? I can't tell you how many times I get a patient whose cardiac profile was due before they left the ER, or within moments of arriving on the floor!

I work as a subacute nurse. So we get less codes. But when we get one it is so different. We do not have a doc in the facility 24/7. So codes are run completely by the nurses. We have no pharmacy and no IV meds, no respiratory, no anestheologist. We have usually just one RN and two LPNs on the floor for up to 40 patients. We do not get many codes, but it makes them so much scarier when we do.

At my place all of the department managers who have 4 wheel drive have to sign up to get employees if we have bad snow. And for the times when the weather is really nice and people call off for car related reasons, the supervisor or DON will go and pick them up from their house! Cuts down on a lot of those reasons. Personally, the times that I have had to call in, I give the reason. Usually because my son is sick. One time I had to leave my job in the middle of the shift and go to the ER for BP 160/90, pulse 122, diapharetic, dizzy, etc. then brought back a copy of the ER paperwork!